Eric Bischoff explains why AEW's issues with CM Punk and other talent was 2023's biggest pro-wrestling story! FULL SHOW: • 2023 Pro Wrestling Yea... #ericbishcoff #cmpunk #aew
@@stainshield You don't have watch AEW to know this as that is a background info that you can only attain via research. The key people at the top are the following: Tony Khan (President, CEO, General Manager and Head of Creative) Megha Parekh (Chief Legal Counsel) - she has since reduced her legal duties as she got a co to assist. Kenny Omega (Executive Vice President) Nick Jackson (Executive Vice President) Matt Jackson (Executive Vice President) Michael Mansury (Senior Vice President and Co-Executive Producer) Pat Buck (Vice President of Talent Development) Chris Harrington (Vice President of Business Strategy) Nik Sobic (Vice President of Business Operations) Jeff Jarrett (Director of Business Development) Remember. EVP is higher than a VP.
AEW’s moment has passed. Tony piggybacked on the bubbling underground momentum of the Bullet Club and the Elite, and benefited greatly from the WWE’s malaise under a geriatric and out-of-touch Vince McMahon. Both of these boosts have since dissipated, and AEW will only fall further into obscurity. I hope Kenny can get his health to the level for a final run in WWE or NJPW.
Very well stated. Aew and Tony Kahn had so much good will from the indie wrestling fans that they could literally do no wrong, as long as the “dream matches” were still there everything was fine. Now wwe is scorching hot, probably the hottest it’s been since the late 90/early 00s. Aew has never felt colder and the booking of dynamite and more importantly mjf has been *bad*. Kahn’s complete and utter lack of leadership has been deafening as they’ve made one bad move after another. He desperately needs someone who knows how to book to step in.
You explained it very well. Although at this point Kenny Omega will never set foot in WWE. Many reasons why. But you are right AEW is TNA with a lot of money. There isn't a FA to be other than Regins, who will never leave, or Rollins, who will never leave.
I started watching after Dean Ambrose debuted. Even though he was a complete flop, objectively, he did generate interest initially. Luckily for aew there were several key feuds and events that kept aew hot through 2022, especially cm punk vs mjf and several big signings. Since late 2022 it’s been a sinking ship and sadly I don’t think it’s turning around. I’ve always been a big supporter and I buy every ppv - but lately the product has been awful.
@@pinroshan020It’s one thing to be an outspoken online fan of wrestling and it’s another thing to have 15 podcasts with interesting people in wrestling and talk over them every time they start criticizing AEW. I really want to hear what Eric has to say about all of this, I do not want to hear Conrad’s long winded “questions” and opinions. It’s hard to get through these clips because of Conrad.
People can blame punk or the evps omega and the young bucks but the one to blame most for AEW’s problems is of course Tony khan. He’s the ceo, he let things spiral out of control. He should have had things under control. He’s let wrestlers do their own thing at the cost of several accumulating legitimate injuries which in turn is shortening their careers, the women’s division has not appealed to anyone, he’s done too many ppvs. And the situation after the media scrum which led to the locker room brawl with punk and ace steel vs Kenny and the bucks and a year later the fiasco about real glass which resulted in a fight between punk and Perry (The incident that left Tony “fearing for his life”), he handled them very poorly. Vince McMahon would have put a stop to all of this before things really went south.
Meltzer reporting...skip. Conrad takes Meltzer talking out of the side of his neck like it's gospel truth. Meltzer threw up a word salad, and didn't say anything. He's such a Meltzer mark that it's cringe worthy. Also, it seems like it hurt him to report good news for WWE.
Dave Meltzer can you know, barely string together a coherent sentence these days, you know. But, but, it's like, you know I don't get how Conrad can't recognize you know, the difference between an opinion, info from a stooge with an agenda, and cold hard facts. But like, you know. It is... like what it is you know?
@@lotsathedetoxoh come on, man, you know, there’s no reason, to um, you know run, down, um, Meltzer, um, you know, like that, the guy is trying to, you know, do his, um, job and, um, you know, that’s important.
I'm sorry. CM PUNK is the MVP of 2023. He returns to AEW, runs an amazing show at a shitty timeslot, gets "fired" from AEW as their real world champion BEATING the current world champion in the opening match, then has the biggest social media response in WWE history in Chicago... He draws, no matter where he goes... Conrad cracks me up.. Tony didn't get Punk or Cody over... They did that themselves. Jade had an amazing look out of the weakest women's locker room and she only had a secondary woman's title.
