"More money than Ted Turner would've ever allowed me" - Eric Bischoff weighs in AEW's Tony Khan spending habits with new wrestlers
Former WWE Raw general manager Eric Bischoff has taken a shot at AEW president Tony Khan and the amount of money he spends on wrestlers.
Bischoff is known as the man responsible for WCW beating WWE in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks during the Monday Night Wars. "Easy E" tended to splash the cash on anyone who would be interested.
Wrestlers such as Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Bret Hart were making copious amounts of money with guaranteed contracts and salaries. Those contracts would only get more bloated over time.
Eric Bischoff is far from perfect, but he deserves a genuine reevaluation, if just to recognize that "ATM Eric" is a bunch of nonsense and he should be commended for paying WCW talent well. twitter.com/IANdrewTheGian…
Over the 20 years since the closure of WCW, Bischoff believes that Tony Khan is walking down that same path. When he spoke to NBC Sports Boston about Khan, he expressed the latter, potentially taking the nickname "ATM Eric."
“Tony Khan now has the ATM Eric [nickname]. That ATM Eric thing has gone a long time ago. That man is spending more money than Ted Turner would’ve ever allowed me to spend.” (H/T Wrestling Inc.)
Bischoff has been very vocal about AEW not growing in recent weeks. This has prompted the likes of CM Punk to clap back at the former Raw general manager.
Tony Khan has credited Eric Bischoff for playing a part in AEW's success
Despite its past success, many have looked at WCW's demise as an example of what not to do when running a wrestling company. Tony Khan is among those who share that belief.
Eric Bischoff does not see #AEW as competition to #WWE.
#EricBischoff #TonyKhan https://t.co/3CP1CPTbc4
However, after a small back-and-forth exchange in interviews and on social media, Khan thanked Eric Bischoff for being one of the reasons why AEW exists. During the lead-up to the Fight for the Fallen event in 2020, Khan stated:
I wouldn't be here and there would not be an AEW without you and there would not be wrestling on TNT right now without you. You gave me the opening to talk to the President of TNT to talk about the previous success you'd had on his network, which he didn't realize because it's been twenty years and he was obviously not at TNT or TBS or WarnerMedia when this was happening. When WCW was such a huge entity." (H/T TheSportster).
Do you agree with what Eric Bischoff has to say? Do you think Khan spends too much money? Let us know in the comments section down below!