Eric Bischoff UNTOLD Plans For Scrapped WCW Revamp!

[@InsideTheRopes]

Could Bischoff have saved WCW? Let us know in the comments below!

[@BannedSports]

Why does this channel constantly re-upload old clips over and over? Is this really the only "content" you can push out? Really sad

[@ShaunSmith-bh3hq]

No because the main stars were already older and not willing to push new talent😊

[@MeLoNHeAd00]

Yup

[@johneastwood3039]

​@ShaunSmith-bh3hq It's not just as simple as push new talent. They've got to actually be interesting characters who the audience cares about.

[@DarkKent234]

​@@BannedSportsyet here you are whining about it, creating engagement. You're not very bright.

[@johnnyskinwalker4095]

I'm of two mindsets about. On one hand I remember how much the success of the nWo was cause it was new and fresh and exciting. And that creating this "Big Bang" and relaunching WCW could have been used like the nWo but company-wide as something new and fresh. On the other hand, I keep thinking that if WCW had just returned to basics(which they never did) and give the fans what they liked during their biggest moment, it would been a steady return to success. The wildness of 99-00 chased away a lot of fans and going back to familar roots could have worked. Like return to the old WCW Nitro set. Bring back the same PBP guys like of Tony-Heenan-Tenay-Larry. The return Cruiserweight divison by bringing new young guys in it(AJ Styles). You could have the three original nWo guys along with Bischoff being Evil authority figures. You could have a fresh new Four Horsemen group with Flair as manager. Return of silent enigmatic Sting, etc...

[@jimbowlan5804]

@johnnyskinwalker4095 The problem is aol and turner excutives wouldn’t allow them to go back to the basics aol wanted them to go to a more kid friendly show like the early 90s wwf they wouldn’t let them go back to what made them money

[@soulofanerd9364]

​@jimbowlan5804 and yet they brought in Russo who was bringing non kid friendly wanna be edgy over the top stuff to WCW. It never makes sense to me what the Upper management's intention was other than find a reason to drop WCW from their portfilio

[@johnnyskinwalker4095]

@@soulofanerd9364 Agreed! Not doing raunchy stuff I always felt was a cop out from Bischoff. Cause WCW was having success without the Crash TV stuff.

[@MLSNYC88]

I've gone back and forth on Eric. I think it was well-said in the documentary on VICE that to beat McMahon for 83 weeks takes skill of some kind. The question that defines WCW for me is - could Eric do it twice? The NWO was a perfect storm. It was a great idea, with clear visuals, that could permeate into pop culture (and it did). Much of WWE's survival post WCW was because of its monopoly. So if WCW could find a second act with staying power it would have been truly transformational for the business. I think that's what AEW is struggling for right now. They had All Elite, but they've not been able to build on that.

[@johnnyskinwalker4095]

@@MLSNYC88 Great post! Yea it's like they could not transition from the nWo. They had their white hummer mystery but then it lead to a Sting heel turn which did not really work. But Bischoff was fired before we could see if it could work. If Eric had no more to give and the nWo was his lone geat idea then that's why I'm thinking to save them, they should have returned to basics when time was at their best. Like bring back silent Sting, bring back Hogan, Hall and Nash as the big heels, etc...You bring back what made them a success and then you add new things throughout.

[@5150crazyfun]

As a hardcore WCW fan, I wish this would've happened. A total rebranding and reset for WCW. It also would've been really cool to have the home base for them be Las Vegas. I feel like that would've made it seem like a much bigger deal immediately.

[@CuteLesbo69]

It would have just been The Hogan Shit Show 2.0

[@JustinEvitable80]

I agree. But I'm also a huge WCW supporter. Even in their dying days I supported them more than WWE at the time. Makes me wonder how the casual fan of any company feels about WCW still existing.

[@5150crazyfun]

@@JustinEvitable80 obviously wrestling hasn't been the same since WCW went out of business and the Monday Night Wars were over. Since then no company has been as popular as WCW was.

[@anthonyfaucy2761]

And it never will again as wrestling is dead. Look at WWE which had their lowest rating ever for Raw last year

[@alanguages]

So strange, that Eric talked about pushing younger talent, when Eric talked about doing that on Off The Record with the Giant, Rey Mysterio Jr, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, DDP, Jericho, and Benoit. If Eric would have taken his own advice, WCW might have been in a different position.

