Despite previously appearing on AEW television, former WCW boss Eric Bischoff has become increasingly outspoken when it comes to his feelings on what Tony Khan is doing with his pro wrestling company.
While the WWE Hall of Famer remains something of a divisive figure, he knows his stuff and did once steer WCW to a level of success which saw Nitro consistently destroy RAW in terms of ratings.
This week, NXT and AEW Dynamite went head-to-head for the first time since 2021 and the latter was handily beaten by WWE. The sports entertainment giant hasn't acknowledged that, but Khan has responded to the loss with a Twitter/X meltdown which has quickly turned him into a laughing stock online.
Sharing his thoughts on what's happened on his Strictly Business podcast, Bischoff made it clear that he's completely lost faith in Khan's ability to successfully run AEW.
"I think Tony’s beyond help. I don’t think Tony Khan is the type of person that wants help," he explains. "I think Tony Khan more than anything else wants to be Paul Heyman or wants to be Vince McMahon."
"[AEW] is a vanity project. He loves wrestling, okay, I get it. He loves wrestling. He loves it. He loves it with every fibre of his being. That doesn’t mean he’s good at it. And unless Tony recognises that he’s not good at it, you could bring in anybody you wanted to and it won’t work because he won’t listen, not to the extent that he needs to. I wouldn’t wish that position on anybody that I know. Absolutely not."
Bryan Danielson has reportedly given Khan a helping hand with creative but it's become obvious that changes need to be made within AEW. As a teenager, Khan would book shows in E-Wrestling (essentially fan-fiction), and even with his father's money readily available to him, the son of a billionaire is quickly proving being a fan and being a booker are two very different things.
AEW ratings have started declining as has the widespread critical acclaim the company's shows receive. Warner Bros. Discovery does seem committed to the product and, unless ratings decline significantly (by hundreds of thousands of viewers), that's unlikely to change in the near future.
Looking beyond that, though, and it's starting to look doubtful that AEW is going to stick around as the competition to WWE many first thought it would be.
Stay tuned for updates.