Eric Bischoff imagines VINCE McMAHON as a WCW character!

In a rare moment Eric Bischoff fantasy books Vince McMahon in his WCW, if the company won the war.

FULL SHOW: https://youtu.be/Wh2CKBmFG_Y

#ericbishcoff #83weeks #vincemcmahon

Here’s a uh an interesting question from Trey had WWE went out of business instead of WCW when Eric have brought in Vince McMahon to be an onscreen character and if so how would he have been booked great question and and interesting in the sense that the very

First conversation I had with Vince when he called me and I guess it was 2002 uh about coming to WWE as a character one of the one of the very first things that he said to me uh when I when I answered the call and we we started getting into

It was and I’m paraphrasing this I don’t remember the exact words but it was something to the effect of G Eric I you know things turned out the way they turned out and I this was Vince now I would like to think that had it turned out differently that you would have

Reached out to me at some point with an opportunity to to get back into business and that was one when he and it was one of of the things he said to me right off the bat and it was probably at in that moment after hearing him say

That that in my mind although I wasn’t thinking it consciously but subconsciously i’ probably already made up my mind I was going to go to work for him because it was such a an elegant and professional way to approach the situation that it made me respect the hell out of them instantly and

After I got done with that phone call and I you know I knew I was going to to go to work for him I actually thought about that for a little while and I asked myself what what would I have done you know and it’s

Hard for me to to live in that kind of frame of mind you know I don’t I don’t spend it as you know we’ve talked about this before I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the past which is one of the reasons sometimes I have a hard time

Remembering details of it because it just you know once I live a day and it’s it’s over I’m I’m thinking about the next day I’m not thinking about the one that just passed but you know occasionally I think about wow what if this would have happened or that would

Have happened and I I would like to think I can’t honestly say to be truthful with myself I can’t honestly say that I would have you know made it a point to c to to try to come up with an opportunity to reach out to Vince and

Make him an offer similar to to the one that he made me in 2002 but I would like to think I would I would like to think if the situation would have presented itself and there would have been a great idea and it would have been something that we all

Believed in as an opportunity that would have been good for our business at WCW probably not unlike the way the discussions probably occurred in WWE when they were debating whether or not to pick up the phone and call me at some point I’m guessing I wasn’t in the room

Obviously I’m guessing somebody said yeah past is the past let’s give the guy a call because this is something that could work out and could make money for us because there there was an opportunity that presented itself and I would like to think that I would have been mature enough and professional

Enough and elegant enough to at least pick up the phone and make that phone call the way that Vince McMahon made it to me now would I have done it I don’t know oh come if I’m to if I’m totally honest about it I don’t

Know if I would have or not I would just like I would like to think it the Eric bishaw that was leaving you know braggy voicemails he’s booking that dude to come get thrown into a trash can I mean or a dumpster or you know have a

Drinking contest with one of the talents and vomit on TV and make out with Lori and all the stuff that you had to do right maybe not dude you just crossed the line now here’s the funny part of that you know I like getting thrown in the in the

Garbage truck that was my idea no I know just busting balls about how silly some of your onscreen stuff was and I know you know in a room of ideas there’s no such thing as a bad idea and eventually everybody landed on some pretty entertaining creative but when you

Really look through the the the the rigors he put you through on TV it’s pretty [ __ ] hysterical to think about the opposite of that happening on Nitro I you know as you were giving you know going through that list of crazy [ __ ] that I did when you said you don’t

Have Vince McMahon making out with your wife Lori that I’m now I’m trying to picture that but I’m trying to picture the look on my wife’s face when I said hey Lori I’ve got an idea right I’m gonna have Vince McMahon break into our house in Arizona sneak in the back door

And he’s GNA he’s going to find you alone in your office and he’s going to hold your arm behind your back and and he’s going to kind of make it look like he’s he’s threatening you and then he’s going to lay a big one on you and you’re

Going to embrace him and pretend you like it uh maybe not that would have been a hard [Laughter] call it’s just God we sometimes forget the silliness that happens in wrestling sometimes you know this show is always so serious but then when you look back

