Eric Bischoff Describes His Visceral Reaction To WWE Production Meetings

In an appearance on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, Eric Bischoff was asked to describe his perspective of WWE production meetings during his tenure as Creative Director of Smackdown. While he admitted that it works for what WWE does, Eric Bischoff revealed he was no fan of the meetings, believing them to be too long and ultimately pointless when WWE owner and chairman Vince McMahon tore up the show's script later in the day.

"My first visceral reaction is 'this is a fu**ing waste of a lot of time,'" Bischoff said. "You do not need all of those people in one large meeting. And when they're going through a format, I don't give a shit. I don't need to know when a graphic is going to hit. The guys in the truck need to know that, they should have their own production meeting. And to spend two hours going over that stuff that you really only needed about an hour tops, forty-five minutes if you're focused — to get through, and then to tie up all of that staff who are not doing other things that they could actually be doing, that actually could make difference. By the way, we worked on all that stuff during the week before we got to TV. It isn't like this is the first time anybody has ever seen this shit, right? So then you sit through that two-hour, three-hour production meeting, whatever the hell it was. Oh by the way, while you're sitting there starving because you haven't had lunch yet, you're watching Hunter and Vince pounding down filet mignon and sushi while you're all sitting there, sucking down warm coffee in a fucking Styrofoam cup. I thought that was a real waste of time.

"And then here's the best part. Everybody does get to eat lunch, they go off and start doing the things everybody thought they were assigned to do at the end of that prolongated luncheon for the McMahon family and its extended clan. And then you find out 'oh (ripping sounds), we're tearing this shit up and we're going to start over again at 5 o'clock.' And we're not talking about 'let's take this match and move it from segment 3 to segment 6' or 'somebody got hurt in the back, so let's rebook another match and find a way to explain it and make sense of it.' It's not that it's 'we're blowing it up!'

"Renee, I don't know if you've had this experience, but there were times, fifteen minutes before showtime, and we're rewriting scenes. Here's the other side of that, because I'm grateful for that experience and I know it sounds like I'm slamming on them. But I'm not, I'm just telling the truth. You asked me how it made me feel, I don't know how it made everyone else feel. They may have dug it, they may have felt it was valuable. I'm just telling you from my perspective because I kept thinking 'what would I do if I was taking this over? First thing I would do is change this meeting format, because what a waste of tons of freakin' time.' But let's be honest; it's working for them. It's a tough formula for people to adapt to, it's tough for someone like me because of the way I think and the way I prefer to work, it's tough on talent. But it's working."

Later, in an unprompted moment, Eric Bischoff revealed what he would do if he was asked to come back to work for WWE in the same role. The answer would be a resounding no, no matter what the money offer would be.

"I do know one thing," Bischoff said. "If Bruce (Prichard) calls me after the show hits the air and says 'hey, do you want to go back to Connecticut?' I know what the answer is going to be. And I don't think there's enough money anymore. You can only be so happy with money."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription