Eric Bischoff On Why TNA Hired Him, His Responsibilities With TNA

Eric Bischoff is most known for his time running WCW. However, Bischoff also was in charge of TNA creative. On the heels of his new position with WWE, Bischoff spoke about his time with TNA on After 83 Weeks.

"It morphed," Bischoff stated. "When I was first hired by TNA, the Carters, in particular, didn't want me, they didn't want Eric Bischoff on the payroll, they didn't want anything to do with me. They wanted Hulk Hogan. They challenge they had is Hulk Hogan knew there was nobody in TNA to find their ass with both hands and a compass when it came to creative. So, he wasn't willing to join TNA unless he had someone there that was watching over, at least, his creative."

Bischoff referred to his hiring as a 'Hulk Hogan tax.' Over time though, as Hogan became more used within the company, Bischoff's role expanded.

"I did have a lot of responsibility," Bischoff exclaimed. "Because, everything TNA did once they hired Hulk Hogan, all centered around Hulk Hogan. All of a sudden, I went from, 'Okay, I will oversee Hulk Hogan's creative,' to holy s–t, everything that is going on is Hulk Hogan related and I became more involved in creative than I thought I would. Then I started liking it and throwing myself more into it."

Even though he enjoyed working in TNA creative, Bischoff quickly realized there were problems. Those problems did not take away from the things he enjoyed.

"Over the period of about six months or a year, I started looking around the room and Vince Russo wasn't one of them that really knew what they were doing," Bischoff exasperated. "What started out as a Hulk Hogan tax... it became around 2013, I was running creative with Bruce Prichard. A lot of things came out of TNA that I really liked."

You may listen to the full episode above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit After 83 Weeks with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.