Hulk Hogan Defends Eric Bischoff’s Role In Death Of WCW

Hulk Hogan is looking out for his buddy Eric Bischoff regarding why WCW ended when it did.

When Hulk Hogan jumped to World Championship Wrestling in 1994, it was a really big deal and it was the idea of Eric Bischoff, who was running the company at the time. It was another example of Bischoff spending owner Ted Turner’s on a big name from WWE to try to build up WCW more.

Two years later in the summer of 1996, Bischoff did the unthinkable when he turned the beloved Hulk Hogan into a heel as part of the New World Order group with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

As the years went on, it was clear that Hogan and Bischoff were close friends. They were linked together closely throughout the WCW run and then worked together again over a decade later in TNA Wrestling as well.

A four-part documentary produced by The Rock’s production team called “Who Killed WCW?” is airing every Tuesday on Vice TV. Three of the four episodes have aired already.

Throughout the documentary, there is blame being laid on a lot of different people ranging from Bischoff as the boss of the company to former writer Vince Russo and his bold ideas while Turner executives were blamed a lot as well. There is also some blame toward big name WCW wrestlers like Hogan, who had creative control in his contract with the company.

While talking to Sports Illustrated, two-time WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan blamed Turner executives rather than his friend Bischoff.

“It’s not the flashiest story, but I can tell you what killed WCW. There was no way WCW was going to survive, not under those circumstances.”

“So many people knock Eric, but there was an opposition he was dealing with from the higher-ups in the company. He just wasn’t going to win that battle.”

Hulk Hogan Blames Turner Executives For Killing WCW

The Hulkster continued by saying that the higher-ups at Turner Broadcasting, which ran TNT & TBS in the 1990s/2000s when WCW was around, were not wrestling fans. It is something that the executives themselves admitted in the documentary.

“These were executives who had no idea what wrestling was all about, and they had no interest in learning. They wanted more traditional programming. They didn’t want rasslin’ in their high-brow portfolio. They weren’t interested, and nothing else mattered.”

“I hope it shows the odds Eric was up against. You need to tell that if you’re going to tell the whole story.”

A producer on the show recently said that Hulk Hogan turned down an interview to be in the documentary while financial reasons were likely why Ric Flair isn’t a part of it.