Eric Bischoff AOL Chat Transcript
April 10, 2000
 

World Championship Wrestling's Eric Bischoff, the wrestling mind who dared to challenge the wrestling establishment, came by for a LIVE chat on April 10. Check it out!

AOLiveMC9:  Welcome, Eric Bischoff!

Eric Bischoff:  First of all, I'd like to say that I'm glad to be back at WCW, and I'm certainly very happy to be online here with the audience here at AOL.

AOLiveMC9:  Here is our first question.

Question:  Hello, Mr. Bischoff. It's great to have you back in WCW again. I was just wondering if there's a chance that the women of WCW will be treated respectfully and depicted with a new level of class on WCW television, now that the company is in a "New Era"?

Eric Bischoff:  One of the things that Vince and I have talked about is creating a Women's Division so that there is an opportunity to feature women in an exciting, compelling and competitive way. I think that's the best approach that we can take, utilizing women to attract a larger audience.

Question:  Hello, Mr. Bischoff. Welcome back! I've heard that WCW has recently acquired the talents of Tammy Fytch. Is there any chance that we could see the return of the great, classy, conservative Tammy Fytch persona from her SMW days? She had a great character!

Eric Bischoff:  To my knowledge, WCW has not signed an agreement with Tammy Fytch.

Question:  Are you planning on giving Vampiro or Ernest Miller a title run in the future? They both are two of the finest underrated wrestlers in WCW.

Eric Bischoff:  Well, there are a lot of underrated wrestlers in WCW that deserve an opportunity, Ernest Miller and Vampiro are just two of them.

Question:  What is the new set gonna look like?

Eric Bischoff:  When you turn on the show tonight at 8PM EST, you will get a look at the new staging. It's not so much the set that's changed as the lighting and some of the other elements of production.

Question:  Will WCW and WWF ever do an event together?

Eric Bischoff:  Not likely, in my professional lifetime.

Question:  Hey Eric, why did you let go Nash from WCW?

Eric Bischoff:  Kevin Nash is still a part of WCW.

Question:  How do you feel working with Vince Russo, knowing that he has worked for the WWF?

Eric Bischoff:  I've enjoyed working with Vince over the past several weeks. He has a tremendous amount of talent and brings a wealth of experience to WCW, and that can only benefit our company.

Question:  Eric, will “Monday Nitro” be going to three hours again or stick to the two-hour, faster-pace program?

Eric Bischoff:  We're going to stay at two hours.

Question:  Mr. Bischoff, is it safe to say that we will see a few new faces on “Nitro” tonight?

Eric Bischoff:  I'd say it's safe to say that you can expect the unexpected, including a new face or two in WCW.

Question:  Eric Bischoff, why are you so confident this time around that you will beat the WWF in the ratings?

Eric Bischoff:  It's my nature. I attack everything that I do with confidence, or I don't attack it.

Question:  Has Mike Awesome signed a contract with WCW?

Eric Bischoff:  Yes.

Question:  Are you going to be pushing older guys (Hogan, Flair, Luger) or the younger guys (Vampiro, Booker, etc.)? If WCW wants to succeed, I think you guys need to get Hogan out of there and push the younger guys.

Eric Bischoff:  Tune in tonight at 8PM EST, and you will see how we're going to use our talent.

Question:  How do you respond to recent bashing of WCW for promoting "old, washed up wrestlers"?

Eric Bischoff:  I don't pay any attention to it. Critics are a dime a dozen, and usually none of them have ever been involved in the wrestling business. I certainly understand a fan’s perspective, but there are just as many fans who enjoy some of our older wrestlers as there are that don't. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and we're going to do our best to use our talent in a way that's interesting and appeals to our audience no matter how they feel.

Question:  Eric, glad to see you're back. My question is about your plans with Tank Abbott. Now that Chris Benoit jumped ship for the WWF, Tank is my favorite wrestler in WCW. Is a possible championship in his future?

Eric Bischoff:  Well, Tank thinks there is, all you have to do is ask him. But Tank is like everyone else in WCW -- if he wants a title shot, all he has to do is beat everyone else who is standing in line ahead of him. Only time will tell.

Question:  Eric Bischoff, how do you feel knowing that so many people look up to you and Russo to rebuilding WCW? Do you feel that you have to make this work out?

Eric Bischoff:  I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility, and I feel a certain amount of pressure, but I like being in a position that Vince and I are in. I think that both of us perform best in this environment.

Question:  Will you ever consider signing Sabu now that he's out of his ECW contract?

Eric Bischoff:  Sure. We will consider signing any talent that is available that has the potential to contribute to WCW. Sabu certainly falls in that category.

Question:  Are we going to see a brand new world title belt for WCW and get rid of that old belt?

Eric Bischoff:  We haven't discussed that yet. We're more concerned right now with who is wearing that belt than what the belt looks like.

Question:  Hello, Eric, and welcome back. What I would like to know is, what does WCW plan to do with their talent? Do they plan to build within, or are they going after any big names?

Eric Bischoff:  We have to build within, because there aren't any established names who will become free agents any time in the near future.

Question:  Are you planning to make shows in Montreal, Canada? Because WCW has never been there, and there are a lot of WCW fans in this town.

