Putting the raw in "RAW": Vince McMahon's former nemesis, Eric Bischoff, comes to WWE with the goal of spicing up Monday nights

THERE IS LITTLE MIDDLE GROUND on Eric Bischoff. Fans, wrestlers, and management all have some kind of opinion on the man that took WCW to the top before its collapse and subsequent purchase by its biggest competitor.

Like all those who were supposed to just fade away in the wrestling business, Bischoff has resurfaced. Now the general manager of "RAW," Bischoff is collecting a WWE paycheck signed by Vince McMahon, the man he took on in the '90s in a cutthroat battle to win the Monday night wars.

In his new role, Bischoff has hit the ground running, spicing up "RAW"--most notoriously with "HLA"--in an effort to make the Monday night program the more risque of the federation's two showcases.

Bischoff has been traveling with the show full lime, but he says the grind hasn't been so bad, so far. "I'm only on the road really two days a week. I live on the West Coast so I travel Sunday and I'm home on Wednesday. I actually like being on the road. When you've been doing something for an extended amount of time, you wish you didn't have to do it. That's how I was with the grind and with all the travel. But I bund out that when you quit and you're sedentary, you miss it. I'm enjoying it. I like being busy.

Bischoff's current role with WWE means that for the first time in a while he is a talent only, with no management responsibilities, but he says the transition hasn't been difficult. "Before I was management, I started with Verne Gagne in Minnesota as a talent. When I came to WCW in 1991 it was as a talent. As president of WCW, I was still a talent, appearing on television. I've done both simultaneously, so it wasn't hard at all.

"I like my role now because it's just so much different than what I had been doing. It's easy to enjoy my role as talent. After I do what I'm doing that night and get through critiquing what I've done, I get to enjoy the show. Now, unlike in WCW, I don't have to deal with the pressure of being management."

Bischoff says that his arrival in WWE was a long and arduous process involving negotiations and lawyers, which dragged on for over a year. "It might seem that my signing came together quickly, but it actually didn't. We had been talking through third parties for about a year. Their attorneys would talk to my attorneys and so on. It went on like this for some time."

For instance, Bischoff says that on July 4, WWE officials called him while he was at a family reunion at his home in Cody, Wyo. WWE wanted Bischoff to come to Atlanta and do something that week, but besides the logistical problems of picking up and flying from Wyoming to Atlanta. Bischoff admits the timing wasn't right.

"Emotionally I wasn't ready to come back yet," he says. "And I wasn't there physically. I had put on weight and wasn't that excited about coming back. I didn't want to come back under those circumstances. I wanted it to be right. Last Fourth of July, I called Vince [McMahon] and we had discussions and we got to know one another over the phone. We worked something out but we agreed that in order for it to have the impact that we wanted it to have we had to keep everything secret and no one could know. Stephanie and Shane [McMahon] knew I had signed. The attorneys knew. And I think Jim Ross knew. But we didn't want anyone else to know."

In 1991, Bischoff auditioned for an announcer's job in WWE, meeting Vince McMahon briefly at the interview. He didn't get the gig, and then in the ensuing decade he became McMahon's nemesis, without ever speaking with the chairman of WWE. Despite years of trying to put McMahon out of business, Bischoff says that once he signed with WWE, McMahon showed no animosity toward his former adversary.

"The night that I came in [after signing with WWE] was the first real interaction I had ever had with Vince and that's kind of the way we wanted it to be," Bischoff says. "You have to remember, wrestlers had heard that there was likely going to be a new general manager, but no one knew who it was. None of talent or production people knew. That night we were at Continental [Airlines Arena in The Meadowlands].

"I came in the night before and stayed as far as away as I could. I stayed in a limo for an hour before the show backstage. Literally 20 minutes before I cut that live promo with Vince he came to my car and introduced himself. That was the first time we had ever shaken hands and the first time we had seen each other in person in over 12 years."

Still, Bischoff discounts fids meeting as anything earth-rattling. "It's not like I met Elvis," he says. "But, if you look back at the war and WCW, Bischoff and Vince. It was pretty interesting."

