Eric Bischoff explains why he threw in the towel on AEW.
In April, AEW Dynamite aired its 289th episode during the Spring BreakThru special, officially passing WCW Monday Nitro’s 288-episode run on TNT. Bischoff initially congratulated AEW for the milestone. However, he now says it doesn’t mean much and compares it to winning a participation trophy.
During his appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Bischoff said AEW would need another 15 years to reach the total audience WCW had during Nitro’s run. “I just chuckled. It’s like a participation trophy. I guess it matters to somebody, but you know, if, if, if you took all of the viewing audience that we had over whatever run Nitro had, I think it would take AEW another 15 years to deliver that audience at the rate they’re going.”
When the topic shifted to AEW’s recent success with All In, “Was it? I, I don’t follow it that much. I heard it was [around 20,000]. Okay, maybe. But I mean, 20,000, that’s a big number. I mean, hats off to them for that. I don’t want to dismiss that. Put 20,000 people in a building, and you’re charging them money for it, that’s a hell of an accomplishment.”
However, he questioned whether AEW is truly doing better overall.
“It seems to be the prevailing thought that they’ve turned the corner, that they’re having a great year. How do you measure a great year? They had one event that did really well. Yeah. Their television ratings are flat. They’ve been losing an average of 15 to 18% of their audience every year for the last five or six years. Last week, they did like 580,000 viewers on a major cable platform on a Wednesday night in prime time. I don’t know if that’s really doing that well.”
Eric Bischoff shares why he stopped watching AEW
Eric Bischoff said AEW lacks strong storytelling and character development. Although he noticed the company trying to improve, he admitted he no longer watches the product.
“I just couldn’t take it anymore. You know, they weren’t making any good moves. They weren’t making any moves creatively that led me to believe that they might be going in the right direction. Just not been a fan of the product or where they’re going business-wise. So, I just kind of tuned out of it.”
Bischoff mentioned that AEW fans often target him because he shares honest opinions. He believes AEW has lacked strong storylines and character development as they target more to the hardcore fanbase.
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