Still can’t believe Cody was the VP at one point in AEW and now he’s the top baby face and current WWE champ. What a ride it’s been for him and Brandi.
@@Sanctified.Homesteadbs it was beating nxt weekly he left they never recovered a million ratings till cm punk returned.. also Tony was obviously burning Cody which forced him to leave.
I mean if those fans bring him big money he does nothing wrong. But There are other wrestling fans who don't tune in or stoped watching because he is just the same nonsense over and over again.
Tony is a terrible human being too, he wants to buy friend but when they decide to go elsewhere he ghost them and locked them up in a jail. Add time, why adding time to someone who was INJURED IN YOUR PROMOTION BECAUSE OF YOUR UNSAFE PROMOTION
@@BestBuzzHoneyBees - True. He doesn't look his age at all. When you have a great spouse and you living in the home u worked hard to get that's the result. Good wife good wife! That's a blessing. Happy for Eric!
Apples to oranges. Bischoff capitalized on a ripe opportunity in the pre-internet era (convincing people that wwf wrestlers were invading). AEW is just "another company". Basically tna with tons of $.
@Dave_Langer That was then, this is now. The shoe is on the other foot and Tony is now losing to the understudies. Even at its worst, Nitro was still beating Sunday Night Heat.
Nationwide arena holds 19,000 fans so it’s actually the right move cause I heard the cameramen that cover dymatie are having tremendous difficulty In hiding empty seats ,convention center and smaller venues are the best thing until hopefully attendance start growing again
Very insightful interview with EZE. Regardless if people like Eric or not he always has his finger on the pulse of the business & his opinions for many aspects of wrestling brings much value. Anyone who can compete with Vince at his game & not backdown earns my respect. Did it end how Eric wanted it too no but WCW had many exciting moments/memories. I was one of the people that liked Eric as GM in WWE it shocked me a lot but he humbled himself & did a very good job. I don't think Eric hates AEW he wants it to be better he has the merit to call out what he feels is wrong i admire anyone who tells is as it is putting ego aside.
So what? I have been saying forever that Khan clearly has a form of AUTISM. He is developmentally disabled period. It is the reason he says and does the things that plague his failures in life now. It is the reason his wrestling products/companies aew/roh will NEVER EVER succeed as long as he is in charge. Yet nobody seems to get it. I knew it and felt it from the first time I ever saw Khan on tv that he is autistic...>
As AEWs greatest ever signing once said "Where's the lie?" Viewership is drastically down year on year, live audiences too. Not one storyline is even lukewarm let alone hot. Tony can't book and refuses to let a great veteran he has on the huge wage bill a chance to run with it. Former WWE talent comes in and within weeks are an afterthought to the next one. I was so hopeful 5 years ago and supported AEW big time. But the sliding doors moment was choosing Young Bucks and Jack Perry over CM Punk. That was their fingerpoke of doom moment. They just can't recover.
@@Dave_Langerthey are actually not lol Raw and smackdown get up to 2 million and even nxt gets up to a million When was the last time aew even did 800 000? There las shows Did around 600 000 There attendance is down, there views are down They couldn't even fill up the stadium in Australia 😂😂😂
@@KingJohnMichael Yes they are. Raws ratings in 2019 were around 2.2m now they are around 1.6m that is a loss of 600k viewers. You are not very good at math are you.
They got the cm punk bump tho. When they showed the backstage “brawl” where Tony feared for his life with Perry and Punk, that was the beginning of the end. That segment outdrew every other on the show and then after it ended, nose dive and it hasn’t gone back up since. 540 000 viewers this past week. That’s bad.
So you certainly didn't watch WCW in 2000 and you 're certainly not watching AEW right now. I watched those Nitros back in the day and they were horrendous. I mean David Arquette was WCW champion. Of course Vince would win the war, that and the AOL/Time Warner merger.
What absolutely baffles me is Tony sees the bleeding with viewership and ticket sales tanking and yet he is so stubborn in his booking ideology that he won't stop the bleeding. Absolutely pathetic.
They’re working overtime. The ratings, empty arenas, upset wrestlers, evps having their 🐱 hurt so they go to Tony. Wouldn’t be surprised if Tony lives off coke
It's a good thing AEW isn't trying to be a real business or make money. They have to be the first wrestling promotion in history that isn't trying to make money.
It's an amazing opportunity that has never happened in the wrestling business before and will probably never come again. That's why it sucks to see it be run this way.
Wwe since cody Rhodes return almost 3 years ago has been absolutely tremendous. So thank you Aew for atleast making the wwe have to up their game to compete
Funny that the debut of Cody brought WWE back to prominence and the loss of Cody in AEW started their downfall, it’s almost like Cody helped AEW actually be tolerable and sometimes fun to watch
@robdurfee6861 well Cody was one of the founders and key bookers behind the scene before Tony Khan completely took over booking himself. And here we are
Every time I watch AEW, it looks worse and worse. I saw one match with two women and it was full of botched moves. It made anything Nia Jax does look good.
its so funny to hear all the marks keep going "they can still do it" or "hes just hating", like no he isnt, hes telling it like it is, and ppl need to accept it, they have no chance to turn things around, and its their own fault, at one point it was that he didnt wanna see them fail, but now inevitably they will because they wont change or listen to anyone but stupid dirt sheet writers, and its too bad, but theyll be obsolete in a year
My “issue” with AEW is that once you’ve seen someone’s match, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Will Osprey? Watched two of his matches and then I couldn’t even make it through the third because it was the exact same match!! Tiny guys doing flips and somersaults? Ok, I MIGHT be able to get into it if I KNEW WHO THEY WERE AND WHY THEY WERE FIGHTING EACH OTHER! There’s a reason horror and action flicks are popular. You get a style of movie that you can enjoy and it’s fun to watch. Yes, some are cheesy. Yes, some are silly. Yes, some are even great. BUT, the number one complaint you hear about these types of movies that bomb is; “It’s too much like this other movie that’s far better”. Or, absolutely nothing made sense. There was no reason for the things to happen. AEW is like watching an action movie that starts with people fighting, continues with people fighting and then ends in a big fight. But, nowhere in the movie do you learn the people’s names, reasons for why they’re fighting, etc. Even in things like boxing, the UFC, etc you know WHO the people are and WHY they’re fighting. Best example is Tyson vs. Fake Paul. It was complete and utter garbage, BUT everyone watched. Why? Because of the hype. If they had just said, “Next week, Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul!!” How many people would have watched that?
