Eric Bischoff Addresses Shutdown Of WCW Live Events

For several years in the '90s, Eric Bischoff was Turner Broadcasting's "golden child." As the Senior Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Bischoff guided the promotion to its first profits in 1995 — seven years after being purchased by Ted Turner — and to the top of the wrestling world. 

With the final say on the day-to-day operations, including signing talent, Bischoff was constantly making business decisions for WCW. One of those decisions resulted in the shutdown of live events (house shows) because of how much money they were losing.

"My argument, although unoriginal as it was, was if you build it, they will come," said Bischoff on the "Strictly Business" podcast. "Let's quit trying to convince people to come when they're not interested in our television show. Let's put all of our resources into television, shut down the live events, focus on a television product until such time the television product becomes so successful that people are going to want to go see a version of it live."

In previous podcasts, Bischoff has been candid about how dysfunctional and flawed WCW's house show business operated. Citing their lack of motivation, passion, and ability to promote, he viewed the people in charge of the department as "lazy f***kers that didn't want to do the work." 

Additionally, the company's long-standing habit of papering venues, especially for pay-per-view events so they could look good on television, conditioned fans into not paying for WCW events. Rather, fans would wait until WCW came back for another event with free tickets, which in turn decimated the house show business.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Strictly Business" podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.