Eric Bischoff

At 69 years old, Eric Bischoff has this physical status:

Eric Aaron Bischoff (born May 27, 1955) is an American entrepreneur, television engineer, broadcaster, podcast host, and on-screen celebrity.

He is best known for his work as Executive Producer and later President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and, later, the on-screen General Manager of WWE's Raw brand.

Bischoff has also worked with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he served as Executive Producer of Impact Wrestling.

Bischoff, who has a passion for taekwondo, has also appeared in ring competitions and is a former WCW Hardcore champion.

Controversy Creates Cash, his autobiography, was released in 2006 under WWE Books.

Personal life

Bischoff had worked in a variety of occupations before being forced to enter competitive wrestling. He appeared on a training video for bank employees on fair lending practices, owned a flourishing landscape construction company, served as a veterinary assistant, and operated a butcher shop, where he sold meat by van delivery. "If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis," Hulk Hogan said at the end of the 1996 WCW pay-per-view event Bash.

Bischoff, Wyoming; Scottsdale, Arizona; Stamford, Connecticut; and Los Angeles, California, with his wife Loree (married since 1984). He has two children: Garett (born April 20, 1984) and Montanna (born November 7, 1985). Garett made his TNA Wrestling debut on November 7, 2010 as a referee at Turning Point before becoming a wrestler under his real name.

Eric Bischoff announced on May 5, 2011 that he was starting a beer company in Cody, Wyoming. Buffalo Bill Cody Beer was their first beer, and the tag line "The Spirit of the Wild West" appeared on the bottle.

On MLW Radio, Bischoff on Wrestling, Bischoff's debut on MLW Radio on July 27, 2016. He left the show after being shortchanged on funds after October 17, 2017. With 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff and co-host Conrad Thompson, Bischoff returned to podcasting in April 2018.

Bischoff has long been a fan of Vermont-based jamband Phish, and he has collected live recordings of their performances.

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Professional wrestling career

In 1986, Bischoff started wrestling for the Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), which was under Verne Gagne's ownership. Bischoff, an on-air interviewer and host of the AWA, worked with the AWA until 1991, when the organization was discontinued. Bischoff started working in the AWA's syndicated programming, and shortly after, she became an on-air personality almost by accident and at the last minute. Larry Nelson, who at the time was employed by the AWA as an announcer, was arrested on suspicion of a DUI. Verne Gagne and his son, Greg, were prompted to fill-in on the interviews due to Nelson's sudden unavailability. Bischoff said he would be a good substitute due to his immediate availability in the television studio and the fact that he was still wearing a suit and tie.

The AWA was unable to function payroll during the company's gradual demise, and Bischoff applied for an announcer's position with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1990, but was not recruited.

Bischoff's autobiography Controversy Creates Cash mentions that he worked in his office during his time in the AWA, where he hadn't heard a legitimate struggle outside of his door. He said he had arrived just in time to see wrestler The Sheik's head break through the wall. Despite all this, the Sheik carried on the war, though a stunned Bischoff looked on.

Bischoff debuted at The Great American Bash in 1991, joining World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as a C-show announcer. As an announcer, Bischoff notified producer Tony Schiavone and WCW's Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross, as an announcer. Bischoff resigned from the firm in 1993 after WCW Vice President Bill Watts resigned, and WCW Executive Vice President Bob Dhue and WCW Executive Vice President Bob Dhue applied for Executive Producer positions. Ross and Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates, but Bischoff was hired in Watts' place. Schiavone was still a producer and commentator until the company's demise, but Ross was given permission from WCW and went to work for the WWF. Bischoff and Dhue initially worked as partners, but the company and the client often disagreed about the company's course.

Bischoff was promoted from Executive Producer to Senior Vice President in 1994, putting him in charge of most WCW. Dhue resigned, as did event manager Don Sandefeur and junior vice president Jim Barnett. In order to compete with the WWF, Bischoff persuaded Turner executives to properly finance WCW. In Orlando, Florida, he moved the WCW production to Disney-MGM Studios. Bischoff and Ric Flair approached Hulk Hogan, who was filming a show called Thunder in Paradise, who agreed to a WCW deal. He also invested in production values and boosted the number of WCW pay-per-views (first seven years, then 10, and then once a month). He also started WCW Monday Nitro, which was specifically opposed to WWF's flagship Monday Night Raw. Bischoff remained a commentator on Nitro, consistently spoiling Raw results (as the former show was not aired live) to raise ratings. As both WCW and WWF fought for viewers, pro wrestling brought a new level of mainstream success. The changes paid off, and WCW made money for the first time in the company's history in 1995. President of World Championship Wrestling, Bischoff's official job title, was by 1997.

