Eric Bischoff Thinks AEW Fans Bashing WWE Is Influenced By Tony Khan
Former WCW President Eric Bischoff spoke on the latest episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast about Vince McMahon's interview last week on The Pat McAfee Show.
Bischoff says he saw things during the hour and a half long interview that he never saw during his nearly two decades around McMahon.
"I've known Vince for [20 years]. Before that, I knew of him from a competitive perspective, but having face-to-face worked with him, having been in the ring with him, creatively, spent a cup of coffee there with him in 2019 and I was with him a lot, way more than I wanted to be," Eric Bischoff said. "Vince McMahon has an electromagnetic force that surrounds him. That electromagnetic force is at such a high frequency, 24 hours a day that you can't get through it.
"It's very difficult to see the real Vince McMahon through this electromagnetic vail that lives with him. And I saw more glimpses of the Vince McMahon that I wish I had gotten to know during that Pat McAfee interview than I did during the combined times I spent with Vince McMahon over the past two decades. So hats off to Pat McAfee, amazing job and I enjoyed the hell out of it."
Vince McMahon's interview generated plenty of headlines. The WWE Chairman and CEO spoke about his love of competition, his relationship with Brock Lesnar, and broke the news that he'll be inducting The Undertaker into the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame and that McAfee will have a match at WrestleMania 38.
WrestleMania 38 is being held during the first week of April. WWE has yet to fully sell out the show and the company is hoping for approximately 100,000 fans per night for the two-night spectacle. Bischoff spoke about the idea that people are bashing WWE for not yet selling out the show yet, and the irony that WWE is trying to sell out a two-night show and not a one-nighter.
Bischoff also spoke about negative talk online directed at WWE, feeling it's coming from inside AEW and influences many to think negatively about WWE.
"Why is that? There's no one reason for it," Eric Bischoff said. "You look at the haters, people bashing WWE and you're talking about the internet wrestling community, and that's the nature of social media. Not just the WWE or wrestling in general, the nature of social media is to be contrarian, to hate, and to be negative. So you've got that and now you've got WWE, it's a $5 billion global wrestling company.
"We like to be on the journey and watch people make it to the top, and we also enjoy watching them crash and burn, only hoping that there will be a resurrection. It's the ride that people walk, you can't wait to see people become successful and you can't wait to see them fall. That's true in wrestling, probably even more so.
"But let's be honest, listen to a lot of social media commentary coming out of the AEW camp. Bryan Danielson, class act, but very few people. Talent within AEW that have ever been associated with WWE or in some cases never been associated with WWE, their comments are all negative. They're hating on it, they're hating on WWE and that's how they're trying to build their loyalty.
"I did the same thing, I am not being critical. People want to see WWE get their comeuppance. Talent within AEW, including Tony Khan, are constantly taking shots at WWE in order to build more loyalty within their own brand. Again, not a criticism, but it's a fact, that's where it comes from.
"If you're a loyal AEW fan and you want to be on that train, you're going to do what Tony Khan does, and a lot of that talent does on a weekly basis in social media as well as on their television show. That's where it comes from, and then people want to pile on. That's where it comes from in my opinion."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.