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TVTranscript
00:00The early 90s, we couldn't attract an audience.
00:13I needed people to take WCW seriously.
00:16We needed a star.
00:17Hulk Hogan is here.
00:18You can call this the new world order of wrestling, brother.
00:25I don't think I'd ever seen anything as hot as NWO.
00:28They were bad, but they were cool.
00:30It was the biggest turn in the history of wrestling.
00:33Oh, no!
00:34WCW was now beating WWF in the ratings.
00:37Have we created a monster or what?
00:40Shit's going to hit the fan at some point, and it did.
00:44It was a company that was infested with guys
00:46that had their own agenda.
00:48Eric Bischoff, he was just a prop.
00:50Hulk Hogan was the puppet master.
00:52Once a god, always a god.
00:58You cannot sweep this under the rug.
01:00This is a fucking television show.
01:02I don't understand the real reason men commit lies.
01:12Ladies and gentlemen, you are tuned in to the world's number
01:16one professional wrestling program.
01:18By 1997, we had built so much goodwill with the audience.
01:22As a result of the NWO, we were absolutely on fire.
01:28When it rains, it pours.
01:31For 83 weeks straight, WCW Nitro defeated WWE.
01:37And then all of a sudden, boom.
01:44I get a phone call.
01:47Harvey Schiller.
01:49He's the president of Turner Sports,
01:51and by proxy, you could say WCW.
01:54So I answered it.
01:55Hey, Harvey, how you doing?
01:56I'm good, how are you?
01:57I said, I'm good.
01:58Before you hang up, I want to let you know.
02:01Nitro was having so much success on TNT,
02:03Ted wants to do another primetime show for TBS.
02:07Feel the thunder.
02:09Beyond the Superstation.
02:10I hung up the phone.
02:11I thought, this can't be real.
02:13They weren't happy enough with the ratings they had.
02:17They wanted to expand, not realizing you're going
02:21to weaken the Monday show.
02:23I mean, things were going so well.
02:26You're giving them such a great show on Monday night
02:29that the idea of doing another show live 48 hours after I just
02:33got done producing one, there was
02:37no way I thought it could work.
02:39But I didn't want to be the guy to tell Ted, no.
02:43That was my mistake.
02:45Tonight, we welcome you to Thunder.
02:48TBS said, sure, we'll take the show.
02:49We just don't have it in our budget.
02:51We can't pay for it.
02:53So reluctantly, we'll just pay for it on WCW's budget.
02:57That's what Ted wants.
02:59The challenge, right off the bat, audience fatigue.
03:03Because now they're seeing too much of the same talent.
03:06Who's who?
03:07I don't know.
03:08Even though we had a very deep roster,
03:10if we're going to do another show,
03:11I thought that roster has to be substantially unique.
03:15That's why I brought Bret Hart in.
03:19Bret!
03:24I was at the top of the heap of the WWF during those days.
03:29I beat Undertaker for the title.
03:31I beat Stone Cold Steve Austin.
03:35I was a WWF guy.
03:37And I think I was a big part of the success that I had.
03:43I like Bret.
03:44A lot of respect for that man.
03:46Bret Hart, somebody I probably had my best matches with.
03:51Ultimate respect.
03:53I loved Bret Hart.
03:54He was like a national hero in Canada.
03:56People respected him.
03:57People looked up to him.
03:59I emulated some of my style from Bret Hart, like my suplex.
04:06Bischoff says, what's it going to take
04:07for you to come to WCW?
04:11Bret.
04:12We got up to $2.8 million a year.
04:14Bret.
04:16So I joined WCW.
04:18Bret, the Hitman Hart, has arrived.
04:22First night I walked out, and I got a great reaction.
04:26I needed an anchor for that show.
04:29Bret was critical to that.
04:32But it went downhill from there.
04:41It sounds to me like you people are a little disappointed in me.
04:44They're flying me down from Calgary,
04:46and then they tell me I'm off for the night.
04:50And then the next week, I do the same thing again.
04:52Just sit in the dressing room and do nothing.
04:55Eric, he apologized to me many times
04:57and said, I'm so sorry about how we brought you in.
05:00Everything he ever said was a lie.
05:03We already knew that we were running thin.
05:06You had Monday Night Nitro, and then you had two days
05:09that you had to do house shows.
05:10It's followed by a two-hour Thunder.
05:13We had a Saturday show.
05:16And then you might have a pay-per-view
05:18or something in there.
05:19You're basically booking 10 hours in two days.
05:26It was impossible to have any kind of attention to detail.
05:30And I think it showed.
05:31I've never seen a human being do anything like this in my life.
05:34This has never been done in our sport.
