5 Best Eric Bischoff ideas

In late June 2019, WWE revealed the shocking news that Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman had been hired (or promoted in Heyman's case) to work as Executive Directors for WWE. Paul Heyman was announced to be heading up RAW, while Bischoff was announced for SmackDown.

The news of Paul Heyman taking on the role got a very positive response from fans, performers and many others in the industry, as Heyman has a very proven track record of great ideas.

The news of Eric Bischoff taking on the role has taken in a mixed to a mostly positive response, as he has a big hit and miss creative record for both WCW and Impact Wrestling. Contrary to some belief, Bischoff was never involved in WWE creative during his time as an on-screen character from 2002-2005.

While some believe this may affect Bischoff in his new role today, I think his creative history from the past is enough to go by that he should do a very good job. During his time with WCW and Impact Wrestling, Bischoff had many great ideas to try to take attention away from WWE, and here are what I think are the top five.

#5 Aces & Eights

The Eric Bischoff/Hulk Hogan era on Impact Wrestling is generally not well remembered by fans, with a lot of the reason being it is what led to the company's downfall. At the very least, back in 2009, they had been the number 2 wrestling company in the world. For a little while, were actually profitable, had an amazing roster of well-known talent and were televised on a big and great network. Today it is all quite the opposite for Impact Wrestling.

The main issue was just a lot of fans didn't take to it, despite how good it was. One of the better things to come out of this era though was the Aces & Eights angle. This storyline ran for almost a year and a half, and never felt like it was too long. While the gimmick itself of a group of invading bikers was a bit done, the Aces & Eights vs. TNA company storyline was still highly entertaining.

TNA's Impact did pretty well with unveiling several members. While D-Lo Brown, Garett Bischoff, Wes Briscoe, Doc Gallows and Knux were leaked out, the unveiling's of Devon, Taz and eventual leader Bully Ray, were all handled excellently. When the angle ended in November 2013, it also felt like the right time and didn't drag out. Eric Bischoff spoke about the angle on an episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, and how it was basically all his idea, although he did receive input from Bully Ray and Ken Anderson.

#4 Eric Bischoff challenges Vince McMahon

This next entrant is a different one from every other on this list. Unlike all the others mentioned here, this one is not a gimmick or long term idea. This was a short term idea, but it made WCW look strong and helped keep up their ratings for a few months over WWE at a time when RAW and Nitro were pretty neck and neck.

Perhaps one of the most famous moments to come out of the Monday Night War, came in April 1998, just two weeks after WWE ended WCW Nitro's 83-week ratings win streak over RAW. In one of the craziest and wildest moments ever in wrestling Vince McMahon sent his D-Generation X faction to the site of a Nitro taping in Norfolk, Virginia. There, they dressed up in army gear, shouted insults through a bullhorn, filmed fans claiming they were given free tickets and attempted to enter the arena.

WCW responded at the time by closing the venue door, in Triple H's words, making them 'cowards', and left. When people talk about the DX invasion, particularly WWE, they always seem to ignore Bischoff's genius response to the invasion. Bischoff responded by taking the attention off of DX, and instead of them, he challenged Vince McMahon himself to show up to WCW Slamboree to have a fight with him. When McMahon didn't show up to the event, Bischoff ordered the referee to start the match and count to ten and was awarded the win by count-out.

This genius response made WWE and Vince McMahon look pretty weak. WWE could have actually responded to this by saying that they didn't want to give WCW a bigger buy-rate with Vince showing up, but they didn't, and thus looked inferior. Fantastic play by Bischoff.

#3 Joseph Parks

The monstrous character Abyss was a mainstay of Impact Wrestling from 2003 all the way until 2018. He was to Impact what Sting was to WCW and what The Undertaker is to WWE.

What separated the character Abyss from the likes of a Sting and Undertaker, is it often didn't take very long for a lot of elements of the character to become quite stale. Impact tried to re-invent Abyss a few times under the same gimmick, but he always reverted back to his old ways and booking. That is until 2012 when after a few months absence, Abyss appeared on an episode of Impact in March, without a mask and wearing a suit, claiming to be Abyss' brother, Joseph Parks.

Parks was revealed to be a lawyer and was in search of his missing brother. He blamed Bully Ray for Abyss' disappearance, leading to a feud between the two. Parks was portrayed as a cowardly lion-like character, with a lot of heart. He would go on to be a big part of the big feud of the company with the Aces & Eights. The character was dropped in 2014 when Eric Young convinced him he was really Abyss the entire time. The character made a return to Impact storylines in 2017, ignoring the revelation that he was Abyss. The character would win the Wrestling Observer Newsletter award for Best Gimmick in 2012.

During a tour of the UK and Europe in 2016, Abyss revealed during a Q&A at a show in Dublin, Ireland, that Eric Bischoff was behind the creation and backstory of Joseph Parks. Abyss said he was very thankful to Bischoff for developing such a great character. He also revealed that it was himself who came up with the name, while Bischoff had wanted to name the character, B-Byss.

#2 The Goldberg Push & Streak

When the nWo angle had reached its first year, although still very hot, it began to take in some criticism. The big criticism was it seemed like the WCW World Championship would always be around Hulk Hogan. Any time he would drop the belt, it would always be to another veteran like Randy Savage, who would quickly lose it back.

And while Sting was a popular victor in the WCW Championship battles with Hogan, he to would soon drop it and the title would soon be back in black and white. There was one more hope come 1998, however. Bill Goldberg had made an impressive debut in September 1997 and had run through everyone WCW had put against him, and it was now time for the ultimate test. Goldberg was put in a WCW Championship match with Hulk Hogan in the Georgia Dome in his hometown.

In one of the most memorable matches in WCW history, Goldberg pinned Hulk Hogan to capture the WCW Championship in July 1998. What had made Goldberg so special for the fans up to this point was his winning streak, and that he always smashed his way through opponents in very quick fashion to victory. Goldberg would hold the WCW Championship for just over five months, before losing it to Kevin Nash at WCW Starrcade in controversial fashion. While it is widely believed that Goldberg's 173-0 was heavily exaggerated, 'The Streak' is still highly praised booking to this very day.

Eric Bischoff stated on the WWE DVD release 'The Monday Night Wars' in 2004 that he likes to think he is responsible for everything that went into the Goldberg character.

#1 The nWo

The most well known of all Eric Bischoff's ideas. This one has been talked about to death, but here is once more.

Eric Bischoff wanted to do an invasion angle where WCW was being taken over by a group of wrestlers who were essentially from another company. The idea was inspired by an NJPW vs. UWFi match from an NJPW show in 1996. The original idea was for the nWo to be portrayed as a separate entity from WCW, with them even potentially having their own show and running their own Pay-Per-Views, the latter of which briefly did happen.

Former WWE stars who jumped ship to WCW, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, would join forces with surprise partner Hulk Hogan for the biggest heel turn ever at WCW Bash at the Beach 1996 and history was made. With their black and white gear, attitudes, beat downs on other stars and expanding group, it soon became cool to be bad. The nWo quickly became the hottest thing in wrestling, catapulted WCW to the top of the wrestling world and blew WWE right out of the water.

The nWo was what contributed most to WCW's success and ratings victories over WWE, and the biggest part of it all came from Eric Bischoff.