When news broke that Charlotte Flair suffered a series of injuries that would leave her out of action for the foreseeable future, it left fans wondering how WWE would address the loss of one of the brand's top stars regardless of age, brand, or gender.

Would WWE opt to elevate a younger star to a more expansive role to fill “The Queen's” shoes, replacing Flair with someone like former NXT Champion Tiffany Stratton or free agent signing Jade Cargill, who has yet to officially align herself with any brand or wrestlers in particular despite signing with the promotion a few months ago? Or would WWE go back to a more proven star, giving a bigger role to someone like Bayley or Becky Lynch, who have headlined huge shows for the promotion in the past?

How about a little bit of both? That's right, on his Strictly Business podcast, Eric Bischoff suggested WWE could have its cake and eat it too by signing none other than Mercedes Mone, aka WWE's Sasha Banks, to fill Flair's shoes and play a role in some of the biggest Premium Live Events of the 2024 calendar year.

“I tend to look at things analytically, or I try, so if I'm Sasha Banks, here's what I'm excited about, or Mercedes Mone, either one. [I'm] equally as excited for both, because she's got a great relationship. She has an established market value. There's anticipation, she's obviously got a fan base,” Eric Bischoff said via Wrestling Inc. “Oh, and Charlotte's down for a while. That creates, oh what's it called – opportunity. You've got all that over here [in WWE] on this side of the equation … If either [Sasha Banks or Mercedes Mone], or both of them, decided they wanted to make a move to AEW currently, does that make any sense at all? I think not, but maybe I'm wrong. She's gotten the leverage, and if Sasha Banks wants [or] Mercedes wants to just go do her thing somewhere and ride it out at AEW until whatever happens, happens, be a part of a big resurgence perhaps, or be on the ship when it goes down, that would be a really bad choice. There's too much money on the table. She's too smart to make not smart decisions.”

Whoa, now that's a very interesting idea, as Mone has produced incredible moments for WWE in the past and, after failing to ink a new deal with New Japan, AEW, or TNA, she is free to agree to a new deal with The Fed, even if her asking price is reportedly very high. If WWE wants to make headlines, earn positive reactions from fans, and experience a similar reaction to the return of CM Punk at an albeit smaller level, why not sign up the former Superstar and bring her back in a huge way at the 2024 Royal Rumble? As Bischoff pointed out, the results could prove fantastic.

Eric Bischoff explains the landscape for AEW if WBD lands RAW.

Elsewhere in his podcasting empire, Eric Bischoff touched on one of the other biggest topics in professional wrestling heading into 2024, AEW's media rights deal with Warner Brothers Discovery, a multi-national corporation that has reportedly opened up discussions with WWE regarding RAW‘s media rights.

If WBD opts to sign up WWE or simply chooses not to renew AEW, what does the landscape look like for Tony Khan's company? In Bischoff's opinion, the landscape doesn't look too good.

“Let me make it simple. If in fact, they lose WBD, Warner Brothers Discovery, if they're no longer part of that platform. I'm not sure where they're going to go. It's going to be a smaller cable outlet. I don't see a big cable outlet [picking them]. And this whole thing with Paramount and WBD, that's such a wildcard. I can't even begin to imagine what kind of variables that's gonna throw into the equation. It could be really good for AEW. Whenever that is, the Paramount WBD thing if it actually becomes a reality. Because it's too soon to know if it's real or not. But if it becomes a reality, and there's a merger there, it can either be the absolute stake through the heart of AEW, or it can be the golden ticket. We don't know. But in a case where it's not the golden ticket, and AEW finds itself on the outside looking in, and WWE is now the television partner for Paramount WBD or whatever that ends up looking like,” Eric Bischoff explained via SE Scoops.

“I don't know where Tony's gonna go. Because the world is getting so small. Vertical integration, you're looking at probably two or three companies that own everything. Where are you going to go? What cable outlet are you going to go to that isn't owned by NBC Universal, Paramount. Where are you going and what do you have to sell? Not much. Here's what you get to sell, ‘Hey, we were on Turner for five years and prime time. Over the last five years, our audience has deteriorated. But we want to be on your network.' I don't want to sell that. I wouldn't want to be the person assigned to try to sell that story.”

So, if WWE has its programming on NBC, The CW, and Warner Bros. Discovery, where would that leave AEW? Would they try to go to Disney, be it on FX, ESPN 2, or even Hulu? Or could they instead try to take SmackDown‘s spot on Fox albeit at a lower price point? Either way, while there are options, they are somewhat more limited.