Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson covered WCW Sin 2000, one of the final WCW pay-per-views before the company was bought by WWE.
WCW Sin featured Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett, Sid Vicious, and Road Warrior Animal in a Four Corners Match for the WCW Championship and many fans say that WCW was starting to improve around this time but it was too late as the company was on its last legs.
Bischoff was asked what he thought of Mike Sanders as commissioner in WCW: “Mike Sanders was a very talented guy. I just think that there had been so much of Eric Bischoff and so much of Vince McMahon that it would be hard for anybody to grab a hold of that particular type of character and be able to do a good enough job that he wasn’t going to be automatically compared to, at this point, Vince McMahon. It was a really tough spot for Mike Sanders to be in. It didn’t help that while he was the commissioner and the authority figure, Ric Flair was the CEO and was the one who was really calling the shots so his role was confusing and diluted from the very get go. Being overshadowed by authority figures before him certainly didn’t make things any easier. So, it was a tough spot for him to be in. I’m not sure why they did it, but again, he did the best he could with what he had. He is a very talented guy on the mic. That was evident but he just didn’t work for me in this role, maybe for the reasons that we just discussed.”
Bischoff gave his thoughts on Shane Douglas coming back to WCW after his ECW run: “Timing is everything. I just don’t think the timing for Shane Douglas in WCW was optimal. I think if Shane would have come in two years sooner, I think things would have been a lot different. I think Shane, physically, was closer to his peak a couple years before he got to WCW. I think he was on the downward trend in terms of his abilities in the ring. He had slowed down a little bit, got older, and put on some weight. It happens when as get older. It’s life. I think two, three, or four years earlier, he was a different wrestler Shane Douglas in the ring. He was fluid. He could remind you from time to time of a young Ric Flair or a Ricky Steamboat. I’m not saying he was on their level, but he was that fluid. He was that capable. Here, he looked like he had run out of gas and was going to be relegated to hardcore matches the rest of his life. I think if the timing would have been a little bit better for him and WCW would have been more stable, you know, Shane came in at a pretty unstable time in WCW which didn’t help him at all. It didn’t provide the best opportunity for Shane either. I’m not suggesting this was Shane’s fault at all. I liked Shane and thought a lot of him as a performer and a talent. I just think the timing was wrong for him in WCW.”
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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
