Eric Bischoff Discusses AJ Styles’ Return – Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts on various topics on the latest episode of his 83 Weeks Podcast. Here are the highlights:
On Charlotte Flair’s injury:
“Well, that’s a long time [9-12 months]. That’s it. Ooh, nine months is a lifetime in the industry, right? So much can happen, and so much can change over the course of nine months. It’s scary.”
On WWE’s stacked roster and AJ Styles’ return:
“OI watched that match [Randy Orton vs. Jimmy Uso from the 12/15/23 SmackDown episode] and the finish of it was so good. That match. You talk about a story. Backstory. Anticipation. Reality. Surprise. Action. Now, this is not complete yet, right? But there were a lot of boxes checked. We know there’s a story. There’s an inherent story right there. But the drama and people talk about the story in the ring or the story in the match. I want to beat you. You want to beat me? Okay, we got a story. But when you look at the drama that played out as a part of the story, the facial expressions, the timing, the timing in that finish was so perfect. I saw one hiccup, one minor hiccup that took me out of the game and out of the moment. I should say, for a fraction of a second, AJ came completely out of nowhere. The value of real surprise, right? The value of surprise. If they would have announced, you know, AJ is going to be in the main event, if there had been some other form of tease or a backstage segment or something like that, that would have tipped the hat in a way that would have diminished that moment. AJ Styles got a hero’s return reaction in the middle of what was already a pretty amazing main event and story. I think it’s going to be fantastic. Look for Randy and AJ to end up teaming up somewhere down the road. I think that’s going to be a fantastic combination. They complement each other very, very well. I loved every second of it.”
Eric Bischoff Discusses AJ Styles’ Return