Eric Bischoff appeared on today’s The Ariel Helwani Show to discuss a wide range of topics, including the state of AEW and the product. Here are the highlights:
On the state of AEW: “They’re horrible. I’ve given up. You know what? I used to get really frustrated with them because I actually hate seeing people screw up good opportunities. I know what that feels like, and I don’t want that to happen again. I know what that feels like and know how hard good opportunities come by so when you see somebody shooting themsleves in the foot day after day week after week in every possible way it’s frustrating for me and I would vent that frustration. Now, it’s just like yeah, whatever. It is what it is. There’s no hope for them. Nothing’s going to turn their company around. There’s no light bulb gonna go off on anybody’s head and realize, oh, this is actually getting people who watch TV. They have no idea about what they’re doing and they’re too stubborn to learn.
On there being no story that can turn it around: “Not there because there’s nobody that knows how to tell the story. There is nobody there who knows what a story actually is. I use this analogy sometimes because it’s easy to understand. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. That’s a story. It’s not very compelling. Nobody cares, but if Shakespeare gets a hold of it, it’s kinda like a version of Romeo and Juliet. So yeah, you’ll hear the fans, Oh, there’s a great story. There’s stories. Dave Meltzer says the problem with AEW is there are so many stories that people can’t keep up with them. I kid you not, he said that. And people take him seriously…..The stories, if there are any, are so bad that only the lowest form of wrestling intellect on the planet finds enjoyment of that. Now, you will find some people and I think this is cool If you just like the physical presentation of guys flying all over the place and doing all kinds of athletically amazing stuff and you don’t care about story. You don’t care about characters. That’s your jam. AEW is your jam and if that’s what you like then more power to you….It’s just not viable for the masses. As Tony calls them, it’s for the sickos. First, why would you want to call your fans sickos because the majority of them prefer not to be called that. Just a hint. Tony’s vision for the company I guess is to provide content for that percentage of the audience that only cares about high risk, high altitude, fast-paced action and not about story and not about characters.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit The Ariel Helwani Show with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
