Konnan appeared on an episode of the Wise Choices podcast with WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff to talk about a number of topics including how WWE handles talent from AEW better than what AEW did with them.
Konnan said, “All right, here’s the facts. Brian Pillman, Jr. was treated like a [jobber]. remember in his own city, he got f***ing dissed. I go, ‘Really, that’s a really smart way to get this guy over.’ Look how he’s doing an NXT… They make him look like a star. They feature him, they give him a lot of promo time. Shawn Spears, what did they do with him in [AEW]? Absolutely nothing. He went over there, look at him now.”
“Ethan Page, who I’ve always thought was a great performer. Because I worked with him, I had a feud with him. Well, my group was called LAX and they had a feud with him and this other guy, Josh Alexander. And I knew that he was very talented. What’d they do while he was in AEW? Absolutely nothing. Now look at him now, I think he just won the NXT Championship… And then they had Dragon Lee, who is RUSH’s brother, right? You know, they had RUSH beat him up. They f***ing took off his [mask], they just jobbed them out. And I remember, so he went to f***ing WWE and now he’s in the LWO with Rey Mysterio, right? Like, look at Jade Cargill, bro. Phenomenal talent. They didn’t know what to do with her, she left. Everybody that’s been picked up by WWE from AEW, it’s going way better than it was in AEW.”
On CM Punk working with younger talent when he first joined AEW:
“And it wasn’t just him. It was a whole bunch of guys. And then he threw out this little thing, he goes, ‘Well, you know, I wanted to come back to work with the mid-card guys.’ That sounds like something Tony convinced him to do. Why would you be coming, ‘because I want to help the young talent.’ That’s not money, dude. You know what I’m saying? So you know, I just think that everybody from Punk to [Cody] Rhodes to everybody I just mentioned, it’s gotten way better. And if you’re a wrestler, you’ve got to be thinking, ‘Where do I want to go here? Where do careers go to flounder for the most part? Or do I want to go over here where they’re using people, right,’ you know what I’m saying?”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
