Former WWE name believes Mercedes Moné is a failed investment for AEW

A former WWE name recently had praise for AEW securing their new deal but also mentioned how their investment in Mercedes Moné has not gone according to plan. This would be Eric Bischoff.

Recently, it was reported that the promotion had secured another television deal with Warner Bros. Discovery. This has been the positive news that Tony Khan has been hinting at for a few weeks now.

On his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff stated he was happy for Tony Khan and AEW for this accomplishment. However, he felt that Tony had to take advantage of this golden opportunity given to them and make major changes.

“So, unless Tony takes advantage of this opportunity, [and] reconfigures his approach to the industry, I don’t - look, it’s a win. Can’t look at this any other way. It’s an opportunity. The important part now is, what does Tony do with it? Does he continue the way he has been and continue to hemorrhage audience and ticket sales? I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see. But I’m happy for Tony. Number one - It’s got to be a big load off his back. I’m happy after seven months of teasing this. (…) I’m glad it finally happened. It took the gestation period of a human to give birth almost. But, I’m glad it finally happened, and now let’s see what they do with it.”

He continued by bringing up how stars Tony Khan had brought in, such as Moné, not being enough to get them up. Bischoff felt that they had overpaid her and that this was the biggest financial miscalculation in the industry.

“I mean, I think Mercedes has got to be one of the biggest financial miscalculations, in terms of talent deals, in the history of professional wrestling. The numbers have crashed since she showed up. Her stock has gone so far down, and she was a big sign. That potentially could have been a big deal, and it was the opposite. So I don’t know what Tony’s gonna do. He got his deal. Let’s see. I hope for the best.” [H/T - EWrestlingNews]

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The WWE veteran says AEW is not going to land a deal with FOX

On a prior edition of his podcast, Eric Bischoff addressed Swerve Strickland revealing that AEW had secured a deal with FOX. He understood what Swerve was doing, as he was hyping up his company and all. However, the veteran does not believe that the deal will land them on television.

He compared them to SmackDown and how for him, considering that they did not renew the WWE show, they couldn't take AEW who had a lower viewership.

“It’s not going to land on broadcast television. That’s a fantasy. Look, Swerve is - I understand. He’s excited. He’s out there promoting his company. He just got a big contract renewal, and he’s doing what he should do and promoting the company he works for. And I admire that. I think he got a little ahead of his skis by suggesting - and he did suggest it - that Fox Network didn’t renew SmackDown, which delivers about 2.3 million viewers a week, and they’re going to replace it with an AEW product that can’t find 600,000 or 700,000 viewers a week. With Rampage and Collision, we were looking at 300,000 to 400,000 viewers per week.” [H/T - RingsideNews]

It is a new era for AEW, and with a few months to go in the year, can they turn things around in their direction?