10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Feb 17)
5. Gene Okerlund Hated Eric Bischoff Giving Away Raw Results On Nitro
By his own admission, the act of giving away WWF Raw results live on WCW's Monday Nitro was never going to endear Eric Bischoff to everybody in the industry. Making things worse was the fact that Bischoff had several ex-WWF employees now working for him, and 'Mean' Gene Okerlund was one of them.
A guest on Eric's Bischoff On Wrestling podcast, the veteran backstage announcer flat out told his former boss that he never enjoyed hearing Bischoff give away what was happening on the WWF's show from behind the commentary table.
The actual word used by Okerlund to describe such tactics was "tacky". Longtime fans may scoff at the notion of Okerlund saying this, largely due to his years of using bait and switch rumours to run the WCW telephone hotline.
Going further and expanding on his point, a lecturing Gene told Bischoff that he worried (at the time) for other members of the WCW fraternity who may someday seek employment with Vince McMahon. Therefore, Okerlund didn't want to be associated with anything burying the WWF.