As we previously reported here on eWn, AEW released ten wrestlers earlier this week including Parker Boudreaux, Stu Grayson, Dasha Kuret, and The Boys.
On a recent edition of his “83 Weeks” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff stated that the mass talent cut is a positive sign of AEW President Tony Khan changing his management skills.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On AEW making rare talent cuts: “Yeah, in fact, I looked at a post that Tony Khan made a while back when there were releases in WWE, when Tony was trying to make himself a babyface by taking a shot at WWE for having to release talent in order to manage expenses. I’m gonna paraphrase, obviously. Not going to go through the whole thing. But essentially, you know, Tony Khan said, ‘I would rather get punched in the face business-wise than release people.’ And he went on and on in typical Tony confession, about three paragraphs of how he would never do what Vince McMahon or WWE had just done. I don’t know when that was, it was probably in the last year or two. I thought of that. But at the same time, I gotta be honest with you, it’s probably really smart. It may be the only second or third smart thing that Tony’s done in a while. I think bringing in Jen Pepperman was a smart move. I think this was a smart move. I don’t know how Kosha Irby, the new COO. Let’s give that a — by default, give him a nod. So, there have been three smart moves recently.
But yeah, I mean look. The sad thing is, please don’t — I don’t mean any offense. This is due to the fact that I don’t watch enough, and I’m not really engaged. It’s not a reflection of the talent involved, but I never heard it of one of them. So if they’re not being used and utilized — and tthe talent won’t feel this way, but it’s better for them in the long run to just movie on, then to just fade away in the background even though you’re getting a check. I think it was a good idea.”
On whether it’s a sign of Tony Khan changing his management skills: “I would assume yes, I would agree, by default. He’s there. This is a big decision, it’s 180 degrees from the ways that we’ve seen things run up into this point. It’d be silly not to attribute it. It’s not a negative; it’s actually the first really smart strategically that they’ve done. It’s part of the overall strategy to save money to manage, expenses. This is the first time I’ve seen any indication that this — I’m sure we’re gonna talk about this in a while. But It’s the first time I’ve seen a business move. Now I would just — no, I’m gonna pull that back. Wembley, I think that was a great, great move, right? It really did a great job of planting a big flag for AEW. So I applaud that. Some of the talent hires. Mike Mansury, bringing a guy with as much experience as Mike, I think that was a really smart move. Jen Pepperman, already talked about the first time. It’s the first real hard business movie I’ve seen. So I take it as a positive.”
