Eric Bischoff was fired by WWE earlier this week, less than four months after being hired as Executive Directory of SmackDown. The latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter has some insights from Dave Meltzer’s backstage sources at the company, and they don’t paint a flattering picture.
The most damning quote pretty much covers it:
“‘Eric had absolutely no vision, and once we were headed into FOX, everything was falling through the cracks,’ said one WWE official. ‘He messed up multiple times with FOX. Eric also had no stamina for the rigors of the job.’”
Several current WWE employees who’d worked with Bischoff during his time with TNA in the first half of the decade were said to be shocked by his hiring and predicted he wouldn’t last working for Vince McMahon. This was seemingly confirmed when he arriving to WWE headquarters in July unfamiliar with the current roster and industry trends. Wrestling Observer Radio’s Bryan Alvarez claimed earlier this week:
“I heard that he just didn’t know anybody. He didn’t know any of the talent. He didn’t go out of his way to learn about anything. He would leave and nobody could get ahold of him. I heard zero, zero good things about Eric Bischoff when he was doing whatever he was doing, I don’t even know what he was doing.”
The “nobody could get ahold of him” issue is covered as an example of the 64 year old’s lack of “stamina”.
McMahon is notorious for his round the clock schedule, and creative meetings can start late in the evening and run until 3 a.m. Bischoff stuck to a more conventional work day, heading out at 7 p.m. each night for dinner with his wife, and turning his cell phone off when he left the office.
All of this led the conversation behind-the-scenes to be about how the company would handle his seemingly inevitable departure after the high-profile announcement of his hiring. We found out the answer to that on Tuesday.
Bischoff is replaced by Bruce Prichard, who’s been serving as Vince’s right-hand since being hired at the beginning of the year. He’s expected to continue running SmackDown along with former Raw head writer Ed Koskey - something it sounds like they were doing even when Eric was there.
Worth noting that there’s long-standing animosity between Bischoff and Meltzer. But The Observer’s reporting on his time at and departure from WWE lines up with what’s been said by Sports Illustrated and others.
Overall, it’s hard to not think Eric was hired without much thought beyond that he was a name McMahon believed would impress shareholders. When neither he nor WWE had much interest in developing his role beyond that, Bischoff made an easy scapegoat for SmackDown’s quick ratings drop.
Eric already has an appearance lined up for Starrcast IV the weekend of Nov. 9. We’ll likely hear some of his side of the story then.