Eric Bischoff Blasts AEW’s “Neurodivergent Booking”
Eric Bischoff held nothing back when discussing AEW’s current direction.
In the hours before the November 5 episode of Dynamite, Tony Khan announced the introduction of AEW’s newest championship.
The inaugural champion will be decided via a new tournament, with the winner crowned the AEW National Champion.
The new title is a nod to the NWA National Championship introduced in 1980, and was held by legends such as Jack Brisco and Dusty Rhodes. That title was eventually unified with the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship in 1986, but was revived in 1997 and remains part of the NWA promotion to this day.
Eric Bischoff Unimpressed By AEW
On the latest episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff was asked to give his thoughts on AEW’s new championship. In response, the veteran wasted little time in diving into more scathing criticism of the company that he believes continues to underperform, thanks to a lack of creative direction.
“It’s called neurodivergent booking or creative. That’s exactly what. It’s all over the map, and nothing means anything if there’s no value, if there’s no perceived value, if there’s no stakes; it’s just garnish on a plate. By throwing more garnish on the same plate and expecting people to feel differently about it, whatever, it’s not really very creative.
It’s actually worse than not very creative. It actually hurts, because it further dilutes the value, or the perceived value, of any other title and the story that goes with it.”
Bischoff said that if he were in charge of AEW, he’d be working “desperately hard” on a plan B, as what management is doing clearly isn’t working. He went on to say that the viewing figures for Dynamite in particular are pathetic.
“These numbers are ridiculously low. They’re pathetically low. Dynamite prime time. You’re looking at 400, 500,000 viewers, and I don’t care if it’s number seven on the network; it doesn’t f*cking matter. That’s a participation trophy. You’re either driving revenue or you’re not, and this company is not driving revenue.
I don’t care what anybody says. It’s not possible for them to drive enough revenue to be a return on investment for Turner Broadcasting; it is now possible. Not enough people watch that show. It’s it. I hope they have a plan B, I really do.”
The WWE Hall of Famer went on to question what might happen to AEW should they lose their current television deal. AEW announced its latest media rights deal in October 2024, with the multi-year agreement said to be worth upwards of $150 million per year.
“If this deal goes away, I don’t know where they go. Where are you going to go on cable television when you’ve got the track record? Here’s what they’ve accomplished. Over the last five years, they’ve lost an average of 20 percent or more of their audience year over year over year. Who wants to buy that?
And if you do, you’re buying it for nickels and dimes, not dollars, because that’s all it’s worth… There’s no big broadcast rights deal at the end of this rainbow, because they have spent five years proving that they’re screwing themselves into the dirt. They’re really good at it. They’ve been doing it 20% year over year over year.”
Next up for AEW is its annual Blood & Guts special on November 12. For the first time ever, the card will also include a women’s Blood & Guts Match.
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H/t to WrestlingNews.Co