r/WCW • u/he6rt6gr6m • 3d ago

Eric Bischoff

I used to have a lot of respect for this guy. He's responsible, irrespective of where or how he got the idea for the nWo, for some of the best TV memories I have in my life.

And besides the right-leaning politics, constant AEW bashing, and generally cynical attitude as a whole, he always used to espouse this structure for writing stories and characters, "the three act structure" and 'The Seven Basic Plots' book like he's some sort of expert on the matter. But he couldn't book women for shit, and there's no explaining it.

He constantly fumbled women in WCW when he was in charge. The only women that I feel were prominent and consistently written well were Kimberly, Elizabeth and Nancy/Woman, and that is likely because DDP is with Kim, Macho is helping Liz and Sullivan is involved with Nancy. But look how Bischoff fucked up Madusa, Akira Hokuto, Luna's booking was all over the show. There's no reason the women couldn't have had the same sorts of story archs the men were having, especially if he's sooooo good at it.

You look at how women are booked now and I just can't fathom how it took this long. Moreso when Thunder came along, there was room for more women's matches and stories. And for his faults (and the Fed-driven TnA), Russo did give women more to do, putting Mona/Molly on TV as a particular highlight. But more could - and should - have been done.

0 Upvotes

27% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

6

u/RDCK78 3d ago

Eric Bischoff produced the greatest three years of pro-wrestling television.

2

u/twopumpstump 3d ago

In fairness to Bischoff to some extent, I don’t think any company anywhere except Japan was putting any serious effort behind women’s wrestling at the time. Women’s wrestling in the U.S. really didn’t take a foothold until TNA’s Knockout division bc TNA actually gave them the time on TV to make real strides in the states.

1

u/he6rt6gr6m 2d ago

And who was writing for TNA...

Edit: that sounds snarky but isn't meant to. I agree TNA changed the game. I just think Eric's constant "I understand how to write stories and structure" narrative fails when you look at his booking of women

1

u/Cavsfan724 3d ago

Women's wrestling was just not featured in this era in either promotion

1

u/CanesLife24 3d ago

There’s a lot you can criticize Eric for. But I will say, the booking of women in the 90s wasn’t just an Eric issue. I just don’t think promoters at the time saw women’s wrestling as having any market value at the time, rightly or wrongly. It really wasn’t until the UFC proved that women can be draws on their own that anyone in North America seemed to take a real interest in promoting them as anything beyond midcard filler (or simple T&A).

1

u/tw2113 3d ago

Who else could he have brought in for a women's division, at that time? There just wasn't womens wrestling in that era. Certainly not like there's been with WWE's "women's revolution".

1

u/roncesvalles 3d ago

WCW booked women's wrestling much better than the WWF did at the time, which is to say that WCW had Akira Hokuto matches once in a while and WWF had no women's wrestling at all.

1

u/he6rt6gr6m 2d ago

I agree, but it was inconsistent. They made a title that would disappear and reappear conveniently. Where's the continuity?

1

u/No_Boat_3045 3d ago

I can't imagine being angry at Eric Bischoff because he has different political views than you. You know there are many other people in wrestling who are right wing right? Undertaker, Triple H. You think Stone Cold Steve Austin is a liberal? Even when I used to listen to Tony Schiavone's podcast he would imply sometimes that he is a republican.

As for your other complaint, women's wrestling was borderline nonexistent in the 90s until Chyna started getting over. It's insane to pin that on Eric.

1

u/nj_crc 3d ago

He didn't even have an ending for the NWO storyline.

1

u/he6rt6gr6m 2d ago

Fair 🤣

0

u/Sed76 3d ago

He caught lightning in a bottle with the nWo stuff but ran it and the company right into the ground. Instead of being an executive he wanted to be one of "the boys" and let his relationship with Hogan derail the biggest show in the company's history.

-3

u/Cold-Pool4027 3d ago

Can everybody shut the fuck up about politics when they have to talk about why they don't like somebody? It's so cringe. Who gives a fuck. Wake up and realize both the right and left are evil. You're not better for having left leaning politics. I'm convinced people just do it for upvotes at this point.

1

u/he6rt6gr6m 2d ago

Well I didn't get any so your theory goes out the window there

-1

u/ddddhjxjx 3d ago

I’ve listened to a lot of 83 weeks because I find him entertaining. But he’s also a idiot who got lucky

2

u/CanesLife24 3d ago

I really WANT to like his podcast, but I more often find it to be hard to sit through. His memory isn’t exactly the best. And regardless of what you think about Dave Meltzer, I’m way more interested in Eric giving insights into what happened in the company than every episode turning into two hours of just complaining about Dave (though I get that, for some reason, is by and large the business model of Conrad Thompson’s podcasts).

2

u/ddddhjxjx 3d ago

I stopped listening to it awhile back. He bitches too much. 

2

u/No_Boat_3045 3d ago

I enjoyed 83 Weeks back when they would talk about WCW topics. These days they are mostly talking about modern day wresting which I don't follow or care about.

0

u/Paradiseplunge 3d ago

NWO was a storyline taken from Japan

1

u/Art840 2d ago

I never got women's wrestling in WCW though it wasn't until WWE had the Women's revolution with Bayley, AJ Lee, Becky Lynch, Aska, Bella Twins that it was on  a serious level to showcase what those women could do in NXT and later Raw, SD!.