Eric Bischoff: Why Vince McMahon And I Never Had A Proper Match In WWE

Eric Bischoff believes the reason he and Vince McMahon never had a match together in WWE was because the WWE Chairman didn't think it would work visually.

As the man in charge of WCW, Bischoff battled with McMahon throughout the 1990s, and would work for WWE from 2002 as an on-screen performer.

Bischoff would famously challenge McMahon to a match at WCW Slamboree 1998 and instructed the referee to declare him the winner when McMahon didn't show up. Aside from a match in February 2004 that didn't happen because of Brock Lesnar, Bischoff and McMahon never squared off.

Bischoff believes the fault lays at his own feet.

Speaking to Inside The Ropes, Bischoff said: "I think it would have been a great opportunity. I think the reason it didn’t happen was largely because of me. I had let myself go physically, I wasn’t working out. I mean, I was in pretty decent shape, I guess, going back and looking at it, I didn’t look horrible on television, but I hadn’t really worked out in a couple of years by that point.

"I was no longer kickboxing. I wasn’t really doing anything physically. I’d jog every once in a while and hit the gym and lift weights, you know, a couple of times a year for a month or two. But as far as you know, staying in shape and being active, I really wasn’t.

"I’m guessing, I don’t know, Vince and I never had a conversation about this, but had I been in better physical condition, which would have made it more believable, a story between Vince… Because at the same time, I was letting myself go by, not working out, not training, Vince was like on the cover of Muscle and Fitness Magazine. He looked like a million bucks, I looked like a fifty year old has-been.

"So I just don’t think the timing was right. Had it been 20 years earlier, 15 years earlier or even ten years earlier, I think it would have probably been pretty good. But I just think in Vince’s mind, it didn’t visually make any sense."