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Eric Bischoff Discusses Latest WWE Hiring and Departure: “I Was More Relieved Than Disappointed”

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Wrestling personality Eric Bischoff discusses his latest WWE run and departure on a Patreon exclusive edition of the 83 weeks podcast. The former Executive Director of SmackDown begins by recapping the events leading up to him getting the job, which included a huge move from his home in Wyoming to the corporate headquarters in Stamford.

I didn’t think about it enough. I had to do some internal inventory and make sure that I was mentally and emotionally prepared to make a change as drastic as picking up, moving all my sh*t from Wyoming … not all of it. I wasn’t going to sell my house. I wasn’t going to sell my furniture. Because I suspected that there was a good chance that it would be a short-term relationship. I didn’t think it was gonna be quite as short-term as it WAS, but in my own mind I put kind of a two-year ticker on it.

Bischoff reveals that Vince McMahon alerted him early that he was not being brought in for a creative position, but to oversee the entire process.

Not being involved in the creative, that was one thing that Vince made clear to me. He was like, ‘I’m not hiring you to come in here and do creative. I’m bringing you in to oversee that process. I didn’t realize how significant of a change [it would be] going from where I had been living for twenty years and what I had been doing for the last twenty years, to jumping into a machine. And make no mistake about it, WWE is an amazing machine.

As things began to not work out for Bischoff, he admits that being let go was actually a relief. He also commends Raw Executive Director Paul Heyman for being a “rock star.”

Other people were managing it just fine,” Eric said. “Paul Heyman is a f*cking rock star! I gained more respect for Paul Heyman in the four short months I was with WWE than I had ever had in my life. He really is a machine. And a very talented one at that. Not just because he can endure it, and overcome the challenges of it, but very, very creative guy. I knew about six weeks in, eight weeks in, it just wasn’t going to work out. I knew I wasn’t fitting and it wasn’t a secret. It just wasn’t right,” he went on to add. “Vince wanted it to work. I believe that. I absolutely believe that. There was no reason for him to set me up this way. The opportunity that he gave me was amazing.

He adds that he was a bit disappointed for not living up to expectation, but understands that he didn’t fit the system.

I knew it. Vince knew it. We both knew it. That’s why when it was time for them to let me go, I was more relieved than disappointed. I was disappointed because I didn’t live up to Vince’s expectations. I had to fit in the system and I wasn’t able to do it in the timeline it needed to be done.

You can sign up for Patreon and listen to the full podcast here. (H/T and transcribed by Pro Wrestling Sheet)

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