83 Weeks - Eric's 2005 WWE Run [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Welcome to 83 Weeks and man the feedback on the Raven episode - very polarizing!

What did you see on social media?

The year starts off with the first New Year’s Revolution PPV from San Juan, Puerto Rico - and is still the only time WWE has held a PPV in Puerto Rico.

Triple H wins the vacant World Heavyweight Title in only the third ever elimination chamber match at the show. HHH pins Randy Orton to win the match, after allowing Orton to pin HHH’s fellow Evolution member, Batista moments earlier - slowly setting up the tease for HHH vs Batista at WrestleMania 21.

Any fun memories of going to Puerto Rico?

Batista would win the Royal Rumble match a few weeks later in Fresno, CA.

You would come out during the match to cheer on the Raw competitors and then Teddy Long came out to cheer on the SmackDown competitors and it turned into a brand brawl. Were you surprised they were still trying to push this Raw vs. SmackDown concept?

But the Rumble show is mostly remembered for Vince McMahon storming into the ring - he blew out both knees and tore both his quads when he caught the apron.

He then has to sit on the ring mat to bark orders, and get Batista and John Cena to restart the ending of the Rumble after they both went over the top rope at the same time, and both feet touched the floor in a legit unplanned ending.

Are you watching in the back when the finish is messed up, and then Vince tears his quads too?

How chaotic is that experience?

You go on the WWE trip to Japan a week later where they tape Raw and Smackdown in Saitama at the Super Arena.

They have you open Raw in the ring, and run down the card with a Japanese translator standing with you, doing the translation after every few sentences.

Was this the fun part of being part of the WWE machine? Getting to travel the world and not having the responsibilities you had in WCW?

On the February 21st Raw from State College, PA, Batista had to pick between Raw and Smackdown for which World Champion he wanted to challenge at WrestleMania.

Triple H on Raw, or JBL on Smackdown.

“Backstage, HHH revealed to Flair that he had set everything up, hired a guy to attempt to run over Batista, but he saved him, made a limo just like JBL's to run him over, and got all the Smackdown tape played. He called Batista a dumb bastard and was making fun of how he was playing the guy to get him to go to Smackdown. Flair looked at him at first like he couldn't believe he'd double-cross a guy like that, but then said HHH was the genius of all geniuses.

What the two didn't realize was Batista was outside the door listening to all of this. Nobody told HHH & Flair that Batista was listening, as they all came out together. Everyone gave one last speech. Ultimately, this buried Smackdown something fierce, although Teddy Long did give it the old college try. Bischoff said-Raw was the flagship brand. Long said that if Batista came over, he'd make sure he got every chance to be a top guy, and talked about all the new opponents he could face in big matches. He said Batista and Cena were the two hottest commodities in the business and they could have a legendary rivalry, plus he could face people like JBL, Angle, Guerrero, Mysterio and even Undertaker. Fans totally treated Long and Smackdown as the heels. HHH then gave his speech, saying Evolution could be the greatest force in history. He said it could have been like in 1986, when Flair was NWA champ, if Arn Anderson was WWE champ at the same time. He said it could be like 1997, when DX was running wild and Michaels was WWE champ, if HHH was WCW champ at the same time.

Batista teased signing for Smackdown and gave HHH a thumbs up, but then turned the thumbs down. He cleaned house, knocking Flair out of the ring and power bombing HHH through the table, and we have our Mania main event. Batista noted he had known what he was going to do for a long time, so it made clear he saw through HHH from the start.”

This is one of the best angles I think WWE has ever done. The pop when Batista does the thumbs down, Flair & Hunter’s reaction…you’re in the ring for part of this…how electric was this?

March 7th Raw from Raleigh, NC:

“featured a backstage segment with Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Edge, Shelton Benjamin, and Christian in which Eric Bischoff stated Jericho came to him the previous week with the idea of a putting on a 6-man ladder match at WrestleMania with the winner earning a world title shot for whenever he wants over the course of a year; Bischoff then made matches for later in the night involving all 6 men, with Christian facing the unknown 6th man (Kane);”

What did you think of the Money in the Bank match concept?