On some of that stuff it was a good time it was you I gotta say that you know and I again perception is a funny thing but you know so many people thought oh they’re just bringing Eric back they’re going to humiliate him they’re going to embarrass him they’re

Going to do this to him they’re going to do that to him and they put me in a lot of situations where I guess if from the outside one might think I was embarrassed but to if anybody thinks that I was embarrass to you know play a

Character on TV that was getting into a drinking contest with Stone Cold Steve Austin and end up drinking so much beer that I threw up if anybody thinks that I thought that was embarrassing let me be really [ __ ] clear to you right now on this show I had a blast I love doing

That stuff if anybody thinks that you know me being thrown in a garbage truck you know my last night on the show was embarrassing for me let me correct your thinking I loved that idea I thought it was a great way to go out no pun

Intended so a lot of that stuff that people think was designed to embarrass me right didn’t I had a blast doing that I would have written it had I had the opport opportunity it’s fun stuff uh and wrestling should be fun this product should be entertaining it should make

You laugh it should make you you know go holy crap I can’t believe they’re doing this stuff I mean look at the silly stuff that Vince made his own daughter do right made her take a stink face for crying out loud from rkhi come on look

At the stuff that Vince did to himself and he wrote the stuff you know he wet his pants on National Television for a crying out loud because Stone Cold Steve Austin put a gun to his head pulled a trigger and a little flight came out and

Said bang I come on it’s just it’s stuff that yeah he he he did that he asked me to do those things but he also asked his family to do some of those he he asked his wife to make out with me I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled about it either or his

Daughter I don’t know why this is funny but it is oh it should be fun man it should be funny well and that’s the thing like you know behind the scenes as as maybe some of that stuff sounds humiliating actually coming up with the idea and going through it and filming it

And and pulling it together that’s got to be a [ __ ] blast to do like that just seems like something everybody would have enjoyed but it is fun to think about Vince McMahon on Nitro uh Josh [ __ ] wants to know how would Eric describe his relationship with Vince

McMahon and did he ever think at the height of WCW he would have any sort of relationship of any kind with Vince that’s a great question question and I mean my relationship now I I have to say this and I know this is going to sound like I’m pandering and you know

Because I work here and I work with Vince and I I know how this is going to sound but I’m GNA I’m just going to be honest I’m going to say it anyway um you know in WCW I had so many people that would come over from WWE and of course everybody

That came over and and and this is just human nature right they would come over and they would tell me B basically what thought I wanted to hear and they would you know which means there was a lot of negative things that people would say

About you know Vince or what was the WWF at the time and all that kind of thing and I always took it with a grain of salt because I I knew what it was these are people that are coming in and they want to kind of Eng gratiate their

Themselves into the new company and develop a great relationship with me and the other people in on on the staff and so forth so of course they would come over and they would tell you all the negative things they think think or they thought they that we wanted to hear um

But even with all of that you know one of the things that I would hear consistently was yeah yeah Vince mcmah is this he’s that he’s this he’s that all the negative things they think I wanted to hear like I said but they would always kind of ended but he is

Kind of a genius and I thought well you know come on these are just guys that are trying to keep the door open in case they’ve got to go back you know and or I would read uh oftentimes things that people would say about Vince and and talk about what a

Genius he was and that type of thing and again I would just always take it with a grain of salt and think well these are guys are just trying to keep the door open which is you know good business I get it and and now that you know and

When I work with WWE as a talent I never really worked closely at all with Vince um occasionally if we had you know scenes to do together and things like that but I had very few you know one-on-one type of conversations with Vince just a small handful to be honest

About it now that I’m working here and I’ve been here for a couple months now and I’m working fairly closely with him um he is one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever worked with um and I don’t throw the term genius around lightly because that means different

Things to different people but I think Vince in his own way is definitely a genius of sorts however you want to Define that and that doesn’t mean that he has all the answers in opinion he doesn’t have all all the right answers to every situation um I think even Vince

Would recognize that he’s made some bad decisions creatively or otherwise uh throughout his career but there are times honestly you know in the middle of a meeting he’ll say something or he’ll look at a story or he’ll look at a character and he’ll pick out something that seems so

