Evan Husney talks Eric Bischoff’s involvement in ‘Who Killed WCW?’.
Over the course of four episodes, the hit VICE TV show featured the likes of Kevin Nash, Bret Hart, Booker T, The Rock, Goldberg, and Eric Bischoff. Some fans were surprised to see that Bischoff participated in the making of the series.
While speaking to Fightful for a new interview, Evan Husney noted that he believes Bischoff was honest in the interview, pointing out that he admitted fault for leading the audience to believe that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were invading WCW.
“Yeah, I think he was pretty honest in this interview. I’ve interviewed Eric a lot over the years, and this interview to me felt very forthright, in terms of, there’s a lot of him in this show throughout all four episodes. I think this is the first time I’ve ever heard where he’s actually admitted finally once and for all that he led the audience to believe that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were invading from the WWF. I think I’ve always kind of heard him evade that question over the years, obviously because there was legal matters surrounding that. But also, he does take responsibility for a lot of the ideas that didn’t work. I go back to episode three where they’re talking about the David Arquette title win, and he’s like, ‘I was a part of it. [Laughs] I was behind the idea, I okay’ed it, and hell, I even participated in it. So I think hearing him talk about that and the chronic bad finish disease, yeah, again, I always go back to this, too. It’s so easy, 25 years later, to say, okay, here’s where everything went wrong, and here’s the decisions that we should have made, with the benefit of hindsight. Again, I go back to, AEW’s been around for what, five years now? That feels like not a lot of time, but 1997 to 1999, it’s less than two years. Just think about that. It’s such a brief amount of time where so many critical decisions had to be made so correctly, and things are just moving at the speed of light, especially when you’re producing that much television. I mean, I’m guilty of it. When we’re in the throes of a season of ‘Dark Side of the Ring’, producing ten documentaries in under a year, sometimes it’s hard to get all the details right, when you’re moving that fast at the demands of television. If we had the ability to spend a few months per episode uninterrupted, I’m sure we’d nail everything too. So it’s tough. I don’t think that’s a fair criticism. Look, he is the main character of the story. He is the person that, without him, WCW wouldn’t have reached the heights that it would have. I think that’s a very key thing. We wouldn’t even be sitting here talking about it if it weren’t for Eric.”
Husney also went on to talk about how Turner Network executives backed up what Bischoff claimed had led to the demise of the company.
“I think the show, one thing that we did want to shed light on that I think is an underappreciated factor in this whole thing is, two things actually. One, for anything to be successful on that scale, when you’re working in a corporate environment or any sort of environment like that, you need somebody with a strong sense of passion and vision for what they want to do, to go up against all of the forces that are constantly pushing against you. That’s just a natural thing in production. All of the gatekeepers, all of the people who have the power to say yes or no, it’s a constant battle of fighting for the right decisions all the time. I think this series showcases that. But it also I think showcases just the fact of what [Bischoff] was up against on a daily basis, in terms of not just the financial aspect of it, of money being moved around, having to produce a whole second show without a budget. I didn’t think about that. If we had to produce this series out of the ‘Dark Side’ budget, we would be impossible. So forces like that, that have nothing to do with booking, creative, pushes, talent, it all has to do with the culture of the company that you’re in. So yeah, I think he deserves a lot of credit for managing that. Was he always successful? No, but still, I think he did an incredible job, and it’s a human portrait of someone who at least tried.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Husney addressed some of the criticisms surrounding ‘Who Killed WCW?’. Learn more here.
Also, check out Fightful’s full interview with Husney in the video linked at the top of this article.
