In an interesting moment of honesty, former WCW President Eric Bischoff reveals if he had had a chance to sign Shawn Michaels during a peak period in 1997, he would have surprisingly passed on the opportunity.
Shawn Michaels is one of the greatest performers in wrestling history. To many wrestlers past and present, he is often named when picking the greatest competitors to ever showcase their talent in the squared circle. However, for as talented as he was at his peak, he was equally frustrating to deal with.
Michaels has been very open and does not shy away from the fact that he was often difficult to work with during a peak period of his career in the late 1990s. He was brash, cocky, and felt he could perform better than anyone on the planet. It rubbed fellow wrestlers, management, and even some fans the wrong way.
And it is why if it were Shawn Michaels who had become a free agent instead of Bret Hart in 1997, Eric Bischoff claims he would have actually passed on signing the WWE icon.
Shawn Michael’s bad locker room reputation even turned Eric Bischoff off from afar
“I would have rather not had that experience at that time,” Bischoff said in a recent edition of his “83 Weeks” podcast [h/t SportsKeeda]. “Shawn healthy — much like when Scott Hall was clean and sober and really on his game — probably amazing to be around and a wealth of knowledge and creativity. But during that period of time I didn’t need any more stress than I already had.”
“… For me, it was like could I add another layer of chaos into an already chaotic situation with some of the talent I had at the time? No, thank you. I barely survived what I did!”
The backstage drama in WCW was a part of what eventually sunk the promotion. As certain talents were given creative control and greater levels of influence. While many others were held down from reaching their full potential. Adding Shawn Michaels would definitely have been adding fuel to an already volatile situation.
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