Eric Bischoff Explains Why He Put Things In Context, ‘Takes Umbrage’ With Tony Khan’s Comments About Ted Turner

Eric Bischoff implores readers and listeners of 83 Weeks to look into the details of his recent remarks about AEW because he had a lot to say about Tony Khan, “competition” and his former boss in Ted Turner.

On the most recent episode of 83 Weeks on AdFreeShows, Eric Bischoff opened by saying he knew Tony Khan was on Busted Open Radio and issued a response to his initial ‘shut up and wrestle’ remarks, but he hasn’t heard Tony’s comments yet. He said he’d rather have a more visceral response to Tony’s interview rather than something prepared, so they listened to Tony’s remarks for the first time while they recorded the podcast.

“Let me preface this all — I like Tony, a lot. I don’t know Tony really well, we’ve crossed paths on several occasions, we’ve done an interview together, I’ve been on his show a couple of times, and all of them were really enjoyable experiences that I was grateful for.”

Eric Bischoff talked about getting a chance to go back to see some former WCW colleagues that also work for AEW, then said he needed to address the “head-to-head” narrative that’s been talked about in recent weeks. He pointed out that he’s been very complimentary of AEW before, including supporting the promotion’s Grand Slam event at Arthur Ashe Stadium, which he called a bold move and initially said he had a healthy dose of envy for the company.

“I’m fully supportive of AEW and I feel like I need to reiterate that because my social media — yours has blown up, you should see mine. That clip that was played that was part of our podcast last week, I’ve never had anything on my social media explode the way that did. I’ve got well over a million impressions, we’ve got 214,000 people that watched that video, and you should see our demos! If you looked at our demos on a percentage basis, our podcast has a much better, much higher demo success than AEW or WWE. So should I go around bragging that our podcast is a more popular podcast than AEW or WWE is a television show? Absolutely not, that would be stupid, but the core of this debate — and it is a debate, because again, I’m fully supportive of Tony and everybody there — the core of this is not that Tony spoke out, not that Tony’s proud of his company, not that Tony even speaks out rather aggressively about his product. He should do that, I would be disappointed if he didn’t do that, but it’s the manipulation of data to create the impression that there is this head-to-head competition.

“And this all started way before, and I have not commented on this stuff before because I don’t have a dog in the hunt and it’s fun to watch, right? But to suggest, and it’s been going on for quite some time, that based on a percentage of a demo compared to a show that’s on a completely different night against completely different competition, that somehow that correlates with AEW being a more popular or better product, I’ve got an issue with that. Not an issue with believing — as Tony obviously does and talent obviously does, as well they should — that they’re a better product. I would objectively agree and have many times on social media. I’ve been equally as critical, and I don’t mean to be ‘critical,’ it’s more of a constructive criticism, but I’ve spoken out consistently about the WWE product and what I feel is wrong with it from lack of storylines, lack of structure,” Eric Bischoff said, “to me, that is a huge problem in WWE and I’ve been more than free with my comments in that regard both before I went to work for AEW this last time, for the cup of coffee I had in Stamford, and afterward.

“And again, I’m reacting to some of the social media stuff I’ve seen, but to suggest I’m kissing WWE’s ass, it’s stupid. It’s childish and stupid and it’s not true, and anyone that pays attention to what I say knows that. I’ve been supportively constructive, I’ll call it that, of some of the things I see and don’t see in AEW, but not in, in my opinion, a negative way, just an observational context. But [to suggest] the idea that number one, AEW — and more often than not it’s the Dave Meltzers and Bryan Alvarezes and those of that ilk that are trying to twist and turn data and interpret data in a way to create this impression that [AEW] is actually in a competition,” Bischoff said. “That’s where I throw a flag, personally.”

There was, however, one comment that charged Eric Bischoff up enough to voice his thoughts in the first place.

“When Tony came out and said ‘if Ted Turner knew 1% about what I do about professional wrestling, WCW would still be in business.’ That lit my fucking fuse for a couple of reasons and you and I touched on it last week, but for all the people that I’m guessing are probably tuning into this podcast to hear what my follow up is – let me remind you, let me point out a couple things. I’m 99.99999%, Tony Khan doesn’t have a fuckin’ idea what he’s talking about in terms of if Ted Turner was a wrestling fan. I know I don’t. I can find out. I can call the son, Teddy, and probably will soon because I’m curious as to how far back Ted Turner’s relationship with professional wrestling. When did that start? Was Ted a wrestling fan growing up? I don’t know and neither does Tony so right off the bat, Tony made a statement that was misleading and ignorant in the literal sense of the word.

“I’m sure Tony is a much more intelligent person than I am. Tony’s a really brilliant guy. I’m pretty smart, Tony is really, really smart, right? So this isn’t when I use the term ignorant I mean ‘lack of information and knowledge,’ he clarified. “For Tony to compare himself to Ted Turner, if there’s anything that’s laughable, that’s it.

“The last time I checked, the ‘T’ in TNT and the ‘T’ in TBS stands for Turner, which is a media empire that Ted started from scratch and for Tony to be in a position that he is and AEW is on a Ted Turner network, to come out and suggest that Ted knew nothing about professional wrestling, which he doesn’t know if that’s true or not and what made it worse and this is like the height of the literal definition of ‘ignorance’ and this one is self-inflicted. For Tony to suggest that if Ted knew as much as Tony knew about professional wrestling as Tony Khan does that WCW would still be around. I’m going to ask Guy Evans to send Tony the Nitro book that Guy wrote,” Eric stated, noting that Evans interviewed over one hundred people for that book, and it was not just limited to employees of WCW, but higher-ups at Turner as well.

“Those executives know why WCW isn’t around and all of that is in the book and all Tony would have to do is read that book and Tony would realize that it wasn’t because Ted Turner didn’t know 1% of what Tony Khan knows about professional wrestling. That was a really stupid comment to make and I was very disappointed to hear that. Now I’ve said some stupid things. I’m capable of that, shit, I’ll probably say some stupid things on this podcast. I get it when you’re emotionally charged and you’re involved and in the fight. Sometimes dumb shit will come out of your mouth. Guilty as charged, but that one lit me up and I reacted viscerally. It was an honest reaction on our podcast, I still feel as strongly about it as I did last week. That was a really dumb comment. Tony Khan, I know Ted Turner, and you are no Ted Turner so that’s what made me go, ‘You know what? Just for my own entertainment, I’m gonna put this shit in context.’ AEW is not in head-to-head competition, they are just not. They’re in the same industry.”

Eric Bischoff understands all the arguments of WWE inserting an extra half-hour of Friday Night Smackdown in the same time slot as Rampage, and he says that is indeed a fact, but suggesting that they are a more popular product that is winning a ratings war is not right. He also makes clear that he’s not encouraging Tony to go head-to-head with WWE. They’re only a two-year-old company and have a lot of headway to make.

“They’ve got a long way to go before they’re in head-to-head competition,” he said before later stating

“Again, I hope Tony and I can maintain a relationship. If we do, I’m going to be grateful for that. If we don’t, that’s life. I’ve got no risk in the game, but I’m just trying to clarify my position and I did take personal umbrage to the fact that Tony would compare himself the way he did to Ted Turner. I just think it was a dumb move.”

You can listen to Eric Bischoff’s thorough response regarding Tony Khan by listening to the episode below and you can also hear it “ad free” by becoming a member at AdFreeShows.com.

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