This 100%. I still want AEW to succeed very badly, but it's hard to stay interested when Tony doesn't care about building a feud or a wrestler properly anymore. Cole Vs. MJF could've been just as insane today, but it's become incredibly nonsensical, and I have no idea how they're salvaging the mess it's become. Hobbs is face again out of nowhere. Where did Wardlow go, he was all the hype once. I've stopped watching any Beast Mortos match, because I know he will lose at this point. Tony has such an insanely talented roster he's doing absolutely nothing with, and I feel like part of that is because he refuses to listen to the extremely valid critique he's receiving from peers and fans alike
It Doesn't Matter What Any Of Us Say Because At The End Of The Day Tony Khan Owns AEW. Speaking Of Owning AEW, That's 1 Of The Main Reason Why Cody Rhodes Left AEW. He Realized That The EVP Name Had No Real Pull In AEW. A Lot Of People Don't Know That Cody Rhodes Had Been Secretly Speaking To WWE. They Had Been Keeping In Contact Since The Day WWE Didn't Renue The Trademark For The Name Cody Rhodes.
AEW's problem, bar none is that they don't know what they are. It was easy at the start because what they were what wrestling fans wanted that a Vince McMahon run WWE wasn't giving them. WWE was releasing guys like Malakai Black, and not managing to re-sign people like Adam Cole because they wanted him on the main roster as a manager instead of a wrestler. Every single time they released people, there were a handful that made you say 'what the fuck?'. Vince didn't have the picture for what a modern roster should look like. I mean shit, look how they were using Cody Rhodes before he left compared to what he is now after his run with The Elite. HHH was being frozen out and they were messing with his NXT product when for many years, NXT had the most compelling product. Their Takeover shows were tremendous. Vince didn't want to give up control. Kevin Dunn had them putting out the same boring television product year after year. AEW started out as being a less stringently controlled creative, TV-14, much more unpredictable weekly television with arena brawls into the crowd and the food stand area, etc. They were allowed to have blood. It was more Monday Night Wars-esque in some respects. They were addressing all the critiques of the WWE product directly and offering an alternative. They even picked up CM Punk who was a top industry star that WWE couldn't get back. They were becoming legitimised. Their B-show sold out the United Center without spelling out plainly that Punk would be there. Daniel Bryan said no to re-signing WWE to go to AEW. Momentum was shifting for the wrestling purist. So then, what happens when Vince gets thrown out of the picture? HHH gets put into creative and all of a sudden, WWE has interesting tv again. New stars are made at a tremendous pace. Kevin Dunn retires and they start getting more experimental with the tv production. They start firing on all cylinders with fresh energy. Tony Khan will say stuff like 'we have the best wrestlers in the world blah blah', but WWE also has many of the best wrestlers in the world. That's not a competitive market advantage. The average fan doesn't see that. TLDR; AEW doesn't know what they are in an environment where WWE is creatively competent. They were filling a void that has now been filled.
Timestamps (Powered by Merlin AI) 00:03 - Eric Bischoff shares insights on his surprise NXT appearance. 02:04 - Eric Bischoff reflects on limited wrestling appearances and personal contentment. 06:06 - WWE's ID program could improve talent development in wrestling. 08:15 - Eric Bischoff discusses the potential and viability of MLW in wrestling. 12:31 - Eric Bischoff discusses new projects and family time amidst a focus on a finance-related endeavor. 14:24 - Bischoff discusses the impact of NWO vs. Bloodline storylines in wrestling. 18:30 - Confidence in Paul Heyman's creative direction for wrestling. 20:17 - Eric Bischoff criticizes Dave Meltzer and AEW's current state. 23:57 - Eric Bischoff critiques AEW's focus on athleticism over storytelling. 25:52 - Eric Bischoff critiques Tony Khan's leadership in AEW.
Yep. He knows what its like to be in a failing, flailing wrestling promotion that's trying to challenge the WWE(F) when it happens to be firing on all cylinders.
The last storyline that made fans invested was when Hangwan was chasing the title from Omega. The last interesting feud was between MJF and Punk. Also, the best moment was when Bryan Danielson won the title. The rest of AEW is only good for reels and highlights.
It's giving me amazing programming on the WWE side of things. Competition and egos are good things for me. And I remember full well the couple of years before the pandemic in WWE. Just garbage wrestling times. I've tried AEW at times. I have limited viewing time so WWE takes up that slot.
@@Sanctified.Homestead Which is fine. The weird part is when people develop a vendetta against the company they don’t support and feel the need to broadcast it all over the internet.
@@HawaiianPizza87 especially when it's the old guard, it's like they completely forgot how much it sucked to be a wrestling fan before AEW came up and before Triple H took over WWE
AEW cares more about 5 star matches than telling stories. A 5 star match without a story backing it up is pointless because no one is tuning in to watch said match.
Yeah true I agree !but did anyone notice after all storylines Jon Moxley again Aew world champion and Mjf well you have to beat 3 guys to face me at ppv like he is The Rock or Ric Flair or Steve Austin but rather making decisions like a king kong Bundy!
Massive wrestling fan since 1989 here. I especially like US and Japanese wrestling. AEW is the worst booked wrestling promotion I have ever seen. The creative is the worst, I honestly believe that Tony, Washington and Pepperday are the worst booking team ever assembled, they don't seem to have a good idea or good promo between them and they get the roster under rather than over it's so bad. That's part of the problem. The other problem is that too many guys in the roster can't work professionally. The Young Bucks and Orange Cassidy for example are so cringe and pathetic and their work is laughable. They should be putting up the ring for the wrestlers to perform in, they shouldn't be pretending to be workers.
You know, not too long ago, I remember another wrestling company hitting some pretty low points & made it out just fine. They have four years and over half a billion dollars to figure it out.
