WWE legend reveals what he saw when he visited North Korea for the first time for a PPV show

Eric Bischoff has opened up about what he experienced when he visited North Korea for the first time for a wrestling PPV show in 1995.

Speaking to Daily Star, the WWE legend, who at that time was president of WCW, a rival promotion to the WWE, said he noticed the isolated country was "barren and desolate" upon landing at an airport in Pyongyang from Japan in a military aircraft, which was "probably from the 50s".

The 62-year-old said that North Korea was more barren than a desert and had "no sign of life". "I mean no birds, animals, squirrels – just nothing," he told the publication.

Bischoff visited the country with some of the best wrestlers of the era, including Ric Flair, Scott Steiner, and tag team legend Road Warrior Hawk.

Bischoff, who was one of the English language commentators and a lead producer of the two-day PPV event called Collision in Korea, said that as soon they stepped out the plane, wrestlers and the crew were separated in pairs, with "chaperone" assigned to watch their every move while they were in the country.

Bischoff said their passports were taken away from them and then they were taken to a monument of the late Kim Il-sung. They were expected to offer their respects to the founding father of the country, he said.

"It was very intimidating and that was the point of it really," he said. "They were letting us know who was in control."

Bischoff said the two-day event was "mind-boggling" as 350,000 people attended the show at the May Day Stadium on 28 and 29 April.

"These were not fans who bought tickets, these were fans who had been required to go by the North Korean government," he said. "While it was great to see all the people there, we knew they were not there because they chose to be there – and even if they knew who anybody was."

Bischoff said they were also taken to witness a military procession in Pyongyang, where someone told him that Kim Jong-il, the father of the current leader of the country, Kim Jong-un, was standing three people behind him watching the event unfold.

Bischoff said he has been invited back to North Korea but has turned down the offer as he believes he isn't going to "learn anything new" by returning to the country.

"It was one of the highlights of my life quite honestly to have had that experience, buts its kind of a one time only thing," he said.