Eric Bischoff Praises WWE's Handling Of Roman Reigns
"The Tribal Chief" Roman Reigns has been atop the WWE since the destruction of "The Shield," main eventing six WrestleManias, which is more than some of the company's biggest names like The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, The Rock, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
The current WWE Universal Champion has been a mainstay ever since he transitioned out of the trio with Seth Rollins and Jon Moxley, winning six World Championships and his current reign lasting over 830 days. Unfortunately, the schedule has caught up to Reigns, with the WWE megastar wrestling a lighter schedule these days, working just 10 televised or PLE matches in 2022, which has many fans upset with the lack of appearances from their unified champion.
WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff shared his thoughts on Reigns' lack of matches during the latest episode of his podcast "Strictly Business" with guests Dave Scheer and PWInsider's Mike Johnson. The former WCW President defended the WWE's use of Reigns, revealing that the way he's been booked has made him the "biggest name in the world in the industry."
"This dude has been busting his a** for the last six years they've been pushing Roman," Bischoff said. "The fact that now he's finally reached that level where he is the biggest name in the world in the industry and now people are bi***ing because they don't see him wrestle a 20-minute match every week? If you saw him wrestle a 20-minute match every week, you wouldn't want to see him anymore!"
Bischoff compares AEWs use of MJF to that of WWEs use of Roman Reigns
Continuing his stance on how WWE has handled their unified champion, Bischoff threw MJF into the conversation, drawing similarities to how both companies book their champions. The WWE Hall of Famer called MJF AEW's "most interesting character," stating that they need to "be careful with the guy" because he's their biggest star. Bischoff reiterated that Tony Khan needs to "protect" MJF" and by doing so that means "managing how much people see" him. The current AEW World Champion has wrestled just nine matches in 2022, the lowest of his young career.
"There's two ways to kill a talent, one is not to expose them enough and the other is to overexpose them," Bischoff said. "There's a saying 'less is more,' that's so true when you get to the top of the mountain. You can get overexposed so quickly and easily. Nobody intends to do it, it's not malicious, it's just lack of experience."
Bischoff's guest Scheer compared his sentiment to that of previous AEW World Champion Jon Moxley's reign, detailing that Mox's reign made the championship look less special than it should be, signifying that AEW shouldn't do the same with MJF's.
"Look at [Jon] Moxley when he was champion, not only is he defending the title every week on television, he's giving everyone a 51/49 match, including people, let's face it, nobody has ever heard of," Scheer said. "It's like 'hey, Joe from the bowling alley just showed up and he almost beat the champ,' it's like what are you doing? The champ is supposed to be special! A guy like me should not be able to fight Jon Moxley and almost win. It blows my mind."