Eric Bischoff Does Interviews; WCW Hosts Non-TV House Shows for the First Time in a Long Time; "Rowdy" Roddy Piper Returns, Piper "Interim President"; Latest Billionaire Ted Skit Outs Hulk Hogan's Creative Control Clause in His Contract; Royal Rumble Draws Very Well; Jake Roberts Returns; Paul Heyman Threatens to Sue Terry Taylor and WCW; 911 Leaves ECW

WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff did a couple of interviews this week. First he did one with Alex Marvez of the Dayton Daily News. Bischoff is asked about WCW's blood policy saying there never has been one in WCW which is wrong. Vince McMahon seems to have lifted the ban off his anti-blood policy. Bischoff then did an interview with Mike Tenay on the WCW Hotline where he called McMahon the "Verne Gagne of the '90s."

WCW ran its first non-televised house shows in quite some time in Baltimore and Norfolk. Both shows drew very well, 8,000 and 6,500 respectively. The Baltimore show drew $100,000, the first non-PPV event to draw $100K since Ted Turner purchased the company in 1988.

WCW had been off the house show circuit the last year or so since it wasn't drawing and putting the company in financial perils. Bischoff figured to build a better TV product in order to build more anticipation for house shows, which has worked out very well so far.

The WWF brought back "Rowdy" Roddy Piper on the January 28, 1996 episode of Monday Night Rae to be the interim WWF President in place of Gorilla Monsoon, who was injured in an attack by Vader the night after the Royal Rumble. Piper will be in the WWF through WrestleMania XII.

In the latest installment of Billionaire Ted, Vince McMahon and the WWF revealed that Hulk Hogan has a clause in his contract which states he has "creative control" over his character and can change the finishes to whatever he wants. Basically, he can never lose if he wants as it was stated in the skit.

McMahon had a copy of Hogan's WCW contract from the 1994 steroids trial as well as the fact that McMahon and the WWF had first right to match whatever offer WCW gave in 1994, but McMahon turned it down since the figure was ridiculously high. Hogan lost to Ric Flair on the latest episode of Nitro as perhaps a screw you to the WWF for saying he never loses.

The Royal Rumble was very successful as it drew a 1.1 buy rate (275K buys). They earned a whopping $3.56 million for the event so will this help turn around the WWF or is this just a one-time thing and continue to fall way behind WCW? Besides the PPV, live WWF events have done better and it could be contributed to the return of Shawn Michaels.

So another former WWF Superstar returned to the company at the Royal Rumble and that was Jake "The Snake" Roberts, making his first WWF appearance in nearly four years. Since Roberts got a huge ovation from the crowd, it appears that Roberts will be a part of the New Generation and will be more than a one-night performer.

Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko each signed two-year contract extensions with WCW. Vader has not yet signed an official contract with the WWF as he wants to a special contract with the ability to do work over in Japan whenever he wants.

ECW owner Paul Heyman threatens Terry Taylor and WCW with a lawsuit over Taylor calling then-ECW World Heavyweight Champion The Sandman a "drunken drug addict" on the WCW Hotline. 911 left ECW after a dispute with Heyman over character direction.

Bam Bam Bigelow was supposed to be at the Royal Rumble but did not appear because he had elbow surgery.