
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, โThere 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, โHey look, Iโve got a movie. This is a big opportunity.โ And I think, like Tony โ itโs probably one thing that we had in common โ is I looked for a way to make that happen. You donโt 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, โSorry man, we need you too much. Weโre paying you X amount of money a year. Your first obligation is here.โ Even if it is, even if itโs true, you donโt want to put it that way, because that talent โ Iโm going to use MJF. And I donโt know MJF real well, right? We stay in touch occasionally via text, but itโs not like I sit down and have long conversations with him. So I donโt know what really makes him tick, right? But if you take somebody like MJF, who obviously has a tremendous amount of talent and ability. Weโve seen it in the ring, and now weโre going to have an opportunity to see it on the big screen. You donโt want to ever tell that talent, โNo, you canโt do that.โ Youโve got to try to make it work. But business is business. And again, financially it doesnโt matter to Tony. He just doesnโt care. He doesnโt have to care. I wouldnโt 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 donโt 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 heโs in, he could be on lockdown for a while now. Youโre hurting your brand.โ
On MJF needing to stay off AEW TV because of the state of the company:
โHereโs 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 youโre absolutely forced to by court order. Because the more heโs involved in whatโs 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)