WWE Hall Of Famer Calls AEW “A Well Funded Hobby”

Tony Khan launched AEW in 2019 and since then the company has found a home on television and is well on its way to a massive stadium show in London, England, but WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff still thinks of the company as something of a hobby for Khan.

Speaking on Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff – who used to run WCW which was owned by billionaire Ted Turner – noted that AEW has had one advantage that other wrestling companies don’t, the Khan family’s wealth:

“Tony Khan had one unique advantage that MLW doesn’t have, or anybody else — he had a hundred million dollars. He’s got an unlimited budget. He’s not accountable. It’s a really, really, really well-funded hobby. That’s not a negative. It’s not a ‘do or die’ situation for Tony Khan. This is his passion.”

Despite the success of All In at Wembley Stadium with over 60,000 tickets sold, Bischoff – who recently appeared on WWE television as part of the 2023 Draft – believes that Tony Khan’s company is not contributing to that but rather simply taking advantage of the success WWE has been having:

“AEW isn’t contributing. AEW is taking advantage of the success of a WWE, for example. It is because there is this company called WWE that is worth nine billion dollars that makes executives in the industry go, ‘Hm, we might be able to be worth nine billion dollars, but we could be worth a lot because the market is here.’

“WWE has established a worldwide market for this product, more than anybody else. If WWE would have been in the tank four years ago and would have been flatlining and not selling out arenas, and just stumbling through pay-per-views, do you think Turner would have jumped on AEW? I don’t.”

Tony Khan is in for a big summer with an impending Saturday night show on the horizon as well as the potential return of CM Punk – someone that Khan is still keeping tight-lipped about.

h/t Wrestling Inc