If Eric Bischoff were in charge of All Elite Wrestling, CM Punk wouldn’t have a job after his recent media scrum rants, outbursts and subsequent behind-the-scenes brawl after the AEW ALL OUT 2022 pay-per-view in Chicago, Ill. over the weekend.
The former WCW Executive Vice President spoke about this at length during a recent special edition of his “Bischoff Reacts” podcast.
“I did a horsesh*t job of handling this very type of thing,” Bischoff admitted when talking about how he dealt with similar issues when he was at the wheel during his legendary run as the top executive in the lone competitor in North America to defeat WWE and Vince McMahon for a stretch of 83 consecutive weeks.
“So I’m not one to give anybody advice,” he continued. “But I had a lot of the same issues of executives in my own company talking to the dirtsheets at that time, Dave Meltzer primarily, leaking things that never should’ve leaked. Talent taking it upon themselves to leak certain things that really should’ve leaked.”
He added, “So I get it, which is why I kinda empathize with CM Punk a little bit. I’ve been there and I’ve done it. I know the impact, but once it gets to this point, if it’s truly a brush fire, you’re about ready to call in the National Guard, because that brush fire is about to start taking over and it’s gonna get out of control. Get to it.”
The discussion continued on this topic, with Bischoff, who later worked as an Executive Vice President at WWE as well, and he spoke about how he would handle this exact situation if he were in Tony Khan’s spot.
“If this was totally just real life and nobody’s really working here,” he asked. “Fire CM Punk, like two minutes after he got done.”
Bischoff continued, “[He] embarrassed [AEW CEO] Tony [Khan.] If it’s not a work, it’s not worth it. He’s done absolutely freakin’ nothing. Who knows? Maybe they’d have done just as good without him. From what I can measure, which is weekly ratings or audience growth or lack thereof? Nada.”
Check out the complete episode of the ‘Bischoff Reacts’ special podcast by visiting Patreon.com.