Eric Bischoff Details Why WCW Wasn't Interested In Hiring Shawn Michaels
On the latest episode of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff, the former WCW President reminisced back to 1997. This was when Nitro beat RAW in ratings every single week that both the shows aired. Co-host Conrad Thompson brought up a recent report that WCW tried to get Jose Lothario to appear on Nitro in June 1997 to get the rumors flying of Shawn Michaels potentially making his way to WCW.
Lothario was just coming off a stint of managing Michaels, and Bischoff discussed that report by Dave Meltzer in The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
"That was pure fiction by Meltzer. There was never a discussion, there was never an intent," stated Bischoff. "Shawn Michaels ? if he hears this, and I doubt he will but he might read the recap somewhere, as talented as he was and as much of a star he was, he was a f***ing headcase. He knew it, and he certainly acknowledges it now.
"I had zero interest in Shawn Michaels, or creating the perception and stirring the s**t that would have been stirred in my own locker room and on my own roster by even the suggestion that that was gonna happen."
Michaels had previously said in an interview in 2015 that there was a point where he wanted to go to WCW to "be with his buddies." But Bischoff says despite having friends in high places in WCW, Michaels didn't have the support of most of the WCW locker room.
"Shawn Michaels did not have a lot of support, not only in WWE but certainly not in a WCW locker room at that time, because of his behavior. Shawn will talk about it. You can read about it and it's well documented. That would have been the last thing I would have done, and that was pure, pure fiction by Dave Meltzer to try and create some content and to get some people interested and make people think he knew information that nobody else did. It was just fiction," stated Bischoff.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.