[@EGarrett01]

The only thing we know for a fact is that Eric Bischoff's way didn't work and destroyed the whole company. Him trying to dismiss people questioning his methods is just the height of idiocy. He also would've just put the belt on Hogan again, all his "ideas" boiled down to that.

[@TheAc550]

He damaged TNA so bad with Hogan. He’s one of those people who have to be so deep into the mistake for them to realize they made one😭

[@miesvaillanykyisyytta3252]

I'm not biased towards any wrestling federation, only started watching wrestling in the 2010's an am not American. So bearing that in mind I love listening to Bischoff. He has given so many interviews and I think we can learn a lot from his storytelling and experience. He comes off as a very intelligent man who knows what to say, when to say it and what to leave out or when to keep his silence. He looks absolutely incredible for his age too.

[@MeLoNHeAd00]

He is extremely intelligent!

[@booleneghan]

Bischoff being sent away the first time might've been the death knell for the company. The ship was already sinking by then, even if the Time Warner merger had never happened, it was doomed at that point David Arquette & Vince Russo were becoming WORLD CHAMPIONS!?? The talent, and even the creative (!) were booking themselves to go over for pity's sake. Everyone in business for themselves, when the opposition were operating on the same page. WCW might've still been in the fight if it weren't for the number of singular egos preventing them from functioning cohesively

[@NoneofYabiz-rx3zi]

Time Warner merger already happened at that point. Their standard and practices was what restricted them and forced them to abandon a lot of things that made them successful in the first place. AOL merger was the final nail in the coffin

[@BigRaji1981]

You said it yourself if it was already in a bad place and if they make you leave you were part of the reason why they made you leave. I've yet to comprehend why they bring him back instead of going another route or selling the company at that point

[@johnnyskinwalker4095]

I agree when Bischoff was fired in 1999, it was basically the death of WCW.

[@Jay_Cannon]

3:54 out of all your examples Eric I’d have to think 97% of that room is still waiting for this one. They’d bring girls home but they “don’t want to wake up their moms because she’s be mad!”

[@billcary30]

one thing i never understood in wcw or wwf was going with an upset occasionally to build a new star, rebuild an old one, get some excitement behind tthe upset factor. yes wwf did it a bit with barry horowitz, but come on that was more to punish hhh than push horowitz. they put horowitz over skip to build to hhh getting upset. i don't think they should every year but royal rumble would be a perfect opportunity. use the months between there and mania to build the story, gauge how fans are reacting, not maybe put the belt on the upset guy, but at least let him have a good hard competitive match where any second he might pull the upset again then if you want him to lose do it. this does wo things. it builds a charcter, get's the fans talking the will he won't he stuff. if the fans are behind it u build witht the guy to see what can be done. if the fans crap on it, move on. you don't have to do this every year for the rumble, but it'd add another element to it becuase then they talk about who could be the upset winner tihs year. maybe in this day and time with no kayfabe and such maybe harder to pul off but in some respects could be easier. more feed back through facebook, twitter, etc. so let's look at wcw. assuming they had something like the rumble, or using the 60 man battle royal. the 60 man would have been perect. you keep a guy in each ring till they get to the final 10. then maybe they team up on the knowing full good an dwell that is probably their only shot, then settle it amongst themselves. maybe do 5 split it down the middle upsets and guys everybody expects to win. you're going to allow the upset, you do the 5 upset guys teaming up. you have the usual suspect for the winner you have him eliminate the upset winner guy last. even being the last one out still builds him see waht the fans think. in the rumble you always seem to have a final four or 5 that kind of set it up if a final 4 do the same thing. i guess the other issue is egos and money but if done right it could work.

[@mae2759]

Bischoff never would have pushed new talent. Hogan et al would politic their way to keep at the top, especially with creative control, and Bischoff would appease.

[@KyleJWest-vn9kn]

WCW actually had a lot of great young talent on the roster towards the end. I think they even had a young AJ Styles. If they could have rebranded themselves and focused on building that next generation it honestly might have worked. The problem would have been that WWE roster around that timeframe was so stacked. WCW could have done everything right and they’d still have gotten curb stomped by the WWE. They’d need to have moved completely away from Raw and Smackdown and not even attempt to compete.