It also included Bischoff announcing that Batista would be able to pick Triple H’s opponent the following week, with Triple H being able to pick Batista’s opponent the week after that; later in the show it was announced Triple H would face Chris Benoit at the request of Batista;

featured an in-ring promo by Randy Orton in which he spoke about his father being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 2 and then laid out a challenge to the Undertaker for WrestleMania 21; moments later, Bischoff came out to the ring and praised Orton for attempting to end Taker’s WrestleMania undefeated streak, hoping it would result in Bischoff getting more stock options, with Orton referring to Bischoff as a ‘legend’ for making WCW beat the WWE in the ratings for over a year, then hitting the RKO on Bischoff”

I’m not entirely sure how Randy Orton ending Taker’s WrestleMania streak would result in getting more stock options - but you’ve always talked about how much you enjoyed working with Randy right?

“Hulk Hogan was inducted into the Hall of Fame the night before WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles. He shouts out Bischoff in the speech, thanking him for all he had done for him, and when the crowd booed, said he and Bischoff made a lot of money together.”

This had to be a cool moment for you wasn’t it?

Were you surprised you weren’t featured or used at all on WrestleMania?

Did you get to see the man who defeated you once for the WCW World Title - David Arquette?

Eric you go on the Raw tour of Australia a few days after WrestleMania from April 7 to April 9 in Brisbane, Newcastle and Sydney, but you’re only used to run down the cards at the beginning of each show. Are you surprised they didn’t feature you more?

May-June 2005 was the build to the ECW One Night Stand PPV and the show itself.

(The following are some of the notes from the 83W One Night Stand watchalong in June that were not used):

This show is built to be a nostalgia show but unlike others in the past this actually had storylines building to the show itself - not the matches themselves if that makes any sense.

The promotion and build begins when Jonathan Coachman comes to you on Monday Night Raw and tells you on May 9th about the show and you let him know - You’ll squash ECW just like you did when he was in WCW.

When you’re told about the show is there any type of resentment about not having a WCW show or did you understand it?

There was a spot on Raw (May 16th) in the build up I wanted to bring up to you from the Observer: “Benoit no contest Tajiri in 2:55 in what was called an ECW rules match. They don’t get it at all. I don’t want to go into a big ECW speech,

but ECW was not about cartoon violence with a garbage can filled with weapons. That was only for a guy like New Jack who had a

violent aura so it didn’t come across as cartoon, even though it was. Guys like Benoit and Tajiri wrestled in ECW. It ended with Tajiri

on a table on the floor. Benoit climbed to the top of the ladder to jump. He’d have risked his career on that one. Coachman came out

and called the match off. They totally missed the whole concept of ECW. In ECW, if the goofy G.M. does that, the guy jumps anyway, because you don’t listen to authority.

Anyway, Bischoff later came out and banned anyone on Raw from appearing on the ECW show.

However, he said he’d lead the Raw troops onto the ECW show and beat down the ECW team.”

How did you feel being positioned as one of the top lead heels against ECW?

Do you think the story made sense that WWE was promoting a ECW show?

This was interesting to me in the run up to the show, also from the Observer: “ Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn apparently felt it was important to establish that ECW was owned by McMahon and part of the WWE organization, instead of an outside show that would use WWE talent. The new storyline that Vince McMahon was secretly the money behind ECW all along, that Eric Bischoff killed it, and that Vince McMahon owns it shows once again a lack of understanding of the brand. The show is now positioned around a Paul Heyman’s ECW army vs. Eric Bischoff’s volunteer army feud, as opposed to Heyman’s concept of doing an ECW reunion show (which Bischoff was to have been part of in one match which related to an old ECW storyline and well known feud.”

Eric - any idea what the original plan for you on this show was?

Raw 5/23/05:

“The new storyline for television, revamped after complaints on the original storyline, saw McMahon, Bischoff and Heyman, the three big wrestling promoters of the late 90s in the US, in the ring, for the first time ever, at the same time for an angle. Bischoff held a funeral for ECW, claiming he was the one who killed ECW. he said he would be invading the PPV. He also mentioned the name Sabu, hinting he would be appearing, and Sandman’s name also was brought up during the segment. McMahon came out and told Bischoff that he was the man who secretly was funding ECW all along, and Bischoff pretended he didn't know, now did he know McMahon put the ECW commercials on Raw. He said he wanted to fund ECW, acting like it was a decision of foresight, so that the “stars” of ECW could someday graduate and become “superstars” in WWE, basically positioning the company as if it was really always his AAA farm club. McMahon mentioned how ECW created several stars, but clearly this wasn’t well thought out. The three names he mentioned were Mick Foley, who was a major star headlining PPV shows in WCW long before he went to ECW; Steve Austin, who barely had a cup of coffee in ECW after years as a pushed commodity in WCW; and the Dudleys. This did allow McMahon to get in the televised dig at Bischoff as being the executive who fired Austin, and publicly claimed he did so because Austin wasn’t marketable.

