Eric Bischoff: WWE Needs To De-Sanitise Their Product
Bischoff thinks WWE’s content feels too slick
As the biggest and most successful pro-wrestling company of all time, WWE has moulded the industry in its own image, while continuously reshaping and redefining its own identity.
However, the WWE brand of ‘sports entertainment’ is not to everyone’s taste, and according to former WCW President and SmackDown chief executive Eric Bischoff, WWE’s product has become too sanitised.
Whilst talking with CBS Sports' Shakiel Mahjouri, Bischoff explained what he believes is wrong with modern WWE:
"It would be story structure,” started Bischoff. “It would be taking a more pragmatic approach to story structure. Actually, discipline would be a better word than pragmatic. It would be first recognising that a good story has to have structure. It would be no different than shooting a movie that doesn't have a script blocked out and not really knowing what the end of the movie is. You couldn't be in the movie business that way. You couldn't produce television shows that way. You can't even write a book that way. I think with WWE because of the sheer volume of products that they produce globally every week, it only creates a more significant need for a more disciplined and well-thought-out story structure.
"That's part of the flaw with WWE creative, at least in my opinion, is that there's such a sameness to everything. OK, one show is red and one show is blue, and there are different names on the roster, but the look and feel, the story-telling technique, or lack thereof, everything feels so familiar and has felt so familiar for so long. I think it would need to be de-sanitised. The WWE is such a perfectly executed live production that it doesn't even feel live anymore. It feels like you're watching a feature film. I think with wrestling because of what it is, an arena-based event, you want the viewers at home to feel like their part of that event. Sometimes overproducing that show can take that away from the home viewer."