Eric Bischoff was calling the shots at WCW both at the company's best and worst, but no one can take away the fact he managed to beat WWE during the Monday Night Wars for 83 weeks.
These days, the WWE Hall of Famer is in the podcast game and frequently shares his take on the state of professional wrestling today. That includes AEW, a company he's criticised on a regular basis, usually because of Tony Khan's head-scratching booking decisions.
We recently learned that former WWE writer Jennifer Pepperman has been enlisted to help with the men's and women's storylines, something Bischoff has admitted is a smart move on Khan's part.
However, that doesn't mean he can face watching AEW programming right now!
"Do I watch the show the show every week? F**k no," Bischoff stated. "I'd rather chew off my arm than sit down for two hours of AEW it's that bad creatively for me. But I do drop in, I do follow certain aspects of AEW that either I'm interested in or I want to better understand for the purposes of doing this show for example."
"I don't have to watch the f**king product," he added. "I don't have to sit down and watch two hours. I've been in the business for a minute or two."
"The product needed someone like Jen. It's all chemistry. She's got all the tools," Bischoff concluded, sharing his hope that Khan doesn't get in her way (he's been the one calling the shots, for better or worse, from a creative standpoint since day one).
Recently, the WWE Hall of Famer also shared his take on why AEW is hurting pro wrestling as a whole. It's a strong statement but one a lot of pro wrestling fans agree with due to the continued decline in quality of a company which once looked like a very real rival to WWE.
"Right now, AEW is proving to be bad for the industry, in particular being bad for [TNA Wrestling] and people like Scott D'Amore," he said, arguing that AEW's programming makes it hard for any non-WWE entities to sell their content to networks and streamers.
"It's a little bit like too much blood and pushing the envelope in terms of content," Bischoff explained. "If you're going over the top in content wrestling, everyone will tune in and see it and they may even enjoy it but advertisers may not, and if you rely on that strategy too heavily, you begin to turn advertisers away from the product."
Do you agree with this scathing assessment of AEW? Let us know in the comments section below.