During the latest episode of his “ARN” podcast, Arn Anderson commented on WCW’s downfall, Eric Bischoff almost buying the company, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On WCW’s downfall: “There were backstage rumblings during this period of time prior to Russo – your top guys who weren’t happy with Russo and creative, my understanding was there were some closed-door meetings and disagreements and some guys just got sent home, which you think would be a punishment. But since they had huge guaranteed contracts, it turned out to be a blessing and a reward to those guys. You have to understand, when you have a guy, whoever it may be – Flair, Sting, Kevin Nash, or someone that’s not on the show – you start asking questions.
“If you’re trying to save your ass and put the fire out and trying to rebuild something, you’ve gotta ask why those guys aren’t there contributing. That was the first thing that set off red flags with me. You’ve gotta have your players. This is your family, this is your livelihood, and if a company that size goes out of business, that makes it now pretty much a monopoly. And the word monopoly scares the piss out of me when it’s used for anything except a board game. Monopoly is a bad word.”
On Eric Bischoff nearly buying the company: “I think it was so bad at that time, and the words “being sold” or we’re just not gonna air the show – that’s doomsday talk. I think going back in my mind, I was trying to somehow put that out of my mind. This can’t be happening, and if I shut my eyes, it’ll go away. And it wasn’t going away. When we heard about Eric and the investors buying the company, that at least meant the company was gonna survive. Whether or not I would’ve been one of the ones to survive with it, who knows? But even a chance, a shot in the dark was better than no hope at all.”
On rumors that Vince Russo was a plant from WWE: “A lot of people thought that. Believe it or not, they sure did. I guess it was probably because the fact that – if you’re in that chair, and this is just me. I’m not qualified to be in that chair and be responsible for a show and company that big. But to me, no matter what a talent had to say about my running of the company or disagreeing with the way I was going or the way I was using talent, I would’ve figured out a way to patch the holes and make it work.”
“One thing I can do is recognize talent and talent that can make a contribution, or I can go out and watch a talent three weeks in a row and tell you if he’s getting over. I’m able to spot that. With all those guys going home, and then you send Russo home – this thing is about to crack open. I think most of the thoughts and conversations that he was sent down to sabotage the company was because of his style of writing. Huge buckets of blood getting dumped from the ceiling on guys and just the wacky characters that he used. These weird names – General Rection and all that stuff. Having him sent down by Vince to kill the company, that was a little far-fetched, but there were very real conversations that it was a possibility.”
On WCW going out of business: “Well, for me, I was having to look at this – I couldn’t sprinkle any magic dust on it and I couldn’t put a new coat of paint or rationalize it. For me, it was a period of my life that the companies I really loved – Jim Crockett Promotions that morphed into WCW, and then it became WCW – I saw that it was on fire, and the fire trucks weren’t gonna make it in time. I was the guy that took the call and was standing in front of the house, and it’s three-fourths on fire. The guy calls from dispatch and says, ‘Sorry, Arn, we’re still 45 minutes away with the firetrucks. We’re not gonna make it in time.’
“There’s that moment where inside your head, you go, ‘This is over.’ The business as I know it is over, this company is probably gonna be done. I can no longer wrestle no matter how much I will myself to do it, I’m just physically not able. It was a really down, depressing time for me. I was looking at all the jobs, all the dreams, all the young guys – when that company goes down, at least half the jobs in the industry are gonna go down the sink with it. To sit there and have to watch, it’s like somebody is holding my head straight and saying, ‘Watch the monitor. There’s the future. It doesn’t look very bright.’ Not a good feeling.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
