WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff took to an episode of his Strictly Business podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including “The Icon” Sting’s retirement match at AEW Revolution.
Bischoff said, “Well you know, it’s kind of like I said John, before the event. Weeks or months before the event, when it was announced that it was going to take place, and we had discussions about who his opponent should be and what kind of match it should be, and all the variables that could possibly go into it. And I made it pretty clear that from my perspective, as long as Steve Borden, the man who plays the character, is happy and leaves that venue with a big smile on his face and feels satisfied that he ended his career the way he wanted to? I’m happy as hell for him, you know. Living vicariously through him, really. He got to bring his sons into the picture, not only as a part of an angle but also at the very end, coming in dressed in the various evolutions of the character. So I just — you know, I thought it was cool. There were parts of it — you know, the match is just my favorite kind of match. Anybody who has ever worked with me or listened to me knows, I’m just not a big fan of hardcore gimmick matches. This was no exception.
“I thought the Darby thing was flat-out stupid. I don’t think it added anything at all to the match. I think it’s scratching whatever weird f**king itch that Darby Allin has. Good for him, but the risk involved, just the idea of it, it didn’t do anything at all for the match. It didn’t do anything at all for Sting. It did whatever Darby thinks it’s going to do for his career. But other than that, I thought it was fine, just because of the way it ended. And the crowd left happy, and that was the most important part. When you’re producing an event, you know, you’re producing it for the audience that paid their money. Whether to come into the arena or to watch it on pay-per-view, you’re producing it for the audience. You’re not producing it for yourself. And the crowd left happy, man. And that’s — at the end of it all, it doesn’t matter what my opinion is, or yours, or Darby’s, or Stings, or Tony Khan’s, or Conrad Thompson’s. It really only matters what the fans think, and I think the fans left happy, So from that perspective, it was a home run.”
On the Revolution PPV itself:
“I did enjoy watching Will Ospreay. I was very impressed with that, I understand the hype. I’ve seen him before, but never really watched him closely. I get it, I get the hype. It was a thing of beauty to watch his abilities in the ring. We’re going to talk more about that as we cover Dynamite here, which I watched this morning. But you know, that was impressive. I thought everything else just kind of eh. Wasn’t bad, but nothing spectacular. I was disappointed in the Eddie Kingston match with Daniel Brian. I just, eh. You’ve got supposedly the best wrestler in the world in Daniel Bryan, or Bryan Danielson, whatever he’s called right now. You got the best wrestler in the world — and I think he’s one of the best. He’s an amazing performer, and then you got that slop fest. I don’t get it. But hey, people liked it. Good for them.”
On Darby Allin’s insane spot:
“It was just a high spot. It was just a crazy f**king Mick Foley, off the top of the cage highspot. That’s all it was. There was nothing — it just was there, as an ‘Oh my god!’ That’s what it was for. And great.”
Why he is critical of the Allin spot:
“You can justify it if you want to, you can be as positive as you want to be. I’m looking at it objectively as a producer. Not as a marked-out Kool Aid-drinking f**king AEW hardcore wrestling fan who thinks everything they do is fantastic. Because there’s a number of those fans out there. I’m talking about from a producer. I thought the match was — it was okay for what it was. You know, the Young Bucks don’t really have any heat. They’ve got Pavlov’s Dog heat, which means the audience knows that they’re playing the roles of a heel now, so the audience is going to be complicit and do what they’re supposed to do. But that’s not real heat. That was one thing, and I just — you could justify and try to mine some kind of story logic out of that s**t if you need to. I don’t. I’m just looking at the drama of the match, the story in the match. And yes, maybe that seed has been planted, and that’s Darby’s gimmick. I’m telling you, I found it distasteful and stupid. And I think in the long run, it’s gonna backfire.”
“But you know, you’ve got those people that just love watching people throw each other in front of f**king trains, and off of buildings and shit like that? Hey, keep watching. Until you won’t be able to anymore, and you’ll watch somebody else do the same thing. I think it’s stupid. I just do. And hopefully Darby Allin — you know, he’s a little guy. He’s only about a buck-forty. So it’s not like he’s a 250-pound guy who threw himself off the top of the cage or anything like Mick used to do. But you know, I hope that when he’s 45 or 50 years old, he’s still able to walk, and look back at his career and be glad that he did the stupid s**t he did. And maybe make a lot of money in the process, but I don’t see that. History does not suggest that that’s gonna be the outcome.”
On Sting being treated with respect on his way out:
Bischoff said, “It was a good feeling. Like I said, for Sting be able to have his kids there is an important thing. You know, I had the privilege of being able to work with my son, and it’s a very satisfying full-circle kind of feeling. So yeah. Overall, you know, happy with it. Just looking at things that as a producer. Not as a geeky dirtsheet wrestling fan, but as a producer. I’m giving my perspective.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
