Eric Bischoff On Booking Roman Reigns, Texting Vince McMahon After Watching His DVD, "Highspotitis"
On episode 125 of The Ross Report, Eric Bischoff discussed a number of topics including his recently released DVD, Eric Bischoff: Sports Entertainment's Most Controversial Figure, how he would approach booking Roman Reigns, and the future of professional wrestling.
According to Bischoff, he was hesitant about working with WWE to produce his new DVD in the beginning, as he was skeptical about how he would be portrayed by the company.
"I was tentative at first because, as we all know, history is written by the victors and WWE has their own point of view about history, as they should. And we've all heard it. We've all seen it. But I was a little reluctant to just kind of completely open up and particularly bringing in my personal life to the extent that I did and my family and not having any control at all over anything, just hoping for the best and hoping that it would be a well balanced and thoughtful documentary and it was more than I could have hoped for. I think the WWE and the entire team that worked on the project really made an effort to produce something that was a little different than what the audience has seen before, at least when it comes to my career, so I texted Vince [McMahon] after I saw it, the final cut, and told him that I was both very proud and very grateful that they produced it because it's something that'll live, it'll be around long after I am."
On the topic of how he would book Reigns, Bischoff claimed that he would like to think that he would have listened to the fans. In Bischoff's opinion, professional wrestling should be booked in a manner that caters to fans while feeling organic.
"I'd like to think that what I would do is I would watch the reaction, much like I used to do when I'd sit up in the stands, behind the curtain, kind of find the cheapest seat in the house and just try to feel like a fan is, I would sit back and I would try to watch it and then I would react to it, but I would react to it in a very seamless way that felt organic and natural as possible and I would let the story and character go where the story and character needed to go based on the kind of social interaction that I was seeing even if it was not the direction I wanted to go in in the first place. You have to adjust. At some point, you've got to go, 'okay, I wanted to go left, but I kind of need to go right,' but I'd do it slowly and gradually and make it feel organic."
While Bischoff believes that some form of high spot performance art has become popular recently in the world of professional wrestling, the former Executive Vice President of WCW proclaimed that the future of the genre is still bright.
"When we reach that point where all that 'highspotitis' as I like to call it, has kind of come and gone, because that's what's en vogue right now. Everybody wants to see that crazy crap. It doesn't matter if there's a story. It doesn't matter if it makes sense. They just want to see Cirque du Soleil. That'll run its course and it always comes back to story. So here's where I think the future is bright: when it comes back to story, and it will, and when we've adjusted to the fact that our big time characters don't need to be 6'6" [and] 350 lbs., you're going to find a lot more talent that can deliver because they won't be doing six hurricanranas in a row and taking 15 dropkicks to the skull and getting up and doing a backflip. I mean, they won't be doing that anymore because that will have run its course. Look, everything comes back to story. Shakespeare is still Shakespeare because story rules. It'll come back to that."
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Source: The Ross Report