Why Eric Bischoff Sees More 'Creative Potential' With A Heel As Champion
Choosing who holds a promotion's world championship at any given time is one of the most important decisions a wrestling booker has to make. After all, the top champion is the person who represents the brand, and should usually be the focal point of a company's shows. Appearing on his podcast, "83 Weeks," former WCW booker Eric Bischoff revealed why he believes it's beneficial to have a villain as world champion, compared to Hulk Hogan's philosophy of "feeding" bad guys to the babyface champion.
"In general, I get far more excited about creative potential when the heel has the championship," Bischoff said. "Because now you've got aspiration — that's a human emotion. ... [The audience wants] to see that heel get beat. I absolutely believe in ... the Ric Flair philosophy, that heels should have the belt."
The philosophy held by Flair and Bischoff is certainly popular in today's pro wrestling landscape. Roman Reigns has held WWE's top championship for more than 1,000 days, with dozens of challengers stepping up to the plate over the last several years. Over in AEW, the current world champion is the loud-mouthed Maxwell Jacob Friedman, who has held the title since November, defending it as little as possible.
Babyface Hogan as world champion
During the early to mid-1990s, Hogan was undeniably the biggest star in WCW. While Bischoff recognizes in hindsight that a heel champion has many benefits, there was a period of time when Hogan was pushed as a heroic world champ — something now seen by Bischoff as one of the mistakes made in WCW.
"Hogan's here, we're invested in Hogan, we're getting big dividends on that investment right off the bat," Bischoff continued. "Am I going to bet on the horse that's actually won a race, or am I going to bet on the horse that's constantly ... come in second or third? So I bet on ... history. It was a bad bet. I think we wasted a year or more. The Ric Flair philosophy of having heels have the belts and having the babyfaces chase it, and making it aspirational, and hoping that this is gonna be the week we finally see it — I mean, that's The Bloodline thing, right? So it's been driving that for a year and a half, or however long it's been."
As most wrestling fans know, the decision was eventually made to turn Hogan heel. The massive star joined the NWO, experiencing a career resurgence and helping kick off a new boom period in professional wrestling.