In 1996, Bischoff signed WWF superstar Scott Hall, also known at the time as "Razor Ramon" at the time. Kevin Nash, who was previously known as "Diesel" in the WWF, joined Hall two weeks later on Nitro as "The Strangers." The two groups were intentionally portrayed by Bischoff as WWF rebels who were not under WCW control. In a work interview at The Great American Bash, Bischoff wondered if they worked for the WWF, which both Hall and Nash denied. The Outsiders were extended and became the New World Order (nWo), when perennial fan favorite Hulk Hogan joined the Outsiders in July 1996.

The nWo was depicted as a rival company operating in a "hostile takeover" of WCW. The angle became more complicated from week to week, with a mixture of main-eventers, mid-carders, educators, referees, executives, and announcers involved in various subpoenas related to the on-screen battle "WCW vs. nWo" power-struggle. With Nitro defeated Raw in the ratings by a wide margin for 83 weeks in a row, led by the nWo storyline, WCW defeated the WWF as the country's top wrestling promotion, with Nitro winning Raw in the ratings for the first weeks in 83 weeks in a row. During this period, Bischoff went from being a commentator to a manager at the nWo. Hall's television character, dubbed "Eazy E" by the WCW commentators, became a tyrant and egomaniac as the nWo boss. Miss Elizabeth hosted a Tonight Show Like segment on WCW programming in the summer of 1998. Ted DiBiase has said in shooting interviews that Bischoff had originally recruited DiBiase to be the spokesperson and financial support for the nWo, but when the nWo became a more prominent storyline, Bischoff switched DiBiase to be the spokesperson and financial backer for the nWo, but Bischoff recalled DiBiase as the nWo's spokesperson and financial backer, but Bischoff'se

As the WWF rebranded their product as "WWF Attitude" and began to concentrate on younger stars, including Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Rock, as well as turning investor/longtime announcer Vince McMahon into a fictional character, WWF's ratings improved. WWF's year and a half came to an end on April 13, 1998, at the top of the ratings war. Despite losing in the ratings to WWF, WCW maintained strong ratings, attendance, and PPV buyrates through 1998. In 1998, WCW produced Bill Goldberg, one of the first homegrown stars in the world, and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was held in front of 39,919 people on Nitro.

Bischoff promoted Kevin Nash to head booker in early 1999. Despite Goldberg's drawing at the box office and three shows in December and January that attracted almost $1 million dollars, the call was made to bring an end to Goldberg's undefeated run and bring the belt to Nash. Nash lost the title to Hogan in a match that became known as the Fingerpoke of Doom on January 4, and the nWo was rebranded. By March, ratings had begun to decrease, and WCW's had a long line of ratings declines.

Bischoff's 1998 reverted to focusing on elderly WCW celebrities such as Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Savage, Sting, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Nash, Ric Flair, and Sid Vicious. In an attempt to raise ratings, WCW began to concentrate heavily on certain celebrities, including Master P., Chad Brock, Megadeth, Dennis Rodman, and Kiss. One of Bischoff's recent transactions was a one-of-a-kind contract with the members of Kiss that would have their own wrestling character named The Kiss Demon.

By late 1999, WCW was losing around $5 million per month. Attendance, PPV purchases, and ratings were all down. The decision was taken on September 10, 1999, a new one was made to ban Bischoff from office.

Turner Sports chief Harvey Schiller told Bischoff that he had been fired from his WCW role on September 10, 1999. Since being unemployed, the job title "WCW President" was slashed. He was replaced by WCW Vice President of Strategic Planning Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President (handling the company's creative, with Brad Siegel handling the day to day operations). Former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara (both of whom appeared on Raw before the show overtook Nitro in the ratings) were among Busch's first acts in charge to lead the show's creative direction.

Bischoff appeared on air in April 2000 alongside Vince Russo to lead the heel group The New Blood; Bischoff also assisted in writing the scripts with Russo during this period. 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.

Siegel accepted Bischoff's bid to purchase the company on January 11, 2001, with WCW still reeling from major financial challenges. When the WWF opened an investigation into WCW, Bischoff and Fusient briefly withdrew their offer (due to a compromise, WWF had the right to sell on WCW's land if they were to liquidate). The Bischoff-Fusient consortium signed a new letter of intent when Viacom, the then-WWF broadcaster, protested (fearing a WWF-owned show on a competing network).

