Bischoff’s biggest contribution wasn’t getting Hogan or creating the NWO it was getting TBS to pay WCW a million dollar licensing fee for programming in 1993. This meant WCW went from losing money to breaking even. Breaking even was enough to get Turner to pay for Hogans contract in 94. Hogans presence made Turner think that he could finally take it to Vince which led to Nitro and so on. Without that licensing fee Bischoff would have ended up like Herd, Frye, and Watts a lot sooner.
I will never quite understand how getting a corporation to pay a licensing fee to another company they own is a fantastic idea. TBS gave WCW a million dollars. Why? So, Ted Turner can pay more taxes on the same money? Games people play with money. If you just want to go through life working hard, and you do it with your hands, there is a 99.99% chance that you will be stressed out about money much of your life. That’s because of the people playing games with money. I always found money made by shuffling paper to be boring. So, I’ve spend a lot of time stressed over money.
@HhhHhhh-nu4lm The Monday night wars was just dumb, because it put WCW in a do or die situation, and they ended up dying. WCW would probably be still alive today if Eric had the business sense to air Nitro on a different day.
To me, Flair never fit in the modern WCW/NWO angle. Sure, he was almost 50 at the time and his time had obviously passed, but he never updated his gimmick or his look at all to try to counter the "coolness" of the NWO. Hogan did and he was insanely successful. It also really hurt that much of the national audience that grew up watching 1980s WWF, did not know the background and history of Flair in the old Carolina/Crockett territory days. That hurt as well.
I grew up on the East Coast and definitely knew about the NWA. I was a Horsemen fan and had a friend who happened to have cable and would watch every Saturday at 6:05
I don’t think it was so much Flair was uncool or outdated as it was they didn’t know what to do with Ric Flair. The same creative forces bungled the payoff to Sting/Hogan and then Bret Hart. Jim Herd also didn’t appreciate what he had in Flair either so idk.
@@jamminjohnyou obviously don’t know the lawsuits against wcw and bitchoff that have been filed and some which were settled out of court if you say he wasn’t at fault lmfao
@@tbewin1z143 Time Warner merged with Turner in 1996. Bischoff reports that by 1997, TW had already begun slashing budgets and re-allocating WCW funds elsewhere in the company. That was the beginning of the end. AOL merging with TW in 2000 sealed the deal.
The NWO angle branded WCW as weak & sub par. And WCW never made a comeback on the NWO. Fans were starving for WCW to get it's revenge. When Goldberg came along he seemed more like a happy accident than thoughtful booking. But the huge fan reaction to him was organic. Fans wanted to see WCW even the score with the NWO through Goldberg. They finally had something to cheer for and then the company blew that as well. Bischoff let Nash and his friends get over at the expense of the entire company. And that did long lasting damage to pro wrestling.
@Pinky Cabin in NWO would have stayed good if they didn't start breaking it up into different factions........ When they did the LWO, that's when we knew it was going downhill..........
Eric Bischoff and WCW Nitro was the absolute best thing to ever happen to wrestling. You take all of that away and it would have never became what it did.
This comment is so true. The business was in a funk by the mid-90s. It doesn't blow up like it did if Eric doesn't convince Turner to create Nitro to challenge Raw. Most of the people on here don't become wrestling fans without the explosion the Monday Night Wars created in the 90s. The business might not have survived if not for the Monday Night Wars.
Agree on that. The Monday Night Wars were incredible. Probably the second golden age of wrestling. Rock and wrestling in the early/mid 80s and then the attitude era and NWO in the late 90s
Ric Flair is a real piece of work,so since Ric has blown up majority of his relationship's I've noticed the last few episodes Ric been trying to sink Conrad with him, Conrad smart enough to dodge the B.S. but Ric is trying.
Ric definitely was trying for awhile. But fortunately I think the guys that he was trying to rope Conrad in on bashing saw the situation and knew Ric enough so they never held anything against Conrad. They also appreciate the shit scenario for him because what could he even do? If he stands up for his friends and tells Ric he’s being unreasonable it’s his father in law for god sake. Fortunately Eric and JR for example clearly saw those things and moved on.
Ric was just an old jealous clown who kept young talent down to stay on top-gifting the WWF Austin, Triple H, Jericho etc. He couldn’t accept his time being over… and that was 25 years ago.
Bischoff began the hot shotting ppv main events every monday. Now youve seen every match that could exist in a span of 6 months. It worked in the short term but there's clear negatives in the long term.
This was happening on the other channel aswell. It was all about winning the war and the week-to-week h2h. You just needed 1 hot angle so that you could sustain all the channel changer audience that flipped from USA to TNT. WWE outlasted WCW but they also suffered the effects of hotshotting and too many swerves.
@@zoraizasim2459 totally agree. I like Bischoff overall and I loved the monday night wars as a teen, but hotshotting is part of why I stopped watching in the mid 2000's. Oversaturation, everything had been done. Wrestling blew its load pretty much.
@@zoraizasim2459 patently false. It happened on the other channel in response. Raw was still full of squash matches and IC title main events. Bischof knew, rightly, that if he gave pay perview matches on free tv he'd score big in ratings. He was right. Raw then moved to do the same in turn because it was the only way to compete. To say otherwise is to undermine what bischoff did to make wcw the industry leader. He fundamentally changed what wrestling was structurally. Everyone plays his game now. Unfortunately its had a massive draw back.
@@ChicCanyon there was also inherently the flawed WCW hierarchy which led to shift. The reason why so many PPV matches happened on Nitro and Eric was the pioneer was because the WCW monetary structure had all the PPV profits go to Turner instead of WCW. The company itself stood not much to gain from having it's angles blowoff at PPV which destroyed their PPV model in order boost their tv numbers.
That last bit is incorrect af! Bischoff being the heel boss was bringing back some of that heat that the NWO was losing. People would stop cheering and boo whenever Bischoff would be around. Not to mention "Mr. McMahon" wouldn't exist if not for the heel Bisch!
There were cool heels long before the NWO. 80's horsemen, freebirds, Gino Hernandez, stunning Steve Austin, Mr Perfect, Rick Rude, Ray Stevens and the midnight Express. Some towns always cheered the heels Philadelphia, Chicago, Greensboro, and Tampa .
Don't forget Superstar Billy Graham who was top draw for WWWF whom Vince Sr. refused to turn babyface. He was a cool heel, around which Hogan based almost his entire gimmick on.
Flair saying that Bischoff was worse for his career than Jim Herd has to be one of the most blatantly insane things I’ve ever heard him say. Unless he really didn’t mind shaving his head and renaming himself Spartacus
That's because Bischoff saw Flair as a has been. Which couldn't have been further from the truth but Flair was no longer the top guy when Bischoff took over.
I love that Ric isn’t kissing butt, he’s stirring it up. I had to take a break for a year from Conrad’s podcasts because it was always nice stuff about each other (maybe that says something about me lol). I’m glad Flair is calling out Bischoff. He blew it. There was so much he could have done with Flair, Bret Hart, and Randy Savage. Savage was so lame in WCW.
Well I wouldn’t say that Ric Flair was bad for business, but Hogan and the nWo is definitely what saved WCW in the mid to late 90s and it was because of them and the fact that Eric Bischoff went head-to-head with WWF by going live on Monday nights to counter Monday Night Raw that enabled WCW to finally beat WWF in the ratings.
