Eric Bischoff - what can you say about this guy? He ran one of the most popular wrestling companies in the world, held the top spot for over a year above WWE, brought down ECW (much to everyone's dismay), and became General Manager of WWE's flagship program, RAW. But recently, he seems to be slipping a bit and now he's under the close, watchful eye of Vince and Shane McMahon. It seems that these guys are just attacking him because of the said facts about his career. He came in as a political-heel role and he made that a true hit as it continues to get a huge pop from the fans. This last edition of RAW put a final explanation point on the General Manager position of Eric Bischoff, and none too sooner.

In 2002, after Ric Flair was taken out of his co-owner position, Vince McMahon needed a General Manager to manage the WWE superstars while he took care of the bigger things that he constantly needs to take care of. SmackDown started out with Paul Heyman and RAW had the pleasure of one of the most unexpected images in wrestling history, Vince McMahon shaking hands and HUGGING Eric "Easy E." Bischoff. And ever since, it's been an uphill battle with the writers and the fans, starting storylines of HLA (Hot Lesbian Action), invasions to SmackDown!, and, more recently, a personal vendetta with John Cena.

That's just gently touching the top of the crap pile. What about Eric Bischoff seducing Linda McMahon? That was in very poor taste, in my opinion, and it had the lowest ratings in RAW's 10+ year history. I felt disgusted when it happened and I'm sure many people on OWW and other places would say the same exact thing. Using Three Minute Warning like that did make sense but it was the only thing they could have used them for. They ended up not having much of a storyline afterwards and that's what hurt them the most: no fallout factor - thanks a lot, Mr. Bischoff.

Another screw up by Eric Bischoff must be the Redneck Triathlon with Steve Austin. The only person I feel bad for through that was Austin. A great talent that had to be part of a poor thought out spectacle like that just hurts and hurts a lot. Then the singing contest came up. What the hell was that? The redeeming quality of that match was the pigpen match. That had a nice pop for the crowd but it would have been really cool, since Austin "deputized" the crowd, if Bischoff tried to escape. Then it would have been like when Raven tried to run away from Goldberg when he lost the WCW US Title. But even the crowd popping powers of Stone Cold Steve Austin couldn't help this end in total disappointment.

As long as we're talking about dumb storylines, let's talk about Eugene! I feel bad for how Nick Dinsmore is being treated, having to demean himself to a gimmick that makes fun of mentally handicapped people. I get the whole special person becoming champion deal but then what if he wants to be taken seriously as a true competitor? He can't with this gimmick, especially when you consider that he uses signature moves of older wrestlers. Unfortunately, fans think that he's a joke and until he has a gimmick change, he will never get booked for anything bigger than tag team titles.

This year alone had its own Bischoff moments. During the build-up for ECW: One Night Stand, he decided to create a band of "crusaders" from both RAW and SmackDown only to make sure that ECW knew who bought them out. Sort of putting the proverbial explanation point on the whole event. It wasn't necessary but the pay-per-view still became a success and not because of the crusaders. But that was the advantage that Hardcore Homecoming had over ONS. When they had that segment of Bischoff, Vince McMahon, and Paul Heyman in the ring it was good to showcase ECW but then Bischoff tried to make himself look distinguished but, in actuality, he just looked like a total snob and it turned out to be a slight disaster. The event itself turned out great, especially when

The main thing that really made me a little ticked off was when they started censoring the crowd during Kurt Angle's entrance (which started the first week of Joey Styles on commentary no less) and put Daivari as Angle's referee. Thankfully, Mr. McMahon changed that. It seems that Bischoff is continuing his ways of WCW and focusing his attention on a select few while he leaves it up to everyone else to be written into the mix wherever they can. That hurt WCW and it's now hurting RAW and WWE because WWE is using RAW as the premiere flagship program and to have that kind of bad publicity will show that they're a joke. Granted, Eric did run WCW successfully for seven years as well as grabbing the number one spot for almost two of those years and ran it in the ground as Shane, storyline-wise, ran it for three months and ran THAT to the ground. This last edition of RAW put the final nail in the coffin for Bischoff in the WWE and not too sooner. I mean, hell, it was the most entertaining piece of Bischoff entertainment since One Night Stand (I still think Sandman should have got involved in that segment). The main question now is: how will Shane McMahon fix the mistakes, on-air and off since the writers are also to blame, that Bischoff seemed to leave? Looks like 2006 is going to be an interesting year for RAW. by Brian Bertrand..