Eric Bischoff Says Fans Connect To AEW Unlike WWE

AEW Dynamite made its debut in October 2019 and since then has worked hard to provide an alternate product to what fans see in WWE. For the most part, they have succeeded, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

For many, AEW was seen as a breath of fresh air and also that old school nostalgia as the company tried to balance both the modern and old school aspects of pro wrestling. While AEW still has a long way to go as far as being a solid product is concerned, it certainly shows promise so far.

While speaking on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, Eric Bischoff was asked to compare AEW to WWE. Bischoff stated while they can’t be compared, he said that fans can connect to AEW unlike WWE.

I’ll just say what I like about AEW. I’ve been saying for the last fifteen years that WWE is too overproduced. It’s too perfect, it’s so perfect it no longer feels real. I can’t connect to it. In my opinion, this is just my opinion based on 30-some-odd years of being in the industry, I think wrestling works as a TV product for a lot of reasons. But one of the core reasons and wrestling has been around since the beginning of TV time.

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It was one of the most successful TV programs at the beginning of TV history. And the reason for that, and it’s a lot of the reason why live sports works as well as it does, is it allows the viewer to feel like you’re in the arena. You’re not. You’re sitting in the comfort of your own home.

But live TV, live-action TV, especially wrestling, allow the home viewer to feel like they’re in the cheap seats. Not at ringside necessarily, but in those seats just above. You feel like you’re there. And when you start feeling like you’re there, it makes it easier for one to enjoy the story that’s playing out in front of them or the characters that are playing out in front of them.

AEW does a great job of creating that sense, allowing the viewer to feel like they’re there even when they’re not. When I watch WWE, I feel like I’m in a movie theater watching the producers of Disney on Ice. It’s too glitzy. Let me see something I shouldn’t see. Don’t shoot around every little imperfection. Don’t spend quite as much money on all those lights. This is making me feel like I’m in a movie theater and not in an arena. I’ve never been in an arena that looks like that unless you’re watching a wrestling event from WWE. I don’t like that.

There is no doubt AEW will keep on striving to better their product so that fans remain happy for as long as possible. With Tony Khan at the helm, the company is going through a lot of changes over the past few months. We will have to see just how the company will change in the coming years.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes.

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