The Bischoff podcast tour needs a new setlist

If you have been keeping up with the podcast circuit lately, you know exactly what the schedule looks like. We hit Monday, and Eric Bischoff is out here cutting a promo on why Cody Rhodes as a babyface champion has officially lost its luster. Yesterday it was a rant about how listening to the internet is a one-way ticket to booking purgatory. I get it, Eric. You miss the days of Nitro when Ted Turner was writing the checks, but the business has changed in ways that don't always align with your golden era of 1996.

The latest target for his ire is the Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi saga. Bischoff correctly points out that this clash has been clunky, though his analysis usually stops at complaining about the lack of narrative depth. As Wrestling Inc reported, the criticism hits on a real issue: this feud feels like a video game match generated by an algorithm with zero actual heat. When the Beast Incarnate is involved, you expect a car crash. Instead, we are getting a fender bender in a library parking lot.

The creative accountability problem

While Bischoff is playing his greatest hits, folks like Vince Russo and Jonathan Coachman are beating a different drum: the total lack of creative accountability. It is easy to point at ratings and scream that someone should be fired, but pinning the blame on a single writer for a stagnant mid-card program is like blaming the caterer for a bad script. The truth is somewhere between Russo’s scorched-earth rhetoric and Nick Khan’s dismissive attitude toward the online discourse.

The issue isn't that WWE listens to the internet too much; it is that they are listening to the wrong parts. They are reacting to short-term reactions while ignoring the long-term character arcs that actually put butts in seats. Speaking of long-term planning, there is a weird persistent rumor that WWE is looking to pivot The Rock into a spotlight for a potential Saudi Arabia event as outlined by the folks at Ringside News. It is a massive draw, but it feels like a band-aid on a gunshot wound if the actual weekly stories aren't landing.

Missing the point on modern storytelling

One of the more bizarre takes floating around is that the product is failing because guys like Sami Zayn are being booked in ways that don't satisfy the legends of the past. Jimmy Hart recently popped up to drop advice on Sami, which is sweet and all, but let's be real—the game has moved on from managers in flashy jackets pointing at the ring. The talent is there, but the connective tissue between the segments is often bone dry.

Even the historical stuff is getting weird. We found out recently about potential plans to resurrect the NWO inside the ThunderDome era—a terrifying thought that mercifully never happened. Bischoff correctly noted he was blindsided by that one, which is probably for the best. Sometimes the best booking decision is the one that stays in the trash can. We are 3 days away from the World Cup kickoff, and the sports world is about to get a whole lot louder. If WWE doesn't tighten up their storytelling, they are going to get completely buried by the noise.

At the end of the day, Bischoff is right that WWE owes a debt to the WCW rivalry that built the 90s, but he is dead wrong to act like the current roster is just a collection of confused kids. Cody Rhodes is doing fine despite the cynical takes; the real problem is a lack of stakes. We need more than just "I'm a wrestler and I want your belt." We need the kind of venom that made us care about the product in the first place, not just legends critiquing the lack of it from a microphone in a studio.