Eric Bischoff Believes AEW Have 'Diminished The Perception' Of CM Punk

Eric Bischoff believes All Elite Wrestling have 'diminished the perception' of CM Punk by not having him do anything on weekly television.

Punk made his long-anticipated return to wrestling following a seven-year self-imposed exile with AEW back in August, and has since wrestled five matches for the promotion, winning each of them.

The Second City Saviour can often be seen doing commentary or backstage interview segments during AEW television shows and Bischoff feels AEW have made a mistake with Punk by believing he's 'so over' that all they need to have him do is show up.

Speaking on his 83 Weeks Podcast, Bischoff said: "You had all this anticipation. ‘Punk is coming. Bryan Danielson is coming. This guy’s coming. This girl’s coming. This is going to be great.’ They came, they saw, and nothing really happened. They got a big pop, yay!. The crowd reacted. That was awesome. The crowd reacted. They sold a bunch of T-Shirts, even better. Now what?

"There’s no, ‘Now what?’ It’s not episodic. That’s the example, ‘Yay, I’m going to tune in.’ How many people tuned into Rampage when Punk showed up, 1.3 (million)? How many showed up three weeks later?  500,000. Why’s that? Because you didn’t give them a reason to come back. That’s why.

"I think it’s a mistake to put Punk on such a pedestal that you think he’s so over that all he has to do is show up and sprinkle Punk dust on his opponent and that Punk dust will elevate his opponent. I’m not taking anything away from Punk. I think Punk, the way he’s being used now, and this is constructive criticism, I think they’ve diminished the perception. There was great equity in that perception.

"He shows up, does a great promo, gets a great reaction, and does pretty much nothing. ‘Punk is coming, yay! Punk is here, yay!’ Punk showed up and Punk’s not doing anything. Again, I’m not putting myself over, but compared to Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, because I’m not the one that did it first, Punk did. But Scott Hall and Kevin Nash showed up immediately was in a story and that sh*t went through the roof and stayed that way for a long time.

"But showing up, getting that big pop, he’s here, and then having nothing going on for two or three weeks in a row doesn’t help Punk. It doesn’t help the product."

H/T WrestlingNews.co