Eric Bischoff Explains Why He Didn’t Like Cody Rhodes Blading In WWE Raw Segment

On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff talked about the segment from WWE Raw where Cody Rhodes was attacked by The Rock and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On Rhodes bleeding during his attack segment from The Rock: “I didn’t like it. And I just – I have a thing that I can’t get over. And look, it wasn’t excessive. It wasn’t [like] they zoomed in with a camera, and licked the blood off his face, the kind of grotesque s**t I’ve seen. So it was judicious enough that I wasn’t completely turned off by it. I get it, I know why they did it. It’s just — and I am absolutely in the minority on this, I don’t know why I feel as strongly about it. Because most things, I’m pretty flexible in many ways when it comes to creativity, But something about it –I don’t know.

“I would have — you know, maybe if it had been a little less blood. I said it wasn’t that shot that Dave just put up. I guess I didn’t notice it as much. But maybe if we had been just a little bit more, and we weren’t showcasing it quite as much as we were, trying to make that point. If it looked a little bit more organic. And I’m not saying cut away from it, pretend it didn’t happen, shoot wide shots. But if you’re watching along on 83Weeks.com, you’re seeing what I’m seeing, and that’s — the camera’s right there. I mean, 25% of that frame is Cody bleeding. I think that was just a little bit more than necessary. But I get it.”

On not liking it: “That’s part of it [it turning advertisers away], that’s the business side of me. Because in my experience it does, or it can. That’s part of it. But part of it is, I guess because I’ve seen so much of it. And it’s been so overdone that when I see it, it doesn’t make me feel empathy. In this case for Cody, doesn’t make me feel sympathetic towards him. It just makes me feel like, ‘Oh, they’re trying really hard here.’ That’s why I say, it’s just me.

“The good news is we didn’t see it on the rest of the show. It wasn’t like five other guys got juice, which is typically what we see in some promotions. Like every other match, somebody’s getting split open till it gets to the point where it doesn’t mean anything. In this case, you can see it anywhere else, we haven’t seen blood in WWE for a long time. So I guess it mattered. The part of me that liked it was it was a throwback to old school. It’s like the way it used to be done. That part of me likes that, a traditional way of getting heat. The fact that there was blood all over the weight belt that Cody’s Mama or Mama Cody, whatever it was, Mama Rhodes. Yeah, that was a nice touch to bring Cody’s mom into this. I’d like to see her face when this is going on.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.