Eric Bischoff will take his rightful place in the WWE Hall of Fame this year as he was announced as the second inductee of the 2021 class.
Bischoff was surprised with the news on the WWE podcast After The Bell, hosted by Corey Graves.
The 65-year-old has a very interesting career in the world of pro wrestling, a career that continues today with occasional appearances on All Elite Wrestling.
Bischoff started in the business in 1989 working for the American Wrestling Association and two years later joined World Championship Wrestling where he made a name for himself. Bischoff started as an announcer and then was hired to take Bill Watts’ job as Executive Producer.
A few years later, Easy E was promoted to Senior Vice President and was put in charge of WCW and was one of the brains behind the rise of WCW in the mid 90s, hiring Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, starting WCW Monday Nitro, and investing in production.
In 1996, Bischoff hired Scott Hall and Kevin Nash from WWE and launched the nWo, changing the landscape of the business forever with the Monday night war.
Things started to head south in 1999 and Bischoff was removed from his role and a few months later, he returned as an on-screen character. In 2001, he led a group of investors trying to purchase WCW from AOL Time Warner but that fell through and eventually WCW was purchased by WWE.
In 2002, hell froze over and Bischoff was hired by the company that he was hell-bent on defeating and made his WWE debut as the Raw General Manager. He lasted in that role three years until Vince McMahon literally dumped him in a garbage truck live on television.
Bischoff moved to TNA Wrestling in 2010 in a bid to rebuild the promotion, bringing Hulk Hogan with him. He was involved with creative and also an on-screen character. His role lasted till 2013 when he was sent home by the company to sit out the remainder of his contract.
In mid-2019, Bischoff returned to WWE as the new Executive Director of Smackdown, a managerial position which required him to move to Stamford full time. But he lasted just a few months and in October of the same year, he was replaced by Bruce Prichard. Bischoff blamed himself for the departure, saying that he was not fitting in.
Since then, Bischoff has made sporadic appearances with All Elite Wrestling and most recently appeared on the March 3 Dynamite where he was part of The Inner Circle press conference.
