10 Worst Decisions Eric Bischoff Ever Made
5. Road Wild
Was WCW's annual Road Wild event (formerly Hog Wild) something fun and unique to watch from a visual standpoint? For sure. But away from the aesthetic, Road Wild was a show that always opened up so many potential problems for World Championship Wrestling.
The concept of doing Road Wild was one dreamed up by Eric Bischoff, and in fairness to Eric, the PPV did generate plenty of advertising revenue for WCW when it came to car and motorbike manufacturers and beer companies. Away from that, though, the negatives of Road Wild far outweighed that positive.
When it comes to those negatives, the glaring one that so many people circle back to is that the event was put on completely free of charge in terms of a live gate. Taking place to coincide with the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, not a single person was ever charged an entry fee for a Road Wild event.
As Bischoff himself detailed in an interview with WrestleZone last year, though, the biggest issues with Road Wild were that flights to that area of the country were few and far between, accommodation was even more scarce, the cost of getting the WCW production out into the middle of nowhere was hefty, and the open environment meant that the show could easily be disrupted by bad weather conditions.
After four years, 1999 was the final Road Wild PPV. As Bischoff put it, "It works in a lot of respects, but the expense of doing it and the logistical challenges are overwhelming".