Eric Bischoff recently reflected during a recent episode of the 83 Weeks podcast that he had a conversation with The Big Show at the time where he encouraged Big Show to take WWE’s offer. Here is what he had to say (transcript courtesy of Wrestling Inc):
“I didn’t mind when Paul Wight came to me and said WWE offered him $1 million a year for ten years,” Bischoff said, “I was like dude, you need to take that. You need to go now, lemme give you a ride to the airport.
“That was then, Paul’s obviously matured. Paul was very young at the time and was going through a lot of other stuff. Paul’s clearly gone on to be somebody you know, noteworthy in the industry. But at that time, man, he just wasn’t putting a lot into it.”
Also on the podcast, Bischoff spoke about an incentive process WCW initiated at the time. The initiative allowed ECW to pay wrestlers more and also help alleviate an issue they had with talent bringing in doctor’s notes, which he had to accept regardless of if he felt they were genuine.”
