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“This guy has to be the biggest financial flop in the history of wrestling” – Eric Bischoff On CM Punk

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• “This guy has to be the biggest financial flop in the history of wrestling” – Eric Bischoff On CM Punk

After making his debut in All Elite Wrestling, CM Punk addressed the viewership of AEW Dynamite and claimed that casual pro-wrestling fans don’t exist anymore.

Former WCW President Eric Bischoff didn’t agree with that statement, which resulted in Punk tweeting the following:

“Wrestling twitter needs to stop amplifying all the old head bad faith bad take carny dipsh*ts. They had their moment in the sun. Let them die in the dark with their ego podcasts. Quote me.”

A fan then replied:

“You talking to yourself holmes?”

Punk then replied with a GIF that says:

“Oh! I get it.”

Bischoff then talked about what Punk said after making his AEW debut and the performance of AEW shows since then.

Below is what he tweeted:

“Ok: ‘So, I’m not Hogan or Savage. Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole, they’re not The Outsiders, I see the parallels, but this is totally different. I’ll go ahead and say it and people can quote me and they’ll be p*ssed off about it, but to me, this is bigger.’

How’s that working out?

Let’s look at what Punk has delivered since debuting at AEW: August Rampage: 1.1mm viewers. Now? Lucky to hit 500k. Dynamite? 1.17mm. Now? Lucky to break 900k. Pretty lame for a guy who thinks he’s a bigger deal than Scott Hall/Kevin Nash, Randy Savage.”

A fan then tweeted:

“You DO realize that ‘Controversy Creates Cash’ only applies once you have the job, right? Right now you’re burning bridges with people who respected and brought you in on occasion for what?”

Bischoff replied:

“I have no problem burning bridges. I know how to swim.”

Another fan tweeted in support of Bischoff:

“The dude is a clown. Peaked about 10 years ago. Now works the minors. Don’t sweat him EB.”

Eric replied:

“I don’t. This is fun.”

A fan then posted a photo of Punk’s first UFC loss. Bischoff then tweeted:

“He convinced himself since he could win scripted fights, he could win a real one.”

On a recent edition of his podcast, Bischoff further addressed Punk’s comments and said the former WWE Champion has flopped when it comes to increasing AEW’s TV viewership in the US.

Below is what Eric said:

“I wasn’t picking a fight, I was responding. Punk had some very edgy comments that I’m assuming were directed to me because they were in response to something [Conrad] and I said in a very interesting conversation about current wrestling, WWE and AEW.

But evidently, he got a little case of the a$$-rash and decided to lash out on social media.

I love that sh*t, I love to counter punch. Sometimes I don’t really wake up until I’ve been hit really hard, it’s just my nature but he threw a punch on social media and I thought this would be fun so I responded.

I pointed out that this was a guy who came out and said that for a guy who thinks he was a bigger deal than Scott Hall and Kevin Nash coming to WCW, so far he’s fallen flat on his face.

I published his quote, I didn’t make anything up. I took his quote and posted it and said how’s that working out? Which it isn’t, obviously. In terms of a return on investment, this guy has to be the biggest financial flop in the history of wrestling.

How many millions of dollars in net profit in T-Shirt sales is he doing? Nobody knows and we’re responding to comments that aren’t backed up. If somebody can show me, then I’ll eat my words and I’m happy to do that. I’m wrong a lot, I’m aggressive, I try new things, I talk sh*t and I’m not always right and if I’m wrong, I’m wrong.

So far, all we get is ‘he’s selling so much merchandise,’ but how much is so much? By the way, once the initial excitement of anybody, not just CM Punk, you bring somebody in, you launch a new t-shirt, new merchandise, you get a big hit and then it just levels out so you come up with something new and if you’re really over, you can continue to come up with new merchandise and fill the tank. I don’t know if that’s true.

In the context of the conversations that we’ve had on this show, which was the catalyst for Punk’s response on social media, we’re talking about television ratings, we’re talking about impact. We weren’t talking about the broader spectrum of revenue opportunities. In terms of television, he’s been a horrible return on investment.

I’m not saying he certainly hasn’t had any impact on advertising, only Turner Broadcasting would know that. Nobody at AEW would know that because AEW doesn’t sell their own advertising, Turner does.

In terms of the context of Punk comparing himself to Randy Savage, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash and the impact that they had on WCW vs. Punk coming out and saying he’s a bigger deal than that, in terms of ratings he’s fallen flat on his face.

He came out to 1.17 million people who came out to see his debut Friday night on Rampage, it’s down to around 400-500,000 on average. Punk’s primer on Dynamite did like 1.29 million people and they came, they saw and they left and now they’re hovering around that 900,000. Which they’ve been doing for, I don’t know, a year, year and a half.

When Punk comes out and says he’s a bigger deal than Scott Hall and Kevin Nash coming to WCW, that created a paradigm shift with people watching wrestling, where Punk has created absolutely nothing.”

Also Read: CM Punk Fires Back At Zack Ryder For Making Fun Of The Sasha Banks – Naomi Situation

WATCH: Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville’s Revealing Photoshoot:

• ON THIS DAY IN TNA HISTORY (May 17, 2007) – TNA iMPACT!

On this day in 2007 Total Nonstop Action! aired another episode of their weekly TV show ‘TNA iMPACT! Wrestling’.

This episode took place at the TNA Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida and featured matches, interviews & storyline segments on the road to the TNA Slammiversary 2007 PPV.

Here’s the official match-card from that night:

1. Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. Jerry Lynn & Tiger Mask IV

2. First Blood Match: Raven vs. Christopher Daniels

3. Kurt Angle vs. Rhino (Rhyno)


        
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