Hogan and the WWF washouts didn’t save WCW. They ran the company into the ground over big egos, and the inmates running the asylum. Too many cliques and too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Had talent kept their egos in check they might have been able to takeout WWF. NWO success was short lived. The angle got stale after every foe became an NWO member. The product got stale, egos took over, and WCW was a turd 💩 in the bowl ready to be flushed.
I love Ric but podcasting is killing his image. Eric can come off as a asshole and he gets off poking the bear but Ric was waiting for any excuse to hate him and holds on to every grudge he ever had.
Well now we know the truth: flair is mad about something HE THINKS Eric said: that he had to teach Flair a lesson. This was during their contract dispute. The problem is that Eric never even said that. Eric said he had to make an example of Flair and enforce the contract - because he knew 100 other guys wouldn’t take their contracts seriously if he didn’t! He’s said that same thing on 83 weeks talking about that incident…. All this over another Flair crazy reaction where he didn’t even understand what Eric was saying.
Why does Ric go back and forth about Eric? One minute he’s saying that they’ve made up and they’re good friends and they get a beer together all the time, the next minute he’s burying him.
Well now we know the truth: flair is mad about something HE THINKS Eric said: that he had to teach Flair a lesson. This was during their contract dispute. The problem is that Eric never even said that. Eric said he had to make an example of Flair and enforce the contract - because he knew 100 other guys wouldn’t take their contracts seriously if he didn’t! He’s said that same thing on 83 weeks talking about that incident…. All this over another Flair crazy reaction where he didn’t even understand what Eric was saying.
@@curthennig9448yeah and that’s why as Eric points out, they’ve gone for beers several times, hung out, and Eric was invited to his roast recently. Flair is an emotional train wreck who is thinking more erratically than ever.
Man I love you Ric, you are the man. I wish you and Eric can let it go. But I do understand when someone trying to destroy you. How hard to let that go.
I think he’s just like Bret Hart. If he gets asked something - he’s gonna answer how he felt at the time. These Twitter wars always bring old shit back up though.
The first cool Heel was probably Buddy Rogers, over 30 years before the nWo, over 10 years before Flair even started training! Then of course you also have people like Freddie Blassie and Billy Graham...
Flair is the king of burying the hatchet with someone, then digging it up and stabbing them in the back with it. He is more fragile and sensitive than a woman during menses.
What I thought was hypocritical as hell was Hall & Nash saying the old guys were just hanging around costing a young guy a shot. As Hall and Nash but wrestled well into their 50s. Just like Flair and Piper. Smh
Flair vs bischoff this rivalry has been going on for over 27 years now just have a match already I know they’ve faced before but would be interesting to see now
Ric always had a problem with nWo. Because it was Bischoff's baby but also b/c it seems like he couldn't accept that they were cooler and a much bigger drawing heel stable than the 4 Horsemen which practically eliminated Flair's importance in the company. He used to be in the booking committees in 1993 and from that as Eric grew and Hulk came around, Ric's importance both as a wrestler and behind the scenes dwindled to a dud.
No I don’t think it’s that, he’s saying that all the focus was on them. They always went back to the well for success that eventually they poisoned it and made them lose the war..
@@Rypatriot too much focus on nWo was bad but Ric is not criticizing them because it was bad for the show, but because it was bad for him. WCW never posted 300million in profits when Flair was the top guy and 4 Horsemen ran the show. Even if they ran the well dry too many times, it still doesn't mean Bischoff was bad for the wrestling business. That is just hater talk.
I totally disagree Ric first helped Eric get his job with wcw the nwo were very very outstanding and they helped revolutionized the business but the four horsemen were the very first and the gold standard for all wrestling factions if not for them their would never have been a nwo or dx
Flair hated being on the booking committee. Bischoff buried the horsemen. Bischoff stole the NWO from NJPW. Then the NWO buried WCW. The horsemen were still hot in 95 and 96 .
If no Bisch then who would have competed agaisnt Vince. He brought out the best in Vince via COMPETITION. From 95 to 98 was the best years ever do to competition.
I'm a fan of Ric Flair but he puts a lot of blame on everyone else for him being bankrupt he's in his mid-70s now and he takes absolutely no personal responsibility for the position he put himself and his family through. At what point do you just grow up
In my eyes Conrad just stumbled upon 3 words that symbolize why WCW was able to compete with--and even surpass--the WWF for a while AND why the WWF was later able to regain their place at the top of the heap. Those three words are: HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN. WHY do I point to Hacksaw Jim Duggan as such a key figure?? Because, at the time Nitro was launched (as a live weekly show at a time when the WWF was taping most of their shows) it was fresh and exciting with young guys like Benoit, Jericho, Malenko and the Luchadores who could put on fast-paced matches; traditional NWA/WCW favorites like the Horsemen; and the perceived star-power of guys like Hogan, Hall and Nash being brought in from the WWF. Meanwhile, the WWF was putting on snooze fests featuring stale acts like Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Bischoff should have just limited his pursuit of WWF wrestlers to guys that WCW fans would perceive to be a "big get." Guys who those fans could perceive as top players. Hogan. Hall. Nash. Hart. Savage. Piper. NOT guys like Duggan, Beefcake and the Nasty Boys, whose best days were long ago. In fact, I remember reading my weekly copy of the Observer and taking note of how the WWF was featuring guys like Duggan putting on boring matches while Nitro was putting out fresh talent in exciting matches at the same time. Which is why I was baffled as to why WCW would sign Duggan when he had nothing to offer. WCW signing Duggan away from the WWF was one of the best things that ever happened TO the WWF. Because now the dead weight was going to be featured on WCW--taking up screen time that should have been used pushing the talent of the future, and Vince had to come up with new talent to put in his place. And of course, once guys like Jericho. Benoit, Guerrero, and other young talent got sick of being buried to put over Hogan's over-the-hill friends they left for the WWF. Which gave the advantage in match quality back to the WWF.
@@richysarney44 Every time I saw him, I was wishing someone would shove that 2x4 up his ass. In an era where kayfabe was still a pretty big deal it would infuriate me that the announcers would make Duggan out to be some kind of hero/role model. When in reality he was a cheater who was breaking the rules by coming to the ring with a foreign object in plain sight--and the refs always let him get away with it.
I think you're exaggerating their impact, I can't stand Duggan, Beefcake, Nasty Boys, etc. but their salaries were very similar to other workers, i.e. mid 100k's. Really nothing special, nor did they take up that much air time. Their work was terrible but a show needs to have a bit of everything and I can't deny the crowd would join Duggan's chants.
