AEW's Tony Schiavone Gets Candid About Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff & WCW's Final Years

The fall of WCW has been attributed to several different parties and circumstances, and even the "Who Killed WCW" documentary couldn't pinpoint one specific reason for why the promotion ended up closing its doors permanently. Speaking on his "What Happened When?" podcast, Tony Schiavone looked back at the final days of WCW, and specifically working with Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan.

Schiavone looked back at WCW during 1994, where he already felt like the promotion was on its last legs but admitted that a major changed allowed them to keep pushing onward. "I really thought at this time that we were — we were two steps out the door," he admitted. "I thought when Eric came around, Hogan came around, it elevated us and it took us out — or it delayed the inevitable." The veteran then admitted that he always believed that the "inevitable" would be WCW's closure because they were run by a television company that didn't care about them.

"It did go out of business, Eric just prolonged that, by being the probably — not probably, by being the smartest guy to ever run the company," Schiavone added. "And Hulk Hogan's arrival? Later that year? Selling out the Orlando Arena that we would never have done without Hulk Hogan ... Really turned out fortunes around and enabled us to stay in business another, what, another seven years."

While Schiavone credits Hogan and Bischoff for prolonging WCW's life, the veteran has in the past pinpointed Starrcade 1997 as the real begining of WCW's end. What's more, Bischoff has also identified the people whom he believes killed WCW.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "What Happened When?" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.