Former WCW Executive Vice President and WWE on-air talent Eric Bischoff recently appeared as a guest on former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia’s “Making Their Way To The Ring” podcast for an in-depth interview. Below are some of the highlights.
On turning down WWE’s initial offer to sign him after WCW was bought out by Vince McMahon: “They had called about a year before and people don’t know this ya they called me about a year before you know Vince called me in whatever it was 2002. In 2001 I was in Wyoming in the summer and I got a call from JR, and JR wasn’t exactly excited to call me at the time you know he still had a chip on his shoulder a little bit and he called me and said, “hey you wanna come in and work a program?” and I said, “well, whats the program?” and he said, “well we’re working on it” and I said, “well sure, when would you want me to start?” “you gotta be here Monday” well this is like Friday and I had a house full of people, it was over the 4th of July, I had like twenty five or thirty people, friends and relatives that had driven in from all over the country for a family reunion and I’m thinking ya I’m not just gonna pick up go up there for a Monday Night Raw to participate in something what they’re not really sure what it is quite yet, it wasn’t right you know, so I politely passed and when I did I thought well that will be the last time they call me.”
On how Vince McMahon ultimately convinced him to sign with WWE: “We got on the phone and the first thing he said to me, and I’m paraphrasing this okay so it’s not exact words, but he basically said right out of the shoot he goes you know Eric I would like to think that if the situation would have turned out differently and you would’ve come out on top, that you would reach out to me for an opportunity to step back in… what a gracious, elegant, classy, humble thing to say.
“The one thing he did ask me, he said, well is there anything you won’t do? I said, ya I won’t move to Connecticut, other than that I’m your guy and I guess that’s all he wanted to hear is that I didn’t, I wasn’t bringing any stipulations, I wasn’t coming in with a list of things I would and wouldn’t do.”
Check out the complete Eric Bischoff interview at .