On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff addressed the report that Dominik Mysterio is frustrated by the gap between his standing as AAA Mega Champion and his comedy programming with Danhausen on WWE television. You can check out his comments below:
On the two audiences:
“Well, I was never faced with anything like this, because obviously WWE owns both companies, but there are two separate audiences. I don’t know this, but the AAA product is decidedly a much different product. At least what I’ve seen of it over the years, it’s different psychology, different characters. The audience for AAA reacts differently to different things than a typical American audience. At least they did. So I can understand why there’s one style of creative for AAA and a different use case scenario for a character like Dominik.”
On understanding the frustration:
“I can also understand from the character’s perspective that it feels like one step forward and two steps backwards sometimes, particularly if the character being portrayed in WWE programming, Raw, SmackDown, whatever, is a lot different than the character being portrayed in AAA. So I understand it. I was never faced with it. Sitting here right now, I wouldn’t know how to manage that.”
On the cushion momentum gives you:
“I’ve experienced it with the nWo. There were points in time when, regardless of how stupid of a mistake we had made creatively, or poor judgment we’d executed creatively, or a chance that I decided to take creatively — no matter how bad it failed, it didn’t really slow us down. You just chalk it up to a learning experience and move on and knock the hell out of it next week, and you’re right back to where you were. You’re a little bulletproof when you’ve got a lot of momentum behind you. It’s when you’ve stalled, when you don’t have momentum, you’re on a little bit of shaky ground in terms of your audience. That’s when you really have to be careful with the character.”
On the crossover question:
“I’m guessing that 90% of the AAA audience doesn’t even pay attention to Raw and SmackDown, and probably an equal number really don’t pay attention to AAA. So it gives you the ability to have essentially one person playing two different types of characters. If what I just said is not true, and there’s significant crossover, then you’re going to have to start making some creative decisions based on one person who’s key in both organizations.”
On the money on a pole match:
“We’re talking about AAA and lucha libre. My God, if that is not human animation in action, I don’t know what is. The human money on a pole match is not my idea of a great idea. You know how I feel about gimmick matches. There’s nothing different about this one, other than it will probably be far more entertaining than most gimmick matches because of Danhausen. But is it that much of a stretch from some of the stuff you see typically in AAA? Is it that crazy? I’m asking the question, because I don’t watch a lot of AAA. I used to watch a significant amount of it, but it was always kind of over the top, goofy as hell to me. Maybe that’s changed. But unless it’s changed, this human money on a pole match feels more AAA than it does WWE in some respects. I think it’s so easy for us to go, oh, we’re treating him like crap because he’s in a gimmick match. How many gimmick matches do we see in AAA? I think we tend to overthink because we want to be smart. We want people to respect our opinions when we give them. Sometimes we try a little too hard and we outsmart ourselves.”
On whether Mysterio is overreacting:
“I think he’s sensitive because he’s in a tough situation. I think he’s probably trying to navigate it, and there’s probably a degree of frustration, but I think he’s probably overreacting. He’s got so much talent. Is this an awkward position for him to be in? No doubt. But Dominik has so much talent, and when you’ve got the ability to get heat and you’re good at it — this is a cornball kind of gimmick match, it is. That doesn’t mean that someone like Dominik can’t make it work for him. He’s a heel. He could make it really work for him, and it won’t ding his career or his trajectory in any way, shape or form. So I just don’t see it as being the big challenge that some people do.”
On why he isn’t worried:
“That is so common. But really good talent, and I think Dominik is in that category, they find a way to make it work. If you look at it as a challenge for Dominik, because of where his head is at personally — he’ll find a way to make it work for him, because he has the talent. And I think six months from now nobody will be talking about it, because he will have moved on and he will have heat.”
