Why Eric Bischoff Loved CM Punk And Drew McIntyre Finish At WWE Clash At The Castle

Former WCW President Eric Bischoff's autobiography is called "Controversy Creates Cash," so it's no surprise that the WWE Hall of Famer felt WWE made the right call in having CM Punk cheat Drew McIntyre out of the World Heavyweight Championship at Clash at the Castle 2024.

"I loved the finish. It made heat. Heat is a necessary part of the equation," Bischoff said on "83 Weeks" recently. "It's storytelling. It's characters. It's so important to have a heel that people really hate."

Bischoff cautions that those kids of finishes can't be overused, but for special events like the June 15 show in Scotland (McIntyre's home country), he felt the timing was perfect to send the crowd home on a sour note.

"They've been setting this up for months now," Bischoff explained. "It's not like this is out of nowhere. This is part of the arc. We're probably in Act 2 now. We saw Act 1, it was establishing everybody ... Now we've escalated that to a whole new level ... I thought it was great."

Bischoff closed by saying he was excited to see where the story goes from here. McIntyre retaliated against Punk on Friday's "WWE SmackDown," leaving him bloody and hospitalized after a brutal attack in front of his own hometown fans in Chicago.

Punk cost McIntyre the same title at WrestleMania 40, giving Damian Priest an opportunity to cash in his Money in the Bank contract and win the belt. The storyline goes back to at least January, when the triceps injury Punk suffered at Royal Rumble 2024 was explained on TV by an attack from McIntyre (who proceeded to gloat about it for months on social media) and arguably back to Punk's WWE return at Survivor Series in November, after which McIntyre reportedly stormed out of the arena.