Eric Bischoff Says WWE Wanted Him in 2000

Nov 23, 2018 - by James Walsh

On a recent edition of his podcast (via Wrestling Inc), Eric Bischoff revealed that WWE made him an offer to come in a year before he actually did…

On His History With Jim Ross: “It was short and sweet, really,” Bischoff said on his podcast about the call with Ross. “The history between JR and I has been well documented over the years. JR was very bitter I think when the whole regime change took place after Bill Watts was fired. Jim got demoted into television syndication, which he took very badly. As a result, Jim wanted to quit. He voiced that to Bill Shaw, who was my boss at the time. Bill Shaw came to me and said, what should we do? He wants to leave. My response was, ‘Let him leave. You’re not going to want to keep him hostage here as bitter as he is. All he is going to do is make the people around him bitter and miserable and you are going to have more of the politics and in-fighting that we have been trying to get away from, so if he doesn’t want to be here then let him go.’”

On Ross Calling Him About Coming to WWE: “When he did call me, I can tell he wasn’t excited about it,” Bischoff says of Ross. “There was no positive energy. He wasn’t rude or disrespectful, but it was a very matter-of-fact, unemotional phone call. He certainly wasn’t trying to sell me anything let’s put it that way. He called me and said, ‘You know, we would like to bring you in. I think we may have something that may work out.’”

On Turning Down The Offer: “I wasn’t really too excited taking off in the middle of a weekend as people were flying in all throughout the country to visit,” admitted Bischoff. “I think that would have been kind of rude, but I was open minded. I thought, well, if it is the right idea, and if it makes sense then I will do it. I asked Jim what exactly he was thinking. “I am sure he wanted to kayfabe me and I don’t blame him for that at all. I respect it, but he kind of led me to believe that nothing was quite figured out; they were bouncing some ideas around and wanted to see if I could make it in for Monday. I just said, ‘Look Jim, I really appreciate the opportunity and thank you so much for calling, but I can’t do it on this short of notice,’ and that was it. He said, ‘Okay, great. I will pass on the information.’ He hung up the phone. When I hung up, I thought, well, that is the last time I will hear from them. Not too many people turn down the WWE and get a call back, so that was the first contact that I had with them and I had to turn them down.”

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