What Eric Bischoff sees, at this very moment, are leading indicators that AEW is headed in a potentially irreversible direction, at least according to the advice he received years back.

“What I’m seeing in terms of ratings [and] ticket sales [is that] you’re losing the good will,” he explained “The audience is voting with their remotes and they’re voting with their pocketbooks and they’re losing ground.”

As with any valid critique, if you’re going to point out the perceived negatives, it’s only fair to offer potential solutions in turn and Bischoff didn’t shy away from as much. As AEW approaches television rights negotiations, he advised Khan shifts his focus from expanded content to the quality of their creative, and to use that very effort openly in the negotiation room.

“I think it’s critical,” Bischoff opined. “If I was Tony and I wasn’t feeling secure in my renewal position, my negotiation position, I’d be cutting back on content and beefing up my creative, and coming to those meetings with a plan of how I’m going to grow my audience.”

Failure to make such an adjustment could be catastrophic according to Bischoff, who closed out his point with a fitting analogy of AEW to a piece of real estate.

“The trajectory that they’re on right now is a beach house on a beautiful piece of property and the foundation is cracking,” he said. “The house is starting to tilt. It hasn’t collapsed yet but fewer and fewer people are interested in renting that piece of property or in this case, watching that property. Not good.”