Eric Bischoff(I)

Eric Bischoff was born on May 27th, 1957, in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and a minor in radio, television and film. He ran a successful construction company and pitched low-level marketing ideas to buyers until joining the American Wrestling Alliance in the late 80s. The company was falling into a black hole, and AWA CEO Verne Gagne gave the company to Eric when it was beyond repair (the AWA folded in 1991). After trying in vain to get a job at the WWF, the wrestling business's top federation, Bischoff joined World Championship Wrestling, a failing company owned by Ted Turner. After paying attention to the mistakes of those in power at WCW, Eric was promoted to Senior Vice President of WCW. In 1994, he signed the WWF's top draw, Hulk Hogan. Subsequent signings of wrestling legends Randy Savage, Lex Luger, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, and Roddy Piper later followed. In 1995, the same year that WCW returned a profit for the first time in its history, Eric Bischoff convinced Ted Turner to give him a prime-time slot in order to compete with the WWF's top show, "Monday Night Raw". Thus the birth of WCW Nitro, wrestling's first week-to-week live prime time show. Insiders predicted short and certain death for WCW, as no other wrestling company had ever successfully competed with the WWF. In its first week, Nitro beat out WWF Raw in the Nielson Ratings. Eric Bischoff served as the head commentator on the show and shockingly declared war on the WWF by giving away the results to the WWF's taped shows and publically insulting their direction. On his 39th birthday in 1996, Bischoff revealed a WWF main-eventer, Scott Hall, to be working for WCW. It was an angle that led to the reason wrestling hit its boom period... the New World Order (or nWo, a heel faction that Bischoff eventually joined). The angle was immediately successful, and secured WCW's spot as the new number one wrestling promotion in America. WCW Nitro defeated WWF Raw by a wide margin for 95 consecutive weeks in the ratings. In 1997, the WWF came its closest to going out of business. Their top star and champion, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, left for WCW in November, under extremely controversial circumstances which left WWF owner Vince McMahon looking shady and deceitful. Insiders predicted it as the final nail in the coffin for the WWF, but amazingly, McMahon was able to capitalize on his bad reputation by playing it off on television in a much-publicized angle with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. This, coupled with the shocking "crash TV" gimmicks developed by then-head WWF writer Vince Russo (who Bischoff would later work alongside), allowed the WWF to finally compete with WCW again. It was a see-saw battle between WCW and the WWF in 1998, with the WWF gaining the upperhand by the year's end, and eventually being secure in its #1 spot by mid-99. Meanwhile Eric Bischoff, who was known for his smugness towards the competition, suddenly had to contend with not only the WWF growing in popularity, but also with the new "higher ups" at TNT who wanted to produce "family entertainment". Under these crippling restrictions, anyone would (and did) fail when trying to compete with the lewd WWF: Eric was relieved of his duties as WCW president on September 10th, 1999, after years of being seen as the WCW savior, once dubbed by sheet-writer Wade Keller as "the executive with the Midas-touch". When followers to his position only worsened the state of WCW, shockingly, Bischoff was brought back on April 10th of 2000, exactly six months after being demoted. Eric was to work alongside creative director Vince Russo (who had jumped ship from the WWF), but after disputes, Eric quietly walked away after seven weeks on the job. He returned in late 2000 with financial backers, Fusient Media Ventures, to purchase WCW from Time Warner. The deal was allegedly sabotaged, and Eric lost the company to the WWF. He then took some time off from wrestling to work on other television projects. In 2003, the unthinkable occurred: Eric was hired as an on-air talent by his old rival Vince McMahon, whose (renamed) WWE was nowhere near as popular as it had been during the famous "Monday Night Wars". On the February 23rd addition of RAW, Bischoff is finally scheduled to face McMahon in a match. Although Eric Bischoff is a solid talent in the WWE, his arrogance is more contrived than it had been during his glory years as the young, successful, in-your-face head of the only wrestling company to ever overtake the WWF as the top promotion in the business. Eric has truly changed the wrestling world and is second only to Vince McMahon in terms of overall importance to the current landscape. McMahon credits Bischoff for lighting a fire under the WWF and forcing it to revamp its style to fit with the times. Bischoff was a visionary and an innovator whose contributions are widely acknowledged and embraced. He currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife, Loree, and two children, Garett and Montanna.