Eric Bischoff had a lot of love for the talent that got released on Thursday following WWE’s quarterly financial call and he had some words of encouragement for the stars moving forward.
The latest episode of 83 Weeks was just released early on AdFreeShows. The major topic at hand this week is TNA Turning Point 2011, but Bischoff and co-host Conrad Thompson did discuss the recent wave of WWE releases that occurred on November 4. Conrad asked about some of the names that stood out to Eric and the first name on his list who Bischoff briefly got to work with was Ember Moon.
“Really, really professional, talented, committed individual,” he said about the former NXT Women’s Champion. “I really liked her cause I was hoping to work more with her because there was just something about her that made me want to try to come up with something that would help her get to the next level and I know that in the office there were a lot of people that really really supported Ember when she got injured while I was there. It was a devastating injury and most people probably thought she would probably not come back, but I know there was a lot of support for her in the office and everybody was of the mindset that they were going to give her as much time as she needs because they really appreciated her as a performer and a professional.” Being someone experienced in the administrative side of the business, Eric did mention the usual unmentioned factors that come into play.
“As is always the case, there are other things going on that none of us are aware of. From a strategic point of view, from a budgetary point of view, not knowing what the future is over the next year, three-year, five-year plan so there’s always things we don’t know about, but that one stuck out at me,” he said. Another name he was saddened to hear the release of was Harry Smith (aka Davey Boy Smith Jr.), who in his second run with WWE didn’t even get to be on television.
“Just a nice, intelligent, charismatic individual and he just seemed to have all the ingrediants so I was very disappointed for him cause I know how committed he is to this industry and that one kind of surprised me and disappointed me to be honest about it.”
Bischoff empathized with all the talent about the fierce proverbial gut-punch it is to be released when you’re attempting to achieve your dream and he used one under-utilized talent as his example.
“Karrion Kross, what the hell? To get that close and have the rug get pulled out from underneath you is emotionally really, really devastating because of the time and the commitment that goes into trying to make it to the big leagues, but again going back to what I’m thinking when I saw this is once they get out of the funk, the disappointment of being let go, it’s just nothing but opportunity, man. It’s hard to look at it that way when you just been kicked in the teeth, when your dreams have all been kind of shattered and taken away from you but that’s just a moment in time. They’ve got the talent or they wouldn’t be there in the first place.”
Eric encouraged the crop of released stars to take a few days to adjust and decompress before doing a thorough self-assessment of how to improve on their star power.
“Be honest with yourself and look at what your strengths are and identify your strengths and put them off to the side and determine ‘how can I become even better at the things I’m already good at? What nuance? What can i do to challenge myself to be better I’m already good at?’ And then be honest with yourself and make a list of those things that you’re not good at or that need a lot of work and focus on those things.
“Find an improv acting coach and learn how to be the best you can possibly be on the microphone because you clearly already had some of the mechanical skills and talents that you had and needed.”
Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone
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