Eric Bischoff says Paul Heyman could not stop talking about Aleister Black when the two worked together in WWE, but Bischoff does not buy Black’s claim that WWE broke a series of promises to him.
Bischoff discussed Black on the latest episode of 83 Weeks, following a recent interview in which Black said his latest WWE release hit him especially hard because of what he had been promised during negotiations to leave AEW. Black described his return as a dud of a year despite main event opportunities.
Black was released on April 24 in a round of roughly two dozen post-WrestleMania 42 cuts that also included his wife, Zelina Vega. He had returned to WWE in April 2025 after four years in AEW as Malakai Black, where he led the House of Black and won the AEW World Trios Championship with Brody King and Buddy Matthews. His second WWE run lasted just over a year, and he and Vega were paired on screen for much of it without appearing on a premium live event card together.
Bischoff pointed back to 2019, when he was named executive director of SmackDown and Heyman held the same role for Raw, where Black was working at the time.
“Same exact titles, right? Both of them were brand new titles. We essentially, or supposedly, had the same type of job,” Bischoff said. “It was hard to get Paul to stop talking about Aleister Black. That’s how excited Paul Heyman was about Aleister, and pushed for him at every opportunity.”
Bischoff said Heyman’s backing counts for something.
“Paul’s a pretty good judge, right? Nobody’s 100%, but Paul can usually pick them pretty well, as well as anybody, or better than most. And he was all in for Aleister Black,” Bischoff said. “So there’s something there that maybe we just haven’t seen yet for some reason. I don’t know.”
That does not mean Bischoff is taking Black’s side on the broken promises. He said he has found Black to be pleasant and respectful in the few conversations they have had, but he is skeptical of the account.
“That being said, I find it hard to believe,” Bischoff said. “Do I believe he felt as though, or the implications, maybe he interpreted as promises with regard to what they might do creatively? Sure, that happens, especially when you’re frustrated, or in this case, maybe concerned about how you’re going to make a living, because let’s be honest, there’s not a lot of places for a character like Aleister Black to work that’s going to satisfy him.”
Bischoff described the pattern as a slide that starts with nerves.
“Sometimes nerves turn into fear, and fear turns into anger, and anger turns into bitterness. And before you know it, these people lied to me,” Bischoff said. “It’s not that you’re fabricating it for other people’s benefit. You’re fabricating it to yourself, because you want to feel better about your situation, or you don’t want to take responsibility for your situation.”
He repeated his earlier advice that Black should consider a new direction.
“What did you expect to happen? You’ve been at the plate three times. You’ve swung and missed three times,” Bischoff said. “Maybe there’s another solution for you here, as opposed to bitching about promises someone allegedly made you, whether they did or not.”
The three swings Bischoff is counting appear to be Black’s first WWE run, which ended with his release in the June 2021 budget cuts, his AEW run, and his return.
Bischoff used his own WWE exit as an example of owning the outcome. His executive director tenure ended in October 2019, about four months in.
“I made a bad decision going to work for WWE. I wasn’t prepared for that. I didn’t think it through the way I should have,” Bischoff said. “So the fact that it didn’t work out wasn’t Vince McMahon’s fault. It was my fault. It’s life. It happens. Move on.”
He said he understands the feeling, and wanted to extend Black some grace.
“I’ve been in his shoes. I know how that feels, really well, intimately,” Bischoff said. “That’s when you start saying and doing stupid things. It’s a weird form of self-medicating, when you can kind of offload some of the responsibility for your situation to somebody else. He’s made these choices, and he can make a choice to turn it around. But in the meantime, it’s a pretty s***ty spot to be in.”
Bischoff’s view is an outside one. He was not involved in Black’s 2025 negotiations and has no direct knowledge of what was said in them. Black has not publicly responded to his comments.
