Eric Bischoff Comments On The Elite Re-Signing With AEW, Missed WWE Opportunities

Eric Bischoff has chimed in on the news of The Elite — the quartet of Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Adam Page — inking new multi-year contracts with AEW. On a recent episode of "Strictly Business," Bischoff was asked if he was surprised to see The Elite possibly turning down lucrative offers from WWE to stay put in AEW.

"When you're in your early 20s or early 30s, an opportunity to work 300 days a year is a wonderful opportunity," Bischoff said. "Now, I don't know The Young Bucks or The Elite personally, but [from] what I've heard is that they're very family-oriented individuals. If that's true, I think that's a fantastic decision on their part."

Bischoff believes The Elite "made a healthy decision" since AEW has a very limited schedule of live events, and the talents don't wrestle as regularly on television as their WWE counterparts. Furthermore, Bischoff admitted that there was "a lesser chance for them to get hurt" working the AEW schedule, which could allow them to prolong their careers into their late 40s.

"Taking perhaps lesser money [from AEW] for certainly less wear and tear, and to be able to spend time with your family — hats off to them. Good decision," Bischoff added. 

When asked if The Elite damaged their own legacy by choosing to never work with WWE — the biggest wrestling company in the world, Bischoff had a rather diplomatic answer.

"In the minds of some fans, of course," he responded. "Because they never made it to the big leagues, they never wrestled on the big show. Tony Khan can go on about Wembley and everything, Dixie Carter used to do the same thing ... but WWE still is the show, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. 

"First of all, legacy is so subjective. Not all wrestling audience has the same consensus opinion, but the fact will remain that they wrestled on the big show. They'd never know what could have been."