On a recent edition of his “83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff discussed bringing in NBA legend Dennis Rodman to WCW in the late 1990s, including Rodman & Hollywood Hogan defeating Diamond Dallas Page & Karl Malone at Bash at the Beach 1998.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On DDP bringing in Karl Malone: “Dallas went to that game without intending to develop a relationship with Karl Malone. He just was at the game and made the connection. And I don’t know, man. I don’t know how much time you spent around DDP, but it will happen once he gets his mind fixed on something. And you know, much like Hogan — and this is not a negative thing. This is how people become stars along the way. But you know, Dallas certainly recognized what a cool opportunity this could be if I could get Dennis involved. We’ve already got Rodman. ‘Oh, my God, this could be great.’ DDP put that whole thing together. He established the relationship with Karl and probably floated it well; I know he did because shortly after that game, I’m on a plane flying myself out to Salt Lake City, and before I knew it, I was having breakfast with Karl Malone, his wife, and Dallas Page and we’re working out the details of his deal. And again, one of the easiest ones I’ve ever done. Car was already in, you know.”
On The Tonight Show angle: “Gary Constantine was the executive producer of The Tonight Show, still a good friend of mine. We don’t stay in touch as much as we should, but good guy. We just hit it off long before that. And I don’t know if Gary called me or if I called Gary. By then, I probably called Gary and said, ‘Hey, here’s what we got. What do you think?’ And Leno was in, Gary was in, and off we went. It was again, so easy. They took no work. I didn’t have to have my PR team work on it and have to go through the typical process. Simple, easy, and effective.”
On whether there was a personal amnesty between Malone and Rodman: “Oh, I don’t think so. Karl was a pretty laid-back guy, and so was Dennis. I think there was a lot of mutual respect there. They may be two opposite personalities, you know, Karl Malone told me at the time that he loves semi trucks, tractor trailers. I think he had a farm. Was it Arkansas, where he grew up? I think it was in Arkansas, maybe Alabama. I can’t remember where Karl grew up; he still had a farm there. He loved being on his tractor. He loved farming. He loved driving his semis. He had a couple of them like you. You collect cars, Conrad. He collects semis.”
