Eric Bischoff Says He Chuckled Over AEW 'Participation Trophy'

AEW has celebrated multiple big milestones in 2025, in its sixth year of business, including one at the beginning of the spring. In April, "AEW Dynamite" surpassed "WCW Nitro" as the professional wrestling program with the most prime time episodes on Turner Sports, with its 289th episode. At the time, former WCW executive and major on-screen player during the days of the nWo, Eric Bischoff, congratulated AEW President Tony Khan, despite often being critical of Khan's program. However, on a recent episode of "The Ariel Helwani Show," Bischoff laughed off AEWs celebration of its network milestone.

"I just chuckled. It's like a participation trophy," Bischoff said. "I guess it matters to somebody. If you took all of the viewing audience that we had over whatever run 'Nitro' had, I think it would take AEW another 15 years to deliver that audience at the rate they're going."

Helwani noted that AEW just celebrated another historic moment with All In Texas. The event was the company's first-ever stadium show in the United States, and Khan claimed the attendance to the event ended up topping 29,000. A recent report by WrestleTix had the show's attendance at 26,153. When Helwani mentioned that many believe that AEW is having a great year, Bischoff questioned how a great year for the company should be measured.

"They had one event that did really well. Their television ratings are flat," he said.

Bischoff previously stated back in March that he takes a negative stance about AEW due to Khan's remarks about former WCW owner Ted Turner and his knowledge of professional wrestling. "Dynamite" has since gone on to celebrate its 300th episode on July 2.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Ariel Helwani Show" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.