WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff recently took to an episode of his "Strictly Business" podcast on AdFreeShows.com, where he spoke about Cody Rhodes becoming the first-ever talent in the history of AEW to leave the company and go to the WWE, when he returned to the promotion after being away for 6 long years at WrestleMania 38 Night One to defeat Seth "Freakin" Rollins and what it would mean for All Elite Wrestling moving forward as well as the wrestlers that could possibly follow suit and make their way to the WWE just like Cody Rhodes did.
Eric Bischoff said:
“We don’t know, do we?” “I certainly don’t know. I don’t know how many other talents currently in AEW, how many of them are actually looking to the end of their contract and saying ‘huh, I’m going to see if this works out well for me just like it did for Cody.’ I know nothing about AEW. I’m a fan of MJF, I heard his contracts up sometime in 2024, that’s a bit down the road. I don’t know if there’s anybody else coming up before that, but it’s an opportunity. That’s all it is. The one thing I think that’s interesting is I’d like to know what the morale is really like, not when Tony’s around, not when everybody else is around but when these guys are by themselves now that the newness has worn off of AEW. It’s three years old and has a track record now, they’ve hit some really great highs for a new company, some amazing things they’ve done early on.”
“No question, but here’s what happens, and here’s what I’ve seen happen around me. You know what happens when you start making more money than when you left your previous employer? You get really used to that s--t, you begin to take that for granted and it’s no longer new anymore, and you’re no longer feeling it the way you used to. After a certain amount of time you get used to it and talent gets used to money real quick, and then it’s about performance, emotion, and ego. You’ve got a lot of talent that’s come into AEW over the last couple of years, some of them making significantly more than they had ever made in the wrestling business on a guaranteed basis. That’s cool and you appreciate that but once the newness wears off and you get used to that, what do you want? You want a showcase, you want to perform. That’s why you became a professional wrestler in the first place, athletes don’t want to sit on the bench and collect, they want to play.”
Eric Bischoff also spoke about how All Elite Wrestling currently has a crowded roster, but not all of them will be showcased and how there is going to be a shift in morale as internally, numerous talents will be questioning what their future is going to look like in the next 12-18-24 months.
Eric Bischoff said:
“Now you’ve got a very crowded roster with some very talented people which is a credit to Tony Khan and AEW, but you can only showcase so many of them.” “Now that they’re used to the money, they’re going to be looking for another opportunity just like Cody Rhodes was looking for when he left WWE the first time. You’re going to see a shift in morale, we are not going to hear about it because nobody wants to burn a bridge and see the paycheck go away. The worlds in a different place now than it used to be, but internally, I have to imagine there’s any number of talents there that are questioning what there future is going to look like in the next 12-18-24 months.”
You can check out Eric Bischoff's full comments at this link. H/T to Wrestling Inc. for transcribing the above quotes.