However, Turner Broadcasting's current CEO, Jamie Kellner, also pulled all WCW shows from its television networks. Even though Thunder was the highest-rated show on TBS at the time), Kellner felt that wrestling did not reflect either TBS or TNT's demographics, and that it would not be strong enough to convince advertisers to buy airtime. In the book NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW, Guy Evans, it's stated that Fusient wanted to have a say over time slots on TNT and TBS networks, whether or not those slots would feature WCW programs or not. Kellner's decision to ultimately stop WCW television shows was influenced by this. With no network on which to air its programs, WCW was of little help to Fusient, whose bid was contingent on being able to continue to air WCW programming on the Turner networks. "Under these circumstances, it made absolutely no sense for us to do the deal," Bischoff said. With WCW programming downgraded (and Viacom later agreed to opposing), the company's main assets (tape library, logos, and selected contracts) were purchased by the WWF in March 2001 at a much cheaper price (approximately US$3.5 million) than what had been offered.

Bischoff was President of Matrats, a youth-based wrestling group, for a brief period of time.

In 2002, Bischoff was recruited by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, formerly WWF) to be Raw's general manager. Although primarily an on-screen role, Bischoff had a large number of people within WWE with whom he could pitch innovative concepts. On the first Raw general manager of Raw on July 15, he debuted as the first Raw general manager. With the general manager position, he resurrects his legendary smarminess, demonstrating the arrogant heel stereotype he had employed as the nWo boss in WCW. He outlined how he became president of WCW, as the nWo's creator, and how he pressured Vince McMahon to change the way he does business during his debut on Raw. With three years in total, Bischoff is in second place in the longest reigns as general manager in WWE history. SmackDown Theodore Long, a former competitor and former general manager of the SmackDown Youth Theodore Long brothers have all exceeded Bischoff's record by six years. The "Raw Roulette" and the Elimination Chamber, as well as rivalry with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shane McMahon, John Cena, SmackDown were among Bischoff's wrestling innovations in WWE. Stephanie McMahon, the GM, and former Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) owner Paul Heyman. After failing to beat his (kayfabe) nephew Eugene, Bischoff shaved his head at Taboo on Tuesday. After his head was shaved, Bischoff started a face turn. Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, and Chris Jericho were all favorite face wrestlers. After allowing Randy Orton's staff to become General Managers for up to four weeks with each member acting as the general manager every week, Bischoff took a holiday.

Since then-WWE champion John Cena, who was drafted to Raw in June 2005, refused to participate in Bischoff's vendetta against an impending ECW revival, Bischoff began favoring heels. As a result, Bischoff "declared war" on Cena (blaming a lack of rapping and "thug essence) and pushed wrestlers such as Chris Jericho and Christian to withdraw the WWE Championship from Cena. In November, Bischoff aligned himself with Kurt Angle. Raw and SmackDown are back in action after several months of Raw and SmackDown!

invasions, Bischoff lost to SmackDown!

After Long beat Bischoff, general manager Theodore Long at Survivor Series.

As a result of a "trial" where his unethical activities were disclosed, Bischoff was (kayfabe) "fired" as general manager on the December 5 episode of Raw, when Cena body slammed him and Vince McMahon slammed him and pulled him into a garbage truck and had him arrested and had him booted out of the arena. Bischoff wrote a book that would become Controversy Creates Cash in the fall of 2006 and then waited out the remainder of the year and started writing a book that would become Controversy Creates Cash in 2006. Initially, Bischoff was against writing a wrestling book because he believes that "most are bitter, self-serving revisionist history at its best"—and that bullshit at their worst.

Bischoff appeared on WWE television for the first time in almost a year, and after being dragged into the ring by Jonathan Coachman, he continued to promote Controversy Creates Ca$h (ISBN 1-4169-2729-X), giving a working shot on McMahon and WWE. "Without Monday Night Raw there will be no Monday Night Raw," Bischoff said, "Without the nWo there will be no DX...and there will be no Mr. McMahon." Following this address, Bischoff's microphone was immediately cut off, Jonathon Coachman's music began, and security was led away from the arena by security.

A few days later, John "Bradshaw" Layfield conducted a four-part interview with Bischoff, further addressing his book on WWE.com. During the interview, Bischoff addressed a variety of topics, including his true feelings against Lex Luger, his thoughts on ECW promoter Paul Heyman, his decision to give Kevin Nash booking rights, and his general reaction to the Monday Night Wars. The book was published on October 17, 2006, and became a New York Times best seller.

