On a recent edition of his “83 Weeks” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff discussed WWE’s success this year, whether the promotion trusts CM Punk, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the most crucial thing behind WWE’s boom in popularity: ‘Discipline, structured story and character development. And I would disagree to a degree with the person who posed that question. I think the Bloodline storyline, which started long before Vince left and was getting very exciting long before Vince left, Vince was very much a part of that storyline. And perhaps in some ways, at some points, he held it back. Maybe it could have gotten bigger, faster, stronger sooner. But Vince was very, very much a part of that. Vince’s [McMahon] commitment to Roman Reigns; let’s go back now three, four, five years. Vince was determined to get Roman Reigns over. So people could say, ‘Oh yeah, as soon as Vince left, everything got better.’ It’s not a very realistic perspective.
“Yeah, I think things have gotten better better since Vince left. Only because I think the creative process is now much more efficient. I think your writing team can now, with confidence, start laying out stories without knowing in the back of their mind, in the front of the mind that there’s about a 75% chance, even though Vince would say, ‘Yeah, that looks good’ on Friday on the plane, going to Raw on Monday morning he might just tear the whole thing up and start over again. That’s a very, very uneasy feeling if you’re a creative person. And then you get to the building and you’re going to know that you’re going to have two hours to write a brand new show from top to bottom that has to be approved. Not only does it have to be approved, if there is a spelling error in the first draft of what you think you want to do and you want to present to Vince with only two hours before show time. But if he sees a typo or poor grammar, there’s a chance he’ll just rip the whole thing up without the rest of it, and ask you to go redo it. And let you know what he thinks of your grammar and your spelling on your way out the door. That’s not efficient creative. And it takes a creative person so outside of their game and the train of thought, the frame of mind, the vibe they have to be in, it’s just it’s a different world being in creative. And to have that kind of instability throughout the entire process doesn’t get you to the best creativity by any stretch of the imagination.”
On whether WWE trusts Punk enough to make him World Champion: “You know, I don’t know the culture that exists today. I knew the culture that existed last time I was there. I was in — and I’m going to be very vague, but I’m doing it intentionally out of respect, so please accept that. But I was in a meeting, Punk’s name came up, and all of the key decision-makers in WWE at that time were in that meeting. And that name came up, and the conversation lasted all of three minutes. And that was the end of that. That was the culture then. I don’t know what the culture is now. You know, Triple H used to work for me, Paul Levesque worked for WCW before he went to WWE but I never got to know Paul then, a couple of conversations with him really. Even when I worked with him when I first went to WWE as a talent, very little conversation with Paul Levesque. When I worked there in 2019 for a cup of coffee, I interacted with Paul Levesque more than I ever had in the previous 20 years. But even then, I didn’t really get to know him. So I don’t know what Paul thinks, and what his tolerance is for situations like CM Punk brings.
“I suspect that — two things. One is, I don’t think CM Punk’s going to even try to exert the kind of — I’m going to call it bullying, right? He ain’t throwing his weight around backstage at WWE anywhere. The company is so much bigger than him, there’s no room for that there, and nobody will tolerate it. And I think because of history, people will be watching very carefully how Phil Brooks as an individual handles himself professionally behind — because there’s no question the CM Punk character is viable and valuable. The question mark is, is Phil Brooks the professional that he needs to be to make it work? I suspect he probably is. I suspect that, I hope, that Phil Brooks is going, ‘Wow, this is a hell of an opportunity. I can write the end of my own story. I can retire from this business on a positive note. And oh by the way, I can pocket millions and millions of dollars along the way. But I gotta be a team player.’ That’s what I hope, and that’s what I think is probably going on: he’s a smart guy. He has to be a smart guy to get where he is right now. But I do think that there’s probably eyes on Phil Brooks and the way he conducts himself. But I don’t know where the guardrails are, but I don’t think it’s going to be an issue, I really don’t. I said this before he even went there when speculation was, ‘Do you think he’ll go?’ I said, ‘Sure, he’ll go. If he has the opportunity, he’d be crazy not to.’ But he’s not going to get away — there is no CM Punk running amok backstage. No one’s going to get choked out. No one’s going to be in fear for their life. You’re not going to have the craziness and the mishegoss going on backstage and the drama that went on in AEW because it’s an entirely different environment.”
