Eric Bischoff InterviewBy Josh Modaberi| June 4, 2012 Wrestling Interviews Previous Page You are currently working with TNA, lots of people draw comparisons between TNA and WCW, do you draw any comparisons between the two companies? None whatsoever, they are two entirely different business models. WCW was a major touring company whilst TNA is primarily a television company, the budgets here a significantly less than they were in WCW. You really can’t compare the two, although wrestling is the common denominator. Appearing alongside Hulk Hogan in TNA TNA is now in its tenth year, how would you say the company has evolved since you have come into the company? TNA is evolving every day, the one thing about TNA that I have to give them a lot of credit for is that they have very little money to work with and for them to produce the kind of quality they do given the budget they have to do it with, a lot of people deserve a lot of credit. The real challenge here at TNA is to find new better ways of producing a higher quality product with limited resources. When you look at WWE and you look at the resources that they have it blows TNA out of the water. In terms of quality, I know for a fact that the quality of our story-telling we hold our own. A lot of what you are seeing on television now was planned six months ago, we are really spending a lot of time, good or bad, right or wrong building long term story-lines. Having worked for both Vince McMahon and Dixie Carter how would you compare the two in terms of the differences and similarities? And how would you compare yourself to those two? There is no comparison at all, I respect the hell out of Vince McMahon in a lot of ways and my only regret is that I didn’t have a chance to work more closely with him when I was in WWE because I could have learned from him in a lot of ways. I also in some respects think I have more of a creative instinct than perhaps Vince does, I look at television and I look at a story differently than he does, not necessarily better but differently. Vince and I are completely different people with completely different personalities. Dixie is completely different in every way you can think of from Vince. She is a very social person, she has a sensitive and intuitive type of personality and Vince has his own strengths but I don’t think sensitivity and intuitiveness are one of them. Who have been some of the favourite wrestlers you have worked with? That’s a very difficult question, I have clearly made a lot of good friends in the wrestling business, Hulk Hogan certainly is one of my best friends and someone I enjoy working with. The thing that I respect about many people in the business is the commitment, the love of the art. Towards the latter stages of your on-screen work in TNA you worked closely with your son Garett, what was that like? It was great, I’m grateful for the opportunity, it was a unique experience not many fathers have the chance to work with their children in television and entertainment so from that aspect it was very rewarding. I have mixed emotions about Garett’s decision to get into the business because it is a very difficult business and takes a tremendous amount of commitment. It takes a long time to determine if you’re going to be a success and in today’s environment there are only really two companies to work for in the entire world and they are TNA or WWE. TNA is a small company with limited resources so it is even more difficult here but it’s his choice and as much as I may or may not agree with it the fact that he is committed to it says a lot about him as human-being and a man, and I respect him for that. Father and son together What have you made you Scott Steiner’s recent Twitter rants aimed at TNA, Hulk Hogan and yourself? Scott is a 50-year-old man and is at a stage of his life where in his mind he is a much bigger star than in reality and he is having a hard time adjusting to that. It is sad to see, especially with people at one time you thought were friends become so bitter because their identities are so diluted in this wrestling character that they think it is their life. When that chapter of their life closes they can no longer perform to the level they need to perform to be able to compete with the younger talent. Some guys are able to adjust to that very well and just move on but other people like Scott Steiner just become bitter. I hope he finds a way to look back at his career and realise he was very fortunate, he made a lot of money, got to see the world and got to do things very few people got to do. I would like to see Scott become less bitter, he will be a much happier person. For more information about Eric Bischoff visit EricBischoff.com and follow Eric on Twitter @EBischoff
