Eric Bischoff Gives His Thoughts On Cinematic Matches

Eric Bischoff has made quite a bold statement on where the future of wrestling is heading. The former Senior Vice President of WCW was paying close attention to cinematic matches during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Bischoff doesn't consider the pandemic era to have been a bright spot in pro wrestling, he did like one thing about it, as he revealed on his "Strictly Business" podcast.

"I loved the cinematic matches," Bischoff said. "Unfortunately, I think because now it's a lot easier just to do your stuff in the arena, and that's traditionally what everybody does, but I would love to see a cinematic match happen once or twice a year, perhaps at WrestleMania or at another big event because I do think it's taking the genre and its storytelling and emotion-creating elements to an entirely different level. It is easier to do it in a venue, and when you've got great talent that knows how to manipulate the audience and get the audience to react the way you want them to, and then feed back and forth, I mean, that's the dance, right? That's the magic of it all, but I do think that elevating storytelling visually, in this case in terms of audio, with the cinematic matches it's still kind of the next giant step into the future I think."

Bischoff shared his belief that WWE needed something to make The Undertaker's WrestleMania 36 match feel special. WWE decided to go in the direction of a cinematic match, the Boneyard Match. The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles match took place on night one of WrestleMania back in 2020. WWE wasn't done with cinematic matches for the weekend, as "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt took on John Cena in a Firefly Fun House Match.

Please H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.