The fact that Bischoff was directly responsible for Stone Cold Steve Austin is the ultimate karma

As hated as Bischoff may have been, without him wrestling might never have made it out of the 90s. Before Nitro began, wrestling was for kids and generally insulted its viewers intelligence. Bischoff forced wrestling to modernise its presentation, and even though WCW ultimately lost the war, it gave WWF/E a much-needed kick up the backside, producing arguably the best TV wrestling ever (1998-2001). Edit: Heyman has to take some credit too.

My favourite comment about Eric Bischoff came from Chris Jericho on the Rise and Fall of WCW dvd : "I don't know if he was drunk on power or just drunk!!"

The hilarious thing about the Blayze segment was the actual crowd did not give one single shit about it, and Bischoff proceeded to book Blayze even worse than the WWF had. She would later admit that the whole thing was a horrible mistake.

Bischoff was ruthless but at the same time, brilliant in the wrestling business. He left his fingerprints in WCW until it folded.

Eric Bischoff May have Arguably been the Most Hated Personality but Shawn Michaels has to be the Most Hated Fella Overall

Wasn't a WCW or ECW kid but I think we can all agree without Bischoff WCW pushing WWF and ECW being innovative and psychotic we wouldn't have gotten The Attitude Era and wrestling would be VERY different today than it is

Class by DDP, in having a cool head and not fighting him as well as help Eric out

You forgot to mention how Eric and Hogan almost killed Impact wrestling.

Dude. DDP's 80s mullet was fucking epic

I never actually hated ANYONE in professional wrestling. I always chose to separate the wrestler from the person in every facet of what i saw on TV back then. Social media and all these accesses did not exist so it was REALLY easy to be ignorant of the real facts behind the scenes, unlike today where if a performer farts backstage at least 3 people uploaded it to social media already. I liked Eric, because I think he enjoyed his character, but you could tell later on when the smile left his face it was no longer a choiceful act to do the things he had to. Listening to his podcasts, he's quite modest about his mistakes and plenty of them in his own words. I respect him more than any dislike for him now, but I loved his character.

Without Bischoff, WWF would've never came up with the Attitude Era to compete

Crazy to think Vince not hiring Eric in 1990 and jim Ross going to wwf in 1993 not long after changed the entire business years later and lead to the Monday night war

I still don't believe Hall (RIP) and Nash saying they "would have stayed" in WWE. If a company offers you more money, creative control, better merch deals and more days off.... essentially a better life there would be something very wrong if you turned that down.

Vince Russo was that era's most hated man. I like Bischoff and respect him for at least attempting to save WCW by trying to buy the damned thing Russo just killed off. Paul Heyman also pissed off a lot of his talent by not paying them too. He was hated by people like Tommy Dreamer who almost whacked him at a Wrestlemania and would of then took his own life. Yeah brutal.

I still can’t manage to hate Eric Bischoff. Anyone who can give Vince McMahon sleepless nights gets a hall pass from me.

Bischoff probably saved wrestling from fading into obscurity.

Bischoff today still feels that way about flair not being a draw. Crazy. Fr fr.

I am not Eric Bishoff's biggest fan, but the moment I knew he would be hated was the most honest moment of his entire pre-WWE career. When TLC did a documentary on pro-wrestling at the height of the Monday Night War, Bischoff legendarily stated that he was winning all of those weeks on "One third the WWF's budget." Eric was right, and he did allow more creative freedom during the 88 weeks.. something he really should have kept going. Things like Hogan and Piper pulling the end of Halloween Havoc 96, for example... also, shattering the myth that older wrestlers couldn't keep up...

Thanks to this video I just learned about the water bottle and broom auditions. Wow!

I hated how he forced Rey Mysterio to unmask on live TV

Bischoff has a lot in common with McMahon. They broke a lot of unspoken rules in their separate rises to power, which ultimately pushed the medium forward.

