Eric Bischoff Details His Aim In WCW's Association With Disney

One of the many notable things about Eric Bischoff's first few years running WCW in the early '90s was the promotion's frequent shows held at the Disney/MGM studios in Orlando, Florida. The tapings have historically become known for helping WCW save money in those early years, at a time when WCW found themselves several million dollars in the hole.

But, as Bischoff revealed on the most recent episode of "83 Weeks," that wasn't the only reason WCW ran at Disney/MGM. 

"If you go back and look at some of those syndicated shows ... it had some real interesting limitations on what WCW could do within the park, especially in the very beginning," Bischoff said. "But one of the things we could do is ... there was this stock footage of a flyover of the Disney/MGM studios. Not the entire park, but the studios. And there was a water tower there that had Mickey Mouse ears on it ... That was part of our open."

Bischoff used those shows to help market the WCW product to various other parties in order to help grow the promotion.

"And I wanted to establish to advertises and potential sponsors, and even independent television stations, that we were syndicating our show to that this was different just 'rasslin'.' Even different than WWF at the time, because there was a subtle, co-promotion with Disney/MGM studios. I wanted to leverage the success — the commercial success — of Disney. I wanted to leverage that and get as much of a rub as I could for WCW because it was my belief at the time — and I think it proved to be true — it was my belief at the time that that subtle connection to Disney changed the way advertisers looked at us, and potential syndicated partners looked at us."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "83 Weeks" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription