"That's so stupid" - Eric Bischoff gives honest opinion on comparing AEW to TNA Wrestling

With the recent AEW arrivals of Paul Wight and Christian Cage, many wrestling fans have been comparing the company to TNA. Eric Bischoff couldn't disagree with these people more.

This week on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, he was joined by Eric Bischoff to discuss various topics. When the comparisons between AEW and TNA were brought up, Bischoff was quick to dismiss them.

"That's so stupid. I mean, it's so ignorant. And, when I say ignorant, I don't mean that as a derisive term. I mean it in the literal sense of the word, the definition of the word. People that say those kinds of things have no real first-hand knowledge or experience. They have theoretical knowledge based on their fandom and their tangential connection to the industry because they watch about it and talk about it in some cases, write about it. They don't really know what they're talking about. I think what AEW is doing is it's by no means groundbreaking, they're not inventing an idea here, but they're smart. Bringing in former WWE talent with international, not just domestic US but international brand equity and facial recognition, and a fan base. What is wrong with that? That's silly! Now, if you have to rely solely on that, then I can see the argument."

My conversation with @EBischoff is up now! 🎙He talks about:- why there actually ISN’T a Wednesday night war- hosting @83Weeks with @HeyHeyItsConrad- how close he was to buying WCW- his thoughts on Sting and Goldberg still wrestlingListen here: https://t.co/bHmjx6XN3y pic.twitter.com/toIlpzLvA6

— Chris Van Vliet (@ChrisVanVliet) March 16, 2021

Eric Bischoff on AEW bringing in legends

Eric Bischoff went on to speak about the importance of AEW utilizing its legends the right way.

"If AEW is bringing in legends, Sting, for example, the most recent one Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, these are people that all still have an important presence on camera, are they old? Hell Yeah, there's old as I am. A couple of them, one of them at least older, but they have value. The wrestling audience is not one demo. It's not 18 to 34-year-old men. It's not 18 to 49-year-old men. It's much broader than that. It's also family viewing, you know, and I think if people today knew that or understood the challenge of building a television product in primetime on a large cable outlet like TNT, or USA, or, well, we'll talk about cable. You have to appeal to a wide variety of people. You can't just focus on one demo."

Eric Bischoff concluded by saying he believes mixing the newly acquired WWE stars that already have name recognition alongside AEW's long-term talent is exactly how things should be done.

"You can't just bring in a bunch of young fresh talent. This is young, fresh talent. Well, these are young, fresh talent that nobody knows or cares about. That's the truth. When you're breaking in when you're a year two years, four years, five years in the business on the independent scene, and nobody's really knows who you are on a national television scale. You're green. You have to build that audience, and that relationship with that audience, and what AEW is doing by bringing in the legends and former WWE talent is bringing inequity in the case of former WWE talent and scratching the itch of that nostalgia component that makes wrestling work so well. But they're also bringing in a lot of young fresh, exciting talent, and they're doing it simultaneously, it's, they're not bringing in these WWE talent and legends, if you will, at the expense of young talent, they're doing it, in addition to young talent right, I think it's exactly the way it should be done."

Hoodlums win. 🦂🛹pic.twitter.com/VWWNg7ocQG

— Sting (@Sting) March 8, 2021

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet and a H/T back to Sportskeeda for the transcription.