Eric Bischoff has not changed his mind about Roman Reigns after a week of criticism, but he spent a good deal of the follow-up explaining what he does rate about him.
Bischoff agreed on last week’s 83 Weeks with Conrad Thompson’s assessment that Reigns is the most overrated main eventer in WWE history. The reaction ran through the week, including messages telling both men to apologise and to stop podcasting.
“It’s the internet wrestling community thought police. How dare you have an opinion that differs from mine.”
He separated the performer from the man before saying anything else.
“Look, I respect the hell out of Roman. I look up to him in a lot of ways, as a human being. Look what he’s overcome. I don’t know Roman. I’ve maybe said four words to Roman in my life, so I don’t know him, but I know of him, and I know what a priority his family is. I know what he’s gone through. How many of us have faced the types of things and fear that Roman has, and then not only overcome it, but reach the level of success that he has?”
“So my opinion of his performances have nothing to do with the respect I have for the man.”
The objection, he said, is that nothing is changing.
“I’m bored with him. I don’t see anything new from him. I don’t see a character evolving. When you look at any character that is playing a role over an extended period of time, or even if it’s in a 90-minute movie, part of what makes watching a story and a character really compelling is the evolution of that character. We’re not seeing any evolution. We’re seeing maintenance, and it’s good. It’s definitely working from a financial perspective, so there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s just nothing compelling about it.”
He then made the case against his own position.
“By the way, why does he have to change? Do you want to wrestle another 15 years? Something tells me no. Is this his number one priority? I think professionally the answer is yes, but I think on a personal level the answer is no.”
His comparison was to a wrestler nobody accuses of underachieving.
“Just like a Ric Flair match. Ric Flair wrestled the same match over and over and over again. Didn’t care. Didn’t matter who his opponent was, he basically had the same match. They were phenomenal. His interviews were always different, and that’s one of the reasons why people still loved watching Ric Flair work. But Ric’s character never changed. Didn’t have to. And I think that’s where Roman is.”
“But that doesn’t mean that he’s number one not valuable, and number two, it doesn’t mean that I can’t be bored with it. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
Later in the same episode he made the argument for Reigns at length.
“Let’s give a little credit to Roman as to why perhaps Vince stuck with him as long as he did. When you look at Roman Reigns from across an arena, you’re looking at a star. You could be dropped out of a spaceship, find yourself planted firmly inside of an arena or a stadium, and when Roman Reigns walks through that curtain, you don’t need to know his backstory. You don’t need to know how many matches he’s had this year. When he walks through the curtain, you know you’re looking at a star.”
“When you have someone like Roman who drips charisma, he doesn’t even have to talk. He just has to look over a shoulder at you, and it makes an impression. Who else has that? Who has that in AEW? Nobody. Who else in WWE has that? Nobody. That is special.”
“I don’t even think about how many times he wrestles. I think about how does he make me feel when he does wrestle? Can I bank on that? And the reason you can bank on that is because Roman Reigns has an aura that nobody else has or has in quite some time.”
He also argued that Reigns, like Brock Lesnar before him, holds creative control over his own presentation, and that anyone assuming otherwise misunderstands how the company works.
Reigns beat Seth Rollins at SummerSlam and is advertised for Money in the Bank in October and Survivor Series in November.
