Eric Bischoff Bio, Age, Net Worth, Wife, Children, Wrestling, Tv Production
American Wrestling Association (1989–1991)
Bischoff started in wrestling working for the Minneapolis, Minnesota based American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1987 under the ownership of Verne Gagne. Bischoff in 1989, would become an on-air interviewer in and host of the AWA until the company folded in 1991. Bischoff at first worked in the sales department on the AWA’s syndicated programming, and became an on-air personality virtually by accident and at the last minute.
Larry Nelson, whom at the time was employed by the AWA as an announcer, was arrested under suspicion of a DUI. Due to Nelson’s sudden unavailability, Verne Gagne and his son, Greg, opted to recruit Bischoff (who initially had no desire to be in front of the camera) to fill-in on the interviews. He believed that the Gagnes thought that he would be a good replacement due to his immediate availability in the television studio, and the fact that he was already wearing a suit and tie.
In the gradual demise of the AWA, the company was unable to meet payroll, and Bischoff auditioned for an announcer’s position with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1990, but was not hired.
World Championship Wrestling (1991–2001)
Arrival and ascent to power
Bischoff in 1991, joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as a C-show announcer, debuting at The Great American Bash. As an announcer, Bischoff reported to producer Tony Schiavone and WCW’s Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross. After WCW President Bill Watts resigned from the company in 1993, Bischoff went to TBS executive Bill Shaw and WCW Vice President Bob Dhue to apply for the job of Executive Producer.
Ross and Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates, however, Bischoff was hired in Watts’ place. Schiavone remained a producer and commentator until the company’s demise, but Ross was granted his release from WCW and went to work for the WWF. Bischoff and Dhue initially worked together as partners, but frequently clashed over the direction of the company.
The New World Order
The New World Order (professional wrestling)
He signed WWF superstar Scott Hall in 1996, better known at the time as “Razor Ramon”. Two weeks later on Nitro, Hall was joined by Kevin Nash, most previously known as “Diesel” in the WWF, to become “The Outsiders”. He intentionally depicted the duo as WWF rebels who were not under contract to WCW. Inorder to avoid legal action by the WWF, Bischoff in a worked interview at The Great American Bash, asked point blank if they worked for the WWF, which both Hall and Nash denied.
In July 1996, the Outsiders expanded and became the New World Order when perennial fan-favorite Hulk Hogan aligned himself with the Outsiders. The nWo was depicted as a rival company engaging in a “hostile takeover” of WCW. Week to week, the angle grew more complex, with a mixture of main-eventers, mid-carders, executives, referees, managers, and announcers involved in various subplots related to the onscreen “WCW vs nWo” power-struggle.
Led by the nWo storyline, WCW overtook the WWF as the number one wrestling promotion in America with Nitro defeating Raw in the ratings by a wide margin for 84 consecutive weeks. During this era, Bischoff moved from his role as commentator and joined the nWo as a manager. Erics television character, dubbed “Eazy E” by Hall (“Sleazy E” by the WCW commentators), became a dictator and egomaniac as the nWo boss.
In the summer of 1998, Eric hosted a Tonight show like segment on WCW programming with Miss Elizabeth. Ted DiBiase has said in shoot interviews that Bischoff originally hired DiBiase to be the spokesperson and financial backer for the NWO, but when the NWO was getting to be a more prominent storyline, Bischoff replaced DiBiase as NWO spokesperson.
Bischoff also enjoyed some mainstream exposure at the time, appearing on the HBO series Arli$$ as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Downfall of WCW
When the WWF rebranded their product as “WWF Attitude” and began to focus on new superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Rock, and made owner/longtime announcer Vince McMahon into a character, this eventually resulted in a ratings turnaround for WWF. WWF ended WCW’s year and a half run on top of the ratings war on April 13, 1998.
Despite losing in the ratings to WWF, WCW continued to post strong ratings, attendance, and PPV buyrates throughout 1998. WCW built one of its first homegrown superstars in Bill Goldberg in 1998 and gave him the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on July 6, 1998 at the Georgia Dome in front of 39,919 people on Nitro. Bischoff promoted Kevin Nash to head booker in early 1999.
Despite Goldberg drawing at the box office and doing three shows in December/January that did nearly a $1,000,000 gate, the decision was made to end Goldberg’s undefeated streak and put the belt on Nash. On the January 4 Nitro, at the Georgia Dome, Nash dropped the title to Hogan in a match that became known as the Fingerpoke of Doom, and the nWo was rebranded. By March ratings began dropping, and WCW began experiencing an endless streak of ratings losses.
Replacement
Bischoff was relieved of his management position with WCW by TBS Sports chief Harvey Schiller on September 10, 1999. The job title “President of WCW” was eliminated. He was replaced with WCW Vice President of Strategic Planning Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President (Handling the creative of the company with Brad Siegel handling the day to day ops).
One of Busch’s first acts in charge was the additions of former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara (both of whom had worked on Raw when the show began to overtake Nitro in the ratings) to head up WCW’s creative direction. Bischoff returned as an on-air character alongside Vince Russo to lead the heel faction The New Blood; Bischoff also worked on writing the shows with Russo during this time in April 2000. Bischoff’s last on-camera role in WCW was in July 2000 at the Bash at the Beach 2000 pay-per-view when Russo did a worked-shoot promo on Hulk Hogan.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Immortal (2010–2012)
Immortal (professional wrestling)
Bischoff in October 2009, helped negotiate a deal among Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Hulk Hogan, and himself. He premiered alongside Hogan on the January 4, 2010, episode of TNA Impact! as part of an alliance to take over and rebuild the franchise. Behind the scenes, he was also appointed TNA executive producer. Despite being a heel when dealing with the likes of Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley and Abyss, Bischoff refereed his first TNA match at Against All Odds, favoring the face challenger Samoa Joe over the heel champion A.J. Styles in a match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
During the match, as part of the storyline, Bischoff punched out Styles’ manager Ric Flair, after he interfered in the match, but the distraction led to Styles retaining his belt. On the March 15 episode of Impact! Bischoff attempted to shave Mick Foley bald as a punishment for trying to help Jeff Jarrett in a handicap match the previous week, but was shaved bald himself, when Foley turned the tables on him.
At Lockdown Bischoff turned face by helping Team Hogan defeat Team Flair in the Lethal Lockdown match. The next months Bischoff worked with Hogan, Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe against Sting and Kevin Nash, who claimed that they knew that Bischoff and Hogan were up to something. During this time Abyss turned on Hogan and went on a rampage, which included attacking the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam to the point that he was forced to vacate the title.
All the while claiming that he was controlled by some entity, that was coming to TNA. After he manhandled TNA president Dixie Carter on the October 7 episode of Impact!, Bischoff presented Carter with the paperwork that would have Abyss fired after his match with Rob Van Dam at Bound for Glory, which she then proceeded to sign.
Return to WWE (2016–2018)
WWE released a DVD about Bischoff, with the documentary portions also airing on the WWE Network in 2016. Bischoff on March 21, 2017, was announced to induct Diamond Dallas Page into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31. On the 25th Anniversary of Raw on January 22, 2018, Bischoff made a guest appearance on the show, during a segment with other former Raw general managers.
