Eric Bischoff Details Who He'd Fire From WCW If He Could Go Back In Time
As Tobey Macguire once put it in "The Great Gatsby," one cannot repeat the past, a statement that Eric Bischoff knows better than anyone. On the latest episode of "Strictly Business," however, Bischoff was asked what he would do if he could repeat the past, and go back to the beginning of his tenure running WCW in the early 90s. Bischoff revealed that there would've been some key changes from the get-go.
"It would've looked a lot different," Bischoff said. "I would've overhauled right at the very beginning. I was soft. I never enjoyed firing people, believe it or not...because my reputation was power-hungry and I threw my weight around. It was the exact opposite.
"Had I had the chance to go back in time and have the same people in the same positions, [the] same situation, I would probably have eliminated sixty or more percent of the VP/director's staff and replaced them."
Bischoff described WCW at the time as a company embedded with a culture developed from its days of Jim Crockett Promotions, a culture Bischoff admitted he continued to foster far too long.
"By the time I got to be President, I could have and should have made probably no fewer than 8 to 10 major changes," Bischoff said. "But I didn't, because I thought I could fix it. I thought 'No, they'll come around. We're having all this success. They'll get on board.' People don't, man.
"People that are...people that carry around resentment and jealousy and envy and all the things that make one weak, really, they don't lose it. They bury it a little more, they do a better job camouflaging it, they're not as obvious about it. And that didn't become apparent to me until too late."
Bischoff Explains Why Some Were Bitter About His Position In WCW
As for why there was so much bitterness in the WCW front office at the time, especially towards him, Bischoff thinks it was due to him taking power within the promotion after being an outsider. Though Bischoff had worked for WCW for two years before becoming WCW's Executive Producer, he had begun his career in Verne Gagne's AWA in 1986, working there as an announcer till the promotion closed in 1991.
"I think any time someone comes in either from the outside...to take over and be in control, the people that were there long before them, to varying degrees, are going to be resentful, because 'It should've been me,'" Bischoff said. "Or 'It should've been my friend over here.' Or 'It should've been this guy. He deserves it more. She deserves it more.'
"It's human nature, unfortunately, but it's also one of the reasons why, when executives come in or when companies acquire other companies, it can be a bloodbath. A bloodbath. Not a literal one, a figurative one. And I think I should've had my own bloodbath in the beginning, but I didn't."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Strictly Business" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription