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Leaning on pro wrestling history, Tony Khan addressed Eric Bischoff’s recent criticism of him concerning his outspoken nature within direct WWE competition. In an interview on Busted Open Radio, Khan said that Bischoff was doing an act and that he was the most outspoken wrestling executive in history.
“For Eric Bischoff of all people, the guy who got lowered down on a motorcycle from the ceiling — the guy who challenged Vince McMahon to fight him, to say that somebody should be quiet is laughable,” Khan said. “And, Eric is doing an act and I respect it, but let’s be serious, Eric used to be a wrestling company and executive and now he’s a commentator and as a commentator, he’s trying to stir up controversy. I think it would be pretty naive of anybody to look at this an not examine that the person talking is Eric Bischoff, who’s the most outspoken wrestling executive of all time.”
On his 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff criticized Khan for openly discussing competing with WWE and that he should “shut up and wrestle” or “actually compete head-to-head. For 30 minutes last Friday, AEW Rampage and WWE Smackdown squared off in a ratings battle. In the timeframe, AEW secured ratings victories. C.M. Punk vs. Matt Sydal anchored Rampage, while Smackdown was held down by Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch and an appearance from Brock Lesnar.
LESNAR FEARS THE BUNNY
AEW Rampage is regularly scheduled at 10pm Friday nights. So WWE with their egos and their chest outs, decided to extend Smackdown an extra half hour since they were on FS1 because baseball was on Fox.
So tell me who is picking a fight (no pun intended)? First, they decided to move NXT to Wednesdays and they lose week after week and decide to move NXT back to Tuesdays. To make matters worse, they pull this stunt of extending Smackdown a half hour and still lose in key demos. Even a Lesnar segment couldn’t beat a women’s match with a bunny.
So if the idiots in Stamford think AEW isn’t competition, they sure have a weird way of not showing it.
So Tony Khan is on the defensive. Is he using the best choice of words? Maybe not. But it isn’t like his product spectacular either. AEW needs to focus on themselves and not worry about WWE. Let WWE come to them and get embarrassed like what happened last week.