Still once you lose the audience it's hard to get them back. Even wee doesn't have ratings like they had 10 years ago so aew have to figure out things before it's too late.
Yeah this is Slander territory… the public vitriol that EB has for AEW is astounding, it’s dudes WHOLE career at this point.. At least AEW lasted longer than “83 Weeks” 😂😂😂😂
Not a EB fan, but I agree with everything he’s saying about AEW. It’s used to be good, but something changed and they have missed many opportunities. For example, imagine if CM Punk and FTR feuded with the Elite after the scrum? They could’ve even set up an originals vs ex WWE guys type storyline.
Man anytime Ariel does an interview that is related to wrestling I watch it immediately. He is an amazing interviewer. Keep doing these wrestling interviews Ariel! As a WWE fan I wanted AEW to succeed. I watched them from the beginning to when CM Punk left. I love their young talent like MJF, Garcia etc but I haven't been keeping up with them lately and WWE has been so amazing since Vince left that I barely have time to watch another company. Also as Eric pointed out I can't think of any good storylines recently that has caught the buzz. I do have a question to the wrestling audience. Why do some new top talent still sign with AEW even when they know it's on the decline?Okada, Jay White, Osprey all signed with AEW than being in WWE. Hell even MJF resigned. I wanted him and Omega to be in WWE but not complaining since WWE has been amazing.
The $$$ is the only real answer here. If it's more, you join. Second being the flexibility of schedule. It was why people signed with WCW - like Heenan Hall and Nash (both have said they didnt want to leave at the time) because the WWF was the better run product. WWE didnt want Ospreay to be able to fly back and forth to the UK to see his family so that was easy for him. Okada, probably has seen how they handled Nakamura (until recently) so that could have played a factor plus he was closer to the Elite than anyone in the WWE. For some talent, WWE isn't the best option. And some people have faith they could turn it around. Many reasons could be it. It's easy to talk as a wrestling fan because we're observers but none of us has run a wrestling product to give answers why talent do the things they do.
He has a point about no one in AEW being able to tell a story. It's all well and good having good wrestlers and "banger" matches. But if there isn't a thread linking things together, then it's just matches for the sake of matches. Unfortunately, Tony Khan books for a specific minority of wrestling fan, who enable this approach. That kind of thinking will never get them to a higher level.
I laugh a lot reading some comments about this video. It tells you a lot about wrestling fans. You know who Eric Bischoff is? He's the guy that killed his great long term story of Sting vs. NWO at Starrcade 1997 because he was a Hogan fanboy. In one match, he killed the momentum of Sting and Bret Hart because he never knew how to handle Hogan. So yeah if I was him, I would keep quiet a little bit about how to book a promotion. Even Vince fired him in 2019.
Much as I want AEW to succeed and I'm no huge fan of Bischoff but it pains me to say he is right on the money in his assessment of the state of AEW and TK's leadership. It's sad to see something that had so much promise get crushed by the same guy that had the vision in the first place.
I used to be angry at Tony for ruining this opportunity to have another giant wrestling network who's competitive with the juggernaut but these days I just really enjoy the collapse of everything aew and Tony's descent into madness
It's true that the indies are unstructured, which is why I informally coach top performing indy workers about the transition from indy wrestling to corporate wrestling.
AEW is just a bunch of indie darlings with a handful of good wrestlers but bad professionals commercially with bad story lines. AEW is doomed theres not recovering or coming back. They lost all their momentum. Wrestling is such a niche fan base. the only people who watch AEW are WWE haters which is an even smaller niche sub fan base. Tony Khan is just throwing stuff at the wall and seeint what sticks at this point. Playing wrestling figure federation with real money. Hes lost all creative direction
lets be real, they have about 5 maybe 10 good wrestlers there.. the rest are trash, lets just be real... the bad booking doesnt help but they dont have much talent.. hopefully all the good ones wise up and make the jump before its too late
When AEW first came along, that was all everybody was buzzing about, the Indie element. Now it's getting boring, if I wanna watch flips I'd watch rather Lucha wrestling. Do you know how in MMA, everybody wants to fight in the UFC? Yeah well it's the same in Pro Wrestling. AEW isn't second best right now I don't believe. I think it goes WWE, TNA, NJPW, Triple A, AEW, then maybe MLW.
I think what AEW should immediately do is to split their brands Collision and Dynamite just like RAW and Smackdown. And divide their Roster on each brand so in that way, more superstars would get screen time and have their own titles, so multiple superstars can be champion at the same time and more potential will come up for instance Jay white be Collision heavy champion so in Dynamite Jon Moxley etc. And discontinue Rampage and it's totally waste of time to watch it and make ROH as NXT for upcoming talents once they get ROH's TV deal and keep ROH titles in ROH. And I am not saying to just totally copy paste WWE in terms of storyline. Do it in a AEW style but split the brand is a must for AEW. As of right now I don't see no reason to Collision and Rampage.
They just signed their biggest TV deal ever so no matter what Bischoff and other antis might have to say, they aren’t going anywhere for the next three years. After that, who knows? I can certainly see them having to take smaller deals but it would take a lot to wipe them out completely. There are problems in AEW. Tony Khan is probably their biggest one. But some people just love to blow it out of proportion and refuse to credit them for anything. I don’t see a single one of you in the comments talking about how their new contact is triple what it was.
Hardcore wrestling and deathmatch used to tell a good storyline. Now forget the storyline and forget what leads up to the ending of a feud that used to be for a full year. Calling me a sicko fan, I watched old matches with friends in Indie they told a good story. AEW has become a lack of better term old ECW to say alternative to mainstream wrestling that would be independent wrestling.
This is real simple, as long as Tony Khan is booking the matches at AEW it is going to keep getting worse. He does not know what he is doing, and now the ratings are down to 536,000, down from over 1 million a few years ago. So I predict by July of 2025 AEW Dynamite will be under 500k viewers a show.