I would rather spend 1 min hanging out with the nature boy than a day with hulk hogan,

DDP is the realist ever and there's no RKOs outta nowhere without those many carats of Diamond Cutter. The one he hit on Eddie G. on Nitro the late 90s is STILL coldest shit I've ever seen on live TV 🤯

6:24 Did Jim Ross describe Bischoff as a “young punk” or are you describing Bischoff as a “young punk”? I ask because Jim Ross and Bischoff are basically the same age, lol. Even though JR (arguably) looks much older than Bischoff back in 1993, JR is only three years older than Bischoff. When these specific events were happening, Bischoff was in his late 30s and JR was in his early 40s.

The Monday night wars era and wcw are my favorite. It’s what I grew up on and have great memories of going to shows and meeting ddp.

Brilliant video, really enjoying your chanel

Bischoff basically did something similar to what mcmahon did but once it happens to McMahon he started whining, crying and lawsuits lmao

Very good video clips , 75 % video clip and 25 % photos . Keep going .

Until November 18, 1996 Eric wasn’t hated that much.

Another great mini doc.

One of my absolute heroes. I have lived, breathed, and bled WCW since January 1, 1996. WCW FOR LIFE!!!

Fantastic post - ty Sir :)

Sometimes I forget how jacked Scott Hall was in the day, sorely missed.🤘

As much as those who were the most hated, one thing they all did was bring something great to professional wrestling regardless

Great retrospective!

Tugboat/ shockmaster was hired and gone before Hogan was ever thought about jumping to WCW

The fact that he took the voice of wrestling Jr off of TV & fired stone cold Steve Austin is CRAZY lol I just know during the height of the attitude era Eric was MAD as heck about those decisions 😂 TRAGIC

FUN FACT: He stans for RFK Jr, so you can hate him now too!

Greetings from Germany and keep up uploadong the cool content,please! The Russo time of wcw is barely covered by youtube wrestling historians and didn't knew of the existence of the Crush/Bomb Tag team Kronik and this footage looks awesome. Hope I find on KZfaq something from them. Update; sorry as I wrote this comment I was on a wcw russo video and after the video switched in the playlist the comment landed accidently here!😂😅😊

Shockmaster was ALREADY in the WCW one year BEFORE Hulk Hogan... 7:21

Great video

You left out one huge part of the stone cold being fired from wcw part. And that was Austin got himself fired for insubordination over the phone heard by multiple wcw people. Bischoff called him and was talking to his wife as Austin refused to talk to Eric (his boss) and Eric wanted Austin to make none wrestling appearances for a wcw taping and Austin was heard in the background saying he wouldn't do it and cussed Eric out. Bischoff was right to fire him. Regardless Bischoff is a television and production genius.

Pure awesomeness my friend 👍👍

Eric bishoff was hated, but shawn Michaels was the most hated..love ur channel..👍

He also remained a heel after turning in 1996 a forgotten art.He never turned face after that turn

Nice information

Corny and Russo is the biggest feud but it's like one sided corny goes off the rails lol then Vince will just simply says I don't remember it happing like that then corny gets so enraged lmao

Half the people who left WWF to WCW either didn't succeed or succeed to due backstage politics/creative control. And it all went downhill to the decline of WCW.

Ironic he passed off the man who would be part of his undoing - Steve Austin. Further, that was f'd what he did to Jericho and likely other wrestlers.

I don’t hate 90s bischoff, but I can’t stand him now. He made a lot of real stupid calls back in the day and nowadays he does whatever he can to claim that all the bad ideas were someone else’s fault or that the audience just didn’t understand what he was up too. We get it Eric, you stole an idea from a Japanese promotion and then drove it into the ground while inserting yourself into it… because you had no idea what to do with it after that.

i remember hearing about a recent book on wcw and what really happened into their cancellation as many blamed jamie kellner for cancelling wcw programming from turner. well, it turned out that he had no choice because of bischoff who wanted to buy the TV time slots for wcw and if things weren't going good for WCW. bischoff would still have those time slots and put in something else as kellner realized that bischoff was putting wcw into a no-win situation as he made that choice to cancel wcw. after hearing and then reading about kellner's decision. i can't say i don't blame him as wcw was a drain for warner at that time and the ratings were already on a nose dive. bischoff would've made things worse if he owned it and those time slots as it would've lost warner even more money as that merger with AOL was already a disaster.

