Eric Bischoff Claims AEW Is Following The Same Formula as WCW Nitro

Eric Bischoff and AEW president Tony Khan have been in somewhat of a war of words in recent weeks. During a recent interview with The Financial Times, Khan ruffled Bischoff's feathers when he called WCW's later years "what not to do" in the wrestling business, adding that the defunct company did "a real disservice to fans" with how it was run in the late 90s-early 2000s. Bischoff has since responded several times on his 83 Weeks and After 83 Weeks podcasts, saying that Khan has barely been in in the wrestling business and eventually called him a "motherf—er."

On a recent episode of 83 Weeks, Bischoff said a lot of Dynamite's early success has come from going through the same steps WCW Monday Nitro did when it started beating Monday Night Raw in the ratings.

"Nitro changed the industry and we are seeing the benefits to this very day, they've stuck," Bischoff said "WWE followed suit. Tony Khan can say whatever he wants about WCW, but my God if they are not trying to follow the formula that made Nitro successful, I don't know what else they are doing."

Going back to that aforementioned interview, Khan pointed out that if WCW had operated "logicially" the Monday Night Wars would've gone on long past 2001.

"The audience was there for those wars to go on for decades if they had produced competitive shows and run them logically, but that didn't happen," Khan said.

AEW originally had its first WarGames match, dubbed Blood & Guts, scheduled to take place on this week's episode of Dynamite. However that match was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Our goal every week with AEW Dynamite on TNT is to produce great shows for our fans, and I believe we do," Khan said in a statement. "We felt especially motivated to serve our audience this past Wednesday night given what the entire world is coping with, and hopefully we gave them a well-deserved escape during these trying times. Everyone at AEW is very proud of what we delivered and humbled by the response and the kind words we've received from fans and partners throughout the world.

"We plan to continue answering that calling with live weekly shows every Wednesday night on TNT, but the time and circumstances aren't right for the card we had planned next week for Blood and Guts," he continued.

H/T Wrestling Inc. for transcript