@@Dave_LangerYes wwe doesn't have big ratings like they had 10 years ago because once you lose the audience it's hard to gain them back but wwe has improved in the past few years and the ratings has gone up and a lot of fans are coming back to the product and you can clearly see it with big crowds now. But wwe will gain lot of audience when they go to Netflix
@@tharukaepaarachchi814 Raw does not have the same ratings as it did in 2019, its down 600k about the same AEW is down. Funny how no one ever points this out about WWE bc you WWE shills are all disingenuous. And no Raws ratings not gone back up. Nice try
@Dave_Langer Raw ratings are were just under 2 million on road to mania and just after that, now it has gone down by 500K( about 1.3M think)so we don't need to compare it to 2019 when the product was so bad. Dude why are you so mad and calling me disingenuous? I want both companies to succeed and I am just pointing out the obvious(like everybody else) that wwe has improved and they are gaining a lot fans and the opposite has happen to aew. Also wwe is going to Netflix next year so that's gonna be massive too
@@tharukaepaarachchi814 Raw average ratings for this year are 1.6. Please stop coping, its getting embarrassing for you. Its just funny you admitted that right now WWEs ratings are around 1.5 which is down over 600k since 2019 just like AEW ratings are down but you one talks about WWEs ratings drop. You are disingenuous and you keep proving it
Aew needs to split their brands, release some of the wasted talent. And work with tna. Its simple. Put on good matches and tell us a story. Wwe is a story really really decent story. New day, punk vs seth, seth sami, jey vs the world . Drew mc, so many
Yeah WWE on Netflix, predicting a flop, if the Tyson fight was any kind of prediction, there will be major buffering and/or people just won't be able to get it from the large volume of viewers trying to tune in
When I was growing up in the mid 2000's watching pro wrestling which my love of with the product started by was watching TNA Impact and their first episode on Spike TV. I loved that era of pro wrestling to me that era for me will always stick with me like the attitude era will stick with 90's kids my favorites growing up were AJ Styles Jeff Hardy Kurt Angle Somoa Joe then I started watching Ring of Honor Wrestling and New Japan and I feel like the era we have now is so much better off than the attitude era was especially with how easily we can access the content and streaming.
Talks about AEW! 21:52
THANK YOU
👏
Read my mind thank you!
👍
Real One
AEW went downhill after cody rhodes left.
And after CM Punk left!
Haha it just got better now
It was downhill when Cody was there
Still can’t believe Cody was the VP at one point in AEW and now he’s the top baby face and current WWE champ. What a ride it’s been for him and Brandi.
@@Sanctified.Homesteadbs it was beating nxt weekly he left they never recovered a million ratings till cm punk returned.. also Tony was obviously burning Cody which forced him to leave.
Tony isn’t listening to the fans. He’s surrounded by his echo chamber.
Exactly
He listens to save meltzer that's the problem
I mean if those fans bring him big money he does nothing wrong. But There are other wrestling fans who don't tune in or stoped watching because he is just the same nonsense over and over again.
@@ralphso5567 bingo, Dave has been the problem since day one
Tony is a terrible human being too, he wants to buy friend but when they decide to go elsewhere he ghost them and locked them up in a jail. Add time, why adding time to someone who was INJURED IN YOUR PROMOTION BECAUSE OF YOUR UNSAFE PROMOTION
It doesn’t seem real that Bischoff is 69 years old. It’s just crazy to think back seeing him 30+ years ago on WCW. TOO SWEEEET!!!!
@@BestBuzzHoneyBees - True. He doesn't look his age at all. When you have a great spouse and you living in the home u worked hard to get that's the result. Good wife good wife! That's a blessing. Happy for Eric!
Good wife, good life👍
He looks 15 years younger
@@Jio86-l3k Agreed
@@Jio86-l3k cringe, bud
At least Eric Bischoff was able to pull ahead of WWE and take the lead for a time, Tony Khan can't even beat WWE's developmental show in the ratings.
Apples to oranges. Bischoff capitalized on a ripe opportunity in the pre-internet era (convincing people that wwf wrestlers were invading). AEW is just "another company". Basically tna with tons of $.
AEW beat NXT so badly, NXT had to move nights lol
@Dave_Langer That was then, this is now. The shoe is on the other foot and Tony is now losing to the understudies. Even at its worst, Nitro was still beating Sunday Night Heat.
@@asurlybarber3620 When they went head to head AEW crushed NXT, stop making a fool of yourself
@@DiversityJacksonyou don't even know what you are talking about
AEW was supposed to be at Nationwide Arena here in Columbus this Saturday. Now it's at the convention center smh
Did you buy a ticket?
Nationwide arena holds 19,000 fans so it’s actually the right move cause I heard the cameramen that cover dymatie are having tremendous difficulty In hiding empty seats ,convention center and smaller venues are the best thing until hopefully attendance start growing again
The attendance will never go up again 😂@@thomasfranco3128
Triple H hanged out with Dana White and told him about this over dinner. 😂
Refund your tickets and wait a year, they'll be running out of Airbnb's 😂
Very insightful interview with EZE.
Regardless if people like Eric or not he always has his finger on the pulse of the business & his opinions for many aspects of wrestling brings much value.
Anyone who can compete with Vince at his game & not backdown earns my respect.
Did it end how Eric wanted it too no but WCW had many exciting moments/memories.
I was one of the people that liked Eric as GM in WWE it shocked me a lot but he humbled himself & did a very good job.
I don't think Eric hates AEW he wants it to be better he has the merit to call out what he feels is wrong i admire anyone who tells is as it is putting ego aside.
Ariel please release the whole unedited Tony Khan interview so we can see all of Tony’s strange behaviour you talked about having to edit out.
Nobody needs or wants 2 extra hours of that. “Everything’s great!!!”
There's probably an NDA 😂
Why? I promise you that would be a waste of time. I se weird awkward people on a daily basis and it’s not fun to watch.
So what? I have been saying forever that Khan clearly has a form of AUTISM. He is developmentally disabled period. It is the reason he says and does the things that plague his failures in life now. It is the reason his wrestling products/companies aew/roh will NEVER EVER succeed as long as he is in charge. Yet nobody seems to get it. I knew it and felt it from the first time I ever saw Khan on tv that he is autistic...>
You wanna listen to relentless "insert ppv name _ gonna be amazing and I have an announcement to make everything is great! I can't talk about it"
As AEWs greatest ever signing once said "Where's the lie?"
