Eric Bischoff Reacts To Tony Khan’s Recent Comments About Him, Explains Why He Remains Critical Of AEW

WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff has been a vocal critic of All Elite Wrestling for several years. During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, AEW President Tony Khan was asked to give his thoughts on the constant criticism of his booking decisions by Bischoff and other prominent wrestling personalities.

While Tony initially praised Bischoff for his accomplishments with World Championship Wrestling during the mid-1990s, he couldn’t help but point out the irony stemming from Eric’s criticism, stating that the former RAW General Manager was in a similar situation to him during the 1990s when he used to be frequently criticized for his decisions by outsiders.

In a recent conversation with Action Network, Eric Bischoff was asked to give his views on Tony Khan’s recent comments. The veteran fired back at Tony, stating that the latter shouldn’t compare himself with the former WCW booker, as the 43-year-old has yet to get to a point where he can stake his claim to changing the industry, something Eric thinks he did during WCW’s red-hot rating dominance over WWE during the mid-1990s.

Bischoff revealed that the major reason why he has been so vocal against Tony and AEW is because Khan disrespected Ted Turner on national TV.

“Tony likes to compare himself to me and to WCW, but he hasn’t gotten to the part yet where he’s actually changed the industry or defeated his competition in head-to-head ratings. He [Tony] likes to draw a lot of parallels to himself or WCW or Eric Bischoff, but they’re really not appropriate. And the real reason I’ve been vocal about Tony and AEW, and Tony knows this, I’ve talked about this, is that Tony came out on national television and was very disrespectful, in my opinion, to Ted Turner. The guy whose name is still on the door at Turner Broadcasting, where Tony airs his show. And Tony made some ridiculous comment to the effect of, ‘If Ted Turner knew 1% about professional wrestling as I do, WCW would still be around,’” he said.

The WCW veteran further claimed that Tony Khan has no understanding of the pro wrestling business and that since he has the benefit of “a couple of million dollars” behind him, he doesn’t really need to worry about the financial performance of his product.

“It was such a profoundly stupid thing to say that it made me lose respect for Tony. It also indicated to me that Tony doesn’t really understand the business he’s in. Tony has the benefit of having a couple of billion dollars behind him. He doesn’t really need to worry about performance from a revenue perspective, because he’s not really accountable to anybody. He’s spending his own money. And he’s got a lot of it to spend.”

Eric also claimed that he has always wanted AEW to succeed, but for that Khan needs to tell actual stories and develop interesting characters.

“He makes no bones about it. This is his hobby. Some people play golf. Some people have wrestling companies. But to be disrespectful to someone like Ted Turner while you’ve got a show on his network, to me, just told me everything I needed to know about Tony, and look, I’m critical, I want it to succeed, and I know people have a hard time believing that. But I’ve been critical because I wanted it to succeed. I’ve pointed out that they need to actually tell real stories, not cosplay wrestling journalist stories, but actual real stories with real structure, with real stakes, with real arcs to those stories, and real payoffs to those stories. The characters have to be interesting; there needs to be some depth to these characters. They can’t all look like they just showed up at the Jiffy Lube Oil Change Center, so you can change your oil for $29.95. I mean, you actually have to look like a star for people to perceive you to be a star.”

The 70-year-old further added:

“So there’s just so many basic, fundamental things that are lacking from the AEW show, which is why, over a year and a half ago, I predicted, with uncanny freaking accuracy, exactly where the ratings for AEW would be today. Over a year and a half ago, I predicted it, and guess what? I’m right on the money. And it’s not because I’m that smart; it’s just because I understand the business, I see the trends, I see what’s missing, and I can tell you within probably 100,000 viewers what the ratings are going to be a year from now.”