The days of AEW nipping at the heels of shows like RAW and SmackDown are now a distant memory. Dynamite can't even beat NXT when they go head-to-head, a far cry from the "Wednesday Night Wars" which saw the newer company run rings around WWE.
Vince McMahon's WWE departure did Tony Khan no favours and his attempts to counter what Triple H has delivered - a new era of critically acclaimed matches and storytelling - have only served to highlight AEW's many weaknesses.
AEW's longtime critics have taken great delight in being proved right, and we can count WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW boss Eric Bischoff among them.
While AEW's success is good for the professional wrestling business as a whole, fans remain incredibly territorial and Khan's leadership is undeniably holding the company back.
In a new interview, Bischoff was asked to name three AEW stars he thinks will be in a better position by the end of 2025. Instead, he argued that AEW has become the promotion where careers of new and veteran stars "[go] to die."
"None of them. That promotion is circling the toilet bowl. And it’s because of the creative. It’s because of the lack of leadership. It’s because of the lack of structure, creative structure, and the lack of vision that. There’s not a chance any one of those talents is going to be any more valuable as an asset 12 months from now than they are today or that they were 12 months ago. It’s the place where your career goes to die. There’s no exceptions to the rule. If you have one, I’d like to hear it, but I don’t think you do."
"From Mercedes to Adam Copeland to Christian, you name any big star that came over with equity and value in a fan base, and look where they are. The supposed best in the world, Will Ospreay, is a bust. He doesn’t draw money. If you’re one of the small percentage of the audience that just loves wrestling moves for the sake of wrestling moves, because it looks kind of like the video game you play. You’re happy as hell. The problem is there’s not enough of them to build a business around."
"And by focusing on that aspect of the product and the talent in it, you’re turning the vast majority of the audience off. You’re killing that character by focusing on that aspect of the business. There’s just not one piece of talent there that is more valuable today than they were yesterday. Look what’s happened to MJF, for crying out loud. That was almost too hard to screw up, flat as can be. Jon Moxley, are you kidding me? Death Riders, whatever that is, it ain’t working. The only thing that death is riding is the audience away from the product."
You can watch the full interview with Bischoff in the player below.