With 60% of the vote, Bischoff was chosen as the special guest referee for the D-Generation X versus Rated-RKO match on Sunday at Cyber Monday. Randy Orton and Edge were the victors after hecheted the DX out of the game. Raw, Bischoff's night as General Manager was reinstated for one night only. If he did not like the result, he revived matches as the General Manager on Raw. He retaliated against Maria for a sarcastic statement made in his trial a year earlier by involving Umaga, compelled John Cena to "take the night off" and barred DX from the theater. After Hardy won by disqualification, he revived the match between Jeff Hardy and Johnny Nitro for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. That match was replayed as a No Disqualification match, and Nitro took advantage of the fact that Melina distracted Hardy and securing him with the title belt to distract him. DX interfered in the main event when Bischoff tried to aid Edge and Randy Orton in winning the World Tag Team Championship and ordered him to be humiliated by "Big Dick Johnson" as punishment for costing them their match the night before.

Bischoff appeared on Raw in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 5, 2007, to brief Vince McMahon on the WrestleMania 23 match against Donald Trump. In August 2007, Bischoff's WWE deal came to an end. On December 10, 2007, Bischoff appeared on Raw for its 15th Anniversary Special, and Chris Jericho, the man who shot on Raw on August 22, 2005, was interviewed.

In October 2009, Bischoff assisted in the drafting of a pact between Total Nonstop Wrestling (TNA), Hulk Hogan, and himself. On the January 4, 2010, TNA Impact's premiered him alongside Hogan on January 4, 2010. The company is being rebuilt as part of a group effort to take over and rebuild the brand. He was also named TNA executive producer behind the scenes.

Despite being a heel when dealing with Jeff Jardt, Mick Foley, and Abyss, Bischoff refereed his first TNA match at Against All Odds, favouring Samoa Joe over the heel champion A.J. In a match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, the styles are similar. Bischoff called out Styles' boss Ric Flair after he interfered in the match, but Styles kept his belt during the match.

On the March 15 episode of Impact!

When Bischoff tried to help Jeff Jartt in a handicap match last week, he was shaved bald, but Foley turned the tables on him. In the Lethal Lockdown match, Bischoff made his appearance by assisting Team Hogan in defeating Team Flair. Bischoff spent the next month with Hogan, Jeff Jartt, and Samoa Joe, who said they knew that Bischoff and Hogan were up to something. During this period, Abyss turned on Hogan and went on a rampage, including threatening TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam to the point that he was forced to leave the title while simultaneously claiming that he was governed by some entity that was not connected to TNA. Bischoff handed over the paperwork that would have Abyss fired after his match against Rob Van Dam at Bound for Glory, which she later proceeded to sign.Glory Bischoff turned heel with Hogan as the two of them helped Jeff Hardy win the vacant TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Bischoff, Hogan, and Hardy followed Abyss and Jeff Jartt.

On the following episode of Impact!

It was discovered that Bischoff had tricked Carter and the papers she had signed a week earlier but that they did not have to free Abyss, but rather turn the company over to him and Hogan. Meanwhile, Bischoff's and Hogan's latest stable, now known as Immortal, has formed an alliance with Ric Flair's Fortune. On the ninth episode of Impact!, Bischoff appeared in his first match in TNA, opposing the concussed Mr. Anderson to earn his TNA World Heavyweight Championship and bringing him home his number one contender. On the episode of Reaction, Dixie Carter informed Hogan and Bischoff that a judge had filed an injunction against the two parties for not having signatory control, effectively suspending Hogan from TNT permanently. Fortune turned on Immortal on Monday, saying that they did not want to let TNA suffer the same fate as WCW on January 31, 2011. Hogan, who beat Dixie Carter in court, made his way back to TNA on the March 3 episode of Impact!, announcing himself as the new owner of the franchise.

Allerdings, Immortal's Impact Wrestling, Immortal's founder, Mick Foley, who revealed himself as the Network consultant, who had been causing Immortal issues since Bischoff and Hogan took over the organisation, was dismissed just three weeks later, when Foley left the company. After Jay Lethal's legitimate firing, and Impact Wrestling's May 19 episode of Impact Wrestling, where they defeated Generation Me (Jeremy and Max Buck) in a tag team match, Bischoff declared war on the X Division in May. After the success of Destination X, where Immortal's Abyss lost the X Division Championship to Brian Kendrick, the storyline came to an end on August 11, when the Network awarded the division back to the original X Division wrestlers. According to Bischoff's employment contract extension with TNA, he had been confirmed on October 6. After losing TNA to Dixie Carter, Hogan took on Immortal by saving Sting from a beatdown at the hands of its members on October 16 at Bound for Glory. Sting had defeated the game when referee Jackson James, who had been seen as Bischoff's true-life son Garett Bischoff's initials, blasted his son with a steel chair following the match, sparking a rivalry between the two teams. In the annual Lethal Lockdown match, lockdown, Eric and Garett captained opposing teams on April 15, 2012. Garett won the game for his team by pinning Eric, effectively removing his father from TNA in the process.

