Though MJF is currently going strong as the AEW World Champion, with his “Reign of Terror” up to 208 days and counting, fans still wonder whether or not the Long Island native will make the jump to WWE like Blair Davenport, Cody Rhodes, William Regal, and Eric Bischoff before him.

On paper, the union makes some sense; MJF is the top guy in AEW, a premier worker, and one of the best talkers of his generation; put him in front of the biggest crowds of his career and see if his “I'm Better Than You And You Know It” schtick works as a member of the biggest promotion in professional sports. If it does, MJF has the potential to become wrestling's next great crossover star, an option that doesn't appear to be present in AEW. And if it doesn't? Well, MJF would likely be right around 30 when his contract came to an end, and he'd be able to go right back to what he's doing right now as the top heel on the indies.

Sitting down with Ariel Helwani to discuss MJF and more, Bischoff went above and beyond to complement the current AEW Champion's abilities, calling him a “stand out” among the company's young stars.

“I think the world of MJF as a talent. I like him as a person,” Bischoff said. “I’ve crossed paths with him a number of times, and I can’t say enough great things about his talent. I don’t know what MJF’s goals are. We’ve never had that kind of a conversation, but if I’m Tony Khan, I’m gonna work pretty hard to keep MJF on my roster. I’m gonna have to because if you look at that roster, there’s not a lot of other talents that are anywhere close to MJF in terms of overall ability and connection [to the crowd]. There’s a lot of great wrestlers there, athletes, there are. Chris Jericho, he’s in the down side of his career. He’s 53, 54 years old. Bryan Danielson, he’s kind of a part-timer at this stage of his life. But if you look at the younger crop of regularly featured talent that you have in AEW, three-quarters of them could walk through any mall in America, and nobody would know who they are. MJF stands out. He’s gotten himself here. So I’d do whatever I had to do to keep him.”

Asked if he thinks MJF can perfectly transition into the WWE sphere, which has been a topic of debate since the idea of the “Bidding War of 2024″ was introduced, Bischoff gave the AEW World Champion a vote of confidence, saying he's just too smart not to make it work.

“He’s awful smart, so yeah. You have to be smart. You can’t go in there, 24 years old thinking you’re God’s gift to the wrestling industry with a chip on your shoulder,” Bischoff said. “I don’t think that’s really MJF, that’s the MJF that he wants you to see, but I have had enough conversation with him to know that he’s really, really, really smart, and my guess is he’s smart enough to be able to easily move on to that WWE roster if that’s what he chooses to do.”

Would MJF actually work in WWE? Would he be happy to follow the guidelines Paul “Triple H” Levesque set out for him, including a much heavier work schedule on the house shows circuit, in the hopes of being the top guy in the top promotion in the world? Or would he regret the decision when he becomes the “rich” heel stuck in a feud for months with Matt Riddle, where “The Original Bro” ultimately goes over in the end? Fans will have to wait until 2024 to find out.

Can MJF learn from Bret Hart's experience in WCW?

In a recent edition of his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff discussed another top star, in this case, Bret Hart, jumping from WWE to WCW and why the move really didn't work well in the career of “The Hitman.”

Though there's clearly a lot that goes into such a situation, Bischoff believes the biggest issue was the promotion's lack of a clear plan for how to use him.

“It was a combination of a lot of things, the least of which is I didn’t have a great plan. I’m going to put myself at the head of the list of things that went wrong, and not kind of blame anybody else. Because that was my job, that was my responsibility. But I think that there were other things going on that affected it and made it worse frankly. I’m not going to blame anybody, you know,” Bischoff said via TJR.

“It was just bad timing, lack of a good plan, lack of a great plan, and just a lot of other things that were taking place in Bret’s life that just made it worse. It just is what it is.”

Widely considered one of the best pure wrestlers in the world, one would assume it would be very difficult to mess up booking Hart after the Montreal Screwjob, and yet, Bischoff and company did just that, taking away what made him special and using him as a referee for no reason in particular; hmm, maybe there's a lesson in there for MJF?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF_cD1bXLus