WCW Never Tried to Sign Mike Tyson—Longstanding Rumor Debunked

Eric Bischoff is putting an end to one of the most talked-about rumors in wrestling history—WCW never tried to sign Mike Tyson.

During an interview with Inside the Ropes, Bischoff was asked about WCW’s supposed attempt to bring in Iron Mike before WWE did. But according to him, that story is pure fiction.

“It’s funny, Kenny—I never had a conversation with Mike Tyson. I never had a conversation with Mike Tyson’s agent. I never had a conversation with Mike Tyson’s lawyer,” Bischoff said. “I think that came from our buddy, Dave Meltzer.”

But that’s not all—Bischoff revealed that he actually found out about WWE’s Tyson dea —through an unexpected phone call.

“I had never had any conversations at all with Mike Tyson,” Bischoff explained. “The other side of that story is that while Vince McMahon and my team were negotiating, I wasn’t aware of it. I got a phone call from a friend of mine—well, he worked for me, actually. His name was Zane Bresloff. Zane was in charge of our live event side of the business in WCW. He had previously worked for the WWF before coming to work for WCW, and he still had a lot of really good friends at high levels inside WWF.”

Bischoff recalled exactly where he was when he got the call—taking flying lessons in Florida, working toward his private pilot’s license.

“I was up flying, and when I landed my plane, I got a call from Zane Bresloff. Zane said, ‘Eric, you’re never going to believe what WWF is doing.’ At the time, I was beating the hell out of them. I mean, I didn’t care—I was arrogant. I said, ‘Okay, Zane, what are they doing now?’”

That’s when WWE’s plan hit him like a ton of bricks. “He said, ‘They’re bringing in Mike Tyson to shoot an angle with Steve Austin and Vince McMahon.’ That’s when it hit me—I knew this was going to be big. That was going to leave a mark. That was going to hurt. As soon as I heard that, I knew we were in for a real fight.”

For years, speculation ran wild that WCW was trying to land Tyson around the same time Vince McMahon brought him in for the now-iconic storyline with Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1998. But Bischoff made it crystal clear—there were never any talks, no meetings, and no attempts to bring Tyson into WCW’s Monday Night War strategy.

While Tyson’s involvement in WWE led to some of the biggest moments of the Attitude Era, Bischoff insists that WCW had nothing to do with trying to make a competing deal happen.

Another wrestling myth debunked. Were you surprised by Bischoff’s comments, or did you always doubt the WCW-Tyson connection? Drop your thoughts in the comments!