Eric Bischoff knows Tony Khan put a lot of focus on CM Punk over his two-year tenure with AEW, but was it worth it?
CM Punk was notoriously fired last Saturday ahead of AEW Collision following several reported backstage incidents and on the latest episode of “Strictly Business” the former WCW President gave his perspective on CM Punk’s impact on the AEW roster upon his arrival in August 2021. Did he take the attention away from talent that was already there?
“You’re going to put a lot of focus and energy [on CM Punk] because there was, you know, there was a big financial commitment. I’m sure there’s there’s all kinds of commitments to bring in somebody like Punk and perhaps yeah, it did take a lot of focus off some of the underneath talent that was actually beginning to grow in getting some television time and that’s, you know, I am not denying that that could have happened, but I don’t think I also wouldn’t put it all on Punk either.”
Eric Bischoff On Tony Khan’s “Big Surprises”
Bischoff doesn’t put all the onus on Punk for drawing attention away from the early-established AEW roster, he does shift some of that onto Khan having a penchant for making “big announcements” on a too-consistent basis.
“During that period of time, Tony was consistently ‘The big surprise…” he was he was like Dixie Carter 2.0. Every other week, there was some ‘big surprise announcement’ that was going to change the wrestling world as we know it,’ and every one of them were popcorn farts.”
Please credit 83 Weeks and h/t Inside The Ropes for the transcription.
On the same episode, Bischoff was asked if he thinks CM Punk will make a return to WWE.