Eric Bischoff Thinks AEW Doesn't Do Basic Storytelling
Former WCW head praises WWE's understanding of stories, HAS to be trolling, right?
In what has to be described as either a desperate desire to make waves or a total disconnect from reality, Eric Bischoff used his podcast to take a shot at AEW for a lack of "a basic understanding of how to tell a story."
Yes, the guy who cribbed the nWo from a storyline in Japan and gave us HLA when he was Raw GM is saying the company that just finished an epic angle between CM Punk and MJF and paid off a two-year Kenny Omega/Hangman Adam Page story doesn't know what it's doing with its narrative.
Speaking on his most recent episode of 83 Weeks, Bischoff said AEW's static ratings and why they haven't caught WWE's main shows are attributable to a lack of storytelling:
“I’ve been saying from day one whether it’s about WWE or AEW, it’s a commitment to story and AEW is proving my point. The fact that they have plateaued is proving my point. You can add whoever you want to your roster and it won’t matter beyond a week or two unless the audience is engaged in a compelling story that makes them look forward to next week...“If you can have that phenomenal athletic match, great, and it’s the pay off to the story, that’s excellent, that’s perfect. But if you’re not building stories that people focus on, talk about, relate to, and make [the fans] want to come back every week and see where it’s going next, if you’re not doing that, I don’t give a damn... You could take WWE’s existing roster, bring it over to AEW and nothing is going to happen. It’s story, and first of all, you have to have a basic understanding of how to tell a story and I don’t see it. I see it in WWE and I don’t see it in AEW.”
So, Uncle Eric sees storytelling in WWE, but not in AEW. One is mapping out months-long angles that progress and evolve week to week, while the other is subject to the ever-changing whims of an out-of-touch senior citizen. This is not to say that everything AEW does is gold, or that WWE is completely incapable of ever telling a coherent story, but there's no comparison between the two companies right now.
(h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription)