Eric Bischoff Comments On WWE SummerSlam Main Event

Eric Bischoff sees enough difference in the renewed Brock Lesnar feud with Roman Reigns to warrant a match at SummerSlam. On the latest episode of "Strictly Business," Bischoff's primary topic was part-time stars and no two modern talents define that idea better in today's WWE than Reigns and Lesnar. Lesnar surprised Minneapolis, MN on the 6/17 episode of "SmackDown"  to challenge Reigns for the title at the premiere live event in Nashville on July 30. Many fans have expressed negativity or simply exhaustion about the renewal of this feud, which has seen three major main event matches over the last calendar year, but Bischoff notes several factors that make the bout make sense.

"I'm digging it," Bischoff said. "And yes, it's the same two individuals, but it's not the same two characters, and now with both titles at stake, and now that we haven't seen it all play it out on TV prematurely in one way, shape or form, I'm actually more excited about it than I would've been if they've actually been working an angle for the last three weeks."

Bischoff notes that, given recent injuries to planned championship contenders, WWE only had five weeks to build a story that would make the fight believable. "That's not a lot of time to build a hot story," he said. "It's pretty hard to build a compelling story to replace a guy like Randy Orton with somebody just from out of the blue. Five weeks is not a lot of time."

"Either situation is a Plan B, right? Plan B is never as good as Plan A, so either situation is less than what you want it to be," he said.

Bischoff added that putting a young talent in that position within such a small timeframe can be counter-productive long-term for a new star.

"Guess what happens if he or she fails? Guess what happens if it doesn't register? 'Ehhh.' That young talent that was getting a push has now got a little bit of a stigma, right? 'Oh, we tried, we pushed him hard, we put him on PPV, put him in a match with Roman Reigns and it sh*t the bed. Not because the talent wasn't good enough, but because five weeks isn't enough time to make the audience buy into it and believe it. So there's always that risk. Risk is inherent in creative, right? There's never one answer, and there's 99 that can probably bite you in the ass."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Strictly Business" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription