Eric Bischoff isn’t apologizing for his Roman Reigns criticism. A week after agreeing with one of the harshest takes on WWE’s biggest star, Bischoff came back with an even simpler explanation: he’s bored.
The subject returned on the August 11 episode of 83 Weeks when Conrad Thompson read a fan comment demanding that he and Bischoff apologize for their previous comments about Reigns. Bischoff killed that idea immediately.
“That ain’t gonna freaking happen. Period.”
And he wasn’t done. Bischoff made it clear he has enormous respect for Reigns as a person, from everything he’s overcome to what he’s accomplished and the way he represents his family. Put Roman Reigns the person aside, though, and Bischoff isn’t particularly interested in Roman Reigns the WWE character anymore.
“Look, here’s the thing. And again, this is a fan, and I get it. And look, I have so much respect for Roman Reigns as an individual. What he’s overcome, what he’s accomplished, the way he represents himself, his family — there’s so much about Roman Reigns that I have nothing but respect for. But I’m bored with him. I don’t see anything new from him. I don’t see a character evolving.”
That last part is where Bischoff really dug in. He isn’t arguing Roman has stopped making WWE money. He thinks WWE has simply found something that works and kept it there. For Bischoff, that’s become “maintenance” instead of evolution. Bischoff doesn’t need Roman to disappear. He wants Roman to change.
“We’re not seeing any evolution. We’re seeing maintenance, and it’s good. It’s definitely working from a financial perspective. So there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s just nothing compelling about it. And there’s no evolution to the character. Until and unless there’s an evolution in his character, in the way he’s being presented and the stakes or the opportunity, I’m just not interested anymore because I’ve seen it all. There’s just nothing different.”
This whole mess started on the August 4 episode when Conrad called Reigns an “industry plant” and argued WWE spent years forcing him into the top spot until fans eventually accepted him. He even compared Roman to Goldberg, saying Reigns essentially works a longer version of the same kind of match. After that entire rant, Conrad turned to Bischoff expecting resistance: “I agree.”
Two words were enough to start a week’s worth of arguments. Now Bischoff has made his position even harder to misunderstand. Roman can still be a huge attraction. WWE can still make plenty of money with him. And Bischoff can still change the channel when he isn’t interested.
“That doesn’t mean that he’s, number one, not valuable, and number two, it doesn’t mean that I can’t be bored with it. It’s just those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
A fan asked Bischoff to apologize for criticizing Roman Reigns. Instead, Bischoff doubled down, called the character stale and essentially told WWE what it’ll take to win him back. That’s probably not the apology Roman fans were looking for.
Has Roman Reigns really stopped evolving, or does Eric Bischoff have this completely wrong? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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