Eric Bischoff Does Not See Basic Storytelling In AEW
Since the inception of AEW, the constant chatter about the return of the wrestling war between them and WWE has been dissected and talked about in every way possible.
This past week, WWE RAW drew an average of 1.775 million viewers on the USA Network while AEW Dynamite only drew 945,000 fans on TBS.
During the latest episode of the 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff spoke about topics that included Bron Breakker losing his NXT Championship to Dolph Ziggler, and why Cody Rhodes should go to WWE over a return to AEW.
The former WCW President also spoke about why he feels AEWs audience isn't growing on a weekly basis and why they have yet to reach the level of WWE on a consistent basis.
"I've been saying this from the get-go," Bischoff said. "I've been saying from day one whether it's about WWE or AEW, it's a commitment to story and AEW is proving my point. The fact that they have plateaued is proving my point. You can add whoever you want to your roster and it won't matter beyond a week or two unless the audience is engaged in a compelling story that makes them look forward to next week. Not because they're just wrestling fans and they want to see a four-star Tokyo Dome [match], no, that's not going to grow the audience.
"That's going to satisfy the audience you already have. If you can have that phenomenal athletic match, great, and it's the pay off to the story, that's excellent, that's perfect. But if you're not building stories that people focus on, talk about, relate to, and make [the fans] want to come back every week and see where it's going next, if you're not doing that, I don't give a damn."
Numerous times, Eric Bischoff has criticized AEW for a lack of storytelling, even stating back in October that CM Punk has "sh** the bed" since coming to the company to garner more viewers for Tony Khan's show.
"You could take WWE's existing roster, bring it over to AEW and nothing is going to happen," Bischoff said. "It's story, and first of all, you have to have a basic understanding of how to tell a story and I don't see it. I don't see it in WWE and I don't see it in AEW."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.