WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff took on an episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including the importance of the cruiserweight division in the now defunct company.
Bischoff said, “You know, I’ve had about six years to think about that since we started doing this podcast and reviewing old shows. And I’ve come to the realization that the cruiserweight division is maybe not as responsible for the pop culture phenomenon that Nitro became? But damn, it’s a close second. The cruiserweight division made Nitro — take the NWO story out and just put it off the side — it made Nitro different then in a very powerful way. And I think it’s set the tone for what we’re seeing today, with a lot of smaller talent.”
On why he did not end up calling the cruiserweight division the light heavyweight division:
“I just kept that idea [of a cruiserweight division] in my head, probably for a year. ‘I want to figure out a way to do this. I want to create a cruiserweight –‘ and here’s another thing. WCW called it ‘light heavyweight.’ I didn’t want to do that. I specifically thought through that quite a bit, and landed on cruiserweight division. Which is basically what I took out of boxing, right? But light heavyweight had, in my mind at least, the potential of being less than heavyweights. And I knew I didn’t want to be less than. So I opted to be different then and referred to it as the cruiserweight division. Referring to it as a cruiserweight division was — like, it’s a little tiny idea. It’s like throwing a little bit of salt on your steak, right? It’s not a big deal. But it was enough to make people go, ‘Hmm, wonder what that is?’ Because it’s not the light heavyweight division. And my thinking at the time, and still to this day –, once you get people to lean forward and go, ‘What is this about?’ You got them. Now, your job is to keep them. But if you can get their their attention, make them ask the question, ‘What is this?’ or ‘How is this going to work?’, then your job is to really explain it and paint a beautiful picture.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