One of the ironies of this beef that Ric has held off and on with Eric through the years is that he eventually became close to Hall, Nash and Hogan and gives them so much props for the NWO and the like. The irony of that is that those individuals are largely what led to Eric’s treatment of Ric that he has the issues with. Eric’s handling of Ric and the Horsemen for instance and how he just flat out buried them was because of those guys in the NWO he has no issues with. The underpayment Ric had for all those years in the 90s compared to the roster? Stemmed out of those guys he doesn’t have ill will with. Even with Eric way overstepping what he reasonably needed to even do when he went after Ric in 1998 stemmed from those same people. Eric was so harsh on Ric for that one show because he was letting those other guys get away with that shit and felt handcuffed to do anything about it. With Ric it was a big name doing the same thing these guys were, albeit for a much more reasonable reason for doing so, but Eric saw him as a guy he could use as his example now when he didn’t feel like he could for a Hall or Nash who got away with tons of shit. If not for guys like them abusing shit they like had been I highly doubt eric reacts as irrationally as he did in 1998. One should remember that prior to Hogan coming over and becoming the new apple of Eric’s eye, and especially before Hall and Nash, Eric wasn’t treating Ric badly. It was once the NWO exploded and Eric saw Ric as expendable that the shit treatment began. So Eric is still wrong for the way he treated Ric but it’s forever ironic that the guys who led to Eric’s change of behavior towards Ric and had Eric’s ear are all good with Ric but Eric is such a piece of shit to him. If not for those guys all the shit between Ric and Eric honestly may never have even happened really.
The issue I had with the Monday Night Wars is that wars end. It's a zero sum game...somebody wins and somebody loses. So even if Nitro beat Raw, it would mean the end for the WWF. Bischoff prompted the Monday night war. He could have had Nitro on just about any other day of the week, but chose Monday. That eventually led to WCW losing the war and going out of business. The nWo angle was really more of Kevin Nash's brainchild with the help of Kevin Sullivan booking it. Bischoff turning heel and going to the nWo made little sense, but it worked because he was an unlikable personality. But he could't away with the fact that the closure to the angle needed to be WCW would win the war and they would put somebody else over, particularly young guys, not named Hogan, Nash or Hall. And finally the fans had enough and chose the WWF who were pushing and promoting younger stars.
I’m not defending Bischoff by any means but HE did get the idea from Japan and that’s on THE RISE AND FALL OF WCW. But yeah he could have just kept WCW on a Thursday or Saturday. I actually hated switching back and forth.
If they didn't want sting to win cleanly then let Hogan win, and let Goldberg be the guy to kill off Hollywood. In the mean time they had the wcw stables that could have feuded vs the nwo like the 4 horseman and even the Hart foundation or some variation of it.
@@nostalgiaman6816 my friend loved wcw and said it just became boring and repititive. If Austin lost to HBK or NEVER GOT OVER ON VINCE how entertaining would it have been??
Hogan putting anyone over would never do business. Hogan himself was the biggest draw in WCW. As much as people saying Hogan led to its downfall are delusional. Bret and Shawn never put anyone over and Austin got over on his own loosing to Bret numerous times. Shawn had to loose the belt because it was planned in advance as well as Shawn's injury. WCW downfall was mainly because WWF beat WCW at its game. WCW used the best feuds from 1995 till 1998. After that they hardly had any top contenders. Hogan and Goldberg were the only top guys with no opponents for them. The business had to crumble. WWF got Rock and Austin who went from mid carders to charismatic world champions and Triple H being the top heel. It was WWFs luck. They also had Big show, Kane, Undertaker and Mankind who were below them. WCW was also having rubbish storylines and meaningless rivalries in 98 and 99 that got boring. Then Bret hart being the champion when Hogan and Goldberg were more money was crap. The main reason I can see is WWF had it's best storylines and fresh characters in 99 and 2000. They were on top of their game. WCW just got boring. Combination of these few things is what killed WCW.
@@coolguy298 I think you are forgetting that there were decisions made at that time that made a big difference in the war, too. Especially decisions made by Bischoff to coddle Hogan. Most of those guys that you say the WWF "had" that were able to put them back on top were only in the WWF because Bischoff decided to let them leave WCW without much of a fight. Austin, Triple H (Levesque), Big Show (The Giant), Undertaker (Mean Mark Callous) and Mankind (Cactus Jack) were all WCW employees that Bischoff let Vince sign away from WCW. The only names on your list who were made famous by the WWF are the Rock and Kane. If Bischoff hadn't let Mean Mark get away there would have been NO Undertaker, and thus "Kane" wouldn't have ever been invented--leaving the WWF fans stuck watching a fake dentist instead. Bischoff let all that talent--and eventually the NEXT generation talents of Jericho, Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero--get away, and instead used WCW money to bring in Hogan's Has Been Friends like Beefcake, Duggan, etc. Since you mentioned Bret Hart, that brings up another of Bischoff's Hogan coddling decisions that hurt WCW. The WCW fans were thrilled when Bret Hart came to WCW. And WCW actually gave the fans something they wanted: Flair vs Hart as the main event of a PPV. So, Flair vs Hart main events a PPV that Hogan isn't even booked on. The buy rate of the PPV exceeds the buy rate of previous PPVs featuring Hogan in the main event. Common sense would say that WCW books a Flair vs Hart program that they could milk for at least a year of packed arenas, high TV ratings, and big PPV buy rates. Instead, Hogan is threatened by a PPV doing great without him. So, he convinces Bischoff that it should be Hogan vs Hart instead, and the Flair vs Hart program was a one-off.
I mean the proof is out there. Bischoff, Russo and the rest of them goofballs destroyed two professional wrestling companies. That is unbelievably bad.
It’s clear Flair is hurt by the way he was treated. He is one of the greatest sports performers of the 20th century however he is human. God bless Mr Flair.
Bischoff could have gone down as a really good bookker. The NWO was a tactical success but a strategic mistake. Eric should have kept the NWO to 4 and feuded with Horsemen, Steiners, Road Warriors, etc. I didn't see Brutus the Barber or Honky Tonk Man drawing fans or ratings. Eric could have dragged the NWO out for a long time had he used a more systematic approach. Bischoff is 100% correct in saying CNN hated us. They would promote WWE before pushing us. The road was a bitch for me and I wasn't wrestling.
I agree it got too big, but I think you do need more than 4 guys in the group. The idea of the NWO was an organization taking over a company. It isn't realistic (long term) to have a couple guys (even if they were top guys) take over an organization as large as the WCW roster.
Good lord, for all his pride in his career, Ric didn't realize he was a draw in the 1990s?? Yes, Ric, you put asses in the seats in the 1990s. Even when you weren't in the main event, people wanted to see your matches. Even your entrances were must-see!
I grew up on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls born in 79. And we had one of those Giant Space satellite dishes and we got all the different wrestling Promotions from all over 🇺🇸..NWA WWF WCW SMW AWA plus a buttload more. i also would get all the wrestling Mags from the store with my allowance Like Wrestling digest and Pro wrestling magazines.Fuck Easy Erectile Dysfunction E...Rick Flair and the 4 Horsemen were Massive in Ontario Canada. But WWF was huge of course but the Smart fans knew stars of southern Wraslin in ring work was 2nd to none.Thank you Mr.Flair sir you are a icon ,a legend,a hero and my top 10 Alltime list will always have you on it.and if you ever get a shot a Bitchoff fish hook the nose or mouth.and give him a Chop for the Real Fans
Ric has been saying alot of stupid shit as of lately! If it wasn't for Bithoff there wouldn't have been no Monday Night War or Attitude Era and Ruthess Aggression Era
I'm pretty sure Eric Bischoff had a separate payroll for his megastars that Ted Turner would personally take care of and didn't show up on profit sheets. Not hating on the guy I loved Nitro back then. But he could literally do anything in the golden years. He had an unlimited budget. He could afford to give Bret Hart 3 million dollars a year and not do anything of note with him, just to get him away from Vince. Nitro had three or four times the roster Raw did and most of the guys were getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to do nothing. It was only when Ted took a step back and Bischoff had to deal with Time Warner in the same way any executive has to, that he fell on his face.
