Nick Aldis: Eric Bischoff 'Blew It' In TNA
“‘You’re stupid for liking that. You shouldn’t like that. You should like this’ and everyone went, ‘No.’”
When Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, and company rode into TNA in 2010 and launched straight into the ill-fated Monday Night Wars 2.0, many long-time TNA fans were dissatisfied with their running of the company.
Gone was the six-sided ring, whilst the innovative X Division was treated as ‘second class’ against proper stars like The Band (the nWo) Nasty Boys et al. And one fan at the time who was unimpressed was future IMPACT World Champion Nick Aldis.
Aldis spoke of his displeasure with Bischoff era with Da Podcast, saying:
“When I came to TNA, I came in ‘09 and by the end of ‘09, [Hulk] Hogan and [Eric] Bischoff were coming. So then 2010, here come Hogan and Bischoff and they change everything, you know? And then it’s like here comes Bruce [Prichard] and he changes a bunch of stuff. It was just like — for years in a row pretty much, it was sort of new people doing everything and of course it’s like — you know, that’s why we use the term ‘politics’ because it’s very much like new people taking office. They’ve got to put their stamp on everything, so they sort of got to, ‘Forget these people. I’m gonna bring in my people’ and sort of, you know, and I agree with Jeff Jarrett’s sort of take on this and I have great admiration for Bischoff. I like Eric a lot and I consider him a friend and I have a lot of time for him but, at the time, I do feel like he — you know, when he came into TNA, I feel like he blew it right away because he insulted the audience.
“He came right in and when he did the whole thing where he tore up the format and said, ‘Well, we’ll give more room for effort’, and trying to be cute and insider and stuff and I just felt like the audience — and the reason I feel qualified to say this is because I was one of the audience. I was 22 years old at the time, I was a kid. So I was the guy that they were trying to get, do you know what I mean? I was their key audience they were looking for and I just thought it was so [unable to make out word] and just - I was like, ‘We’ve done this for the last ten years.’ This whole insider terms and you know, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s a shoot.’ All of that just felt so dated and kind of crappy and desperate but more importantly, what they did was told everybody, ‘Hey, all the stuff you like… the things that are unique to TNA’s brand, the talent’, the AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, X Division guys and all this different stuff. It’s like, you basically told the audience, ‘You’re stupid for liking that. You shouldn’t like that. You should like this’ and everyone went, ‘No.’”
H/T: POST Wrestling
