Eric Bischoff Recalls Triple H's WCW Departure And Move To WWE

Some may argue Paul "Triple H" Levesque's 1995 jump from WCW to WWE was a moment that changed the course of the wrestling industry. As Triple H, Levesque's WWE run introduced icons of wrestling pop culture, such as Evolution, D-Generation X, and the Pedigree finisher. 

In the most recent episode of "83 Weeks," Eric Bischoff spoke about Levesque's history-defining move from WCW to WWE, and the financial undertones that led to the history-defining transfer. Levesque's beginnings in WCW were earmarked by pay disputes. While WCW had a more lax policy regarding company spending in its early days, Bischoff had tightened the reins on the promotion's budget by the time Levesque came around. 

"I really wanted to keep Paul for a variety of reasons, but Paul came along at a really difficult time," Bischoff began.

According to Bischoff, Levesque's early WCW salary was somewhere around 75,000 dollars per year, which is approximately 158,000 dollars when adjusted for inflation. By comparison, modern-day WWE contracts for top stars, as Levesque was projected to be in WCW, range in the millions to tens of millions of dollars.

"Around the time that Paul came into WCW, I was focused on saving money and not spending money. I had a very, very limited budget. As much as I wanted to keep Paul, I couldn't. The budget just wouldn't sustain it."

Eric Bischoff referred to Paul Levesque as "geographically undesirable" as WCW simply couldn't pay for Levesque's travel, and unless he was willing to move to Atlanta, they could not offer him a fair salary. That, combined with WCW's pre-existing contract costs for other talent, resulted in Levesque's low pay.

"Contractually, I didn't have the budget — me, WCW didn't have the budget," Bischoff confessed. "As high as Ric Flair was on Paul, and Terry Taylor was on Paul, and a number of other people ... we couldn't really pay [Levesque] what he was looking for."

Bischoff argued that while Levesque's move was not ideal, the timing eventually worked for "The Game." He claimed that Levesque — "fresh out" from wrestling school with only a handful of independent dates under his belt — came to WCW to gain exposure and experience.

"WCW was just a stepping stone for Paul, and because I couldn't really entice him financially, I think it was a foregone conclusion — regardless of how any of us felt about Paul and his potential — he wasn't long for WCW," Bischoff said.

Bischoff acquiesced that Levesque's departure from WCW was a matter of great timing. Despite being WWE's biggest competitor in the '90s, WCW went under by 2001 and was bought out by WWE. The timing of Levesque's departure "worked out really, really well" and was conducive to Levesque's current position, both as an icon of wrestling history and WWE's current CCO.

"Had he stuck around for WCW, what could've been? Or could not have been, obviously," Bischoff concluded. "But, it worked out in the end."