I have no way for knowing for sure but Kevin Sullivan said he was actually the one that came up with the NWO angle not Eric which makes sense because Kevin was the head writer for WCW at the time.
I dont know, honestly. If WCW won, we would be saying WWE style died because it was too old and not going with the times. But WWE won, and now it's WCW just wasn't truly a wrestling business. I just think, WCW was succeeding for a time because it was not doing what a wrestling business would do. It didn't play WWE's game, because WWE couldn't be beat in there own game. Regardless, we will never see WWE lose like that again.
It may be losing now. If the company is sold to, to whoever and anyone, will it be the same under this new ownership as it was under the McMahon family? No, there is no way. The feel of it will be off, the soul of it will be lost. What Vince did for professional wrestling is something no one was able to do at that time of it's creation and even up until today. The only ones that will win in this sale, if there is one, is the McMahon family and anyone who owns enough stock to make a good profit from the sale. The losers will be the Pro Wrestlers and the fans.
The nWo were not the first cool heels but whatever. At least flair here is admitting he wasn't a draw in the 90s, which is absolutely true, but neither were alot of the champions up until stone cold. They just kept it afloat for the time being. But yeah the nWo did not need bischoff one bit, they only needed sting as their adversary. Then they couldn't even do that right.
Everyone does, Eric and Conrad have laughed about it many times during podcasts. It’s actually petty sad that flair thinks hogan said it for real and that he’s really dunking on Eric here. 😢
@@datacipher it was a promo done on nitro and flair acts like hogan was shooting, flair has officially lost it, he should know more than anyone it was a work
Crockett could have gone on, but Turner wanted the company and told him if he did not sell. he was off TBS, and his mother told him to sell, David wanted to go on without Turner, but money talks. Will WWE be sold? Put NWA back on TBS. NWA, not WCW, and AEW, but NWA made them.
Ric is right, I would consider Scott Hall's wrestling brain to be 50x that of an Eric Bischoff. Bischoff was a decent talent tho as a heel booker to hate.
I don’t deny that these 4 men were huge for the NWO’s run but wasn’t the idea to turn Hogan heel Eric Bishoff’s original idea ? Correct me if I am wrong.
From what I remember as a kid in 90s watching Ric Flair in WCW kinda suck, laugh every time he got beat up and didn't really care about him wrestling cause he was old and just boring. At the time I wasn't aware of his 70s 80s run so practically didn't know who he was before when NWO was around. Now I understand his extensive background in WCW his job was a promoter, he set up lot of backstage politics and matches. Train lot younger talent while keep that ring general persona. I respect what he's done for the business now. Also know he's been a problem himself with lot of wrestlers speak ill of him.
Let’s call it like we see it too……if Ric was theee guy, WCW would have NEVER had to pay for Hall & Nash, with the Hogan flip. Flair wasn’t a draw in the 90s at all.
Hogan joining the NWO was lame and the beginning of the end of the NWO being cool, Hall and Nash should’ve promptly double crossed Hogan after they used him for the third man.
I loved flair back in late 70s and 80s. Dang I’m old. But now he’s just a bitter old man who wants all the attention he can possibly muster. It’s actually 😞
Bischoff’s biggest contribution wasn’t getting Hogan or creating the NWO it was getting TBS to pay WCW a million dollar licensing fee for programming in 1993. This meant WCW went from losing money to breaking even. Breaking even was enough to get Turner to pay for Hogans contract in 94. Hogans presence made Turner think that he could finally take it to Vince which led to Nitro and so on. Without that licensing fee Bischoff would have ended up like Herd, Frye, and Watts a lot sooner.
Could not have said it any better.
let not forget eric created monday night wars
NWA Pro Wrestling made TBS, not WCW Sports Entertainment. Put NWA back on TBS.
I will never quite understand how getting a corporation to pay a licensing fee to another company they own is a fantastic idea. TBS gave WCW a million dollars. Why? So, Ted Turner can pay more taxes on the same money? Games people play with money. If you just want to go through life working hard, and you do it with your hands, there is a 99.99% chance that you will be stressed out about money much of your life. That’s because of the people playing games with money. I always found money made by shuffling paper to be boring. So, I’ve spend a lot of time stressed over money.
@HhhHhhh-nu4lm The Monday night wars was just dumb, because it put WCW in a do or die situation, and they ended up dying. WCW would probably be still alive today if Eric had the business sense to air Nitro on a different day.
This shoot between Flair and Bischoff is awesome and I'm happy to be along for the ride.
Reminds me of old school ...hell it is lol bring it
Its like 1998-1999 all over again when they were raging at each other on WCW
It's put on.
This video made me stop drinking, thanks ric
I don't think I can love listening to Ric Flair anymore than I do now. Thank you for these Conor. And Thank you Ric for all the years.
Not a very good listen. Nothing against his age but he always sounds like he's got a mouth full of grapes.
To me, Flair never fit in the modern WCW/NWO angle. Sure, he was almost 50 at the time and his time had obviously passed, but he never updated his gimmick or his look at all to try to counter the "coolness" of the NWO. Hogan did and he was insanely successful. It also really hurt that much of the national audience that grew up watching 1980s WWF, did not know the background and history of Flair in the old Carolina/Crockett territory days. That hurt as well.
I grew up on the East Coast and definitely knew about the NWA. I was a Horsemen fan and had a friend who happened to have cable and would watch every Saturday at 6:05
Flair was over as hell, crowd and ratings reflected that. I just don't think he was booked properly.
@@Lobothemainman23 Flair was booked to lose. Hogan looking cool still didn't change the fact that he couldn't wrestle for shit.
@@jamminjohn Watch footage of him in Japan. He did know how to wrestle
I don’t think it was so much Flair was uncool or outdated as it was they didn’t know what to do with Ric Flair. The same creative forces bungled the payoff to Sting/Hogan and then Bret Hart. Jim Herd also didn’t appreciate what he had in Flair either so idk.
I like bischoff. I really enjoy his 83 weeks podcast. I think he was a good announcer, talent, & business man.
His focus was too narrow though. His goal of taking down Vince made him do stupid moves.
@@Lord_Bibulous The funny thing is Hogan warned Bischoff that he would never put Vince out of business.
83 weeks is way better then this show.
@@sethputnamsghost Yeah, I love watching Bischoff deny any bad decision making on his part WCW.
@@jamminjohnyou obviously don’t know the lawsuits against wcw and bitchoff that have been filed and some which were settled out of court if you say he wasn’t at fault lmfao
It was AOL/time warner that killed WCW. THAT'S what hurt the business.
No!!! WCW was hemorrhaging money from 99-01...it was going to close it's doors regardless!!!
@@tbewin1z143 Time Warner merged with Turner in 1996. Bischoff reports that by 1997, TW had already begun slashing budgets and re-allocating WCW funds elsewhere in the company. That was the beginning of the end. AOL merging with TW in 2000 sealed the deal.
They did not slash money till 2000 until they were losing money. That is Bischoff lying to cover up his terrible booking.