[@davidwarburton2915]

Bischoff would have kept WCW alive. It would still exist today as a separate entity. Some years it would have beaten WWE and some years it would lose. Just like any other industry. Would WCW have always been great? No. But neither is WWE.

[@jeffreyhornberger9175]

WWE was a better product

[@அருண்குமார்-ற4ற]

@ericbischoff I am remembering you in Tamilnadu (India) till now 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

[@dimaztri19]

I just finished Vice's Who Killed WCW and now this came out 😅

[@markfroman738]

If anyone knows what a sustainable business model is, it’s Eric!

[@DanielMussen-ex8si]

Elbow Pads|Knee Pads| Taped Wrists|MMA Style Gloves Past Present Future

[@YellowBrickRoad-x1f]

They lost all their top younger talent: X-pac, The Giant, Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero. Bret should've been the veteran to make the up and coming talent but he was forced to retire. Just like how they lost their top younger talent in the early 90s: HHH, Austin, Foley, Goldust, Johnny B Badd, Vader. It was inevitable for guys like Booker, Steiner, Hogan, Hall, Nash, Mysterio, Goldberg,Flair would go back to WWE. The only younger guys back then who had potential who were still on the roster was AJ Styles and Sean O'Haire.

[@ReetinEntertainment]

They had Sugar Shane!

[@JustinEvitable80]

There were way more than just them. Chuck Palumbo, Mark Jindrak, Johnny The Bull, Lance Storm & Mike Awesome, to name a few, all had potential.

[@johnnyskinwalker4095]

They lost a lot of their younger talent yet they gained a whole new generation of them in 2000 with Sean O'Haire, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Vampiro. Mike Sanders, AJ Styles, Vampiro, Chuck Palumbo, etc....

[@Henderson1011]

They had a bunch of new talent like Sean O'Haire and Lance Storm that would've been main fixtures in the new WCW. None of the guys you say they lost in the early 90's were a big loss for WCW. Austin wasn't going to be used in the WWF as anything more than a utility worker until Triple H got punished and they needed a new King of the Ring winner, in addition to the complete fluke of Austin getting popular. He was never seen as a huge upcoming talent by the WWF. Booker, Steiner, and Mysterio likely never would have left WCW. I could definitely see Hogan and Nash going back to the WWF though. Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn all very likely would have returned to WCW because the WWF wasn't utilizing them.

[@johnnyskinwalker4095]

@@Henderson1011 I agree. Malenko and Saturn would have returned. Eddie at least had the "Latino Heat" gimmick for a while. Benoit might have returned cause WWF did nothing with him once he won the title.

[@city_by_the_bay7769]

this guy almost killed TNA with Hogan

[@joekerr7975]

"Well let me tell you something Brother!" Your Right!

[@BigDic-qz8su]

Nope it was Dixie who brought them in because she didn't know how to run a wrestling company.

[@sobbyhasselhoff]

Source please

[@SjC420]

No that would be Dixie Carter. She went to Hogan & Bischoff & Bruce Prichard because she didn't know what she was doing but at the same time she had final say so so they all had to do what she wanted. Also Spike tv told Dixie they didn't want Vince Russo writing the show anymore so Dixie said she fired him but then she sent an email to Russo about creative & accidentally sent it to everyone including the Spike TV representative so that's why Spike dropped TNA. That was the biggest blow to TNA & they still haven't recovered!

[@MikeD8318]

No he didn't he has said himself he didn't want to return to wrestling and Dixie's Carter gave him all the stipulations he requested eg no booking duties, no house shows unless there was a reason, Vince Russo and Dixie Carter ruined TNA

[@dgenerate707]

Crazy it's been 23 years since anyone asked him about the revamp plans

[@geneanthony3421]

Sad we never got to see how the vision would have played out

[@diywrites8703]

hmm flip the script? On the last episode of Nitro. The nWo I guess it would be 2000 at that point the Nash, Hart, Jarrett led nWo takes over WCW and leaves on a cliffhanger of "What happens next!" and WCW goes away 'for good' and the Las Vegas re-launched show is an nWo show but the scrappy remnants of WCW are showing up in the crowd and backstage and outside beating up the nWo guys and trying to get their show back.