Viewership is drastically down year on year, live audiences too. Not one storyline is even lukewarm let alone hot. Tony can't book and refuses to let a great veteran he has on the huge wage bill a chance to run with it. Former WWE talent comes in and within weeks are an afterthought to the next one. I was so hopeful 5 years ago and supported AEW big time. But the sliding doors moment was choosing Young Bucks and Jack Perry over CM Punk. That was their fingerpoke of doom moment. They just can't recover.
Raw is down 600k since 2019.Are you going to talk about that
@@Dave_Langerthey are actually not lol
Raw and smackdown get up to 2 million and even nxt gets up to a million
When was the last time aew even did 800 000?
There las shows Did around 600 000
There attendance is down, there views are down
They couldn't even fill up the stadium in Australia 😂😂😂
@@KingJohnMichael Yes they are. Raws ratings in 2019 were around 2.2m now they are around 1.6m that is a loss of 600k viewers. You are not very good at math are you.
It's even worse they used to pull 7 million. They barely hold 1.5 now a days.
@@Sanctified.Homestead yup but you never hear WWE shills talk about that now do you.
AeW is so unwatchable that it makes wCw in 2000 look like Wrestlemania 17.
They got the cm punk bump tho. When they showed the backstage “brawl” where Tony feared for his life with Perry and Punk, that was the beginning of the end. That segment outdrew every other on the show and then after it ended, nose dive and it hasn’t gone back up since. 540 000 viewers this past week. That’s bad.
Yikes. Really? I've never had the opportunity to watch.
Yet here u are, jerking off to it on the comment section.
So you certainly didn't watch WCW in 2000 and you 're certainly not watching AEW right now. I watched those Nitros back in the day and they were horrendous. I mean David Arquette was WCW champion. Of course Vince would win the war, that and the AOL/Time Warner merger.
Then what is WWE?
Love Ariel Helwani... while he's a MMA guy, he's so knowledgable in pro wrestling you'd think it was what he focused on 100%
no hesint but okay.
TNA and AAA are the best alternative organisations right now.
@@JulezX.X nic nemeth is top 10 wrestler of this day and age
Yep
LMAO, my god
AAA isn’t good for the US, but I agree that the Mexican population does love them some Lucha, so fair point
That Turning Point show looked bad. Everything was so dark.
Huge fan of Bischoff, could listen to him talk about the business all day.
What absolutely baffles me is Tony sees the bleeding with viewership and ticket sales tanking and yet he is so stubborn in his booking ideology that he won't stop the bleeding. Absolutely pathetic.
The aew fanboys in the comment section are angry
I bet Tony send his bot army 😂😂😂😂😂
They’re working overtime. The ratings, empty arenas, upset wrestlers, evps having their 🐱 hurt so they go to Tony. Wouldn’t be surprised if Tony lives off coke
Eric is right, if tony doesn't step aside the new tv deal will not save aew
It's a good thing AEW isn't trying to be a real business or make money. They have to be the first wrestling promotion in history that isn't trying to make money.
The first!!!
Right! Its simply tony Khan playing pretend CEO while everyone else are just punking him for his money
Considering the Jacksonville Jaguars are a pauper company.
Tony has effectively turned the wrestling business into a nonprofit organization.
It's an amazing opportunity that has never happened in the wrestling business before and will probably never come again. That's why it sucks to see it be run this way.
Well then, this Eric Bischoff seems so much more cooler than the one on Conrad's show
Conrad sucks😒
Wwe since cody Rhodes return almost 3 years ago has been absolutely tremendous.
So thank you Aew for atleast making the wwe have to up their game to compete
Funny that the debut of Cody brought WWE back to prominence and the loss of Cody in AEW started their downfall, it’s almost like Cody helped AEW actually be tolerable and sometimes fun to watch
@robdurfee6861 well Cody was one of the founders and key bookers behind the scene before Tony Khan completely took over booking himself.
And here we are
lol.
Yeah Cody was the glue at AEW. Been down down down since then
Plus Vince leaving the company was the cherry on top
Tony Khan stomping his feet rn
Stomped Eric’s nitro run.
Every time I watch AEW, it looks worse and worse. I saw one match with two women and it was full of botched moves. It made anything Nia Jax does look good.
Bullshit
its so funny to hear all the marks keep going "they can still do it" or "hes just hating", like no he isnt, hes telling it like it is, and ppl need to accept it, they have no chance to turn things around, and its their own fault, at one point it was that he didnt wanna see them fail, but now inevitably they will because they wont change or listen to anyone but stupid dirt sheet writers, and its too bad, but theyll be obsolete in a year
The Rise and Fall of AEW on Peacock, Netflix and WWE Network coming soon. I can't wait
Have to rise first in order to fall.
Aew is 536k. They'll be less than 500k next year then half a year of 2025 they'll be 400k
Good!
@@George-sd5qb why?
Yeah now nxt beats them every week with ratings. I hope are figure things out quickly.
@@George-sd5qb why's that good?
@@Wrastling858maybe because they’ll finally become aware that their product is currently terrible and try to improve?
My “issue” with AEW is that once you’ve seen someone’s match, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Will Osprey? Watched two of his matches and then I couldn’t even make it through the third because it was the exact same match!! Tiny guys doing flips and somersaults? Ok, I MIGHT be able to get into it if I KNEW WHO THEY WERE AND WHY THEY WERE FIGHTING EACH OTHER!
There’s a reason horror and action flicks are popular. You get a style of movie that you can enjoy and it’s fun to watch. Yes, some are cheesy. Yes, some are silly. Yes, some are even great. BUT, the number one complaint you hear about these types of movies that bomb is; “It’s too much like this other movie that’s far better”. Or, absolutely nothing made sense. There was no reason for the things to happen.
AEW is like watching an action movie that starts with people fighting, continues with people fighting and then ends in a big fight. But, nowhere in the movie do you learn the people’s names, reasons for why they’re fighting, etc.
