14 Things We Learned From Eric Bischoff On Legends With JBL (Part 2)

12. Bischoff's Reaction To The Emegering Attitude Era And His Lack Of Response

With Bret out of the equation, WWE focused more on embracing 'attitude'. Mr. McMahon becomes an on-air character. Steve Austin's popularity is sky-rocketing. WWE signs Mike Tyson for WrestleMania. JBL asks Bischoff if he was worried at all watching this, despite the fact that WCW were still ahead in the ratings at this point. Bischoff remembers exactly where he was when he heard about the Tyson deal (taking a flying lesson in Kissimmee, Florida) and reacted with an 'Oh, crap. That's not good'. He knew it would be a huge deal. WrestleMania does huge business, the first Austin/McMahon match on Raw does a monster rating and then, a few weeks later, DX invade WCW. Not only that, but WWE spent an incredible amount of money on a Superbowl commercial at the time, too. Why didn't Bischoff have a response to this snowballing of major WWE moments? He knew they were in trouble, but his response wasn't his priority because he was dealing with a lot behind the scenes, including managing Thunder, a hiring freeze and re-working pre-approved budgets.