Former WCW President Eric Bischoff made a surprise appearance during last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite. He appeared to ask a question during the Chris Jericho and MJF Town Hell segment, discussing whether MJF should join the Inner Circle. During an episode of his podcast 83 Weeks, Bischoff addressed how his appearance came to be.
Bischoff recalled how AEW reached out to him, asking if he’d be interested in appearing on the show. He admitted he didn’t know what this entailed. Bischoff also noted that he didn’t ask any creative questions regarding the segment.
“They just wanted to know if I was available, and if I’d be interested. And I said, ‘Sure.’ I’d figure it out when it was time to figure it out. And then I found out oh, maybe five days before,” Bischoff revealed. “Just kind of a really brief outline of what that segment or scene, or whatever you wanna call it was going to be. And it was pretty straightforward. Like I said, it’s not like I had to get into character for it or anything. So it was easy, and it was fun. And I watched it last night live, I thought it was fairly effective.”
“Make It Your Own”
Bischoff also explained how he wanted to approach the “political” vibe of the segment with appropriate line delivery. He wanted to ensure he stayed consistent with what the Town Hall was. That being said, he still had some initial thoughts on the material he shared with Chris Jericho.
“I took what had been prepared for me in the notes and I went, ‘Oh yeah. But if I changed it up this way, it won’t change the meaning of anything. It does the exact same thing, it just kind of makes it feel more tuned-in politically, based on the theme of that segment.'”
He explained approaching Jericho with his notes and being given the go-ahead to change whatever he felt was necessary. According to Bischoff, Jericho told him to “make it your own,” which he did after “polishing it up a little bit” in his head.
Eric Bischoff On Not Telling MJF
Despite approaching Jericho about changing lines, Bischoff confessed he forgot to inform MJF.
“[…] it wasn’t until last night when I watched it, did I realize that I smartened up Chris, but I didn’t smarten up MJF. He had no idea that question was coming the way I posed it.”
Bischoff praised MJF’s ability to stay in the moment and improvise as needed without becoming flustered by the change. He stressed how a more experienced wrestler wouldn’t have an issue with the surprise, noting how most younger wrestlers would have been tripped up by the changes.
“[…] I should have gone to MJF and because it was close to showtime, and in my mind it didn’t really change that much, I went ‘Eh, whatever. I’ll just go out and do it.’ I didn’t decide not to do it, I just didn’t think to go smarten up MJF. And man, he just hit that thing like a two-hundred pound softball. Just splattered it. Didn’t miss a beat.”
Eric Bischoff added how MJF is “a very talented guy,” something he noted the wrestler is already fully aware of. Bischoff admitted MJF’s mic skills and improvisational ability left him highly “impressed” with the AEW star.
