Eric Bischoff On Lance Storm Not Making It In WCW: "He Didn’t Know How To Be A Character"
On the latest episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about the WCW SuperBrawl Revenge pay per view in 2001. Bischoff talked about Lance Storm, who was on the card and faced Ernest Miller in a match, and stated that Storm had no charisma. He detailed his issues with Storm in WCW and highlighted the things he could've done better.
"Lance Storm never got to the 7 and a half minute mark of his 15 minute of fame opportunity," Bischoff said. "He just didn't. A perfect example of why he didn't is because he never understood heat. Lance Storm didn't know how to deliver dialogue, he didn't know how to be a character.
"Is Lance Storm a good technical wrestler? Absolutely. Did he have an ounce of charisma? That's why he was never able to expire the 15 minute clock for fame, he only got to 7 and a half minutes because he just didn't have it."
Bischoff continued to talk about how WCW had a major impact on WWE to this day. He noted how he was the originator of attacking the 18-49 television viewership demographic that is cited with the Wednesday Night War between NXT and AEW today.
"They made their shift to what they call the Attitude Era, which is what I call the Nitro era," Bischoff said. "Then started targeting the 18-49 demo[graphic]. We still hear today, the peripheral media focusing on that 18-49 demo. Well guess what, who started that? That would be me with Nitro when I realized I couldn't compete with the WWF as they were targeting kids 2-11, I had to move to 18-49 [demographic]."
Bischoff also said that Vince McMahon jumped on the WCW bandwagon by targeting the 18-49 demographic. He said WCW was really screwed when that happened because WWE was able to do it in a bigger and better way.
"When WWF, Vince McMahon woke up in 1997 and realized he could no longer lead the way with his formula," Bischoff said. "He had to jump on the bandwagon that was created for him by yours truly on the team at Nitro. But when he did it, he did it in a big, powerful way and it worked. That audience that was a Nitro audience, that male 18-49 audience that we owned threw 95, 96, 97, up until the middle or end of 98, we owned that audience.
"That audience then went, nah were no longer buying the WCW thing and Nitro thing, we like what they're doing over here better. That shift of audience, that audience that Nitro really owned and controlled for a number of years, they grabbed their remote and they went and never came back.
Bischoff noted how impactful WCW's success and failures were on the wrestling business. He mentioned how the rise and fall of the company should be something that's always looked back on and studied to this day for all wrestling companies.
"I think we should study it," Bischoff said. "There are a lot of lessons, great lessons and not so great lessons, success' and failures that can be applied and learned from to this day. By WWE and by AEW and by IMPACT Wrestling and by anybody else that wants to compete in this genre on a major level. There are lessons to be learned.
"As objective as I can be, I love being able to step back with a much clearer perspective, the decisions, choices and strategies that worked and those that didn't work. Learning from the ones that didn't work is a more valuable opportunity than learning from the ones that did."
Bischoff also noted the time he put into watching ECW. Bischoff said there was never a reason to watch their show and nothing from it impacted WCW.
"Zero, which was consistent with the amount of time I spent thinking about ECW throughout my career," Bischoff said. "I knew it existed, I'm not shitting on it, whatever happened or didn't happen in ECW didn't affect my plans in any way shape or form so it wasn't something that required any of my attention."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.