Eric Bischoff:  We have discussed a Canadian tour, including Montreal, and we hope to be making an announcement regarding touring Canada soon.

Question:  Eric, do you plan on keeping the NWO angle or changing the story line behind it? And what do you think of Hogan's words on “Thunder” last week?

Eric Bischoff:  I think the NWO was a good idea at the time, but it's time now for us to come up with a fresh creative approach. As far as Hogan goes, he has always been one of my closest friends, whether or not I agreed with his views on certain situations.

Question:  Hi, Eric. In addition to Vince and yourself, who else will be on the creative team? Ferrara? Taylor?

Eric Bischoff:  Bill Banks and a number of others.

Question:  What are you going to do with Sting??

Eric Bischoff:  Tonight? I'm going to kick his butt.

Question:  Eric, what is your opinion on all these wrestling pages on the web? Do you think they help WCW in any way? I myself am a wrestling journalist and write for over 100 web pages and newspapers. Do you think the media is treating WCW well?

Eric Bischoff:  I don't concern myself with what people write about WCW. I concern myself with how WCW produces and promotes its product. If we do our job well, the things that are written about us will reflect that. If we don't, the things that will be written about us will reflect that.

Question:  Is the new era of WCW going to be more of a soap opera-like show, or will it have lots of good, long wrestling matches?

Eric Bischoff:  The emphasis will be on the story, but not to the detriment of the action.

Question:  I heard a rumor about the Warrior coming back... do you know anything about this?

Eric Bischoff:  I haven't had any conversations with the Warrior, but Vince Russo may have. Only time will tell.

Question:  How do you get along with Ric Flair behind the scenes now?

Eric Bischoff:  He just threw a chair at me about 20 minutes ago. I'm not sure what's going to happen on the show tonight.

Question:  Why haven't you ever responded to Vince McMahon's offer to take you on "anytime, anywhere"?

Eric Bischoff:  I was the one who called Vince McMahon out. He was the one who no-showed. I have it on tape for the world to see.

Question:  What are your feelings on people that say wrestling is fake and too rough?

Eric Bischoff:  It's only fake when it doesn't hurt, and it's only too rough when it's boring.

Question:  Mr. Bischoff, I've heard rumors of a possible triple-decker cage match tonight. Is that a possibility?

Eric Bischoff:  Tune in and find out.

Question:  Hey, how did you get into wrestling?

Eric Bischoff:  I bribed a doorman. Seriously, it is a very, very long story, but I was in the right place at the right time and worked real hard.

Question:  Hey Eric, why does Hogan get so much air time?

Eric Bischoff:  Because he makes so much money.

Question:  What is it like having Warner Bros. have a movie based on the WCW?

Eric Bischoff:  It was very exciting, and it's a very good thing for WCW. It gets us exposure in a way and at a level that we would not otherwise experience.

Question:  What will you do to attract the male teen audience that the WWF caters to?

Eric Bischoff:  Provide more interesting action and more exciting story lines with better talent.

Question:  Do you plan on being more in touch with your Internet fans?

Eric Bischoff:  Definitely!

Question:  Your product is so much better than WWF. Why do you think that people are more interested in them lately?

Eric Bischoff:  To be honest, our product has not been better than the WWF. Our goal now and the job ahead of us is to make sure that it is.

Question:  Is Mike Awesome going to WCW? If so, will he be on “Nitro” tonight?

Eric Bischoff:  Tune in tonight and you will find out with the rest of the world.

Question:  Just wanted to say I'm glad you're back... its been hard, but I've been faithful for this past year (well, four years, but it wasn't hard for the three before that). Good luck to you. Oh, I do have a question... wanted to know what's up with talks with Macho Man.

Eric Bischoff:  Macho Man is enjoying his time off. He's counting his money, working on his tan and generally making me incredibly jealous.

Question:  Hello, we are happy to see you back. Will there be new IV Horsemen?

Eric Bischoff:  There are not any plans for a new IV Horseman team as we speak. However, it is something that has been talked about and could happen in the future.

Question:  Are you going to have a lot of sexual references like WWF? I hope not.

Eric Bischoff:  WCW and WWF are two different companies with two sets of standards. We're proud to be a part of the Turner-Time-Warner family (soon to be AOL family) and know we have to be responsible in ways that our competition is not.

Question:  Will the women like Paisley and Miss Hancock, for instance, wrestle?

Eric Bischoff:  There are no plans for Miss Hancock to wrestle at this time. On the other hand, we did witness one heck of a catfight at lunch today, so tune in tonight and maybe we will all get an eyeful.

AOLiveMC9:  Here is our last question for tonight.

Question:  Will we see much talent coming in to WCW from New Japan Pro Wrestling in the upcoming months?

Eric Bischoff:  I haven't had any discussions with anybody from New Japan yet. I hope to be doing so in the weeks to come.

AOLiveMC9:  Thank you very much for your time. Do you having any closing words for our audience?

Eric Bischoff:  I want to thank those fans who have been loyal to WCW over the past year, and I hope that they give us a chance to re-establish their confidence in us, and I hope we kick some butt tonight!! Remember to tune in at 8PM EST!

AOLiveMC9:  Thank you once again, and to the audience for their great questions.

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