Eric Bischoff, speaking on a recent episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast, discussed his admiration for LA Knight’s character work and reflected on the importance of wrestlers discovering their unique personas, drawing parallels to Steve Austin’s transformation into “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. He began,
“I love it. And I’m really interested in it. First of all, I think he’s a great performer. And full disclosure, I don’t sit down and watch a lot of wrestling and I haven’t seen a lot of Knight’s work. I have seen a lot of it. Social media clips after the fact. I joined. You know, he’s got a following. I think it’s called the ‘Yeah Following.’ Whatever it is. I signed up, brother. I’m on social media. I follow them. I dig what he’s doing. I dig his character work. I think it’s intriguing. And what I find most intriguing about it, again, because of what matters to me as a quote-unquote wrestling fan. It is the business of it. And in this case. This guy’s been around for a minute. He didn’t just break out. He just didn’t come up through and through the performance center. He didn’t come up off the end. This guy’s been at it for a long time. Yeah, and he found his character. And isn’t it interesting what happens? Steve Austin did the same thing. He went from being ‘The Ringmaster’ to ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin because he found Steve, and I had a conversation with him on his podcast. We dug into that pretty deeply.”
Reflecting on Austin finding the ‘Stone Cold’ character, and highlighting the common denominator among some of the greatest characters in professional wrestling history, Bischoff continued,
“Steve found ‘Stone Cold.’ Steve Austin: What became ‘Stone Cold?’ Steve Austin found that part of his character while he was in WCW because he had the freedom to do it, and he didn’t. He didn’t have a gimmick at the time, so he just turned up the volume on the things that just felt right to him. And that became Stone Cold ‘Steve Austin’ When ‘The Ringmaster’ shit the bed, that was, you’re going to be “Hey, pal, you’re going to be ‘The Ringmaster.” You need a gimmick. Name The Ringmaster. Oh. Flopped. And that gave Steve the window and the opportunity to become Stone Cold Steve Austin, a character that he really discovered in WCW and then went on to refine and build upon in WWE. And I love that kind of… I love to watch that and study and study. It’s the wrong way to say it. But I love following that because so often I think, “the best characters are the ones who are able to find that aspect of themselves that they can build upon.” So those characters feel genuine and real.”
Eric Bischoff commended LA Knight’s journey as a message to the wrestling industry, stressing the significance of identifying character traits that made a wrestler unique. He also underscored the potential for success when a wrestler’s persona felt authentic and distinct. He said,
“And to see a guy like Knight who has been around for 20 years in the business? How many times? Yeah. How many times have you heard me say? Probably too often, I’m sure. But other than Goldberg and Rock, how many guys really make it? To where Knight is now. How many of those people make it who haven’t been in a business for at least ten years? Very f**king a few of them. And to see, to see him, Knight, reach this level of success at this stage in his career because he just found that character that just fits like a glove. I love it. Part of it is the reason I love it is because it should send a message to everybody in any wrestling company or even on the independent scene. If you can find that aspect of your character that you can build upon, that makes you unique. The odds of you becoming successful are far greater than just going out there and doing crazy shit, setting yourself on fire, and doing things like everybody else does. I just love it. It’s good for business, and it’s certainly good for LA Knight. I don’t even know him. I don’t think I’ve ever met him. Maybe I have. I don’t know. But I’d like to meet him, shake his hand because I think he’s a great example of what can be in the wrestling business.”
You can check out the latest episode of 83 Weeks here.
