9. Eric Bischoff Recalls Taking Sting’s Finisher & Explains Why It Was Awkward

During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Eric Bischoff talked about WCW, bringing in International talent to the company, taking Sting’s finisher and more. Below are the highlights:

Finishing an episode of Nitro by taking Sting’s Scorpion Death Drop:

“We talked last week about how important it was for talent not to get their hands on me. I had an immense amount of fragile heat, but people were dying to see me get my ass kicked. We knew that would be a great moment. I remember the anticipation and I remember feeling what was going on behind me as Sting was coming up through the ring. I remember trying to ignore that so my reaction could be as real as it could possibly be, and I also remember taking that bump because he and I never rehearsed it. It’s an awkward kind of a bump to take, and it requires completely letting go. Bumps often require giving yourself completely to the talent you’re in the ring with, and that’s what makes wrestling such a performance art that is different from every other. Since I’d never done it before, it was a really strange moment.”

Building international stars (Cruiserweights and Masahiro Chono in nWo):

“All of those things were part and parcel of my goal of being different from everything and anything else people had seen to that point. That’s why international talent, like Chono, and the relationship with New Japan was so important to me at that time.

It had been done before, and Bill Watts did it in WCW, but I wanted to bring that international talent and make it a regular part of my programming. That had never been done before, but we’ve been seeing that now for 20 years now. I had it easy.”