Eric Bischoff says WWE is at risk of doing to the Bloodline what he did to the nWo, and that continuing to expand the group will leave people thinking less of a story he rates among the best wrestling has produced.
Bischoff made the comparison on 83 Weeks with Conrad Thompson after SummerSlam, and opened by heading off the assumption that he defends everything WWE does.
“I know that’s not what you’re expecting because apparently people think that I support everything WWE, which is clearly not the case. But yeah, I give an honest opinion and I look at things from a business perspective, so which probably puts me on the WWE side of the equation for obvious reasons because they’re doing really really well, but there are things like this that I just shake my head at.”
He was clear about what he thinks of the story itself.
“You know how much I put over the Bloodline story. I to this day, in this moment, I believe it’s really one of the best stories that have ever been told in wrestling for a lot of different reasons. But it’ll never have the impact of the nWo for a variety of other reasons.”
Then he turned it on himself. Bischoff expanded the nWo into rival factions in 1998, a decision that has followed him around for nearly thirty years.
“But like the nWo, which yours truly, you know, I nosedived it by, you know, growing it too big and the, you know, the red and white, the Wolf Pack and derivatives of the original nWo. Too many guys into it diluted the significance of it. Okay, you got me on that. I did that, but because I did that, because it’s so obvious, why is WWE doing the same thing?”
His position is not that the story should have been avoided, but that it needs either a new idea or an ending.
“If they can come up with a compelling story that makes it feel new, I’m in, because we know that the the creative team has the ability. We’ve seen it before. They’ve demonstrated their prowess, so we know it can happen. Doesn’t happen every time, but it can. The potential’s there, and if they come up with a great story, they can because the potential’s there, and make them feel fresh. Boom, I’m in.”
“But if they keep doing what I did, which is riding it till it dies, essentially, it people will reflect back on the bloodline storyline and have a less favorable opinion of it. Not because it wasn’t a great story that achieved all the things that a great story needs to achieve in order to be considered one of the best stories that have ever been told, achieved a lot of those things, if not all of those things.”
He reached for a boxing comparison to make the point about stopping.
“But it’s kind of like a fighter that just refuses to retire, and goes out there and gets manhandled by somebody 25 years younger. If they would have just stopped two or three fights earlier, they’d be legends. Now they’re footnotes, and that’s what will happen to the bloodline story if they don’t come up with a way to either make it more exciting and interesting and live up to the expectation that they’ve already created with the audience.”
“People like yours truly. I have an expectation. It’s your fault. You got me there before. Now get me there again. If not, leave it alone. Come up with something fresh. Go a different direction.”
Asked what the story would have been without Paul Heyman, Bischoff said it would not have worked at all, and gave Sami Zayn the credit for the point at which he personally bought in.
“Well, definitely without Heyman. He was the glue. He he he was the he was the he was the catalyst. He was the glue, and he was the propellant. You know, he’s the reason it all happened. He was he he was the the Wizard of Oz behind the scenes, a master manipulator that had this familial-like relationship, you know, with with his his guys.”
“Sami did such a phenomenal job. He made you believe, even if you weren’t already, you know, on the team, so to speak, with the Bloodline, and you weren’t already a huge fan. Boom, Sami kicked it up another notch. That’s why, and that’s particularly the addition of his Sami’s performance in particular. Yes, is what made me really engage in the Bloodline story. The rest of it, I’d seen versions of it before. I kind of was part of something that was a version of it before the template, just the faction thing, the similarities, but the way it was executed, the depth, and from my perspective, again, business, the story elevated so many people.”
“I mean, nWo did too, but not like this. The number of people that really was were able to step up in a relatively short period of time with a lot of focus on them while they were doing it. It was very very impressive from a business perspective.”
Roman Reigns retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins in the main event of SummerSlam night two, in a match built around Shield callbacks and finished with no outside interference.
