In the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff shared insights about The Radicals' shift from WCW to WWE. He recounted an interesting moment while dining at a restaurant near an airport when he first saw their WWE debut on TV.
Bischoff recalled, āI didnāt hear it, I saw it [their WWE debut]. I was sitting in an Applebeeās , it was an Applebeeās or a Chiliās restaurant, right outside the Flying Cloud airport in suburban Minneapolis. I had been up in Wyoming with my brother, my sister and my wife. I flew from Atlanta, picked up my brother and sister in Minneapolis, and flew out here to the house. We watched the Super Bowl together, spent a couple of days, and I flew my brother and sister back to Minneapolis. Lori and I were going to spend the night there and jump in the plane and fly back home the next morning.
āSo after we dropped my brother and sister off, Lori and I headed over to the hotel near the airport where I parked my plane. And across the street there was a Chiliās or an Applebeeās, whatever , I think was an Applebeeās. So we went over there, and Iām sitting in the restaurant, ordering my food. Probably nacho chips, Iām guessing, from Applebeeās at that time, or Chiliās. You know, itās not really great food, but itās not horrible. You can get it down, fills you up. Anyway, weāre sitting there, and they had TVs going on all around the restaurant. We were kind of in the middle. So I couldnāt hear anything, but I could see, and they had Monday Night Raw on. So Iām watching Monday Night Raw, and they cut to a shot of The Radicals sitting at ringside. And I , again, I couldnāt hear anything, so it was like, āWhat the f**k?ā And I , once sat in I looked at my wife, I said, āTheyāll [WCW] be calling me soon.ā Swear to you, remember like it was five minutes ago. And sure as s**t, within about 10 days or two weeks, whatever it was, I got a call from Brad Siegel [about returning to WCW].ā
Later, he discussed Ric Flairās advice to Kurt Angle regarding his potential move to WCW. He acknowledged that while WWE has a strong track record for building stars, it raises questions about what could have happened had Angle joined WCW. Bischoff said, āThere would have been a reason for us to believe we could do something with the guy , with Kurt Angleās talents. Itās not like we hadnāt done it before [with Goldberg]. But I get Ricās point./ And look, WWE has always had the reputation of being able to build stars, and justifiably so. So I donāt think Ricās advice was necessarily wrong. Probably good advice, excellent advice, in retrospect. But it does kind of leave the door open as to what would have happened. Because we recognize that it is possible to create a superstar out of the Power Plant, because we did it definitively with Bill [Goldberg], but also with other people. You know, Diamond Dallas Page didnāt come out of the chute learning, you know, knowing how to wrestle. He learned what he learned in a lot of different ways, but the majority of it was in the Power Plant. And with Kurtās background, there would have been a recognition and an effort to exploit that. What could have happened? I donāt know. But I think in Kurtās case, it would be hard to look back and say he made the wrong decision, or he could have made a better decision with WCW because I donāt think that would have been true. I think he made the best decision for himself at that time regardless of Ric Flairās advice, which I think is probably good advice at the time.ā