Eric Aaron Bischoff was born on May 27,1955 and is an American television producer, professional wrestling booker, and performer.
68 Facts About Eric Bischoff
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Eric Bischoff is best known for serving as Executive Producer and later Senior Vice President of World Championship Wrestling and subsequently, the on-screen General Manager of WWE's Raw brand.
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Eric Bischoff was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.
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Eric Bischoff wrote an autobiography, titled Controversy Creates Cash, which was released in 2006 under WWE Books, and a second book, titled Grateful, which was released in 2022.
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In 1989, Eric Bischoff would become an on-air interviewer and host of the AWA until the company folded in 1991.
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Eric Bischoff believed they thought 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.
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Eric Bischoff said he'd looked up just in time to see wrestler The Sheik's head come breaking through the wall.
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Eric Bischoff said despite this, the Sheik continued the fight while a stunned Bischoff looked on.
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In 1991, Bischoff joined World Championship Wrestling as a C-show announcer, debuting at The Great American Bash.
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In 1993, after WCW Vice President of Wrestling Operations Bill Watts resigned from the company, Eric 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.
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Ross and Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates Eric Bischoff was hired in Watts' place.
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In 1994, Eric Bischoff was promoted from Executive Producer to Senior Vice President, putting him in charge of everything WCW.
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Eric Bischoff convinced Turner executives to better finance WCW in order to compete with the WWF.
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Eric Bischoff moved WCW production to Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.
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Eric Bischoff invested money in production values and increased the number of WCW pay-per-views.
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Eric Bischoff started a weekly live program on TNT, WCW Monday Nitro, that went directly against WWF's flagship Monday Night Raw.
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Eric Bischoff remained an announcer on Nitro, regularly spoiling Raw results to boost ratings.
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In 1996, Eric Bischoff signed WWF superstar Scott Hall, better known at the time as "Razor Ramon".
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Eric Bischoff intentionally depicted the duo as WWF rebels who were not under contract to WCW.
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In early 1999, Eric Bischoff promoted Kevin Nash to head booker.
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One of the last deals Eric Bischoff structured was a deal with the members of the rock band Kiss to have their own wrestling character known as The Kiss Demon.
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On September 10,1999, Eric Bischoff was relieved of his management position with WCW by Turner Sports chief Harvey Schiller.
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Eric Bischoff was replaced with WCW Vice President of Strategic Planning Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President.
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On January 11,2001 with WCW facing major financial woes, Siegel accepted Eric Bischoff's offer to purchase the company.
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Eric Bischoff briefly served as President of Matrats, a youth-based wrestling company.
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In 2002, Eric Bischoff was hired by World Wrestling Entertainment to be the general manager of Raw.
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Eric Bischoff 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.
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Eric Bischoff is in second place of the longest reigns as general manager in WWE history, with three years in total.
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At Taboo Tuesday Eric Bischoff had his head shaved after failing to beat his nephew Eugene.
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Eric Bischoff then began a face turn after his head got shaved.
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Eric Bischoff favored face wrestlers such as Randy Orton, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho.
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Eric Bischoff subsequently took a vacation after allowing Randy Orton's team to become General Managers for up to four weeks with every member being the general manager once a week.
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Eric Bischoff began favoring heels again after then-WWE Champion John Cena, who was drafted to Raw in June 2005, refused to participate in Eric Bischoff's vendetta against an impending ECW revival.
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Eric Bischoff then sat out the remainder of the year and spent the start of 2006 writing a book that would become Controversy Creates Cash.
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Eric Bischoff then cheated DX out of the win, leaving Randy Orton and Edge the victors.
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The next night on Raw, Eric Bischoff was reinstated as General Manager for one night only.
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Eric Bischoff 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.
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Eric Bischoff restarted the match between Jeff Hardy and Johnny Nitro for the WWE Intercontinental Championship after Hardy won by disqualification.
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Eric 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.
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On March 5,2007, Eric Bischoff made a brief appearance on Raw in Phoenix, Arizona to give Vince McMahon his thoughts on the WrestleMania 23 match against Donald Trump.
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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.
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In October 2009, Eric Bischoff helped negotiate a deal among Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Hulk Hogan, and himself.
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At Lockdown Eric Bischoff turned face by helping Team Hogan defeat Team Flair in the Lethal Lockdown match.
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The next months Eric Bischoff worked with Hogan, Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe against Sting and Kevin Nash, who claimed that they knew that Eric Bischoff and Hogan were up to something.
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At Bound for Glory Eric Bischoff turned heel with Hogan, as the two of them helped Jeff Hardy win the vacant TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
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Garett won the match for his team by pinning Eric Bischoff, forcing his father out of TNA in the process.
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In October 2013, Eric Bischoff was sent home by TNA to sit out the remainder of his contract, which expired in early 2014.
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Eric Bischoff inducted Diamond Dallas Page into the WWE Hall of Fame.
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In June 2019, WWE announced that Eric Bischoff would be the executive director of SmackDown, and part of Eric Bischoff's role is to act as an intermediary between WWE and Fox executives due to his background in the television industry, but he was replaced on October 15 by Bruce Prichard, and with immediate effect he had left the company.
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In June 2020, Eric Bischoff further reflected on his departure by saying "it was on me" and backs his profession by blaming his failure to adapt to the new job for why his tenure was so short and described the problem as being more of a "chemistry issue" than anything else.
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Eric Bischoff pointed out that he had little creative control over SmackDown but was more of an overseer for Vince, who has the most say in the company's creative direction.
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Eric Bischoff appeared on the December 27 episode of Raw, as the officiator for the renewal of The Miz and Maryse's vows, and on the January 21,2022 episode of SmackDown, during a backstage segment with Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville.
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Eric Bischoff referred to his appearance as a cameo and he has not signed with the promotion.
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Eric Bischoff again appeared on Dynamite on March 3,2021 as part of an Inner Circle press conference.
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On May 28,2021, Eric Bischoff returned to Dynamite to host a party for the Inner Circle.
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Eric Bischoff appeared as one of the "judges" on the show.
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In November 2009, Eric Bischoff helped produce Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania: Let The Battle Begin tour to Australia.
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Eric Bischoff, had 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.
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In 2013, along with partners Jason Hervey and Ike McFadden, Eric Bischoff formed the online gaming company MX Digital.
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Eric Bischoff develops and distributes online and mobile celebrity-themed games in Europe and North America.
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Eric Bischoff 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.
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Eric Bischoff has homes in Cody, Wyoming; Scottsdale, Arizona; Stamford, Connecticut; and Los Angeles, California with his wife, Loree.
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On May 5,2011, Eric Bischoff announced that he was starting a brewing company in Cody, Wyoming.
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On July 27,2016, Eric Bischoff premiered his first podcast show, Eric Bischoff on Wrestling, on MLW Radio.
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Eric Bischoff is a longtime fan of Vermont-based jamband Phish and collects live recordings of their concerts.
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Eric Bischoff is one of the most polarizing and controversial figures in professional wrestling history.
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Eric Bischoff was instrumental in the creation of the New World Order, which played a major role in WCW's success and peak during the Monday Night Wars.
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Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, the authors of the book titled The Death of WCW, were critical of many of the decisions Eric Bischoff made as head of WCW and believe that he contributed to the decline of the company.