Speaking on AfterBuzz TV’s After Show for 83 Weeks podcast, former WCW President and Smackdown Executive Producer Eric Bischoff said that it’s unrealistic for people to assume that All Elite Wrestling will be able to absorb the majority, or even around 10 people, who were released from WWE.
Bischoff noted that for a company who doesn’t tour and relies solely on gate money from one live event per week and a television deal, it’s impossible for them to take on the talent who got cut this week. Eric said that he has a pretty good idea on what some of the guys are making in AEW and it’s “astronomical sums of money” compared to what some of them ever made at their peak of their careers in WWE or WCW.
Bischoff also took a dig at Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer as back in the day he would also disclose internal information about how much WCW was paying their stars but now he keeps everything behind closed doors when it comes to AEW.
Eric said he thinks that AEW would eventually bring in one or two of the bigger names and name-dropped Erick Rowan as a guy who would be probably scooped up by the company. “Erick Rowan is a guy that I’d be surprised if they’re not looking at that got released. Super guy by the way I loved working with him in WWE,” he said.
All the released talent are on a 90-day no-compete clause so the earliest they could appear on any other wrestling show would be in mid-July.
