Subhojeet Mukherjee on February 23, 2024
As previously reported, Senior Writer and Producer for WWE Jennifer Pepperman parted ways with the company. It was noted that she was not released and that it was her decision in the end. She is now part of AEW for the long run and Eric Bischoff has finally shared his thoughts on her inclusion into AEW’s Creative department.
Jennifer Pepperman, who shares a close friendship with former WWE star Mercedes Mone, has joined AEW as the Vice President of Content. She is anticipated to serve as Mercedes’s personal writer, akin to how Brian Gewirtz has been involved with The Rock.
Eric Bischoff, who has often criticized the company, expressed positive views on Jennifer Pepperman’s hiring at AEW. While speaking on the latest episode of Strictly Business, Bischoff talked about his time working with Pepperman in WWE.
Bischoff praised Pepperman’s storytelling skills, resilience, and ability to handle pressure, citing instances of her standing up to Vince McMahon. He commended her work ethic and described her as both sweet and tough.
”Well I worked, I shouldn’t say I worked — I didn’t work closely with Jennifer when I was in WWE back in 2019. She was not a part of my team, although that didn’t really mean much because nobody really knew who was on which writing staff, there was so much discussion and transition. But I got to know Jennifer and really, really liked her. I respect her work, she’s got a tremendous background. She understands storytelling, she’s tough.”
”She’s a very sweet person, easy to get along with, she’s got a great personality and she’s very outgoing. But, she’s also tough. She’s not gonna be intimidated. I’ve watched her interact with Vince, and Vince can be very, very intimidating. I watched her stand up to Vince, I watched her react to pressure that a lot of creative people that I’ve worked with in the past would’ve probably taken pretty hard. She digs in and does the work.”
Bischoff expressed immense excitement about Jennifer Pepperman’s hiring at AEW, considering it the most exciting development he’s seen from the company in years. He sees this move as a recognition by Tony Khan that there’s a problem with the creative direction of AEW, emphasizing the need for disciplined storytelling over fantasy matches and internet appeal.
”This is the most exciting thing I’ve heard out of AEW in the last three years, maybe longer. It indicates a couple things to me. One is, Tony recognizes he has a problem. You can’t fix a problem or come up with a solution if you don’t recognize what’s wrong with it first and the fact that Tony is bringing in [people] at a high level, suggests to me — and part of this is wishful thinking on my part but I do hope I’m right — that Tony is recognizing that his creative, his fantasy wrestling matches and dream match nonsense and creating wrestling that appeals to the internet, it’s not working.”
”I’ve been banging on that drum for over two years now, I’ve gotten a lot of hate from it. The fact that Tony recognizes that he has a problem, recognizes that he needs to bring somebody in, as I’ve been saying for years now, you need somebody that understands a disciplined storytelling structure. Not only a beginning, middle, and end, but understanding the plot points along that arc that need to happen, it’s almost like a checklist.”
Bischoff believes that the declining viewership indicates an issue in building and retaining an audience, and he hopes that bringing in someone like Pepperman, with her tools, experience, and personality, is a step towards resolving this problem.
”They need to happen over the course of an arc in order to have any chance of building or retaining an audience, and that’s what Tony has had a hard time doing, building and retaining an audience. He’s gone from a premiere of 1.4M viewers down to averaging around 800 thousand, that’s a problem, especially when the overall audience for wrestling is growing because of WWE and their success. So I think the fact that Tony recognizes, hopefully, and brought somebody in who absolutely has the tools and the experience, and I believe the personality — Jen brings all of that to the table.”
Jennifer Pepperman’s involvement as part of the AEW Creative department has also been revealed. We will have to wait and see whether Jennifer Pepperman’s inclusion will help AEW out in the long run.
What do you think of what Eric Bishoff had to say concerning Jennifer Pepperman? Do you believe she can help AEW’s women’s division properly? Let us know in the comments section below!
February 23, 2024 11:54 am
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