Eric Bischoff has discussed his relationship with former WCW star Diamond Dallas Page and how their friendship caused problems for Page.
Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast with co-host Conrad Thompson, Bischoff discusses the rumour and innuendo that has dogged Bischoff and Page over the years.
Bischoff explained:
“One individual decided to spread the rumour that there was some kind of an open relationship between myself and Mrs B, Diamond Dallas Page and Kimberly – nothing, by the way, could be further from the truth. […] I would have never participated in that for a whole lot of reasons, one of those whole lotta reasons was Kimberly and I didn’t get along at all.”
“There were more than one occasions socially if I was over at Page’s house and we were just having beers and Kimberly happened to be there, it would get so uncomfortable that I would have to leave. We just didn’t get along and I’m not exactly sure why, but whenever we were together, socially, it was uncomfortable. She didn’t like being around me and I didn’t particularly like being around her. Now that changed as time went on, it was a lot easier for us to be around each other.
Bischoff continued stating that he now understands the jealousy that surrounded Page at the time:
I know who spread that rumour and the wiser and more enlightened version of me understands why. Page did have a lot of heat but do you know what Page also had by this time? He had respect. A lot of the same people that went ‘oh the only reason he’s got this gig is because he’s Bischoff’s neighbour, he’s Bischoff’s buddy’, ‘the only reason he gets this is because of Bischoff.. blah blah’. There was a lot of that – I can understand that too because if you didn’t know me really well and you didn’t know Page really well. From a distance, the optics would make it look like there’s two guys who are buddies. [It looked like] Page actually helped him get his job in WCW and now Bischoff’s returning the favour and giving him all these opportunities.
The former WCW President then shared his view on their working relationship, noting that he was harder on Page than any other WCW star:
What they didn’t know was Page was working his ass off in his own time to try to create those opportunities. What they also didn’t realise, and Page will tell you this, I was tougher on Page than I was on anybody else on the roster, because he was my friend. Just like I would be with my own son or my own daughter. I knew, with respect to Page, he had to overcome his relationship with me. It wasn’t an asset – it was a liability for Page, and he had to work twice as hard to get it. […] By 1997 Page had overcome a lot of that and actually had a fair amount of respect from almost all the boys.”
In a wide-ranging discussion, Eric Bischoff also discussed another WCW icon, Sting. Bischoff would say that the current AEW star “defined storytelling” in 1997 in World Championship Wrestling.