05:36There's so many times we didn't have finishes for this
05:38or finishes for that, because it was so time consuming.
05:42Fans, we're out of time.
05:43When these guys are trying to think up something new,
05:46they're going to go to something that worked before.
05:49You know, NWL was still rocking and rolling, printing money
05:52and printing ratings.
05:54And as a result, we took the easy way out.
05:56We kept adding to the NWL.
05:59Let's create the red faction.
06:00We got some new colors going on.
06:03Let's create the Latino faction.
06:05The Latino world order.
06:06You just can't pass t-shirts out and water down
06:10the greatest show in town.
06:13There were too many people.
06:14It wasn't cool anymore.
06:16If you watch one match, you watched them all.
06:20Every show ends with a run in.
06:21There's about 20 guys running in there.
06:23And I'm going, why am I running in?
06:26Nothing made sense from one week to the next.
06:30And the fans discussed it, thumbs down.
06:33Unbelievable.
06:35Creating momentum is really, really hard.
06:39The only thing harder than creating momentum
06:41is maintaining momentum.
06:42Thanks for having me here, Mr. President-elect.
06:46We'd lost our momentum.
06:49And we find ourselves in a rebuild mode.
06:52April 13th of 1998, something significant
06:55happened, which was Raw beating Nitro for the first time
06:58in the ratings for 22 months.
07:01Whenever you're leading a night and now you're
07:04not leading a night, there's reason for concern.
07:08As WCW and Monday Nitro became a huge primetime hit,
07:14those numbers exploded because it wasn't just men 18 and 34.
07:19It now became families.
07:21So my eye was on Goldberg.
07:29I was born with something.
07:32I'm fucking 6'3", 280 pounds.
07:35I could go from 0 to 100 and 100 to 0 in 60 seconds.
07:41But what the business didn't have
07:43was something that I wanted to fill the void with.
07:47And that's the beauty of the character that we came up with.
07:52I am the fucking character.
07:54I am Goldberg.
07:55This is the beginning of the universe.
07:58From the emotion of man, we have reached the epitome.
08:03I don't think there ever had been an athlete, a star,
08:10performer, professional wrestling that
08:15rose as quickly as Goldberg.
08:21Bill Goldberg, he was on a rocket ship from day one.
08:28A professional wrestler was never
08:30anything I aspired to be.
08:32My entire life existence was to play football.
08:35I don't know if you know who this guy is,
08:37but I've got the picture.
08:38I know all about him, Bill Goldberg, former Georgia
08:42Bulldog and Atlanta Falcon.
08:45I was never the best football player
08:46by any stretch of the imagination.
08:48I got hurt, tore my abdomen off of my pelvis in 94.
08:53I had no idea what I was going to do the rest of my life.
08:57I was depressed as shit.
08:59When I finally seriously considered becoming
09:02a professional wrestler, I had to come up with something
09:05where I felt as though I was continually building
09:09upon what I had built.
09:11You strive to be the biggest, baddest dude on the field.
09:15I gave him the short black boots, black tights.
09:20Combination slam, one, two, three.
09:23He didn't talk.
09:24You absolutely manhandled him tonight.
09:28Sir, I've got to get a little bit more than that.
09:30Mike Tyson, black boots, black shorts, didn't need to talk.
09:36Just come down and do that.
09:39He might bite your fucking ear off,
09:41or he might knock you out with an uppercut.
09:44You don't know what's going to happen.
09:46Hey, you've got to watch this guy, Goldberg.
09:48He's a time bomb just ready to explode.
09:50Maybe that's why it worked.
09:52The crowd was reacting to him like a superstar.
09:55Listen to this reception.
09:58It's like, holy crap.
10:04People were chanting his name, Goldberg, Goldberg.
10:11They pushed him like crazy.
10:12There's never been a push anything like it anywhere.
10:15Let's just put him out there and have him squash people.
10:17Kept doing it, doing it, doing it.
10:19People kept loving it, loving it, loving it.
10:22Why would you mess with that?
10:25A lot of people were jealous.
10:30Bill was a fan.
10:30Bill was a mark.
10:31Bill was a football player.
10:33Someone should have taught him, or pulled him aside
10:35and said, hey, Bill, you do know that this is pretend, right?
10:40He didn't.
10:42This is a fucking television show.
10:45I know when you tackle somebody, you think it's real.
10:49But the person getting fucking potatoed in the corner
10:52has had enough.
10:55I feel bad about it.
10:56But as long as the intent is not there, it's not my fault.
11:02You can't blame me.
11:03Jesus Christ, dude.
11:05Like, get some skills.
11:07A lot of jealousy.
11:09This guy hasn't paid his dues.
11:10And Goldberg doesn't love this like we do, you know?
