Tag: Eric Bischoff

Eric Bischoff thinks MJF can transition easily to WWE

MJF might be playing everyone with his constant WWE references, but if not, at least one wrestling legend thinks he can easily make the jump.

MJF has been teasing the “bidding war of 2024” in his promos and storylines on AEW Dynamite, referencing the alleged expiration of his contract. This has created a unique situation for now and for when the time comes to re-sign him.

The AEW World Champion has drawn attention by referencing WWE and Vince McMahon multiple times. He is, of course, emphasizing this intentionally to stir the pot, but it’s noteworthy that he keeps mentioning AEW’s rival and that the company that could potentially sign him in the future.

Name-dropping WWE aside, MJF is one of AEW’s top players, its premium heel, and someone hard to fathom for the company to move forward without. Eric Bischoff spoke to this on the Ariel Helwani Show and said AEW should do whatever necessary to keep MJF (h/t Fightful for transcription).

“I think the world of MJF as a talent. I like him as a person. I’ve crossed paths with him a number of times, and I can’t say enough great things about his talent. I don’t know what MJF’s goals are. We’ve never had that kind of a conversation, but if I’m Tony Khan, I’m gonna work pretty hard to keep MJF on my roster. I’m gonna have to because if you look at that roster, there’s not a lot of other talents that are anywhere close to MJF in terms of overall ability and connection [to the crowd]. There’s a lot of great wrestlers there, athletes, there are. Chris Jericho, he’s in the down side of his career. He’s 53, 54 years old. Bryan Danielson, he’s kind of a part-timer at this stage of his life. But if you look at the younger crop of regularly featured talent that you have in AEW, three-quarters of them could walk through any mall in America, and nobody would know who they are. MJF stands out. He’s gotten himself here. So I’d do whatever I had to do to keep him,” Bischoff said.

Bischoff also believes that MJF has the intelligence to jump to WWE if he chooses to move.

“He’s awful smart, so yeah. You have to be smart. You can’t go in there, 24 years old thinking you’re God’s gift to the wrestling industry with a chip on your shoulder. I don’t think that’s really MJF, that’s the MJF that he wants you to see, but I have had enough conversation with him to know that he’s really, really, really smart, and my guess is he’s smart enough to be able to easily move on to that WWE roster if that’s what he chooses to do,” he said.

MJF is an integral part of AEW. He will cause a seismic shift, however, if he goes to WWE, and it would be intriguing to see what he can accomplish in a different environment.

Eric Bischoff thinks he was better off not being ‘a wrestling guy’

Eric Bischoff told Under the Ring that his unique, non-wrestling background was perfect for leading WCW to its era of greatest success.

When Eric Bischoff led WCW to unprecedented heights in the 1990s, he was coming at pro wrestling from a different background and perspective than most. Looking back now, he feels that was more of a blessing than a curse.

As this week’s guest on the Under the Ring podcast with Phil Strum, Bischoff said that WCW was looking for someone who wasn’t coming from a family steeped in wrestling tradition to head up the promotion, which helped him become the right person at the right time — particularly due to his TV experience.

“The truth is, had I come from a more traditional wrestling family or genealogy, I probably never would have had the opportunity that I did,” Bischoff said. “Turner Broadcasting was looking for someone who wasn’t a ‘wrestling guy.’ They had experimented with wrestling guys: Dusty Rhodes, Bill Watts, before me, Ole Anderson. … And Turner decided back in 1993 after the Bill Watts disaster that they wanted an executive to run WCW that had a television background and a business background, not necessarily a wrestling background.”

Check out the entire interview above, which also includes Bischoff discussing:

  • Why he finds doing podcasts “cathartic” once he learned to have fun with them
  • What one word would sum up WCW’s legacy
  • How WCW helped integrate talent from NJPW better than ever before
  • Whether the WCW fan is still out there

Under the Ring releases new episodes every Monday, with Strum using the connections he’s built up during his journalism career to speak with a different, always fascinating personality from the wrestling business. Recent guests have included Matt Cardona, WWE superstar Sonya Deville and AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa.

To make sure you don’t miss an episode, subscribe to Under the Ring on Apple Podcasts or your podcast provider of choice, or check out the Under the Ring YouTube channel to see all of the interviews in video form.