Eric Bischoff knows all about leading a successful pro wrestling promotion. Bischoff currently keeps busy with a number of different business ventures — he's currently the Chief Media Officer of Real American Freestyle wrestling — but he'll always be best known for his work in the pro wrestling world.
It was Bischoff who led WCW as the dominant wrestling promotion for two years over Vince McMahon's WWE, winning the Monday Night Wars ratings battle for 83 consecutive weeks between Monday Night Nitro and Monday Night Raw.
The 70-year-old businessman obviously worked for the WWE as a prominent on-screen personality following WCW's closure during the 2000s, before playing a prominent role in TNA Wrestling with the late great Hulk Hogan during the early 2010s. Fast forward to the present day and one of his former employees in WCW, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, is leading things behind the scenes in WWE as the Chief Content Officer.
Bischoff details why the former pro wrestler is the right man to lead the WWE under the TKO banner.
“I'm blessed to have a couple relationships in WWE with people that are still some of my best friends,” Bischoff told ClutchPoints in a one-on-one interview. “I don't pick their brains and ask them about much. Typically just through casual conversation, you start talking about things that give me a sense of how things are going. I don't put people on the spot and ask them to expose their dirty laundry, even if they're some of my best friends. I don't do that, but I can tell by the conversations that I've had, and then combined with my own experience, I think there's nobody better than Paul Levesque in that position.”
Levesque is obviously known by most wrestling fans for his long career as a world champion and main event in the WWE. However, he stopped being a full-time performer back in 2010 and wrestled his final match back in 2019 after suffering heart failure a couple years later.
He's mostly operated in a backstage and on-screen persona role, acting in the lead creative role behind the scenes.
Recent reaction to Triple H has WWE's creative overseer has been a mixed bag, with many applauding his build to certain moments such as Cody Rhodes' path to winning his first world title at Wrestlemania 40. However, some have criticized his recent decisions, including John Cena's never-explained alliance with The Rock and Travis Scott during his heel turn. Many also criticized Cena tapping out in his final match to Gunther, which essentially ended his “Never Give Up” mantra that he echoed for two decades.
With that being said, WWE is in a great place financially, and they've never been bigger globally. They'll hold the prestigious annual Royal Rumble event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and will be in Europe all throughout January as they build to the Royal Rumble.
“That doesn't mean that I agree with everything that he does or says or I think every idea he comes up with is a great one,” said Bischoff of Triple H. “Nobody has that position, nobody holds that spot. If you're in the business of making creative decisions for a living at that high level, if you're lucky, you're going to hit a 50-50 average. There's nobody in the business of creating good ideas that hasn't also made a lot of bad ones.”
Bischoff pays major compliment to Triple H as a person in real life, mentioning how he doesn't drink or do drugs. Bischoff gave Triple H his first major job in wrestling in WCW in 1994.
“All that being said, Here's what I know about Paul — I gave Paul his first job, first real job in television when he came to WCW,” said Bischoff. “He doesn't drink, he never has, doesn't do drugs, never has. That's important in the entertainment business, by the way, that's not just a compliment. That's kind of an important thing. If you're going to be in it in a pretty length of time it. Because I've seen it take down a lot of people that were really talented. Here you got a guy that doesn't drink, that doesn't smoke, that absolutely loves professional wrestling, as we've come to know it over the decades. Loves it, studies it, really studies it.”
Bischoff hammers home that Levesque has the “best balance” of admirable traits that makes him the perfect guy to be leading the WWE. The former wrestling promoter feels the company is starting to hit the sweet spot of the right balance between storytelling and action in the ring.
“He's a walking, talking history book, and because of his in-ring experience and what he's experienced just being a professional himself, he's learned to apply a lot of the traditional formulas that will always work in wrestling, because traditional stories always work in any form of entertainment,” said Bischoff. “I think Paul has the best balance of story, character, tradition and finding what's next. That's exactly what that job requires. Because he's so disciplined, because of his lifestyle, because of his passion for professional wrestling, there's going to be people out there they'll come and go that maybe might be more creative. But you'll never find a better balance of the most important characteristics that someone would need to have in that role than you'll find in Paul.”
