Eric Bischoff On Why He Turned Down First WWE Offer, How Vince McMahon Convinced Him To Sign
Eric Bischoff was a guest on AfterBuzz TV's Lilian Garcia: Making Their Way to the Ring and opened up about his father who was paralyzed, that the WWE called him one year before Vince and why he turned them down, the funnest segment he ever did in the WCW and WWE, why he didn't want his son to wrestle, his biggest contributions to WWE, how bullying was a part of his life and he ended it, his last interaction with Rosey and more.
You can watch the full interview in the video above or download it on iTunes, they sent us these highlights:
Why he turned down WWE's first attempt to bring him in:
"They had called about a year before and people don't know this ya they called me about a year before you know Vince called me in whatever it was 2002. In 2001 I was in Wyoming in the summer and I got a call from JR, and JR wasn't exactly excited to call me at the time you know he still had a chip on his shoulder a little bit and he called me and said, "hey you wanna come in and work a program?" and I said, "well, whats the program?" and he said, "well we're working on it" and I said, "well sure, when would you want me to start?" "you gotta be here Monday" well this is like Friday and I had a house full of people, it was over the 4th of July, I had like twenty five or thirty people, friends and relatives that had driven in from all over the country for a family reunion and I'm thinking ya I'm not just gonna pick up go up there for a Monday Night Raw to participate in something what they're not really sure what it is quite yet, it wasn't right you know, so I politely passed and when I did I thought well that will be the last time they call me."
How Vince McMahon convinced him to join WWE:
"We got on the phone and the first thing he said to me, and I'm paraphrasing this okay so it's not exact words, but he basically said right out of the shoot he goes you know Eric I would like to think that if the situation would have turned out differently and you would've come out on top, that you would reach out to me for an opportunity to step back in? what a gracious, elegant, classy, humble thing to say."
What Vince asked Eric when he called him:
"The one thing he did ask me, he said, well is there anything you won't do? I said, ya I won't move to Connecticut, other than that I'm your guy and I guess that's all he wanted to hear is that I didn't, I wasn't bringing any stipulations, I wasn't coming in with a list of things I would and wouldn't do."