WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff recently took to an episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, where he talked about a variety of topics such as how Marc Mero was entertaining as hell during his time in WCW when he portrayed the Johnny B. Badd character. WCW never considered Johnny B. Badd as the type of character they would expect to compete for the world title because the fans would have to take him seriously and he would have to be a serious threat.
Bischoff said, “Entertaining as hell? Yes.” “It definitely has a place, on any show, particularly at that time. But, not the type of character you would expect to compete for the world title, because then you have to go from being entertaining, generally speaking, to a good performer — but people have to take you very seriously. You have to be a serious threat, or they [the fans] have to have serious empathy for you.”
Bischoff also talked about how pro wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes, who was part of WCW’s creative team at the time, thought the Johnny B. Badd character was valuable and he didn’t want to change it in any way.
“Dusty leaned heavily into the entertainment aspect of it, and I think Dusty viewed Johnny B. Badd as so valuable, he just didn’t contemplate or think about shifting into another gear.”
Bischoff also talked about how no one would be able to do what Mero did and shed their skin to portray such a character.
“That takes balls.” “Not a lot of people are willing to shed their skin, in who they really are, and put out this costume — go out and perform it, and do it as well as Marc Mero did.”
You can check out Eric Bischoff’s full comments at this link.
(H/T to Wrestling Inc. for transcribing the above quotes)
