Eric Bischoff On How Brock Lesnar's Return May Be Negative For WWE

At WWE SummerSlam 2021, WWE welcomed back two of their very best talents in Becky Lynch and Brock Lesnar.

Becky Lynch made her return to interrupt SmackDown Women's Champion Bianca Belair and challenge her to a match for Belair's title, in which "The Man" won fairly easily. In the main event of the show, Brock Lesnar approached Roman Reigns following "The Tribal Chief's" win over John Cena. After the show went off the air, Lesnar gave Cena an F5.

In regards to how long Lesnar's WWE return will last, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion signed on for 8-12 dates that he'll work with WWE.

WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff spoke about the returns of two of the biggest stars in WWE on the latest episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast. The Former President of WCW discussed how high he was on Becky Lynch before he took the job in 2019 to become the Director of SmackDown. Bischoff also praised her ability to promote her character on social media and believes big things will come from her return at SummerSlam.

"I'm super high on Becky. I kind of fell in love with Becky Lynch's character about 2 and a half years ago," Bischoff said. "Maybe a little longer when Becky, in my opinion, has done the best job of any talent in any company anywhere in the world at using her social media to build interest and anticipation in her character. She really, really cracked the code in terms of an effective way of building mystic, and building her character on social media. She did such a great job, and this was before I even went to WWE way back in 2019 a couple years ago. Even six months prior to me getting to WWE, I was looking at Becky. And I wasn't aware of Becky Lynch at all at that point, I wasn't watching WWE programming enough. Then I saw the way she used her social media, just the tone, and consistency, and the format that she used, and the means and manner of what she used her social media to create authentic interest in her character. And then to see her perform and be around her, she's magic.

"I'm really excited about where Becky Lynch can go, I really, really am. I'm not just saying for the WWE Women's Division, I mean as a talent male or female. It doesn't matter. I think she's one of the hottest properties in WWE right now, and if she can come back and recapture some of the same energy and connectivity to the audience before she got pregnant and had a baby, if she can recapture that – I'm sure she can – I think she's going to be a huge part of WWE's success story going forward."

Despite loving the return of Becky Lynch and the impact it will have on WWE as a whole, Bischoff explained why he's hesitant about Lesnar returning to WWE. The 66-year-old spoke about Lesnar's championship match with Kofi Kingston on an episode of SmackDown lasting just seven seconds. He used that match as an example of why he wasn't a fan of the current version of Lesnar. The former WCW boss said the only way he supports a Lesnar return is if he comes back with a different mindset to the company.

"Brock, I don't feel the same way about Brock," Bischoff said. "I have nothing but respect for Brock, admiration for Brock. He is one of a kind. There are not enough superlatives, we don't have enough time to cover all the little superlatives that I can throw Brock's way. But if Brock's approach to the business doesn't change, in other words, if he's that unbeatable mountain, just destruction machine and there's nobody that's really competition for him, I've been there and done that and seen enough of it. Now if he's coming back and there's more depth to his character and more range to his stories and he gives a little? Because Brock was a taker, Brock just ate everybody up. Brock Lesnar vs. Kofi Kingston in seven seconds? I'm sorry, that's not interesting.

"That's just moving the chess pieces around the way you think the chest pieces need to be moved around. That kind of thing doesn't interest me at all. Give me great competition, give me Brock selling, give me Brock beginning to doubt Brock and having some internal struggles as a character? Put Brock Lesnar in a situation where there's some doubt as to the outcome and the end of a story? I'm all in because Brock is clearly capable of doing anything he chooses to do as a performer. If Brock's approach – because Brock's approach will be WWE's approach. He has that much stroke. If the approach to storytelling with Brock and his character is essentially the same as it was before he left, I don't think it's a positive thing [for WWE]. I really don't."

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