Eric Bischoff

World Championship Wrestling (1991–2001)

Arrival and ascent to power (1991–1996)

In 1991, Bischoff joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as a C-show announcer, recognized by many as “B-dawg on the C-show”, debuting at The Great American Bash. As an announcer, Bischoff reported to producer Tony Schiavone and WCW's Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross. In 1993, after WCW Vice President of Wrestling Operations and marketing Bill Watts resigned from WCW, Bischoff went to TBS executive and WCW President Bill Shaw and WCW Executive 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's place. Schiavone remained a producer and commentator until WCW's demise, but Ross was granted his release from WCW and went to work for the WWF. Initially, Bischoff and Dhue worked together as partners, but frequently clashed over the direction of WCW.

In 1994, Bischoff was promoted from Executive Producer to Senior Vice President, putting him in charge of everything WCW. Dhue resigned, as did event manager Don Sandefeur and junior vice president Jim Barnett. Bischoff convinced Turner executives to better finance WCW in order to compete with the WWF. He moved WCW production to Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. Hulk Hogan, who was filming a show called Thunder in Paradise at Disney-MGM Studios, was approached by Bischoff and Ric Flair and signed to a contract with WCW. He also invested money in production values and increased the number of WCW pay-per-views (first seven a year, then 10, and then once a month). He also started a weekly live program on TNT, WCW Monday Nitro, that went directly against WWF's flagship Monday Night Raw. Bischoff remained an announcer on Nitro, regularly spoiling Raw results (as the latter show was not always aired live) to boost ratings. This created what became known amongst fans as the Monday Night War, as both WCW and WWF fought for viewers and in the process kick-started a new level of mainstream popularity for pro wrestling. The changes paid off, and in 1995, WCW turned a profit for the first time in WCW's history. By 1997, Bischoff's official job title was President of World Championship Wrestling.

New World Order (1996–1998)

In 1996, Bischoff signed WWF superstar Scott Hall, 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". Bischoff intentionally depicted the duo as WWF rebels who were not under contract to WCW. 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. The Outsiders expanded and became the New World Order (nWo) when perennial fan-favorite Hulk Hogan aligned himself with the Outsiders in July 1996.

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 83 consecutive weeks. During this era, Bischoff moved from his role as commentator and joined the nWo as a manager. His 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, Bischoff 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.

Downfall of WCW (1998–1999)

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. On April 13, 1998, WWF ended WCW's year and a half run on top of the ratings war. Despite losing in the ratings to WWF, WCW continued to post strong ratings, attendance, and PPV buyrates throughout 1998. In 1998, WCW built one of its most popular homegrown superstars in Bill Goldberg, and gave him the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on July 6, 1998, at the Georgia Dome in front of 39,919 people on Nitro.

In late 1998 he feuded with Ric Flair. Bischoff defeated Flair at Starrcade and the next night lost to Flair on Nitro.

In early 1999, Bischoff promoted Kevin Nash to head booker. Despite Goldberg drawing at the box office and doing three shows in December and January that did nearly a $1 million 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.

Throughout 1999, Bischoff reverted to focusing on aging WCW stars such as Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Savage, Sting, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Nash, Ric Flair, and Sid Vicious. In an effort to improve ratings, WCW also began to focus heavily on several celebrities such as Master P., Chad Brock, Megadeth, Dennis Rodman, and Kiss. One of the last deals Bischoff structured was a deal with the members of the rock band Kiss to have their own wrestling character known as The Kiss Demon.

By late 1999, WCW began losing around $5 million a month. Attendance, PPV buys and ratings were down significantly. On September 10, 1999, the decision was made to relieve Bischoff of power.

Replacement (1999–2000)

On September 10, 1999, Bischoff was relieved of his management position with WCW by Turner Sports chief Harvey Schiller. 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 side of the company with Brad Siegel handling the day-to-day operations). 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.

In April 2000, Bischoff returned as an on-air character alongside Russo to lead the heel faction The New Blood; Bischoff also worked on writing the shows with Russo during this time. He defeated Terry Funk for the WCW Hardcore Championship on June 6. Bischoff's last on-camera role in WCW was on the June 12, 2000 Nitro. He would exit WCW in July 2000 at Bash at the Beach, when Russo did a worked-shoot promo on Hulk Hogan.

