Eric Bischoff Biography
Eric Bischoff is an American entrepreneur, television producer, professional wrestling booker, podcast host, and on-screen personality.
He is best known for serving as Executive Producer and later President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and subsequently, 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.
With an amateur background in taekwondo, Bischoff also sporadically performed as an in-ring competitor, and is a former WCW Hardcore Champion. He wrote an autobiography, titled Controversy Creates Cash, which was released in 2006 under WWE Books.
Eric Bischoff Age
Bischoff was born on May 27, 1955. He is aged 64 years as of 2019.
Eric Bischoff Net Worth
The American entrepreneur, television producer, professional wrestling booker, on-screen personality, and occasional wrestler has a net worth of $12.5 million dollars.
Eric Bischoff PhotoEric Bischoff Wife and Children
Bischoff lives in Cody, Wyoming; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Los Angeles, California with his wife, Loree. He has two children. A son Garett who was born on April 20, 1984; and daughter Montanna who was born in November 1985. Garett, under the ring name Jackson James, made his debut for TNA Wrestling on November 7, 2010, as a referee at Turning Point, before later becoming a wrestler under his real name.
Before getting into professional wrestling, Bischoff had a number of occupations. He acted in a training video for bank employees regarding fair lending practices, owned a successful landscape construction company, worked as a veterinary assistant, competed as a professional kickboxer, and ran a butcher shop, where he sold meat via van delivery. Hulk Hogan would famously refer to this time in his life during his heel promo at the end of the 1996 WCW pay-per-view event Bash at the Beach in Daytona Beach, Florida, saying, “If it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis.”
Eric Bischoff announced that he was starting a brewing company in Cody, Wyoming on May 5, 2011. Their first beverage, called Buffalo Bill Cody Beer, featured the tag line “The Spirit of the Wild West”. Bischoff premiered his first podcast show, Bischoff on Wrestling, on MLW Radio on July 27, 2016. After October 17, 2017, he quit the show due to being short changed on money. In April 2018, Bischoff returned to podcasting with 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff alongside co-host, Conrad Thompson.
Bischoff is close friends with fellow WWE alumnus Bruce Prichard.
Eric Bischoff Wrestling Career
American Wrestling Association (1989–1991)
Bischoff started in wrestling working for the Minneapolis, Minnesota based American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1987 under the ownership of Verne Gagne. Bischoff in 1989, would become an on-air interviewer in and host of the AWA until the company folded in 1991. Bischoff at first worked in the sales department on the AWA’s syndicated programming, and became an on-air personality virtually by accident and at the last minute.
Larry Nelson, whom at the time was employed by the AWA as an announcer, was arrested under suspicion of a DUI. Due to Nelson’s sudden unavailability, Verne Gagne and his son, Greg, opted to recruit Bischoff (who initially had no desire to be in front of the camera) to fill-in on the interviews. He believed that the Gagnes thought that he would be a good replacement due to his immediate availability in the television studio, and the fact that he was already wearing a suit and tie.
In the gradual demise of the AWA, the company was unable to meet payroll, and Bischoff auditioned for an announcer’s position with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1990, but was not hired.
World Championship Wrestling (1991–2001)
Arrival and ascent to power
Bischoff in 1991, joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as a C-show announcer, debuting at The Great American Bash. As an announcer, Bischoff reported to producer Tony Schiavone and WCW’s Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross. After WCW President Bill Watts resigned from the company in 1993, Bischoff went to TBS executive Bill Shaw and WCW Vice President Bob Dhue to apply for the job of Executive Producer.
Ross and Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates, however, Bischoff was hired in Watts’ place. Schiavone remained a producer and commentator until the company’s demise, but Ross was granted his release from WCW and went to work for the WWF. Bischoff and Dhue initially worked together as partners, but frequently clashed over the direction of the company.
The New World Order
The New World Order (professional wrestling)
He signed WWF superstar Scott Hall in 1996, better known at the time as “Razor Ramon”. Two weeks later on Nitro, Hall was joined by Kevin Nash, most previously known as “Diesel” in the WWF, to become “The Outsiders”. He intentionally depicted the duo as WWF rebels who were not under contract to WCW. Inorder to avoid legal action by the WWF, Bischoff in a worked interview at The Great American Bash, asked point blank if they worked for the WWF, which both Hall and Nash denied.
In July 1996, the Outsiders expanded and became the New World Order when perennial fan-favorite Hulk Hogan aligned himself with the Outsiders. The nWo was depicted as a rival company engaging in a “hostile takeover” of WCW. Week to week, the angle grew more complex, with a mixture of main-eventers, mid-carders, executives, referees, managers, and announcers involved in various subplots related to the onscreen “WCW vs nWo” power-struggle.
Led by the nWo storyline, WCW overtook the WWF as the number one wrestling promotion in America with Nitro defeating Raw in the ratings by a wide margin for 84 consecutive weeks. During this era, Bischoff moved from his role as commentator and joined the nWo as a manager. Erics television character, dubbed “Eazy E” by Hall (“Sleazy E” by the WCW commentators), became a dictator and egomaniac as the nWo boss.
