wwe royal rumble

Eric Bischoff Explains Why Fans Are Unhappy That This Year’s Royal Rumble Didn’t Have Enough Surprises



The latest episode of former WCW President Eric Bischoff’s podcast Bischoff on Wrestling was released last night and features former WCW & WWE Superstar Lex Luger as his guest.

You can find some of Eric’s comments transcribed below.

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On fans that are upset that this year’s Royal Rumble match did not have enough surprises:

EB: Every PPV has it’s own unique characteristics. Especially the ones that have been around a long time. Again, tooting my own horn: Story, Anticipation, Reality, SURPRISE and Action. Those are the five elements that, in my opinion, a writer or a producer or CEO of a wrestling organization needs to maintain as often as possible. You’re not going to hit all five every single time. As often as possible you have to maintain as many of those elements as you can in everything that you do. The Royal Rumble in particular is one of the PPVs that WWE has that’s in their legacy PPV category that has always had that element of surprise more often than not. So when you fail to check that box the audience notices it and they complain about it. I understand it. I get it. It is a let down. Anticipation is part of those five elements. Story and anticipation are connected to surprise. Action is inherent in the product itself. The reason people anticipate the Royal Rumble is really two reasons in my opinion, aside from the big names and action. It’s the anticipation of who is going to go to WrestleMania and it’s the element of surprise that makes the Royal Rumble PPV stand out as the one that you can expect to see the unexpected.

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Related: Eric Bischoff & Sean Waltman Square Off Over What Would Have Really Happened Had DX Invaded WCW

This week’s episode of Bischoff on Wrestling starts with Eric talking about WWE Superstar Seth Rollins re-inuring his right knee just before WrestleMania.

Eric also takes a moment to discuss a couple of the other top news stories of the week in his “Business of Pro Wrestling” segment including:

  • Lucha Underground’s new distribution deal with Netflix
  • WWE Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer Michelle Wilson says WWE VR is less than five years away
  • WWE fans’ criticism that this year’s Royal Rumble didn’t have enough surprises
  • Bischoff on Wrestling’s brand new t-shirts
  • More…

Eric then welcomes his guest for the week former WWE & WCW Superstar Lex Luger! During his appearance Lex speaks candidly to Eric about:

  • His earliest memories of pro wrestling
  • His days playing college football
  • Being a bouncer and getting kicked out of college
  • His time in the Canadian Football League
  • Working with Ron Simmons and helping him get in to wrestling
  • How he was trained to wrestle
  • Immediately being thrown in main event positions with guys like Ric Flair
  • The origins of the Lex Luger name and where he was billed from
  • A rib nearly leading to Wahoo McDaniel beating him up
  • More…

Eric then closes the show answering some fan questions from the #BischoffOnWrestling mailbag.

You can listen to the full archives from Bischoff on Wrestling in the embedded audio player below:

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