Eric Bischoff was a huge part of the Monday Night Wars, a time in pro wrestling that many remember for the enormous boom in popularity. He affected many lives during that time, and he is still learning about people who want to thank him for everything he did. That being said, his memory of things might have been a bit cloudy.
During a recent A&E documentary, Eric Bischoff told a story about a fan named Amanda, who got to meet him decades after the Monday Night Wars. She thanked Easy E for that time on Monday nights, because she got to spend it with her father watching pro wrestling. When telling this story on the documentary, Eric Bischoff said that Amanda’s father was an alcoholic, but that wasn’t the case.
During a recent episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff addressed this story. He also apologized for saying this when the story didn’t even need that detail in the first place.
“I learned a few things. You know, I learned that it was basically Hulk Hogan’s idea to go head to head with WWE, which, you know, that was a surprise, but I get it. Look, you know, and I say that kind of half jokingly, but actually not. But look, even in that show, at the very end of the show when I talked about Amanda, the young lady who I met at a convention, and you know, the A&E producers found that footage, which I didn’t even know existed, by the way. That’s what a great job they did on the details that made that story come to life as much as it did. But even in my interview at the very end when I told that story about Amanda when she explained to me about her situation with her father, and I said it on A&E and I’m so disappointed in myself for saying it, but I described the tough life that Amanda had, and the time that she got to spend with her father. I said, when I was describing how tough her life was, I said her father was an alcoholic. That’s not true. I didn’t say that for any reason other than I thought that’s what she had told me. I feel so horrible about that.”
“It just makes me realize that, look, people say things, sometimes maliciously, sometimes because they have an agenda, sometimes because they just need to feel better about themselves, and sometimes they say things that may or may not be true, but sometimes people just make mistakes as I did, because there was no benefit to me in throwing that little nugget of misinformation into that interview. There was no agenda, There was no benefit to it. The story was compelling and is compelling enough on its own. I didn’t have to color it up any to make it more compelling.”
“But I made a mistake, and sometimes I hear things in these interviews that I don’t quite remember that way. Or in some cases, I know that it just didn’t happen. But I don’t get upset about it because I understand it. Hell, I was guilty of it myself. So I know I’ve done a couple interviews with people now that caught some of those same things that you know, Hulk said that, you know, threw a flag on it because they’re so used to doing that.”
“Look man, it’s all good. It’s all good. I am so grateful that I got to sit in my chair 28 years or whatever it’s been after all that stuff went down and see such a phenomenal story taking place that I got to be a part of, that none of the rest of the stuff matters to me. It really doesn’t.”
Eric Bischoff’s story about Amanda was a touching one, and a sign of how much pro wrestling truly means to fans. There are millions of fans out there just like Amanda, who cherish the memories of watching pro wrestling with family and friends. There was no need to “color” it up with a sidenote about alcoholism, but Eric Bischoff is never one to leave out controversy.
We will keep an eye on this story, and everything else going on in the pro wrestling world, right here at Ringside News.
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