WWE News: Eric Bischoff talks about his new role in his latest podcast

By Kevin Christopher Sullivan
Modified Jul 02, 2019 00:45 IST
Eric Bischoff
Eric Bischoff

What's the story?

While Eric Bischoff has been in the news quite a bit recently with his new high profile job with WWE, he hasn't exactly just been sitting around, waiting for his phone to ring before then. He's been keeping himself busy for a long time now with his other ventures. One of those happens to be his podcast, 83 Weeks.

On the latest episode, Bischoff got to discuss his new position more in depth, as well as the future of the podcast itself.

In case you didn't know...

Chances are, if you're already here in the WWE section, you probably already know that Bischoff was named Executive Director of SmackDown Live this past week. Along with Paul Heyman, who will take the same role for Monday Night Raw, the two will be in charge of the creative direction for their respective shows.

He's also been very busy running and hosting his 83 Weeks podcast where he, along with his co-host Conrad Thompson, discusses his time as President of World Championship Wrestling (the 83 weeks referring to the length of time WCW Monday Nitro defeated WWF Monday Night Raw in television viewership).

After the announcement of his position was made, Bischoff took to Twitter to confirm and comment on the matter.

The heart of the matter.

Since then, Bischoff has been able to discuss things even further on his podcast. On the latest episode, he did that and more.

"I'm overwhelmed with the support and positive response I got on social media," Bischoff stated. "I knew I would get a response. I knew it would be a lot, but I was overwhelmed with the nature of that response."

He also made it perfectly clear that he understands that he's got his work cut out for him. He'll be in charge of not only getting the TV ratings for SmackDown up, but to do it before the show's big move to the Fox broadcast network in October.

"There have been a couple of times the last few days where I have been driving around in my truck or taking my dog on a hike," he explained, "and I said 'Wow, this is the biggest opportunity I have ever had in this industry.'" Which, coming from the man who ran one of the most successful wrestling companies in history, is saying a lot. This opportunity, he said, was 'significantly different'.

"When Bill Shaw made me president of WCW that was a very big moment, I was learning on the job, but I had nothing to lose there," he said. "This opportunity is an entirely different ballgame, this is a sophisticated company in WWE... they are moving the show to Fox network, it is going to have a lot of eyeballs on it."

"[The] magnitude is not lost on me," he continued, "I'm honored, I'm humbled, I have not felt this way in forever."

He also addressed the future of his podcast, especially after he revealed that he and his family are moving to Standford, CT, home of WWE headquarters. Fortunately for fans of his show, the answer to that question was a reassuring one.

"That was one of the things that I was most concerned about because I love doing this show," he said, "[This show has given] me the opportunity to look back at [the old episodes of Nitro]...and look at things in an entirely different perspective then I have as a result of doing this show. I feel more energized about the industry as a result of doing this show."

(Credit to the 83 Weeks podcast and an H/T to Wrestling Inc.)

What's next?

One thing that won't be continuing will be the live editions of 83 Weeks, as confirmed by Conrad Thompson. Bischoff's schedule will simply be too hectic to manage that. In the meantime, we'll have to wait and see what happens on SmackDown once Bischoff actually gets settled in and on the job Tuesday nights.