On May 11th during Monday Night Nitro, Eric Bischoff challenged Vince McMahon to a fight on that Sunday’s WCW Slamboree Pay-Per-View. On the Thursday episode of Thunder, a video played (NWO style) of Eric Bischoff needling McMahon further, saying that Vince could get in there and possibly knock out Eric, or break his jaw, and wouldn’t that feel good? At Slamboree, Bischoff was prepared in case Vince McMahon did show up.
I had a dressing room for him, nameplate on the door. I instructed Doug Dillinger - the head of security - and the security team ‘if they show up, escort them to the room like any other celebrity, provide them with every courtesy that we would anybody else that was a celebrity, take care of them.
In 1998, Eric Bischoff was 5’10” and 195 pounds. He kept himself in reasonable shape. He had a background in martial arts. A legitimate black belt, he competed in the Professional Karate Association. He also was a bouncer in Chicago for a time. He had been in fight on both a street fight and a more formal competitive level. Eric Bischoff’s rise in the wrestling world was predicated on cunning, intelligence and the ability to quickly size up a situation and adapt. In 1998 he was 45 years old.
Vince McMahon was 54 years old in 1998. He was jacked to the gills and hadn’t suffered his most terrible injuries yet. He was 6’2” and 248 pounds. Vince McMahon had spent much of his younger man days getting into fights and brawls in Havelock, North Carolina. Far from having a silver spoon in his mouth, he had an abusive stepfather and fought many a person on and near the military bases where he grew up. Vince McMahon in 1998 was one of the most (if not the best) performer in the wrestling ring from one perspective while also being one of the clunkiest and least coordinated. His will was never in question, however.
At Slamboree 1998, Vince McMahon didn’t show up, and Eric Bischoff had the referee count Vince out and awarded him the victory. Lame. Nobody wanted that. The fans, the people watching and especially Eric Bischoff. Everyone would have loved it if Vince McMahon showed up. What was remarkable about the recent Rivals show on A&E chronicling the well-worn story of WWE vs. WCW was how many of the supposed biggest moments were really much ado about nothing – the DX “invasion” during the daytime with a jeep now being called a tank. Rick Rude appearing on both shows. Seriously…did any of that TRULY matter? But the idea of a fired-up Vince McMahon forgoing all corporate sensibilities and having a honest-to-goodness fight with Eric Bischoff? Well that would have truly been amazing. A top memory and moment in the history of wrestling. And how could it have gone? Would it have gone? I ran the statistics and additional footage through a top AI computer designed for fighting simulation (last seen on the show “The Deadliest Warrior” with credit to Slitherine studios for developing the software*.
May 17th 1998 DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts 11,592 in attendance
Eric Bischoff is in the ring, having already been introduced by Michael Buffer. Eric has already shed his black outer shirt and stands in his NWO shirt with the sleeves cut off, black jeans and his hands taped up with black tape. In his mind, he is already going over the promo he is going to have to cut to try and salvage something from this segment. The crowd is going to hate not seeing this fight, he thinks. Eric had given his instructions to Doug Dillinger, head of security for WCW that if McMahon did arrive, that he and whomever was in his entourage were to be treated like any VIP. He was sorry that Doug didn’t get to play host for the most famous and successful promoter in wrestling history, a title he wouldn’t mind having for himself.
Eric went through with throwing some air punches and standing in a couple of stances to posture to the crowd, but he knew it was soon time to get on with this and move on…
Suddenly Eric notices that referee Mickie Henson’s eyes go wide as he hears what is being said into his earpiece. He quickly gets the attention of Michael Buffer the ring announcer. Michael motions to his cards in his hand. Mickie shakes his head no. You can see him saying the words, “This is for real, improvise!” Michael Buffer stands frozen.
Suddenly, Mean Gene walks backwards through the entranceway to the ramp. And next…is Vince McMahon, dressed for a fight. Mean Gene is clearly trying to get a word from his former boss. The sound comes on the PA system mid-sentence “…please, Vince, just give me a…” Vince shoves Mean Gene hard, sending him toppling backwards. Vince can be seen saying, “Fucking traitor” at Gene before focusing on the ring. Eric went from bouncing around to standing in a state of shock.
