Reason why Vince McMahon no longer wants to appear on WWE television revealed
Vince McMahon is no longer the young man that he once was, although he remains charismatic and energetic even at his current age. However, any long-time WWE fan will have noticed that the WWE Chairman no longer makes as many on-screen appearances as he used to, and he has been reducing his time on WWE television steadily over the past several years.
Eric Bischoff was recently on his 83 Weeks Podcast (h/t Wrestling Inc), where he talked about his time working in WWE, and what he thought of Vince McMahon going out to introduce the fans to the new-look WWE SmackDown when they made their debut on FOX on Friday nights.
Readers can also check out Sportskeeda's interview with Eric Bischoff here.
Eric Bischoff on Vince McMahon's role in WWE
Eric Bischoff was the WWE Executive Director of Friday Night SmackDown when the show first made the shift to FOX. While that would not work out, he was privy to what was going on behind the scenes with Vince McMahon at the time.
Eric Bischoff talked about how Vince McMahon was unwilling to go out on the debut episode of SmackDown with his daughter Stephanie, as was reported previously.
"I actually got tears in my eyes when I saw Vince McMahon and Stephanie go out. It was my impression that Vince didn't really want to do it. It was also my impression that Stephanie really did want him to do it. Guess who won?"
"I saw it go down. I saw the hesitation from Vince; I saw the pressure put on from Stephanie. It made my heart full seeing that father daughter relationship in that exchange. It was really important to Stephanie when they went out and did it, and it was the right thing to do. It brought tears to my eyes."
Eric Bischoff went on to say that Vince McMahon knew that his time as a WWE television character was now in the past and he had to move on. This is why Vince McMahon was unwilling to appear in front of an audience.
"I think there was some awareness from Vince's part that his time on television as a character was in his rear view mirror. Especially when you're as powerful of a character as Vince McMahon was and is. It's so easy to dominate/overshadow everything else that was on the show. Once you go out there and you establish yourself on camera when you're a character like Vince McMahon has been for so long, it's easy to fall into the trap of doing it too often and going back to that well."