Who would've thought in 2024, the soon to be reborn TNA would be taken more seriously and praised than AEW, my oh my I have a feeling the final chapter of AEW will be a single word Wembly, in 1 night AEW the pride and joy of hardcore fans, got hit with a double barrel shotty, CM Punk being fired because of the Elitely Sh** and Jungle Jackass and a pu*s* owners ineptness, pretty close to matching Dixie Carter's, which nearly started a riot in Chicago & the second shell being the false record claiming, inflated by Afro Man's mentally challenged doppelganger, which lost them ALL credibility but gained a new record...manging to become a bigger joke than "LOL TNA," my have times changed since the first AEW branded show. I just wonder what changed, Tony is the writer, is he really on Ice leading to the quality of the show dropping, was someone there in either management or agents or something that kept everyone check, who isn't there anymore, so now the patients run the Asylum, at least TNA & WCW could say it was different writers, shame.
Tony Kahn needs to take a back seat and let some adults manage his company for a while and see where it ends up. I guarentee you it ends up in a better place .
Jericho? Jericho was not a loss in the least to WCW. C'mon now. The misdirection of Goldberg, booker t and ddp were wayyyy more of an issue than losing Jericho.
Vince in 40 years failed to expand WWE globally that they could do stadiums shows outside of the US, Canada and Great Britain. Vince wasn't a boss. He was a tyrant and the only reason he survived with WWF is because Eric Bischoff is a fucking moron and that the US doesn't have strict regulations when it comes to prevent monopolies so he was able to legally sabotage Jim Crockett Promotions very easily for example. So stop idolizing r thinking he was a great boss. That fool was this close to serving serious jail time in the 1990s during the steroid trials and if it wasn't for the million plus he lend from Antonio Inoki Wrestlemania never happens in 1985
While I like to think a dynamic of opinions is necessary for an interesting podcast, the amount of grasping at straws that Conrad does to justify TK's antics is ridiculous. He's still trying to polish that turd and put a positive spin on things, when they're clearly coming apart at the seams. Easy E is speaking from a place of experience, here. I think he sees the obvious parallels between latter-day WCW and AEW if it continues on this course. Active wrestlers in executive positions have never, and will never be a good idea, even Cody saw that.
The timing of the CM Punk stuff was much different than what happened at WCW with Jericho & Austin and others. WCW was on their way or already enjoying being #1 when talent began leaving for WWF. The talent acquisitions allowed WWF to get back in the competition with WCW, then eventually turn the table. AEW was already chasing WWE and were still a long way away from being #1 when major stars like Cody & Punk left -- basically stacking the deck even more in WWE's favor. Those two were also two of the biggest names attached to AEW, while Jericho and Austin were struggling just to get on TV or above the midcard at WCW before leaving/getting fired. TLDR: WCW could afford to let underneath guys to leave at the time because the roster was so top heavy. AEW doesn't have as much star power and really can't afford to lose anymore big names without creating new big names.
A large quantity isn't needed the WWE pays guys that they don't even use to keep out of competitor's hands. Just find a few that can work and are entertaining. Some can double up as masked wrestlers.
The Bucks are glorified gymnasts that found a money mark in Tony Khan. Just look at how many of their no-talent friends they got hired to lucrative contracts that couldn't get hired elsewhere.
AEW pander to the nerdy indy crowd of social outcasts is what's hurt them. I don't want to see skinny guys blatantly co-operating with each other or taking turns to slap each others chest with ko attempt to defend.... I want to see men doing somewhat realistic wrestling and actually LOOK the part! Nothing worse than seeing guys in the ring that look like the would lose to about half of the crowd!
If that happens Tony will have no one to blame but himself. If you think about how many chances he had to actually deal with the issue with Punk. Remember it all steamed from the rumor that Punk was trying to get Colt fired.
And the media scrum where punk cleared the air about his falling out with colt eventually said his iconic “I’m hurt I’m old I’m fucking tired and I work with fucking children!” Regardless of whether one blames punk or the evps, the biggest slice in the blame pie chart goes to Tony. He’s the CEO. The one in charge and yet he let things spiral out of control.
