Eric Bischoff Thinks Cody Rhodes Should Beat Roman Reigns At WrestleMania

On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff talked about his belief that Cody Rhodes should beat Roman Reigns to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, what WWE should do with CM Punk, and more. It should be noted that Roman Reigns is not booked for the Elimination Chamber PLE in Perth. You can check out some highlights below:

On Cody Rhodes needing to beat Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title: “[I] absolutely agree. And again, talked about this a little bit of Strictly Business. Talked about it a lot on Strictly Business. It seems to me that the best use of that asset, being Rock because he’s a massive asset, would be better for us to continue to expand, or leverage him to expand in the future the international business model, do itin Perth. Whatever the — I’m not following the creative closely enough. But have Roman face Rock in Perth, have him beat him there and then go to WrestleMania. Or him beat him the night before like you said; yes that will be great, but I think it would be — I don’t want to say smarter because that would imply that I’m outsmarting Nick Khan, and I’m not that stupid. But it seems to be, based on the information that I have, an impression I have, that using Rock in Perth if indeed the international expansion is focused, it would make more sense, and it would keep everything intact.”

On CM Punk winning the Royal Rumble to challenge Seth Rollins for the World Title at WrestleMania: “I’m going with you [Punk vs. Rollins prediction]. You’ve thought through this way more than I have, you know. And first, let me say that all of — you know, whatever the scenarios are. Because you just laid out some really exciting scenarios. The last 15 minutes of this has been really kind of, ‘What if we do this? Or what if they do that? Well, I could go this way.’ I mean, that’s fun, right? Here’s what excites me about that conversation: options, anticipation. This is the part of the SARSA formula: story, anticipation, reality, surprise and action. The anticipation, which I think is one of the five — of the five, anticipation; I think they’re all equally important, but I can’t imagine anything being successful that doesn’t have a lot of anticipation.

“And that’s what you have right now. Given all of the quality options that are sitting before us. And sitting before Bruce [Prichard] and Paul Levesque, all of the writers that are working with them. All of those options, any one of them creates anticipation. And that’s a beautiful thing. As far as the details of it, what I prefer and what I don’t prefer? This is a part where I try to help people understand: I’m not excited about the wrestling business necessarily by what happens in the ring unless it relates to the business of the business. I’m more interested in the direction of the business. Patterns I see business-wise, patterns I see creatively of course, because that leads to business. But I don’t get caught up in the fantasy booking thing. I just don’t in the case of WWE, Cody, Roman and Rock. I honestly know that there are so many great ways to go and options that I truly am in — I’m just gonna sit back and enjoy 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.