He then accused Bischoff of pillaging ECW of its talent (one man’s taking talent who graduated is another man’s raping and pillaging) and driving it into bankruptcy. McMahon even brought up the $587,500 that he loaned ECW that he never got back when it went bankrupt, and claimed he had to buy ECW in bankruptcy court to keep it alive.

McMahon, who did claim credit for killing WCW (which he actually had nothing to do with either, unless he really did send Russo down there to destroy it, which he didn’t), said Bischoff could bring his crew to the ECW show because he liked seeing a great fight, ending with Bischoff and Heyman squaring off for scraps as the symbolic losers of the late 90s boom period. Heyman went to play his own historical card. He claimed ECW was not just about hardcore wrestling, and noted they brought the Lucha Libre style and the cruiserweights to the United States, citing Rey Mysterio being in ECW before WCW. Had Mysterio not been used correctly in ECW, the WCW run possibly wouldn’t have happened because the conventional wisdom of his being too small to get over and that whatever he did in Mexico didn’t count.

The day Bischoff brought him to Baltimore for his WCW debut, his stars (most of when aren’t even in the mainstream of the business today) laughed at him as he walked into the dressing room like this was the biggest joke they’d ever seen.

Well, this is all storyline for a show, but its a strange way of looking at things, only because I think Vince truly believed every bit of it. Bischoff clearly didn’t. Heyman looked like he was at least trying to sell what will end up being his legacy in pro wrestling as being something more than a few guys in a bingo hall breaking tables and setting fire to each other in front of a small group of fans.”

So much to unpack here Eric. Did you have any objection to this story change? Did you have any issues with Vince bringing up Austin and that thinly veiled shot at you?

The go-home angle that took place on Raw 6/6/05:

“They built up the entire show that Heyman was coming with back-up. Coachman had Heyman and the Dudleys put in handcuffs. Heyman said how Bischoff had challenge them, they came, and now he arrests them. He talked his way out of jail again. Heyman & Dudleys came to the ring and Bischoff came with Edge, Christian, Tomko, Regal, Coachman and Maven. Instead of attacking the Dudleys & Heyman, they did nothing. Then Dreamer, Sandman, Axl Rotten, Balls Mahoney and Rhyno came down the stairs. A brawl ensued with team ECW using kendo sticks to largely clean house. Sandman and Axl looked way out of shape, but actually both had trained for this, so imagine how they used to look. Everyone ran off except Maven, and they did a bunch of big moves on him before putting out a large sheet with ECW written on it. This was well done and got over strong live.”

This is quite the experiment by WWE. A brand that died 4 years before - no card announced - you’re the main heel…some of the talent on the go home show had never before been pushed on WWE TV…and it still is a home run. Can you explain it?

Also on that June 6 Raw, John Cena was drafted to Raw from Smackdown. Bischoff asks Cena to be part of the anti-ECW movement but he refuses. Bischoff then “declared war” on Cena over the Summer of 05.

-One Night Stand 6/12 - covered in the archives go check it out.

Were you happy to move on from the ECW storyline?

From there you’re ultra heel Eric against babyface champion John Cena. What did you think of the switch of Batista & Cena between brands? Were you excited to be working with Cena? What was your first impressions of working with him?

Also at the time Hulk Hogan returns and is about to enter into a program with Shawn Michaels. Were you getting to hang with Hulk again? Was this a highlight?

Bischoff makes Cena vs Jericho for the WWE Title at SummerSlam, and Cena gives Bischoff the FU on the July 11 Raw from East Rutherford.

Bischoff punishes Cena by making him face Snitsky in a Lumberjack match the following week and the lumberjacks are all heels.

But Cena still wins anyway after the babyface locker room comes out to brawl with the heel lumberjacks.

Matt Hardy would return around this time after his public separation from the WWE and Lita and attack Edge to bring real life heat to storyline. That’s something you had to think was a good move for WWE right?

