For years WCW and Eric Bischoff have been used as cautionary tales for wrestling companies everywhere. During the 1990s the promotion famously reached incredible heights before crashing and burning in equally spectacular fashion.
Since the company’s demise fans have argued over what caused things to go off the rails, citing talent having too much control, mismanagement from Bischoff and others, and the company’s financial structure being about as sturdy as quicksand.
However, when Tony Khan created AEW, he vowed to not make any of those mistakes, and lead the company into a position where it is a viable alternative to WWE. But with the creation of AEW Collision, some fans, and critics are wondering whether Khan hasn’t followed through on this promise.
It is often said that one of the biggest mistakes WCW ever made was launching Thunder, a secondary two-hour show in January 1998, to go along with Nitro which expanded to three hours during this period. The show proved incredibly costly, and fans fell out of love with it as it became clear it played second-fiddle to Nitro. Bischoff has since spoken at length about how much he didn’t want to run Thunder on top of Nitro.
Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff drew the comparison between WCW and AEW, suggesting that the creation of Collision could prove to be a mistake.
“Tony Khan once said early on after the start of AEW, ‘I’m not gonna make the same mistakes WCW made,'” Bischoff recalled. “I’m not gonna go into the litany of mistakes that have been made and continue to be made by Tony that are significant, and many of them are similar to the mistakes that I made. He’s making the same ones.
This is another one where, if I was Tony and I was looking at the long-term viability of my brand, I would do everything that I could to talk Turner out of creating a Saturday night show if indeed they’re pushing it on him. If Tony’s stepping up and wanting to do another show for any reason, then I question his judgment ’cause it clearly does not have the resources.
What we’ve seen in the last couple of days with this, I can only refer to it as a clown car competition regarding CM Punk, and the litany of the mistakes, profound ones too, that have been made that has created this situation tells me that internally, just as a business operation, they still don’t know what they’re doing.”
Eric Bischoff Says AEW Collision Is Good For The Industry
Speaking on an earlier episode of the podcast, Bischoff said that the launch of Collision was a vote of confidence from Warner Bros Discovery, and a boost for the industry. However, he urged caution going forward, suggesting that AEW might be diluting its resources while questioning its Saturday night broadcast slot.
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