WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff appeared on his 83 Weeks podcast episode. He discussed several topics, including how he thinks WWE did not take a shot at AEW by saying Penta is now in the big leagues.
Bischoff said, “I think that’s happening in the normal course of business right now for WWE. I don’t think that any extra effort or thought went into Penta because he was coming from AEW. I think they treated him just like they would treat any other major star who was coming into the company. My understanding is that Paul Levesque had his eyes on Penta for quite some time, and I doubt that he was going to do any more or any less with that opportunity to introduce Penta because of AEW. I think it’s just a normal course of business. It’s unfortunate for AEW, because it kind of shines a light on what’s lacking there. Yeah, but people forget about that in another week and move on to something else.”
On whether Rey Fenix is missing out on not being with Penta now:
“As you were explaining to me the commentary from Cole [of putting Penta over] very briefly, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, they see him coming and we’re creating some stakes, right off the bat. Fenix shows up. What’s his issue? ‘He’s not the second-best luchador behind Rey Mysterio. I am.’ Now I’m not saying that’s a good idea, but right off the bat there’s something to work with. And that’s why I don’t — the half-glass empty version of this is exactly what you said. ‘Oh, boy, I have my shot. Didn’t work out for me, somebody else got it. Might as well take this money from AEW.’ I guess that’s a move. It’s a bad one, and I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. I would be surprised if we don’t see Fenix in WWE. And it may take a while, like it took Penta a while. But I think he’s going to end up there, and I think he’s going to have an opportunity to tell a great story with Penta, whatever that may be. There’s a great story to be told with two really, really amazing performers in an ever-growing segments of the overall professional wrestling audience.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
