Why Eric Bischoff Lost Respect For AEW’s Tony Khan
Eric Bischoff has been tough on AEW’s Tony Khan because of past remarks that Khan made about somebody Bischoff admires.
In the early days of AEW, WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff made multiple appearances for Tony Khan’s promotion in different roles. Bischoff was used because he’s a great talker who has a lot of credibility in pro wrestling as a former WCW President who was very successful going up against WWE.
It doesn’t appear likely that Bischoff will be on AEW TV again any time soon because when he speaks about AEW on his podcast, he is usually criticizing them.
There was a post on X/Twitter by Tony Khan in October 2021 where he claimed that former WCW Owner Ted Turner didn’t know much about pro wrestling compared to Khan, who was a teenager during the peak of WCW.
I’ve never met Ted Turner. It’s very possible Ted Turner is smarter than me, but he didn’t know 1% of what I know about professional wrestling or WCW would still be on TNT/TBS. @AEW is here to stay, watch #AEWRampage LIVE tonight on TNT or WatchTNT app on your phone or any device.
Tony Khan Insulting Ted Turner Disappointed Eric Bischoff
While Eric Bischoff was the man in charge of WCW during the company’s rise in the late 1990s, it was Ted Turner who owned the company and paid the bills. Turner also created the TNT & TBS networks (among others) that AEW programming currently airs on.
On a recent episode of Bischoff’s 83 Weeks podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer admitted he would be less critical of AEW if Khan never made his disrespectful comments about Turner.
“Honest answer, yeah. I mean, I could bulls**t you here and I could probably say some smart sounded s**t that would make you think maybe it’s true.
But that really disappointed me, and it had nothing to do with me, it was just so disrespectful of someone who I have so much respect for and everybody that’s in the industry today, should be thankful and grateful for what Ted Turner contributed to the business.
For him (Tony) to come out and say that about Ted on the network that Ted Turner built from scratch, at a time when everybody thought Ted Turner was nuts…it made me lose any respect.”
Eric Bischoff is no longer a regular performer on WWE television he did appear during the 2024 WWE Draft and also recently appeared on the WWE LFG show that airs on A&E as well.