Bischoff booking
@@rolltide9547 That's not how it was reported in Guy Evans' Nitro. What's your source?
Say what u will but Eric bischoff turned the tables and nWo was a blast👍👍
I’m still waiting for my 83 Weeks T-shirt phone call. 2 years
The NWO angle branded WCW as weak & sub par. And WCW never made a comeback on the NWO. Fans were starving for WCW to get it's revenge. When Goldberg came along he seemed more like a happy accident than thoughtful booking. But the huge fan reaction to him was organic. Fans wanted to see WCW even the score with the NWO through Goldberg. They finally had something to cheer for and then the company blew that as well. Bischoff let Nash and his friends get over at the expense of the entire company. And that did long lasting damage to pro wrestling.
@DimebagVision When the NWO roster exceeded 30 people it got old quick.
What ???....WCW was the top wresting organization when the NWO was there. It was branded the best years in wrestling by many..........
@That 80's Dude there was still room for nWo to keep going. It should’ve ended when Goldberg won.
After the fingerpoke of doom, the nwo should've quietly disbanded. It was way past it's prime by that point. They just kept dragging it on.
@Pinky Cabin in NWO would have stayed good if they didn't start breaking it up into different factions........
When they did the LWO, that's when we knew it was going downhill..........
Late 90's Flair promos were my favorite back then.
unpopular opinion but i loved his storyline in 99 when he became WCW President and then went crazy. So much entertainment and some of his best promos.
Eric Bischoff and WCW Nitro was the absolute best thing to ever happen to wrestling. You take all of that away and it would have never became what it did.
This comment is so true. The business was in a funk by the mid-90s. It doesn't blow up like it did if Eric doesn't convince Turner to create Nitro to challenge Raw. Most of the people on here don't become wrestling fans without the explosion the Monday Night Wars created in the 90s. The business might not have survived if not for the Monday Night Wars.
Agree on that. The Monday Night Wars were incredible. Probably the second golden age of wrestling.
Rock and wrestling in the early/mid 80s
and then the attitude era and NWO in the late 90s
When one dude hates and falls out with everyone in his circle... you kinda gotta start looking closer at that dude not the dudes that he hates.
How many Horsemen were ringside for his last match. That tells ya enough about what they think of him.
@@dominic08690 Mark Madden made some good points on Conans podcast.
Ric Flair is a real piece of work,so since Ric has blown up majority of his relationship's I've noticed the last few episodes Ric been trying to sink Conrad with him, Conrad smart enough to dodge the B.S. but Ric is trying.
Ric definitely was trying for awhile. But fortunately I think the guys that he was trying to rope Conrad in on bashing saw the situation and knew Ric enough so they never held anything against Conrad. They also appreciate the shit scenario for him because what could he even do? If he stands up for his friends and tells Ric he’s being unreasonable it’s his father in law for god sake. Fortunately Eric and JR for example clearly saw those things and moved on.
The bottom line is that Eric Bischoff reinvented the wrestling business. Ric is obviously an icon but he is just being bitter here.
Ric was just an old jealous clown who kept young talent down to stay on top-gifting the WWF Austin, Triple H, Jericho etc. He couldn’t accept his time being over… and that was 25 years ago.
Bischoff began the hot shotting ppv main events every monday. Now youve seen every match that could exist in a span of 6 months. It worked in the short term but there's clear negatives in the long term.
This was happening on the other channel aswell. It was all about winning the war and the week-to-week h2h. You just needed 1 hot angle so that you could sustain all the channel changer audience that flipped from USA to TNT. WWE outlasted WCW but they also suffered the effects of hotshotting and too many swerves.
@@zoraizasim2459 WWF had Austin WCW fired him.
@@zoraizasim2459 totally agree. I like Bischoff overall and I loved the monday night wars as a teen, but hotshotting is part of why I stopped watching in the mid 2000's. Oversaturation, everything had been done. Wrestling blew its load pretty much.
@@zoraizasim2459 patently false. It happened on the other channel in response. Raw was still full of squash matches and IC title main events.
Bischof knew, rightly, that if he gave pay perview matches on free tv he'd score big in ratings. He was right. Raw then moved to do the same in turn because it was the only way to compete. To say otherwise is to undermine what bischoff did to make wcw the industry leader.
He fundamentally changed what wrestling was structurally. Everyone plays his game now. Unfortunately its had a massive draw back.
@@ChicCanyon there was also inherently the flawed WCW hierarchy which led to shift. The reason why so many PPV matches happened on Nitro and Eric was the pioneer was because the WCW monetary structure had all the PPV profits go to Turner instead of WCW. The company itself stood not much to gain from having it's angles blowoff at PPV which destroyed their PPV model in order boost their tv numbers.
That last bit is incorrect af! Bischoff being the heel boss was bringing back some of that heat that the NWO was losing. People would stop cheering and boo whenever Bischoff would be around. Not to mention "Mr. McMahon" wouldn't exist if not for the heel Bisch!
I disagree. Like him or not, the Bisch was one of wrestling geniuses.
There were cool heels long before the NWO. 80's horsemen, freebirds, Gino Hernandez, stunning Steve Austin, Mr Perfect, Rick Rude, Ray Stevens and the midnight Express. Some towns always cheered the heels Philadelphia, Chicago, Greensboro, and Tampa .
Don't forget Superstar Billy Graham who was top draw for WWWF whom Vince Sr. refused to turn babyface. He was a cool heel, around which Hogan based almost his entire gimmick on.
Flair saying that Bischoff was worse for his career than Jim Herd has to be one of the most blatantly insane things I’ve ever heard him say. Unless he really didn’t mind shaving his head and renaming himself Spartacus
It's a toss up, but Jim Herd never publicly said that he was going to ruin Flair.
Flair hates Eric that's all it is Eric was a big time success for a period of time flair can't deny that
Not insane if you were paying attention.
0
That's because Bischoff saw Flair as a has been. Which couldn't have been further from the truth but Flair was no longer the top guy when Bischoff took over.
I love that Ric isn’t kissing butt, he’s stirring it up. I had to take a break for a year from Conrad’s podcasts because it was always nice stuff about each other (maybe that says something about me lol). I’m glad Flair is calling out Bischoff. He blew it. There was so much he could have done with Flair, Bret Hart, and Randy Savage. Savage was so lame in WCW.
Sting, Hall, Hogan and Nash were amazing! That era of wrestling was just too sweet.
Well I wouldn’t say that Ric Flair was bad for business, but Hogan and the nWo is definitely what saved WCW in the mid to late 90s and it was because of them and the fact that Eric Bischoff went head-to-head with WWF by going live on Monday nights to counter Monday Night Raw that enabled WCW to finally beat WWF in the ratings.
Hogan and the WWF washouts didn’t save WCW. They ran the company into the ground over big egos, and the inmates running the asylum. Too many cliques and too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Had talent kept their egos in check they might have been able to takeout WWF. NWO success was short lived. The angle got stale after every foe became an NWO member. The product got stale, egos took over, and WCW was a turd 💩 in the bowl ready to be flushed.
I love Ric but podcasting is killing his image. Eric can come off as a asshole and he gets off poking the bear but Ric was waiting for any excuse to hate him and holds on to every grudge he ever had.
