WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff recently spoke on his podcast, “83 Weeks,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including his thoughts on the Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso “Tribal Combat” match at SummerSlam:
Bischoff said, “I like this match less than I liked the previous match, the women’s match. I just — I was disappointed. Because my expectations. And part of it might have been, and maybe that’s kind of the reaction that the audience — you know, the expectations have been so high for anything Bloodline-related, because it’s been so awesome for so long. This wasn’t. This was maintenance. This didn’t advance anything in my opinion. Technically it did, on paper it did. Okay, you can argue that if you want online if you have nothing else to do with your life, you can debate that. But for me, just in terms of emotion and interest and reaction. My visceral response is, I was bored. I did not enjoy this match at all. Nothing about it made me look forward to Monday Night Raw or SmackDown on Friday night. It was just — I mean, I get why people are saying, ‘Oh, it feels like it could be 1999, 2000 nWo, because it didn’t move the needle. It checked a couple of boxes, but it did not move an emotional needle whatsoever, for me.”
“Now, in a month I could be looking back and go, ‘God, that was a dumb thing to say. ’cause look what they’re doing now! It all makes sense.’ But as it stands right now, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I’ve been talking this Bloodline story up for months. I told everybody that — and I mean it, and it still is true, the Bloodline storyline is by far and away the best story that’s been crafted for professional wrestling in any of our lifetimes. That’s it. You can debate it if you want. you can troll if you want. I don’t really give a f**k. But this one let me down. It was slow. It was just — you know, the chairs under the ring and the tables, and oh my God. Can we find any other cheaper, easier way out of trying to actually create emotion? It’s just, eh. I was so disappointed. Really was, I wish I’d been in the middle of the show instead of the end of the show. Because then we would’ve forgotten about it.” (quotes courtesy of 411Mania.com)
Bischoff wasn’t the only notable critic of the match. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer rated the match **3/4 and stated that “a lot of people didn’t like it and I can see why since the match went too long.”
You can check out Bischoff’s complete podcast below:
