During his 83 Weeks podcast this week, Eric Bischoff discussed how he thinks Tony Khan plays a big part in the online negativity towards WWE from AEW fans.
“Why is that? There’s no one reason for it,” Eric Bischoff said. “You look at the haters, people bashing WWE and you’re talking about the internet wrestling community, and that’s the nature of social media. Not just the WWE or wrestling in general, the nature of social media is to be contrarian, to hate, and to be negative. So you’ve got that and now you’ve got WWE, it’s a $5 billion global wrestling company.
“We like to be on the journey and watch people make it to the top, and we also enjoy watching them crash and burn, only hoping that there will be a resurrection. It’s the ride that people walk, you can’t wait to see people become successful and you can’t wait to see them fall. That’s true in wrestling, probably even more so.
“But let’s be honest, listen to a lot of social media commentary coming out of the AEW camp. Bryan Danielson, class act, but very few people. Talent within AEW that have ever been associated with WWE or in some cases never been associated with WWE, their comments are all negative. They’re hating on it, they’re hating on WWE and that’s how they’re trying to build their loyalty.
“I did the same thing, I am not being critical. People want to see WWE get their comeuppance. Talent within AEW, including Tony Khan, are constantly taking shots at WWE in order to build more loyalty within their own brand. Again, not a criticism, but it’s a fact, that’s where it comes from.
“If you’re a loyal AEW fan and you want to be on that train, you’re going to do what Tony Khan does, and a lot of that talent does on a weekly basis in social media as well as on their television show. That’s where it comes from, and then people want to pile on. That’s where it comes from in my opinion.”