Bischoff on Rap is Crap: “There was some blowback internally from Turner corporate standards and practices”

In the latest edition of his 83 Weeks podcast (via Wrestling Inc), Eric Bischoff spoke about why WCW eventually dropped the “Rap is Crap” gimmick, rumors of a lawsuit from Dennis Rodman and more.

Here are highlights:

On the Dennis Rodman lawsuit rumor:

“There was no lawsuit with Dennis Rodman. There may have been an issue with Dennis that Dennis may have very well like most people wanted an accounting. He may of had a difficult time accepting that accounting and if you go back to this time in ’97, ’98, ’99 even the accounting for pay-per-views was freaking horrible. You have to understand how it works.”

On the character of The Demon and talking to Gene Simmons:

“We got along, we talked. He explained to me that he had approached WWE I believe, we didn’t get into that conversation too much, but he had an idea. His idea really was to create a KISS line of wrestling characters because he had an extensive licensing and merchandising business model. That was really the beginning of what was supposed to end up being — not just paying Gene Simmons $500,000 to do a pay-per-view — but we were going to do a joint co-licensing agreement where WCW was going to draft — or ‘get the rub’ as they like to say in the wrestling business — off Gene Simmons’ toys and merchandise line because we sure as f–k didn’t have one, not as big as we needed and certainly not as big as his. It was also going to be part of what in my mind was going to be a pay-per-view on December 31st, 1999 called ‘New Years Evil.’ KISS coming out and playing and doing all the stuff at the MGM Grand that we did was a part of a much bigger plan.”

On Rap is Crap:

“There was some blowback internally from Turner corporate standards and practices. You know we had to react to what we had to react to.”

On working with ICP:

“I have no idea. I can’t even make s–t up about this, I wish I could. I wish I was fast enough on my feet to put this heat on somebody else. At the end of the day, I approved [ICP]. It wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t. Who the f–k convinced me that this was a good idea? You know I wish I could think of that person so I could honestly put the heat on them but I can’t. Nothing against them, at the time they were kind of a thing. You know if you go back and look at some of the stuff I was doing you know Dennis Rodman, KISS, you know Gene Simmons, Insane Clown Posse… there were a lot of things that we were doing to try and get the attention of an audience other than an audience we already had. You know you produce a show — especially a wrestling show — you know you have two choices. You can keep preaching to the same choir especially the ones that are leaving and hope they come back. Or you can look for another audience than you’re trying to preach to and use it to build your audience.”