Eric Bischoff has big opinions on CM Punk potentially returning to AEW.
The WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President discussed the Second City Saint during the latest edition of his Strictly Business podcast, where he expresses how irritated the whole situation makes him before taking additional shots at the company for being boring.
This just such drama for the sake of drama. It’s a good thing that this drama is actually taking place because there’s nothing worthwhile watching AEW. It is what it is, and if you’re a fan of AEW, god bless you, go with god, enjoy the product. But it’s flat, it’s boring. There’s nothing going on except for the drama outside of the ring. If Tony Khan had the ability to somehow manufacture a fraction, a small fraction, an infinitesimal amount of the drama that’s taking place outside his company and figure out a way to integrate it inside his television product, it would be another situation. But it’s not. When the drama outside of your company far exceeds the drama that you’re able to create inside your company, if you’re a scripted wrestling company, you’ve got a problem, and I think this is indicative of a much bigger problem.
Regarding Punk, Bischoff says that the former two-time champion has leverage of Tony Khan due to the incident that happened after ALL OUT and the potential lawsuit that could unfold.
Look, CM Punk’s got leverage. Two of the cosplay executive/members of the executive committee, whatever they were, executive vice presidents, got into a physical confrontation with him. CM Punk’s got leverage, and god bless him for using it. I don’t blame him. He’s a smart guy. I don’t particularly think he’s that talented. I think he’s overblown. I think he’s highly overrated. I think he’s been able to manage and create this persona that has somehow survived, and good for him for doing that. That’s an art form in and of itself. But in terms of what he can actually deliver in the ring, we’ve seen it, we’ve experienced it. It’s doesn’t live up to the hype of CM Punk. But hey, he’s got leverage. He’s probably got a multimillion dollar lawsuit waiting in the wings, and attorneys that are more than willing to go after that. He’s probably getting a check every month. I don’t know what Tony Khan is paying him. I’ve heard numbers ranging from $4 million to $7 million dollars a year. So while he’s waiting in the wings for Tony to figure out what Tony is going to do and the attorneys representing Tony, he’s got all the leverage, and he’s taking advantage of it. Wrestling fans are right there, and they’re waiting for him. They’re there for him. It is what is. I think if he comes back, it’ll make a lot of noise. Everybody in the AEW world will be foaming at the mouth and can’t wait, they’re all excited. A month later, things will be right back to where they are right now, which is an average viewing audience of 850-900 thousand people. Nobody will give any more of a damn six months from now than they do today.
Bischoff ends his rant by suggesting to Tony Khan that he pay off Punk and chalk the entire thing up to a learning experience.
I know I wouldn’t take the risk of getting into the mud with this guy again. He’s a proven commodity, and it’s not somebody that I’d want to be in business with. If I was Tony, I’d just eat the, whatever it is, however many millions of dollars a year he’s paying, just pay the cat off and chalk it up as a learning experience. You’re gonna keep learning, one way or the other. You’re either gonna pay this cat off and learn a hard lesson, and move on with your life, or you’re gonna let this festering wound continue to infect the rest of your business going forward, and you’re still paying him. I don’t get it.
Elsewhere on his show, Bischoff gave his thoughts on AEW running Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom. You can check out those thoughts here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)