11:14They can all kiss my ass.
11:15I'll take that criticism on the way up
11:17because I'm still that guy.
11:20And you guys tried every frickin' thing
11:23you could do for me not to be that guy.
11:25And who prevailed?
11:30Please welcome Goldberg.
11:34I felt that Goldberg was really the phenomena that
11:39could bring advertisers and all the other stuff
11:43that they're buying or they're consuming.
11:45Fashion Goldberg, fashion brawlers.
11:48The kids loved Goldberg.
11:50They loved that character.
11:51And they loved the fact that he was undefeated.
11:54All anyone ever wanted to talk about
11:55was Goldberg, Goldberg, Goldberg.
12:00So I'm in LA one day.
12:02And I get a phone call from Hulk.
12:04I got an idea.
12:05I'm going to wrestle Goldberg, Georgia Dome.
12:08We're going to put him over a clean.
12:10The time is right.
12:11This is the time.
12:12Let's do this.
12:14Nitro is on the air.
12:16From the professional wrestling capital of the world,
12:19Atlanta, Georgia.
12:21Bill Goldberg was a hometown hero.
12:23There he is.
12:23And here comes the eruption.
12:27Bigger than before.
12:29Guys from the Falcons were there, former teammates.
12:32It felt like the Super Bowl.
12:34I mean, we sold out the Georgia Dome.
12:3544,000 tickets, man.
12:38That place was packed.
12:39It was electric.
12:41It was Nitro.
12:42This is the biggest one.
12:43That heightened sense of anticipation.
12:46Let the match begin.
12:4710 million people in the United States
12:50between Monday Night Raw and Nitro
12:53were zeroed in on professional wrestling.
12:57Mind-blowing.
12:58That really was the height of WCW.
13:06That was the coolest shit ever.
13:08The feeling that I got when I heard the crowd
13:12after I received the bell.
13:16We've got a new heavyweight champion!
13:21Nothing like it.
13:23It was just the coolest moment.
13:26OK, why is this not on a pay-per-view?
13:29It's like, man, we could have made a lot more money.
13:32We'd have kept it off TV for a while.
13:33One of the things that I was criticized for
13:36was that I was putting pay-per-view quality
13:37matches on free TV.
13:39WCW is getting higher ratings than anything else
13:43in the company.
13:44This is the hottest product we've got.
13:47It didn't always advertise into the highest value
13:50that you could get for ad dollars.
13:52The disconnect between the advertising dollars
13:56and the size of the audience for wrestling became an issue.
14:01One of the forces working against ad revenue
14:04was our ad people wouldn't sell wrestling.
14:07They don't like it and they want to get rid of it.
14:09There's such pressure on here,
14:11with opposition not only of the corporate,
14:14but also the people that reported to him.
14:16I mean, he had no friends.
14:18We're going to take your paycheck.
14:20We're going to take your job.
14:22There was always a hint of ulterior motive,
14:26which, at the end of the day,
14:28could maybe mean the destruction of your company.
14:32I don't know.
14:33And here we go, ladies and gentlemen, his debut.
14:36Rookie, Alvarez.
14:38Now, there's going to be the man right there.
14:40That blue chain right there.
14:41In the world of professional wrestling,
14:43any kind of fresh take on something is challenging to do.
14:47Back then, I was still opening match.
14:49Unbelievable agility.
14:51Yes, sir.
14:52What a way to make your debut.
14:54Before the show ended,
14:55I was already back in my hotel room watching Nitro.
14:58I just watched it.
14:59I was like, wow.
15:00I was already back in my hotel room watching Nitro.
15:03I just wanted to see where they were doing things differently
15:07and figure out how we could do something like that
15:10or possibly even better.
15:17When you're getting your ass kicked
15:19week over week over week, which was our company,
15:21you're going to say,
15:22hey, fuck this.
15:23What do we need to do?
15:25Welcome to WWF Raw!
15:28WWE's answer to NWO
15:31was the Attitude Era.
15:39Okay.
15:40First of all, I refer to it as the Nitro Era
15:42because the Attitude Era was nothing more
15:45than a replication of the Nitro format.
15:50They were going after the same audience
15:52that I recognized as being underserved.
15:56Okay.
15:57We're in a fight.
15:58We've been dominating that fight.
16:00But this guy's coming back.
16:02It wasn't like we were hurting.
16:04They were just getting stronger.
16:06I mean, 98 was a record revenue year.
16:08But all of a sudden,
16:10none of that mattered anymore.
16:14And that affected WCW
16:16in ways that I didn't anticipate.
16:22I was introduced to a
16:25different kind of corporate structure
16:27with regard to WCW.
