Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson discussed TNA’s move to Monday Night against WWE RAW in 2010 on the latest “83 Weeks” podcast.
Bischoff stated that when he first arrived in TNA in late 2009, he was not a fan of the X-Division or the six-sided ring, and added:
“I didn’t watch a lot of TNA before I took the job. In fact, I probably seen a total of about 20 minutes of it because I couldn’t stand watching it. I couldn’t stand the sound stage. It just looks so small.”
Conrad Thompson said to Bischoff:
“I don’t mean to cut you off, but it’s all over me. You were the wrong fu**ing guy for this job. My point is, you have approached every time we’ve even brought this conversation up today about the six-sided ring, about the X-Division, the sound, it was all stupid, and it was terrible. You have approached this with more negativity than I’ve ever seen you approach anything in your life at all. I asked myself, self, if Eric really felt this way, why would he even fu**ing do it? Like don’t even take the gig if you really hated it this bad.”
Bischoff said, “First of all, I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t buy into the logic or the psychology of it.”
Conrad said, “Why work for a company you don’t believe in?”
Bischoff responded: “I didn’t know I didn’t believe in the company. I just knew the product I saw on television was not appealing to me. This is nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t make me a negative person. I just didn’t like it. It’s not that I didn’t like the talent. I didn’t know any of the management. I didn’t have any personal feelings about anything. It wasn’t hate by any stretch of the imagination.”
“I would hear about TNA and I’d hear about the Impact Zone, so I would check it out. To me, it looked like World Wide Wrestling from the Disney MGM Studios with a lot of talent that I didn’t know. That’s not a criticism. That was my impression of it, and because that was my impression of it, I didn’t watch it on a regular basis.”
“When I got there, you know, as to why I took the job, I talked about it. I didn’t apply for the job. I was very hesitant to take the job. I only got hired because they wanted Hulk Hogan and Hulk Hogan didn’t want to go to TNA unless I was there to oversee his stories or his character. That’s why I went. I went as much for Hulk and my relationship with him, but I also hoped, I’m not going to lie, I’m not going to mislead you, I also hoped that I could have some influence on a product that I felt needed to improve, and I expressed those feelings loudly, clearly, professionally. I didn’t yell and throw sh*t. It’s not that I hated anybody or anything. It’s not that I hated anybody or anything.”
“I saw what WCW was before Nitro. I saw what WCW became with Nitro. I saw what happened with Nitro towards the end. I was a part of all that. I had spent a lot of time in WWE. For me subconsciously or maybe even consciously, like, I’ve been to the mountaintop. Why do I want to go there? Not to be redundant, I went for very specific reasons. I would have never thought about reaching out to TNA on my own and seeing if they would be interested in bringing someone like me in. That thought never crossed my mind nor would it have had it not been for Hulk. But when I got there, and I was brought on as a consultant slash executive producer, they wanted to know what I thought, so I told them. I mean, I don’t know how else to perform in that role. Somebody asked you a question, ‘Eric, what do you think of the six-sided ring?’ ‘It doesn’t make any sense.’ ‘What do you think of a Lethal Lockdown where we have cage matches for the entire pay per view?’ ‘Doesn’t make any sense. I think it’s dumb. Why would you do that?’ It doesn’t mean I hated anybody or anything.”
For those who missed it, click here to read Bischoff’s comments on Awesome Kong, claiming she was difficult to work with.
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
