The war of words between Eric Bischoff and AEW shows no signs of slowing down as Bischoff once again takes issue with comments made by AEW CEO Tony Khan.
The former WCW President was less than impressed by Khan’s recent comments regarding former TNT chief Ted Turner and his knowledge of wrestling. Tony Khan asserted in bombastic style that if Turner “knew 1% of what [Khan] knows about wrestling then WCW would still be in business.”
This lit a fuse under former WCW boss Eric Bischoff and Bischoff used his 83 Weeks podcast [available early and ad-free at AdFreeShows.com] to fire back at Khan:
“When Tony came out and said ‘If Ted Turner knew one percent of what I do about professional wrestling, WCW would still be in business.’ That lit my f*cking fuse for a couple of reasons. Let me point out a couple of things, I’m 99.9999% sure that Tony Khan doesn’t have a f*cking idea what he’s talking about in terms of if Ted Turner was a wrestling fan. I know I don’t.”
“I can find out. I can call his son Teddy and probably will soon because I’m curious as to how far back Ted Turner’s relationship with professional wrestling and when did that start. Was he a wrestling fan when he grew up? I don’t know, and neither does Tony. So right off the bat, Tony made a statement that was misleading and ignorant in the literal sense of the word.”
“It was an ignorant statement for Tony to compare himself to Ted Turner. If there’s anything that’s laughable, that’s it. The last time I checked, the T in TNT and the T in TBS stands for Turner, which is a media empire that Ted started from scratch.”
“For Tony to be in a position he is and AEW is on a Ted Turner network, to come out and suggest that Ted knew nothing about professional wrestling, which he doesn’t know if that’s true or not. Then, what made it worse, and this is the height of the literal definition of ignorance and this one was self-inflicted, for Tony to suggest that if Ted knew as much about professional wrestling as Tony Khan does, then WCW would still be around.”
Eric Bischoff went on to explain that he understands saying outlandish things in the heat of the battle but he doesn’t believe AEW are anywhere near to the battle that perhaps they think they are in:
“I’ve said stupid things, I’m capable of that. I get it when you’re emotionally involved and in the fight, sometimes dumb sh*t comes out of your mouth. Guilty as charged, but that one lit me up and I reacted viscerally. I still feel as strongly today as I did last week. Tony Khan, I know Ted Turner and you are no Ted Turner.”
“That’s what made me go, ‘you know what? I’m going to put this sh*t in context. AEW is not in head-to-head competition, they’re just not. They’re in the same industry. To somehow spin that and try to suggest that you are a more popular product, you are a more successful product, you are winning some kind of ratings war that only exists in the mind of dirt sheet writers and people that want to try and spin reality. That’s not right.”