WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff appeared on his 83 Weeks podcast episode. He discussed several topics, including CM Punk taking a shot at fellow WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan on RAW.
Bischoff said, “Well, completely different situations [than Punk’s previous shots at Hogan]. Number one, they both work for the same company. That kind of matters. Number two — first of all, let me just say. I kind of liked it; I thought it was fun. So there’s that. But let’s keep the context clear. What I got upset about — upset is not the right word. But what I made a point of when Punk first came to AEW was a comment that Punk made about him coming to AEW along with a couple whoever else he was including in that mix, was a more significant acquisition for AEW than Hogan, Hall, and Nash were for WCW. And that was such a just stupid thing to say. And when you’re saying something like that to try to get yourself over about a guy who doesn’t even work in your company, it doesn’t resonate for me. I’m sure the dirt cheap marks or Dave Meltzer guys are all over it, because that’s kind of the limit of their intellectual curiosity, I guess maybe. And I just thought it was stupid, I thought it was a poor reflection on Punk — in my opinion, as a professional. If that’s all you’ve got to try to get yourself over when you first show up is to say something stupid about a guy that doesn’t work in your company that you’ve never met? It’s kind of showing your ass. That was my comment then. This on the other hand, is a different situation. I will argue that if Punk thinks he’s going to get himself over as a babyface by taking shots at Hulk — creatively speaking in this in this scenario, because that’s what we’re talking about here, he might find himself surprised that’s happened before. Ask Rock. The situation is different here, obviously.”
On people still talking about the backlash to Hogan’s RAW on Netflix premiere:
“I think people are still reading way too much into one appearance and one reaction when I personally see other appearances and other reactions, they’re the exact opposite. So we’ll see. I could be wrong. You know, I’m biased. I’m not going to lie. I don’t hide it like some people do. Yeah, I’m Hulk’s one of my best friends, and I want to see him happy and I want to see him successful. And I think people need to be aware that there’s still a pretty big fan base for Hulk Hogan. Maybe not in LA, but in a lot of other places.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
