Professional wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff who is the former Boss of WCW recently talked about the rivalry between WWE and AEW. He said that this rivalry is the current landscape of professional wrestling. He also gave his view on AEW.
Ever since AEW came into existence, WWE is having a great competition from this new promotion. They are not even in existence for three years, but in this small time period they have already managed to sign some of the biggest names in today’s professional wrestling world including the likes of CM Punk and Bryan Danielson.
Eric Bischoff Says WWE Vs. AEW Is The Current Landscape Of Professional Wrestling
When they first came into existence they already managed to sign the lives of Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley. WWE did not take them very seriously until this year when they signed some of the biggest names of professional wrestling.
This competition for WWE might be a matter of headache for the promotion but it is definitely a very good thing for the world of professional wrestling. WWE cannot take their fans for granted anymore because the other promotion is offering better storylines, better matches and even better shows.
For the last couple of years, WWE is producing terrible Matches and storylines and of course bad shows. And the worst part was, they were not even attempting to fix their errors either. It was quite clear that they were taking their fans for granted.
But after they faced the competition from AEW, they have started to modify their shows. Things began with NXT as they have remodeled NXT already by calling it NXT 2.0 and now they are focusing on building new stars in NXT, using it more as a development territory. But nothing changed much for the main roster as it is still the very same old thing with mostly weak bookings.
They were not being able to book all of their championships properly either. But they cannot remain the same for much longer because their rivals are getting better week after week. It will be very interesting to see what WWE to improve themselves. But we are pretty sure that it cannot remain the same for any longer.
Eric Bischoff who is the former Boss of WCW recently spoke to Renee Paquette on her “Oral Sessions” podcast where he talked about the rivalry between WWE and AEW. He said that this rivalry is the current landscape of professional wrestling. He also gave his view on AEW. He said;
“I don’t think you can really compare them. It’s not apples to apples,” Bischoff said. “Obviously AEW has been really successful over the last two years. They’ve gone from ‘what AEW? Is that like a plumbers union?’ to being a very successful program in primetime television on a major network? That alone is a major accomplishment. But how do you compare that to the billion dollars a year that WWE is making and returning to its shareholders? It’s two different things, so I don’t want to compare them that way.
“I’ll just say what I like about AEW. I’ve been saying for the last fifteen years that WWE is too overproduced. It’s too perfect, it’s so perfect it no longer feels real. I can’t connect to it. In my opinion, this is just my opinion based on 30-some-odd years of being in the industry, I think wrestling works as a TV product for a lot of reasons. But one of the core reasons and wrestling has been around since the beginning of TV time.
“It was one of the most successful TV programs at the beginning of TV history. And the reason for that, and it’s a lot of the reason why live sports works as well as it does, is it allows the viewer to feel like you’re in the arena. You’re not. You’re sitting in the comfort of your own home.
“But live TV, live-action TV, especially wrestling, allow the home viewer to feel like they’re in the cheap seats. Not at ringside necessarily, but in those seats just above. You feel like you’re there. And when you start feeling like you’re there, it makes it easier for one to enjoy the story that’s playing out in front of them or the characters that are playing out in front of them.
“AEW does a great job of creating that sense, allowing the viewer to feel like they’re there even when they’re not. When I watch WWE, I feel like I’m in a movie theater watching the producers of Disney on Ice. It’s too glitzy. Let me see something I shouldn’t see. Don’t shoot around every little imperfection. Don’t spend quite as much money on all those lights. This is making me feel like I’m in a movie theater and not in an arena. I’ve never been in an arena that looks like that unless you’re watching a wrestling event from WWE. I don’t like that.”
H/T to WrestlingInc for the quotes