In the summer of 1998, Eric hosted a Tonight show like segment on WCW programming with Miss Elizabeth. Ted DiBiase has said in shoot interviews that Bischoff originally hired DiBiase to be the spokesperson and financial backer for the NWO, but when the NWO was getting to be a more prominent storyline, Bischoff replaced DiBiase as NWO spokesperson.
Bischoff also enjoyed some mainstream exposure at the time, appearing on the HBO series Arli$$ as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Downfall of WCW
When the WWF rebranded their product as “WWF Attitude” and began to focus on new superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Rock, and made owner/longtime announcer Vince McMahon into a character, this eventually resulted in a ratings turnaround for WWF. WWF ended WCW’s year and a half run on top of the ratings war on April 13, 1998.
Despite losing in the ratings to WWF, WCW continued to post strong ratings, attendance, and PPV buyrates throughout 1998. WCW built one of its first homegrown superstars in Bill Goldberg in 1998 and gave him the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on July 6, 1998 at the Georgia Dome in front of 39,919 people on Nitro. Bischoff promoted Kevin Nash to head booker in early 1999.
Despite Goldberg drawing at the box office and doing three shows in December/January that did nearly a $1,000,000 gate, the decision was made to end Goldberg’s undefeated streak and put the belt on Nash. On the January 4 Nitro, at the Georgia Dome, Nash dropped the title to Hogan in a match that became known as the Fingerpoke of Doom, and the nWo was rebranded. By March ratings began dropping, and WCW began experiencing an endless streak of ratings losses.
Replacement
Bischoff was relieved of his management position with WCW by TBS Sports chief Harvey Schiller on September 10, 1999. The job title “President of WCW” was eliminated. He was replaced with WCW Vice President of Strategic Planning Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President (Handling the creative of the company with Brad Siegel handling the day to day ops).
One of Busch’s first acts in charge was the additions of former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara (both of whom had worked on Raw when the show began to overtake Nitro in the ratings) to head up WCW’s creative direction. Bischoff returned as an on-air character alongside Vince Russo to lead the heel faction The New Blood; Bischoff also worked on writing the shows with Russo during this time in April 2000. 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.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Immortal (2010–2012)
Immortal (professional wrestling)
Bischoff in October 2009, helped negotiate a deal among Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Hulk Hogan, and himself. He premiered alongside Hogan on the January 4, 2010, episode of TNA Impact! as part of an alliance to take over and rebuild the franchise. Behind the scenes, he was also appointed TNA executive producer. Despite being a heel when dealing with the likes of Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley and Abyss, Bischoff refereed his first TNA match at Against All Odds, favoring the face challenger Samoa Joe over the heel champion A.J. Styles in a match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
During the match, as part of the storyline, Bischoff punched out Styles’ manager Ric Flair, after he interfered in the match, but the distraction led to Styles retaining his belt. On the March 15 episode of Impact! Bischoff attempted to shave Mick Foley bald as a punishment for trying to help Jeff Jarrett in a handicap match the previous week, but was shaved bald himself, when Foley turned the tables on him.
At Lockdown Bischoff turned face by helping Team Hogan defeat Team Flair in the Lethal Lockdown match. The next months Bischoff worked with Hogan, Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe against Sting and Kevin Nash, who claimed that they knew that Bischoff and Hogan were up to something. During this time Abyss turned on Hogan and went on a rampage, which included attacking the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam to the point that he was forced to vacate the title.
All the while claiming that he was controlled by some entity, that was coming to TNA. After he manhandled TNA president Dixie Carter on the October 7 episode of Impact!, Bischoff presented Carter with the paperwork that would have Abyss fired after his match with Rob Van Dam at Bound for Glory, which she then proceeded to sign.
Return to WWE (2016–2018)
WWE released a DVD about Bischoff, with the documentary portions also airing on the WWE Network in 2016. Bischoff on March 21, 2017, was announced to induct Diamond Dallas Page into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31. On the 25th Anniversary of Raw on January 22, 2018, Bischoff made a guest appearance on the show, during a segment with other former Raw general managers.
Television production career
Through 2017, Bischoff, with actor Jason Hervey, ran his own production company, Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment, which primarily produced reality TV shows. The duo produced a live Girls Gone Wild pay-per-view event from Florida in 2003 with WWE and another pay-per-view about the Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle rally in 2004. They also executive produced the VH1 reality shows Scott Baio Is 45…and Single, Scott Baio Is 46…and Pregnant, I Want To Be a Hilton, and Confessions of a Teen Idol, along with the CMT show Billy Ray Cyrus…Home At Last.
Bischoff-Hervey Productions also produced a wrestling reality show called Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling in which ten celebrities were trained to wrestle and one celebrity is voted off weekly. Bischoff also appeared as one of the “judges” on the show. Bischoff helped produce Hulk Hogan’s Hulkamania tour to Australia in November 2009. Bischoff, also has a show in development with Food Network called “Food Fight” where pro wrestlers take on 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.
Championships and accomplishments
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Feud of the Year (1996) vs. Vince McMahon
- Feud of the Year (2002) vs. Stephanie McMahon
World Championship Wrestling
- WCW Hardcore Championship (1 time)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Best Non-Wrestler (2005)
Eric Bischoff Twitter
Eric Bischoff Instagram
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No f’n words…
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