Eric Bischoff has once again responded to comments made by AEW President Tony Khan about using WCW as an example of “what not to do” with AEW. Here are the highlights from Bischoff’s latest podcast courtesy of 411Mania.com…
“You’re still seeing the impact of early Nitro across the board, including in AEW as much as they try to suggest, as Tony Khan did recently that, ‘We’re going to do everything different than Eric Bischoff did.’ Well guess what, MFer, you’re doing about as much of what I did as anybody else in the industry, and I’m not defensive about that, I think it’s just a fact if you look at things objectively. The things we did on Nitro, you’re still seeing today. There are things that changed the nature, the landscape, the entire industry, and I think it’s even fair to say that WWE wouldn’t be the company today had it not been for the pressure, the influence, and frankly the template that we created that they were able to follow and took to the next level.”
“I got nothing against Tony, I love AEW, I’m rooting for their success, but I’m referring to an interview that he did awhile back, and I never read it, I didn’t pay any attention to anything in that particular week online because I was traveling, whatever, but I was doing 83 Weeks with Christy Olsen on YouTube last Wednesday and she brought it to my attention and she kind of caught me by surprise with it. To hear Tony Khan kind of dismissing WCW and, I think the suggestion is he’s doing everything the opposite of what WCW did, well good luck with that. So far he’s spent probably, I don’t know, probably a $100 million proving that he can compete with the WWE developmental territory and all of a sudden he thinks he’s Vince McMahon, good luck with that brother. Can’t wait to see how it all turns out. But I’m rooting for you, I really am, I know it sounds like I’m not, but I really am.”
“It just seemed like kind of a silly thing to say when you’re naming all your PPVs after WCW PPVs, when your production is all former WCW production, when your staging is pretty much early, low budget Nitro, when your paying huge amounts of money, huge amounts of money, to some of your top stars, more than they’ve ever made in their lives in some cases, including some of the announce talent, guaranteeing those dollars, a lot of the same things WCW had to do when they were trying to establish themselves.”
