During a recent episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff commented on if he ever thought TNA Wrestling could compete with WWE, the TNA Open Fight Night and Gut Check concepts, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the TNA Open Fight Night and Gut Check concepts: “They were kind of similar in a way. The difference, and I don’t know that the sensibility that I’m about to try to explain ever made it to the screen. Let’s face it, no matter how much sense something makes on paper or to the person whose idea it was, if the audience doesn’t see it, then it’s not true. In your head, you could go, ‘The reason we are doing this is because of this.’ For example, Open Fight Night was a creative idea that was really designed to help be a platform for new storylines. You’re coming in to challenge me. Well, why are you challenging me? ‘I’m challenging you because of this…’ Oh, really? Bring your shit, don’t forget your boots, come on. That’s an instigating moment and a catalyst for act one. So it was really designed as a platform and a new way of kind of launching into a story whereas Gut Check really was about trying to find new talent that wasn’t necessarily storyline-driven. So they are two different things with two different goals, but they felt very similar in a way.”
On if he ever thought TNA could compete with WWE: “No, I did not think for a moment’s notice that there was an ice cube’s chance in hell that TNA would ever be competitive with WWE. I had hopes we could elevate TNA to become get more viewers than they were and to be able to maintain their position as a really important part of the Spike television programming schedule. I thought we could improve upon it, but I never thought that they would be competitive. Ever.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
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