What If... Eric Bischoff never became WCW President?

The Eric Bischoff regime

Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan, the ultimate BFFs

Eric Bischoff's plan upon taking charge was two-fold. First, work towards getting the promotion out of debt and even profitable. The second was to improve the on-screen product.

One of his ideas was to move the production of WCW programming to Disney-MGM Studios. On paper, it was a pretty good idea: it avoided necessitating having to book different venues for each show, and it provided a steady stream of attendees - people who were already visiting the theme park anyway. The results were… a mixed bag, but not worth getting into here.

One result of the arrangement was that it put Eric Bischoff in the vicinity of Hulk Hogan. Or at least that's what Hulk Hogan went with while starring in his latest attempt to prove he was an actor - the TV series Thunder In Paradise.

Hogan had recently left the then-WWF to star in the show and, presumably, to make the film Mr. Nanny. Bischoff, along with Ric Flair, would visit him on set in an attempt to persuade him to sign with WCW - and it eventually worked. The world's biggest wrestling star was working for WWF's biggest competitor.

Soon, an influx of former WWF stars were coming to WCW. Bischoff brought in talent like "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Lex Luger, Madusa/Alundra Blayze, and even announcers like Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and "Mean" Gene Okerlund.

However, it was Bischoff's addition of Scott Hall ("Razor Ramon" in the WWF) and Kevin Nash ("Diesel") that really got things rolling. That was the genesis for the New World Order (nWo). Needless to say, it was successful.

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Eric Bischoff on top of the world

Soon, WCW, not the WWF, was the top wrestling promotion in the country, even the world. The company kept pulling in astounding TV ratings, and not only finally making a profit, but a ridiculous amount of profit.

In 1998, they earned $55 million in profit off of $200 million in revenue. Seemingly the most important of all, WCW Monday Nitro was creaming WWF Monday Night Raw in the TV Nielson ratings - for 83 weeks straight (thus the name of Bischoff's podcast, 83 Weeks.)

As history tells us, this wasn't going to last, and eventually WCW shut its doors for good in 2001 - not before firing and rehiring Bischoff twice. During its time, though, it changed the way the pro wrestling industry did business. And it all started with one hiring decision.