16:33In July of 1998, I was sitting in a meeting
16:37with 10 or 12 other people,
16:39much higher on the food chain than I am,
16:41telling me how I was going to operate WCW
16:46and change our target demographic
16:49that we had built an entire business upon.
16:51He said, no, we want kids and families.
16:54What you really need for success
16:56is the people coming in on the outside.
16:58But there was a discussion about,
17:00could they do it without being as lewd as WWE?
17:06Vince McMahon and the WWE decided,
17:09let's do what Eric's doing,
17:11and let's do it better than them.
17:13Oh, my God, he's on fire!
17:15That's exactly what they did.
17:18Ted Turner was very strict
17:20about things on the show that couldn't be done.
17:22Vince was quite happy to do all of that.
17:24We will have less references
17:26to our enormous genitalia.
17:29They took it into the gutter.
17:31Doesn't matter. It worked.
17:33If Jenna James isn't on this show,
17:35our rebuttal is,
17:37we'll give the guy in the WL shirt.
17:39I guess there's a new member now, huh?
17:41Everything we can possibly do
17:44to combat WWF,
17:46they're taking away from us.
17:48Shut up, you idiot!
17:50We were being mandated to change the nature
17:52of the way we were producing our show.
17:54To go back to doing what we were doing
17:57when we couldn't even be a distant number two?
18:00I had taken the business out of the dumpster
18:03and turned it into a success story.
18:06Now, all of a sudden, Standards of Practice
18:08is about to tell me
18:10what I can and can't do.
18:12Forget that.
18:14If push comes to shove, I'm just gonna fight all this
18:16until it gets to Ted's desk,
18:18and then it's gonna be me and this guy,
18:20and we'll see who wins.
18:22Like a wrestling match.
18:24You heard the man himself, Ted Turner.
18:26When you're winning and you're the guy,
18:28it's a lot of fun.
18:30And when you're losing, not so much fun.
18:32And it was hard on him at times, man.
18:34You could see it.
18:36Eric was always a really positive person.
18:38Really positive.
18:40And all of a sudden,
18:42it shifted to negative.
18:44Don't show anything
18:46I found myself
18:48fighting with departments of Turner Broadcasting
18:50that I'd never heard of before.
18:52It took a lot out of me.
18:54One afternoon,
18:56I was in my office, and I was just
18:58out of gas, and Kevin came into my office.
19:00And he just...
19:02He was having such a hard time
19:04banging heads
19:06with everybody and everything.
19:08And Kevin offered. He said,
19:10Boss, why don't you listen? Let me take over the book.
19:12Temporary. Get your feet back
19:14underneath you. Let me take
19:16this pressure off of you.
19:18The head booker was the one determining
19:20whether the concepts for each week's show
19:22actually made air or not.
19:24I think it's been fairly well acknowledged that
19:26Kevin Nash had been instrumental
19:28in being a huge part of the creative process.
19:30There were other people I could have handed it off to,
19:32but I had confidence
19:34in Kevin's instincts.
19:36So that's how it started.
19:38I said, I'll help you.
19:40I should have said, let's go to a strip club.
19:42There's a big difference between
19:44being part of a group that throws ideas
19:46out
19:48and being the guy that says,
19:50I know you don't want to do this,
19:52but this is what you're going to do.
19:54Especially if you yourself
19:56are a talent.
19:58It was a bad situation,
20:00but it was the best-case scenario.
20:02It's quite simple. If you don't run
20:04with the pack, you're hunted
20:06by it.
20:08Once you have the monkeys running the zoo,
20:10you're in trouble.
20:12And that's exactly what was happening.
20:14He listened to all
20:16the guys that didn't have the best
20:18interest of the company in mind.
20:20I don't think that's debatable.
20:22It's not just about being
20:24the biggest, strongest. It's about
20:26whose ass they kiss.
20:28Sooner or later,
20:30someone will beat Goldberg.
20:32I never had any problem with Bill.
20:34I was happy that he was getting pushed.
20:36But he's
20:39had the belt too long.
20:41He was still
20:43really green and had no
20:45idea what he was doing.
20:47Not only does he keep hurting
20:49all the wrestlers that he works with, but he keeps hurting
20:51himself. I'm wrestling
20:53Scott Hall, and
20:55I screw a spot up.
20:59And he's laying on the ground, and he looks up at me
21:01and he goes, yo man, what are you doing?
21:03And my
21:05reaction was,
21:07I don't fucking know what I'm doing.
21:09You're live on
21:11television, you're in front of your fans.
21:13I was scared shitless when I
21:15screwed that up, because I didn't know what was next.
21:17I didn't know what to do.
21:19If you can't do that, you can't
21:21be the fucking top guy.
