"He wasn't happy" - Hall of Famer says Jim Ross didn't want him in WWE but Vince McMahon did
Eric Bischoff recently provided details about Jim Ross and Vince McMahon’s contrasting approaches when WWE attempted to hire him in the early 2000s.
Ross, WWE’s former Head of Talent Relations, called Bischoff in July 2001 and asked if he would be interested in appearing on RAW. Although the former WCW executive declined Ross’ initial offer, he eventually debuted on WWE television in July 2002 in an on-screen General Manager role.
Speaking on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw, Bischoff said he got the impression that Ross did not want to hire him.
“I tried to get some information out of Jim. Jim wasn’t very forthcoming, and I understand that. You don’t want to lay out an entire storyline to somebody if you’re not sure they’re even on your team. But Jim also had kind of a bad taste in his mouth about me. He wasn’t happy to make that call… I could tell. You know when someone’s anxious to talk to you and you know when someone’s doing it just because they have to, and Jim was doing it because he had to,” Bischoff said.
Congrats to my friend @EBischoff on being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2021!
Deserved and earned! 🤠
The WWE Hall of Famers’ issues stemmed from the time when Eric Bischoff removed Jim Ross from his WCW commentary position. As the tweet above shows, the two men have since become friends.
Vince McMahon called Eric Bischoff a year after Jim Ross
Without any information about a contract or possible storyline, Eric Bischoff was hesitant to join WWE after Jim Ross’ offer.
A year later, he agreed to work for Vince McMahon after receiving a “gracious” phone call from the WWE Chairman.
“Vince called himself and I knew within 45 seconds of saying ‘hello’ that I was going to work for him. He was super gracious, I won’t repeat what he said to me, but he was very, very gracious, more gracious than he needed to be. He laid it all out to me and I said, ‘Absolutely, man, let’s do it.’ Our conversation was probably no more than four minutes, tops five, and I made up my mind I was gonna come to WWE,” Bischoff stated.
Bischoff viewed WWE as an opportunity to write the final chapter of his career in the wrestling business. Before joining McMahon’s company, he felt wrestling had become a “sour spot” in his life following his departure from WCW.
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