Eric is right. WWE is taking there time with Jade. They are trying to get her to be a stud in the ring she has everything else. Also, there are other women who are being pushed right now and have put in the work.
That is the sad thing of AEW the arrogance of the hardcore fans hurted AEW a lot. Meltzer, Conrad and some of the most popular Wrestling youtube channels clearly have a bias to AEW that they don't realize that they hurt AEW because they are so obsessed with being part of the locker room on any company that they eat each other and they make AEW a less desirable product to people.
@@petersonofleo11 i can see that but I also see them thinking if they can get in on something from the beginning their earning potential would be endless
@@jayburnham3994 they had the chance since Tony's dad was putting a lot of money in AEW a total shame that Tony and the EVPs have the mentality of people that take Meltzer's word like gospel.
Conrad i have so much respect for you but its OVER stop with the AEW/Kahn greatness tour. Stop the great tony can find talent, he didnt find cody, omega, bucks... they were a band of brothers that found Tony and you know that.
AEW needs to stop trying to compete with WWE and worry about making their products the best they can be. But most of all, stop talking about WWE or others. Stop trying to put them down. It's not working for you. When WCW and Bischoff took shots at WWE they were basically level, if not at least on their heels. WCW went into straight competition on the same night, Monday. Just stop it, it annoys the hell out of me. Put on the best show you can and let us fans enjoy it without worrying about who is better. WWE doesn't care about AEW and when someone goes there all you hear from WWE execs is I wish them the best. I am happy for them and so on.
I'm not gonna lie; firing CM Punk made me hate Tony Khan and left nothing in AEW for me to care about. I literally only liked CM Punk and was about to stop watching AEW before CM Punk debut rumors started swirling.
@@TheAtomicDimebag No, it just means AEW sucks without CM Punk. You can't deny that Tony Khan is just a very rich fanboy that books his own fantasy wet dream matches to jerk off to instead of booking for the audience. Dude can't tell a story to save his life.
The root of this: when Punk came in you sit Punk and Colt Cabana down say OK this is what it is you dont have to be friends but you WILL co exist in this locker room. Then no dumb ass hangman promo no brawl out no brawl in etc
Totally agree. Was a fan of AEW since they were just a logo on the elite’s phones. But now, the booking makes you ask the same question you ask when you see TK’s current appearance: WTF happened?!
That regretting thing is a great point. Sure tons of guys left the E for the C. But like... Eddie Guerrero, Benoit, Jericho, and yes even Steve Austin they all was fumbles. Mismanagement of tomorrow's stars caused some of the biggest negatives/ positives for the business.
For AEW he said it was because it didn’t materially jump any metric of business compared to the hype. The numbers differential with WWR though has been substantial in all measurements that have come out. For example MSG immediately sold 5K more tickets once Punk was announced. LA sold around 3K more tickets once Punk Was announced. His segment in the middle of the show did a huge spike and then decline for his specific segment. He dekolishd their merchandise record in one day. And those are jumps that can be directly tied to him in a company that is already setting record after record, so his he had spiked business that was already doing well vs spiking business that had nowhere to go but up. There’s a difference - and you can’t see AEW as anything but a financial flop. He did well when available but in the two years there he was away for suspension or injury for more time than he was available. It could all change with WWE over time but based on what we can measure as of now he has multiple huge business jumps and possibly a network that previously Said they wouldn’t license raw now taking another look which could take AEW tv deal away from theme. Quite a difference
I'm very curious that Eric said both that he thinks AEW will have a tv deal, but also that WWE Raw will be with WBD, meaning AEW would be somewhere else - where would that 'somewhere else' be? Unless AEW can stay on a similar sized network, they are finished. We all saw what happened after Impact lost Spike. Sure, they still exist, but their viewership is 1/20th what it was during the latter years on Spike TV.
AEW shouldn’t be worrying about WWE; they should be worrying about TNA. Especially after last night. And I highly expect WWE to help TNA along in this process, whether publicly or behind the scenes.
2023 was rich in terms of wrestling story, AEW big fail with the scrum Tony Khan Punk, they lost many smart fans. WWE Vince retired and bought by Endeavor, Triple H head of creative. Lots of exceptional wrestling history things last year.