[@philiphaller1018]

I think taking it off the air for a while and completely rebranding it would have been the only way it could have survived. The issue is I feel like the fans no longer cared about any of the talent they had whether the bigger names or up and comers due to how bad the booking had been.

[@JOBdOut]

I think people would have been severely disappointed. Just as impact lost so much with each network change - wcw coming back a few months later with a different look would still have seen a diminishing return

[@DanielMussen-ex8si]

Universe Mode Past Present Future

[@andrewtaylor7981]

Does he ever take any kind of responsibility for WCW going under? Cause he should tbh I can think of a few times he f’d up massively imo

[@TRivera13]

The first mistake was trying to put the WWF out of business. That lead to the further mistakes. Both companies could've existed at the time.

[@pauldavis5665]

Yeah, WWF and WCW could have co-existed if they kept just kept RAW and Nitro on separate days. Wrestling fans would have been able to watch both. But that wasn't enough for Eric and he made the decision to declare war and put Nitro on Mondays. And the rest is history.

[@hogbong1651]

Eric Bischoff's plan would have been the same as it always was bring back Hulk Hogan and let him beat everyone and do what the hell he liked

[@Tank-bg7fh]

I liked the Kanyon, ddp, Raven, Saturn saga because the matches delivered, even more so then some of the matches i watched in 2024 in WWE, because they felt innovative and fresh, everything is derivative and built on fake acrobatics nowdays. It was fake back then too, but felt like the guys were more into their character then today.

[@jasoninflagstaff]

I really don't agree with a single word that was said about the Sting angles..if you watched the builds to either of his matches in wwe,& didn't see "icon", then the problem is you. That stuff,particularly the rollins build,was spectacular and this whining a decade after the fact is typical of the perpetually online captain hindsight nonsense that's an absolute disease on social media. Sting was in wwe for less than a year before injury sidelined the whole thing. In that time, Sting headlined and/or lead off several Raws. He had a 30 minute match,not including the 10 minute custom entrance,at wrestlemania for his FIRST wwe match,and his 2nd (outside of the gimmicky tags on raw) was the main event of a ppv for the world championship. How in the blue hell anyone can look at that and see "failure" is beyond me. It's beyond obvious that the wwe was going to CONTINUE using Sting as the legend that he is,if he hadn't gotten hurt,because that's what they were doing to begin with. You don't get to call it a "failure" because it was injury shortened,& you don't get to call it one because Sting waited almost a full decade too long to go. They were not gonna stick the belts on a 50 year old within 6 months of his debut. Anyone expecting more than what they got in 2014,was delusional. Anyone doing Olympic level mental gymnastics to call it a failure,in 2024,esp using sting's aew run as some kind of evidence,is absolutely lying to themselves and everyone else. That run was awesome at the time,for me,as a Sting fan who had LONG wanted to see him vs wwe. My ONLY regret is that he got hurt before they could get more out of him. Crybabies online. Wow

[@Sam-nm8tx]

David arquette is looking lovely

[@Novella47]

Wcw towards the end was horrific. The wall vs hogan, everyone of thr big names on vacation. It would have taken years and I mean over a decade to rebuild wcw.

[@papabear463]

The biggest plan was for Eric and Hulk to finally tie the knot.

[@bigben618]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@JOBdOut]

Would the reverend have been Jimmy Hart, Brian Knobbs, Ed Leslie or Gene Okerlund?

[@TheAc550]

Hogan would’ve still found a way to not put Bischoff over😭

[@PaulShaw-ex7ri]

Look at those flea market boots , unholy hell fire !

[@ricksanchez2425]

RVd would have been good in a wcw revamp ken shamrock to

[@MrReese]

The biggest problem of WCW for me was that the nWo factions were something new and exciting at first, but they eventually became the downfall of the company. There was hardly any match involving any of the factions that would run and end like a normal match, it was all interference all the time and it was getting old really fast.

[@TheNextStep851]

While Bischoff is right that you can't fix things overnight and that's it's a process, he then knocks Russo who had only been in the job for 3 months and wasn't given long enough to fix things.

[@DanielMussen-ex8si]

01 vs 01 02 vs 02 03 vs 03 04 vs 04 Past Present Future

[@demonocusmetalocus3558]

If you want to know what he would have done with wcw just look at what he did to tna and you have your answer.

