Eric Bischoff Thinks Vince McMahon’s WWE Return Is His Exit Strategy
The WWE return of Vince McMahon has led to a lot of interesting opinions about why he’s back with Eric Bischoff stating that he thinks it is Vince’s exit strategy.
Eric Bischoff has had a unique relationship with Vince McMahon throughout their careers. When Bischoff was running WCW in the 1990s, he was a big reason why Nitro beat WWE Monday Night Raw in the TV ratings battle known as the “Monday Night Wars” for an incredible 83 weeks. Eventually, WWE came back and blew WCW away, but Bischoff’s vision for WCW led to a lot of success.
After WWE bought out WCW in March 2001, Eric Bischoff was out of wrestling for a year until he shockingly signed with WWE in the summer of 2002. Bischoff went on to be a great General Manager of Raw for about three years. In 2019, WWE brought back Bischoff to help run Smackdown, but that really didn’t go well and it only lasted four months.
Even though his last run in the company didn’t go that well, WWE did think enough of Eric Bischoff to induct him into their Hall of Fame in 2021.
Vince McMahon is in the news again after working his way back into WWE with plans to negotiate a sale of the company.
While speaking on After 83 Weeks with Christy Olson, which was recorded on Thursday night after reports of Vince McMahon wanting to return to WWE to sell the company, Bischoff pointed out that a guy like Vince McMahon is a fighter.
“Vince is a fighter, and Vince being forced into retirement is incongruent with what many people know as Vince’s nature to fight. I think Vince feels like that was his company, it was his empire. Obviously, he had help, but it’s been his baby since he bought that company from his father. I thought that part of Vince is still there, but I think it’s a smaller part. Well, I was wrong [laughs].”
As the discussion continued, Bischoff went on to say that whoever buys WWE isn’t going to have Vince McMahon run it anyway, in his opinion.
“I haven’t read everything that’s come out in the last couple of hours. I’ve seen some of the bigger headlines and a couple of other emails and stories. But I think Vince is, his reason for coming back and making this move is to aggressively pursue a sale.”
So in that case, I don’t think that matters because if he sells the company, he’s not going to be running it anymore. Whether things ran better with him or without him is irrelevant. It’s a moot point because whoever buys it isn’t gonna have Vince McMahon running it anyway. They’re gonna run it.”
“So no, I think this is Vince’s exit strategy. Whether it will run better with him or without him isn’t really a discussion in an exit strategy like that. I could be wrong, but if you just break down the motivation of why he’s doing it, what he said publicly, and then what that means going forward in the event of a sale, I just don’t think that’s a factor.”