WWE legend Eric Bischoff opens up on bringing former rival promotion to Canada

WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff discussed bringing former rival promotion WCW to Canada.

In 1991, Bischoff became a commentator for WCW. He was elevated to Vice President of Wrestling Operations within two years. In 1994, they promoted him to the Senior Vice President role and assumed direct control of WCW.

After launching Nitro and making money for WCW, Bischoff became President of the World Championship Wrestling.

Throughout the company's thirteen-year history, World Championship Wrestling has made only a few trips to Canada. Meanwhile, in today's wrestling world, companies such as WWE and AEW appear to have made it a point to visit the country several times yearly.

During an exclusive interview with Fightful, the Hall of Famer stated that bringing WCW to Canada was extremely expensive and difficult to pull off.

"What was it like? It was freaking expensive. Doing business in Canada is really, really difficult. I think it's great. I'm not being negative. But they have very strict immigration process, and some of our talent had DUI's—driving under the influence—and things like that on their record. They just couldn't get into the country," Eric Bischoff said. [H/T - Fightful]

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Eric Bischoff also spoke for the WCW producers, along with talents

According to the WCW legend, earlier, it was difficult for the promotion to go to Canada to deal with immigration and DUI officials. Unlike Canadian producers, the WCW talents and their producers faced issues.

Since Eric Bischoff's promotion had to serve formality with the country's Athletic Commission, they had to pay the price regarding business.

"So not only do you have talent that has some of that in their background, you've got production staff and people like that that had a hard time getting into the country. You had to deal with the Athletic Commission. It's just very difficult. Canada makes it very difficult for producers other than Canadians producers to produce television in Canada. I understand it, and I think it's great, but when we want to do business in Canada, we have to pay the price," he continued.

WWE is reportedly planning to hold a Premium Live Event in Canada in 2023, with the Elimination Chamber event in February of that year. The company will have a PLE in Canada for the first time since August 2019.

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