Eric Bischoff wasn’t a big fan of Stadium Stampede.
The former WCW Executive Vice President was openly critical of the match from Sunday’s record-breaking AEW ALL IN 2023 premium live event at Wembley Stadium in London, England while discussing the show on his “83 Weeks” podcast.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the episode where he explains why.
On Stadium Stampede: “These guys probably sit at home and pull the wings off. Flies in their spare time. You know, just again, not my taste, not my style. I don’t get it. It’s just. I don’t want to be negative anymore than I guess I’m already coming off. But I have to be honest, and it’s just another example of, you know, Indy riffic on steroids. It just absolutely does nothing for me. Nothing for me is zero actually it does do something for me. It turns me completely off. It’s not artistic, it’s not creative, it’s not athletic. It’s gore for the sake of Gore. And hey, don’t go to horror movies either. A lot of people do. So that’s your thing. Then you’re excited about this match and this pay-per-view because there’s a lot of it. And, like I said, that’s your thing. You left home. You were glad you spent that 50 bucks, or you bought that ticket and showed up live because you got your nut if this is your thing. The other thing is I. Again production. And I’ve again, I’ve made this mistake. It does do something for me. It turns me completely off. It’s not artistic, it’s not creative, it’s not athletic. It’s just gore for the sake of Gore. And hey, don’t go to horror movies either. A lot of people do. So that’s your thing. Then you’re excited about this match and this pay-per-view because there’s a lot of it. And, like I said, that’s your thing. You left home. You were glad you spent that 50 bucks, or you bought that ticket and showed up live because you got your nut if this is your thing.”
On Claudo Castagnoli’s performance: “The other thing is I. Again production. And I’ve again, I’ve made this mistake. I. Sometimes I think I invented it, although not really. But. You’re in Wembley. First of all, Claudio. One of the best performers on the card. Without question. Most capable. Except maybe 1 or 2 people. We’ll talk about it in a few minutes. But to have him out there brawling is a complete waste of talent. But I get it. You know, you’ve got a lot of people involved. You can only put so many people in the ring. It’s kind of like painting yourself in a corner. You booked this match and were like, Now how do we execute it? Let’s have these guys wrestle-off in different parts of the arena. You’re taking them out. You know, the people at home see it. If you’re watching and there’s a monitor, you know, or Tron or some sort, you can catch up to it, but it’s just not great. It very rarely, if ever, works. It looks good on paper. But the execution.”
On Jon Moxley: “No, I agree with you [Moxley should’ve had a singles match] when Moxley stepped up. When was it? When CM Punk. Had this initial big issue. Yeah, right. And Moxley stepped. I was like, I turned into a huge Moxley fan because that, you know, that’s a pro, that’s somebody who’s invested in who cares and who’s a pro and has the balls to step up and fill a spot that wasn’t his initially. Respected him for that and still do. But I think he sells himself short with his tendency to want to do this kind of extreme bloodfest. It’s not as impressive to the audience as it is to perhaps John himself or that segment of the audience that gets off on that stuff.”
Check out the complete episode of the show via the YouTube player below, or at Apple.com. H/T to WrestlingHeadlines.com for transcribing the above quotes.