Well now we know the truth: flair is mad about something HE THINKS Eric said: that he had to teach Flair a lesson. This was during their contract dispute. The problem is that Eric never even said that. Eric said he had to make an example of Flair and enforce the contract - because he knew 100 other guys wouldn’t take their contracts seriously if he didn’t! He’s said that same thing on 83 weeks talking about that incident…. All this over another Flair crazy reaction where he didn’t even understand what Eric was saying.
Why does Ric go back and forth about Eric? One minute he’s saying that they’ve made up and they’re good friends and they get a beer together all the time, the next minute he’s burying him.
Ric getting old so he need something to bitch bout u see now him and Hunter back talking he no talking shit bout Hunter no more
CTE
Flair will NEVER forget what Bischoff did to him and said about him. Don't buy the phony good friends line!
Well now we know the truth: flair is mad about something HE THINKS Eric said: that he had to teach Flair a lesson. This was during their contract dispute. The problem is that Eric never even said that. Eric said he had to make an example of Flair and enforce the contract - because he knew 100 other guys wouldn’t take their contracts seriously if he didn’t! He’s said that same thing on 83 weeks talking about that incident…. All this over another Flair crazy reaction where he didn’t even understand what Eric was saying.
@@curthennig9448yeah and that’s why as Eric points out, they’ve gone for beers several times, hung out, and Eric was invited to his roast recently. Flair is an emotional train wreck who is thinking more erratically than ever.
Man I love you Ric, you are the man. I wish you and Eric can let it go. But I do understand when someone trying to destroy you. How hard to let that go.
This dude is still mad about stuff from 25 years ago. Ric Flair has been his own worst enemy.
Sorta like Hogan staying mad that he dropped the belt to Warrior and had him come back just so he could be 1-1.
I think he’s just like Bret Hart. If he gets asked something - he’s gonna answer how he felt at the time. These Twitter wars always bring old shit back up though.
I think the IRS is his worst enemy
Conrad is telling the original cool heel that the nWo invented it.
The first cool Heel was probably Buddy Rogers, over 30 years before the nWo, over 10 years before Flair even started training!
Then of course you also have people like Freddie Blassie and Billy Graham...
Is there a single video of Conrad where he doesn’t bring up Meltzer?
Bottom Line. FLAIR WASNT COOL IN 1997. HOGAN WAS AS A HEEL.
Rick Flair has destroyed so many of his relationships
His relationships with bar tenders still going strong!!!😂
Flair is the king of burying the hatchet with someone, then digging it up and stabbing them in the back with it. He is more fragile and sensitive than a woman during menses.
True
The Monday night wars era of wrestling in general helped kill wrestling but people don’t want to admit it
The national expansion killed wrestling not the Monday night wars
I do agree but it the wwf expanding nationally and globally while taking from each territory is where it really started
Monday Night Raw hurt wrestling because it made the other shows not matter.
Flair going nuclear on everyone
You think he's going to hammer Luger like he did in years past?
What I thought was hypocritical as hell was Hall & Nash saying the old guys were just hanging around costing a young guy a shot. As Hall and Nash but wrestled well into their 50s. Just like Flair and Piper. Smh
Savage and Jake Roberts were cool heels in the 80's.
This segment probably does this best job of any analysis I have ever heard to sum up the state of affairs of wrestling from the 90s
Flair vs bischoff this rivalry has been going on for over 27 years now just have a match already I know they’ve faced before but would be interesting to see now
NWO fan for life….I still wear my NWO hoody in 2022…..
Where is this new flair documentary?
I disagree with Conrad if Hogan was the champion in the same year Kevin Nash was business would not have been down
Ric always had a problem with nWo. Because it was Bischoff's baby but also b/c it seems like he couldn't accept that they were cooler and a much bigger drawing heel stable than the 4 Horsemen which practically eliminated Flair's importance in the company. He used to be in the booking committees in 1993 and from that as Eric grew and Hulk came around, Ric's importance both as a wrestler and behind the scenes dwindled to a dud.
No I don’t think it’s that, he’s saying that all the focus was on them. They always went back to the well for success that eventually they poisoned it and made them lose the war..
@@Rypatriot exactly they went to the well too many times
@@Rypatriot too much focus on nWo was bad but Ric is not criticizing them because it was bad for the show, but because it was bad for him. WCW never posted 300million in profits when Flair was the top guy and 4 Horsemen ran the show. Even if they ran the well dry too many times, it still doesn't mean Bischoff was bad for the wrestling business. That is just hater talk.
I totally disagree Ric first helped Eric get his job with wcw the nwo were very very outstanding and they helped revolutionized the business but the four horsemen were the very first and the gold standard for all wrestling factions if not for them their would never have been a nwo or dx
Flair hated being on the booking committee. Bischoff buried the horsemen. Bischoff stole the NWO from NJPW. Then the NWO buried WCW. The horsemen were still hot in 95 and 96 .
If no Bisch then who would have competed agaisnt Vince. He brought out the best in Vince via COMPETITION. From 95 to 98 was the best years ever do to competition.
He said Bishop on his show in the past and I don't see this to be a real disagreement between them, sounds like a work.
I'm a fan of Ric Flair but he puts a lot of blame on everyone else for him being bankrupt he's in his mid-70s now and he takes absolutely no personal responsibility for the position he put himself and his family through. At what point do you just grow up
In my eyes Conrad just stumbled upon 3 words that symbolize why WCW was able to compete with--and even surpass--the WWF for a while AND why the WWF was later able to regain their place at the top of the heap. Those three words are: HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN.
WHY do I point to Hacksaw Jim Duggan as such a key figure?? Because, at the time Nitro was launched (as a live weekly show at a time when the WWF was taping most of their shows) it was fresh and exciting with young guys like Benoit, Jericho, Malenko and the Luchadores who could put on fast-paced matches; traditional NWA/WCW favorites like the Horsemen; and the perceived star-power of guys like Hogan, Hall and Nash being brought in from the WWF. Meanwhile, the WWF was putting on snooze fests featuring stale acts like Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
Bischoff should have just limited his pursuit of WWF wrestlers to guys that WCW fans would perceive to be a "big get." Guys who those fans could perceive as top players. Hogan. Hall. Nash. Hart. Savage. Piper. NOT guys like Duggan, Beefcake and the Nasty Boys, whose best days were long ago.
In fact, I remember reading my weekly copy of the Observer and taking note of how the WWF was featuring guys like Duggan putting on boring matches while Nitro was putting out fresh talent in exciting matches at the same time. Which is why I was baffled as to why WCW would sign Duggan when he had nothing to offer. WCW signing Duggan away from the WWF was one of the best things that ever happened TO the WWF. Because now the dead weight was going to be featured on WCW--taking up screen time that should have been used pushing the talent of the future, and Vince had to come up with new talent to put in his place. And of course, once guys like Jericho. Benoit, Guerrero, and other young talent got sick of being buried to put over Hogan's over-the-hill friends they left for the WWF. Which gave the advantage in match quality back to the WWF.
Hooooooooooooooooooo lol
@@richysarney44
Every time I saw him, I was wishing someone would shove that 2x4 up his ass. In an era where kayfabe was still a pretty big deal it would infuriate me that the announcers would make Duggan out to be some kind of hero/role model. When in reality he was a cheater who was breaking the rules by coming to the ring with a foreign object in plain sight--and the refs always let him get away with it.
