Tony Khan has responded to former WCW President Eric Bischoff, who made headlines when he criticized Khan and told him to “shut up and wrestle”in his competition with WWE.
During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Khan reflected on AEW Rampage beating SmackDown in the key demographic when the two shows went head-to-head for 30 minutes last Friday. He also responded to Bischoff’s comments by arguing that the former WCW President was essentially the pot calling the kettle black. Khan then emphasized that AEW didn’t ask for this round of its head-to-head competition with WWE, but his company responded as best it could.
“I really like Eric, and I was kind of surprised by Eric’s comments because they were coming from Eric Bischoff, and I think Eric Bischoff’s probably the last person anybody would expect to say that they think the president of a wrestling company should be quiet,” said Khan. “But then when it comes to head-to-head competition, we were in a head-to-head competition this past week. It was only 30 minutes and I didn’t ask for it. You know, we were in our time slot and somebody came into our time slot aggressively. And we generally responded pretty well and we’ve been very successful.”
Returing his focus to Bischoff, Khan called his remarks “laughable” due to Bischoff’s actions during his own war with WWE. He recalled Bischoff literally challenging Vince McMahon to fight him, among other infamous antics. The AEW President emphasized that the time slots aren’t up to him; Rampage was in its slot as usual on Friday, and WWE decided to enter that slot and go commerical-free. At the end of the day, Khan stated that the results speak for themselves.
“I was amused by Eric’s comments, again I like Eric when we’re together,” said Khan. “But this is the ultimate example of glass houses in some ways, knowing how Eric conducted himself when he was the president of WCW. And really, he did ask for the head-to-head competition, and he said publicly I should be going to that. But I don’t decide when the shows are on. This time slot, we had looked at a couple of different slots, and this was one that they thought would do well, and I was pretty supportive of.
“I was surprised that the competition was going to be commercial-free, but I thought it was even more impressive given that I was forced to take a couple breaks. And since the numbers came in Monday, I haven’t said much because I think those numbers speak for themselves. I’m just really proud that we won that head-to-head. We didn’t make the choice to go head to head for 30 minutes with the competition, especially when they decided to do 30 minutes commercial free. And they lost.”
As for Bischoff, Khan explained that the WWE Hall of Famer was trying to stir the pot with his comments, but it’s important to remember Bischoff’s failuress at th e helm of WCW when considering his marks.
So for Eric Bischoff of all people, the guy who got lowered down on a motor cycle from the ceiling, the guy who challenged Vince McMahon to fight him, to say that somebody should be quiet, it’s laughable,” said Khan. “And Eric is doing an act. And I respect it, but let’s be serious. Eric used to be a wrestling company executive and now he is a commentator and as a commentator, he’s trying to stir up controversy. But I think it would be pretty naive of anybody to look at this and not examine that the person is Eric Bischoff.
“[He’s] the outspoken wrestling executive of all time and somebody who got a lot of heat, but somebody who also, if we’re gonna be honest, like the things I’m trying to do, in terms of balancing these great stars we have, like CM Punk and Chris Jericho and Bryan Danielson and you also have a whole group of people that are the young stars. A lot of them are becoming young established stars on TV, too. And whether it’s MJF, Britt Baker and so many others, Darby Allin in particular, these are stars I’m committed to keeping in AEW and not losing, and building around. And when Eric says focus on the wrestling, I am focused on the wrestling.”
Finally, as another contrast between AEW and WCW, Khan focused on his approach to pushing and building young stars, whereas Bischoff was notorious for watching promising talent leave the company and sign elsewhere.
“Like Chris Jericho, who couldn’t get out of WCW fast enough, and Eddie Guerrero put in his place, and the wrestlers were told by their boss that there’s only three guys for the company, when Eric said that [Hulk] Hogan, [Randy] Savage and [Roddy] Piper were the only three guys that have ever drawn money, [that’s] of course a slap in the face to a few other people in the room,” said Khan. ” But also, what did that say for the morale of the young wrestlers who were busting their asses every week? It just doesn’t make sense. So I am happy and grateful to not go off like that every week and really only when there’s a call for it, when there’s competition brought to our doorstep and we have to respond. And I think there’s nothing to talk about now because I think we did what we had to do last weekend and now we can enjoy it and also look forward to great cards this weekend.”
"I AM focused on the wrestling."@TonyKhan discusses @AEW winning key demos in head-to-head competition last week ?@davidlagreca1 #AEW #AEWDynamite #AEWRampage pic.twitter.com/WN90ubypbf
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) October 20, 2021
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