WWE Daily

Here are some of the highlights from Ericʼs interview on the show, provided by The Mayhem’s show correspondent, Dan Kriegbaum:

The Mayhem’s Mosh & Blade welcomed Eric back to the show, and right off the bat, began to catch up & respectively discuss what Eric would like instead of a plaque for his 2007 Wrestling Radio Awards “Media Interview Of The Year” (co-hosted by The Mayhem’s National Correspondent & Eric’s former WCW colleague, Scott Hudson). Possibly some Sweet Sunshine Sauces, and/or Ilio DiPaolo’s Marinara Sauces: both fully-endorsed by Monday Night Mayhem.

Switching gears & onto business, Eric then said that he & the others involved in “Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling” are excited & anticipating the debut on CMT in two weeks on Saturday night, October 18th (airing at 8PM ET/7PM CT). He added that it could be a “game-changer” for them, so they are “waiting with baited breath.
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Mosh prefaced the last time Eric Bischoff & Hulk Hogan worked together on a project, it was for World Championship Wrestling, which at the time started beating World Wrestling Entertainment at the time in the ratings. Mosh asked Eric what it’s like to be working with “The Hulkster” again, but this time on a non-WWE or WCW role. Eric mentioned that him & Hulk have been good friends for almost 15 years, and that Hulk, his partner (Jason Hervey), & himself have been talking about getting back into the wrestling business for while. He then added that they did not want to get involved again unless it had an opportunity to make a big impact & be different, rather than a failed attempt to be considered “WWE Light.
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In promoting the upcoming first season of “Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling” both Blade & Mosh asked Eric what it was like to be able to work with “The Mouth Of The South” Jimmy Hart, “Nasty Boy” Brian Knobbs, & Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake again, along with the celebrity cast/crew involved (Dennis Rodman, Danny Bonaduce, Eric “Butterbean” Esch, Dustin “Screech” Diamond, Erin Murphy, Frank Stallone, Nikki Ziering, Tiffany, Todd Bridges, Trisha Cannatella, & Bubba “The Love Sponge”) with the show. Eric said that it was a huge surprise with what the concept of the show was about, which he then described. He said that both he & Jason have been very successful with reality shows the past couple of years (including VH-1’s “Scott Baio Is 45 & Single” & VH-1’s “Scott Baio Is 46 & Pregnant”), and that they have figured out the “reality formula” in regards to what the audience likes to see. He went on to say that the challenge in “Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling” was to create a wrestling based show that reality show fans would appeal to, while at the same time appealing to the wrestling fan as well. “Achieving those goals was a real challenge for us, and we were successful.
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Eric went on to mention that celebrities have always been involved somehow in wrestling, and it has always been a big transition to get them to go from what they know (ex: football), to what goes on in the wrestling ring. He said that this was one of the concerns he had with the group of celebrities on this first season, in regards to how well they would be able to adapt to it, but he was surprised after seeing it work. He talked about the first episode & how amazed all of the judges were after just a day & a half of training. Eric then mentioned how hard the celebrities worked at what they did, instead of just “going through the motions,” which also surprised him.

Blade then asked Eric how they went about getting the cast of celebrities that they did & what he has to say to the people accusing the show of just being a bunch of “D-List” celebrities. Eric had a little laugh at the latter portion of the question, and mentioned that “Dancing With The Stars” is on network television, but do not have a lot of “A-List” celebrities. He then said that a reality show demands a long period of a locked timeframe on a set, sometimes months at a time, which very few “A-List” celebrities even have time for. He then added that after it was all said & done, and how hard the celebrities they used worked, he was very happy with it. The important thing he was looking for in this first cast was personalities, which is “far more important” than the list/celebrity scale they are on.

Blade asked Eric if it was a concern to them if the “spoilers” of the show were to be leaked with who won, since the show has been finished for a few months. Eric said that they tried to “keep it under wraps,” because it would have been disappointing if it was revealed beforehand, “but you can only do so much.” He said that the celebrities are also professionals, so they would not try to reveal anything too soon, and taking the “steam” off of the show is not good for anybody, “but certainly, it was a concern.
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Eric then gave The Mayhem’s worldwide listening audience a little insight on the background of the show. He said that the celebrities were judged on several things, even though they did not have “Rey Mysterio-level matches.” Eric then said that wrestling is “an art form,” and compared an actor on a Broadway stage to a wrestler inside the ring, as both have to entertain the audience. He added that the celebrities were judged on how they used wrestling as an art form, how well they connected with the crowd, how well they sold moves, & used ring psychology — not necessarily “how well they did an arm drag.
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Blade brought up the WWE’s/MTV’s “Tough Enough” reality series from a few years back & how “Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling” would be similar or different from it. Eric mentioned that he did see a few episodes of “Tough Enough,” and said that he does not think it lasted on MTV, because the WWE was “conflicted.” He said that by having a show on MTV that took people “behind the curtain” & somewhat exposed the wrestling business, it showed a whole new audience just how tough the wrestling business is, some of whom probably gained a little more respect for wrestling in general. But the “conflict” was that even though it has been revealed more to be “scripted” & “family-oriented,” they did not want people to know how it was done. He then summed it up by saying “they wanted to show people what it took to be a pro-wrestler, but they were worried about it exposing too much,” and he thinks it was the WWE’s decision to stop producing the show to avoid diluting the product. Eric said that “Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling” is different, because they have experience & understand a reality-based show, which the WWE did not have. He said that in reality television, in order to be successful you need drama, the ability to capture that drama & specific techniques to catch the drama. He then said the only way the WWE was “reality” in Tough Enough was the fact that it was unscripted, which “technically is reality, but there was no formula.

Check out www. BHE. TV (which will feature some exciting upcoming announcements, including spin-off’s for “Nasty Boy” Brian Knobbs & Danny Bonaduce) & www. HulkHogan. com for more details on “Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling,” including the brand-new CMT website devoted to the program (www. cmt. com/shows/series/hulk-hogan-celebrity-wrestling/series. jhtml).
Mark your calendars for Saturday night, October 18th, as the worlds of professional-wrestling & sports-entertainment will change forever!

You can download Eric Bischoff’s full interview on Monday Night Mayhem here.

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