Bischoff did not appear on Impact Wrestling and concentrated on his backstage performances after Lockdown. Since being fired by TNA in October 2013, Bischoff was ordered to miss the remainder of his deal, which began in early 2014. In May 2015, Bischoff, his son Garett, and his business partner Jason Hervey filed a lawsuit against TNA for unpaid wages. "I try to bring them both out of my mind so I couldn't tell you," Bischoff said in an interview in August 2016. There is no comment. I'm in the middle of a court case with them, so I can't really comment." When asked about positive memories from his time with TNA, he said he didn't have any. "For the most part, it is very regrettable" and "looking back, I wished I wouldn't have done it, with one or two exceptions," Bischoff said of his TNA experience in 2019.

Diamond Dallas Page was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Bischoff. During a segment with other former Raw general managers on January 22, 2018, Bischoff made a guest appearance on Raw's 25th Anniversary.

WWE revealed in June 2019 that Bischoff would be the executive director of SmackDown, and part of Bischoff's role would be to act as an intermediary between WWE and Fox executives due to his television experience, but immediately after, Bruce Prichard was fired from the company. Bryan Alvarez said he heard "zero good things" about Bischoff, and that Bischoff did not know the product nor the wrestlers. According to Fox, Bischoff was released after "[s]ignificant promises were made that we don't feel were upheld."

In March 2020, Bischoff reflected on his WWE departure, saying, "I knew about six weeks in, eight weeks in, it just wasn't going to work out." [...] I knew I wasn't fitting, but it wasn't a mystery, and it wasn't a mystery. [...] It wasn't right. [...] I had to fit in the system, but I wasn't able to do it in the time frame it needed to be done." Bischoff reflected on his departure in June 2020 by saying "it was on me" and supports his profession by blaming his inability to adapt to the new role for why his time was so short and referred to it as a "chemistry issue" rather than anything else. Bischoff also stated that he had no creative influence over SmackDown, but that he was more of a hand in Vince's creative direction.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 6, 2021. On the December 27 episode of Raw as the officiator for the revival of The Miz and Maryse's vows, as well as the SmackDown episode on January 21, 2022, with Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville.

For the first time since 2000, Bischoff appeared on TNT to moderate a discussion between Chris Jericho and Orange Cassidy. He referred to his appearance as a cameo and he had not committed to the company. However, Bischoff will return to Dynamite on October 28, 2020, to question Jericho and MJF about "town hall," causing the two wrestlers to meet and arranging a match at Full Speed. On March 3, 2021, he appeared on Dynamite as part of an Inner Circle press conference. Bischoff's birthday is May 28, 2021, and he will host a party for the Inner Circle in Dynamite. Members of the Inner Circle of the Inner Circle were blasted by MJF and others in The Pinnacle during the festival.

Television production career

From 2017 to 2017, Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment, which mainly produced reality TV shows, produced reality television shows. They hosted a live Girls Gone Wild pay-per-view demonstration from Florida in 2003 with WWE and another pay-per-view about the 2004 Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle rally. Scott Baio Is 45...and Single, Scott Baio Is 46...and Pregnant, I Want to Be A Hilton, and Confessions of a Teen Idol, as well as the CMT's Billy Ray Cyrus....Home At Last. In addition, Bischoff-Hervey Productions produced Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling, in which ten celebrities were trained to compete and one celebrity is voted out every week. Bischoff appeared on the program as one of the "judges." Let The Battle Begin tour to Australia began in November 2009, when Bischoff helped produce Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania. Bischoff, as a result of a new show on Food Network called "Food Fight," where pro wrestlers face celebrity chefs in cooking and then tag-team with them in a wrestling match. Bischoff and Hervey produced the television series Hardcore Pawn: Chicago in January 2013.

Video game production career

Bischoff founded MX Digital in 2013, alongside partners Jason Hervey and Ike McFadden. In Europe and North America, the corporation designs and sells online and mobile celebrity-themed games. Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania, one of the company's first published games, debuted on SkyVegas in November 2012. In February 2013, the Hoff, the actor-singer David Hasselhoff's next game, was widely distributed in Europe.

Dan Aykroyd, a well-known actor, has announced a partnership with Blues Brothers to launch a new online casino game in Europe in early 2014. MX Digital unveiled their games on Facebook later this year under the moniker "MX Casino." On launch, slot-machine-style games were available as a Facebook app that included "socialized" versions of Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania, as well as a similarly Facebook-friendly version of The Hoff. A number of new celebrity-themed games were also released in October, this time starring Dennis Rodman, James Dean, and Chuck Norris.

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