On this week’s episode of “83 Weeks,” Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson talk about TNA Hard Justice 2010 and all of the news that was happening in wrestling around that time.
Here are some highlights from the podcast:
Eric Bischoff explained Jason Hervey’s role in TNA: “Initially, when I first started talking to Dixie (Carter) and Jeff (Jarrett), Jason’s name never came up. There was never an intention to bring Jason Hervey in. But, Jason and I had been working together and we were having a tremendous amount of success in the unscripted television area in terms of creating and producing and selling shows to networks. Jason and I were tight. We worked well together. We had different skill sets that complemented each other. When it came time to write a contract and I had Jason’s brother, Scott Hervey, who is Jason’s and I’s attorney who had been doing a lot of our television deals, I had him write my contract for TNA. When it came time, because of the nature of my relationship with Jason, first as friends, and then as business partners, we split everything down the middle. We didn’t worry who came up with an idea or if he worked more time on one show or I worked more time on the other show. We worked, had fun, and split everything right down the middle. When it came time to write my deal with TNA and put it to paper, I had to make a decision. Do I allow this opportunity, TNA, become the only thing that I’m doing that I don’t share with my partner or do I figure out a way to bring my partner into it? I chose to bring my partner into it. He doesn’t have any wrestling experience, but he is a really good producer, one of the best I’ve ever worked with. Do I let this become the one thing that puts any tension at all between Jason and my working relationship? He produced talent. He produced a lot of backstage segments. He didn’t come up with ideas. He didn’t come up with angles. That wasn’t his role or his interest or his skill. His strength was taking an idea and I would say, here are these two pieces of talent. We have to get some compelling interviews or promos out of them, or a backstage scene. This is that scene. This is what we hope to achieve. This is where we are at in the arc and go do it. He would come back with some great stuff. He was one of the best producers and directors TNA ever had in my opinion.”
Bischoff talked about Hernandez’s inability to cut a promo: “I liked the guy on a personal level. He had a lot of good characteristics. He had a lot of things going for him. He was absolutely horrified to talk on a mic. You put a microphone in front of him and his head would spin off his shoulders. He just couldn’t do it. I’m not saying he was bad at it. I’m saying it was impossible for him to cut a promo. Impossible. He would damn near have a seizure as he would be so nervous about it. It was that bad. He wasn’t the greatest worker in the ring. He was passable. He was a little like Bill Goldberg in a sense. If you kept his move set down to a few and made sure he was really strong and didn’t put him in a position to sell a lot, as a performer, you can do some great things with him. He had a cool look. But, man, you couldn’t do a promo with him. There were a lot of things you couldn’t do with him. Dixie loved him. Dixie was enamored with him as a character. I don’t know what the relationship was like. I never saw them spending a lot of time together. I don’t know how well she really knew him or how well he knew her, but, I knew she really wanted that Hispanic star. She wanted to have a Hispanic star. There is nothing wrong with that, but Hernandez just wasn’t the guy no matter how hard she tried, and she did try.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
