Eric Bischoff Says Ric Flair Caused Biggest Bar Tab He’s Ever Paid

Eric Bischoff is no stranger to picking up the tab when he’s been able to during his wrestling career.

During an episode of 83 Weeks, Bischoff was asked about picking up the tab of “the boys” when he would go out with them. Bischoff said he didn’t always pick up the tab with wrestlers, but would pay or charge it as an expense when he was out with someone in a worse position than him.

This led to Bischoff revealing the largest bar tab he had paid in his career.

“As far as the biggest tab I’ve ever paid, it was [Ric Flair‘s]. Almost got me fired. I shouldn’t say that, but it did take a significant amount of explanation and fortunately, at the time, things were going well in WCW and the people I had to explain it to trusted me and didn’t think I was bullshitting, partly because they knew Ric.”

He continued, “We were at the MGM Studios shooting. Antonio Inoki came over and a ton of Japanese talent came over. Everybody was coming and this was right before or right after we formalized this true working relationship [with NJPW] that involved a significant amount of money. We were at the Swan Hotel in Orlando and they had a phenomenal sushi bar. We were celebrating, we had a big pay-per-view and Ric said, ‘It’s on me. Drinks on me! Sushi on me!’ The next day I got a phone call from the manager of the hotel and he says, ‘Mr. Bischoff, we have a little bit of a problem. Somebody in your company walked out on a tab last night.’ I said, ‘What? I’ll take care of it.’ It was over $5,000. I ate that one. Actually, the company ate it.”

Bischoff went on to explain that he paid the tab to smooth things over with the hotel before expensing it to the company.

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