Let this be a lesson: Be careful how you treat people. You never know who you may cross paths with down the line.

The irony of it is that unlike other of Vince McMahon's rivals, Bischoff was never given the "disrespected" treatment at all. Heck, petty ire was mostly directed at Ted Turner rather than Bischoff when WWE wanted to take shots at WCW. So while they were competing head-on for TV ratings, I guess McMahon has some level of respect for Bischoff, since they both had similar gung ho, "I do as I please" attitudes. It is said that Stone Cold Steve Austin's character is actually much closer to Vince's persona than the "Mr McMahon" character he played, and there is some truth. Vince literally does as he pleases with scant regard to consequences, though his later years are more often associated with the negative side of this persona. Speaking of Austin and Bischoff, if I told you the two mended fences while working as co-GMs on RAW, you'd probably laugh me out of a building. However, this is actually true. Bischoff was invited onto Austin's podcast as a guest, and both admitted their faults when it came to Austin's dismissal from WCW.

He did set things on motions. There was no going back. He should have moved wcw to another night during austin- mcmahon fude. So many wrestles like chyna and owen hart alongside wcw would still be alive.

Where would wwe be without Eric or Paul Heyman?

I believe Vince Russo was the 90s most hated man in wrestling.

WCW buying Brett Hart only to tank his career was so stupid. He should have never left WWF

Someone at WWF is a genius. Send loyal friends to ask for ridiculous contracts. When the best younger talent switches companies your mid card is beating their main event.

The craziest thing is that Bischoff's decisions were so bad that I didn't know who he even was until now.

Vince Russo definitely is a very close runner up in this category ! Just ask Jim Cornette! 😂😂😂😂

Ted DiBiase was also mad a him bc he made him a virgil for nWo

It's crazy to see Stone Cold as anyone else but Stone Cold 😮😮😮😮

100% was Vince

"Was"?

He isn't the most hated. Not while Vince Russo still lives and breathes 😅

This is one of the rare times Vince McMahon was the good guy in the situation. Jesus Christ what a scumbag

90’s Eric Bischoff was awesome. Current Eric Bischoff was…a broken man who can’t shut his mouth on criticizing AEW and Tony Khan.

I’m still waiting for Ming’s head on a silver platter…

I think if more people actually listened to what Bischoff says rather than going in automatically assuming he's just lying then more people will actually understand that he may have not done the best on the wrestling side of things but my god did he do wonders on the business & television side of things as well as working under restrictions especially after AOL bought Time Warner because in all reality AOL killed WCW, not Russo not Bischoff not anything or anyone else. It was the AOL Time Warner merger & that executives who didnt even watch the product told Eric "Hey because of sponsors we want to keep we need you to tone WCW down. The thing that brings in the ratings we kinda need you to do the opposite"

I watched Nitro religiously in hopes to see Eric get his ass beat lol. Man he was a good heel during the NWO days.

I get the impression Bischoff was a wimpy yes man for Hogan and the other over-the-hill ex-WWF superstars. He was more than happy to pick on the younger guys (the ones he should have been pushing), but he just let the crappy old guys walk over him.

Now bros a 58 ovr 😭

A Pure Genius

At least Ventura got paid for 6 months to stay home. 9:51. WCW was great at paying talent not to work. For example, Lanny Poffo and Iron Sheik.

Thought he still is

How the hell do you screw up a wrestler the calibre of Bret Hart. Completely embarrassing.

If the fans only knew Bobby talbert would top the lust. Check vince’s bastard son’s IMDb.

