On his most recent “83 weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff went into great detail on why he didn’t match the offer that the WWE made to The Big Show in 1997. According to Bischoff, he felt that The Big Show didn’t want to be with WCW anymore, and he doubted his star power. Here are the highlights:
Bischoff On Why The Big Show Left WCW:
I didn’t write it in my personal diaries, I don’t remember the date but it was sometime in the summer – maybe June or July [of 1998]. I think Hulk Hogan had mentioned it to me. Paul was generally pretty, I don’t know, he was negative: pouty. That is the best way to describe Paul Wight.
Paul was not a b—-. He never came to me and complain, or corner me in my office or in a locker room or on a plane. He wasn’t that way; he wasn’t pushy, but he was mopey, and you can see it. If he wasn’t happy it was pretty obvious. Not in a mean, aggressive way. He wasn’t putting on a show, but he wore his emotions on his sleeve, which a lot of guys do that, but he was pretty obvious. He was just unmotivated is another characteristic I noticed about him. You can just tell, he didn’t want to be there.
On The Big Show Being Frustrated With His Character:
I think his manager started talking to [WCW Executive Vice President] Nick Lambros around the time that his contract started coming up. I told Nick, look if we can keep him we will keep him. If we can give him a raise, but he certainly wasn’t in the Sting category or the Kevin Nash category, but I told Nick that if we can keep him and negotiate a deal that is fair, great. But if we can’t, we can’t. We will let him go…
I remember Hulk Hogan telling me not to let this cat go because if we let him go to WWE Vince McMahon will make him the next Andre the Giant or the next Hulk Hogan. And I remember thinking to myself, I don’t think so because he is going to have the same problems that we had. We tried all of those ideas.
On Being Surprised At How Big Of A Star The Big Show Became:
It wasn’t like, oh my God if he goes to WWE, Vince McMahon is going to sprinkle the Andre the Giant dust on him and make him the next Giant. I didn’t believe it, and when Paul came to me and told me about the offer he had received I had encouraged him to take it because there was no way I could match it despite the knock that I got. There was no way I could match the money Vince McMahon offered. But number two, even if I could have I wouldn’t have because had I matched or beat the offer I would have been stuck with the same challenge that I would have leading up to that.
You can listen to the full “83 Weeks” podcast below:
Credit: 83 Weeks. H/T WrestlingInc.
