5 Best Eric Bischoff ideas
In late June 2019, WWE revealed the shocking news that Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman had been hired (or promoted in Heyman's case) to work as Executive Directors for WWE. Paul Heyman was announced to be heading up RAW, while Bischoff was announced for SmackDown.
The news of Paul Heyman taking on the role got a very positive response from fans, performers and many others in the industry, as Heyman has a very proven track record of great ideas.
The news of Eric Bischoff taking on the role has taken in a mixed to a mostly positive response, as he has a big hit and miss creative record for both WCW and Impact Wrestling. Contrary to some belief, Bischoff was never involved in WWE creative during his time as an on-screen character from 2002-2005.
While some believe this may affect Bischoff in his new role today, I think his creative history from the past is enough to go by that he should do a very good job. During his time with WCW and Impact Wrestling, Bischoff had many great ideas to try to take attention away from WWE, and here are what I think are the top five.
#5 Aces & Eights
The Eric Bischoff/Hulk Hogan era on Impact Wrestling is generally not well remembered by fans, with a lot of the reason being it is what led to the company's downfall. At the very least, back in 2009, they had been the number 2 wrestling company in the world. For a little while, were actually profitable, had an amazing roster of well-known talent and were televised on a big and great network. Today it is all quite the opposite for Impact Wrestling.
The main issue was just a lot of fans didn't take to it, despite how good it was. One of the better things to come out of this era though was the Aces & Eights angle. This storyline ran for almost a year and a half, and never felt like it was too long. While the gimmick itself of a group of invading bikers was a bit done, the Aces & Eights vs. TNA company storyline was still highly entertaining.
TNA's Impact did pretty well with unveiling several members. While D-Lo Brown, Garett Bischoff, Wes Briscoe, Doc Gallows and Knux were leaked out, the unveiling's of Devon, Taz and eventual leader Bully Ray, were all handled excellently. When the angle ended in November 2013, it also felt like the right time and didn't drag out. Eric Bischoff spoke about the angle on an episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, and how it was basically all his idea, although he did receive input from Bully Ray and Ken Anderson.