WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff appeared on an episode of his 83 Weeks podcast. He discussed various topics, including the idea that Randy Orton should have a retirement tour similar to John Cena’s.
Bischoff said, “It could also kind of acknowledge reality. They’re both a little bit of the same boat. I mean, John Cena has acknowledged, ‘Okay, this is it, man. This is my last run.’ We haven’t heard that out of Randy, but it wouldn’t be surprising. I mean, I think Randy would be a great candidate for a six-month farewell tour, or 12-month farewell tour, similar to what they’re doing with Cena. I think Randy would be awesome at it. I mean, he’s got 20 — how many, 25 years of equity. Massive, massive, massive equity built up in his character. And I think he could get a really cool six-month, 12-month run out of that. And maybe this starts it off. I mean, there’s a lot of things they can do. There’s it’s great thing about having such a fantastic roster that’s so deep, you can handle situations like Kevin Owens.”
On WWE introducing matches into the Hall of Fame:
“I think it’s so cool that the very first match wasn’t a title match. It wasn’t — there wasn’t any real stays [in the match]. And what made up for that is the quality of the match. It was a clinic of the type of wrestling that I miss, frankly. It was a perfect illustration of what I think is missing and could still be — and you do see it from time to time in different organizations. But man, the storytelling in the ring and the timing and the execution, the selling. Both guys, they just sold. The selling was pure art. You know, people talk about selling all the time and how important it is to sell properly in order to connect to the audience. You have to create that empathetic response in the audience, they have to feel for you. And that is really hard. That is really hard. It’s just as hard for a wrestler to achieve that connection as I imagine it would be for an actor or an actress on Broadway when you’ve got a live event. It’s really hard, and it’s a skill. And that match, I think, demonstrated the epitome of that particular skill set. It was fascinating to watch, really was.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
