Eric Bischoff: AEW Will Lose Goodwill From Fans If They Keep Putting Themselves Over

Eric Bischoff believes All Elite Wrestling run the risk of losing the goodwill and public support they've had since their formation if the company continues to put themselves over.

Bischoff has been outspoken about his opinions of where AEW currently stand and if they're legitimate competition to WWE, after AEW President Tony Khan compared his promotion to WCW.

Bischoff feels that AEW came into the market at a time when fans were desperate for an alternative product but run the risk of losing that support if they continue to overhype themselves.

Speaking on 83 Weeks, Bischoff said: "Tony said: ‘We’re at WCW 1996 level. We’re at that stage.’ No you’re not. You’re not even close dude. You’re not even a distant number 2 to where we were at in 1996 because in 1996, in every measurable way that a human being can realistically measure something, not spin something, but measure something, WCW Nitro was defeating WWE in a real head to head competition, not a fragmented half hour when they were on Fox Sports 1 that hardly anybody watches and they were are on TNT.

“AEW came into existence at a point in time when the audience was craving an alternative. They had a clean slate. They didn’t bring any negative baggage to the dance like WCW did when we launched Nitro…Nobody thought it would ever happen.  On top of that, WCW had a very negative association with the audience. It was a mismanaged disaster of a company that was number 2 at the time, but they might as well have been number 152 to WWE.

"AEW didn’t have that issue. AEW came in with a massive amount of public support and goodwill. WCW didn’t have that. We had to fight up from out of the sewage to finally reach dry ground, and then try to find the mountain, and then climb the mountain. AEW didn’t have to do that. All they had to do was say, ‘We’re coming out and we’re doing this’ hire a couple of key pieces of talent, and they’re off and running. 

"They had all this goodwill. What happens when you start putting yourself over, in my opinion prematurely, in the way they’re doing it, by constantly denigrating and comparing to WWE, is you start losing that goodwill because people see through it."

H/T WrestleNews.co