[@coreyrowe4119]

While Russo obviously didn’t fix the problems everyone needs to chill with the revisionist history that WCW firing Bischoff in September 1999 was a mistake just because Nitro did an isolated 4.0 or 4.1 show his final week in charge (which I believe was unopposed due to Raw being pre-empted). Bischoff himself admitted himself they were getting destroyed for the last 6 months before he was fired. Nitro's ratings would've still gone back in the gutter after Raw went back to it's normal timeslot even if Bischoff wasn't fired when he was.

[@georgeh4171]

Eric is spot on here. Tony Khan should really listen to this advice if he wants AEW to actually be successful and not keep shedding fans.

[@taylorbible]

Only good thing to come from Vince buying WCW is the tape library.

[@joe.limbus]

AEW is currently in the stage where they need to rebrand....they've lost so many people that won't turn it back on until they see a reason to give them another chance

[@mathprodigy]

Is it fair to say that WCW created all their own problems though? Yea they were on top for some years, but was their strategy sustainable? Did they really shine up new talent or mid carders? I feel like everything is good while it's good but you're not preparing for the coming storms with complacency, and WCW thought they could just pay their way out of everything. Looking back, WCW appears the slimier, looser company, more of the "inmates run the asylum" type place. That's not by accident. Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon are different for a reason. And by hook or by crook, they both found themselves amidst the Monday night wars, in essentially the exact same scenario, but because Vince ran his business better, WWF wins in the end and they're still around today. So what I'm saying is, I'm sure during the planned revamp, Bischoff had a lot of good ideas, but I'm sure also as he said, the problems were just too numerous, he could probably make some progress, but all the elements needed to resuscitate the business just would have never came together, that perfect world would never happen, it's like trying to repair a building that is already half collapsed, you're better off wiping the whole thing and just starting over. Except they never got the chance to start over, they got bought and absorbed and that was the end of WCW.

[@MisterHella]

Bro had too much anticipation with his storytelling imo

[@MajikATX]

Hmm don't sound like I would of liked the revamped WCW as much as the nitro/nwo era even before NWO.

[@brianohalloran4059]

It was too little too late. The WCW name had been damaged beyond repair. Their failure to capitalise when they were on top in 97 and 98 is what killed them. Their failure to invest in young promising talent and elevate them to main event level while letting their main event scene go stale and age out hurt them immensely. That young talent and others left decimating their midcard and wrestling structure/expertise, and by 2000 their main event scene was a joke. Eric talks about Anticipation. Say WCW relaunches 3 months later in July 2001. Look at the state of their company. The CW and Tag divisions were pretty good and decent respectively, with the likes of Rey, Kidman, Chavo, Helms and AJ, and MIA, Kronik, TNBT etc. But the midcard absolutely stank. All they had was Lance Storm, Shane Douglas, Kanyon, Mike Awesome, Buff and one or two others. The rest like Hugh Morrus, Vampiro, The Wall etc absolutely sucked. And their main event scene was a joke, full of has-beens with little left in the tank like Hogan, Nash, Hall, Sting, Luger, Bret, Savage, DDP, Steiner, Flair, Sid etc. By 2003 those guys were basically all retired from in ring competition. Jarrett was never a main eventer. The only prime age main event talent they had was Goldberg and Booker T. So what was Bischoff going to do? He needed a new midcard and main event. He would've had to do a WWF + ECW + Indy/Japan/Mexico talent raid for the midcard, and that would've cost a bomb. And it's doubtful WWF guys would've wanted to go there at that time no matter how much money was on the table. As for the main event? Promote from within? Lance Storm could've been elevated to main event level as a Bret Hart/Benoit type. But after him it's slim pickings. Maybe Mike Awesome? O'Haire would've needed a couple of years to get to that level. Any WWF guys? Maybe Test? Maybe RVD and Rhyno from ECW? Maybe a couple from the Free Agent/MMA world like Lesnar, Batista, Shamrock, Ortiz, Sapp etc? WCW were up against it no matter what. The environment back then would've been too hostile for them to succeed. Young talent would've steered clear or gone to the WWF, indy guys like Punk and Joe weren't ready yet and no TV company wanted anything to do with them. It's all speculation. But the reality is things just came to a natural end for WCW. The company had been horribly mismanaged for years and the brand was damaged beyond repair. It's highly doubtful any relaunch would've succeeded. They deserved to die.

