The latest episode of former WCW President Eric Bischoff’s podcast Bischoff on Wrestling was released earlier tonight. It features Eric’s over hour long interview with his former RAW GM Assistant and current ESPN personality Jonathan Coachman.
We have transcribed some of Jonathan’s comments about working as a sports reporter in Kansas City and being in attendance the night that Owen Hart tragically passed away.
Subscribe to Bischoff on Wrestling on iTunes
JC: The WWE gave me seventh row tickets to the show. For whatever reason… and Eric, I think back to all of these little details. I gave my briefcase to my photographer. Keep in mind, this is at a time when sports guys did not have cell phones yet. We didn’t have pagers yet. They just didn’t think we were important enough. News reporters were just starting to get cell phones in their cars. We are only talking seventeen years ago. People act like cell phones have been around for decades. So, I go in to the show. We were having a good time and thank goodness there was an interview up on the screen. It all went black and all of a sudden you hear this, “Wham!” The floor kind of shakes and the lights come up and Owen Hart is laying there. All of a sudden this chaos happens and there was a doctor in front of me and I said, “What do you think is going on?” He said, “I have no idea.” None of us knew what had happened. That night I get back to my station to pick up the briefcase that I had given to the photographer. I walked in and I said, “Guys, I’m not sure but I think something may have happened out there tonight.” They looked at me like, “Are you kidding me right now? Where have you been?” I had no knowledge. I had no way of knowing. I ended up staying at work all night and all of these shows started calling, “Do you have any footage? Do you know what is going on?” I did my own local show in the morning. Told everyone what I knew. Just like I am telling you right now. Good Morning America calls two seconds later. So I on Good Morning America and then Larry King calls me maybe an hour later. I ended up doing 15-16 radio interviews and that night I was Larry King Live with you and Jesse “The Body” Ventura.
EB: I remember that.
Please cite WZ as the source if you use any of the above transcriptions. Thanks!
This week’s episode of Bischoff on Wrestling starts with Eric talking to Nick about their weird arm wrestling connection before telling Nick the story of how he broke his forearm.
Eric also takes a moment at the top of the show to comment on the recent sale of TNA to Anthem. He also offers an update on his current lawsuit with TNA.
Eric then welcomes his guest for the week his former WWE RAW GM Assistant and current ESPN personality Jonathan Coachman! Coachman speaks candidly to Eric about:
- What his dream job was when he was a child
- Growing up in a diverse family
- His parents reaction to him working for WWE
- Wanting to be an actor when he was in college
- His brief job as a “Boyfriend In A Box”
- What it was like covering Owen Hart’s passing while working as a local reporter in Kansas City
- Who at WWE was the person that hired him
- What his first few years with WWE were like
- Learning to wrestle because he was getting so much heat
- Why he was nervous to do his first physical thing ever in the ring
- Tajiri’s tendency to mess with people
- The effect The Rock leaving WWE had on his Hollywood career
- Why he left WWE for ESPN and what that transition was like
- The stigma of being a “wrestling guy” on ESPN
- Ronda Rousey’s most recent loss
- Who his “One Bad Cat” is
- What’s something about him that we don’t know
- More…
Eric then closes the show by answering some fan questions from the #BischoffOnWrestling mailbag.
You can listen to the full archives from Bischoff on Wrestling in the embedded audio player below:
