Eric Bischoff On the CM Punk and Eddie Kingston Segment On AEW Rampage, Why He Was Huge Fan Of Kingston’s Promo

In a recent edition of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff discussed the recent CM Punk and Eddie Kingston segment on AEW Rampage, why he was a huge fan of Kingston’s promo, and much more. You can read Eric Bischoff’s comments below.

Eric Bischoff on the CM Punk and Eddie Kingston segment on Rampage: “Absolutely loved it. It was fun watching Dynamite with [Conrad Thompson] in Huntsville because first of all, all the things that are going on and the narrative that’s been going back and forth on social media because of the comments that Tony made and I responded to and it heated everything up. Again, I want to reiterate to all you people that are out there – I’m not shitting on AEW. I reacted to something that I found offensive and uninformed and as I do, it’s just a part of my nature, if somebody says something that I find unflattering or critical but it’s uninformed, I will react on my platform. That’s just how it goes. I’m very supportive of AEW, when we watched that scene as it was launched between Eddie and Punk and [Conrad] told me the backstory. I thought, if they tell that story and that’s the beginning of act one and we’re building upon that backstory, this could be a phenomenal storyline. And they did. I watched it. I watched that clip between Eddie and Punk, and I thought it was just magnificent. I am a huge Eddie Kingston fan as a result of seeing that promo.”

On why he was a huge fan of Kingston’s promo: “That promo was real. It defined Eddie’s position clearly, and now I understand the motivation. You often hear me talk about story, story, story, structure. But when you look at a story, there’s a beginning and the beginning has to serve a couple of different purposes. You have to familiarize your audience with the characters in that story. In this case, the audience is already familiar with the characters in that story, but you have to understand the motivation. What caused this story to begin? Where is that and where’s the drama and where is the emotion and what is it that’s causing this conflict to begin? I didn’t see that in the first promo, it was just Eddie Kingston interrupting CM Punk. The promo, the quality of the promo, was pretty good and there’s nothing wrong with it except for it didn’t make any sense for anybody that didn’t know the backstory. My comment to [Conrad] was that’s fantastic, but unless the rest of the world begins to understand it and relate to it, that won’t matter.

“On Wednesday it didn’t happen but [on Rampage] it did and I don’t think they could’ve done a better job. I don’t think it’s possible to do a better job. I don’t think it’s humanly possible for any talent in any organization to do a better job than Eddie Kingston did in that promo because it was real. It came from his heart, he probably didn’t even need to write it down. I’m sure he didn’t have some writer, and I’m not knocking writers but unless that writer is really inside your heart or soul or head, no writer can write for you when you feel as passionate as Eddie did in that promo. You can’t artificially create that level of true emotion and intensity, it has to be real, and I don’t think anybody could deliver it better. I don’t think The Rock could’ve done a better job. I don’t think anybody in the industry right now could’ve done a better job of that promo than Eddie Kingston.”

On wanting to see the feud go beyond Full Gear: “I’m sure someone is going to take this as a negative comment and it’s not – I only wish Eddie and Punk had more time to build that story because I think the potential is there for that to be a huge story. It’s a good story and it could’ve been a better story had it had more time to build. Now, I say that knowing full well that just because they’re having a match at the pay-per-view doesn’t mean it’s the end of the story. It could very well be, typically pay-per-view matches tend to be the end of a story, but there’s no rule book that says it can’t be a step in a longer arc. I just think the raw ingredients are there to build something really cool. I hope it goes beyond the pay-per-view. I’m definitely going to watch the pay-per-view because of it truly. I want to see, I’m going to watch the story, I’m going to watch the Punk/Kingston story from beginning to end and for my own purposes. Not to publicize it, not to talk about it, unless I see something that I really think is notable. I want to see the structure of that story and see where they knock it out of the park and possibly where they left money on the table and it could’ve done better. All the raw ingredients are their man. I just couldn’t be happier for Eddie Kingston. Not taking anything away from Punk, he’s an important part of this story, obviously. But that promo, the power of that whole scene was Eddie Kingston.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit 83 Weeks with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.