WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff is yet another person within the wrestling industry who wasn’t a fan of Becky Lynch’s line about Ozzy Osbourne and his hometown of Birmingham, England on Monday’s episode of “WWE Raw” live from the city. During Lynch’s promo with Nikki Bella, Lynch said that “the only thing good that came out of the city died months ago,” and if she “lived in Birmingham, she’d die too.” The line upset Osbourne’s daughter, Kelly, and WWE is reportedly embarrassed by the line. Despite his catchphrase of “controversy creates cash,” Bischoff said on his “83 Weeks” podcast that the line went too far, too soon. He called it cheap heat.
“This to me was, ‘Who wrote that?'” Bischoff questioned. “Does she not have a writer? Did she just come up with that on her own? Or did she have a writer who wrote that and somebody didn’t throw a flag? Not like someone like Ozzy should be off limits for a joke, although for me, personally, if it was my company, I wouldn’t want to have done it or have my talent do it, whether I had a relationship with that person or not, because there’s a lot of fans out there that had a relationship with Ozzy. Why piss them off? It’s not going to do you any good. That’s cheap heat, meaning you don’t get anything back for it.
Bischoff dared WWE to come up with something better and more creative, not something just for the sake of heat that wouldn’t pay off. According to Bryan Alvarez on “Wrestling Observer Live,” WWE is considering offering a public apology over the line, though questioned if that would actually ever happen given the company’s track record.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “83 Weeks” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
