Eric Bischoff Believes Tony Khan Set Himself Up For 'Unfortunate Incident'

The ramifications of the infamous All Out backstage altercation are still being felt in AEW, with none of the people involved having returned to television to this point. CM Punk's comments at the post-show press conference ignited things, and when Eric Bischoff spoke to Wrestling Inc.'s Dominic DeAngelo to promote his new book, "Grateful," the former WCW President said, "I think in a way [AEW owner] Tony [Khan] set himself up for it."

"I think he's probably learned a lot since then, and hopefully won't make that same type of mistake again," Bischoff said. "But I did feel bad for him. I had empathy for him. I could imagine how he felt in that moment, and it had to be a horrible few minutes for him, whether he set himself up or is responsible for it or not. Nobody is responsible for what somebody else does and says. CM Punk took that upon himself." 

Even though Bischoff made it clear that Punk's decisions were his own, he felt that "creating this situation and the environment that led to it, that's on Tony." Bischoff also said that AEW reportedly buying out Punk's contract proves he was correct in his prediction about how Punk would fare in AEW.

"It appears as though CM Punk is gone. I think I was the one famously who came out and said CM Punk would be a huge financial flop, and, hell, I am right," Bischoff said. "He's going to be one of the biggest financial flops." 

Khan previously praised Punk for helping the company grow, but Bischoff disagreed with Punk getting all the credit, even if he did give AEW an initial boost.

"It didn't last long, that has been black and white, you can't argue that part," he said. "You're assigning a lot of that increase in success to one guy, and I don't know if that's fair or accurate."

Despite the fact that Bischoff has appeared on AEW television in the past, he and Khan have failed to see eye to eye in recent times. Neither of them have minced words when speaking about the other. Although Bischoff stressed that "I do want Tony to be successful," there have been times when Khan has made comments that Bischoff has taken exception to.

"I am a human being. I have feelings, I have an ego, I do," Bischoff said. "It's relatively healthy, but at times it gets a little out of whack and I've got to check myself. But when Tony Khan came out and he kept making comments ... I didn't react to that initially, it's just Tony being Tony, he's trying to get himself over, he's trying to get his company over, I understand that." 

However, one specific comment from Khan crossed the line in the eyes of Bischoff. It occurred when Khan claimed that if [former WCW owner] Ted Turner knew one percent of what he did about wrestling, then WCW would still be in business, which Bischoff found to be "ridiculous."

"To this day [it] still pisses me off. It was such disrespect to Ted Turner, first of all," Bischoff said. "Secondly, Tony doesn't have a clue what he was talking about back then. The only thing Tony knows about what happened to WCW is what Dave Meltzer told him, and Dave Meltzer has no clue. So for Tony to come out and say something like that was disrespectful to Ted, to me, and to WCW as a whole."

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