21:26That's when I really realized
21:28there was a lot of shit going on
21:30and it wasn't all for face value.
21:34So that's when I started really smartening
21:36up to him.
21:46Yeah, I learned the good, bad, and the
21:48evil very quickly.
21:50I was jumping into
21:52shark infested waters.
21:56To say the least.
22:06Common
22:08fact.
22:10Wrestling 101.
22:12Babyface
22:14always draws more money
22:16chasing
22:18the belt
22:20than having the belt.
22:28It was a padded stat.
22:30Who cares?
22:32We gave the people what they wanted.
22:34Take them in a different direction.
22:36In order for him to grow.
22:38I never got tired of watching Mike Tyson
22:40come out and annihilate people.
22:42With the Ray Creative, there's ways to keep things going.
22:44That's what you do.
22:46You chase with the babyface.
22:48And when he
22:50fucking gets it, you take it right
22:52fucking back.
22:54Because that's where the money is.
22:56Kevin was a
22:58politician. There's nobody I've ever
23:00met that is a top talent
23:02politician. It's a job
23:04prerequisite.
23:06Just look at it on the surface.
23:08From a pure
23:10physicality point of view.
23:12The way we had
23:14built Bill Goldberg up to be this
23:16indestructible, man-eating
23:18monster, who on that roster
23:20looked like they could possibly
23:22beat that monster?
23:28And Kevin Nash, standing at nearly
23:307 foot, 6'10", whatever he is.
23:32Probably at that time
23:34340, 350 pounds.
23:36It was believable.
23:44What I needed was somebody
23:46who could tell a story with a finish.
23:48The finish I wanted
23:50was beat him 1, 2, 3.
23:52Like the same way he was winning.
23:54Clean.
23:56But they thought
23:58that he needed
24:00something more to lose.
24:12No. That was a mistake.
24:14You watch that match
24:16back. When I power
24:18bomb him.
24:20Wait a minute.
24:26I'm over as fuck.
24:36Did I like it? Fuck no.
24:38Did I question it?
24:40Everybody questioned it. But I don't
24:42control that shit. I go out and I do my job.
24:46I think it was quite clear that
24:49there was no real plan
24:51in terms of where does the Goldberg character
24:53go from here. And so the follow-up
24:55left a bad taste in people's mouths.
24:57I'm going to try tonight to right
24:59the wrongs that happened
25:01at Starrcade.
25:03Me and you Goldberg in Atlanta
25:05for the belt.
25:07You have to imagine being in the audience
25:09on that night. It's January.
25:13There's an incredible atmosphere.
25:15But at the same time a taped edition
25:17of what was happening on the other station.
25:19There was going to be a title change on that show.
25:33Obviously we had to remind
25:35viewers that this is where the real action is.
25:37I say fuck this.
25:39I'll fight Goldberg
25:41again.
25:43But that ends up taking a
25:45turn and devolving into a situation
25:47in which Hollywood Hogan
25:49comes back into the mix and
25:51challenges Nash to a match.
25:53After tonight
25:55when I beat Kevin Nash
25:57when I retire
25:59with a World Heavyweight title
26:01you can just call me
26:03Hollywood the Big
26:05Bad Wolf.
26:07We were creating
26:09this illusion of a conflict
26:11between Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash.
26:13And we built it up like
26:15it was going to be the match of ages
26:17in the NWO to determine the fate
26:19of the organization.
26:21Hogan got to the ring and he looked all serious.
26:23Kevin Nash came to the ring
26:25and looked like he wanted to eat Hulk Hogan for lunch.
26:27And they get close together
26:29they're almost chest to chest, nose to nose.
26:33And then...
26:37What was that about?
26:39What's going on here?
26:43One, two, three. Oh yeah.
26:45It looked like a finish.
26:47But it was contrived by the NWO
26:49to keep the belt in the family.
26:51That's ultimately
26:53what it was all about.
26:55When that happened
26:57me and a lot
26:59of wrestlers were like
27:01what the fuck is this?
27:05Wrestling fans around the world
27:07are saying that's exactly when WCW
27:09started to go downhill.
27:11You know why people hate that
27:13so much?
27:15Because it got them.
27:17Look at the crowd.
27:19They don't know what the fuck
27:21they've seen. People expected to see
27:23something and they felt
27:25like they got fucked.
27:27WCW had chronic
27:29bad finish disease.
27:31Sometimes just a good
27:33clean finish is the best
27:35thing. That same night
27:37Mick Foley was going to be wrestling
27:39The Rock as I often
27:41had with Nitro and became famous
27:43for giving away their finishes.
27:45Starting my show two minutes before they started
27:47their show.
