10 Worst Decisions Eric Bischoff Ever Made

1. Giving Goldberg Vs. Hollywood Hogan Away For Free

Mike Tyson Eric Bischoff
WWE.com

Was Goldberg vs. Hollywood Hogan on the 6 July 1998 episode of WCW Nitro one of the great moments of the '90s? 100%, it was.

Having seen the new kid on the block start to amass quick, impactful win after win for months prior, this relative rookie's streak of dominance suddenly had the wily old king of the jungle in its crosshairs. With the nWo having near-enough monopolised WCW programming at that point in time, fans were desperate to see someone step up and dethrone Hollywood Hogan as the WCW World Champion. More specifically, fans had quickly become desperate to see Bill Goldberg be the one to take Hogan's prize.

What do you do when fans passionately crave something? You milk the situation to its utmost, getting as much possible - in both a creative sense and a financial sense - out of that demand.

Instead, WCW gave away this dream match for absolutely free on its weekly television show.

The standing-room-only Georgia Dome was at fever pitch for Goldberg's big moment, and it was genuinely amazing to watch a white-hot crowd that supposedly generated a $1 million house for WCW.

The problem is, this is a match that fans would've paid to see and could've been built for weeks or months. What we got, was the call to hot-shot this match to pop a rating and beat Raw that week.

Nitro did indeed beat Raw that week, and the Goldberg vs. Hogan quarter-hour drew a mammoth 6.91 rating, watched by an estimated 10 million viewers. The issue is, the company left so much long-term money on the table here.

Watch Next


Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.