I think you're exaggerating their impact, I can't stand Duggan, Beefcake, Nasty Boys, etc. but their salaries were very similar to other workers, i.e. mid 100k's. Really nothing special, nor did they take up that much air time. Their work was terrible but a show needs to have a bit of everything and I can't deny the crowd would join Duggan's chants.
My brother, your points are invalid. Dugan wrestled in WCW from 1994 - 2001. The first episode of Nitro aired in 1995.
One of the ironies of this beef that Ric has held off and on with Eric through the years is that he eventually became close to Hall, Nash and Hogan and gives them so much props for the NWO and the like. The irony of that is that those individuals are largely what led to Eric’s treatment of Ric that he has the issues with. Eric’s handling of Ric and the Horsemen for instance and how he just flat out buried them was because of those guys in the NWO he has no issues with. The underpayment Ric had for all those years in the 90s compared to the roster? Stemmed out of those guys he doesn’t have ill will with. Even with Eric way overstepping what he reasonably needed to even do when he went after Ric in 1998 stemmed from those same people. Eric was so harsh on Ric for that one show because he was letting those other guys get away with that shit and felt handcuffed to do anything about it. With Ric it was a big name doing the same thing these guys were, albeit for a much more reasonable reason for doing so, but Eric saw him as a guy he could use as his example now when he didn’t feel like he could for a Hall or Nash who got away with tons of shit. If not for guys like them abusing shit they like had been I highly doubt eric reacts as irrationally as he did in 1998. One should remember that prior to Hogan coming over and becoming the new apple of Eric’s eye, and especially before Hall and Nash, Eric wasn’t treating Ric badly. It was once the NWO exploded and Eric saw Ric as expendable that the shit treatment began. So Eric is still wrong for the way he treated Ric but it’s forever ironic that the guys who led to Eric’s change of behavior towards Ric and had Eric’s ear are all good with Ric but Eric is such a piece of shit to him. If not for those guys all the shit between Ric and Eric honestly may never have even happened really.
Bischoff, Heyman & VKM all hot-shotted the business & it's never been the same.
The issue I had with the Monday Night Wars is that wars end. It's a zero sum game...somebody wins and somebody loses. So even if Nitro beat Raw, it would mean the end for the WWF. Bischoff prompted the Monday night war. He could have had Nitro on just about any other day of the week, but chose Monday. That eventually led to WCW losing the war and going out of business.
The nWo angle was really more of Kevin Nash's brainchild with the help of Kevin Sullivan booking it. Bischoff turning heel and going to the nWo made little sense, but it worked because he was an unlikable personality. But he could't away with the fact that the closure to the angle needed to be WCW would win the war and they would put somebody else over, particularly young guys, not named Hogan, Nash or Hall. And finally the fans had enough and chose the WWF who were pushing and promoting younger stars.
I’m not defending Bischoff by any means but HE did get the idea from Japan and that’s on THE RISE AND FALL OF WCW. But yeah he could have just kept WCW on a Thursday or Saturday. I actually hated switching back and forth.
If they didn't want sting to win cleanly then let Hogan win, and let Goldberg be the guy to kill off Hollywood.
In the mean time they had the wcw stables that could have feuded vs the nwo like the 4 horseman and even the Hart foundation or some variation of it.
@@nostalgiaman6816 my friend loved wcw and said it just became boring and repititive. If Austin lost to HBK or NEVER GOT OVER ON VINCE how entertaining would it have been??
Hogan putting anyone over would never do business. Hogan himself was the biggest draw in WCW. As much as people saying Hogan led to its downfall are delusional. Bret and Shawn never put anyone over and Austin got over on his own loosing to Bret numerous times. Shawn had to loose the belt because it was planned in advance as well as Shawn's injury.
WCW downfall was mainly because WWF beat WCW at its game. WCW used the best feuds from 1995 till 1998. After that they hardly had any top contenders. Hogan and Goldberg were the only top guys with no opponents for them.
The business had to crumble. WWF got Rock and Austin who went from mid carders to charismatic world champions and Triple H being the top heel. It was WWFs luck. They also had Big show, Kane, Undertaker and Mankind who were below them.
WCW was also having rubbish storylines and meaningless rivalries in 98 and 99 that got boring. Then Bret hart being the champion when Hogan and Goldberg were more money was crap.
The main reason I can see is WWF had it's best storylines and fresh characters in 99 and 2000. They were on top of their game. WCW just got boring. Combination of these few things is what killed WCW.
@@coolguy298
I think you are forgetting that there were decisions made at that time that made a big difference in the war, too. Especially decisions made by Bischoff to coddle Hogan.
Most of those guys that you say the WWF "had" that were able to put them back on top were only in the WWF because Bischoff decided to let them leave WCW without much of a fight. Austin, Triple H (Levesque), Big Show (The Giant), Undertaker (Mean Mark Callous) and Mankind (Cactus Jack) were all WCW employees that Bischoff let Vince sign away from WCW. The only names on your list who were made famous by the WWF are the Rock and Kane. If Bischoff hadn't let Mean Mark get away there would have been NO Undertaker, and thus "Kane" wouldn't have ever been invented--leaving the WWF fans stuck watching a fake dentist instead. Bischoff let all that talent--and eventually the NEXT generation talents of Jericho, Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero--get away, and instead used WCW money to bring in Hogan's Has Been Friends like Beefcake, Duggan, etc.
Since you mentioned Bret Hart, that brings up another of Bischoff's Hogan coddling decisions that hurt WCW. The WCW fans were thrilled when Bret Hart came to WCW. And WCW actually gave the fans something they wanted: Flair vs Hart as the main event of a PPV. So, Flair vs Hart main events a PPV that Hogan isn't even booked on. The buy rate of the PPV exceeds the buy rate of previous PPVs featuring Hogan in the main event. Common sense would say that WCW books a Flair vs Hart program that they could milk for at least a year of packed arenas, high TV ratings, and big PPV buy rates. Instead, Hogan is threatened by a PPV doing great without him. So, he convinces Bischoff that it should be Hogan vs Hart instead, and the Flair vs Hart program was a one-off.
I mean the proof is out there. Bischoff, Russo and the rest of them goofballs destroyed two professional wrestling companies. That is unbelievably bad.
Eric Bischoff was a phenomenal on screen talent.
It’s clear Flair is hurt by the way he was treated. He is one of the greatest sports performers of the 20th century however he is human. God bless Mr Flair.
Bischoff could have gone down as a really good bookker. The NWO was a tactical success but a strategic mistake. Eric should have kept the NWO to 4 and feuded with Horsemen, Steiners, Road Warriors, etc. I didn't see Brutus the Barber or Honky Tonk Man drawing fans or ratings. Eric could have dragged the NWO out for a long time had he used a more systematic approach. Bischoff is 100% correct in saying CNN hated us. They would promote WWE before pushing us. The road was a bitch for me and I wasn't wrestling.
I agree it got too big, but I think you do need more than 4 guys in the group. The idea of the NWO was an organization taking over a company. It isn't realistic (long term) to have a couple guys (even if they were top guys) take over an organization as large as the WCW roster.
Flair quarter hour ratings were still the best during the 98-99 era.
