Eric Bischoff Comments on Ric Flair’s Fortune Angle

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Eric Bischoff was the WCW President and he recently spoke about Ric Flair’s attempt to form a new version of the four horsemen. Ric Flair was part of TNA at that time and he was one of the promotions' top guys. Although he did not wrestle, he took a manager-like role and was a heel for the most part.

On June 17th, 2010, Flair announced that he would reform the four horsemen under the name Fortune. AJ Styles, James Storm, Robert Roode, and Kazarian where the members of that group. Christopher Daniels, Douglas Williams, Rob Terry, and Matt Morgan were later added into the group.

Ric Flair was their leader and teacher.

Eric Bishoff on The Formation of Fortune

Eric Bischoff spoke about why the group was created at TNA in one of his podcast episodes. He stated that the group was primarily formed to push AJ Styles who had to get out of his comfort zone and take on a new character.

"I think there was a combination of people who were supportive of that move. I was one of them," Bischoff said. "It wasn't so much about creating a TNA version of The Four Horsemen as much as it was about creating a faction.

"The idea of them dressing up and taking on the Flair persona - I think the idea was for Ric Flair to embrace this group and have them emulate a lot of Ric's tried and true formulas. Flair was certainly excited about it, I was supportive of it, Hulk [Hogan] was very excited about it, and Dixie, of course, loved the idea because everybody loved the idea." Bischoff and Hulk Hogan also wanted AJ Styles to push himself.

His previous character was getting really old. "Hulk and I felt, AJ, as fantastic as he was, was recognized as what a special athlete he was, but we collectively felt AJ was lacking in character," Eric Bischoff said. "He was doing that homegrown talent, TNA thing for a long time, and he just wasn't emerging or growing as a character in our opinion.

A lot of people would disagree with that, and that's fine. Perhaps this move with Flair wasn't the right move for AJ, but I'm explaining why we did it. If he could elevate his character and take it to the next level, he'd be even more special. This was collectively our attempt to do that."