Eric Bischoff has seen enough of wrestling fans telling AJ Styles’ son to “pay his dues.” His response to them is basically: who the hell are you?
As the Avery Styles controversy continued to spiral over whether he should’ve helped tear down a GCW show, Bischoff jumped into the debate on 83 Weeks and unloaded on the fans acting like they get to decide how a young wrestler earns his place in the business.
“And now with social media and these knuckleheads out there, ‘Well, he’s got to pay his dues.’ Who the hell are you? Who? I mean, it’s like where people feel like they have solid ground to stand on and make comments like that when they’ve never been near a wrestling ring. They’ve never been near the business.”
And Bischoff was only getting started. The former WCW president argued that a small but extremely vocal section of wrestling fans has convinced itself that watching the business gives them the same kind of knowledge as actually living it.
“They’re just a very small fraction of a fan base that takes to social media and pretends, cosplays their way through the day pretending that they have some kind of institutional knowledge of a business that they’ve never been near.”
That’s where the rant went from Avery Styles to Bischoff’s much bigger problem with the internet wrestling community.
“That’s the kind of comments that—and it’s one of the reasons why people wonder, why do I, why does Bischoff get so hot about dirt sheets and the Dave Meltzer douchebags of the planet? And it’s because of this. Because of these—the culture and the culture that it creates, the cesspool that is the internet wrestling community.”
Bischoff wasn’t throwing every wrestling fan into that bucket. He acknowledged that both he and Conrad Thompson are technically part of the same online wrestling world. His problem is with the people who speak like they’ve spent decades inside locker rooms when their experience comes entirely from watching wrestling. And then he really went for it.
“Not all of them. I mean, I’m part of it. So are you. So it’s not like I’m saying everybody in it. But there is a solid nucleus of the most vocal amongst internet wrestling community members that take this position as if they’re like The Undertaker or The Rock or Steve Austin, and you’re sitting on the couch picking your nose in your underwear.”
All of this comes after Arik Cannon accused Avery of avoiding setup and teardown work at a GCW event in Minneapolis. AJ Styles defended his son, arguing Avery was booked to wrestle rather than work ring crew, while Cannon insisted helping out was part of paying your dues.
Cannon has since turned the argument into something of a running series. He first posted a photo of 82-year-old Jimmy Hart helping with chairs after a wrestling event. Then came Cody Rhodes, with Cannon sharing an old photo of Dusty Rhodes’ son sweeping broken glass from a ring during his independent run.
Bischoff isn’t buying the larger argument. Instead of worrying about photos, chairs, brooms or strangers deciding whether he’s sufficiently “paid his dues,” Bischoff thinks Avery should stop giving any of it oxygen.
“And I hope that Avery—and I’m sure he does because AJ knows, he’s been through it all—just simply ignores those knuckleheads because their opinions don’t matter to anyone. It’s just, ignore it. Move on. Don’t even acknowledge it. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth your energy or your focus. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
Cannon keeps producing examples of famous wrestlers who grabbed chairs and brooms. Bischoff doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned, Avery Styles has a much easier job than proving himself to the internet: stop listening to it.
Do you agree with Eric Bischoff, or does Arik Cannon have a point about young wrestlers paying their dues regardless of who their father is? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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