Why Bishop Dyer Says WWE Is Turning Into A 'Paper League' Like The NFL

The current situations regarding both Karrion Kross and Austin Theory have many fans riled up about the decision-making process in WWE creative, especially because both men once had major reactions from the crowd. Theory has been on a steady decline in prominence since Vince McMahon left WWE while Kross appears to have departed WWE. Bishop Dyer has since weighed in on the situations of both stars during an episode of "Busted Open Radio," explaining what he thinks is going wrong and comparing it to his time in the NFL.

"Theory is young, man, I think he has so much potential to continue to grow and be a massive star in WWE," Dyer said, claiming that Theory has the "It Factor" and can easily play both a heel and babyface. "WWE is turning into such a paper league, kinda like the NFL." Dyer added that he suffered a shoulder sprain during his final year with Arizona, and pushed himself to play instead of healing, but was let go despite this and recalled what he was told. "'It's because of your shoulder. If your shoulder got hurt worse, they'd have to pay you two years salary, because you would've had to have surgery.' And so, it was on paper, it wasn't worth the money," he recalled.

Dyer then expressed that he sees WWE now focusing on paper results like merch sales and social media buzz instead of in-ring work, adding that in pro wrestling this is different because of your booking. "If you're a bad guy, Snickers is not coming to you going 'Hey, I want to do a Snickers commercial with Austin Theory' because people hate him," he explained. "You're also not selling merch as a heel."

Bishop Dyer then recalled advice he got early in his WWE run from John Laurinaitis, explaining to him that the WWE system was different depending on whether you're a heel or babyface. "A babyface might make two hundred grand a year but he leaves with a million, but now I got to pay a heel a million a year because they're not doing the extra stuff the babyfaces are doing," he noted, explaining that TKO doesn't seem to understand this concept, which is why some of the releases have been as puzzling as they are lately.

"I think there's going to be a lot more turn over like that. I think guys are gonna come in for two years, go away, come back, maybe three years, maybe shorter contract, except for the well-established guys," Dyer predicted. "You can only do so much because it's all written for you." However, he added that this wasn't the case with Karrion Kross, as he actually did a lot outside of the ring to get over with fans despite being a heel. "They don't always like that when you do that... Because they don't want guys to get over on their own. They wanna be the cause of guys getting over." Dyer then noted that Kross' mistake was seemingly going "into business for himself" in the writers eyes.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.