Eric Bischoff was surprised at WWE releasing John Morrison simply because how much of an all-around professional the star is, but also knows that Vince McMahon is a complex individual. Bischoff commented on these two topics as well as the 11/18 wave of WWE releases on the latest episode of 83 Weeks with Conrad Thompson.
Thomspon asked Bischoff about his thoughts on the company letting go another series of talent and questioned Eric if his stance on WWE not selling has changed. Bischoff noted that he wasn’t familiar with a lot of the new names released but one name that usually goes by several stood out to him in John Morrison. Eric worked with Morrison when he first made his debut as Johnny Nitro in WWE.
“I remember John just doing a great job,” Eric said. “He learned really quickly in terms of his mic work and his skills, his performance backstage with the microphone. He learned very, very quickly. An amazing physique. He’s got a great look. He was healthy, wasn’t injury prone. Open-minded guy, easy to work with. Had a great sense of wanting to create a great character. He understood the difference between the real John Morrison and the character John Morrison,”
“That one really surprised me this morning when I saw that and he’s an easy guy to work with, he’s not a pain in the ass,” Eric added. “He’s a company guy so I’m really kind of surprised, curious what’s behind the scenes on that.”
“Here’s my impression from way outside the lines, the outside looking in, is I think this is just a market correction,” Bischoff said regarding the additional releases. “I think WWE for whatever reason stacked a lot of talent and I’m talking about a lot of developmental talent. These are not all big names, well established characters or personalities in WWE. A lot of these people I never heard of before, only because they haven’t really been prominently on RAW or SmackDownn and I think perhaps for whatever reasonn the strategy over the last five or six years with NXT is being re-evaluated and as a result, there’s a lot of talent looking for work tomorrow or today. That’s just a market correction,” he said. “Whether or not that leads to a sale, I’m probably more open to that then I was.” Eric however made clear that there has always been a very strong reason as to why he firmly believed that Vince McMahon would never sell the company.
“It’s so obvious to me that Vince holds the legacy of his father and grandfather so highly. It’s evident when you walk into Vince’s office, right? It’s not a mystery, you figure it out pretty quickly and I’ve just always believed because of that legacy and how highly apparently to me at least, that Vince holds that legacy in that he’s got Stephanie and Shane and by virtue of marriage, Triple H, and he’s got grandchildren. I just would believe that, I’ve always believed that Vince would be far more predisposed to allow his family to carry on that legacy that means so much to Vince.
“He’s a very complex individual and he’s harder than hell to read. He just is. So who knows? But I’m more probably open to it now I guess,” he added before also pushing back at that thought of the recent footage of Vince, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon walking the grounds of the new WWE headquarters. Conrad notes that the new building may be a lease and not something that WWE fully owns.
Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone.
You can listen to the full episode of 83 Weeks below:
