Eric Bischoff Says Arn Anderson Can’t Be Replaced By WWE
On the after show for his 83 Weeks podcast, After 83 Weeks with Christy Olson, Eric Bischoff discusses Bruce Prichard’s future amid reports the Something to Wrestle With host is returning to WWE. Eric also weighs in on Arn Anderson leaving the company, his archnemesis Honky Tonk Man’s Hall of Fame induction, and how WWE could make Roman Reigns’ cancer story controversial. Excerpts are below…
On what was missing from longtime friend Bruce Prichard’s life:
Bruce was more successful over the last two years than he ever was financially during his career in WWE. He’s been doing really, really well. But there was something missing in his life. I think that something missing was his relationship with the entire team, but especially Vince McMahon. They were together for a long time. So I think that even though Bruce was doing so well financially with his podcast and with his live shows, I think he’s going to be a much happier person back home where he really probably needs to be.
Eric reveals Something to Wrestle With co-host Conrad Thompson’s reaction to Bruce’s WWE return:
I got to St. Louis [on Saturday] and I saw Conrad at the hotel, about 2:30 in the afternoon. He looked kind of down a little bit and I said, ‘Hey what’s up?’ He said, ‘Haven’t you heard?’ And I said, ‘I haven’t heard anything.’ And then I found out the news then [from Conrad].
Eric says Arn Anderson cannot be replaced:
It’s not even knowledge as much because wrestling is more art than science–it’s instinct. That’s what they’re going to miss the most. When Arn is fully engaged and is feeling good about what he’s doing and the team he’s working with, he’s got a great instinct. He understands the psychology and he feels what works and what doesn’t. You can’t replace that. You can find a lot of people that know a lot of wrestling holds and have seen a million matches and have an opinion on 10 million different things, but it’s hard to replace that instinct.
