Kemo
08-03-2022, 06:26 PM
Eric Bischoff spoke with SEScoops correspondent Steve Fall this week for NBC Sports Boston. Bischoff was there to promote his second autobiography Grateful, which is due out November 11 (Pre-order here).
During their discussion, Bischoff spoke at-length about Vince McMahon retiring from WWE, what it was like working directly under Vince McMahon and his personal outlook for WWE’s future with Triple H leading creative and Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan serving as Co-CEO’s.
You can watch the full interview here, with highlights below:
3_1PXhSSIDU
“It’s funny, I just got done talking with Hulk Hogan, we were talking about this. It’s going to be strange for people like us, all of us who have been fans, all of us who have been in the business and have worked with fans, in my case, competed against him, worked for him, covered the gamut,” said Bischoff. “It’s just weird, he’s been there forever, he’s the only head coach the team has ever had since the team was born, for most of us.
It’s going to be weird, but I think it’s going to be better. Look, Vince did amazing things. Anybody that doesn’t give him credit, a lot of it, and respect, not only credit, but respect for what he’s accomplished business wise, let’s separate his personal proclivities from business and what he built.. Anybody that doesn’t respect what he built is just juvenile, child-like. But, I think with new management..
“I’ll talk about this briefly, when I was there in 2019, I worked side by side with Vince McMahon. On a pretty regular basis. I was in way too many meetings with Vince McMahon than I even want to think about, I get PTSD-like symptoms when I do. As amazing as what Vince built is, and how he went about it, his personal way of going about creative, his system, his creative system and approach, doesn’t work for anybody but him. It just doesn’t. It’s well documented, working 20 hours a day, 2 o’clock in the morning meetings, by the way, true, been there, had to do it. It doesn’t work well for a team that you’re relying on.
“I think with Triple H in there now, because Triple H has been in that spot before, he knows how tough it is to work with Vince, because of Vince’s system, and because he knows, I think we’re going to see a new creative system in place in the next few months, I think that new system is going to allow some extremely talented writers that I know are still there, that I had the chance to meet and work with for a few months, incredibly talented people, guys like Ed Koske who’s been there 20-something years, incredible talent. A lot of great talent there on the writing team that will be able to emerge in this new environment, and I think you’re going to see a much better product as a result.”
“The rest of the company, you know, one of the old things that I think anybody that is honest about Vince, has to acknowledge and respect, is that he built the public company that is now WWE, is a blue-chip public company. There are seasoned executives that are highly credentialed, their bios, their history, their success, their resumes are off-the-charts good, in every part of the company, whether it’s the CFO’s, Nick Khan, Stephanie could not be a better person to be in the position she’s in, it’s a very solid company that will survive the former CEO. Not only survive it, but surpass it.”
“The stock market reflected that. The stock is up 10%. Everybody on Friday, the Dave Meltzers of the world, ‘Oh my god, he made the announcement after the market closed because he knows the market is going to crash’ – not only is this piece of garbage trying to pretend to know what’s going on in the wrestling business and the television business, now he’s a stock market analyst, and what did the stock market do? It went up. Vince is gone, ‘Ok, I’m in!’”
During their discussion, Bischoff spoke at-length about Vince McMahon retiring from WWE, what it was like working directly under Vince McMahon and his personal outlook for WWE’s future with Triple H leading creative and Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan serving as Co-CEO’s.
You can watch the full interview here, with highlights below:
3_1PXhSSIDU
“It’s funny, I just got done talking with Hulk Hogan, we were talking about this. It’s going to be strange for people like us, all of us who have been fans, all of us who have been in the business and have worked with fans, in my case, competed against him, worked for him, covered the gamut,” said Bischoff. “It’s just weird, he’s been there forever, he’s the only head coach the team has ever had since the team was born, for most of us.
It’s going to be weird, but I think it’s going to be better. Look, Vince did amazing things. Anybody that doesn’t give him credit, a lot of it, and respect, not only credit, but respect for what he’s accomplished business wise, let’s separate his personal proclivities from business and what he built.. Anybody that doesn’t respect what he built is just juvenile, child-like. But, I think with new management..
“I’ll talk about this briefly, when I was there in 2019, I worked side by side with Vince McMahon. On a pretty regular basis. I was in way too many meetings with Vince McMahon than I even want to think about, I get PTSD-like symptoms when I do. As amazing as what Vince built is, and how he went about it, his personal way of going about creative, his system, his creative system and approach, doesn’t work for anybody but him. It just doesn’t. It’s well documented, working 20 hours a day, 2 o’clock in the morning meetings, by the way, true, been there, had to do it. It doesn’t work well for a team that you’re relying on.
“I think with Triple H in there now, because Triple H has been in that spot before, he knows how tough it is to work with Vince, because of Vince’s system, and because he knows, I think we’re going to see a new creative system in place in the next few months, I think that new system is going to allow some extremely talented writers that I know are still there, that I had the chance to meet and work with for a few months, incredibly talented people, guys like Ed Koske who’s been there 20-something years, incredible talent. A lot of great talent there on the writing team that will be able to emerge in this new environment, and I think you’re going to see a much better product as a result.”
“The rest of the company, you know, one of the old things that I think anybody that is honest about Vince, has to acknowledge and respect, is that he built the public company that is now WWE, is a blue-chip public company. There are seasoned executives that are highly credentialed, their bios, their history, their success, their resumes are off-the-charts good, in every part of the company, whether it’s the CFO’s, Nick Khan, Stephanie could not be a better person to be in the position she’s in, it’s a very solid company that will survive the former CEO. Not only survive it, but surpass it.”
“The stock market reflected that. The stock is up 10%. Everybody on Friday, the Dave Meltzers of the world, ‘Oh my god, he made the announcement after the market closed because he knows the market is going to crash’ – not only is this piece of garbage trying to pretend to know what’s going on in the wrestling business and the television business, now he’s a stock market analyst, and what did the stock market do? It went up. Vince is gone, ‘Ok, I’m in!’”