Eric Bischoff Discusses AEW Backstage Turmoil's Possible Affect On Its Brand

Former WCW Senior Vice President Eric Bischoff shared some of his thoughts on how backstage drama could come back to haunt AEW. CM Punk, Ace Steel and AEW EVPs  Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks reportedly were involved in a melee backstage   following the All Out pay-per-view after Punk had some choice words for Omega, the Bucks, and others, during his media scrum.

Bischoff was asked on the "83 Weeks" podcast if Warner Bros. Discovery — the parent company of TBS and TNT, the networks that air AEW programming — is close to hitting the panic button given the turmoil in AEW.

"The honest answer is I have no idea," Bischoff said. "All I can tell you is from past experience not only in wrestling, but especially outside of wrestling because I've created and produced probably no fewer than 15 different shows for no fewer than eight or 10 cable outlets, and traditionally, typically what happens is your network is very hands-on in a developmental process, throughout the entire production process, very much involved in creative. That's normally what happens in television."

Bischoff believes that AEW may have done damage to its reputation as far as being a company Warner Bros. Discovery can be confident in for the long haul.

"At what point are they going to feel that they need to have more hands-on creative? That's hard to say, that's really hard to say not being there," Bischoff said. "I think the bigger challenge right now is how credible does AEW look as a long-term investment if you're a television company seeing the kind of dysfunction that we've all seen."

Bischoff went on to say that the danger AEW could run into is if Warner Bros. Discovery executives feel they have to get involved in the creative process. Bischoff said it's a terrible position to be in for a wrestling company because suddenly, people who have no knowledge of the wrestling industry are making key decisions.

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