Eric Bischoff has explained why in his opinion wrestling has not adapted in the way it tells stories in the same way that other forms of entertainment have over the years.
The former WCW President was talking to Adam Barnard on Foundation Radio about storytelling in the wrestling business. For Bischoff, things need to change and it will begin with somebody developing the right formula for wrestling.
Bischoff explained:
“Someone is going to have to develop a formula. It’s not set in stone. It’s not math, it’s art. Look at stand-up comics. All of the best – Jerry Seinfeld has a formula for developing his comedy. It’s a very imprecise formula. Somebody is going to have to develop a formula like is used in every other form of entertainment, whether it’s music, whether it’s movies, television, novels. There’s been a formula for great stories for a long time.”
“Somebody in wrestling is going to look at the basic architecture of storytelling and then modify it and apply it to the unique audience that professional wrestling is. You can’t produce a professional wrestling show like you produce a sitcom or a drama series on television. You can’t produce a professional wrestling show like you produce a movie. But there are elements from both of those and other forms of storytelling, there are elements of those forms of art that can be applied and modified to fit wrestling so that you can have a more systematic and precise approach to telling your story or creating one because, trust me I think I’m pretty accurate when I say this – for the most part, it’s just a bunch of people getting together and throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks.”
Bischoff continued noting that every other aspect of the wrestling business has progressed and changed over the years. However, the stories are told in wrestling have been the same for decades according to the former WWE Executive Director.
Bischoff noted:
“Now, what makes a difference between consistently good programming or not is the experience those people have in coming up with ideas, throwing them at the wall and seeing what sticks, and executing them. There’s a lot of very talented people at that method of story approach, but that’s the same way that wrestling was produced and approached creatively since the beginning of wrestling time.”
“The business has changed, television has changed the business – television will change the business, and it has in some respects, but the storytelling aspect and the way wrestling is approached is lagging way the f*ck behind the production value, the athleticism, the size, the scope, the popularity. The only thing that hasn’t really grown and kept up with all those other great things is the approach to storytelling. It’s being done the same way now that it was in the 60s and 70s.”
Eric Bischoff has also recently discussed the potential of him returning to WWE in the future on a full-time basis. For Bischoff, that ship has now sailed.