Eric Bischoff Recalls How WCW Signed A WWE Hall Of Famer For “Basically Free”

Former WCW president Eric Bischoff shed light on the circumstances surrounding Randy Savage’s departure from WWE and his subsequent move to WCW.

Randy “Macho Man” Savage, a wrestling icon, enjoyed a prolific career with WWE from 1985 to 1994 before transitioning to WCW. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff played pivotal roles in facilitating this high-profile switch. Bischoff elaborated on one of the key reasons for Savage’s exit in a revealing conversation with Inside the Ropes.

Vince McMahon had decided and this is what Randy told me, Vince McMahon decided that Randy was too old to perform in the ring and Vince McMahon wanted to make Randy a colour commentator. He wanted him to work as an announcer. Randy was a very competitive, like way competitive, person.

Eric Bischoff, now 69, also highlighted the complex relationship between Hogan and Savage, which significantly influenced the move. Hogan facilitated initial contact between Bischoff and Savage, leading to the latter’s departure from WWE.

Hulk and Randy had this love-hate thing going on. But because Hulk was in WCW and Randy knew that he could make money with Hulk Hogan and Hulk Hogan knew he could make money with Randy Savage. So Randy reached out to Hulk and Hulk reached out to me and said ‘Hey, brother, I got a call from Randy Savage. He wants to know if you’re interested.’ I was in the Detroit airport, I remember at the time I had a pager, I didn’t even have a cell phone then I had a pager and I got paged by Hulk. I was connecting on a flight so I ran to a pay phone and I called back and he said ‘Hey, Randy wants to know if you’re willing to talk.’ I said ‘Sure’ and I called Randy back, when I called Randy the first time we had a great conversation. I had never met Randy Savage before this before this phone call I never had a conversation with him and we had a really great talk.

Both Hogan and Savage were wrestling titans, and Eric Bischoff managed to secure Savage’s talents for WCW. He further explained how Savage’s move brought in additional financial backing.

Randy’s contract was worth $750,000 a year, three quarters of a million dollars, which was a fair amount of money back in 94, 95 whenever it was. But Slim Jim came in and guaranteed a sponsorship for $750,000 a year. Randy brought a tremendous amount of value as a talent, because he was so intense, and he still had a lot of equity with the audience. The audience still valued him very highly as a character. But bringing in Slim Jim not only offset the cost and made it basically free, but it also sent a message to other potential sponsors on the business-to-business side because until that point we never had a sponsor. WCW could never get a sponsor.

Savage’s entry into WCW sparked a major rivalry with Hogan, and the subsequent arrival of Elizabeth intensified their feud. Savage wrestled his final WWE match in 1994 and did not return, marking the end of an era for WWE and the beginning of a new chapter in WCW.

Which WCW Star Did Eric Bischoff Say Struggled To Adapt To WWE?

Eric Bischoff spoke about how WCW star Buff Bagwell struggled to adapt to the WWE culture and often butted heads with other WWE Superstars, Bischoff thinks that if people had taken the time to get to know him they may have had a different opinion of Bagwell.

H/t to ITRWrestling.com