Eric Bischoff has heavily criticised a match that took place on AEW TV.
The no disqualification bout between Sammy Guevara and Jeff Hardy was a point of discussion between wrestling fans before the match even made it to air. This was because clips from fans in attendance showed Guevara executing a Shooting Star Press onto Hardy and causing Jeff Hardy to be knocked out. Reports would later surface that Hardy suffered a broken nose in the match and was being assessed for a possible concussion.
Guevara, who has previously come under fire in his match against Matt Hardy, was criticised by fans once again for putting the wellbeing of Jeff Hardy at risk. Evaluating what he saw, Bischoff believes that it is a company-wide issue.
Speaking on 83 weeks, Eric Bischoff expressed concern for Hardy’s health before discussing a larger issue within the company that everyone needs to do high-risk spots to generate a crowd reaction:
“Very concerned for Jeff. He took that knee right to the side of the face. I don’t know where it actually hit him, but it looked to me like it planted right on his cheekbone, his temple. That’s a lot of power coming down off, that’s a lot of weight coming down off that top turnbuckle and there’s nowhere for Jeff’s head to go. So, fearful clearly, I didn’t really ask myself why.
But I think your observation’s probably mostly correct. Part of it is too because of the nature of what AEW finds appealing is so much of the high risk, justified ‘this is awesome’ chants, which usually are a result of something really, really high-risk and stupid. That’s what they’re going for. I think the talent probably feels like they’ve got to go to an extreme to get over.
Particularly cos you’re wrestling in front of 2000 people on a television show. The audience isn’t into your shit at all from the opening match on. It’s like wrestling in front of a high school cafeteria crowd. That makes it harder for talent and they push even further and they do things that are even riskier to try to overcome that issue.”
Bischoff continued, noting that wrestlers need to be more experienced so that the chances of accidents happening would be reduced, adding that if it continues then someone could suffer an even worse injury:
“But I think mostly it’s the reps. Guys are just not as tight and sharp as they would be if they’re on the road three or four or five days a week. It is an issue. I think Dave Meltzer reported finish went according to plan and it’s not that big of an injury. I have heard substantially the opposite. It’s a mess. It’s a mess, and it’s a mistake.
Somebody’s gonna get hurt. Seriously hurt. People get hurt all the time. You start taking knees to the head from the top rope. What’s it gonna take? Somebody’s gonna need to die? Somebody’s gonna have to get brain injuries before somebody finally wakes up and goes ‘ok we need to get a little better control over what we do and how we do it.’ I don’t know. Hopefully not.”
The day after the dangerous spot occurred at the AEW Rampage taping, Matt Hardy gave fans a Jeff Hardy update on his podcast.
Eric Bischoff Discusses Recent Cody Rhodes Segment
Earlier in the month, many were left confused and angered by a segment on SmackDown where Cody Rhodes appeared to gift The Rock his WrestleMania match against The Rock. During a previous episode of his podcast, Eric Bischoff explained why the segment was “a fumble” for WWE.
In recent news, Eric Bischoff has praised AEW’s new set design.
H/t to SEScoops.