TNA’s Eric Bischoff was the featured guest on this week’s live edition (12/27/10) of the award-winning Monday Night Mayhem. Bischoff Discusses Why Spike TV Canceled TNA ReAction, What He Believes Were The Changes That Him & Hulk Hogan Implemented Effectively This Year In TNA, Which TNA Superstars & Knockouts Impressed Him The Most In 2010, The Company’s Ability To Compete With The WWE In 2011, If There Could Be Changes On The TNA Creative Team In The Near Future, Repairing His Relationship With Matt Hardy If He Signed With TNA In The New Year, Plus The Latest Update On “The Hulkster” Following His Most Recent Back Surgery.
You can listen to an MP3 of Eric Bischoff’s appearance on Monday Night Mayhem by clicking here.
Interview highlights courtesy of The Mayhem’s official correspondent, Paterson from New Jersey .. Here’s what Eric Bischoff said about:
The changes he believes that himself and Hulk Hogan, both individually and collectively, implemented effectively in TNA since coming into the company one year ago:
“If you look at TNA as a brand and as a media property, I think that Hulk Hogan in particular, and to a lesser extent myself, probably brought more media awareness and industry awareness to the brand than anything they had done up to that point. I think the residual effect of that brand awareness is still playing itself out and is something that TNA is taking advantage of, and it will probably continue to do so.”
Why Spike TV decided to cancel TNA Reaction, his reaction to the news, and when he found out about the decision:
“No it won’t unfortunately. We found out toward the second-to-last day of the TV tapings we had, and Spike had decided to make a different programming decision and go in a different direction. The ReAction you see on the 30th will be the last ReAction.”
His reaction to Jim Ross’ recent comments (on his BBQ Sauce Blog) regarding TNA being able to compete with the WWE in 2011 and that TNA will “never” overtake the WWE in the marketplace:
“I agree 100 percent. WWE has been around for a long, long time. They’ve been well-entrenched and well-established in cable television for the last 20 years. It’s a television juggernaut. TNA comparatively is a Kool-Aid stand compared to Coca-Cola in terms of its resources and infrastructure. The idea of TNA ever being able to compete with the WWE, although I’ve been out there, and I’ve been promoting it as such: I believe in a lot of ways we do compete.
“There are a lot of things about TNA that are better than the WWE on an individual basis. But you can’t compare TNA as a company to WWE as a company. In that regard, Jim Ross is absolutely 100 percent right on the money. Doesn’t mean we don’t want to try. Doesn’t mean we don’t wanna swing for the fences whenever we’re given the opportunity. Doesn’t mean that we don’t want to do things that put ourselves out in front of the WWE audience, just like we did with the Monday night effort. That was something that got people to sample us. It created awareness, and that’s important for us. I don’t think anybody within TNA realistically felt we were going to compete on a business level with the WWE.”
More is contained in the highly anticipated return of “The Hot Seat,” including Eric’s candid thoughts/comments on whether there could be changes on the TNA Creative Team in the near future, if he believes he could repair his relationship with Matt Hardy if Matt signed with TNA in 2011, the TNA superstars and knockouts he believed made the biggest impression on him this past year, the latest update on Hulk Hogan following his most recent back surgery, plus so much more!