On July 25th - Eugene returned and captured Kurt Angle’s gold medals by lasting 3 minutes in the Kurt Angle Invitational Challenge. It had to be good to see Nick Dinsmore again, Eric.

Raw 8/8/05 from Pittsburgh:

the Highlight Reel with Eric Bischoff as the guest; during the segment, Bischoff called out referee Chad Patton, who made the pinfall on Carlito the previous week in his match against WWE World Champion John Cena, despite the fact Chris Jericho was the official for the match; Bischoff then slapped Patton twice and demanded an apology from him, with Patton saying he was sorry; Bischoff then announced that Jericho would face Patton after the commercial break.

Chris Jericho defeated Chad Patton via submission with the Walls of Jericho at 3:01; Eric Bischoff was the guest referee for the match; during the contest, Carlito came ringside and attacked Patton when he fell outside the ring; after the match, Bischoff punched Patton, still locked in the Walls of Jericho, until WWE World Champion John Cena made the save; moments later, Cena dropped Carlito with the FU. How much fun was this?

You’re at the Raw where Shawn Michaels - who is ultra heel now in the program with Hulk - are in Montreal and they play Bret Hart’s music to the surprise of Shawn and leads people to think Bret was there…how amazing was that heat?

Did you think at this point your story of helping heels like Jericho & Carlito against Cena was working to get Cena more over?

You sat there and watched Hogan vs. Michaels with Michaels bumping like a pinball for Hulk - what did you think seeing it? Unprofessional? Did you talk to Hulk about it or vice versa?

Cena was defeated Jericho at SummerSlam and the next night on Raw. Jericho was “fired “ by Bischoff afterwards as it was a “loser gets fired” match. This is a great way to write out Jericho and you guys played your parts perfectly. It’s quite ironic that Jericho’s exit from WWE for the first time since he left WCW has to do with you isn’t it?

Kurt Angle then attacks Cena and Bischoff names him the #1 contender, and forms an alliance the next few months. Kurt is just a machine at this time is he not?

Unforgiven 9/18/05 from Oklahoma City:

Kurt Angle defeated WWE World Champion John Cena via disqualification at 17:15 when referee Mike Chioda stopped the match after seeing Cena hit the challenger in the face with the title belt; moments earlier, Eric Bischoff came down as Chioda was knocked out and taunted Cena with the belt as Angle had the ankle lock applied until Cena countered the hold and sent Angle into the general manager; after the match, Cena hit the FU on Bischoff but was attacked from behind by Angle and assaulted around ringside; Cena eventually countered an Olympic Slam through the commentary table and hit the FU on Angle through the table before celebrating in the ring

Raw the next night in Wichita Falls:

Included an opening segment in which Eric Bischoff came out with the WWE World Title and introduced Kurt Angle before stating that he had stripped John Cena of the championship as a result of Cena attacking him the night before at Unforgiven and that Angle was the new title holder; moments later, Vince McMahon came out, rejected Bischoff's ruling, stated Cena was still the champion, and said that Mick Foley, Triple H, Hulk Hogan, and Steve Austin would all be on hand for the Oct. 3 return of Raw to the USA Network;

Vince then stated that the episode would also include John Cena vs. Eric Bischoff.

You having a match against the biggest star in the company to launch Raw Homecoming on the USA Network - they had a lot of faith in you to drive ratings did they not?

Raw 9/26/05 from Waco, TX (final Raw on Spike TV):

Carlito & Chris Masters defeated WWE World Champion John Cena & Shawn Michaels in a tables match at 14:58 when Kurt Angle (who came ringside moments earlier with Eric Bischoff) shoved Michaels off the top and through a table set up on the floor; during Carlito's entrance, all three members of the commentary team were finally allowed to mention the move to the USA Network; after the contest, Cena attempted to hit the FU on Angle but sustained a low blow from Bischoff and the Olympic Slam through a table in the ring by Angle; as the show came to a close, Bischoff posed with Cena's title belt while Angle badmouthed Michaels outside the ring

Speaking of irony…you being the focal point of Raw coming back to USA has to be incredibly ironic…after you tried to drive Vince out of business…

Raw Homecoming from Dallas on 10/3/05:

What a show this ends up being. It’s got Kurt vs. Shawn in a 30 minute iron man match to open the show, Edge vs. Matt Hardy in a Ladder match, Triple H turns on Ric Flair to mark the end of Evolution…and a promo between you & Vince that’s just great. You come up to Vince and let him know you want to make your match against Cena no DQ, and Vince says no - that since you’re dressed to compete you’re not the GM tonight. You respond that it’s obvious that you were hired so Vince could embarrass you on a daily basis and that Vince is sick, and Vince responds that Eric you don’t know how sick, twisted & perverted you could be.