27:49I thought why not go back
27:51to the well and give them
27:53a reason not to watch
27:55Rock and Mick.
27:57We understand that Mick Foley
27:59who wrestled here one time
28:01is going to win their world title.
28:03That
28:05fucking Eric Bischoff
28:07He just spoiled the match.
28:09He took a shot.
28:11A big chunk of
28:13WCW Nitro's audience went
28:15really? That's going on over there?
28:17I'm going too.
28:19And they left.
28:21So it backfired
28:23in a huge way.
28:28Two big moves in one night.
28:30Finger poke a doom and
28:32crap it all over
28:34Rock and Mick.
28:37Neither one of them worked very well.
28:41We got a little lucky
28:43that night. We had a great match.
28:45Me and Mick. That was
28:47a real defining moment.
28:49This feels pretty damn good.
28:53There was a lot of mistakes
28:55but
28:57my check didn't change.
28:59The infighting, the jealousy
29:01who is Eric going to listen
29:03to? All that
29:05started to disintegrate
29:07something that was so
29:09cool and hot.
29:11We were our own worst enemies.
29:13It was bad enough
29:15the Turner executives didn't want us.
29:17We did ourselves no favors.
29:27Now a discussion about cable television
29:29programming. Can I go to
29:31wrestling for a second?
29:34Does it
29:36bother you a little bit that wrestling is so
29:38popular? I didn't know that was the promise
29:40of cable.
29:42Four years ago
29:44I went to a wrestling event and as you were
29:46going on the highway you were basically
29:48seeing people in pickup trucks
29:50you know going.
29:52A month ago I went to
29:54a WCW
29:56Monday Nitro event. There were
29:5840,000 people sold out in one
30:00hour and all I'm seeing
30:02is where my family is going.
30:04So we're not embarrassed
30:06by it at all.
30:08When you're a single organization
30:10you do one thing which is
30:12professional wrestling.
30:14It's very different than when you're
30:16a company like Time Warner
30:18and you've got a lot of businesses
30:20that have to get sorted out.
30:22You're going to have people who kind of look at this
30:24and go is this classy enough for our
30:26networks? How is that
30:28going to rub off on our
30:30Well wrestling may be a good product
30:32for some but we are after all
30:34the world's leader in news and
30:36entertainment and that was
30:38the rationale. We just don't like it.
30:40The fact that WCW became
30:42successful
30:44was really frustrating
30:46for a lot of people.
30:48It was not part of the plan.
30:50It never was part of the plan.
30:52You know the average person would go why would anybody care?
30:54And I'll tell you why.
30:56Because WCW occupied
30:58a primetime beachfront
31:00property on TNT.
31:02There were a lot of people that wanted that primetime
31:04real estate and were frustrated
31:06at our success because we got it.
31:08There were so many
31:10demands from different places
31:12and a lot of answering
31:14to shareholders that have
31:16expectations and
31:18WCW got caught up
31:20in that.
31:22The revenue challenges were simple.
31:24One of the goals of Turner Broadcasting
31:26was to enhance
31:28the bottom line of
31:30various divisions that they wanted
31:32to hold on to. Let's take some of their
31:34debt and move it over here.
31:36So they reallocated the guts out of my budget
31:38so that money could be moved over to
31:40other divisions. It made their
31:42bottom line look that much better.
31:44We'll recognize all those earnings
31:46at TBS.
31:48And because they do business with WCW
31:50we're going to move some of those losses over here
31:52so WCW's
31:54books look a little worse because we
31:56want it to go away anyway.
31:58You could have probably made it
32:00profitable if WCW
32:02charged a boatload
32:04of money for carrying wrestling
32:06to TNT
32:08and to TBS but because we
32:10wanted TNT and TBS
32:12to be much more profitable
32:14the license
32:16fee we paid was very low.
32:20And that was
32:22not my decision.
32:24They didn't care if they had
32:26to sacrifice WCW. That's kind of what they
32:28wanted to do all along anyway.
32:30There were people
32:32deconstructing WCW from a
32:34budgetary perspective right underneath
32:36everybody else's noses.
32:40The reason we became so successful
32:42is what, in retrospect, looked like
32:44bad deals. The no-cut
32:46contracts, creative controls
32:48and all those things were necessary to swing
32:50the immediate tide over.
32:52I guess you'd like me to sign that, wouldn't you, huh?
32:54Everybody
32:56was making seven figures
32:58plus.
33:00People know how much this guy's getting
33:02and they want to know why they're not getting as much.
33:04Just drew their money and did nothing.
33:06Oh, you work here? Oh,
33:08you've been collecting money for a year sitting
33:10on your ass.
33:12I can only imagine how much money
33:14went out. Like,
33:16they got what?
