During a recent episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff discussed his time working for WWE in his short-lived executive role, and how he failed to adapt to the company's way of working.
Here is what he said:
For the most part, the writers ā the people I worked with every day ā a lot of them were from New York City and took the train in every day. The mornings didnāt really get going until 10 oāclock. Iād show up and get gassed up and hit the coffee machine and get my day going. Then it was, for me, the morning always started with meeting with the writing team and picking up where we left off the night before or attacking a new assignment. In most cases, that new assignment would be, āOK, you have a meeting with Vince on Tuesday night at 6 or 8 and he wants to see what we have in mind for X.ā Part of the team would work on what needed to be done for television, and part of the team would work on preparing for the meeting with Vince. My role wasnāt really creative in a sense thatā¦.I wasnāt really day-to-day in the writersā room. I managed the writersā room. I would also be meeting with the head of licensing and promotion or on a phone call preparing for the FOX launchā¦ā¦the rest of my day would be working back and forth with writers. We were constantly interviewing new writers and production assistants. That would usually take you through the day and then most of it was preparing for or meeting with Vince.
This is the part that drove me batshit crazy, and this is one of the things I didnāt really adapt well to is I donāt like sitting around waiting. I just donāt. Itās a waste of my time and I get bored with myself. The mental energy in my head when Iām sitting around doing nothing is not healthy. It was me and [Triple H] and Bruce [Prichard] and half a dozen other people ā as weāre preparing for this meeting all day with Vince at 6 or 8, inevitably, youād get that call that Vince is running late. OK cool, how late? He should be ready by 8. Great, weāve got work to do and can keep ourselves busy. Quarter until 8, āVince isnāt ready yet.ā Weāre all still here, let us knowā¦..āHoney, I know itās midnight and I told you Iād be home but weāre waiting to go into this meeting with Vince.ā There were often times the 6 or 8 meeting with Vince didnāt start until midnight. Thatās the culture. Itās hard to be productive or go off in a direction if you havenāt gotten the approval you need or the buy-in you need along the wayā¦..oftentimes what wore me down wasnāt the call at 3 in the morning, it was knowing that I have to be prepared for a call at 3 in the morning. Youāre never really away from anything. I took my phone to bed with me. Thatās the part that really got to me. Iām not blaming Vince McMahon or WWE. Thatās their culture, and my job was to adapt to it. I failed at that.