On the latest “83 Weeks” podcast, WWE Hall Of Famer Eric Bischoff talked about the comparison Tony Khan made stating that Jade Cargill is having the most dominant run in North America since Bill Goldberg 25 years ago in WCW:
“When I hear comments like that from Tony, it reminds me very much of Dixie Carter and TNA. Dixie Carter had a habit of making announcements that were going to get great social media reactions, but very rarely could follow them up, ‘We’re going to make an announcement that’s going to change the wrestling world.’ How many times did we hear that coming out of Dixie and TNA and then they didn’t deliver?”
Bischoff said that people will begin to lose confidence when everything is hyped as a big deal.
“After a while, the audience begins to lose confidence in people that talk like that,” Bischoff added. “When you make everything such a big deal and it really isn’t, people begin to learn that you’re just not a big deal. I understand what Tony is trying to do. Tony is constantly drawing comparisons to WCW. The one that sticks out that got the biggest reaction out of me is AEW right now is about where WCW was in 1996. That was such a stupid, ignorant falsehood. It’s not true. Why make a statement like that when it’s not true and set yourself up for that kind of a comparison? WCW was highly profitable in 1996 and you’re not. WCW was outperforming the number 1 show in WWE at that time, Monday Night RAW, against real competition including the NFL, and we were winning hand over fist. AEW is still only delivering about two thirds of what Monday Night RAW does, and half, if that, of what SmackDown does. Comparisons like that hurt you in the long run. There’s always going to be a percentage of people, a small percentage of people, that are going to buy into that. They are going to listen, believe everything you say, and they’re going to react positively to whatever you say because they want to be excited. But the majority of the audience are going to look at statements like that, and say, ‘Well that’s not really true. That’s kind of insulting my intelligence’, and they lose confidence in you.”
Bischoff then circled back to the comment about Cargill. He said, “Fast forward to Jade Cargill. I don’t know Jade Cargill. I don’t know anything about Jade Cargill. I’ve seen her live once or twice. She’s a very, very impressive looking individual. From what I recall, and I don’t watch a lot of her work so it’s not fair for me to comment, but she looked very green, she’s new, she’s learning, she has amazing talent, and she’s probably going to go on to be a big star someday, but she’s not now. Why would you make a comparison to a guy like Bill Goldberg because probably 90% of the people that hear that or read that are going to go, ‘What? Jade Cargill – Bill Goldberg?’ I just don’t understand that.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