[@Sky_Blaze]

Eric Bishoff wouldnt have been able to revamp sh*t. Look how he screwed up TNA too. So Eric just be quiet.

[@tombardsley3081]

Wasn’t just Eric. Hogan was there and Dixie was the one that brought both of them in as well as continuing the trend of bringing ex wwe people in and immediately pushing them.

[@Sky_Blaze]

@tombardsley3081 oh I know it wasn't just Eric, Hogan didn't help and look how they did TNA. So hearing people act like if Eric got the shot in "revamp" wcw that it would've saved the company is BS. The guy had no clue what he was doing. And was a mark for himself. Look at all the time he gave himself is tna you think if Eric revamped wcw he wouldn't do the same exact thing are delusional. The guy was awful.

[@darthsebio1726]

There was not a lot of creative plans..now that’s shocking (coming from Bischoff)🙄😂but everything else would be better than Vince buying it...

[@ebransc09]

…. Use as many buzzwords as possible

[@Black-d4i4e]

The interviewer is insufferable

[@roobear78]

erics issues all in a nutshell,you cannot run profesional wrestling like a tv exec or with solely a tv mindset! It will not work and does not work! There is a reason right now why wwe has a few wrestling guys running the shows and why tony khan is getting is ass kicked at aew because he isnt a wrestling guy!

[@anthonyfaucy2761]

You WWE marks are so stupid can't live a day without mentioning AEW while not mentioning the WWE product is dying and had their lowest rating on Raw ever last year

[@roobear78]

@@anthonyfaucy2761 well im not a wwe mark sunshine i havent watched it in years and i know its a product on life support,has been since end of the monday night wars,but aew is something completely different,a golden oppertunity ruined by one man and his desire to be loved so much he lets the biggest assholes ruin his company! wwe might be dying as you say but its still a company making serious amounts of profit,tell me when did aew last make money? yeah exactly glorified indie company lol sit back down and stop trying to look like you know what your talking about you kermit!

[@daidavies90]

But WCW did go away for a while and then come back it was just called TNA now

[@soulofanerd9364]

Similar roster but not the same ownership or management at all. That's what people often miss or forget, MANAGEMENT is what makes the company's direction, not the talent roster. It's why WWE has been able to exist so long through ups and downs. Aways been a McMahon management

[@tonyclifton2230]

His plan was to ask meltzer what to do.

[@saj8]

Bischoff's plans for the new WCW was to put the spotlight on the older stars again.

[@martinwalton9307]

He's such a slimy 2nd hand car salesman......Charismatic public speaker but totally cluesless about wrestling.

[@BigDic-qz8su]

Your a clueless fan. Fans think they know more about the business than the people who are actually in it.

[@martinwalton9307]

@@BigDic-qz8su oh wow, what an epic takedown from a guy with a bigdic handle.

[@BigDic-qz8su]

@@martinwalton9307 fans think they know more about the business then the people who are actually in the business.

[@ShaunSmith-bh3hq]

@@BigDic-qz8su Well obviously Eric Bischoff didn't know that much or they would still be in business.

[@BigDic-qz8su]

@@ShaunSmith-bh3hq everyone said it was the time Warner AOL deal that killed WCW because they didn't know what they were doing.

[@charliebrownnz1]

Hogan was a great final boss heel in 1996/1997 but after that he was stale in that position. They needed to have a legends situation where the older guys like hogan and flair stopped wrestling full time and only engaged in one or two feuds with an upcoming wrestler. This is where the writers would have to put over the upcoming wrestler but protected the legend, so that would require them to lose alot of matches but win the feud or the other way around. But ultimately this would mean no world championship belt reigns. It would also mean that goldberg would need to take losses to more capable wrestlers. He should have lost teh DDP match where he was just out-wrestled against all odds. He should have been booked like a pro wrestling version of mike tyson - an absolute juggernaut that could be beat by very technical fighters. As it stood - goldberg was part of the reason wcw lost because he just buried so much talent that ultimately became bigger draws than him.

[@dgenerate707]

Crazy it's been 23 years since anyone asked him about the revamp plans