Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts on various topics on the latest episode of his 83 Weeks Podcast.
During it, Bischoff talked about the recent tweets by AEW President Tony Khan directed at Vince McMahon, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels. Here are the highlights:
On Tony Khan’s tweets at WWE:
“They follow him and just don’t know any better because they’re ignorant in the literal sense of the word, lacking information or knowledge and experience. As I started out doing that, I was Vince McMahon and WWE face from the get-go with Nitro, starting with signing Lex Luger when everybody in WWE still thought he was under contract. They were sleeping at the wheel. And I brought Lex in as a surprise as my first in-your-face moment. People that don’t know any better because they’re. Literally ignorant. Forget that I was the first one to ever start my show early. When we were actually head to head. Every week, we were head-to-head with Nitro. And by the way, if you go back and look at the ratings starting in 95 when Nitro debuted. Now, the first night, obviously, they were preempted. WWE is preempted. So you can’t count on that. But go back and look at the ratings between WWE and Monday Night Raw. Excuse me, Monday Night Raw and Nitro from the very beginning when we were head to head. We were not only competitive, but there were weeks when we pulled ahead early before the N.W.O. It was one week, then one week, then two weeks. Then one week, us two weeks, us one week, then. We went back and forth immediately because we were legitimately competitive from the beginning. We weren’t on the sidelines. On another day or another night, taking shots. In fact, if you really want to educate yourself and not rely upon the shit stain, Dave Meltzer for your information and your knowledge, go back and look. And this has nothing to do with yeah, but because of streaming, people watch TV differently. Put all your excuses to the side. Go back and find the audience’s ratings. Look at the audience for WCW Saturday Night. Before I ever took over WCW. Go back and look at the audience composition numbers for WCW Saturday Night on TBS at 6:05 Eastern 3:05 Pacific, and compare that to Monday Night Raw’s primetime ratings, and you will find that WCW on a percentage basis, was not that far behind. Think about that. WCW before Nitro before Eric Bischoff took over. It was competitive with Monday Night Raw. Even on Monday night, Raw was in prime time and WCW was on Saturday night. 6:05 Eastern, 3:05 Pacific. Now, fast forward to 1995 and look at the comparison. Look at the percentage just on a percentage basis. Don’t give me your TV differently now. That’s an excuse. Fans, friends, frenemies. It’s an excuse. It’s a diversion. If you look at the market and what percentage of the television market WWE had Monday Night Raw at that time, and the percentage that WCW had before Nitro and after Nitro. WCW was competitive from the beginning. Now. When we went head to head, the competitor in me, the person in me that wanted to be number one, I got in Vince McMahon’s face from the very beginning, and it was a strategy that worked from the very beginning. Starting early overruns. Where did that come from? Whoever did that before? Nitro. Oh, yeah. You’re right. Nobody. The channel. You know, the snarky shit that I did is what created the competition. It’s what created the Monday Night Wars. Before Vince McMahon woke up, out of his stupor in his teen and pre-teen business model and went, ‘f**k!’ The only way I can compete with Eric Bischoff is to do what Eric is doing on Nitro, hence the Attitude ERA. Which was really modeled after the NWA and what we were doing by producing our shows to appeal to an 18 to 49 demo instead of a kids 8 to 11 or pre-teen audience. That’s what shifted everything. But the difference is I was going head to head and I was competitive. Yes, in the end, giving away the fish or announcing the rock, Mick Foley. Did that backfire? F**k yes. It backfired. One out of probably 100 times that I had done it previously when the other 99 worked effectively enough to make WCW Nitro the number one most-watched television professional wrestling television program in America and around the world. That strategy that Dave Meltzer tried to use as a shot at WCW, where me personally, he forgets that the other 99 times when it worked and points to the one time towards the end when, yeah, we were getting our ass kicked. And yeah, because of the promo that Sean Waltman did when he came out and took a shot at me first. In this case, Tony took the shot first. But in my case, Sean Waltman came out and called me. And he should have. I would have if I were him. I was a character on the show and probably, by some people’s estimation, one of the better heels on the show as a character. So, I don’t blame Sean for what he did, but I reacted to it in a way that I thought was entertaining. You go back and look at some of those workout videos that I did and the promos that I cut out, that was wrestling stuff. That wasn’t just me sitting there tweeting out silly, childish bulls**t.”
On Tony Khan’s tweets about The Undertaker and John Cena not helping NXT break a million viewers:
“That is not something that Eric Bischoff would have said. Circumstances. Let’s be really freaking clear. Had. I had my ass handed to me as decidedly as Tony had his hand to him. The last thing I would have done was to come out and try to spin that ass-kicking as any kind of a victory. That is absolutely something I would never have contemplated. Never. And again, those are five points, however many million really bad impressions. And by the way, Conrad and everybody in the chat, if you could, we’re closing in on two hours. And as you can probably tell. I need to take a quick break.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit 83 Weeks with an h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.