• “All these things and mistakes WCW was making was driving me nuts” – Former WCW Personality
During a recent edition of 83 Weeks podcast, former WCW President Eric Bischoff talks about the mistakes WCW was making in the early 90s.
Here’s what Bischoff said:
“I didn’t feel defeated, I was frustrated with the fact that WCW papered so many houses for so long. Every television show – papered. Every pay per view – heavily papered. Clash of Champions – heavily papered.
It doesn’t take long for the audience to realize that you don’t have to buy tickets and just wait ’til the last minute; they’re gonna be free. They’ll put them on your windshield while you’re at 7-eleven buying a slurpee.
That was the marketing strategy for WCW in the early 90s. You manifest your own destiny when you do that, when you condition your audience to know you’re going to give away tickets every time you come to town. It makes it so difficult to change that perception and reality. All these things and mistakes WCW was making was driving me nuts, because people wouldn’t listen, they wouldn’t see.
I didn’t look at it as a talent problem as much as I looked at it as a structural WCW problem. Marketing, promotion, positioning. Once you throw in the towel and quit trying to figure out why you’re a distant number 2 – why isn’t the audience coming?
Until you start having those conversations with each other, you’re basically throwing in the towel and accepting the fact that you’re always going to be a 2nd run. I was either too naïve or too stubborn to fall into that way of thinking.
One of the reasons I was the antichrist of WCW was because my opinion of what WCW needed to do was so alien and 180 degrees from what everybody internally in WCW wanted to do. I felt like we were too southern, we were too small. We didn’t position ourselves, even with our characters, the way we needed to position ourselves.”
Bischoff then discussed Hulk Hogan’s signing and how it helped the company tremendously:
“We thought, okay, now we’re going to be able to attract high quality promoters. WCW wasn’t going to go to Germany, and we didn’t promote those shows. We worked with a local promoter. The quality of the promoter you’re working with has a lot to do with the value of your property.
In WCW in 1993, it was not a high value property; you’re going to get a secondary promoter at best. As opposed to really high quality promoters that promote major rock shows and have major relationships with major venues and the radio stations.”
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• ON THIS DAY IN WWF HISTORY (November 15, 1993) – WWF Monday Night RAW
On this day in 1993, the World Wrestling Federation aired another episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF Monday Night RAW’.
It was pre-taped at the Fernwood Resort in Bushkill, Pennsylvania and featured matches, interviews & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WWE Survivor Series 1993’ PPV.
Here’s the card:
1. Razor Ramon vs. The Brooklyn Brawler
2. The Headshrinkers vs. Mike Bucci & Mike Moraldo
3. Quebecer Pierre vs. Lex Luger
4. Diesel vs. Sid Garrison