Later on that night Austin stuns literally the whole McMahon family and then this…

Batista, Chris Benoit, & Rey Mysterio vs. JBL, Eddie Guerrero, & Christian didn’t happen when Eric Bischoff came out on the stage immediately after the match started, said he was in charge since Vince McMahon had left the building, ordered that the lights be shut off so that the wrestlers couldn't compete, and then ordered that the show go to commercial break

Was this canceled because of time do you remember? Because this seems so out of place to make all 6 guys go out there and then you come out and literally just throw them out of the ring…

Then it’s you and Cena…from the Observer…

“6. John Cena pinned Eric Bischoff to keep the WWE title in 2:44. Again, they were badly rushed. In fact, they were already past the scheduled ending time before this match even started. Cena got a bigger pop than Hogan, so that kind of ruins the being so late in the show reason. Bischoff, who looked out of shape, came out in a black gi to hide his gut. It was made no DQ even though Vince ordered it not to be, since Vince has left the building. Angle interfered, but Cena got him up for the FU. Bischoff used a low blow for a near fall, but no pop for the kick out. Angle went to hit Cena with a chair, but missed. The chair hit the ropes and bounced back and knocked Angle out. That's still one of the greatest spots in the world the first 499 times you've seen it. Cena used the FU and got the pin. Teddy Long came out and said they're doing it Gangsta style, and sent the entire Smackdown crew (all the guys who had been on the show plus Mr. Kennedy) to attack Cena and Angle. The Raw underneath guys ran in. The show went off the air with a brawl. Fans cheered the Raw guys, even when Show faced off with Batista.

The Raw guys cleaned house to end the show. DUD”

It tickles me that Meltzer thought you were out of shape by the way…

What do you remember of the chaos of this night? Working with John?

Was it great to see some old faces like Roddy Piper, Mean Gene, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race and more?

Raw 10/24/05 from Fresno:

Kurt Angle defeated WWE World Champion John Cena in a non-title match via submission with the ankle lock at 11:12; Mick Foley was the guest referee for the match but was attacked by Carlito at the 9-minute mark; Eric Bischoff then took over officiating duties and physically forced Cena to slap his hand to the mat while being caught in the submission hold

This was also the Raw making light of Jim Ross’ colon surgery:

“The segment saw McMahon play Dr. Hiney, with assistant Nurse Slobber Knocker, to do colon surgery on Jim Ross, playing off the fact Ross had colon surgery on 10/11, where they removed between eight and ten inches of his colon.

The good news was no cancer was found. Ross has since returned home from the hospital and is in recovery. The skit saw them pulling all sorts of stuff out of Ross' rectum in surgery, while playing tapes of Ross screaming from announcing different big events. Among the items was a football, a University of Oklahoma football helmet, Mae Young's other hand, an owl, a goldfish (taken from Austin Powers) and a dummy Jim Ross head so McMahon could say JR had his head up his ass. Apparently that was the real inside line because when McMahon loses his temper at Ross when they disagree on direction, his usual line to Ross is, "You've got your head up your ass."

What did you think of all this?

Smackdown 11/4/05:

featured Eric Bischoff arriving to the arena and being confronted by the Boogeyman; moments later, Bischoff and Teddy Long met in the ring, with Bischoff challenging Long to a 10-man elimination match at Survivor Series to end the feud between the two shows; moments later, Bischoff ranted that everything about Smackdown! was second rate; Long then accepted the challenge, said he wanted to face Bischoff one-on-one at the pay-per-view, and had Bischoff escorted out of the arena

Was this added travel to you? Were you thinking this was going to be a good idea? Did you know at this point you were ready to wrap up with the WWE?