Even in things like boxing, the UFC, etc you know WHO the people are and WHY they’re fighting. Best example is Tyson vs. Fake Paul. It was complete and utter garbage, BUT everyone watched. Why? Because of the hype. If they had just said, “Next week, Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul!!” How many people would have watched that?
Excellent comment
This 100%. I still want AEW to succeed very badly, but it's hard to stay interested when Tony doesn't care about building a feud or a wrestler properly anymore. Cole Vs. MJF could've been just as insane today, but it's become incredibly nonsensical, and I have no idea how they're salvaging the mess it's become. Hobbs is face again out of nowhere. Where did Wardlow go, he was all the hype once. I've stopped watching any Beast Mortos match, because I know he will lose at this point.
Tony has such an insanely talented roster he's doing absolutely nothing with, and I feel like part of that is because he refuses to listen to the extremely valid critique he's receiving from peers and fans alike
AEW is a great wrestling show if you enjoy watching people kick out at 2
If AEW was an action movie, it would just be 2 hours stock footage of buildings collapsing or things exploding. Things happening with no context.
No wonder he is called 'Easy E'! He was so cool through out the interview despite doing it during an earthquake!
It Doesn't Matter What Any Of Us Say Because At The End Of The Day Tony Khan Owns AEW. Speaking Of Owning AEW, That's 1 Of The Main Reason Why Cody Rhodes Left AEW. He Realized That The EVP Name Had No Real Pull In AEW. A Lot Of People Don't Know That Cody Rhodes Had Been Secretly Speaking To WWE. They Had Been Keeping In Contact Since The Day WWE Didn't Renue The Trademark For The Name Cody Rhodes.
It would be pretty sweet to have Jim cornette on the show
AEW's problem, bar none is that they don't know what they are.
It was easy at the start because what they were what wrestling fans wanted that a Vince McMahon run WWE wasn't giving them. WWE was releasing guys like Malakai Black, and not managing to re-sign people like Adam Cole because they wanted him on the main roster as a manager instead of a wrestler. Every single time they released people, there were a handful that made you say 'what the fuck?'. Vince didn't have the picture for what a modern roster should look like. I mean shit, look how they were using Cody Rhodes before he left compared to what he is now after his run with The Elite. HHH was being frozen out and they were messing with his NXT product when for many years, NXT had the most compelling product. Their Takeover shows were tremendous. Vince didn't want to give up control. Kevin Dunn had them putting out the same boring television product year after year.
AEW started out as being a less stringently controlled creative, TV-14, much more unpredictable weekly television with arena brawls into the crowd and the food stand area, etc. They were allowed to have blood. It was more Monday Night Wars-esque in some respects. They were addressing all the critiques of the WWE product directly and offering an alternative. They even picked up CM Punk who was a top industry star that WWE couldn't get back. They were becoming legitimised. Their B-show sold out the United Center without spelling out plainly that Punk would be there. Daniel Bryan said no to re-signing WWE to go to AEW. Momentum was shifting for the wrestling purist.
So then, what happens when Vince gets thrown out of the picture? HHH gets put into creative and all of a sudden, WWE has interesting tv again. New stars are made at a tremendous pace. Kevin Dunn retires and they start getting more experimental with the tv production. They start firing on all cylinders with fresh energy. Tony Khan will say stuff like 'we have the best wrestlers in the world blah blah', but WWE also has many of the best wrestlers in the world. That's not a competitive market advantage. The average fan doesn't see that.
TLDR; AEW doesn't know what they are in an environment where WWE is creatively competent. They were filling a void that has now been filled.
You hit the nail right on the head. Once WWE started getting better again, AEW didn't know how to adapt.
Aew getting the promotion and attention that roh should have had all those years
Timestamps (Powered by Merlin AI)
00:03 - Eric Bischoff shares insights on his surprise NXT appearance.
02:04 - Eric Bischoff reflects on limited wrestling appearances and personal contentment.
06:06 - WWE's ID program could improve talent development in wrestling.
08:15 - Eric Bischoff discusses the potential and viability of MLW in wrestling.
12:31 - Eric Bischoff discusses new projects and family time amidst a focus on a finance-related endeavor.
14:24 - Bischoff discusses the impact of NWO vs. Bloodline storylines in wrestling.
18:30 - Confidence in Paul Heyman's creative direction for wrestling.
20:17 - Eric Bischoff criticizes Dave Meltzer and AEW's current state.
23:57 - Eric Bischoff critiques AEW's focus on athleticism over storytelling.
25:52 - Eric Bischoff critiques Tony Khan's leadership in AEW.
Eric Bischoff is the voice of experience, in case the "idiotic" AEW fans don't remember how WCW died.
Yep. He knows what its like to be in a failing, flailing wrestling promotion that's trying to challenge the WWE(F) when it happens to be firing on all cylinders.
Cody was holding aew together more than we know.
LOL no
The last storyline that made fans invested was when Hangwan was chasing the title from Omega. The last interesting feud was between MJF and Punk. Also, the best moment was when Bryan Danielson won the title. The rest of AEW is only good for reels and highlights.
Best guest in a while. Uncle Eric is the best. Shoutout 83 weeks ❤️
The tribalism in wrestling these days is ridiculous.
I liked WWF and WCW. I like WWE and AEW.
It's giving me amazing programming on the WWE side of things. Competition and egos are good things for me. And I remember full well the couple of years before the pandemic in WWE. Just garbage wrestling times. I've tried AEW at times. I have limited viewing time so WWE takes up that slot.
It is what it is. I've tried watching the e but I can't. It's unwatchable to me.
@@Sanctified.Homestead Which is fine.
The weird part is when people develop a vendetta against the company they don’t support and feel the need to broadcast it all over the internet.
@@HawaiianPizza87 especially when it's the old guard, it's like they completely forgot how much it sucked to be a wrestling fan before AEW came up and before Triple H took over WWE
It’s not even tribalism, aew just flat out sucks… keep it 100
Tony said he learned a lot about marketing from the Costco guy 😂
if you enjoyed this watch him on rampage's podcast. much respect for this man
AEW cares more about 5 star matches than telling stories. A 5 star match without a story backing it up is pointless because no one is tuning in to watch said match.
