Eric Bischoff: ‘WWE Is On A Different Planet Than AEW’

While most people have gone out of their way to try and convince fans that WWE and AEW aren’t in competition with each other, the constant counter-booking and Twitter jabs tell a different story.

Eric Bischoff, who has appeared for both promotions in the past year, spoke about the “war” between the two promotions on his 83 Weeks podcast, and revealed what he thinks Vince McMahon’s mindset towards AEW is.

“I don’t think Vince cares. I know wrestling fans like to think that there’s this battle between AEW and WWE. I’m not in WWE offices, so I’m going to suggest based on my experience and the relationships that I have with people that are in WWE, the very fact that I made an appearance on AEW a month before they inducted me into the Hall of Fame suggests to me that they really don’t care. Are they aware? Sure. Is Vince McMahon walking around kicking people in the ass saying ‘God dammit, how did they beat us to the punch?’”

He also went on to say that WWE is on another planet to AEW, simply due to the fact that WWE has been around for so much longer.

“I know people like to think that’s the case because deep down inside they want another wrestling war, but it isn’t. It’s just not no matter how much people want to pretend it is. It’s cosplay folks. WWE is on a different planet than AEW right now. That’s because AEW is about 24 months old or so, WWE has been around for decades and decades and decades. A lot of catching up to do folks, there is no war. There is no angst or anxiety from WWE in my opinion when it comes to AEW.”

Bischoff went on to compare the AEW and WWE war to the Monday Night War between WWE and WCW.

“WWE, AEW are very dependent on the revenue that’s coming from television. Because they’re reliant on it, they’re increasing the amount of content. More content equals more money. There’s a reason why the FOX show on Friday night isn’t a one hour show because you can get more money for a two hour show. You need that revenue but once you increase the volume but you don’t improve the process and fine tune the formula, you’re just cramming stuff in there. You’re constantly on a treadmill. You look at WWE, when it used to be a one hour show, then because of [WCW] Nitro it became a two hour show, now it’s a three hour show.

“They’ve increased the speed but they haven’t gotten in shape, they haven’t conditioned themselves to produce the same level of quality that they were producing with a one hour show or even two hour show. They haven’t conditioned themselves, developed a process or formula, that gives them a better opportunity to be successful with the stories that they’re doing. Being more dependent on television requires that you produce more content, but producing more content requires that you also evolve that other part of your business. You can’t use the same gut feeling, ‘I don’t know, this feels good to me,’ that works, when you’re producing ‘x’ amount of content. But when you’re producing ‘5x’, that doesn’t work anymore and that’s what hasn’t changed.”

Thanks to WrestlingInc. for the transcription.

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• monday night war
• eric bischoff
• AEW
• wwe

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