Eric Bischoff Addresses WWE Suffering From ‘Self-Inflicted Success’
WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff has, at times, become the unofficial voice of criticism towards modern-day professional wrestling storytelling. The former President of WCW has been specifically outspoken towards All Elite Wrestling and its President Tony Khan for his view on AEW being unable to tell great stories. Recently he labeled storytelling in AEW as a secondary priority for the company next to pleasing the internet wrestling fans with dream matches.
Bischoff continued his examination of today's pro wrestling storytelling during the latest episode of the "Strictly Business" podcast, first off giving his thoughts on WWE's side of things.
"In WWE's case, I think they're suffering from self-inflicted success," Bischoff said. "I think the sheer volume of content that they're creating has de-emphasized quality storytelling. There's still story, it's just not compelling. It's not growing the audience, it's not creating that high level of interest in the product that there was previously."
AEW follows a different pay-per-view model than the WWE, showcasing just four major events a year while its competition provides monthly premium live events.
AEW's latest PPV, Double or Nothing, saw Tony Khan berate Bischoff during the post-show media scrum for his stance on CM Punk being the biggest flop in the history of wrestling. Returning to Bischoff's comments on his podcast, Khan may once again be upset with what he had to say about his company in regards to their storytelling mindset.
"I think with AEW, they only do four pay-per-views a year, they're not doing one every 45 minutes like WWE," Bischoff said. "They've got more time and if they would choose to really focus on the plot, structure that plot so that it times out in a very specific way as we're building towards those pay-per-views, that fantastic athletic exhibition that we see combined with more emphasis on plot and story would take them where they really want to be.
"But I think the emphasis for AEW, for whatever reason, right now is just more on the physical exhibition and story, while yes technically it exists, I think it's very undisciplined, very unstructured and it's clearly not growing the audience. Just like WWE's isn't by the way, I'm not criticizing one over the other, neither one of them are doing a good job of growing their audience. That's my point."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.