“He’s here, gentlemen, the man amongst men in this business is HERE!” Bobby Heenan on commentary can’t keep his delight hidden in the slightest.
The always professional and verbose Mike Tenay is stammering. Tony Schiavone rises to the occasion. “This is taking butts OUT of the seats…nobody is sitting for this one, boys!” Sure enough, everyone is standing. Signs saying things like “Vince Fears Eric” as being shaken towards the Chairman of the WWF, but he sees nothing but a wide-eyed, stunned Eric Bischoff as he does a more purposeful, less theatrical version of the Vince McMahon powerwalk. Vince is in a large sleeveless black shirt, black pants and athletic shoes.
Eric’s years of martial arts tournament experience kicks in and his resumes a semblance of a fighting stance. Vince pulls himself to the apron. Eric barks at Michael Buffer to give Vince a mic. Eric looks around frantically yelling for someone to get him one as well. This is the greatest TV moment he has always talked about manifest. He’s going to milk it for all it’s worth. The fight is no longer the first thing on his mind. He is producing a segment for history and he knows it. Michael Buffer walks up to Vince holding the microphone out for him to take. Vince looks briefly at Buffer and speaks. “Just hold the mic for me. This isn’t going to take long. Eric, you challenged me. I’m here. Let the best man win.”
Eric hits the switch into full Easy E/Uncle Eric mode. “Oh Vinnie, you don’t have to worry. I will. But I gotta say that I’m surpr…” Vince enters the ring, having zero interest in being a part of some bullshit wrestling promo at his expense. Mickie Henson calls for the bell out of instinct, and the crowd erupts with a deafening noise usually reserved for the sound of glass breaking in the WWF, or the return for the Nature Boy that would happen a year from now. Eric is yelling at Mickie, but nobody can hear anything. Vince walks forward like Frankenstein’s monster, two hands extended going for the throat of Bischoff. Bischoff instinctually dips to Vince’s left side and round kicks McMahon to the stomach, followed by a fast right cross to the face. McMahon growls and swats Bischoff with a backhand, catching Eric at shoulder height. It would seem to be an ineffectual hit but Eric topples awkwardly into the ropes, the only reason he doesn’t fall.
“Vince didn’t even feel those hits!” Heenan yells excitedly. Mike Tenay agrees, “Eric may be regretting his decision.” Tony screams, “Come on, Eric! Get him!”
The atmosphere is insane. The crowd is just a roaring sea of noise. No discernable chants, no “this is awesome.” Just noise letting you know that it truly is.
Eric and Vince circle. Vince’s hands resemble every picture you’ve seen of Baron Von Raschke. He’s eager to get his hands on Eric but feels now that he’s in little danger after seeing what Bischoff could do, so he’s happy to stalk and scare the little fucker.
Eric often talked about how he thrived on adrenaline when performing. Well, he’s never had more than now. His hits didn’t hurt Vince, but he notices that he did draw a little blood from Vince’s nose. That swatting paw of Vince promised a disastrous end to the fight from Eric’s perspective if Vince got a hold of him. “Let’s avoid that,” Eric thought.
Mike Tenay, “Eric has to do something unexpected to have a prayer against the head of the WWF…”
As if Eric heard him, Bischoff suddenly comes in on rails right at McMahon. Vince, shocked at first, reaches out with both hands towards Eric. Eric dips his head and gets close to Vince, and catches him flush with a perfect uppercut. Vince’s eyes bug for a second and his head snaps back for an instant. Eric thinks, “Punches in bunches” and starts unloading with combinations, emphasizing speed. Vince seems confused, and a couple of the punches actually hurt. He steps forward, getting caught hard on the nose, breaking it. He ignores the pain and white light in the moment and manages to wrap his arms around Eric and topple on top of him. The crowd gasps then roars.
