Hulk Hogan losing to Billy Kidman was supposed to shut down the idea that WCW’s biggest veterans refused to help younger talent. Instead, Eric Bischoff now admits the company picked the wrong guy for the job.
During a conversation with Inside the Ropes, Bischoff was asked why Kidman was chosen to score a win over Hogan during WCW’s attempt to push its younger roster.
At the time, WCW’s locker-room morale was falling apart. Fans and wrestlers were also accusing established names like Hogan, Ric Flair and Roddy Piper of protecting their spots while younger talent remained stuck underneath them. Bischoff said the Kidman program was WCW’s attempt to prove that Hogan and the other veterans were willing to lose when the situation made sense.
“Honestly, the true answer is because so much of what the internet and the locker room were saying—the disease that was really killing WCW was morale—and a lot of the locker room, the roster and then the Dave Meltzers of the world said, ‘Oh no, it’s these old guys keeping the young guys down.’”
Hogan agreed to work with Kidman and help establish him as a threat. Bischoff said Hogan was willing to become the example WCW needed, even if the pairing never felt believable.
“That whole thing was our way creatively of going, ‘No, it’s not that the old guys aren’t willing to put the young guys over. It’s just that it’s got to make sense.’ Hulk was willing to do it. He was willing to be an example.”
Looking back, Bischoff didn’t try to defend the booking. He called Kidman a good friend and praised his work as a WWE producer, but he still believes putting him against Hogan was the wrong move.
“It was a bad decision. There’s no question about it, in my opinion. I like Billy. Billy’s a great guy. He’s still a good friend. He’s working at WWE to this day as a producer.”
Bischoff then went one step further by calling the entire decision horrible. The match was less about Kidman specifically and more about Hogan helping WCW answer years of criticism surrounding its aging main-event stars.
“It was a horrible decision, but it was Hulk’s way and our way of trying to prove a point. The general consensus among wrestling fans was that the Roddy Pipers, the Ric Flairs and the Hulk Hogans didn’t want to put younger guys over. This was our way of proving that was not true.”
Hogan was willing to take the loss, but the Kidman feud failed to turn him into WCW’s next major star. Instead, it became another example of the company forcing a message without finding the right story to make fans believe it.
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Was Billy Kidman the wrong wrestler to defeat Hulk Hogan, or could WCW have made the program work with better booking? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
