"I watched her stand up to Vince" - WWE Hall of Fame comments on AEW's latest signing

Vince McMahon
Photo credit: WWE's official website.

A WWE Hall of Famer just commented on a significant recent hiring by AEW.

After working for several years as a writer and producer on SmackDown, Jennifer Pepperman left the company. Following her exit from WWE, she signed with All Elite Wrestling. However, it appeared that she came with some baggage after it was pointed out that she was named in Brittany Abrahams' civil discrimination lawsuit against the WWE.

Eric Bischoff spoke about her signing with Tony Khan's promotion on the latest episode of his Strictly Business podcast. Bischoff was all praise for Pepperman's work ethic:

"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."

He continued:

"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."[H/T Ringside News]

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Eric Bischoff believes Jennifer Pepperman can boost AEW's viewership

AEW's viewership has been on a rapid decline for quite some time now. The ratings have gotten worse over time and the decline in viewership spells a bad future for the company.

During the same podcast episode, Eric Bischoff mentioned how Jennifer Pepperman's signing with AEW could result in a boost in viewership:

”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.” [H/T Ringside News]

It will be interesting to see how Pepperman joining AEW's ranks will help them grow their viewership again.

What are your thoughts on Eric Bischoff's comments? Sound off in the comments section.

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