33:18I got a call from
33:20Harvey Schiller.
33:22Harvey said,
33:24Eric, I need you to come up to my office.
33:26Now, Harvey
33:28very rarely summoned me to his office.
33:30Essentially,
33:32Harvey brought me in
33:34to let me know
33:36that I had been under a
33:38forensic investigation
33:40by the FBI.
33:42He said,
33:44I need you to come up to my office.
33:47I had been under a forensic
33:49investigation
33:51for misuse of
33:53funds.
33:55I thought, this can't be real.
33:57Presumably, somebody
33:59had met an executive
34:01from Time Warner
34:03and laid out
34:05this crazy story.
34:07Eric's just handing out million-dollar contracts
34:09right and left. But this individual
34:11suggested that the reason I was doing that
34:13is because those wrestlers were giving me a kickback.
34:15So,
34:17Harvey proceeded to tell me how
34:19this
34:21forensic investigation proved
34:23that none of that was true.
34:25They wanted to come clean and also to let me know
34:27it was complete bullshit.
34:31That pissed me off.
34:33I didn't quit my job. I wish I would have.
34:35That was the
34:37moment that I quit
34:39being loyal to the company.
34:41Fuck them.
34:49When I think back on
34:51my career, there's always been a little
34:53bitterness about that time period.
34:55I had so many things left
34:57unfinished in my career,
34:59things I wanted to do.
35:01To watch what WCW did with me,
35:03it was sad.
35:07They're killing me off on purpose.
35:09And they did.
35:11I've always known
35:13that sooner or later
35:15I'd have to step in the ring
35:17with Bill Goldberg.
35:20How do you fight Bill Goldberg?
35:22He's like a gorilla.
35:24Slamming guys right through the mat,
35:26running them over like a car.
35:28I would pull him aside and say,
35:30I want to teach you how to
35:32actually not hurt guys.
35:34And when I walked out to the ring
35:36with Bill that night,
35:38I really looked him in the eye
35:40and said, don't hurt me out there.
35:42You need to trust me.
35:44And it all went
35:46in one ear and out the other.
35:48I really think Bill just saw me as another
35:50job guy.
35:52Someone that was cannon fodder.
35:54If you're watching that match,
35:56Bill goes, watch the kick.
35:58And I'm like,
36:00watch the kick.
36:02And I don't understand what he's doing.
36:04He kicked me
36:06as hard as he could.
36:08You could see me grab my neck.
36:10I was concussed.
36:12You should protect yourself.
36:14You knew the kick was coming.
36:16Right? It was in the deal.
36:18It was never talked about
36:20or explained to me.
36:22I do this move where I kick guys in the head
36:24as hard as I can.
36:26Nobody deserves that.
36:28But it was a freaking accident.
36:30Complete accident.
36:32It's a never-ending injury, you idiot.
36:34I somehow will myself to stand up
36:36to be run over by this imbecile.
36:41It was one of the saddest days of my life.
36:43And I knew my career was over.
36:45He never aspired to do anything else
36:47other than be that guy.
36:49I ended that for him.
36:51I've never been so remorseful
36:53and I have been for years.
36:55But fuck, man, I can't do anything else.
36:57Bill Goldberg was not qualified.
36:59But he's our star.
37:01They just
37:03look the other way.
37:05When you go through the type of brain injury
37:07that I went through,
37:09you're just grateful to be alive.
37:11From the very, very first second
37:13that I got here,
37:15I got screwed over
37:17and screwed over
37:19and screwed over.
37:21It was just such a lousy ending
37:23for such a great career.
37:26It just shows that WCW
37:28never really appreciated
37:30or understood the talent that they had.
37:32They dropped the ball with me
37:34and he knows it
37:36and I know it
37:38and fans know it.
37:40In the end,
37:42Eric Bischoff only can answer to himself.
37:46By the summer of 99,
37:48I was toast.
37:50I was frustrated, angry,
37:52demoralized.
37:54Lost hope.
37:56Once you lose that,
37:58it's pretty much over
38:00and that's where I was at.
38:02I was pretty disrespectful, intentionally.
38:04Because I always thought I had
38:06Ted's support in my back pocket.
38:08And I didn't know
38:10what was going on with Ted.
38:12So in October of 1996,
38:14the Turner-Time Warner
38:16merger was finalized.
38:18And famously, Ted Turner
38:20was not receptive to the idea at first.
38:22Big, huge company.
38:24A lot of money for dad.
38:26They needed him and he needed them
38:28but he deluded himself.
38:30He's losing more and more control.
38:32More control
38:34goes to the bureaucrats.
38:36More control goes to the executive types.
38:38He couldn't protect Eric.
