During a recent episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast focusing on WCW Bash at the Beach 1995, Eric Bischoff discussed several topics, including his decision to serve as the play-by-play commentator for WCW Nitro instead of Tony Schiavone.
Regarding his choice over Tony Schiavone, Bischoff acknowledged Schiavone’s superior skills as a play-by-play announcer and his established connection with the WCW audience. However, Bischoff explained that he took on the play-by-play role primarily for two reasons. Firstly, he wanted to differentiate WCW Nitro from other shows and create a fresh viewing experience. He said,
“There were two reasons for me to put myself out in front of it. One is, I felt like we had to get away from — new show, new opportunity, it had to feel different than everything else we were doing. Much like we were just getting done discussing Collision and AEW. The same situation existed, right? ‘How do I make this feel so much different than WCW Saturday Night,’ which was our #1 show at the time?”
Secondly, he felt that he had a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve and believed he could better convey the desired energy and feeling to the audience. He stated,
“But the biggest reason I did it is because I’m not really good — and you may have noticed this in a lot of our other conversations about things non-wrestling related. If I have an idea in my head, I see it very clearly, almost three-dimensionally, right? I can move it around inside of my head and look at an idea from different angles, and I see it.”
Bischoff emphasized that he found it challenging to articulate the specific feeling and energy he envisioned for the show to Schiavone. To avoid constantly explaining and guiding Schiavone, Bischoff decided to take on the role himself. He said,
“But I’m not that good at articulating it. I have a hard time communicating with someone to help them see what I see in my head. And sometimes I get frustrated with myself. Not because — you know, it happens with my wife, three or four times a day sometimes. But I knew the feel, and that’s the part where it gets difficult for me to articulate. Feeling is different than, ‘Okay, you’ve gotta hit this at this point in time. You’ve gotta get this talent over because here’s the story we’ve gotta tell.’ Those are the basic mechanics of play-by-play. But the feeling, the energy that I knew we had to create with it, it was something that I couldn’t articulate to Tony. And I didn’t want to drag Tony through the process of sitting down after every episode and saying, ‘No, that was all good, but here, this is what I’m looking for.’ I could have and probably should have in some respects done that. But things were moving too fast, and I didn’t feel like I could get that part of my job done. So, it would just become natural for me ’cause I knew what I saw in my head. I knew that I could generate that same level of energy and help the audience see what I was seeing if I was doing it instead of explaining it.”
Regarding Jim Ross’ WCW exit at the time, Bischoff clarified,
“You know, unfortunately Jim Ross thought that I fired him because he sounded Southern. I didn’t fire him. Bill Shaw gave him an opportunity to leave because Jim Ross requested that. But the plan was to take JR off the broadcast team before Jim requested his release. And that wasn’t because I didn’t think Jim was a good announcer. Quite the contrary, I knew that Jim was a great announcer. It was because I felt we needed a change. And so, I checked the change box. Even though I had been associated with WCW and people recognized me as a B or C squad announcer, I wasn’t the face of anything. So, check that box.”
