This week on “83 Weeks” on AdFreeShows.com, WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff talked about Disco Inferno’s WCW career and why he ultimately fired Disco. Also during the podcast, Bischoff revealed that he had talks with with Mark Burnett years ago about Lucha Underground:
“I don’t know if I ever told you this, but I almost went to work for them. I had a meeting, maybe two meetings with them, and Mark Burnett was involved. I had met with Mark and done some things with Mark previously, so I took the meeting and was kind of interested. They didn’t offer me a job, but I love the idea of it. Again, it was different. It was taking wrestling in a different direction, not to compete with the traditional wrestling format, but to be kind of added value, so to speak. I liked the idea of it. I don’t know if it was given enough time, or if the people involved kind of hit a limit in terms of what they could do with it creatively, or if it was a financial issue. I don’t know anything about the end result of Lucha Underground, but conceptually, I really thought it was kind of a cool idea. I did watch some of it, and I liked it and it was different. At least it captured my imagination.”
On if he feels something like Lucha Underground could work today:
“Something like it could, sure. I mean, there’s so much wrestling out there right now between WWE, AEW, TNA, whoever else is out there. There’s a lot of wrestling on television, and it’s all essentially the same. Some of it is way better than others, but essentially it’s the same thing. I think if somebody came along and could figure out, from a production point of view, how to present the product in a completely different way so it isn’t really trying to compete with traditional wrestling as we know it on television, but just provide something that’s a little unique and different, I think there’s an opportunity there. If I was a network executive and somebody came to me with an idea that was pretty well thought out and we’re able to answer a lot of the production questions that would come along with something like this, because it’s a highly intensive production. One of the reasons that wrestling has been so successful for so long on television is relatively speaking, it’s inexpensive as hell to shoot. Once you start going off into the cinematic world, that changes dramatically the amount of time it takes for pre-production. You’re making little movies every week, and that’s a whole lot different than showing up and shooting wrestling matches in the ring. It would be cool if somebody could figure it out. It’s a tough one to figure out, though. It’s expensive.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