Eric is stunned, pinned under an avalanche of angry muscle. Vince doesn’t seem to have a plan, just to grab anything and break it. Eric scrambles on his back, trying to get up. He catches a flash of Kevin Nash at ringside with Scott Hall, and they are hollering and hooting like kids witnessing an after school fight. “Fucking assholes” Eric thinks as he manages to shimmy out from underneath to the side of Vince. Vince goes to his knees and reaches out desperately, managing to grab Eric’s left arm. He puts his hands together to firmly grab Eric’s wrist. Eric can feel it being crushed under the immense power and rage of Mr. McMahon. Eric throws himself backwards, and feels his hand start to painfully slip out of Vince’s grasp, feels fingers perhaps breaking under the strain. Vince yanks down hard, and Eric hears his shoulder pop and he screams out in pain. Desperately, Eric lashes out with a kick and catches Vince on his broken nose as he attempts to stand, staggering Vince and sending him backwards out of the ring. The crowd roars once again, somehow even louder than before. Eric is hurt badly, and seems to be frantically looking around for an answer for his separated shoulder and probable broken fingers. Vince falls to the floor hard. Kevin Nash goes over to Vince and helps him up. The crowd boos vociferously for this. Vince sees that it is Nash that’s helped him up. He makes eye contact with “Big Sexy” and smiles. Nash smiles. Vince headbutts Nash and breaks his orbital bone, sending the shocked Nash down to the floor, toppling Scott Hall in the process. Vince mouths “Fuck you” to his former wrestlers, then reaches up and grabs the rope to pull himself back in. Security is rushing the ring. Eric screams to Mickie Henson. Mickie leaves the ring with arms extended and yells to security to stop.
“Bischoff wants to keep fighting! He doesn’t want it to end like this!” Schiavone says in shock.
“Whadda DUMMY!” Heenan yells.
He might be right. Vince beeline to Bischoff knowing that Eric is as hurt as McMahon is tired. The initial shock and ride of the adrenaline of the fight is wearing off. Eric and Vince have expended a ton of energy which combined with the excited nature of the whole thing is quickly making their limbs heavy and their chests tight.
Eric darts back and forth, teasing going left and right. A kid avoiding another kid who is “it” in a game of tag. McMahon throws a right haymaker. Eric swears he can hear the punch as it misses him. Eric tries to get some footwork in, hoping his training kicks in. It does to a point, but he’s tired and hurt. It’s been a long time since Eric was in a fight. He backs himself into a corner unintentionally. McMahon swings wildly. A looping punch at a weird angle is barely blocked by Eric covering up, but the follow up gut level punch by Vince finds it’s mark and finds it well. Eric feels his floating rib catch fire as McMahon lands a crushing blow. Eric keeps his head low and pushes into Vince, hoping that doing the unexpected will pay off again. Not this time. McMahon windmills his arms, wailing away with clubbing forearms to the back of Eric as he pushes into the midsection of McMahon. The forearms aren’t nearly effective as McMahon thought it would be, and Eric raises his head, catching McMahon in the chin with the crown of Bischoff’s head. McMahon stumbles back. Eric unleashes with everything he has into one kick, cracking McMahon to his left temple. Vince improbably eats the kick and throws one more wild punch, catching Eric on the side of his jaw, breaking it. Eric drops like a marionette with its strings cut, topping completely and brutally. No pretty bump or movie fall here. The clip of this punch would play in the opening of WWE programming for decades. Vince drops to a knee and looks at the fallen Bischoff. “You got your wish, Eric. Broken jaw, yeah? You asked for it you spineless fuck. And you got it.”
The crowd roars so loud that two things happen. Vince suddenly realizes that there is a crowd to play to – so he does. In spite of every signal being sent to his brain from his body to stop moving, Vince stands and looks at the crowd. He starts to tear off his shirt Hogan style and the crowd loses it completely, flash bulbs going off like firecrackers on Chinese New Year.
The roar stirs Eric as well. His mind is a fog, and his vision blurred. The pain in his jaw is immense. He wills himself to his feet, and immediately almost collapses again. In the seconds it takes to really find steady legs underneath, McMahon keeps yelling at and playing to the crowd, his back to Eric. Eric imagines strangely that he’s the Starship Enterprise, and visualizes diverting all power to one last hit. The knee, he thinks. Crush that knee. End this fight. Eric takes a trotting step to try and jump and stomp McMahon’s knee as he starts to turn around.
