Eric Bischoff Explains Why He Wouldn't Punish WWE Champ Tiffany Stratton

The WWE Women's World Championship match is the talk of the wrestling universe going in to WrestleMania 41, but not for the best of reasons after Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair's "wreck" of a promo segment on "WWE SmackDown" two weeks ago. Despite both women going off script and venturing into personal territory in their verbal attacks, neither woman was seemingly punished backstage ahead of their match. Former executive Eric Bischoff discussed the promo on an episode of "83 Weeks," and said that Stratton didn't need to be punished, as in his words, she "punished herself."

"She dropped the ball," Bischoff said. "She's going to look back at this and it's going to haunt her because it sucked. It didn't work. She's going to learn from it. That's about as much punishment as she needs, I guess."

Bischoff said on the podcast that Stratton felt like she was trying hard not to forget what she wanted to say. As for the segment, which he called awkward, he said he would sit Stratton down and play it back, but would ask what she thought of it and how she did before hitting play.

"Because when you see yourself back, it's completely different than the way you felt in the moment," he said. "You don't see yourself the way the audience sees you. You don't even hear yourself the way the audience sees you."

Stratton will defend her championship against "The Queen" on night one of WrestleMania. Following the awkward promo segment, neither woman was given a microphone last week on "SmackDown," though Flair attacked Stratton both in the parking lot before the show and after a match.

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