By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

TNA creative contributor Eric Bischoff covered a number of TNA subjects, including Impact moving back to Thursday nights, his personal disappointment with moving off Monday nights, the future of TNA's product and creative team, individual stars in TNA, going up against WWE, his thoughts on Vince McMahon creatively, how long he'll stay in TNA, a balance of familiar faces and new names in TNA, Impact going on the road, and more during an interview on the Monday Night Mayhem radio show last night.

In this portion of the interview recap, we'll look at Bischoff's comments on individual stars in TNA, including Rob Van Dam, Jay Lethal, and Matt Morgan and Bischoff's comments on Jim Ross, Paul Heyman, and Vince McMahon.

-- Bischoff on the possibility of Jim Ross joining TNA: "I don't know what Jim's thinking or what's in his personal interest right now. We have a pretty good personal relationship, but I haven't talked to him in a few months." On Paul Heyman: "No idea. I don't know what he thinks is good for him or not. Never say never, right?"

-- Bischoff said one of the main reasons they brought in Rob Van Dam was to create more awareness for TNA and try to draw in more fans to the product.

"RVD, in my opinion, is one of the better things that's happened to us in a while. We're hoping that change (putting the TNA World Title on RVD) will resonate with people who might not otherwise tune into TNA previously. One of the reasons Rob Van Dam is here is to help TNA expand its audience. He clearly is a guy who is worthy of being the TNA World Hvt. champion."

-- Bischoff gave very high praise to Jay Lethal, especially from his promo exchange with Ric Flair on last Monday's Impact.

"I am a huge Jay Lethal fan. We've been talking a lot about Jay internally. In terms of what I saw Monday night night, for me personally, it was one of the most entertaining in-ring things I've seen in a long, long time. And possibly I look at that through a jaded perspective," Bischoff said.

"For Jay Lethal, who's had very few opportunities like that, to step into the ring with a seasoned veteran like Ric Flair in front of a live television audience and perform at the level he did - there was a moment there where that crowd was about to turn on Jay, and he was as much of a veteran with instincts to let that moment breathe before taking control and turning it around on a dime. By the end of that segment, that crowd was just so on Lethal's side that it was incredible. A lot of that obviously has to do with Ric Flair, as Jay was in there with one of the best tango dancers of all-time on the mic."

-- Bischoff also talked up Matt Morgan when asked by a listener when Morgan is going to get a singles title opportunity after trying to get over the TNA tag titles.

"As far as Matt Morgan goes, I'm not the head of creative. I don't pretend to be," Bischoff said. "I'm a big supporter of Matt. I think Matt's future will be determined in the weeks and months to come."

-- Related to Vince McMahon in WWE, Bischoff echoed the comments he made in last year's Torch Talk with Wade Keller that he doesn't believe McMahon is a creative person when it comes to wrestling and has a "myopic view" of how to present pro wrestling to the audience.

"As far comments I've made in the past about Vince McMahon basically deciding what wrestling is going to be - what wrestling fans want to see - I stand by that," he said. "Anyone who has worked with Vince McMahon will stand right next to me, whether it's Triple H or anybody else who's honest about it."

FYI: Bischoff's interview was part of the Monday Night Mayhem radio show's "Hot Seat with Eric Bischoff" interview series. Audio of the interview can be downloaded here.

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