The fact that Eric misued the most over babyface ever after Montreal screw job and blames Bret for it is the dumbest sh!t ever. If someone was smarter was there like idk Paul heyman then maybe we be getting starrcade 35 or smth rn.

Well I'm convinced WWF put British wrestling out of business so what goes around comes around. Granada cancelled British wrestling off TV in 1988, the same year Sky brougjt WWF to British satellite. Two years later Grenada have got shares in Sky TV... But the thing that gets me is there's never been a real reason for cancelling British wrestling, as it was still going strong and some claim the strongest/Best wrestling company in the world. Now doesn't that seem a little bit suspicious? And I don't care about conspiracies or what people think.. the dates are just too coincidental.

Much of his success really came down to ted turners money allowing him to bring in ex-wwf talent. It was good for wrestling though as the attitude era began with Stone cold becoming a massive draw for the business. I was never a big of WCW always felt it was bad. Good for fans because after WCW fell wrestling started a large decline for me.

I hate EB right now, today.

Perhaps he is the most hated if your last name is McMahon or you're a massive mark for the WWE. The truth is though that Eric revolutionized the industry and made WCW better than anything we had seen before or since. 96-99 in WCW was wrestling's peak - that is why the McMahon marks hate him so much.

You know they talk all crap about Eric but Vince has done way more sneaky underhanded stuff worse than Eric but it's always Eric. Brett calls him a maggot but Eric made him richer than Vince and did nothing close to the screw job Vince did. Too many people have their heads up their butts. Oo and he made the NWO Vince never made anything as big as that not even 80s Hogan.

I liked Eric not big fan of Russo tho

Too bad Bischoff was always blowing Hogan.

Not so much costly mistake to Vince. As in the end, WCW declined and Vince brought the company.

I’d argue Vince Russo is more hated.

Bischoff's misuse of Bret Hart was absolutely criminal. Had the hottest star in the world and did nothing with him. Hart's WCW debut could've been better written by a 10-year-old. Hogan/NWO was the only thing Bischoff cared about in the company.

Out of all people you threw out The Rock? No wonder WCW went out of business.

Hated by 12 year old WWF fans.

Look... despite how ruthless bitchoff was, he still lost! It was just a matter of time tbh, fkin robocop appearing as a glorified kaneo partner etc COME ON 😂😂

butthe real most hated man in wrestling is Vince Russo

Like him or not, wrestling would not be what it is now with Eric's influence on the busines. Period. He mopved the needle. There would be no NWO, one of the biggest things in the history of the business, and WWE would still be churning out silly trash collector and voodoo witch doctor characters for 7 year olds.

the death of wcw was the worst thing that happened to wwe in a round about way

2 words - Starrcade 1997

No way bud. Eric wasn't "The most" hated, he may have ended up mostly disliked by many people but the man was probably single handedly responsible for making WCW nearly dominate all of wrestling. Vince Russo is much, much worse. Every promotion Russo touched turned to garbage and even when he was in The WWF(E) the only reason he had any success with The Attitude era was because there were other people there to restrain his madness. It can be argued that he helped utterly destroy WCW from 1999-2001, to the point where network executives didn't want "wrestling" i.e. "Russo's Car Crash Wrestling Federation" to be shown on their networks. Mr. Bischoff even tried to purchase WCW in its dying days but when the Networks stated that they wouldn't sign any deals with WCW, his investors and he pulled out. After that, Vince McMahon bought WCW and ever since then Professional Wrestling has steadily been in a nose dive of popularity. Did Bischoff ruin WCW? No, he probably saved it for awhile until he got tunnel vision in regards to The NWO. The advent of Vince Russo was the biggest mistake in WCW history. I was an exclusive WCW fan from 1996-2001 and I can remember that as soon as the logo changed and the storylines became stupid and juvenile, I would find myself switching the channel with a heavy heart to the competition.

Most hated... No! Vince Russo, AKA $#it$tain oh hell yeah!!!

Thought erryone knew by now that it was the higher ups (execs) that ruined WCW. Bischoff is just a scapegoat for all to blame