Nice interview, AEW is still a thing?
He's spot on about AEW it's hard to support them ever since Punk left you see how thin skinned and egocentric the people at the top are
AEW still has a lot of potential. Tony needs to hire a competent booker. Going to smaller arenas is a step in the right direction
Yeah true I agree !but did anyone notice after all storylines Jon Moxley again Aew world champion and Mjf well you have to beat 3 guys to face me at ppv like he is The Rock or Ric Flair or Steve Austin but rather making decisions like a king kong Bundy!
And just recently,
WWE teach AEW how to make a legit breakup friendship storyline..with The New Day segment.
Name me one story AEW is doing right now....
It's not terrible when it gets 50 Million a year contract from Tony's own money and Meltzer's all popular best star ratings ever!
Massive wrestling fan since 1989 here. I especially like US and Japanese wrestling. AEW is the worst booked wrestling promotion I have ever seen. The creative is the worst, I honestly believe that Tony, Washington and Pepperday are the worst booking team ever assembled, they don't seem to have a good idea or good promo between them and they get the roster under rather than over it's so bad. That's part of the problem. The other problem is that too many guys in the roster can't work professionally. The Young Bucks and Orange Cassidy for example are so cringe and pathetic and their work is laughable. They should be putting up the ring for the wrestlers to perform in, they shouldn't be pretending to be workers.
Always good to hear Eric Bischoff.
You know, not too long ago, I remember another wrestling company hitting some pretty low points & made it out just fine. They have four years and over half a billion dollars to figure it out.
Still once you lose the audience it's hard to get them back. Even wee doesn't have ratings like they had 10 years ago so aew have to figure out things before it's too late.
Meltzer and AEW are out of touch
This is what happens when you make Generation Me the glass ceiling of your company 😂😂😂😂
Yeah this is Slander territory… the public vitriol that EB has for AEW is astounding, it’s dudes WHOLE career at this point.. At least AEW lasted longer than “83 Weeks” 😂😂😂😂
Lasted longer yes but no.1 wrestling promotion no
Not a EB fan, but I agree with everything he’s saying about AEW. It’s used to be good, but something changed and they have missed many opportunities. For example, imagine if CM Punk and FTR feuded with the Elite after the scrum? They could’ve even set up an originals vs ex WWE guys type storyline.
Man anytime Ariel does an interview that is related to wrestling I watch it immediately. He is an amazing interviewer. Keep doing these wrestling interviews Ariel!
As a WWE fan I wanted AEW to succeed. I watched them from the beginning to when CM Punk left. I love their young talent like MJF, Garcia etc but I haven't been keeping up with them lately and WWE has been so amazing since Vince left that I barely have time to watch another company. Also as Eric pointed out I can't think of any good storylines recently that has caught the buzz.
I do have a question to the wrestling audience. Why do some new top talent still sign with AEW even when they know it's on the decline?Okada, Jay White, Osprey all signed with AEW than being in WWE. Hell even MJF resigned. I wanted him and Omega to be in WWE but not complaining since WWE has been amazing.
The $$$ is the only real answer here. If it's more, you join. Second being the flexibility of schedule. It was why people signed with WCW - like Heenan Hall and Nash (both have said they didnt want to leave at the time) because the WWF was the better run product. WWE didnt want Ospreay to be able to fly back and forth to the UK to see his family so that was easy for him. Okada, probably has seen how they handled Nakamura (until recently) so that could have played a factor plus he was closer to the Elite than anyone in the WWE. For some talent, WWE isn't the best option. And some people have faith they could turn it around. Many reasons could be it. It's easy to talk as a wrestling fan because we're observers but none of us has run a wrestling product to give answers why talent do the things they do.
Is Eric seated at a Ponderosa booth?
He has a point about no one in AEW being able to tell a story. It's all well and good having good wrestlers and "banger" matches. But if there isn't a thread linking things together, then it's just matches for the sake of matches.
Unfortunately, Tony Khan books for a specific minority of wrestling fan, who enable this approach. That kind of thinking will never get them to a higher level.
Eric looks AMAZING to be close to 70.
God bless 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
I laugh a lot reading some comments about this video. It tells you a lot about wrestling fans. You know who Eric Bischoff is? He's the guy that killed his great long term story of Sting vs. NWO at Starrcade 1997 because he was a Hogan fanboy. In one match, he killed the momentum of Sting and Bret Hart because he never knew how to handle Hogan. So yeah if I was him, I would keep quiet a little bit about how to book a promotion. Even Vince fired him in 2019.
Did Kevin Dunn hold the phone camera?
Last night Raw would agree
Much as I want AEW to succeed and I'm no huge fan of Bischoff but it pains me to say he is right on the money in his assessment of the state of AEW and TK's leadership. It's sad to see something that had so much promise get crushed by the same guy that had the vision in the first place.
I used to be angry at Tony for ruining this opportunity to have another giant wrestling network who's competitive with the juggernaut but these days I just really enjoy the collapse of everything aew and Tony's descent into madness
I have a feeling Tony was always mad
Two people who are worth the air they breathe.
Awesome interview son ✊🏾🙂
Didn’t the host give Tony a passive aggressive comment about having too many titles? Did he mention how WWE has like 30 titles?
25:09 Eric says about aew “I feel dumber by the minute as I watch that show” 😂😂😂 💯
Eric is 1000% right about AEW
Never thought Eric would turn so bitter in his old age. Went from hating Vince in the 90's to not liking Tony in the present.
Tony Khan is the quintessential 'money mark'. As long as he keeps writing those massive checks, get it while you can boys.
I'm not falling for this Eric. I read your book Sir! 😆😆
I thought it was pretty great 🤘 keep him on NXT
what a shock, he turned up on NXT 😂😂
It's true that the indies are unstructured, which is why I informally coach top performing indy workers about the transition from indy wrestling to corporate wrestling.
