"I beat Vince McMahon and WWE RAW 83 straight weeks" - Eric Bischoff calls Tony Khan delusional for his WCW comments (Exclusive)
Eric Bischoff recently shed light on how his tense relationship with AEW and Tony Khan first started.
While Bischoff has been very critical of the Jacksonville-based promotion over the last year, he has previously made cameo appearances on the program. However, a few of Tony Khan's comments during the early stages of AEW's rise apparently started ticking off the WCW veteran.
In an interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling's Riju Dasgupta, Eric Bischoff spoke about his disapproval of Tony Khan's claims that AEW and WCW in 1996 were comparable. Bischoff vehemently disagreed with the comparison.
"At one point I saw in an interview that Tony [Khan] did where he said, this is like two years ago now... he said AEW is right now where WCW was in 1996. By 1996 I had already... let me make a correction, I beat Vince McMahon and WWE RAW, 83 straight weeks. I beat him well over a hundred weeks. Because we started out competitive. In 1995, we were head-to-head, and one week we would win and another week WWE would win, it was back and forth," said Bischoff.
He further added:
"Tony's not even close. Tony's not even within a fraction of the level WCW was in 1996. But again, I took exception to it.. because I understood what he was trying to do. Sometimes it is easy when you are as passionate as Tony is, and you are trying to promote your company... and sometimes, like I have done in the past, you say things that are just a little bit of an exxageration. And I think in Tony's case it was just delusional, it wasn't even close to being real." [From 05:57 to 07:26]
Visit Eric Bischoff's podcast 83 Weeks, which has fresh episodes every Monday and Thursday, to hear his perspective on a variety of other pro-wrestling-related issues.
Eric Bischoff also criticized Ariel Helwani's comments against AEW president Tony Khan
While Bischoff is seemingly not too fond of Tony Khan, the former has defended Tony Khan against Ariel Helwani's apparent rumors.
A few weeks ago, sports journalist Ariel Helwani and the All Elite president got into an online spat, with the former referring to Tony as a 'snowman.' This seemingly alluded to wild rumors of Khan being a user of recreational drugs.
In the same interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling's Riju Dasgupta, Eric Bischoff slammed Ariel Helwani for spreading a baseless rumor. He also called out Helwani for being unprofessional and immature.
@TonyKhan @tonyschiavone24 Thanks for watching, old friend! Can’t wait for our next chat.
(Also, don’t listen to the snowman, Schiavone. You’re a legend in my books.)
As of now, it remains to be seen whether Tony Khan and Eric Bischoff will make amends in the future.
What do you make of Eric Bischoff's words? Sound off in the comments section below!
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