A celebrated WWE Hall of Famer and a former general manager, Eric Bischoff is widely known as one of the crucial figures in giving Vince McMahon a fight during the late 1990s Monday Night War between WCW Monday Nitro and WWE's Monday Night RAW.
However, despite WCW Nitro beating RAW for 83 consecutive weeks in ratings, it suffered a drastic fall in the late 90s, following which it failed to beat Vince McMahon's promotion ever again. And years later, it was ultimately acquired by McMahon.
In an exclusive interview with ClutchPoints, Bischoff was questioned about decisions he would have doubled down on during his tenure leading WCW, or perhaps abandoned entirely.
“You know, there are always things that if you could go back in time and have an opportunity to have a redo, if you will. There are things I'd probably wanna tighten up. Nothing stands out. You know, I probably would have handled the nWo much differently than I did,” Bischoff said.
However, as he continued sharing his insights, the Hall of Famer conceded that he felt hiring WWE legend Bret Hart was a “mistake.”
“I probably would never have hired Bret Hart, which was a mistake in the first place,” Bischoff conceded. “There are some things like that. You know, I probably would've skipped the whole Ultimate Warrior experience because, you know, that just didn't make sense or work out. But, you know, beyond some of those things, I'm pretty satisfied with what we did.”
Eric Bischoff gets honest on the infamous ‘Fingerpoke of Doom'
In the same interview, Bischoff also opened up and shared his honest thoughts on the “Fingerpoke of Doom.” While many believe it to be the downfall of WCW, Bischoff holds other thoughts.
“You know, the ratings went up after the FingerPoke of Doom. Ticket sales went up after the Finger Poke of Doom. Pay-per-view buy rates stayed up after the Finger Poke of Doom. So I think, again, you have these internet wrestling fans who live in their own little isolated bubble, and they imagine these things in their minds, and all of a sudden it becomes a narrative on the internet.
“But the Finger Poke of Doom wasn't the beginning of the downfall of WCW. It was just one dumb idea in a whole bucket full of really good ideas and some other really bad ideas,” Bischoff concluded.
