WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff was “so impressed” with the AEW All In main event, which saw AEW World Champion MJF retain the title over Adam Cole just a few hours after they defeated Aussie Open for the ROH World Tag Team Titles on the Zero Hour pre-show.
On a recent episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff discussed All In and was asked what he thought of Cole vs. MJF.
“So impressed. So impressed,” Bischoff said. “I think MJF, we’re still not seeing the best of MJF yet. That’s still to come. He’s still a child, as far as his career. He’s got so much more to give, to grow, and to learn, and to experience along the way. It’s only gonna make him better every time he comes through the curtain. He’s already, in my opinion, the most valuable guy on that roster. Without a hesitation, he’s the most valuable person in that company, in my opinion, and he’s going to get more valuable.”
Bischoff then praised Cole and the producer who set up the match, praising the finish in particular. Bischoff believes the finish of Cole vs. MJF elevated the match above everything else on the card. He went on to heap praise on the person in charge of booking the match itself. As previously stated in the list of All In producers, AEW Vice President of Talent Development & Coach Pat Buck produced the main event, as well as the Zero Hour match with Cole and MJF.
“I think Adam Cole did a great job,” Bischoff said. “I want to know who laid this match out. More importantly or specifically, who came up with this finish? I suspect I know. Not gonna drop a name, but I’m really curious if this conversation on this podcast creates more conversation on social media because the finish to this match was so well-layered. When I talked earlier about WCW disease, this is an example of the cure for WCW disease. I’ve often talked about the one thing WCW, even at the height of our success, the one thing we did not do a good job at was coming up with great finishes that provided almost a story within a story.
“This finish and the drama that ensued, and the execution of it, made this match stand out so far and above anything else, in terms of structure. As a story, both backstory leading into the match, even using the preliminary show as a foundation or a platform to continue it, but the execution of this, everything about it, the conceit of it. Who laid this out? I want to know. That person is one of the more valuable people in this company, in my opinion.”
Bischoff then compared MJF’s depth to that of WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle. Bischoff provided more constructive criticism while emphasizing how enjoyable the match was for him.
“It was so good. It was so well-done,” Bischoff continued. “I was thinking about this a little bit after watching it. I know this is not the right parallel to make, but Kurt Angle is one of my favorite performers of all time, as a producer, simply because on Monday, you could say, ‘Okay, Kurt, I need you to be a comedy wrestler. You need to go out there and make fun of yourself and have fun, and go out and have a great match.’ Then on Tuesday, you could say, ‘Okay, Kurt, I know we sent you out there, and you’re like a standup comic in your match, we wanted you to be funny. But now I want you to be the most deadly person on the planet.’ ‘Okay, I’ll go do that. ‘ He could go do both equally as well. MJF has that depth. MJF has the ability and the depth of character. He was vulnerable here. This was a guy that didn’t give a shit about anybody, it’s all about me, it’s all about the money, I don’t care about you, I don’t care about Tony Khan, I don’t care about the fans, I don’t care about my mom and dad. It was all ‘me, me, me, me.’
“Now, in this storyline, he’s vulnerable. First time in his life he’s got a true friend, and it hurt him. This whole thing was hurting him, and Adam Cole did a great job as well. I think he over-acted a little bit, that’s just constructive criticism. I think if he would have dialed his facial expressions and his emotions back about 15%, which is unusual because usually I would encourage people to turn it up, but in Adam’s case, I think especially because the role that he played here, I think that he over-acted about 10 or 15%. Minor, minor thing. I just thought this whole thing was so good. The finish, the after-the-finish, the emotion that it created, the execution. I really, really, really enjoyed it.”
