Eric Bischoff discusses what dissapointed him about the debut of Christian in AEW. The former WWE star jumped ship to AEW at Revolution.
Big Show promised a Hall of Fame worthy signing before AEW Revolution. Tony Khan reinforced the idea that a big deal was coming to the promotion. The company had previously brought in Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley and Sting but none of them had the hype coming in like this.
Also read: Hulk Hogan and Titus O’Neil announced as Wrestlemania 37 hosts
Fans began to wonder who this person was. Could it be Brock Lesnar? Maybe John Cena or even Dave Bautista? Don’t tell me its CM Punk! In the end, the person turned out to be Christian. A fantastic wrestler but nowhere near popular as the names mentioned before.
Eric Bischoff, who has previously managed the debut of some of the biggest names in this industry felt that Christian was done wrong by. While speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast, .he talked about and disected everything that went wrong with the former World Heavyweight Champion’s debut.
Eric Bischoff discusses what dissapointed him about the debut of Christian in AEW
“I was disappointed for Christian, in particular Christian. Because I agree with you, this is where the art of being a promoter comes in. It’s not cut and dry, it’s not building blocks, it’s not assembly – it’s an art. The art, and this is where instinct comes in, part of it is experience, but mostly it’s instinct and feel. Managing expectations, first of all creating expectations or creating anticipation, therein lies the art in promotion. Making people want to see, making people want to feel. That’s the art part of, I think the biggest part, component of being successful in anything in entertainment.
“Managing anticipation or expectation; and they’re kind of one and the same in some respects, but managing that anticipation or expectation is the most important thing you can do when you’re planning for a big moment. Whether that’s a big event, a main event match, introducing a new character, you want to get people excited about it. But you have to manage that. Because if you make the mistake of ‘whoaaaa, I can’t wait’ and you fail to manage the velocity of all that enthusiasm, and you underdeliver this much based on the unrealistic expectations, by the way, that you’ve created. You have created these unrealistic expectations and when you aren’t able to fulfil them, it’s a let-down. That’s a reality.”
Bischoff added that the debut had been so hyped that it was bound to be underwhelming regardless of who walked out.
“Had Christian just shown up in an impactful way without any advertisement. Without any promotion, without any expectation or anticipation. Guess what would’ve happened? He would have been the hottest topic of conversation for the next six months, well, two months. Everybody, the audience, would have looked at Christian from an entirely different perspective or angle. ‘Holy sh*t!’ because they would have been getting something that they didn’t expect or anticipate. AEW would have overdelivered on expectations instead of creating an unrealistic one and then underdelivering. That’s experience and it’s instinct and you have to understand the audience. You have to understand the risks when you introduce somebody like that or create these big moments that you’re intentionally raising expectations about.”
Click here for more Wrestling News
