Eric Bischoff and Shawn Michaels....

[Guest BifEverchad]

Tonight on TSN, before WWE RAW there will be two One-on-One Interviews with Eric Bischoff and Shawn Michaels. Just a little reminder to those who wanna check it out. Should be interesting, OTR always has great wrestling shows.

 

Eric Bischoff will be on at 8pmEST and Shawn Michaels will be on at 830pmEST.

 

 

http://www.tsn.ca/shows/otr/

[Guest RugbyDiva]

Thanks for the reminder!

[Guest bob_barron]

I'll provide recaps like I did for the other wrestling guests

[Guest AM The Kid]

Thanks Bob, it's appreciated.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Yah thanx Bob. It's the same time as Boston Public and a man has priorites...and HBK is not one of them.

[Guest CanadianChris]

They were pimping this interview as "Shawn Michaels like you've never seen him before," that he'd done a complete 180. That came complete with a clip that showed Shawn admitting to being in on Montreal.

 

Should be interesting.

[Guest Lord of The Curry]

According to Live Audio Wrestling HBK comes off as humble, smart and a real class act. AKA, not the HBK we've known for a while. Then again, Marek is a putz so it's very much like him to overrate stuff.

[Guest bob_barron]

Well I love Boston Public too but it's always interesting to here HBK's bullshit.

 

First guest: Eric Bischoff.

 

Landsberg claims Bischoff owes him $5 over a wager they had on the ratings war. Bisch gives him $5 US.

 

Bischoff says he likes wrestlers to stay in character and he fells when characters go out and reveal too much that you lose some mystique. Landsberg asks if he shares that view with Vince and Bischoff says he's never talked to him about it. Bischoff doesn't think them exposing the business is too helpful.

 

Bischoff says he enjoys working with Vince. He called him focused and intense and very demanding. He's a perfectionist but he likes that envrionment. It doesnt bother him working for Vince and he views as an opportunity. He has other projects that he's doing outside of WWE. He's very comfortable. Bischoff said he wouldnt want to go back to being behind the scenes. He said it was very difficult- it's not just going on the Internet and pitching some ideas. You have to be dedicated 24-7. He says he has the best of both worlds because if he has an idea he can pitch it.

 

He says he isn't happy about not getting WCW and he really wanted to reacquire it. He moved on. Bischoff says he is a wrestling guy- He loves being in front of the crowd and getting them to react- he compares it to KISS being on a farewell tour for 4 years. It's too addicting. Bischoff agrees with Landsberg that he's driven by his ego. His ego demands that he provides for his family.

 

Bischoff says he was not running WCW when it failed. The reason WCW failed because he left the company in 1999 according to him. He says a lot of people dont know what their facts are. He knew WCW was going downhill in mid-1998 when the company was profitable and he was getting away with murder. When Turner merged with Time Warner everyone started changing how they did business. It went from entraprenurial to bureaucratic. It became impossible to get things done. When accountings were telling him how to write his show- he knew they were going under.

[Guest bob_barron]

And we're back.

 

They show a clip of Eric Bischoff saying 'Tuesdays used to be fun.

 

Bisch laughs about his haircut. Bischoff agrees that he should've managed the egos better. It was that way when he came in 1991. He was never able to change it. Part of the problem was the guaranteed contracts. Landsberg mentions Hogan but Bischoff says he wasn't talking about him. Hogan's creative control never became an issue and he was the easiest person to work with. Bret Hart was very easy to work with and they get along on a personal level. He agreed that he didnt know what to do with him in WCW and that he didn't have the passion because of Montreal and Owen. Bischoff says he didnt bring him in just to continue the saga.

 

Landsberg mentions that he recognised Austin's talent. Bischoff says he was a talent and says revisionist history is wrong. He let Steve go, not because he didnt think he was a star but because he had a lot of nagging injuries. He got the sense that Austin was less then thrilled about emphasis was being placed on Hogan and he said he wasn't easy to work with. Once they had Steve scheduled for an interview when he was hurt and Steve no-showed. They called Austin and got his wife and in the background they heard Austin cursing at them. He did what he had to do legally in terms of firing him via mail.

 

They asked about the Austin stuff. Bischoff says they don't know each other to well and his personal life is none of his business or concern.

 

Break.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I get the impression Bisch doesn't like Austin too much.

 

Probably for some very valid reasons, I might add.

[Guest bob_barron]

And we're back.

 

Bischoff says he loves the wrestling envrionment but he's not a social person. He doesn't socialise with people very much except for his wife and kids. He didn't want to be one of the guys. There are a few wrestlers that are his friends but not because their wrestlers.

 

Bischoff said he didn't know whether Vince was perfectly suited for wrestling. He doesn't have beers with Vince after the show and doesn't know if he does have beer with anyone after the show. He said he works 20 hrs a day and he doesnt know about his social life.

 

Bischoff thinks his fingerprints all over WWE. He thinks RAW is live every week b/c of Nitro. He takes credit for the cruiserweight division on SD!. Bischoff didnt want to call cruisers 'lightheavyweights' or 'junor heavyweights' b/c it's belittling him. He doesn't think the Nitro Girls changed sex in the industry. He doesn't think the Nitro Girls were overtly sexual.

 

Break.

[Guest bob_barron]

And we're back.

