10 Things Learned From Eric Bischoff's 1994 Timeline Of WCW

3. Chose To Fire Jesse Ventura When He Found Him Sleeping Backstage

There was heat between Jesse 'The Body' Ventura and Hulk Hogan, but mainly from Ventura's side. That's the opinion of Eric Bischoff, who said Jesse seemed to find it hard to work alongside Hulk in WCW. The announcer was unhappy over an earlier incident in the WWF, when he had tried to set up a union for the wrestlers. In the mind of Ventura, Hogan ratted him out to Vince McMahon. Becoming disillusioned with his WCW position once Hogan came on board, Ventura started to become difficult to work with. The last straw for Eric Bischoff was when he found the commentator sleeping when the cameras had already started rolling. Jesse was already supposed to be behind the announce desk, but he was napping backstage in an abandoned sound stage. For Bischoff, this was too much. Not only was Ventura becoming hard to deal with, but he was also being unprofessional. Mainly due an accumulation of various incidents and general hardship, the WCW boss decided to let the announcer go from his contract. Ventura still recorded commentary for the show in question, but he was relieved of his duties shortly afterwards.
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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.