AEW is just a bunch of indie darlings with a handful of good wrestlers but bad professionals commercially with bad story lines. AEW is doomed theres not recovering or coming back. They lost all their momentum. Wrestling is such a niche fan base. the only people who watch AEW are WWE haters which is an even smaller niche sub fan base. Tony Khan is just throwing stuff at the wall and seeint what sticks at this point. Playing wrestling figure federation with real money. Hes lost all creative direction
So true
lets be real, they have about 5 maybe 10 good wrestlers there.. the rest are trash, lets just be real... the bad booking doesnt help but they dont have much talent.. hopefully all the good ones wise up and make the jump before its too late
When AEW first came along, that was all everybody was buzzing about, the Indie element. Now it's getting boring, if I wanna watch flips I'd watch rather Lucha wrestling.
Do you know how in MMA, everybody wants to fight in the UFC? Yeah well it's the same in Pro Wrestling. AEW isn't second best right now I don't believe. I think it goes WWE, TNA, NJPW, Triple A, AEW, then maybe MLW.
@antoinettesanchez495 good wrestlers?!?! Fucking mark! They have at most 5
WWE-Drone
You should interview Maven
Had to watch this with the tab minimized. My god, the camera shaking from Bischoff was making me feel sick.
Yeah would it have killed the video editor to put a stabilization filter? ffs how lazy it's like 3 clicks
Fascinating
I’ve been a wrestling fan for over 30 years and I’m enjoying AEW. The Hurt Syndicate are killing it.
Bischoff needs to shut up.
I think what AEW should immediately do is to split their brands Collision and Dynamite just like RAW and Smackdown. And divide their Roster on each brand so in that way, more superstars would get screen time and have their own titles, so multiple superstars can be champion at the same time and more potential will come up for instance Jay white be Collision heavy champion so in Dynamite Jon Moxley etc. And discontinue Rampage and it's totally waste of time to watch it and make ROH as NXT for upcoming talents once they get ROH's TV deal and keep ROH titles in ROH. And I am not saying to just totally copy paste WWE in terms of storyline. Do it in a AEW style but split the brand is a must for AEW. As of right now I don't see no reason to Collision and Rampage.
Way too many ads interrupting a half hour interview. Makes it an uphill battle to enjoy.
They just signed their biggest TV deal ever so no matter what Bischoff and other antis might have to say, they aren’t going anywhere for the next three years. After that, who knows? I can certainly see them having to take smaller deals but it would take a lot to wipe them out completely.
There are problems in AEW. Tony Khan is probably their biggest one. But some people just love to blow it out of proportion and refuse to credit them for anything. I don’t see a single one of you in the comments talking about how their new contact is triple what it was.
Once Cody left that’s when I started watching WWE again on a weekly basis
Hardcore wrestling and deathmatch used to tell a good storyline. Now forget the storyline and forget what leads up to the ending of a feud that used to be for a full year. Calling me a sicko fan, I watched old matches with friends in Indie they told a good story. AEW has become a lack of better term old ECW to say alternative to mainstream wrestling that would be independent wrestling.
What happened to Ariel’s show? Why did he have to rebrand?
I’m back, and better than ever…
Easy - E 4 Life
It would be awesome to make him Bron Breakker's manager.
This is real simple, as long as Tony Khan is booking the matches at AEW it is going to keep getting worse. He does not know what he is doing, and now the ratings are down to 536,000, down from over 1 million a few years ago. So I predict by July of 2025 AEW Dynamite will be under 500k viewers a show.
WWE is down how many million from years ago
@@Dave_LangerYes wwe doesn't have big ratings like they had 10 years ago because once you lose the audience it's hard to gain them back but wwe has improved in the past few years and the ratings has gone up and a lot of fans are coming back to the product and you can clearly see it with big crowds now. But wwe will gain lot of audience when they go to Netflix
@@tharukaepaarachchi814 Raw does not have the same ratings as it did in 2019, its down 600k about the same AEW is down. Funny how no one ever points this out about WWE bc you WWE shills are all disingenuous. And no Raws ratings not gone back up. Nice try
@Dave_Langer Raw ratings are were just under 2 million on road to mania and just after that, now it has gone down by 500K( about 1.3M think)so we don't need to compare it to 2019 when the product was so bad. Dude why are you so mad and calling me disingenuous? I want both companies to succeed and I am just pointing out the obvious(like everybody else) that wwe has improved and they are gaining a lot fans and the opposite has happen to aew. Also wwe is going to Netflix next year so that's gonna be massive too
@@tharukaepaarachchi814 Raw average ratings for this year are 1.6. Please stop coping, its getting embarrassing for you. Its just funny you admitted that right now WWEs ratings are around 1.5 which is down over 600k since 2019 just like AEW ratings are down but you one talks about WWEs ratings drop. You are disingenuous and you keep proving it
Doesn't have enough undefeatable guys being defeated by a taser, or someone's mom on a forklift matches.
Aew needs to split their brands, release some of the wasted talent. And work with tna. Its simple. Put on good matches and tell us a story. Wwe is a story really really decent story. New day, punk vs seth, seth sami, jey vs the world . Drew mc, so many
TKO should get Ariel back into UFC for the work he has done in making TK look like an even bigger joke😂
Very good interview
Yeah WWE on Netflix, predicting a flop, if the Tyson fight was any kind of prediction, there will be major buffering and/or people just won't be able to get it from the large volume of viewers trying to tune in
AEW does have better wrestling, can’t argue with that.
He's right. Aew won't change or get better with tony klown in charge of booking and storylines
Do you know Ariel loved this. Having someone who hates them as much as he does.
When I was growing up in the mid 2000's watching pro wrestling which my love of with the product started by was watching TNA Impact and their first episode on Spike TV. I loved that era of pro wrestling to me that era for me will always stick with me like the attitude era will stick with 90's kids my favorites growing up were AJ Styles Jeff Hardy Kurt Angle Somoa Joe then I started watching Ring of Honor Wrestling and New Japan and I feel like the era we have now is so much better off than the attitude era was especially with how easily we can access the content and streaming.
Tony can't run a wrestling company,he has no experience, Vince learned from his dad!!
Please make sure "he's back" before mania main event announced
I wonder if Eric enjoyed his lumberjack slam.
Alexa Bliss swallows.
😂