Someone said, "they couldn't manage a Target" If Tony Khan wants to be a "booker", he should stipulate at 10,000 feet who'll be champions and when those will change...and delegate the story lines and weekly buildups and match details to people with experience. And every individual should either be stripped of corporate titles or give up active wrestling contracts. Having active wrestlers with that much clout is reminiscent of Hogan in WCW.
I don't see how there could be a bigger moment than the Endeavor acquisition of WWE and the merger between WWE and the UFC into TKO. For the first time in 41 years, Vince McMahon is *NOT* the final say in WWE. We all thought that nothing short of death would produce that situation.
No offense but this is why shows like keepin it 100 with konnan and disco does so well bc they tell you the trust and not treat grown adults like children.. if AEW is garbage or not well just say it Conrad ppl are getting tired of the chilish.... well AEW is great but you cant say ANYTHING that supports that, matter of fact they're on the verge of losing there deal but sweep under rug
Aew was actually good the first couple of years. Idk if it was just because it was new and fresh or what but there is a huge problem when you lose jade, Cody (who was an evp) and punk all pretty much in a years time. Tony khan is pretty much playing my universe with aew and it’s not good booking at all.
I'm glad Eric talked about Jade's charisma because AEW seriously missed the boat with her. She should have been their female Goldberg. Instead of a secondary belt, they should have put the women's title on her and ran with the undefeated streak until they'd built up a few other girls in the midcard. Especially early on in her run, AEW's Women's Division had no star power and no above average workers. They should have just built a heel factory to feed her and built that star up.
@@nicodimus2222 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Goldberg had about 3 months of training before that run. AEWs women's division is laughable. Jade's charisma and presence was better tv than anything Britt Baker and co have produced
@@nicodimus2222 😂😂😂 oh god you're an AEW simp 😂😂😂 She was better at what actually counts in the business, not star ratings 😂 AEW can't build stars and they drive away anyone with potential
@@davidtodd3401 An AEW simp would defend putting someone with basically no experience in the ring. I'm saying it was stupid to do that. She didn't draw shit or spike ratings either, so your argument that she did the out of ring stuff better has nothing to back it up.
If Tony didn’t run his mouth I don’t think WWE would be actively shutting him down. AEW is no more a threat to WWE as TNA was in the late 2000s and WWE never went after TNA like this. Tony brings this shit on himself because he’s a baby
Damn is this all this podcast talks about now ? Daily AEW’s doom & gloom takes Let the people enjoy it enjoy it Issues & all, this type of content 24/7 isn’t helping the perception of the company either
I don't really have a problem with him see a punk being on WWE and being on the raw roster but I've never seen it a guy get so much heat in such a small space of time at CM Punk I take it he's got a lot of receipts coming his way😅😂
Pink had a plan and he executed it perfectly, go to a smaller company as at that time Vince didn’t want Punk , so he went to aew to train and get paid a lot of money then he realised he hated it there and Vince stepped down then he wanted out of his contract but couldn’t so he knew get fired but the first time was a suspension cos he got injured then his contract was on hold so he went to behind the scenes at RAW and met HHH and told him he wants back and he will get out of his contract and return HOME
It's like, Dave Meltzer is the man you know? Conrad Thompson is not a AEW mark. He is just, you know a passionate fan. So like, Dave Meltzer is my favorite journalist you know. No that wasn't a question.
If WBD wants to make noise and increase ratings + reputation RAW is the way to go but it will cost a lot. That's where i'm not sure if they are willing to go there. AEW will cost way way way way less but they ain't a hot rising product now. It's going down + lots of bad thing a network don't want to be associated with.
That's gonna be the question, you hit the nail on the head can WBD get Raw for the right price. Because while AEW is cheaper it's still not giving WBD the numbers they want.
Since the late 90's heyday of pro wrestling I have only purchased 3 pieces of wrestling merchandise; Bret Hart when was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Bryan Danielson when he was at his absolute peak and CM Punk last month. Say what you will about CM, but he makes money for the company which he works.
