Eric Bischoff Criticizes AEW For Insulting WWE When They “Don’t Have The Balls To Compete”

In a recent interview with Complex, Roman Reigns talked about AEW and revealed why he doesn't see them as real competition.

"The Tribal Chief" referred to AEW's audience as their biggest character, and talked about how AEW being a brand new wrestling company makes them the cool kids on the block and allows them to be "babied by these hardcore wrestling fans." Reigns even stated that nobody in the world can compete with him in any company, but he's happy AEW is around to provide more jobs in the business.

On the latest episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff spoke about Reigns' comments about AEW, and why he thinks Reigns was speaking the truth about the company. Bischoff also mentioned how he'd love to see AEW succeed and compete with WWE head-to-head but that hasn't happened yet.

"I think Roman Reigns did a great job of articulating the reality without a chip on his shoulder or being defensive," Bischoff said. "It is what it is. I would love to see AEW outperform WWE, how's that? That's what I would like to see. I would like to see real competition and see the point where AEW is competing favorably. Forget about defeating them, if they're competing favorably in a real head-to-head environment, I'd love to see that and I'd be cheering them on. Shit, I'd show up and do their show for free if they asked, if that's what they were doing. Taking these pod-shots and jabs and burying your competition when you don't have the balls to actually compete? Kind of bugs me, can you tell?"

Along with those comments, Bischoff was highly critical of several tweets Tony Khan posted in the past month where he called out Ted Turner and WCW, and even challenged WWE predicting AEW Rampage would surpass Friday Night SmackDown. The Former WCW President called Khan ignorant for saying if Turner knew "1%" of what he knows about the wrestling business, that WCW would still be in business, and advised AEW's Owner to just "shut up and wrestle".

Bischoff also spoke on the podcast about a current storyline running on AEW involving The Inner Circle and MMA stars from American Top Team. Having worked for TNA, Bischoff compare this angle to the time that company had Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson involved in a main story line with the company.

"I don't have a strong feeling about it in terms of whether or not I like watching it," Bischoff said. "I've seen little clips of it here, clips of it there, but overall, I think it's a great idea. It's not the first time it's ever been done. TNA did it with Tito Ortiz and [Rampage Jackson]. I think it's a great idea, obviously MMA has a big audience and to the degree that there is some crossover, why not do something like that? It provides a lot of potential, a lot of things you can do. We just got to see how it plays out."

Bischoff also spoke about Rhodes to the Top and how much he's enjoyed the show since it debuted at the end of September. Having been on the latest episode of the show, the WWE Hall of Famer also spoke about his daughter's involvement in the production of the show.

"That show is near and dear to me," Bischoff said. "My daughter Montana, she's a Director in Development at Shed Media, which is a Warner owned company. My daughter, really from day one, was involved in developing that show and really nurtured it through the entire process in getting it up on TNT. Because of her involvement, I think her credit was Consulting Producer, but she deserves a lot more of a significant credit than that, but she's happy with it. So because of her involvement, I have just a bias already, and obviously, because it's Cody. I've known Cody since he was a kid, and his dad was a friend and, to a degree, a mentor in many ways. It's very cool, and I'm happy for Cody, and Brandi, and everybody, and I think Two Drink Teal, mark my words, is going to end up with her own show out of this. It's just a prediction. I don't have any inside information, I'm just giving you what my gut tells me is going to happen.

"You can sense the tension between her and Brandi, which is common in families often. Teal is very protective of the family and the Rhodes name. There's so many great characters, I love seeing Michelle Rhodes, Cody's mother. She looks the same as she did 25 years ago when I bought a house from her. She was a real estate agent in Atlanta. She sold Diamond Dallas Page his house and then, naturally, I was able to give Michelle a call and we bought our house through Cody's mom. There's a familiarity there even though I'm not really involved anymore, but the same people that I've had a lot of experience with growing and getting this opportunity is just awesome."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.