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Eric Bischoff named to the WWE Hall of Fame
The WWE Hall of Fame has announced the second member of the Class of 2021, and it is Eric Bischoff, the former President of World Championship Wrestling.
Bischoff first worked in wrestling as an announcer in the American Wrestling Association, and would be hired to announce for WCW, albeit on lower-rated shows. In 1993, He shockingly won the role of Executive Vice President with WCW, and two years later, he would launch Monday Night Nitro, to run in direct competition with the WWE.
Bischoff used the resources of Ted Turner, to not only sign Hulk Hogan, but Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, and Nitro would beat Raw in the ratings 83 weeks in a row. As this was occurring, Bischoff honed his skills on camera, and played a dastardly heel authoritarian figure. Bischoff showed marketing skills, cross promoting with other programs, and he became almost as well-known as Vince McMahon.
Ratings would sag, and a burned-out Bischoff was fired in 1999, but he would be asked back as his replacement, Vince Russo, was struggling. He left again in July of 2000, and WCW continued to plummet. Bischoff made a pitch to buy the wrestling company, but once they lost television, there was no reason for Bischoff to pursue ownership. WCW would be sold to McMahon at a steal, who acquired the back catalogue and trademarks.
Hell froze over in 2002, when Bischoff appeared on WWE television as the kayfabe General Manager of Raw. He held that role for three years, and was largely praised for his performance. Bishoff also later worked for TNA.
Bischoff last worked for the WWE in 2019 when he had a brief run as the Executive Director of Smackdown. He has since made appearances for All Elite Wrestling.
It was also announced last week that there will be a special that will include the 2020 and 2021 Classes. The 2020 Class comprised of the New World Order (Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac), John Bradshaw Layfield, the Bella Twins and Jushin “Thunder” Liger.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Eric Bischoff for his impending induction.
More WWE HOF Inductors announced
Both Dallas Page and Eric Bischoff cut their teeth in the wrestling industry in the American Wrestling Association in the last 80’s. The two, though not together would both have failed tryouts in the then named World Wrestling Federation but would find themselves in World Championship Wrestling, Bischoff as a low level announcer and Page as a mid card manager, though the two friends would find themselves ascend through the 1990’s in much larger positions.
As Bischoff gained charge of WCW, Page would slowly morph into one of the top workers and would feud with Eric Bischoff and the New World Order, even so much as being on opposing tag teams on a WCW Pay per View.
In the case of Nattie Neidhart, she an on-screen pairing with Phoenix in a “pin-up string” tag team. Both Neidhart and Phoenix were precursors to the “Women’s Revolution” and were both accomplished performers in the ring and were physically stronger than their peers.
This announcement adds to Jim Cornette as the inductor for the Rock and Roll Express, John Cena as Kurt Angle’s inductor, the A.P.A. as Teddy Long’s inductor and Ricky Steamboat inducting Rick Rude.
Eric Bischoff
It is easy to say that because he had access to Ted Turner’s resources he was able to mount an offensive against the WWE. Just because you have the resources doesn’t mean you know what to do with it.