During the latest edition of his “After 83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff commented on Bruce Prichard taking over for Paul Heyman on RAW, why the changes don’t matter, & more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On how much he respects Paul Heyman: “I really, really respect Paul Heyman. I got to know him a little bit more, and I worked with Paul since 1987 and we’ve crossed paths many times, but I really didn’t get to know him until my last stint in WWE and my opinion of his creative skills will not be diminished by whatever his role happens to be at this moment. He’s a really talented dude. He’s quirky as shit. He’s got his own thing. Most really highly creative, highly aggressive people do. And Paul was a handful but in a fun and positive way for me. Not in a negative way or challenging way but in a way that kind of made you better because he made you think. Paul’s a friend of mine, I’m fully supportive of Paul.”
On how Bruce Prichard will know how to take advantage of the resources within his grasp: “And Bruce is probably one of my best friends to this day, and obviously I fully support Bruce, but Bruce is an architect more than a creative mind, but Bruce being a good architect will know how to take advantage of the resources within his grasp and he will do a great job, beyond that, I don’t know what to say. Well, I do know what to say. Really fucking glad I’m in Wyoming right now.”
On what advice he would give Heyman now: “I don’t think there’s any words of wisdom that would have much value to Paul Heyman. Paul’s a really smart guy, he’s been around the business longer than I have and has been involved, in many ways, more than I have at various levels, and successfully. So I have no word of advice for Paul other than, and Paul already knows this, I’m not saying anything Paul doesn’t already know, this too shall pass, it’ll pass quickly, and there will be another opportunity tomorrow, so just lay low.”
On how some people give Heyman more credit than he should get for some things: “One of the things Paul Heyman has done very well for a long time is kind of develop a one on one relationship with the audience. He’s successfully, in his own way, and not in a nefarious, underhanded way, he’s been very obvious about it, but Paul Heyman has connected to the audience in a way that kind of transcends some of the normal things that a lot of other people have to deal with. He’s an icon to many, many people. In the eyes of many wrestling fans, Paul can do no wrong, and that’s not true, Paul can do wrong, just like we all can, Paul’s just a human being. He’s a very creative, talented human being, but he’s still a human being that has flaws. But Paul is on such a pedestal that people tend to give him a little bit more credit than they should for some things.”
On how ultimately Vince McMahon makes the major creative decisions so it doesn’t matter who is in charge of RAW or Smackdown creative: “It really doesn’t matter who is in charge of Smackdown, who is in charge of RAW. You can bring in Steven Spielberg and have him take the Bruce Prichard spot. And guess what? Whatever the creative that happens to make its way to one person, it doesn’t matter, it’s gonna get filtered by that one person. And that one person is going to have the dominant influence on the product we see. That’s the nature of the beast. Not a criticism. They’ve turned themselves, pre-covid, into a $5 billion market cap publicly held company in the world of professional wrestling that nobody who is really honest to themselves on the face of this Earth would have ever even imagined 20 years ago.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
