Eric Bischoff Offers Blunt Critique Of Mercedes Mone's AEW Debut
WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff has lambasted the AEW debut of Mercedes Mone, pointing out various issues he had with it.
Mone's AEW debut was one of the worst-kept secrets in recent pro wrestling history, as the special AEW Dynamite: Big Business show gave plenty of hints of her arrival. Bischoff, in a recent edition of his "Strictly Business" podcast, criticized the way Mone was booked and argued that the ratings didn't improve even with her signing.
"Last week, you know, when Mercedes Mone, she made her big debut, and it was highly anticipated, everybody in the internet knew about it, anybody that was watching AEW knew that the event, of course, including the graphics promoting the event, was letting everybody know that Mercedes Mone was going to be there," said Bischoff. "There are those who, since the rating came in at, I'll call it an abysmal level, given the fact that so much was made of Mercedes and so much anticipation within the fanbase for AEW — and it didn't pop a rating. So the excuse was, 'Well, nobody knew she was coming.' Really? Okay, that's laughable.
"But, let's just play along and we'll find out whether it was laughable or whether it was a valid point because if the ratings don't move significantly, there's no excuse. The excuse last week was, 'Well they weren't promoted, nobody knew she was coming.' Again, I'm throwing a flag on that one."
Bischoff added that if the ratings don't improve following signings like Mone — who he believes could be earning anywhere between $3 million and $5 million — the blame will fall on Tony Khan's booking strategy and creative plans.
Bischoff critical of Mone's debut promo in AEW
Eric Bischoff also feels that AEW could've done a better job constructing Mercedes Mone's story on her AEW debut.
"You know what you want to have happen at the end of the show, you know the finish, work backwards from that finish and give us a couple of plot points along the way," Bischoff said. "It can be something very subtle, it could be a look over her shoulder at another talent, be it male or female, it could be anything. There's a million different things you could do that are better than doing nothing."
The WWE Hall of Famer hit out at Tony Khan, stating that the AEW CEO "doesn't know how to produce television." Later in the podcast, Bischoff also assessed Mone's first promo on AEW television and pointed out its flaws; he feels that the promo was prolonged and didn't scream "superstar."
"I don't know her, she's she had an amazing career in WWE, she was probably one of the more successful talents there and valuable assets there. The difference though is, in WWE she was created, she was managed creatively, she was protected creatively," said Bischoff. "It was horrible [while speaking about Mone's first promo] ... let me take that back, it wasn't horrible, it wasn't 'Superstar.' It was a very middle of the roster, not quite a journeyperson, not really a rookie, but certainly not a seasoned veteran."
He argued that Mone's strong point isn't her promos and gave her debut promo a 6.5 out of 10, mentioning that it didn't create emotion, hint at what she's there to do or make him excited about her.