Eric Bischoff Shares His Thoughts On MJF Being Absent From AEW TV

AEW star MJF
MJF | Credit: AEW

WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff took on an episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including MJF being absent from AEW TV while filming movies.

Bischoff said, โ€œThere are two sides of that, and I see both of them. I was in that position a couple of times in WCW, where talent would come to me and say, โ€˜Hey look, Iโ€™ve got a movie. This is a big opportunity.โ€™ And I think, like Tony โ€” itโ€™s probably one thing that we had in common โ€” is I looked for a way to make that happen. You donโ€™t ever want โ€” I would never want โ€” someone working for me that had an opportunity like MJF has to come to me and just shut them down. Say, โ€˜Sorry man, we need you too much. Weโ€™re paying you X amount of money a year. Your first obligation is here.โ€™ Even if it is, even if itโ€™s true, you donโ€™t want to put it that way, because that talent โ€” Iโ€™m going to use MJF. And I donโ€™t know MJF real well, right? We stay in touch occasionally via text, but itโ€™s not like I sit down and have long conversations with him. So I donโ€™t know what really makes him tick, right? But if you take somebody like MJF, who obviously has a tremendous amount of talent and ability. Weโ€™ve seen it in the ring, and now weโ€™re going to have an opportunity to see it on the big screen. You donโ€™t want to ever tell that talent, โ€˜No, you canโ€™t do that.โ€™ Youโ€™ve got to try to make it work. But business is business. And again, financially it doesnโ€™t matter to Tony. He just doesnโ€™t care. He doesnโ€™t have to care. I wouldnโ€™t care either if I was him. Not knocking him. But the brand is suffering, and finding a way to accommodate an opportunity is one thing. Sending somebody off for 30, 60, 90 days, I donโ€™t know how long MJF is going to be out of the picture. But movie-making is a long process, so depending on how many scenes heโ€™s in, he could be on lockdown for a while now. Youโ€™re hurting your brand.โ€

On MJF needing to stay off AEW TV because of the state of the company:

โ€œHereโ€™s the other side. Now if I was MJF agent or manager, I would tell him stay on that movie set as long as you possibly can. Do not get near an AEW camera until youโ€™re absolutely forced to by court order. Because the more heโ€™s involved in whatโ€™s going on in AEW right now, the more his stock is going to go down.โ€

You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.

(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)