Let's be honest. Vince was a LOT worse.
Good lord, for all his pride in his career, Ric didn't realize he was a draw in the 1990s?? Yes, Ric, you put asses in the seats in the 1990s. Even when you weren't in the main event, people wanted to see your matches. Even your entrances were must-see!
WOO! Where we partying tonight Arn?! WOOOOH!
Great Video Ric Flair
I would hate to be around Flair. I know someone just like Flair and they are miserable to be around.
All of this with JR and bischoff has to be going somewhere
Flair spitting facts at the end.
I grew up on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls born in 79. And we had one of those Giant Space satellite dishes and we got all the different wrestling Promotions from all over 🇺🇸..NWA WWF WCW SMW AWA plus a buttload more. i also would get all the wrestling Mags from the store with my allowance Like Wrestling digest and Pro wrestling magazines.Fuck Easy Erectile Dysfunction E...Rick Flair and the 4 Horsemen were Massive in Ontario Canada. But WWF was huge of course but the Smart fans knew stars of southern Wraslin in ring work was 2nd to none.Thank you Mr.Flair sir you are a icon ,a legend,a hero and my top 10 Alltime list will always have you on it.and if you ever get a shot a Bitchoff fish hook the nose or mouth.and give him a Chop for the Real Fans
Truth is the fans wanted to see the nWo, not Ric Flair. That was how it was.
What year did you make money for WCW Ric?
Ric has been saying alot of stupid shit as of lately! If it wasn't for Bithoff there wouldn't have been no Monday Night War or Attitude Era and Ruthess Aggression Era
I'm pretty sure Eric Bischoff had a separate payroll for his megastars that Ted Turner would personally take care of and didn't show up on profit sheets. Not hating on the guy I loved Nitro back then. But he could literally do anything in the golden years. He had an unlimited budget. He could afford to give Bret Hart 3 million dollars a year and not do anything of note with him, just to get him away from Vince. Nitro had three or four times the roster Raw did and most of the guys were getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to do nothing. It was only when Ted took a step back and Bischoff had to deal with Time Warner in the same way any executive has to, that he fell on his face.
I have no way for knowing for sure but Kevin Sullivan said he was actually the one that came up with the NWO angle not Eric which makes sense because Kevin was the head writer for WCW at the time.
I dont know, honestly. If WCW won, we would be saying WWE style died because it was too old and not going with the times. But WWE won, and now it's WCW just wasn't truly a wrestling business. I just think, WCW was succeeding for a time because it was not doing what a wrestling business would do. It didn't play WWE's game, because WWE couldn't be beat in there own game. Regardless, we will never see WWE lose like that again.
It may be losing now. If the company is sold to, to whoever and anyone, will it be the same under this new ownership as it was under the McMahon family? No, there is no way. The feel of it will be off, the soul of it will be lost. What Vince did for professional wrestling is something no one was able to do at that time of it's creation and even up until today. The only ones that will win in this sale, if there is one, is the McMahon family and anyone who owns enough stock to make a good profit from the sale. The losers will be the Pro Wrestlers and the fans.
Business was better with Bret as champ, vs Nash or Shawn.
I perfer Eric over Ric he seems like less of a prick outside of the ring idk for sure just my opinion.
He saying Eric all up in the videos lol come to death row
True, without sting, hall, hogan and nash, the nwo would have never work. It lost steam because it became diluted.
Every time the 4 horseman we’re doing a promo with mean gene you could see eyes glaze over when observing the audience
They woke up for flair but they didn’t care about arn Benoit and the football player smh
Worse than Jim herd? Whoa
It's true. The Ding Dongs, Arachniman, and the Hunchbacks were more over than the NWO ever was. lol
Nic Flair the Natural boy.
You can tell it's kinda painful for ric to reminisce about his time in WCW mainly the 90's.
It was a bad period but there is a time in that period where it's a lot worse so if Nash was the worst he was
The nWo were not the first cool heels but whatever. At least flair here is admitting he wasn't a draw in the 90s, which is absolutely true, but neither were alot of the champions up until stone cold. They just kept it afloat for the time being. But yeah the nWo did not need bischoff one bit, they only needed sting as their adversary. Then they couldn't even do that right.
Diesel was much better champion than Jinder Mahal, Jack Swagger, the Miz, khali,...
God this man is so sad,
Poor Ric always whining and hard done by its pathetic
'' Eric Bischoff Just jumped on camara'' - Ric Flair
xD!!!!
I remember that promo, Hogan said Bischoff would be selling meat out of a truck if it weren't for him.
Everyone does, Eric and Conrad have laughed about it many times during podcasts. It’s actually petty sad that flair thinks hogan said it for real and that he’s really dunking on Eric here. 😢
@@datacipher it was a promo done on nitro and flair acts like hogan was shooting, flair has officially lost it, he should know more than anyone it was a work
Bischoff on balance was great for wrestling business but Eric was out of line when he went after Flair the way he did threatening to break him...
Really hard to watch Ric in this condition
Crockett could have gone on, but Turner wanted the company and told him if he did not sell. he was off TBS, and his mother told him to sell, David wanted to go on without Turner, but money talks. Will WWE be sold? Put NWA back on TBS. NWA, not WCW, and AEW, but NWA made them.
Ric is right, I would consider Scott Hall's wrestling brain to be 50x that of an Eric Bischoff. Bischoff was a decent talent tho as a heel booker to hate.
I don’t deny that these 4 men were huge for the NWO’s run but wasn’t the idea to turn Hogan heel Eric Bishoff’s original idea ? Correct me if I am wrong.
Love Ric Flair but didn't WCW lead to the development of the Attitude Era, wrestling's golden era, which consolidated the then-WWF?
If Ric knew how to rap, his diss records would be as lethal as 2pac's
From what I remember as a kid in 90s watching Ric Flair in WCW kinda suck, laugh every time he got beat up and didn't really care about him wrestling cause he was old and just boring.
At the time I wasn't aware of his 70s 80s run so practically didn't know who he was before when NWO was around.
Now I understand his extensive background in WCW his job was a promoter, he set up lot of backstage politics and matches. Train lot younger talent while keep that ring general persona.
I respect what he's done for the business now. Also know he's been a problem himself with lot of wrestlers speak ill of him.
Let’s call it like we see it too……if Ric was theee guy, WCW would have NEVER had to pay for Hall & Nash, with the Hogan flip. Flair wasn’t a draw in the 90s at all.
WCW had great talent. Can't blame the talent for WCW failing .
Hogan joining the NWO was lame and the beginning of the end of the NWO being cool, Hall and Nash should’ve promptly double crossed Hogan after they used him for the third man.
Macho Man too Bro..He was my Favorite NWO member..
You guys gotta remember Ric Flair loves playing a villain. Compliments are nice and all, but cutting promos is MONEY.
For those that don't remember Jim Herd wanted Ric to shave his head, get an earing and call himself Sparticus.
Could’ve work part of his insane persona. lol
BITTER RIC UPSET THEY HAD A LONG TERM ANGLE RHAT DIDNT PUT HIM OVER 😂😂😂😂
I loved flair back in late 70s and 80s. Dang I’m old. But now he’s just a bitter old man who wants all the attention he can possibly muster. It’s actually 😞