Attempted purchase of WCW (2001)

On January 11, 2001, with WCW facing major financial woes, Siegel accepted Bischoff's offer to purchase WCW. Bischoff and Fusient briefly withdrew their offer when the WWF made an inquiry on WCW (due to the terms of a settlement, WWF had a right to bid on WCW's properties, should they ever be up for liquidation). When then-WWF broadcaster Viacom objected (fearing a WWF-owned show on a competing network), the Bischoff-Fusient consortium signed a new letter of intent.

However, the new head of Turner Broadcasting, Jamie Kellner then canceled all WCW programming due to losing money for several years from its television networks. WCW lost $60 million in 2000 alone. Kellner believed that wrestling did not fit the demographics of either TBS or TNT and would not be favorable enough to get the "right" advertisers to buy airtime (even though Thunder was the highest-rated show on TBS at the time). In the book NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW by Guy Evans, it is said that a key condition in WCW's purchase deal with Fusient was that Fusient wanted control over time slots on the TNT and TBS networks, regardless of whether these slots would show WCW programming or not. This influenced Kellner's decision to ultimately cancel WCW programming. With no network on which to air its programming, WCW was of little value to Fusient, whose offer depended on being able to continue to air WCW programming on the Turner networks. Bischoff stated that "it made absolutely no sense for us to do the deal under those circumstances." With WCW programming canceled (and Viacom subsequently no longer objecting), WCW's key assets (tape library, trademarks, and selected contracts) were purchased by the WWF in March 2001 for a substantially lower price (approximately US$3.5 million) than what had been offered.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2002–2007)

General Manager of Raw (2002–2005)

In 2002, Bischoff was hired by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, formerly WWF) to be the general manager of Raw. Although primarily an on-screen role, Bischoff had a wide range of contacts within WWE to whom he could pitch creative ideas. He debuted as the first Raw general manager on the July 15 episode of Raw. He resurrected his characteristic brand of smarminess with the general manager position, again playing the arrogant heel character he had employed as the nWo boss in WCW. During his debut on Raw, he told the audience about how he was president of WCW, creator of the nWo and how he forced Vince McMahon to change the ways he does business. Bischoff is in second place of the longest reigns as general manager in WWE history, with three years in total. Former rival and former general manager of SmackDown Theodore Long surpassed Bischoff's record with a combined number of six years. Bischoff's wrestling innovations in WWE included the "Raw Roulette" and the Elimination Chamber, as well as feuds with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shane McMahon, John Cena, SmackDown! general manager Stephanie McMahon, and former Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) owner Paul Heyman. On June 15 at Bad Blood, Bischoff appeared during a segment along with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mae Young where she stripped herself in the ring and shared a passionate kiss with Eric Bischoff and performed a bronco buster on Bischoff before being stunned by Austin. At Taboo Tuesday, Bischoff had his head shaved after failing to beat his (kayfabe) nephew Eugene. Bischoff then began a face turn after his head got shaved. He favored face wrestlers such as Randy Orton, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. By the end of 2004, Bischoff subsequently took a vacation after allowing Randy Orton's Survivor Series team to become general managers for up to four weeks with every member being the general manager once a week.

On the May 16, 2005 episode of Raw, Bischoff began a vendetta against an impending ECW revival, turning heel once again in the process. Bischoff later began a feud with John Cena (who was drafted to Raw in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery), for Cena's refusal to "play politics" in regards to the Anti-ECW Crusade and citing disdain for Cena's rapping and "thug nature". Bischoff made wrestlers such as Chris Jericho, Christian and Kurt Angle try to take the WWE Championship away from Cena. Following several months of Raw and SmackDown! invasions, Bischoff lost to SmackDown! general manager Theodore Long at Survivor Series after The Boogeyman helped Long beat Bischoff.

On the December 5 episode of Raw, Bischoff was (kayfabe) "fired" as general manager, when Cena body slammed him and Vince McMahon tossed him into a garbage truck – following a "trial" where his history of unscrupulous actions were listed – and had him driven out of the arena. Bischoff then sat out the remainder of the year and spent the start of 2006 writing a book that would become Controversy Creates Cash. Bischoff was against writing a wrestling book initially, as he believes "most are bitter, self-serving revisionist history at best—and monuments to bullshit at their worst."

