WCW: 6 Innovations Eric Bischoff Did To Change Wrestling

3. The Heel Authority Figure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Nbmm0CFms I think it's fair to say that Vince McMahon is the greatest heel authority figure in the history of pro wrestling. The amount of money he made feuding against Steve Austin, The Rock, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and so many others shows that he was very successful at it. However, Eric Bischoff is the wrestling executive that did it first on the national stage. When the NWO angle started, every wrestling fan was tuned in to see what would happen next. People were joining the stable all the time while others were turning it down. Bischoff played the role of WCW announcer that was revealed as the President of the company and then he joined the group too. Even though Kevin Nash gave him a Powerbomb of a stage, he still joined the NWO as a guy that was in a position of power. By the time Bischoff joined the group in November 1996, the group was already very strong after four months of terrorizing everybody there. All it took was a simple hug from Hogan to Bischoff to piss everybody off even more. Hogan told the fans that Bischoff was the foundation of WCW, but now he was in the NWO. Fans hated Bischoff in the NWO because they knew he ran the company and his presence meant that nobody could really stop the crowd. It wasn't until a year later when Sting came back to "save" the company from the NWO. Bischoff thrived in his role as a top heel in the NWO. It was perfect for him. Years later, after the NWO died and WWE bought WCW, Vince McMahon brought in Eric Bischoff as the heel GM of Raw in the summer of 2002. He stayed in that role for three years. Bischoff's one of the best authoritative heels in the history of wrestling. He was also one of the first ones to do it.