Eric Bischoff has revealed why WCW never tried to pursue Chyna as a possible signing.
Chyna is undoubtedly one of the most unique talents to ever grace the squared circle and, while the former Intercontinental Champion was a major part of WWE during the Wednesday Night Wars, plenty of talents did switch companies during that time – but Chyna wasn’t one of them.
Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast, the former WCW President opened up about why the company didn’t try to sign the Ninth Wonder in the World.
“I’m not really sure other than there weren’t a lot of women in the industry at that time that could work. There was a lot of women, but they were generally valets, eye candy type of roles. They weren’t physical in the ring, especially as physical as someone like Chyna. So, there just wasn’t a lot of opportunity. There wasn’t a lot of creative opportunity because we just didn’t have a lot of women on board. That was a part of it I’m sure.”
Jim Ross recently detailed Chyna’s final months with WWE and the $400,000 contract that was offered to the WWE Hall of Famer to keep her with the company.
“The 400k was probably more than she was making when she was making a million. She gets an increase in her downside, she’s going to make about $8,000 a week. If she gets back rolling and gets creative rolling again and invests in herself like she did before in her character, then the chances of her making more money and being higher up on the card is obviously there. Her deal to me was: ‘I’m as valuable as Stone Cold is to WWE.’ Chyna is as valuable to WWE as Stone Cold Steve Austin is?”
“She knew there were a handful of guys that were making a million dollar downside and he was one of them. That was the magic number. At that time, that was the number you strive to attain if you’re a talent because that was the top of the pay grade, $19,000 a week. A lot of guys just took it as they earned it.”
h/t 411mania.com