Eric Bischoff recently made news when he talked about AEW and how they cater to their hardcore fans on his 83 Weeks podcast.
He pointed out that in a room of 1000 wrestling fans, roughly 100 would be hardcore and the other 900 would be casual fans.
For him, hardcore fans are the ones that watch every show and buy the merchandise religiously while the casual fans tune in every so often to see what’s going on. The casuals may go to an occasional house show, watch a pay-per-view, etc.;
Eric Bischoff Owns CM Punk in Latest Exchange
He pointed out he has more interest in drawing the 900 fans in because the hardcore fans are already there. But AEW is locked into catering to their smack niche of hardcore fans.
It makes sense and it’s why WCW was successful under him and why the WWE continues to be successful with their multiple TV deals and higher ratings. He also agree that the WWE’s 50 year history gives them an edge.
Better storytelling = Growth
If AEW ever wants to get the other 900 fans in the room, they'll need to stop booking for one small segment of the audience.
Hear the rest of the debate on @83Weeks and https://t.co/NGhpdGVUFd#WWERAW #WWE pic.twitter.com/JRCZq8l8g1
— Eric Bischoff (@EBischoff) May 10, 2022
Keep growing
The goal for any company is to continue growing, and the WWE has done that through TV contracts and other dealings in multiple countries while AEW seemingly has remained largely focused on what they have
Of course, hit constructive criticism (even Booker T called it that on his podcast) was taken in the wrong way, either purposely or not, by CM Punk.
Punk seems to be AEW’s resident pitbull/attack dog as he ripped into Bischoff:
“Wrestling twitter needs to stop amplifying all the old head bad faith bad take carny dipshits. They had their moment in the sun. Let them die in the dark with their ego podcasts. Quote me.”
Bischoff responded by asking how it was going with a recent quote from Punk about hinting that he’s bigger than Hulk Hogan and Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole are bigger then the Outsiders (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall).
Ok: “So, I’m not Hogan or Savage. Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole, they’re not The Outsiders, I see the parallels, but this is totally different. I’ll go ahead and say it and people can quote me and they’ll be p*ssed off about it, but to me, this is bigger."
How’s that working out? https://t.co/PPK9wALmoJ
— Eric Bischoff (@EBischoff) May 10, 2022
Wrestling tribalism is alive and well
Not only did Punk miss his point and arguably escalate things, but so did many fans that ripped into Bischoff for comparing today’s wrestling with the 90s when he shared Punk’s quote that did that.
It’s a typical thing as fans will defend our favorites no matter what, whether it’s music, sports teams, or even wrestlers or wrestling companies.
Bischoff fired a final (for now) shot at showing how Rampage and Dynamite’s ratings have dropped following Punk’s debut.
Let’s look at what Punk has delivered since debuting at AEW: August Rampage: 1.1mm viewers. Now? Lucky to hit 500k. Dynamite? 1.17mm. Now? Lucky to break 900k. Pretty lame for a guy who thinks he’s a bigger deal than Scott Hall/Kevin Nash, Randy Savage. https://t.co/vPNmk0q6ao pic.twitter.com/LbxsGk4rEr
— Eric Bischoff (@EBischoff) May 10, 2022
This feud is almost better than what’s going on in the ring for either WWE or AEW, and we doubt it’s over.
What’s interesting is in his podcast, Bischoff said when he took over WCW people hated it. In fact, it hadn’t made a profit for years until he took it over and expanding their viewership.
He also pointed out that AEW is basically a social media company and they used that masterfully to launch their very first show and sell out without putting out a product before then.
He also praised Tony Kahn as being a great person, in his opinion, despite not knowing him well.
In the end, we’re happy to have so many options out there to enjoy.
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