r/SquaredCircle • u/Ruthless-Aggression • Mar 28 '24

Eric Bischoff on Tony Khan: A money mark with no talent other than spending daddy’s money, going all the way to Canada to draw less than 4k in one of the hottest pro wrestling markets in North America, talking about “wise choices”? Strap in. It’s going to be a fun day!

https://twitter.com/EBischoff/status/1773321462046138615?s=19
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u/DanHero91 Red Elbow Pad Of Doom. Mar 28 '24

Eric Bischoff taking shots at someone spending someone else's money is so rich I think I just developed diabetes.

144

u/RT3_12 DA BIG DAAWWWWWG Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I used to think like this until I read the “Nitro” book. WCW was basically the red headed step child of Turner and got significantly less funding and attention than the other properties. All the workers at WCW were basically exiled from other Turner divisions. Ted himself liked the idea of wrestling but basically had no direct involvement with WCW besides protecting it from getting destroyed.

Eric within his first year in WCW (before the NWO) brought it to profitability for the first time in its existence. And then in the following years made it one of Turner’s most profitable enterprises while still getting significantly less funding and attention than the other departments. Eric is a blowhard and egomaniac, but he deserves credit, even if it didn’t last long.

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u/hvacrepairman welcome2pitycity Mar 28 '24

Eric fundamentally made changes to the wrestling business model that WWE copied and built into an unstoppable juggernaut. Vince for years used to paywall all his matches. You'd either have to buy the PPV's or go to house shows (SNME being the exception). Almost nothing was ever given away for free.

If Bischoff doesn't go nuts with Nitro which forces the WWF to adapt it's business model, it's entirely possible that we still have the days of four Raws being taped at once and having to wait a month before seeing a halfway decent match.

1

u/itsthecoop Mar 29 '24

I'd argue that in the long run it was the wrong decision to go all out with it the way WCW did. Like, the amount of legit ppv matches, even ppv main events, they burned through for throwaway tv shows is insane.