Jim Ross recently discussed WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair and former SmackDown executive director Eric Bischoff getting to a scuffle backstage 16 years ago.
Bischoff's history with WCW made him understandably hard to accept when he was brought in by Vince McMahon as Raw's on-screen manager in 2002; he also functioned in various roles before he left in 2007.
Bischoff and The Nature Boy would get into it during a WWE TV taping in early 2003, with Flair the aggressor. And JR spoke about the incident on the latest episode of the Grilling JR podcast.
“It was at TV, one of the stooges, whoever, there’s plenty of them, couldn’t wait to tell me, give me the dirt. You go check it out, and nobody’s hurt. Nobody is bleeding, I don’t think, of any significance," he told Conrad Thompson. "The stories grew by the moment. This guy was there and Jack Lanza was there and Arn Anderson holding people back and somebody tried to help Eric, it became like a goddamned scene from Deadwood, what a production this is. It was a wrong place, both guys, wrong place, wrong time.
"Ric, all that animosity, lashed out, it wasn’t the right thing to do, obviously, you can’t conduct business this way. But I think it kind of got everybody’s system. After that, I don’t recall any other incidents after that one night. So if they had that much animosity and they got it all out in that little skirmish, I’d say we did pretty good in that deal.”
According to what Ross has said, there were no other incidents involving Bischoff following that fight and he reckons everyone cleared their systems because of that one bout.
Bischoff's latest stint at WWE didn't go very well either and he was let go just four months into his tenure as the blue brand's executive director. It's possible he joins AEW now, having refused to shut the door on the possibility and it will be interesting to see what he chooses to do next.
Source:411Mania (transcription)
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErKeoqqSowaa%2BjZympmenp7K0wMuipaBnmp66br7OrKpmnpmctbV50aKaZp6clrazecSroJxlkp7ApLTOn51o