Why Eric Bischoff Says AEW Collision Erased The Last 12 Months Of His Opinion

This past Saturday saw the debut of All Elite Wrestling's latest venture, "AEW Collision." Many fans may have expected podcast host and former WCW executive Eric Bischoff to pick apart the quality of the show, as Bischoff is often an outspoken critic of AEW's television product and CM Punk in particular. However, on a bonus episode of "83 Weeks," Bischoff's thoughts on the show were, perhaps surprisingly, overwhelmingly positive.

"I more than enjoyed the show," Bischoff said regarding Saturday's "Collision" premiere. "It completely erased the last 12 months of my opinion of AEW, and I'm going into it with an entirely clean slate." After that, Bischoff ran through some of the highlights he saw in the new series.

"I can't overemphasize how impressed I was with [Kevin] Kelly and [Nigel] McGuinness," Bischoff continued. The retired wrestling executive shared that the style of Kelly and McGuinness is the closest match to his preferred type of commentary that he's heard in a very long time. Additionally, Bischoff had strong things to say about the booking of "Collision."

"Whoever booked this s**t — whoever was in the room, whoever had the most influence over the formatting and the pacing — don't ever let that person out of your sight," Bischoff stated. "Maybe it was Tony [Khan]. I don't think so, because I've never seen anything out of AEW come remotely close to the level of near-perfection [of the 'Collision'] formatting." While it's clear that he enjoyed the show, Bischoff wasn't completely without criticism.

"Please, somebody, take a look at the backstage promos, because they really hurt the overall product," Bischoff said. "They've demonstrated here that they have the ability. They just need to lean into it a little bit more."