Sporadic appearances and departure (2006–2007)

On September 25, 2006, Bischoff appeared on WWE television for the first time in close to a year, and after being brought into the ring by Jonathan Coachman, he proceeded to promote his recently finished book Controversy Creates Cash, giving a worked shoot on McMahon and WWE. During his segment, Bischoff stated, "Without Monday Nitro there would be no Monday Night Raw...without the nWo there would be no DX...and without Eric Bischoff there would be no Mr. McMahon". After this statement, Bischoff's microphone was immediately cut off, Jonathan Coachman's music played and he was escorted from the arena by security.

A few days later John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) conducted a four-part interview with Bischoff, further discussing his book on WWE.com. During the interview, Bischoff discussed various topics, such as his true feelings towards Lex Luger, his thoughts on ECW promoter Paul Heyman, his decision of giving Kevin Nash booking power, and his overall reaction to the Monday Night War. The book was released on October 17, 2006, and became a New York Times best seller.

Bischoff was chosen as the special guest referee for the D-Generation X (DX) versus Rated-RKO match at Cyber Sunday on November 5, with 60% of the vote. He then cheated DX out of the win, leaving Randy Orton and Edge the victors. The next night on Raw, Bischoff was reinstated as General Manager for one night only. During his time as the General Manager on Raw, he restarted matches if he did not like the outcome. He also got revenge on Maria for her statement made in his trial the year before by making her face Umaga, forced John Cena to "take the night off," and banned DX from the building. He restarted the match between Jeff Hardy and Johnny Nitro for the WWE Intercontinental Championship after Hardy won by disqualification. Bischoff restarted that match as a No Disqualification match, and Nitro took advantage of that using Melina to distract Hardy and striking him with the title belt. At the end of the show, DX interfered in the main event when Bischoff tried to help Edge and Randy Orton win the World Tag Team Championship from Ric Flair and Roddy Piper, and forced him to be humiliated by "Big Dick Johnson" as revenge for costing them their match the night before.

On March 5, 2007, Bischoff made a brief appearance on Raw in Phoenix, Arizona to give Vince McMahon his thoughts on the WrestleMania 23 match against Donald Trump. In August 2007, Bischoff's WWE contract expired. On December 10, 2007, Bischoff appeared on Raw for its 15th Anniversary Special, and was confronted by Chris Jericho, the man whom he fired on Raw on August 22, 2005.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2010–2014)

Immortal (2010–2012)

In October 2009, Bischoff helped negotiate a deal among Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Hulk Hogan, and himself. According to Bischoff, Hogan gave Bischoff the power to sign contracts on his behalf. He pointed that TNA only wanted Hogan, but Hogan wouldn't go to TNA without Bischoff. Bischoff also said that he went with Hogan to oversee his creative. He premiered alongside Hogan on the January 4, 2010, episode of 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's 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 Foley bald as a punishment for trying to help 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 Van Dam at Bound for Glory, which she then proceeded to sign.

At Bound for Glory, Bischoff turned heel with Hogan, as the two of them helped Jeff Hardy win the vacant TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Bischoff, Hogan and Hardy then aligned themselves with Abyss and Jarrett. On the following episode of Impact! it was revealed that Bischoff had tricked Carter and the paperwork she had signed a week earlier, were not to release Abyss, but to turn the company over to him and Hogan. Meanwhile, Bischoff's and Hogan's new stable, now known as Immortal, formed an alliance with Flair's Fortune stable. On the November 4 episode of Impact!, Bischoff took part in his first match in TNA, challenging the concussed Mr. Anderson to earn his shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, only for Matt Morgan to take his spot and beat Bischoff to become the number one contender. Carter returned on the November 25 episode of Reaction, informing Hogan and Bischoff that a judge had filed an injunction against the two on her behalf over not having signatory authority, indefinitely suspending Hogan from TNA. On January 31, 2011, at the tapings of the February 3 episode of Impact!, Fortune turned on Immortal, explaining that they were not going to let TNA suffer the same fate as WCW. Hogan, having won the court battle against Carter, returned to TNA on the March 3 episode of Impact!, declaring himself as the new owner of the promotion.

Sporadic WWE appearances (2016–present)

Bischoff inducted Diamond Dallas Page into the WWE Hall of Fame. 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 and on July 22, 2019, on the Raw Reunion.