Eric Bischoff Believes Impact Will Be Worse Off After AEW Relationship Ends
During this past weekend's Impact Rebellion pay per view, Kenny Omega became the Impact World Champion by defeating Rich Swann in the show's main event. Omega now holds the Impact World Championship and AEW World Championship and is reportedly expected to appear at Impacts Under Siege event on May 15th.
On the latest episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff continued a conversation he had on another podcast about the relationship between AEW and Impact. Bischoff reiterated his sentiment that nobody cares about the relationship between the two wrestling companies and shared that once AEW stops the relationship, Impact will be worse off than they started.
"I don't watch the Impact product, I just can't," Bischoff said. "Nobody does give a f***. I guess it's presumably some kind of a benefit to Impact to have talent from AEW come over and participate on their show, just nobody cares. Nobody is going to watch it and I'm sure the action is good, I'm sure there's some great matches. I don't watch it but I'm guessing there's some great matches that take place, if you're a fan of it, then great.
"But, step back, take your fan hat off, put on a business hat and go why does it matter? How has it been performing? Who has benefited? Not just jerking yourself off, making yourself feel good for a decision that you've made or support or a fan of, but in terms of numbers, how is this benefiting anybody? Or is it really diluting AEW in particular in my opinion and not really helping Impact because when the AEW component of this eventually goes away, what do you have left? Less than you started with because you've been building your brand around something that's only temporary."
Although Bischoff believes that Impact will end up suffering from the relationship, the former WCW President said he understands why they wanted this relationship in the first place. Bischoff said a possible relationship with TNT and getting air time on a major television network like Turner is what he assumes they are after with this relationship.
"I get it, I understand why they did it," Bischoff said. "I understand what their thinking might have been. If you're Impact and you're delivering 130,000 viewers a week, which is basically a YouTube video and you have an opportunity to get your product and your brand on a much higher profile network with 4-5 times the audience you have, why wouldn't you do that? I get that, there's nothing wrong with the logic, but what have the dividends been so far? Has Impact's ratings gone up week after week after week after week?"
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.