Eric Bischoff On Why He Wouldn't Have Been "Real Excited" About The Undertaker In WCW

As seen in the video above, Eric Bischoff was doing a Q&A session on his 83 Weeks podcast, when the question arose, what would he have done creatively with The Undertaker if Taker had signed with WCW? Bischoff initially seemed reluctant to the idea, explaining how it would have been a large financial investment for a character they couldn't utilize the same, as WWE owns all trademarks to the Undertaker name. Bischoff also believes it's difficult booking larger athletes because certain emotions and scenarios become less believable with larger men.

"I don't know, he wouldn't have been the Undertaker and that's the biggest challenge right there," Bischoff explained. "Because you're spending so much money for a character that you can't have. So knowing that he wouldn't have been anything close to the Undertaker as a character, how could we have used him? I was never a big fan of really big guys. We had Kevin, we had Paul, and it's really hard creatively – we've touched on this before – booking guys that are that big. Because it's hard in a believable way to get sympathy on them. It's hard for them in a believable way to sell, unless you take a chainsaw to them or a bazooka. It's hard for them to be a good heel because it doesn't make any sense for a guy that big to be a chicken s–t. It's not believable."

Bischoff described his ideal organization of WCW, with the nWo predominantly taking over their Monday Nitro show and other superstars being featured on WCW Thunder. Bischoff theorized that Taker may have been successful on the WCW Thunder side of the equation, acting as a counter to Nash's large character on Monday Nitro.

"I know I wouldn't have been excited about hiring him," Bischoff said. "Not because he's not a super talented guy, but if you would have looked at our roster back then, where would he have fit? He was in WCW before, so, let's have fun with this – we'll use our imagination. Let's assume, hypothetically, the whole nWo/WCW storyline as I had it in my head would have played out the way I wanted it. nWo would have officially taken over Monday Nitro. Top to bottom, it would have been nWo's show. WCW would have been over on Thunder had it played out the way that I hoped for it. Because WCW and Mark Callous had previously had a relationship, I would have probably tried to play off that. I would probably would try to bring Undertaker/Mark Callous in on the WCW side of the equation to kinda be a counter to Kevin Nash, so to speak. So that might have worked, but other than something like that, I don't know. It would have been tough."

You can listen to the full interview in the video above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.