Eric Bischoff Calls Controversial NWA Samhain Segment ‘Stupid'

The NWA recently ran a controversial segment during its Samhain show on October 28, with Father James Mitchell shown revelling with his associates and snorting some lines of ‘white powder’.

The segment has potentially thrown a spoke in the wheels of a potential deal between NWA and The CW Network, and now former WCW President Eric Bischoff has criticised the segment, saying the following on the 83 Weeks podcast:

“It’s weird isn’t it, how wresting still to this day, despite how mainstream, how large it’s become, how powerful it’s become, still finds residence in this weird spot in television where certain things are just off limits. If we’re gonna watch a scripted series, I don’t know how many I’ve watched where you see somebody doing cocaine or shooting heroin or doing whatever within the context of a scripted presentation. But yet when wrestling steps outside of the bounds, and I don’t even know where the boundaries are - I don’t think anybody else does either, there’s no definitive right or wrong. It’s a matter of taste and judgment at a particular point in the time - but in this particular case, you’ve got people doing cocaine on camera, but it’s probably not real cocaine, we all know that. But if you’re using cocaine to advance a character or storyline, you got people throwing flags. I think a lot of that has to do with the reason why beer companies still are hesitant, to this day, to advertise in wrestling because there’s still either a real or perceived component of the audience, too large of a component of the audience, that are children. That’s where I think the grey area is. Some television executives recognise it for what it is. Some of them are still, ‘Oh no, we don’t want to be associated with that.’ They’re fearful of it. But I think TV versus pay-per-view, it doesn’t f****** matter. It’s still the NWA. It’s still your brand. It’s still your characters that we see on TV. Yes, pay-per-views are seen on television," Bischoff said.

Bischoff continued, noting that it didn’t matter that the spot occurred on PPV rather than on broadcast TV:

"So I think to find any kind of comfort, where you’re able to get away with things, big things, controversial things like a cocaine spot, but you’re gonna be allowed to get away with it because it’s on pay-per-view and not on television, is naive as hell. That’s just inexperience, not having dealt with television networks, not having been in a position where you’ve got a television partner that actually cares about what you do. It’s just naïveté. It’s all it is, and a fair amount of stupidity because you know you’re bringing that attention to yourself. You got people dropping dead in the streets from snorting blow, from fentanyl. I don’t know, man. I don’t know Billy Corgan. I’ve had lunch with him and spent a little bit of time with him, but that was just flat-out frickin stupid. Especially [because] you’re trying to emerge. You’re trying to break out of YouTube and actually get a television deal, and you feel strongly about a cocaine spot. Which by the way, didn’t get anybody over anyway," Bischoff said.

Speaking of getting people over, Bischoff noted how it definitely didn't get Mitchell over:

"What was the purpose of it? You’re gonna get [James] Mitchell over? Are you kidding me? The guy’s never been over in the 20 years he’s been in the business. How is this going to make a difference? The more I think about it, the more p***** off I get because it’s the kind of thing that really damages the wrestling genre for television. People are inventing ways to screw stuff up. I don’t know. I hate when people blow opportunities. They’re hard to come by, folks. They’re really hard to come by. Why would you do something that you know is going to blow up in your face? If you don’t know it’s going to blow up in your face, get out of the business because you shouldn’t be in it," Bischoff said.

H/T: Fightful