Eric Bischoff weighed in on the now-infamous promo segment between Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair during a recent episode of 83 Weeks, sharing his candid take on what went wrong, and why the segment came across as awkward and uncomfortable to many viewers.

Addressing the widely criticized exchange, Bischoff did not mince words. “I do not think too deep beyond what I see and feel. I am not interested in the conspiracy theories and all the internet chatter… I just thought it was awkward,” he admitted. While he is often accused of defending WWE no matter what, Bischoff acknowledged that this particular moment might be an exception. “I know I am often criticized for just putting WWE over at every opportunity. And truthfully, I do because there is not a lot to criticize. This interview may be the exception [chuckles].”

Bischoff speculated on several possible reasons for the misfire, including a lack of chemistry between Stratton and Flair, limited rehearsal time, or Stratton’s inexperience. “They have not worked together long enough. Perhaps they did not get time to really work through this the way you would like to. Or perhaps — and more likely — Tiffany’s green.” He continued, offering his perspective as a seasoned producer. “Regardless of the contents of that interview, she was really forced and it felt very awkward… You are kind of reading body language, you are listening to the pace of the delivery, right? If it is very mechanical, almost like an AI voice, that is nerves. That is just somebody that is trying so hard not to forget what to say that whatever they do say comes up very choppy and just unnatural.”

From Bischoff’s standpoint, the segment began to unravel quickly, and Stratton’s nervous energy took over. “I think that things started falling apart and for whatever reason… you have heard about ring rust. We all kind of know what that is. Wrestling [is] obviously the same when it comes to the physical part, we can all relate to that. But here is the part that you cannot relate to unless you have been in the spot — and that is out there live in front of people… with what is often a fairly heavy dose of narrative for live. Most of the time, they all handle it well. This time they did not.”

He made it clear he was not interested in backstage drama or speculation. “I do not know what the drama is backstage, I just do not care. It is not interesting to me. It is just not where my head goes, right. But again, producer Eric says she is not ready for that kind of pressure.”

Turning his focus to Charlotte Flair, Bischoff expressed that even a seasoned performer like Flair is not immune to rust. “Charlotte’s been off for a while, and she’s got her own version of ring rust. Not physically, but until you have been in that spot and stood there on top of a little box like a top of a wedding cake, surrounded by — oh, I do not know, ten, fifteen, 20,000 people, you might not know how that feels.”

To illustrate his point, Bischoff recalled a recent moment from his own career. “When I did my little appearance in NXT in December… my promo was pretty easy. There was nothing complicated about it. In fact, it looked so easy on paper that I went, ‘Okay, got this.’” But despite three decades of experience, Bischoff still had a momentary lapse during the live segment. “I’m about halfway through, and I could not for the life of me remember my line… Ridge [Holland], to his credit, saw what was going on. And he jumped in and improvised, and got us through the rest of the promo… He saved my ass.”

Bischoff concluded his thoughts with empathy and realism. “So gee, I have only been doing this at a pretty high level for over 30 years, and I froze up like it was the first or second time I ever did it. I only say that because I do think Charlotte struggled. We know she can cut a promo, so it is not like, ‘Gee, has she forgotten how? What happened?’ What happened is she has not done it in a while. Tiffany’s green, and it just unraveled. That’s my take.”