 

Landsberg congratulates him on coming back and asks if he wants to make any more bets but Bischoff turns him down.

 

Bischoff said if he was at the top the only thing he would do differently would be to further the brand extension. He says the business endures and is never going to go away. When it was competition it happened very rapidly but now it's more challenging.

 

Chris Jericho

An interesting performer

 

Paul Heyman

Very intelligent.

 

Ric Flair

Consumate professional.

 

Scott Hall

Sad story.

 

Dennis Rodman

A riot.

 

They played a clip of Bischoff calling Landsberg an idiot. Bischoff said he was excited about Wrestlemania and it will be one of the highlights of his life

Beginning to like him a little more.

[Guest CanadianChris]

Well, that was a little bit interesting. Now for what I really want to see.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Here we go.

[Guest bob_barron]

Landsberg talks about how they've had all these big stars and now have Shawn. Shawn acted very humble.

 

Shawn says the doctors are still telling him not to wrestle. He had no intention of wrestling when he came back but then Nash tore his quad and the next day he was on an airplane and all these ideas started coming into his head. He mediated and prayed about it and asked the Lord if he should get back into the ring.

 

They show a clip of HBK splashing HHH on a table from Summerslam.

 

Shawn was led to Joshua 1:1 and wanted to put his faith in action. He really felt moved. As of 4.24.02 HBK is a born again Christian. Shawn said it's completely taken over his life in the most positive of ways. He doesn't make any decisions that he don't think will glorify the Lord.

 

Looking back Shawn viewed himself as immature and he was a pain. Shawn said it came from his passion for the business and he wasn't good at controlling it. It was more obsession then desire and it didn't manifest himself in healthy ways. Shawn says if they had this interview a year ago then it would've been very different.

 

Shawn likes everything about himself now and back then he couldn't find any happiness. He wanted to find success in wrestling but when he did he was still miserable. He was looking for fulfillment. Shawn says he didnt step on people on the way- only when he got to the top. He can't say he stepped on anyone but says he didn't bring any dignity to his position and he said and did stupid things. Before he was on top he went out there and tried to have the best match. He was probably saying the same things he said before he became on top but no one was listening to him.

[Guest bob_barron]

And we're back.

 

Shawn says he didnt concern himself with changing the minds of millions of people in terms of image. He read something that said "Don't preach me a sermon- show me one" all he can do is try to be accountable to God. He can't worry about trying to change the minds of a bunch of people.

 

They played a clip of Bret last month from OTR where he called HBK a chickenshit.

 

He hasn't talked to Bret in a long time. He said what Bret said about him wasn't fair- they never buried the hatchet and he's taken responsiblity for his part of it. He said Bret has a right to his opinion but he doesn't think what Bret said was fair even back then.

 

Landsberg brings up Montreal. HBK knew everything that was planned. Vince told him to keep quiet and keep denying it. When they went to do WWE Confidential he decided to tell the truth since he got sick of being asked about it. He called Vince to tell him what he was doing but he never got a hold of him so he decided to say it regardless. If he was presented with the scenario now he doesn't know if he would've gone along with it. He probably would've done it since the Bible says 'You submit you authority'. His boss asked him to do a job and he went out and did it. He's not proud of it but he doesnt let it define his career. It was one incident over 18 years. He says Bret had the option of doing what his boss tells him to do but didnt.

 

Landsberg brings up the obvious contradiction. HBK says he fought Vince tooth and nail on everything but if Vince said do it- he would do it. He denies that he'd rather vacate a title then lose it. The only person that has ever said that is Bret Hart. Vince asked if he wanted to work with him and Shawn said no since Bret didnt support him when he was champion.

[Guest HartFan86]

I hope Landsberg asks him "If you are a born against christian, why didn't you apologize to Bret"

 

Edit: Nevermind..I posted this like 1 second after Bob did.

[Guest CanadianChris]

Deleted.

[Guest bob_barron]

And we're back.

 

Landsberg brings up the Kliq. Shawn says they're still all friends. He talks with Hunter every week and still talks to Nash. He doesn't talk to Hall very much. Shawn says he heard it was hard to make great friendships in wrestling and when you do you get branded with a name and get called on as a huge influence. He said all they did was hang out on the road and give Vince some wrestling ideas. At one point wrestling was 24-7. Shawn says he would tell Triple H when he gets married and has a family to put his focus on that. He said it was hard for him to offer Shawn's advice since it drove him crazy when the old timers would give him advice.

 

He once wrestled 289 times in one year. Now that he has a kid he wouldn't wrestle 89 days a year. Shawn says it would've been selfish for him to focus on his career had he had his wife and kid back then.

[Guest bob_barron]

We're back.

 

He ranks his Bret match at WM either 1 or 1.5. Shawn says he loved wrestling Bret and he used to watch him backstage and love him. Bret said he used to say Shawn would take his spot.

 

Shawn would do a show with Bret and ask for forgiveness.

 

Ric Flair

The greatest. Woooo.

 

He would've loved to wrestle Flair when they were in their prime.

 

Marty Jannetty

My buddy miss him- been playing phone tag

 

Vader

Leon- a big cuddly bear

 

Sid

Had good matches- they worked well together

 

Curt Hennig

A tragedy- gifted guy. So much fun.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Not a bad itnerviewc but he fucking dodge the "not jobbing" question.