On a recent edition of After 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff spoke about the debut episode of AEW Dynamite.
During this, Bischoff revealed that Vince McMahon asked him what he thought about AEW’s debut show. This was when Bischoff was still working for WWE.
Here is what Bischoff said (h/t to 411 Mania for the quote below):
“I was pretty honest with him. I thought the action was good, but I thought what made that show really stand out to me was how engaged the audience is. I mean, the audience to me made their show so much better than the NXT show, not that there is anything wrong with the NXT show, the action in the ring was great, the characters were great, there’s a lot of great things about it, but when you put a live event inside a small confined studio, kind of like TNA, I don’t care how great the action is, it just doesn’t have that big event feel to it, you don’t get the energy you get from the audience. That energy in the arena that we see on the screen translates to the viewer, and when you don’t have that energy, like I say, no matter how great the stuff is in the ring, it just feels less than.”
On if he suggested any of that to the people in NXT:
“No, I’m pretty sure they know that. They aren’t going to learn anything from me at this point, believe me, but you know the business model, they’re not set up right now. Now maybe they’ll tour in the future, that was a problem with TNA. When I got to TNA, there were a lot of things that we tried to get them to do, and once they actually took the show on the road, now it’s an expensive proposition, there’s no mistaking it, it’s a very big commitment to go out and take your show on the road and televise it. It’s much more cost effective to produce two or three or four shows inside of a sound stage then it is to produce one show or maybe two shows while you’re touring it around the country. But when you go back and look at TNA, look at all the great talent they brought in and out of there, between Sting, and Rob Van Dam, and Booker T, and Hulk Hogan, and Ric Flair, and Jeff Hardy, and Matt Hardy, and you name it, TNA brought them through there, and it never really moved the needle. And I think the reason for that had nothing to do with the talent, necessarily, is it just didn’t feel big. And I use this kind of analogy before, imagine tonight the World Series is going on right, can you imagine taking the same game, the Astros and the Senators, and putting them in a little league ball field and there would be 50 or 60 people in the bleachers, no one would care. And I think it’s kind of the same thing. Unless it feels big, the audience at home doesn’t feel a need to care about it. That’s just my point of view. It was the same problem TNA had, and it’s the same problem NXT is going to have in the long term. If AEW continues to tour, which is a big financial commitment, it’s a long term proposition, you’re not going to get a return on that investment anytime in the first two or three or four years, but if they are looking beyond two or three or four years, and are looking at a five year plan or a 10 year plan, and continue to tour that model, they’re going to be tough to beat.”
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In other news, check out our Wrestlemania 38 predictions.
On a related note, check out my predictions for Survivor Series.