WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President, Eric Bischoff, discussed various topics, including the creation of WCW’s second prime-time show, Thunder, on an episode of his podcast, 83 Weeks.
Bischoff said, “Thunder came to me through Harvey Schiller. Shortly after Harvey Schiller hung up the phone with Ted Turner, who said, ‘Harvey, I want a show for TBS on Thursday night.’ So I was probably the third person to know, and I don’t know what was going through Ted’s mind. Possibly this could have been that, could have been that this evening, this Tuesday preemption, and the success of it, that could have been a catalyst, or it could have been part of Ted’s plan all along. And I say that because, again, going back to the beginning, knowing the man a little bit and reading a lot about him over the years, Ted has always believed that wrestling is foundational to the TBS network, because of its consistent ability to draw a very loyal audience. That’s one of the things that made Ted a fan. Yes, not only of the in ring product and the fun that you can have watching it, but he also really admired or respected, I should say, professional wrestling as a business, because it was a very predictable business that was undervalued at the time, and that’s why Ted made the move he made to acquire his own wrestling property, and that’s why he was consistent about doing everything at least he could do for WCW, despite the fact that everybody around him was trying to pull the rug out from underneath him.”
On nobody wanting it:
“Nobody wanted this show. I didn’t want this show. It was a hot freaking potato. Nobody wanted it, everybody. Let’s see, I don’t want to make this decision here, Brad, you make that joke. Brad, you do whatever you want to do. I don’t want to have a voice, and this is your network. Nobody wanted that thing. Harvey Schiller didn’t want it. I didn’t get to vote. I was like the last guy that you could roll the ship down to Ted said, do it? Find a way. That was my directive from Harvey Schiller. Ted wants it, find a way. I don’t want to be the guy to say no at that point. If I say no, who’s going to come up behind me and do it? Right? I mean, it was a silly position to be in, and Harvey didn’t want to be in that position. He didn’t have a vote either. Ted wanted this. So, yes, there was no money. Yes, we were reluctant right up until the point where I realized there was no way to say no, it’s not possible. So then the only thing you could do is say yes, the best you can do, do the best job you can, which is what we try to do. It was, it was not something we planned for. It’s not something we thought about. Nothing was discussed weeks or months in advance of this. I mean, I don’t know when. I don’t know when the official decision was made before the news came out, but I bet it was no more than a week. And prior to that week, the only discussion I had about adding another show was when Harvey Schiller called me on my cell phone on my way to Wyoming with my family for the Fourth of July to tell me that Ted wanted a show on Thursday. So when I talk about there wasn’t time to plan creatively, that’s why we shouldn’t even know we were going to do it. And I had about a week to try to fight it off. And then it was like, just find a way. So we did, and I didn’t get to vote on Thursday night either. I get to vote on anything. Just how to do it.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
