AEW Just Had A GREAT Weekend.. So Here Come The Grifters! (AEW News)
Eric Bischoff compares the AEW All In main event... to a Nasty Boys' match.
With AEW All In 2026 now in the books and having been well received by many a wrestling fan, one person who was not a fan of the show is Eric Bischoff.
Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast (via f4wonline), the former WCW President praised the production of All In, but took umbrage with a lot of the actual matches on the card, particularly the Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay main event, which Bischoff compared to a Nasty Boys match.
As Eazy E put it when discussing the Omega and Ospreay match for the AEW World Championship:
"I didn’t like the match at all. And I know people are going to go, ‘Bischoff’s such a hater.’ Look, for those who like the AEW style of wrestling, it was fine. You got what you wanted. You got what you paid for, and it met or exceeded your expectations, and I’m happy for you. For me, personally, subjectively, based on what I enjoy out of professional wrestling, it was like watching a Nasty Boys match. It was a hardcore, slow-paced match. And yes, it was bloody, and there were great spots, but that’s my overriding critique throughout most of the matches.”
For those younger fans not too familiar with the Nasty Boys' work, the team of Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags had success in notable promotions like WWE, WCW, and the AWA from the 1980s into the '90s. In terms of their in-ring style, the Nasties were often a slow, plodding, brawling team who tended to shine when in a more hardcore setting, such as their wars with Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne in WCW back in 1994.
On the wider All In card, Eric Bischoff added:
"There was a lot of garbage in there. There was a lot of stuff that you could see through. Timing was off in a number of matches, and a number then just looked sloppy."
During this latest 83 Weeks episode, Bischoff also discussed the AEW arrival of the New Level, fka the New Day, saying that the debut of Austin Creed and Kofi - where they teamed with Swerve Strickland to win the AEW Trios Titles - was "great", but questioned how long that momentum would last.
"They show up, it's a big damn deal, everybody's excited, and three months later they're in the witness protection program. So, it just depends if they get truly integrated into the show and into storylines, and they're meaningful storylines. If we get a chance to see what New Level is all about, and they establish it themselves, then I can see it absolutely working, because they bring so much energy to the dance and they're great inside of the ring. It could be really good, but the pattern that's been established for the last six or seven years has been, 'Let's just wait and see what happens.'"