38:40He couldn't protect anybody
38:42at that point.
38:44These fans love you. We want to see more of you.
38:46That was the opportunity so many people
38:48within Turner Broadcasting wanted
38:50and now finally had.
38:52I was out of ammunition.
38:54Out of everything.
39:02It was several years before
39:04I recognized just how much freedom
39:06I had and how unique
39:08of an opportunity I had.
39:10The freedom is what
39:12led to WCW being successful.
39:14The time I spent
39:16battling internally,
39:18it took the fun out of it for me.
39:20If it wasn't for the NWO
39:22and moi,
39:24none of you people would be here
39:26tonight.
39:28If I had to reflect back on that snapshot,
39:30summer of 99
39:32may have been one of the worst
39:34periods of my life.
39:36All the way across the board.
39:38September 10th, 1999, I get up like any other
39:40morning. I'm on my way to work
39:42and I get a phone call
39:44from Harvey.
39:48And Harvey said,
39:50Eric, you need to come to my office.
39:52I got to the
39:54CNET Center, went up to Harvey's office
39:56and he said, Eric,
39:58you need to go home.
40:00I said, Harvey,
40:02I'll get home in a little while
40:04but I've got a pay-per-view on Sunday.
40:12He said,
40:14not anymore.
40:16And that's when
40:18it dawned on me.
40:20And I'll be honest with you,
40:22it was a combination of
40:24confusion, because
40:26it hadn't quite sunk in,
40:28and relief.
40:34I wasn't disappointed.
40:36I didn't fight it.
40:38I was shocked.
40:40I was shocked.
40:42How many here had died, had been sad
40:44and then
40:46he beat him for 83 straight weeks?
40:48I did it!
40:50I did it!
40:52Pretty, pretty
40:54impressive record.
40:56What do you say about Eric Bischoff?
40:58It's what you call
41:00taking the bull by the horns.
41:02What Eric did was
41:04impossible, in spite of the
41:06fact that everybody was against him.
41:08I don't know how he
41:10didn't blow his brains out.
41:12This has got to be
41:14the most terrible circumstances for anybody to work in.
41:16I pulled into the driveway.
41:18He walks in the door and I asked him,
41:20what are you doing here? And I sat down at the kitchen table
41:22and I said, I got fired.
41:24I think he was a bit rattled.
41:26He says, what are you going to do?
41:28He got in his plane,
41:30threw his stuff in a bag and flew himself
41:32to Cody, Wyoming.
41:34The next day I was fishing
41:36right up the road from where I live right now.
41:42The fishing was awesome,
41:44by the way.
41:46It was awesome that day.
41:50I'll give Eric
41:52his props at the end of the day.
41:54It was his idea for the NWO.
41:56He did push the Luchadores.
41:58He did push Goldberg.
42:00Eric put the pieces of that puzzle together.
42:02And oh, it wasn't his money
42:04and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
42:06blah, blah, blah.
42:08He knew what he was doing.
42:11The moves he made
42:13by getting Hogan,
42:15Savage, Nash
42:17and the remake of Sting.
42:19There were so many good things he did.
42:21Wait a minute.
42:23I didn't get involved in his world.
42:25I didn't know the intricacies
42:27of the soap opera.
42:29Eric knew that.
42:31In those years that we were crushing it,
42:33Eric delivered
42:35exactly what I asked him to deliver.
42:37This is where the big boys play, huh?
42:39We ain't here to play.
42:41Hollywood at the helm.
42:43It's the NWO.
42:45No matter what you think
42:47about Eric later down the road,
42:49he really was one of those people
42:51who worked his butt off.
42:53He worked hard and he stayed at it.
42:55And he was great to work with.
43:01It is my honor
43:03and my privilege
43:05to introduce you to the man
43:07Vince Russo.
43:09He's the man
43:11behind all the storylines at WWE.
43:13Now we've got him.
43:15We've got their genius.
43:17He's using Jeff Jarrett's testicles
43:19for punching bags.
43:21His thing was let's get the audience
43:23that isn't watching wrestling.
43:25It was a lot of shock and awe.
43:27It made it not advertiser friendly.
43:29Eric's boys
43:31were not in tune
43:33with what Russo wanted.
43:35Vince Russo,
43:37you're going to fucking hell
43:39just for that.
43:41Those guys didn't want to give up
43:43their spots.
43:45Yeah, because we earned our spot.
43:47This is a
43:49television show.
43:51You want to go to a wrestling show, go to a house show.
43:53I think we're deviating from the script.
43:55What the hell is going on?
43:57That's going to go down as one of the most infamous moments
43:59in the history of television.
44:01That's why this company's in the damn shape it's in
44:03Bullshit like this.