The Phantom Rant: Is Eric Bischoff right about AEW?

Welcome once again to The Phantom Rant. I am good ol’ “Phantom Lord” Joe Davis. This is officially the tenth edition of the column here on NoDQ.com and I can’t say how much I’ve enjoyed being in the thick of things once again here in the IWC. A topic of that is always interesting for those of us on the Internet is Uncle Eric a.k.a. Eric Bischoff. Eric is pretty successful with his 83 Weeks podcast along with a slew of other shows he’s created in the podcasting world. Now to be fair, I want to say I am a fan of Eric’s.

Way back in 1996 when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash invaded WCW, a true Holy you know what moment for fifteen year old me was watching The Great American Bash on pay per view and Hall hit’s Eric with a punch to the gut and Kevin Nash powerbombs him off the stage and through a makeshift table. I had never seen anything like that before. It was ground breaking at the time to see something like that. Of course it turned out to be the greatest inside job in wrestling history (okay maybe a close second to the great Ole Anderson heel turn on Dusty Rhodes in 1981) when it was revealed months later that Eric was working with Hall, Nash, and the NWO all along.

Eric was so cool back then and I think he still is to a point. The other night I watched his MLW debut with One Shot and I thought it was an all right show. There were some good matches and Eric had some good segments and I wouldn’t mind seeing him do more with MLW as was hinted at the end of the show. If you haven’t seen it, you can go to MLW’s Youtube and watch it there (after you’re done reading this column of course)

But I have to disagree with Eric Bischoff on one thing. Recently he was on the Aerial Helwani Show and he said AEW is no hope and nothing is going to turn their company around.

He said and I quote “They’re horrible. I’ve given up. You know what? I used to get really frustrated with them because I actually hate seeing people screw up good opportunities. I know what that feels like, and I don’t want that to happen again. I know what that feels like and know how hard good opportunities come by so when you see somebody shooting themsleves in the foot day after day week after week in every possible way it’s frustrating for me and I would vent that frustration. Now, it’s just like yeah, whatever. It is what it is. There’s no hope for them. Nothing’s going to turn their company around. There’s no light bulb gonna go off on anybody’s head and realize, oh, this is actually getting people who watch TV. They have no idea about what they’re doing and they’re too stubborn to learn.”

I don’t think AEW is too stubborn to learn. Maybe Tony Khan is since he’s the one in charge so it’s his vision, but as for the rest of the company I don’t think they can’t learn. I’ve said from the start of this column a couple of months ago that wrestling wise, AEW is fine. Yes, the story’s need fine tuning. The big story carrying the show at the moment is Moxley and The Death Rider’s reign of terror. I will admit that the last couple of weeks, the story has been floundering. This past week it got hot again when Orange Cassidy, “Switchblade” Jay White, and “Hangman” Adam Page stood tall against Jon Moxley.

That’s what was missing from this story. The protagonist’s who stand tall. All three of them want Moxley and the AEW World Championship. What this will lead to…I don’t know. A four way match for the title at the World’s End pay per view seems like the most likely choice. AEW right now is focusing all their energy on the Continental Classic (which has been good so far), so the Death Riders story has become secondary to them.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

I just finished watching Collision on DVR (yeah, I watched Deadline first) and two new players against the Death Riders have entered the game. Moxley and company tried to take out Orange Cassidy with a funnel and a bottle of Formula 409. Why Mox has this cleaning fluid fetish…I don’t know. But before they could dump it down his throat the bottle is knocked out of his hand by FTR who happened to be standing around just a few feet away from them.

So now with Dax and Cash we have five men who want to take on The Death Riders. Six if you include Darby after he’s done with the Continental Classic. I’m liking this group of guys to take on Moxley and his bunch. Moxley did cut a good promo on Collision about how no one WANTS to be AEW Champion. Cassidy responded by saying he didn’t care if he ever won the title, he just can’t live with Moxley being champion. Cassidy is by far the biggest face AEW has. But you also have two other guys who want to take the title off Moxley. FTR are an added bonus for extra help.

I think this is a light bulb moment for AEW. They have the makings of a great feud here between The Death Riders and this new assorted group. I’m probably looking way into the future, but I could see The Death Riders vs. Page, White, Cassidy & FTR in a Blood & Guts match. Of course the Riders would need a new fifth man because we can’t have Marina Shafir in that match. A new member could inject some life into the group.

There’s nothing wrong with too many factions. They just need to be balanced. Right now AEW is heavy and I mean HEAVY on heel factions. So this new assorted group of Page and company would be a nice balance to Moxley and his goons.

So is Eric Bischoff right? Is there no hope for AEW? I think there is plenty of hope. There’s always hope in the world for something. I’m excited to see where this goes as it leads into 2025.

As always thanks for reading and you can leave feedback down below, on twitter, or email me directly at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com