Bischoff Discusses Savage, Whether He Sees ROH As Competition To TNA, More

Eric Bischoff appeared on Monday Night Mayhem, which airs every Monday at 7:00 p.m. Highlights from his interview are as follows:

Reaction to the passing of Randy Savage: “It hit me pretty hard, and it’s still hitting me now. He was a very private individual and kind of kept to himself, and I respected that. As more information comes out the more I see it, it still shocks me, and it’s hard to believe that Randy is not with us.”

The transition from Impact to Impact Wrestling and why he believes now is the perfect time to make changes to the television program itself: “Last week, a lot of the changes you saw were cosmetic. Graphics, lighting, staging, and that sort of thing, which was part of the plan. I think anyone who had any expectations that all of sudden Impact Wrestling was going to be a completely different show, probably had misaligned expectations. We are going to try and improve the show in many different ways in what you are going to see throughout the summer and going into the fall. It’s a great time of year to experiment with format and experiment with different elements of the show. You’ll see those changes. Some will noticeable, and others won’t be.”

Whether or not he sees Ring of Honor as more of a direct competition to TNA, after the acquisition of the company by Sinclair Broadcasting: “I know I am going to get a lot of heat for what I’m about to tell you, and I’ve got nothing against anybody at Ring of Honor. In fact I wish them all the best. I’m reading a lot of stuff people are writing, and I think they are kidding themselves. Sinclair is 22 television stations, however many it is, that has a 22% market penetration in the United States. 22% market penetration in the United States means you don’t exist from an advertisers point of view. 22% means Nielsen doesn’t even track you as a network, and that’s assuming they get distribution on all 22 of those stations, which isn’t guaranteed. So while I think it’s a great thing for ROH because at least they have something, I think the enthusiasm of the fact that it’s a network, people are getting excited over a lot of nothing.”

If he has ever been a fan of short title reigns: “It all goes back to story. What’s the circumstances? What’s the context? Where’s it going? There’s not a simple formula to answer that question. Generally speaking, short title reigns tend to be risky, because your audience never really has a chance to grasp it and to get embedded into it one way or the other.”

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