Small um a detail either in a story or in a character or way of presenting a character that seems so small when you first hear it but then as you think about it and you start expanding on that you realize that it makes all the

Difference in the world and I I I find him to be like I said I hate to throw the word genius around because it means different things to different people but I think he is one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with I I like the

Fact that he’s very direct you know you know where you stand with with Vance I’ve always appreciated that in anybody you know Harvey Schiller much the same way you know you always knew you knew where you stood with with Harvey and and Vince McMahon is very similar in that

Respect there there’s no ambiguity when it comes to to dealing with him and sometimes that’s uncomfortable um and most of the time for someone like me I I respect it and appreciate it so um that’s kind of the contrast I guess if you will what I thought Vince McMahon

Was like versus what having worked with him now for a couple months has has led me to to see or to believe uh and in terms of you know did I ever think in WCW I’d have any kind of a working relationship oh hell no come on you know

I I would have I would have probably bet that at some point in time if he had the opportunity he’d run me over if he saw me on the street um or have somebody else do it but uh I I certainly never thought I’d have a working relationship

With him especially one that I I enjoy as much as I do right now another great question interesting question here that I don’t think we’ve ever talked about from elegantly wasted he says is it it true that during the Nitro winning Street you used to leave gloating messages on Vin’s answering machine on

Tuesday Mornings after the ratings came out um I didn’t do it on a regular basis I think I may have done it once or [Laughter] twice oh give me an example of what you think you might have said oh God I can’t I I I’d be making [ __ ] up off the top of

My head my I’m too beat up to do that right now but I I do I think I recall doing it once or twice that is maybe the most Eric bishof thing we’ve ever talked about here on the show well you know and it’s it wasn’t and

This is just the way I think okay and or the way I used to think I should say it it wasn’t because I was gloating it it was because I wanted to get under his skin and I I knew that I believed I shouldn’t say I knew because I didn’t

Know Vince at the time but based on things that I had heard about Vince hang on and the background is that Scott Steiner making an entrance into your room right now oh no I’m I’m in downtown Los Angeles and I think is there’s either a parade or Grand Theft Auto 17

Yeah Grand Theft Auto there may be a police chase going on outside my my hotel room but I’d always you know heard that you know Vince was you know volatile and had a heck of a temper and all that kind of thing and I thought well you know what better way to keep

Him off his game than by driving him crazy with this kind of stupid [ __ ] whether it was giv away finishes or you know leaving those kinds of messages on his and like I said I think I did it once or twice um that I recall at least you know there was other things

That I think I did you know I we we put up a billboard you know advertising a pay-per-view and did it very close to the Titan Towers so that when everybody drove to work every morning they could look at the advertisement for our pay-per-view we we didn’t really think

That that billboard would necessarily drive any pay-per-view business but I thought yeah it’s a good way to get under the guy’s skin and it was really all just to keep him off balance I figured the more irritated I could keep him and the more off balance I could get

Him the less likely it was that he’d come up with some good ideas to come back after me now little did I know all I was really doing was poking the bear and making him more determined than ever to come back and and kick our ass which

Is ultimately what happened but at the time you know it was kind of like a sunsu Art of War thing in my mind where I was just I’m gonna do everything I can to keep him off of his best game and that’s really why I did it I don’t know

Why that’s funny to me but it is it’s such an Eric Bishoff thing uh another question here Mike Whitaker wants to know when you were in charge of WCW if WWE had proposed doing a split pay-per-view would you have considered it oh I think so for

Sure um now a lot of that depends on the timing early on when I was running WCW before Nitro uh and even probably after Nitro before the NWO I certainly would have entertained that who you know would have been silly not to entertain it it would have been a great opportunity uh

But I think after we kind of gained the traction that we gained in 96 97 in particular early 98 it probably wouldn’t have been very interesting at that point but certainly in you know n 94 95 early 96 absolutely would have considered it so the answer is if you were winning uh

Maybe not but if you were playing ketchup ball heck yeah let’s do it yeah said another way [Laughter] sure