During a recent episode of “After 83 Weeks”, Eric Bischoff spoke highly of Raw Underground but cautioned the WWE against going overboard with it. Here’s what he had to say:
No, I saw clips of it … I don’t know if it was on this show, or another interview I did, or something else. But somehow the subject came up months ago when the COVID thing first started happening. Somebody asked me my opinion of AEW and Raw. And I made the comment that if it were me at Raw, if it was my shot to call. I would have made Raw look more like Fight Club, and less like a glitzy arena with no people in it. And I’ve said consistently to back that up that WWE is too freaking glossy. It’s too perfect. It’s too pretty. It’s like getting dressed up in a tuxedo to go to Burger King. It just…doesn’t fit, it doesn’t feel right. And I used the reference, I would have made it more like Fight Club and less — in fact, my exact quote was I think, I’m pretty sure, ‘I would make it look more like Fight Club and less like Disney on Ice.’ It needs to feel gritty.
And I’m not suggesting the WWE listens to this show and takes notes on my commentary and steals all my ideas. That’s silliness, and I don’t want anybody to think I’m trying to infer, imply, or otherwise mislead people into thinking that’s possibly true. I don’t. But I did say it first. [laughs] I’m just kidding.
I kinda dig it. I think it has potential. I think the risk in WWE is that they’ll make it look too glossy eventually, and too cheesy, and they’ll add too many production values to it. It’ll lose — it kind of had that gritty feel. They gotta work it out a little bit. I know there was some production issues, I think that’s great. Now I know I’m watching live TV. Because if it was taped, they would have fixed it and reshot it. I’m cool with a production glitch. I don’t care if a light falls off the rig. I don’t care if somebody trips over a stair or runs out and slides under the ring by accident. I don’t mind that kind of stuff happening, because it makes you realize, ‘Wow, anything can happen.’ Even silly s**t can happen, and it’s sometimes fun. So I like what they’re doing. I think the concept is a good concept. I hope, if you’re listening Bruce, don’t overproduce it!
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Credit: After 83 Weeks. H/T 411Mania.