Bischoff and McMahon have yet to sit down and dissect the days when they were locked in a war of attrition. "I haven't had that conversation with Vince, but we have joked about that we're going to talk about it one day," Bischoff says. "Everything we did during that time was done for a reason. There were a lot of times where there were not good decisions or choices, mind you. I've said a lot that controversy creates cash. If you take a macro view of what was going on in the wrestling business then, everyone, not just fans but everyone in the industry, looked at us as No. 2 and figured that we would never be on the stage. I had to be as loud and as controversial as I could. And, quite frankly, it worked."

Since McMahon bought WCW, several former WCW talents have criticized the promotion and its management heavily, many saying it was a miserable place to work the last year or two it was in existence. Bischoff says, though, that a lot of the criticism is a case of selective perception. "People's memories are selectively vague at times and confused at times," he says.

"I left in September 1999. I had nothing to do with WCW after that. If people were miserable and didn't enjoy working there, I have to take an amount of responsibility for that. I have to admit. It was miserable to be there at the time right before I left. I see a lot of the comments from guys like Ric Flair, Gene Okerlund, Chris Jericho, and Bobby Heenan have made, talking about us as a corporate entity and how we failed.

"Whatever mistakes we made it had nothing to do with high salaries, etc. That's just people speculating and talking about things they don't know about. Those guys talking about how we failed on a corporate level, it's like me and you talking about WorldCom and talking about what they should have done."

Bischoff though, doesn't look back at his tenure in WCW with rose-colored glasses. He admits mistakes were made.

"Turner had never made a nickel when I took over. I took over the division in 1994, turned a profit in 1995, and increased that profit 1,000% in 1996," Bischoff says. "We grew so quickly and we were very, very profitable. It suddenly, became a very interesting division in Time Warner. In August 1998, we were doing incredibly well, despite the high salaries I paid out. I was called into a meeting and in that meeting they essentially told me how WCW was going to be positioned in the marketplace. They said we were going to become family friendly. I said `It's wrestling, not the Disney Channel. We're going after 18-to-34-year-old men. They're not going to want to see something for a five-year-old.'"

"It was a square peg in a round hole," Bischoff recalls. "I went home and told my wife I was going to resign. I wish I would have, quite honestly. From that moment on, it was one of the most miserable times of my life. Every week we were losing audience and every week it was getting worse and worse."

Still, Bischoff says there is much to be proud of from his WCW days. "From 1995 to this day, I had a big impact on the way wrestling is presented today. A lot of things I did I didn't invent them. I took them from other people. I'm proud of the fact that "RAW" is live. Why is that? Their show was taped and I was giving away results on "Nitro." It's got a much better pop and feel live. Being live makes it a better product and because of what we did.

"I'm proud when I watch Chavo Guerrero, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, and the other cruiserweights. They are now core guys in the WWE and that's because of the cruiserweight commitment I made in 1996-97. They were all a very, very important part of "Nitro" and it made it much more different than "RAW." I'm happy about that. The whole NWO thing is still there."

Ric Flair and Chris Jericho have been two of WCW biggest critics, but Bischoff says he still has good relations with both superstars.

"With Flair, our bad relationship has been overstated, Bischoff says. "We've been on an emotional roller coaster for a long time in our relationship. Some of best times I've ever had in the wrestling business have been with Ric Flair and his attorneys. And, some of worst times have been with Ric Flair's attorneys. The last year in WCW we were quite friendly. When I came to WWE and saw Ric it was no big deal."

"Jericho was different. It's not like I wanted him to leave and it's not like he wanted to stay," Bischoff continues. "Chris was smart enough to realize it was great opportunity. I have a letter he wrote me that I still have thanking me for the opportunity. When I read a lot of things he said about how bad it was and how he didn't like it, it surprised me. It's been so far so good. We've broken through that ice."

So far, Bischoff is enjoying his tenure in WWE. but he knows the business well enough to realize that if his character starts to lose steam, he could be out of job. "I went in knowing it could last months or last several years. I'm doing it because I want to do it and because it's fun. It's an opportunity to close out my relationship in wrestling on a better note than I did in WCW. That's the only reason I'm doing it.

"As long as it's productive for Vince and WWE, I'll be here. If my character doesn't fit into long-range plans, I'll move on. So far, I think Vince is relatively pleased."

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