Eric Bischoff Believes WWE Should ‘De-Sanitize’ Their Product: ‘It Doesn’t Even Feel Live Anymore’
Eric Bischoff offers a critique of the modern WWE product.
Eric Bischoff knows a thing or two about the importance of an upscale professional wrestling presentation. His entire goal when he became the executive producer of WCW television was to grow the aesthetics of the promotion to a point where they rivaled that of the World Wrestling Federation at the time
However, nearly 30 years later, Eric Bischoff is now saying perhaps WWE is simply too well-produced and detracts from the overall product and the point of professional wrestling.
Eric further explained his criticism of the modern WWE product in an interview with CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri.
“It would be story structure. It would be taking a more pragmatic approach to story structure. Actually, discipline would be a better word than pragmatic. It would be first recognizing that a good story has to have structure. It would be no different than shooting a movie that doesn’t have a script blocked out and not really knowing what the end of the movie is. You couldn’t be in the movie business that way. You couldn’t produce television shows that way. You can’t even write a book that way. I think with WWE because of the sheer volume of products that they produce globally every week, it only creates a more significant need for a more disciplined and well-thought-out story structure.
“That’s part of the flaw with WWE creative, at least in my opinion, is that there’s such a sameness to everything. OK, one show is red and one show is blue, and there are different names on the roster, but the look and feel, the story-telling technique, or lack thereof, everything feels so familiar and has felt so familiar for so long. I think it would need to be de-sanitized. The WWE is such a perfectly executed live production that it doesn’t even feel live anymore. It feels like you’re watching a feature film. I think with wrestling because of what it is, an arena-based event, you want the viewers at home to feel like their part of that event. Sometimes overproducing that show can take that away from the home viewer.”
Eric Bischoff was briefly in charge of the Friday Night SmackDown brand before being replaced by Bruce Prichard shortly after he began to oversee the product. Learn more here.
