WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff believes WWE’s biggest storytelling misstep on the road to SummerSlam was asking fans to simply “pretend” Brock Lesnar’s retirement never happened.
Bischoff pointed to Lesnar taking off his gear and walking away, only to reverse course days later with no on-screen explanation, as the moment the Oba Femi feud started feeling shaky.
Speaking on the 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff stressed he is not trashing the match itself. His issue is that WWE made major turns without giving viewers enough reason to follow along.
I like to look at things in the most simplistic way first. Let’s go back to the confusing beginning of Oba and Brock when Brock took off his stuff and retired and then just unretired two days later or whatever it was,” Bischoff said.
We Need Evil Cody *New Episode* 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff
To Bischoff, that fast-moving retirement angle asked fans to forget it ever happened.
No reason, no explanation, just pretend that didn’t even happen and we move on to okay where we are today,” he said.
Bischoff did leave room for reasons fans may not know about. He floated the possibility that TKO, timing, or Lesnar’s own emotions played a part, and wondered whether WWE is saving a real retirement moment for later given Lesnar’s Minnesota roots.
What if he retires for real this time? What if he pulled the trigger, got emotional, jumped the gun? Instead, we’re going to see it this time. I don’t know. Maybe,” Bischoff said.
Oba Femi’s King Of The Ring Decision
The second layer of Bischoff’s complaint is Oba Femi turning down his King of the Ring title shot to chase Lesnar instead. That decision broke from the usual expectation of a tournament winner cashing in against Roman Reigns.
And yes, this is a departure from the norm, I guess, for those people who are really dialed into this type of thing and watching the creative closely and the things that work and the things that don’t work,” Bischoff said.
He praised WWE’s branding of King of the Ring but warned that repeatedly changing its value could damage the tournament long-term.
If it’s a temporary thing, if it’s a pattern, then yeah, I think long term you’re going to be affecting the branding or the positioning or just the structure, the inherent inferred structure that provides stakes that people can understand,” Bischoff said.
Femi and Lesnar are set to collide inside Hell in a Cell at WWE SummerSlam PLE. Bischoff isn’t calling it a bad match, only saying WWE skipped storytelling steps the audience needed to buy in.