Former WWE creative team member Seth Mates recalls the night Eric Bischoff debuted on WWE Raw and how no one seemed to know it was happening backstage. He also notes that he went out of his way to hide from Bischoff. "At the time I was still with dotcom, but I knew I was heading to creative just a few days later. I'd heard stories from people who'd rip on WCW, saying that they'd take coffee people and make them producers, etc.," Mates writes.

"I didn't want Eric to think that WWE was the same way, that they just promoted web workers to the creative team, etc -- wanted the company to look as good as possible. Weird thinking I know, but I wanted everything to go smoothly. So the whole Vengeance PPV swing, I went out of my way to avoid the guy -- as in, hiding behind stuff so he wouldn't see me, etc." To read the full blog and to find out what Mates thought of Bischoff once he stopped hiding from him, visit Newsday.com.

Powell’s POV: Like most people, Mates notes in his blog that Vince McMahon ruined a potential money angle by hugging Bischoff within 10 seconds of introducing him on Raw. Vince was more concerned with keeping Eric's debut a secret than soliciting opinions from the writing staff and one can only imagine that he may have been talked out of that lousy decision had he discussed the matter with the creative team.

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