Eric Bischoff Tells Tony Khan What AEW Needs More Of
Eric Bischoff and AEW President Tony Khan have been taking shots at each other ever since Khan made a comment about Bischoff's former boss with WCW, Ted Turner. However, despite the verbal jabs, Bischoff has said that he's rooting for AEW to succeed.
Although AEW has achieved a lot of success since its inception in 2019, Bischoff has criticized the company for its "flatter than p*ss on a plate" ratings and promos, stating that he hasn't seen "a good promo in AEW that creates emotion or advances a story."
During the latest episode of his podcast, "83 Weeks," the former WCW President provided some advice for the AEW owner, adding to the list of things he hopes will change with the company.
"You need real story lines, Tony, not what the AEW audience accepts for a story line, which is really nothing more than an excuse to have a match," Bischoff said. "That's not a story line. There's no emotion in that; there's nothing episodic in that.
"I can't watch an entire episode of AEW, I will drop in because I'm hopeful, I want to see something I haven't seen before. I want some indication that something really cool is going to happen, but everything that I see tells me that these are not stories drafted or created or executed by people that really know a lot about storytelling. These are indy-based wrestling angles and I just don't think that will work."
What does AEW need to do to improve their storytelling?
Bischoff said Khan needs to hire a writer to help craft story lines.
"If I were Tony Khan right now, especially with the resources he has, I would find a way to bring somebody in, a Brian Gewirtz type," Bischoff said, referring to the former WWE head writer. "Somebody that really understands the structure and importance of a great story and can bring out the best of talent with a great story and bring out the most emotion from the audience with a great story. That's what Tony needs.
"If Tony is happy with the company the way it is now and [the Turner network] is happy with it, then don't change a thing, keep doing what you're doing. But if the goal is to grow the company and to be, I don't want to say legitimately competitive with WWE because that isn't going to happen for a long time; WWE has too much of a head start, it's going to take forever. But, you can still do things that position your company to be at least subjectively competitive on television. And it's not, it's just not."
Bischoff said he is hoping Khan takes his advice.
"Please Tony, if this gets to you in any way shape, or form, I know Brian Gewirtz isn't available, but there are people like Brian out there," Bischoff said. "Rather than hiring the next shiny object that falls off the WWE tree and creating a huge surprise and getting everybody all excited only to put them on the shelf and not see them again for six months, rather than doing that, find your Brian Gewirtz because they're out there."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "83 Weeks" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.