Eric Bischoff‘s return to WWE in 2019 sparked a lot of buzz in the wrestling world. Months after his departure, many fans remain curious as to Bischoff’s role and his place in the WWE hierarchy as the executive director of WWE Friday Night SmackDown. In a recent episode of 83 Weeks, Bischoff shared his mindset surrounding his return to the company. Here are some highlights:
Bischoff: “Look, anybody that is fan of the wrestling industry and spends any time keeping up the news and the developments in the wrestling industry, in WWE in particular, I don’t think it’s a surprise to even a small child with average intelligence that Vince McMahon runs this show. And there is nothing that anybody sees, hears, thinks, smells or otherwise can come into contact with the WWE brand that doesn’t have Vince McMahon’s fingerprints primarily all over it. Doesn’t mean that other people don’t contribute, they do.”
“But there is one filter, there is one decision-maker in WWE. It’s well-documented, it has been over the years, so you know, that’s not necessarily clairvoyance on anybody’s part, including Dave Meltzer’s, it was pretty obvious to me. Of course I knew that. Anybody in their right mind that knew anything about WWE knew that.”
Bischoff also explained that he didn’t want to be in charge when he returned to WWE because he already had that responsibility with WCW. Instead, he stated that he wanted to be part of the team.
Bischoff: “I didn’t go in there with the expectations that I was gonna have autonomy or creative control, and if somebody would have suggested that I did, I would have laughed at them. I knew exactly the situation and I was fine with that. The last thing that I really wanted was to be that guy that’s calling the final shot. I’ve been through that. I’ve spent decades doing that, or a decade I should say, doing that, and it’s great in some respects. But in other respects, it’s a drain, and I was very comfortable being a supporting cast member as opposed to being the director, if you will.”
“I didn’t need to be that guy that was calling the final shot. I wanted to be part of the team that was putting the best ideas on the table, and more importantly, I wanted to be the guy that developed the process that helped put the best ideas on the table. That was my goal. So I had no misconception about who was gonna be calling the creative shots and how difficult that challenge was going to be. That was clear to me.”
The full clip is available here:
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