Former WCW executive Eric Bischoff has never shied away from the criticism he has for AEW since its launch five years ago. Recently, AEW CEO Tony Khan secured the rights to use Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Guns N’ Roses’ iconic track, “November Rain,” for a video package ahead of Full Gear this weekend. The video package played during AEW’s most recent episode of “AEW Collision” and this week’s “AEW Dynamite.” Following the package was an eight-man tag team match that previewed what could be the outcome at Full Gear between Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita and Ricochet for the International Championship, respectively. Such big moves like this prompted Bischoff to commend Khan and AEW for taking significant risks, which he hopes will pay off after the pay-per-view.
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“I gotta say hats off to at least attempting [an] interesting open. I’m not going to say it was great, but they at least made an attempt to do something different,” Bischoff noted on his “83 Weeks” podcast. “The opening match, again, wasn’t great, but at least they tried to do something different.”
So far, ten matches have been confirmed for this year’s Full Gear, including record-setter Jon Moxley defending his AEW World Championship against Orange Cassidy in what undoubtedly will be a paradigm shift for the company, should Moxley retain. Since winning the title for the fourth time against Bryan Danielson at WrestleDream in October, Moxley has vowed to reconstruct AEW in his image. Meanwhile, for the first time since 2019, Bischoff will exercise creative control for MLW’s final event of the year, One Shot, on December 5.
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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “83 Weeks” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