Self iflinctwd but not avoidable. The way these indie wrestlers act it is bound to happen when spmeone professional tells someone else something and they wont listen bevause they are indie and they dont listen to anybody.they all have that attitude
Eric is 100% right about the WBD deal. To think, Tony's weird relationship with this EVPs would be the thing that makes him fumble the bag. I really realy hope he changes it around, but tbh he needs to fire them
The EVP thing is irrelevant, if AEW got 2m viewers a week WBD would still jump over them to get Raw. No different than NFL teams who will toss a good quarterback to the side for the Bradys of the world.
Eric was the one telling Tony never to sign punk and telling him to fire punk after brawl out , keep in mind , he’s away been anti punk , he’s anti aew too, but he has a history of being anti punk and punk has a history of being anti biscoff and hogan
@@kob456 This is nothing new in wrestling. Every single wrestling promotion has had management problems and bad booking decisions. What's new is the media apparatus, everything from "news" websites, to every ex-wrestler/booker have a podcast to espouse their opinion - because they were relevant once. AEW has problems. They had a bad year, both professionally backstage, and with booking. But for every poor decision that is made there is a gaggle of carneys and hive mind fans catastrophizing everything on Reddit, Twitter, RU-vid, etc. That's new. And though AEW has its problems, the hive mind is making things worse than it seems.
helped get punk and cody hot? lol...punk was always red-hot any tony messed it up, cody was a mega baby face that toney eventually got booed out of the building...wwe made cody hot by building on what cody had already built.....aew hasn't created a single star besides mjf who would have got over anywhere. they did however ruin adam cole, Allister black, the bucks, omega and page .... not a fan of the last few but page could have been a big star. the only good thing aew has done is make wwe a better product and even that might not be true, it could just be that the game really is that damn good
We starting 2024 and you guy stilll stuck in something that happend in 2022? Come on man AEW moved on, Punk moved on lets all moved on to better things
A lot of people are hoping and too many saying it's a for sure thing that Cody vs Roman is still happening at this year's Mania. I don't think that ever was the plan. After they didn't pull the trigger last year it was made clear to me that Reigns wasn't dropping the belt until he passed Hogan's run. As much as I wanted to be in denial they made it clear. They doubled down bringing back Punk and now the Rock who like it or not are just flat out bigger draws, bigger deals and would make for more interesting matches to the casual fan than Cody. I still believe Cody will be the one to finally end Roman's reign but it's not happening for another 200+ days. I can't imagine they would come this far and be closer to someone passing Hogan's run than any of us could've ever seen coming to end up stopping less than a year away but for some reason plenty of people are. Cody's story continues and I'm quite confident he knew the plan before he signed with em
Love how hypocritical E-Z is about how mega over Punk was in AEW and now WWE after bashing him all year to prove once again how full of shit Bischoff is😂🤣😂
They should have stopped bringing people in after Cole and Danielson. All of the factions and putting the likes of Daniel Garcia and QT Marshall on television so many times over the past couple of years really killed people's interest. Terrible booking and asset management.
I think a lot has to do with that they brought her to the top without teaching her. She's learning the ropes (literally) in WWE before they are going to present her. God, she looks great.
Time will tell, they don’t need to rush her to tv, they have so many woman…she’s ready, when she’s ready, and based on their track record with woman I’d bet she’ll be a massive deal in the next 18-24 months.
Eric is so offputting, he has this smug critical attitude and acts like he didnt head a company that had a shine to it for a couple years and ply a big part in killing it cuz of his massive ego
Eric is speaking from experience of running a company into the ground. He recognises this. You're just bitter that he's criticising your favourite wrestling brand.
@@jackhughes7637 I didn’t. Was in my feed. I used to listen to 83 Weeks but they ran out of topics two or three years ago and his smugness became too much
Giving punk the control and influence he wanted was AEW biggest mistake. WWE won’t do that he’ll be kept on a short leash and therefore he’ll be a huge success at wwe. Sad that this is needed for a middle aged bloke but he’s so fragile and precious it’s necessary
I still watch it. So does millions of other people. What that means is that it doesn't matter. AEW will live on. Eric wants them gone because he destroyed wcw and can't fathom someone else having a promotion. Best believe aew will thrive while you idiots run your mouths hoping for them to fall
wow, imagine Cody vs Punk in the Mania main event .... That would be the biggest punch in Tony Khan's face ever! More realistic would be Roman vs Cody vs Punk in a Triple Threat with Roman winning. They wouldn't let Tony's former boys beating their boy on that stage.
