Eric Bischoff Offers Bleak Prognosis For AEW Amidst WBD Sale

With the future of Warner Bros. Discovery still in flux after a series of bids by the likes of Comcast, Paramount Skydance, and the apparent current favorite in Netflix, the fate of AEW is also up in the air, at least in terms of its broadcast future. And while nothing is expected to change until at least 2028, with AEW CEO Tony Khan recently expressing excitement about its current status with TBS, TNT, and HBO Max, the ultimate resolution could still be unfavorable for Khan and AEW, at least according to former WCW Senior Vice President Eric Bischoff.

On "83 Weeks," Bischoff was asked, if he were AEW, if he had a preference between Paramount or Netflix to which he responded with classic "Eazy E" candor. "It's like do I want to get run over by a bus or a dumptruck?" he said, adding, "I don't have a good answer for that." Never one to hold back, Bischoff continued, offering up what he sees as the reality of a situation that not very many people truly understand through and through. "First of all, I don't really think we know what the real deal is between WBD and AEW," Bischoff said. "We know Dave Meltzer's version of it but that's all we know. Let's start with that. So, we're talking about, at least in my opinion, a kind of phantom-esque contract to begin with."

As is often the case in the wrestling world, there have been whispers about some sort of plot involving WWE's parent company, TKO, and Netflix to do away with AEW as part of an eventual deal, with WWE programming now even more prevalent on Netflix than ever with WWE's content library now exclusive to the streaming platform in the United States. That, however, Bischoff says is, at least for now, nothing to take seriously. "Yeah, there's all this behind the scenes, nefarious, kind of, you know, John Clancy kind of clandestine communications between [Paramount Skydance CEO] David Allison and TKO and whomever. 'This AEW thing, let's see if we can maneuver a way to get rid of that.' Yeah, maybe."

Instead of some sort of hostile takeover or forced exodus, Bischoff says, as most things in business do, the future of AEW after a WBD sale will almost certainly come down to the very simple measure of dollars and cents. "I think it's far more likely somebody's just going to break out a $13 calculator and start looking at the value," he said. "When you take over a company, you do a complete, thorough audit from top to bottom and you're looking at where your value is. Where am I losing money? And if I'm losing money, why am I losing money?"

For those leaning into a full conspiracy situation, Bischoff warns that it's just not that complicated in the end. "The decisions will far more likely be the result of a financial team looking at it and coming up with their perspective," he explained, "and then you'll have an ad sales team that will essentially do the same thing and somebody will sit back and look at the data and go, 'Ok, what makes sense and what doesn't?'"

Ultimately, while there are plenty of uncertainties as this sale moves forward, nobody should be putting AEW in its grave prematurely, at least not over this. Instead, it will simply be a matter of the status of the company's bottom line when the time comes. "That's far more likely the outcome of any discussions regarding AEW and either Netflix or WBD," Bischoff said, "than President Trump calling his buddy David Ellison [and] conferring with TKO or whatever the chain of communication would be. That's fun to talk about and think about but it's more realistically just gonna come down to math and a $13 calculator."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "83 Weeks" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.