Eric Bischoff has been critical of AEW and Tony Khan for several years. In December, Bischoff famously stated on The Ariel Helwani Show that there’s no hope for AEW as no one in AEW knows how to tell a story, and without that, they can turn around the recent decline in popularity.
While speaking with SHAK Wrestling, Bischoff was asked to name the three stars in AEW that he thinks might be in a better position by the end of the year.
Bischoff stated, “None of them. That promotion is circling the toilet bowl. And it’s because of the creative. It’s because of the lack of leadership. It’s because of the lack of structure, creative structure, and the lack of vision that. There’s not a chance any one of those talents is going to be any more valuable as an asset 12 months from now than they are today or that they were 12 months ago. It’s the place where your career goes to die. There’s no exceptions to the rule. If you have one, I’d like to hear it, but I don’t think you do. From Mercedes to Adam Copeland to Christian, you name any big star that came over with equity and value in a fan base, and look where they are. The supposed best in the world, Will Ospreay, is a bust. He doesn’t draw money. If you’re one of the small percentage of the audience that just loves wrestling moves for the sake of wrestling moves, because it looks kind of like the video game you play. You’re happy as hell. The problem is there’s not enough of them to build a business around. And by focusing on that aspect of the product and the talent in it, you’re turning the vast majority of the audience off. You’re killing that character by focusing on that aspect of the business. There’s just not one piece of talent there that is more valuable today than they were yesterday. Look what’s happened to MJF, for crying out loud. That was almost too hard to screw up, flat as can be. Jon Moxley, are you kidding me? Death Riders, whatever that is, it ain’t working. The only thing that death is riding is the audience away from the product.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit SHAK Wrestling with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
