Eric Bischoff Says AEW Isn’t ‘A Fraction’ Of What WCW Was

AEW opened their doors to provide WWE with some much-needed competition. It didn’t take very long at all for WCW comparisons to come out of the fan base, and Tony Khan was right along with them. It seems that Eric Bischoff heard that, and he does not agree.

WCW closed their doors when WWE bought them out. While AEW’s fate is yet to be written, it seems that Tony Khan is more than bullish on his pro wrestling company. He even once compared All Elite Wrestling to WCW when they were at their highest viewership performance on TNT.

While speaking to Riju Dasgupta, Eric Bischoff addressed Tony Khan’s comparison of AEW and WCW. He laughed at that idea, while pointing out the fact that WCW had already beat WWE in the ratings by 1996, a time period Tony Khan compared to his own company.

“At one point I saw in an interview that Tony [Khan] did where he said, this is like two years ago now… he said AEW is right now where WCW was in 1996. By 1996 I had already… let me make a correction, I beat Vince McMahon and WWE RAW, 83 straight weeks. I beat him well over a hundred weeks. Because we started out competitive. In 1995, we were head-to-head, and one week we would win and another week WWE would win, it was back and forth.”

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Eric Bischoff went on to further poke holes in Tony Khan’s narrative. He explained how TK wasn’t even close by making that comparison to AEW in 2021 and WCW in 1996.

“Tony’s not even close. Tony’s not even within a fraction of the level WCW was in 1996. But again, I took exception to it… Because I understood what he was trying to do. Sometimes it is easy when you are as passionate as Tony is, and you are trying to promote your company… and sometimes, like I have done in the past, you say things that are just a little bit of an exaggeration. And I think in Tony’s case it was just delusional, it wasn’t even close to being real.”

We’ll have to see if Eric Bischoff ever shows up in AEW again. Obviously, there is some tension between the two, as they have apparently splintered off and no longer see eye to eye. Only time will tell if TK and Easy E make up, but it doesn’t seem like that is close to happening at this point.

What’s your take on comparing WCW to AEW? Is there any way AEW can ever rack up WCW viewership numbers? Sound off in the comments!