Tony Khan explains why he doesn't share a good relationship with WWE Hall of Famer

Tony Khan's founding of AEW in 2019 provided arguably the biggest disruption in the wrestling business in decades. The All Elite chief has managed to anger many throughout the industry due to his unique creative decisions and controversial tweets, but perhaps his most adversarial relationship is with WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff.

Bischoff and Khan were on cordial terms at first, but an errant comment about Ted Turner from the AEW President a few years ago soured the relationship. The former WCW executive now takes shots at Tony Khan as often as possible, and the latter usually responds in kind.

In a recent interview on The K&C Masterpiece podcast, Tony Khan addressed his dynamic with Eric Bischoff. He claimed that while he and Bischoff do share a lot in common, he doesn't appreciate that the WWE Hall of Famer uses his podcasts to take shots at AEW:

"There haven't been that many wrestling companies that have risen to international prominence. There aren't that many wrestling companies in modern history that have sold tens of thousands of tickets and hundreds of thousands pay-per-views. In that sense, Eric and I do have something in common. I do respect his accomplishments. He just has a show, a podcast, that is largely devoted to taking shots at us and a lot of it isn't rational or logical or truthful. I don't think those things seem to matter to him anymore," said Khan.

Despite that, Khan said he respects what Bischoff accomplished with WCW:

"I do respect what he accomplished with WCW. It was a great company. In that sense, I do respect him. We're on TNT and TBS, that's something I have in common with Eric, there aren't a lot of people that produced a lot of wrestling shows on TBS and TNT. That's one thing we do have in common." (H/T Fightful)

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Vince Russo thinks Tony Khan is an idiot for engaging in arguments with Eric Bischoff

Eric Bischoff is known for his barbed tongue, and few within the wrestling industry seem willing to take shots at him. However, Tony Khan, having grown up posting on the infamous DVDR wrestling forums, has plenty of experience trading insults.

After a controversial exchange between the two last month, Vince Russo claimed that Khan was an idiot for rising to Bischoff's bait.

Speaking on Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Outlaws, Russo claimed that Eric Bischoff was smarter than the AEW President and would "run circles around him."

"Why Tony Khan would ever poke the Eric Bischoff bear, knowing, bro, he's gonna get embarrassed, he's gonna get humiliated? When it comes to that type of stuff, Eric is 100% smarter, more clever, and he's gonna run circles around him. Why would you ever go down on that road, bro? Literally, you gotta be some kind of an idiot."

Tony Khan and AEW have faced criticism from many over the last few years, but the young company continues forging ahead in what might be a pivotal year for it.