Eric Bischoff On If His Perception Of AEW Has Changed After Speaking With Tony Khan

As previously reported, former WCW President Eric Bischoff and AEW President Tony Khan spoke for the first time this week. Bischoff and Khan appeared to clear the air after some comments that Khan made to the Financial Times earlier this year.

Bischoff appeared live last night on After 83 Weeks with Christy Olson and discussed his chat with Khan. Bischoff revealed that he had no hesitation when he was asked to speak with Khan.

"When Conrad [Thompson] reached out to me I said, 'hell yeah!'" Bischoff said. "Why not? No harm, no foul. It will be fun. And it was fun. But that's the extent of it. There's nothing going on behind the scenes or anything like that."

Khan had told the Financial Times that the lessons he had learned from WCW were "what not to do." Bischoff would go on to respond on multiple occasions, stating that Khan was spending tens of millions of dollars to compete with WWE's developmental territory and for Khan to call him after he's "done something that's really unique" and tops the night in all of cable.

Khan told Bischoff that his comments were an excerpt from a larger conversation about the wrestling business. Bischoff admitted that his conversation with Khan changed his perception of AEW.

"They are far more likely to be successful than I possibly would've given them credit for being, had I not had the opportunity to hear directly from Tony," Bischoff admitted. "[It was] not to hear from him and realize how smart he was. There was never any question of that. But hearing his real, genuine passion for the business probably impressed me more than anything."

After a long hiatus from the pro wrestling business, Bischoff returned to take over as Executive Director of WWE SmackDown last year, a position he only held for a few months. While he hit it off with Khan, he doesn't expect to be working again in wrestling for AEW.

"I sincerely doubt it," Bischoff said. "I don't know what they would need me for. They've got a good team. They're doing great. Tony's having a blast producing the show. He's surrounded by a lot of really talented people."

Bischoff noted that while his conversation with Khan was fun, he doesn't think they'll talk again anytime soon.

"I haven't talked to Tony since," Bischoff revealed. "I don't expect I will anytime in the near future unless we happen to cross paths, which is very unlikely. No, we just had a conversation."

You can watch more of Bischoff's Q&A on the latest After 83 Weeks with Christy Olson in the video above.