During a recent appearance on the “Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette” podcast, Eric Bischoff commented on his recent run as SmackDown executive director, what he regrets the most about taking on the role, thinking production meetings in WWE were a waste of time, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On what he regrets about his latest WWE run as SmackDown executive director: “Here’s where I fucked up. I went into WWE overly concerned about the way people perceived me. And by that, I mean – in a wrestling environment, there’s been so much narrative about how heavy-handed and difficult I can be at times, which some of that is true. But it’s been way blown out of proportion. This was my error in judgement – it was more important for me to fit into the system and eventually try to implement my ideas and the things I wanted to do. I don’t think that’s what Vince wanted. Looking back on it, I think what if I would’ve gone in there and been the kind of alpha executive we all know Vince likes? I could’ve done that because it’s not alien to my nature to be very aggressive and focused, and sometimes, that rubs people the right way.”
On production meetings in WWE and why he thought they were a waste of time: “I wanna say this the right way. My first visceral reaction was, ‘This is a fucking waste of a lot of time.’ You do not need all of those people in one large meeting. When you’re going through a format, I don’t give a shit. I don’t need to know when a graphic is going to hit. The guys in the truck need to know that. They should have their own production meeting. But to spend two hours going over that stuff where you really only needed an hour tops, 45 minutes if you’re focused, to get through, and to tie up all of that staff, who are not doing other things that they could have actually been doing. By the way, we worked out all of that stuff during the week, before we got to TV.
“You sit through the two or three-hour production meeting and while you’re sitting there starving because you haven’t had lunch and you’re watching Hunter [Triple H] and Vince [McMahon] piling down filet mignon and sushi while you’re sucking down warm coffee in a fucking Styrofoam cup [laughs]. I thought that was a real waste of time. Here’s the best part. Everyone does get to eat lunch and they go off and start doing the things they are assigned to do at the end of the elongated luncheon for the McMahon family and its extended clan, and then you find out we’re tearing shit up and we’re going to start all over again at five o’clock. We’re not talking about, ‘let’s take this match and move it from segment three to segment six’ or ‘somebody got hurt and let’s rebook a match and figure out a way to explain it and make sense of it.’ It’s not that. There were times like 15 minutes before showtime and we’re re-writing scenes.”
On why the process seems to work for WWE: “Here’s the other side of it. I’m grateful for that experience, I know it sounds like I’m slamming them, but I’m not, I’m just telling the truth. You asked how it made me feel. I don’t know how it made everyone else feel, they may have dug it and may have felt it was valuable. I’m just telling you from my perspective. I was thinking, ‘What would I do if I was taking this over?’ First thing I would do is change the meeting format because we’re wasting tons of fricking time, but let’s be honest, it’s working for them. It’s a tough formula for people to adapt to and tough for someone like me because of the way I think and prefer to work and it’s tough on talent, but it’s working.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