On Smackdown 11/11/05:

World Heavyweight Champion Batista fought Edge (w/ Lita) to a no contest in a streetfight; as the bout was about to begin, Eric Bischoff was shown arriving to the arena on the big screen and being confronted backstage by Teddy Long; as Long asked Bischoff to leave, Chris Masters attacked security from behind and briefly applied the Masterlock on Long; moments later, JBL, Matt Hardy, Bobby Lashley, and Rey Mysterio Jr. ran out, with Bischoff and Masters leaving in their limo; after checking on Long, the four Smackdown! wrestlers chased after Bischoff in JBL's white limo; with Batista's backup out of the building

This has to be fun for you doesn’t it? Did you like working with Teddy Long?

Eddie Guerrero’s death on 11/13/05 in Minneapolis, and a double taping of Raw and Smackdown scheduled that night was changed to Eddie Tribute shows. You did a tribute that night to Eddie. What can you tell us about Eddie’s death…how you were informed, etc

What did you think of the WWE exploiting his death in storylines later on that year into the next year?

Eric goes on the tour of the UK a few days early for house shows as they are taping Raw on 11/21 in Sheffield and opens the shows to start a 10-bell salute for Eddie each night. Was it emotional to do all this?

Survivor Series 2005 from Detroit on 11/27:

Featured a backstage segment in which Eric Bischoff told Vince McMahon he would screw WWE World Champion John Cena like Vince screwed Bret Hart; moments later, Cena appeared and scared Bischoff off;

Cena then shook McMahon's hand, with McMahon saying "Keep it up, —- well, you know;" as Vince walked off, he passed Booker & Sharmell, with Booker then saying "Tell me he didn't just say that”

When you’re told Vince is going to say that…what did you think?

So you’re scheduled to wrestle at Survivor Series and take on Teddy Long. From the Observer:

5. Teddy Long pinned Eric Bischoff in 5:24.

These kinds of gimmick matches only work when people want to see them badly, and boy was it obvious that wasn’t the case here. Crowd booed both guys and just wanted the match over.

Palmer Canon, and talk about a guy who may as well be invisible, was Long’s manager. He accidentally distracted Long and Bischoff started choking Long with the belt on his gi.

Bischoff then did a karate chop to the throat. I was waiting for him to throw salt at this point. Fans were booing the hell out of this, and out came The Boogeyman. They shit on him as well. Boogeyman gave Bischoff a pump handle slam and Long pinned him. This was bad at a level we haven’t seen since they had Ashley do that singles match on TV when she only had a week or two of training. -*½”

What ran through your head here Eric? Did you think it was entertaining?

Later that night Raw would lose to SmackDown when Randy Orton got the final pinfall to win the Survivor Series match and it would lead to Raw the next night from Cleveland:

The show opened with Bischoff calling all the Raw wrestlers to the ring, and nobody came. Bischoff threw a tantrum and said the next person that came out would be fired. Vince came out and asked Eric if he was going to fire him. He said none of the wrestlers came out because he told them all not to come out. He then for the 460th time humiliated Bischoff about WCW dying. He noted Bischoff had three goals at Survivor Series, to beat Teddy Long, for Raw to win the main event, and to get the title from Cena. He said Bischoff was a failure. He then talked about perception being reality. By the way, that was an inside dig, because Bischoff in the late 90s used to note Vince’s doctrine of “perception is reality” was a joke and that “reality is reality.”

Anyway, he said that if people perceived that a failure was running Raw, then they’d perceive Raw was a failure. And if they perceived Raw as a failure, they’d perceive Vince McMahon as a failure, and he noted he may be a lot of things, but a failure isn’t one of them. So he threatened to fire Bischoff. Bischoff said there was nobody who could do the job as well as he could, and Vince couldn’t find a replacement. Shane McMahon’s music played and he danced like it was 1998. Pretty soon Vince & Shane were both in the ring dancing. I have no idea why neither brought the fiddle while they were at it. Anyway, the story for the show is that Bischoff had to set a goal, which was to get the title off Cena, and if he failed, he’s getting fired and Shane is taking over.

Do you think that was an inside dig?

Are you surprised that Vince would talk about how Raw was a failure…on Raw…doesn’t that seem - oh I don’t know - counter productive?

The trial of Eric Bischoff was the following week in North Charleston, and dumped in the garbage truck by Vince “to take out the trash”.

(covered in the archives before)

Eric has talked about in the past how Stephanie called him, and said they were going in a different direction, but would still get paid the remainder of his contract. And that he was relieved in a way as the heel GM character had run its course after 2 ½ years

When 2005 ends - did you think you’d be back in the WWE?