Eric Bischoff recently spoke with Shakiel Mahjouri of CBS Sports for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the former WWE and WCW executive revealed what he feels WWE needs to address about their current product. He also spoke about having a friendly relationship with AEW President Tony Khan.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On his belief that WWE needs to have better structure with their storylines: “It would be story structure. It would be taking a more pragmatic approach to story structure. Actually, discipline would be a better word than pragmatic. It would be first recognizing that a good story has to have structure. It would be no different than shooting a movie that doesn’t have a script blocked out and not really knowing what the end of the movie is. You couldn’t be in the movie business that way. You couldn’t produce television shows that way. You can’t even write a book that way. I think with WWE because of the sheer volume of products that they produce globally every week, it only creates a more significant need for a more disciplined and well-thought-out story structure. That’s part of the flaw with WWE creative, at least in my opinion, is that there’s such a sameness to everything. OK, one show is red and one show is blue, and there are different names on the roster, but the look and feel, the story-telling technique, or lack thereof, everything feels so familiar and has felt so familiar for so long. I think it would need to be de-sanitized. The WWE is such a perfectly executed live production that it doesn’t even feel live anymore. It feels like you’re watching a feature film. I think with wrestling because of what it is, an arena-based event, you want the viewers at home to feel like their part of that event. Sometimes overproducing that show can take that away from the home viewer.”
On having a friendly relationship with AEW President Tony Khan: “We were friendly and cordial. Mutual respect there. All that good stuff. It wasn’t until recently, I was asked a question and I responded and it caused, I’m guessing, hard feelings from Tony. I tried to call Tony and he didn’t call me back. Someone told me, who Tony was complaining to, about how upset he was about the things that I said. He said, ‘Hey, why don’t you give Tony a call?’ I said, ‘Sure! I’m not mad at Tony.’ I don’t carry grudges. It doesn’t change the way I feel about Tony, I just had to express my opinion and react to something Tony actually said that involved me and I took as being disrespectful of my accomplishments and even more disrespectful, and quite frankly, ignorant, with relation to the comment he made about Ted Turner. That’s what I reacted to. But I wasn’t angry with Tony. When my friend said to give him a call, I thought, ‘alright, I’ll give him a call.’ I left a message and I haven’t heard back so, evidently, he’s a little pissed off. But that’s OK.”
Check out the complete interview below, or at CBSSports.com. H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
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