Eric Bischoff On CM Punk’s AEW Firing, Wishes Tony Khan Had Done It After All Out 2022

On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff talked about CM Punk’s AEW release, the statement issued by Tony Khan regarding the matter and why he thinks it’s a good thing for AEW. You can check out some highlights below:

On his reaction to CM Punk’s release: “I was happy for AEW. I think as unfortunate as the situation is — and I’ve been very clear about my opinion of CM Punk from the day he showed up. And predicted that it was going to be a financial flop. And we can debate that, I guess. But it was a flop, it was a bad investment. It was a bad choice. And I think it would have been better in the long run had Tony made this same decision months ago when Punk had his meltdown in that press conference and made Tony look like a complete buffoon in the process. I would have pulled the trigger then had it been me. But it wasn’t me, and I wasn’t familiar with all those circumstances, all of the issues. There are a lot of things I didn’t know, still don’t know as you pointed out earlier.

“So my first reaction is, ‘Man, I wish he would have done it sooner.’ But I was happy for Tony that he did it. I think Tony needed to draw a line in the sand. You know, at some point you need to be a leader. And sometimes being a leader is really painful, really painful. Because there’s no good decision; there’s only a correct decision. And the correct decision was to let him go. It’s going to sting. It’s going to be a little uncomfortable, probably in a lot of ways that aren’t obvious to us. But it had to be done. It wasn’t going to get better. It wasn’t like Punk was going to wake up one day and decide to be a team player. That clearly wasn’t going to happen. So at what point do you just go, ‘You know, I’ve had enough.’”

On whether there is a comparable moment to WCW that is what is going on with CM Punk: “No. I mean, there are two — no, not a comparable one. Did I have issues with talent? Look, the most famous one is with your father-in-law, with Ric Flair, where we got into a contractual dispute. And it got ugly, and it went public, and it was in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and it was a mess. And I hated it. Still do hate it. So does Ric, Ric hates me as a result of it to this day. But that’s as close as it ever came.”

On Tony Khan’s statement on the release: “I think somebody on Tony’s legal team wrote that statement for him. And I say that because of the ‘for cause,’ pointing out that he was terminated for cause. That’s legal terminology. Saying that he was fearful for people backstage, and in fear of his life? Have you not seen Punk fight in UFC? Anybody that has is not going to be afraid for their life. That’s ridiculous. It’s a ridiculous statement to make. But it’s a good legal statement to make, isn’t it? It’s like the professional wrestling version of the Castle Doctrine law in Florida. You know, it’s like, ‘I was in fear for my life. Shot the guy. Not guilty. Cool.’

“It’s — whatever. Look, he probably had to do that, right? He was probably instructed by the legal team to do that. I would be surprised if they didn’t actually write it for him. And therefore, some of that silliness about being in fear of his life and all that, that’s probably where that came from. Now, that’s not to say that — again, I agree with the fact that you had to terminate him. Because if something like that can happen again and as we covered at the beginning of the show, now it’s a pattern. Now a jury is going to look at, ‘Well, wait a minute, this happens with you guys all the time and nothing really happens. So you’re kind of condoning it.’”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.