Shane McMahon blindsides Eric, tackling him to the mat.
“Shane! Shane’s attacked Eric!” Eric has nothing left and is curled up as Shane paws at him. Suddenly another blur as Garett Bischoff, Eric’s then 14 year-old son piles on Shane and knocks him off of his old man.
Then CHAOS. Security won’t be held back by anyone now, and they attempt to grab and restrain everyone involved. Vince McMahon thinks about fighting them, but his limbs are too heavy, his face too hurt. It’s all he can do to merely stand up straight in the corner as multiple guards press against him. He strains to see what’s happened to Eric. Eric is helped up by Garett. McMahon is actually touched by this. Shane is a Wildman, looking like a crazed coked-out person on “Cops” as he’s being held down by a half-dozen security people, both legitimate and indy wrestlers in shirts.
There’s no “let them fight” chant. The crowd knows they’ve seen one for the ages. Slamboree went from forgettable to the event people would lie and say they witnessed live. The rest is just noise, retellings, and clips shown on everything from Sportscenter to CNN and of course on WCW and WWE shows forever more. Eric’s vision has come to pass.
The post-fight:
Garett Bischoff – Garett’s brave act in defense of his father insured him a faster entry into the wrestling business. He started training under a WWE (as it would become) contract on his 18th birthday. He would eventually wrestle Shane McMahon in a surprisingly good Wrestlemania match years later built by a generous showing of clips from the McMahon/Bischoff fight from Slamboree 98.
Mean Gene, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash – the three filed a class action suit against Vince McMahon for his actions against them at Slamboree. Although Vince publicly stated he’d never give any of the three of them “A fucking red cent” apparently a hidden settlement did indeed occur along with NDA agreements signed. Mean Gene, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall all eventually got jobs in the WWE. The thought of Vince McMahon giving hush money, having NDAs signed and giving jobs in exchange for silence? Perish the thought.
Shane McMahon – In spite of his getting involved and effectively putting a premature stop to what would be dubbed The Fight, Shane McMahon was generally well-seen by the wrestling public. The joint Wrestlemania/Starrcade event was thought to be his brainchild. Although there was only one such event due to WCW still folding, Shane’s status as a deal maker and creative mind was definitely made.
Wrestlemania/Starrcade – Thanks to The Fight it was now open season for WWF/E and WCW wrestlers to openly talk about, challenge and antagonize the wrestlers on the other brand. Eventually the desire to see various matches and the endless debates led to a one-time but incredible Wrestlemania – Starrcade joint event. Matches included:
NWO vs. Degeneration X Survivor Series-style elimination match
Sting vs. The Undertaker
Stone Cold vs. Goldberg
Ric Flair vs. The Rock, the promos leading up to the match are said to have been some of the greatest back and forths in wrestling history, and the match itself regarded as Ric Flair’s last truly great match T
he Fight was the first individual match to be put into the WWE Hall of Fame, which started a new tradition of a match being added each year.
Vince McMahon – Already being regarded in the late 90s as being out of touch, The Fight had an interesting effect – Vince never got tired of engaging in debates about The Fight. Even a total unknown fan that declared that Eric Bischoff won The Fight could possibly find himself having to get dressed down by Vince McMahon online. Vince, who notoriously didn’t care what people had to say about what he did and how he did it appeared to discover this world where people gave their opinions freely, and from time to time it appeared that actual adjustments were being made with the fans in mind. At least a little.
Eric Bischoff – The Fight was a duel edged sword for Uncle Eric. The general wrestling public admired him more, but the wrestlers of WCW found themselves even more detached from the boss. Eric found himself attempting to chase the dragon of having something as exciting and spontaneous as The Fight, but it never happened leading to things playing out in this world roughly the same and WCW folding up and being bought out…but not before Eric had a rumored physical confrontation backstage with Vince Russo when they were working together, leading to yet another nickname that would stick to Eric Bischoff the rest of his career – The Bro Killer.
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