I don't believe it was luck though. Bischoff had copied a Japan storyline he saw and decided to use it for this. Sure having ex-WWF guys worked and once he got Hogan in it , yep it went into over drive. But almost every element of the NWO was an "invasion" from up north and it clicked with audiences. WCW had never been seen on WWF's level and was considered a small southern promotion. The NWO took WCW to make it a true national product like Bischoff wanted.
The biker rally situation was foolish on the fact they didn't pay a gate. The idea was to build a PPV after Bash at the Beach (1995) that took place on a beach setting with people attending. That was likely his idea to do it where a large group of people were at.
Bischoff's folly was he should have charged attendance at the Sturgis Rally (which is attended by thousands) for Hog/Road Wild. But Bischoff was going off what the PPV buys would be and as crazy as it sounds...Hog/Road Wild did very well there...
220,000 PPV Buys - 1996
240,000 PPV Buys - 1997
365,000 PPV Buys - 1998
235,000 PPV Buys - 1999
In fact that last Road Wild PPV was the last big time drawing WCW PPV. In fact no other PPV would do as well. That is the thing ....Bischoff wasn't wrong holding a PPV at Sturgis Biker rally. He was wrong in not charging attendance. His PPV was different which helped.
https://wrestlenomics.com/resources/...s-ppv-buyrate/
Also WWF was also after Kiss as well in this time period. They were wanting to do a deal as well. So it wasn't just Bischoff out there trying to throw money at various people. WWF paid for Motley Crue to perform and Bischoff did the same with a country music star (name escapes me) and Kiss. Bischoff also paid for Dennis Rodman , Jay Leno and Karl Malone in that span too.
Nah , his main achievement was kick starting a late 1990s boom and launching an unheard of idea many thought was crazy. A live TV product each week. Which if you see documentaries on it , many thought it was basically a live PPV every week. They didn't know if it would work.
Bischoff was really....REALLY good at his job. Again a live TV product each week wasn't easy. Plus Bischoff was literally during the show...COUNTER programming Vince's taped show. That is astounding to be that HANDS ON to counter segments and more to get that advantage. Nitro being live is why we got WWF RAW live. Vince had to fight back.
It wasn't just throwing money then at people. Sure that helped but Bischoff was reading spoilers and watching , and would change up Nitro on the fly because ...he wanted to WIN.
Ted Turner didn't own WCW by the end. WCW was losing $6 million a year before Bischoff came in. Turner told his executives then , nope not gonna sell. During Bischoff's run , a company offered a couple hundred million for WCW. By this point Turner would do a merger with Time Warner and they laughed the deal off. Because one year WCW made a huge amount of money (over $500 million) and they were like...nah. Then once things began a slow ride down....Time Warner was merging with AOL.
AOL/Time Warner was BILLIONS in debt due to this merger. They were cutting costs and selling sh-t everywhere in 2000. WCW. would cost them $60-80 million in losses. Turner was out of there and no way to save it.
In any sensible industry , Bischoff would have been called into the office in 1998 when he programmed Goldberg to beat Hogan at Georgia Dome on Nitro. Because your basically forgetting ...1996-1998 was the big MONEY years for WCW. By saying this you cost WCW millions in profits so....no.
I think people believe it because the facts are there. 1996-1998 was the company's biggest and best money making years. He turned around a product that traditionally lost money. He made mistakes as posted but he also did very well.
The live products we see today with WWE RAW , Smackdown and AEW Dynamite and Collision....well we need to thank Eric Bischoff. Because he made a live weekly product work and laid that ground work. Love or hate him...