Eric Bischoff remembers Ted Turner: ‘He changed my life’
If it wasn’t for Ted Turner, Eric Bischoff doesn’t know what a huge portion of his life would have looked like.
Bischoff made an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show today following the news that Turner has passed away at 87 years old. Reflecting on the time where Turner was his boss in WCW, Bischoff credited the business mogul for being a visionary who allowed so many people to live their dreams.
“He was indeed a great guy. I don’t want to make it sound — because I wasn’t close to Ted, we didn’t go out and have steak dinner together or anything like that. But I did have a chance through working with him to get to know who he was and watching how he operated,” Bischoff said. “Look, he changed my life. He changed the lives of my children. None of us would be where we are today — I would not be involved with Real American Freestyle were it not for the opportunities that Ted Turner provided to me. And I’m just one guy. Think about all of the people that worked at Turner Broadcasting. The thousands of people who, just like me, got opportunities and got to grow and got to pursue their careers because of the entrepreneurial, groundbreaking vision that Ted Turner had when it came to the media landscape. He was the media version of Elon Musk in his time.”
Eric Bischoff reflects on the legacy of Ted Turner and the massive impact he had on the wrestling business and beyond:
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 6, 2026
“He changed my life, he changed the lives of my children. None of us would be where we are today.
And I’m just one guy.
Think about all of the people who… pic.twitter.com/qMk6DVGryV
Bischoff said Turner had a great rapport with employees. Despite his wealth, Turner drove a Ford Escort and was happy to interact with everyone, not just other executives.
When it comes to wrestling, Bischoff said Turner was “absolutely hands-off” and did not interfere in what was going on at WCW. But Turner would always call Bischoff when the weekly ratings came out and was especially animated when WCW was beating WWE.
Bischoff believes Turner was drawn to wrestling programming because of how inexpensive it was, and it also fit into how Turner viewed America. Bischoff described WCW, The Andy Griffith Show, and Atlanta Braves baseball games as being the three pillars that allowed Turner Broadcasting to grow into what it ultimately became.
“It fit into that middle America mentality and relationship that Ted had,” Bischoff said. “He grew up in the South. He knew that there were a lot of people that just culturally loved pro wrestling. Just like they loved Andy in Mayberry and they loved the Atlanta Braves. And those three programs really became the pillars, if you go back and look at it, at the Superstation that went on to become Turner Network Television.”
Describing his former boss as a “fighter,” Bischoff said Turner enjoyed the “Billionaire Ted” parodies that WWE aired in the 1990s. Turner saw the skits as evidence of how much he was getting under Vince McMahon’s skin.
Turner’s death comes nearly eight years after he disclosed his battle with Lewy body dementia. When asked how Turner should be remembered by wrestling fans, Bischoff said he hopes people appreciate Turner as one of the great media moguls and entrepreneurs of our time.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.