Eric Bischoff Praises AEW For "Having The Balls" To Put Bryan Danielson Vs. Kenny Omega On Free TV

Eric Bischoff has praised All Elite Wrestling for booking Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega on free TV.

Danielson and Omega will go one on one at Dynamite: Grand Slam on Wednesday, September 22 inside Arthur Ashe Stadium in what will be AEW's most-attended show to date.

Bischoff notably booked Goldberg vs. Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on Monday Nitro in 1998 and the former WCW president gave his thoughts on AEW doing something similar in 2021. 

"Let's move on to the 'They should have saved it for PPV.' That was the narrative. Where did that start? It certainly didn't start within Turner Broadcasting. It certainly didn't start within WCW. It started in the wrestling internet community, driven primarily by people like Dave Meltzer, who just had to pick apart and do anything he could to criticise me or WCW. That's where all of that started, and it built over the years. Everybody went, 'Yeah, they should have done that (in reference to putting on the Hulk Hogan vs. Goldberg match on free TV in 1998 as opposed to PPV). People don't really understand the business even though they think they do sometimes. It's been a thing," Bischoff said on 83 Weeks.

"It's one of those things I get hit with pretty regularly on social media. 'Yeah, but you gave away Goldberg and Hogan on TV. You're the reason why WCW died. That was a perfect example of why it died', all because of the internet wrestling community. First of all, before I fast forward, it worked. Yes, we were a television company. Turner Broadcasting's primary goal was television. Yes, they wanted to make money in the process. Obviously, they did, but, when given a choice, PPV or TV, 99 times out of 100, it's going to be put on TV. That's the driver. That's why WCW existed from the very beginning was because Ted Turner believed that wrestling would bring eyeballs to the network," he continued.

"Read his autobiography. Anything that you read about Ted, if you do any amount of research, that's one of the reasons why Ted believed in wrestling, not because he liked wrestling per se, although he did, but because he understood that it would attract eyeballs. Early on in Turner Broadcasting's history, that was his first and foremost goal, and that continued. Now here we are in 2021, you've got a new company in AEW. You've got Turner, and obviously, this is not the same Turner. This is WarnerMedia. None of the executives I dare say probably know the high-level executives that are in Turner today, or even probably out of high school at the time we were there, or college at least. You have a whole different set of management. You have a different set of circumstances. Everything is different except for one thing. It's still a television company. Television rights are the largest line item in WWE's quarterly SEC statements. That's where the majority of their money is coming from is television rights. In AEW's case, that's definitely the case. Nothing's changed folks. The only thing that's changed is how people write about it because of their relationships and their proximity. Nothing has changed. It's the same, and I think it's a great move by the way. Congrats Tony Khan for having the balls to do it."

AEW are advertising several big matches for Wednesday's Dynamite: Grand Slam show. Check out the card below:

• Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson
• Britt Baker (c) vs. Ruby Soho - AEW Women's World Championship
• Sting & Darby Allin vs. FTR
• Cody Rhodes vs. Malakai Black
• MJF vs. Brian Pillman Jr. 
• CM Punk live interview

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