During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, Eric Bischoff commented on the state of AEW. The WWE Hall of Famer stated that there’s no hope for AEW. Bischoff went on to say that “nothing is going to gonna turn the company around and that there’s no light bulb that is going to go off in anybody’s head…they have no idea what they’re doing, and they’re too stubborn to learn.”
AEW CEO, President and General Manager Tony Khan, when appearing on the most recent podcast of The K&C Masterpiece, he was asked about the “antagonistic” relationship with Bischoff and his statement about AEW.
Khan said the following:
“I have no idea. I don’t really care what he says. We have done really really well and we have a great thing going with AEW and something to be really proud of. We’re not only, for years to come, be doing shows on TBS and TNT, but we’re going to set the record for the longest run of pro wrestling ever on TNT. It’s pretty amazing because for a company only five years old, we’ve accomplished so much. We set the world record for wrestling ticket sales and we’re just going into this new media rights deal that is historic and it hasn’t even kicked in yet. Starting January 1, every week, you can watch Dynamite, still on TBS, but we’re going to be livestreaming on Max, which is a top streaming platform and, I think, the best streaming platform. We’re going to have AEW every Wednesday night and every Saturday night on Max, in addition to TNT. It’s really important for us because cable is massive and massive for sports and wrestling. TNT and TBS are staples of cable, as Eric himself knows very well, but it’s really important for the future to also have a foothold in streaming, and that’s what we’re going to have now with AEW on Max. I think AEW is doing fantastic.”
With AEW’s new multi-year media rights deal with Warner Bros Discovery, Dynamite and Collision will air live simultaneously with the broadcasts on TBS and TNT, beginning next month on Max. Also around mid-2025, AEW’s pay-per-views will be also be available at a discounted price exclusively for Max subscribers.
You can listen to The K&C Masterpiece podcast with Tony Khan and the interview with Eric Bischoff by Ariel Helwani, below:
Bischoff made recent appearances on this past Tuesday’s NXT and Thursday night’s Major League Wrestling’s ONE-SHOT, where he controlled the booking of the show. The special aired free on MLW’s YouTube Channel.
Tuesday’s NXT, which was the go-home show for this Saturday’s Deadline premium live event scored a 0.13 rating in the key demo, down from last week’s rating of 0.15 and had 593,000 overall viewers on the CW, down from the 632,000 from the previous week.
Despite marking the lowest viewership for the show since October 29 and the lowest in the key demo since July 4, 2023, the figures indicate that NXT garnered a larger audience than AEW Dynamite this week, something Bischoff took note of on social media the following day.
Tony Khan quote source: Fightful