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Eric Bischoff on How Vince McMahon Convinced Him to Join WWE, Why He Turned Down WWE’s First Offer, His Last Interaction with Matt Anoa’i

Eric Bischoff guested on AfterBuzz TV’s Lilian Garcia: Making Their Way to the Ring and opened up about his father who was paralyzed, that the WWE called him one year before Vince and why he turned them down, the funnest segment he ever did in the WCW and WWE, why he didn’t want his son to wrestle, his biggest contributions to WWE, how bullying was a part of his life and he ended it, his last interaction with Rosey and more. Below are some interview highlights along with the entire interview in the included video player:

On why he turned down WWE’s first offer:

“They had called about a year before and people don’t know this ya they called me about a year before you know Vince called me in whatever it was 2002. In 2001 I was in Wyoming in the summer and I got a call from JR, and JR wasn’t exactly excited to call me at the time you know he still had a chip on his shoulder a little bit and he called me and said, “hey you wanna come in and work a program?” and I said, “well, whats the program?” and he said, “well we’re working on it” and I said, “well sure, when would you want me to start?” “you gotta be here Monday” well this is like Friday and I had a house full of people, it was over the 4th of July, I had like twenty five or thirty people, friends and relatives that had driven in from all over the country for a family reunion and I’m thinking ya I’m not just gonna pick up go up there for a Monday Night Raw to participate in something what they’re not really sure what it is quite yet, it wasn’t right you know, so I politely passed and when I did I thought well that will be the last time they call me.”

On how Vince McMahon convinced him to join WWE:

“We got on the phone and the first thing he said to me, and I’m paraphrasing this okay so it’s not exact words, but he basically said right out of the shoot he goes you know Eric I would like to think that if the situation would have turned out differently and you would’ve come out on top, that you would reach out to me for an opportunity to step back in…what a gracious, elegant, classy, humble thing to say.”

Read Also: Eric Bischoff Breaks Down The WWE Network’s Influence On Jinder Mahal’s New Push; WWE’s Expansion In India

On what Vince asked him on the phone:

“The one thing he did ask me, he said, well is there anything you won’t do? I said, ya I won’t move to Connecticut, other than that I’m your guy and I guess that’s all he wanted to hear is that I didn’t, I wasn’t bringing any stipulations, I wasn’t coming in with a list of things I would and wouldn’t do.”

On his last interaction with Matt Anoa’i:

“The last time I saw Matt was about I think about a year and a half ago he and I were on a, we made a personal appearance together, small little signing somewhere on the east coast, and we rode together in a car and it had been the first time I had seen him in a long time probably five to seven years, and we didn’t talk about wrestling, we didn’t talk about our experiences in the WWE—although they were all good ones and positive ones, we just talked about family and food because we both loved to eat, and we talked about our families and I think that that’s to me what I’ll remember, yes he was in the WWE, he was a superstar, he comes from a long, you know lineage of phenomenal talent in our industry but the guy was a family guy that just loved his spare time spend time with his family and cooking and enjoying life.”

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