Eric Bischoff Says AEW Isn’t In The Same Universe As WWE

Eric Bischoff is a veteran in the pro wrestling business and is undoubtedly one of the greatest minds to have ever worked in it. He is well aware of the changing landscape of pro wrestling as well.

The Wednesday Night Wars between WWE and AEW began in October 2019 as AEW Dynamite and NXT went head-to-head every week in order to see who would come out the better show. AEW Dynamite would win in the ratings war for the majority of the time. The Wars finally came to an end in April after NXT moved to Tuesday nights.

While speaking on his 83 Weeks, the WWE Hall Of Famer stated that AEW isn’t proper competition for WWE right now. In fact, AEW isn’t even in the same universe as WWE.

“My opinion is [AEW] are not [competition]. They’re not even close. They are not even in the same universe in many many respects. You can’t really compare WWE to AEW. AEW has been around effectively for 2 years, WWE has been around for 30 or 40 years or whatever it’s been. My point is you can’t really compare them and what AEW is doing now, in my opinion, as is MLW, IMPACT, ROH, is they’re taking advantage of and drafting from the massive audience that WWE has created. There’s enough interest in wrestling in general, in large part because of the success of WWE over the decades, that companies like AEW or IMPACT or ROH or MLW [can come in]. I think more and more MLW is going to be a part of the conversation more than it has been in a while, but all these companies are taking advantage of an audience but they’re not taking anything away from WWE, they’re just not.

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“When AEW or any other company starts taking market share, like I did, like WCW did; now you’ve got my attention. Until then, everybody’s just showing up to the party and taking some free chips. It’s not costing WWE anything. Maybe you can suggest that one of the reasons Braun Strowman for example was able to negotiate such a big contract was because Vince was afraid he was going to go to AEW, sure, we’ve covered that. But I think now [WWE] is at the point where everybody’s going, it’s cool for [AEW], it’s good for the business, everybody loves variety, it doesn’t hurt anybody and they’re not taking anything away from [WWE]. I’m interested to see what happens when people actually start taking market share, that they’re currently not taking. That was my goal back then [in WCW].”

We will have to see how both companies will improve their product for fans and if AEW will one day have an all-out war with WWE. At this point in time, it is highly unlikely AEW will do anything to affect WWE.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes.