83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business #17: Darren Rovell on the possibility of betting on the WWE

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

This week on Strictly Business, Eric and Jon are joined by Darren Rovell of the Action Network to talk all about the possibility of GAMBLING on Pro Wrestling. Special thanks to this week's sponsors! Manscaped Right Tools- Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code WRESTLEBIZ at Manscaped.com. Empiraa- Sign up now and receive free onboarding, your first 14 days for free, and 24/7 support. Get ahead of the game and save 20% on your subscription by using the code 'wrestlebiz' at checkout. Launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before. Visit www.empiraa.com/eric today and start your journey to success! FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com Get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9 over on AdFreeShows.com. That's less than 15 cents an episode each month! You can also listen to them directly through Apple Podcasts or your other regular podcast apps! AdFreeShows.com also has thousands of hours worth of bonus content including popular series like Title Chase, Eric Fires Back, Conversations with Conrad, Mike Chioda's Mailbag and many more! Plus, live, interactive virtual chats with your favorite podcasts hosts and wrestling legends. All that and much more! Sign up today at AdFreeShows.com! If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Strictly Business. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with Strictly Business. Get all of your Strictly Business merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks 0:05 START 0:30 INTRODUCING Darren Rovell 6:00 Regulations in US Gambling around non sport outcomes 8:18 WHO knows what's happening in WWE 9:15 HOW does Darren know Nick Khan 9:55 HOW MANY people watching NFL are gambling? 13:25 The SPEED at which mainstream sports adapted to sports betting 15:27 Is this a REAL possibility? 17:59 WHY CO and MI 18:53 WWE's Draftkings deal 21:12 IS there an appeal from sports bettors? 22:00 Do sports bettors want to bet on the WWE? 25:00 LIVE Betting 25:56 ONE match every night that isn't scripted? 26:40 HOW could this even happen? 30:35 SHOCKED any state took bets on the Oscars 31:39 WOULD this hurt the artform of pro wrestling? 33:35 HOW could this effect the talent? 35:38 Was Darren Rovell a suspect in VKM's murder? 39:01 Memorabilia 41:04 Liquor laws in the US 44:37 This world feels FOREIGN 46:00 BREAK EMPIREAA 49:42 AEW PPV 50:11 SHOULD AEW have a 4th hour? 53:00 Does WBD see value in AEW having more content? 57:00 BREAK MANSCAPED 1:00:25 We are FOR SALE 1:00:50 WWE meeting with potential buyers 1:03:46 AFS 1:06:24 AEW's production crew 1:09:54 Do you want WWE to have gambling? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How's it going, everyone? It's time for another edition, a special Friday edition of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff, presented to you by ad-freeshows.com, the podcast, heat network, and impura.com. Imper, one of our favorite partners you're going to hear about in just a little bit here on Strictly Business. I am not alone, of course. I am joined as I am every single week by the man of the hour, Mr. Eric Bischoff. Eric, how are you, my friend? Rumor has it. We've got a very special guest today on Strictly Business. Indeed, we do it. I'm so excited about this. Darren Ravelle has been covering the business of sports, much like we cover the business of the wrestling business here at Strictly Business. But Jared's been covering the business of sports for a combined 18 years for both ESPN,

for 12 of that, and CNBC as well. The man knows the business of sports. He's also an avid wrestling memorabilia collector and an entrepreneur, and I can't wait, because given the headlines recently about WWE breaking into legalized gambling, it's going to be a fascinating conversation because I don't think anybody knows more about that world than our guest, Darren Rovell. Darren, there he is. How are you, man?

Hey, Eric, how are you? I am doing really well. And, like John, I want to thank you for joining us. I know it was relatively short notice, but really excited to have you here. We love breaking down the business of the wrestling business. And it sounds like your world. gambling, or at least a part of it, and our world, which is the business of the wrestling business, have kind of met in the middle here. It's pretty interesting, isn't it?

Yeah, well, I left the SPN in 2018 and went to the Action Network, where we're pretty much covering everything about the business of gambling and, you know, allowing people to make their picks based on data instead of their head. A lot of what I've been doing has been covering all these states and as the country, has, you know, now today we have Massachusetts where it's funny we're talking today because today is the first time in the history of our nation where 51% of our population can legally bet based on Massachusetts now being legal. But I've been covering kind of the states, how the states react, the gaming commissions. And so it's always been interesting to see what they will allow, what they

will not allow, and obviously seeing the wrestling headline, even though it is scripted from CNBC, that caught a lot of people in a tizzy this week. A tizzy is definitely the word. Darren referring to, of course, for those who may not have heard, CNBC and Alex Sherman were the first to report this week that WWE was in talks with state gambling regulators to legalize betting, specifically, I believe, is in Michigan and Indiana, if I'm not mistaken. And this is, they said Michigan and Colorado.

Colorado, thank you. My apologies. But both those commissions quickly said, well, there might have been a consultant involved here to talk about the possibilities. No one is actually, I mean, if you want a new sport to be entered in, so to speak, you need to have them actually petition. And they confirmed that there was not any petition made. Now, the WWE, for their part, hasn't said really anything, which means that, you know, I could totally see the fact that they're interested in this possibility. You know, gambling, legal gambling makes the world go round.

It's why, even though the NFL didn't admit it for so long, people are watching a meaningless game on Sunday night or Monday night because it matters to their pocket. And, you know, so with gambling being associated and being connected with interest, obviously this could be something. And then after the report came out, I was able to talk to enough people to figure out that the WWE was actively pitching to gambling organizations to get involved with the sponsorship potentially and figure out whether this could be done. During, I put my toe in the water in legalized gambling about, oh, eight or ten years ago, but internationally. We were aggregating IP, David Hasselhoff, for example, and we would skin digital slot machines that were distributed in the UK primarily through William Hill. And we got well into that. We partnered up with some big companies like William Hill, one of the biggest, I think, in the UK. and soon found out that the regulations, the regulatory issues were our biggest hurdle, because they changed constantly.

If WWE were to proceed, how complex would it be if they wanted to do something nationally to work with all the different states? Because I would imagine each one of them has its own nuanced regulations. Okay, so let's go back to what it would actually take. The W.W.E in their back talks had basically made this akin to the Oscars or the Grammys. For so long, the Oscars and the Grammys were for just party purposes only. Vegas, which would allow plenty of things, would never, Nevada, the Gaming Control Board there, would never allow gambling on the Grammys or the Now, why? Well, because even though it's audited by Pricewaterhouse Cooper or Ernst & Young, there is one person who knows about it. There's at least one, and they don't want that to

compromise anything. So that's why, since the beginning of legal time, it has been all about something that is a game of chance that has to be determined on the field of play. So even for a long time, Nevada would not allow the coin flip in the Super Bowl, presumably because even though there was a chance on the flip, there was someone still controlling it. Now, they eventually got over that and it's the odds of the heads or tails. And they've recently come around to the Grammys and the Oscars after feeling good that, you know, nothing can be compromised. But there are still things that few people, very few people, are in control of that these gaming control boards do not want to engage in putting up odds because there's people who know. For example, the national anthem in the Super Bowl, the length of the national anthem, the over and under.

Okay, so there are people who know the people who are around the rehearsals. Maybe there's five, maybe there's 20. I know having been at CNBC, having worked with NBC during Super Bowls, I'm standing on that platform, on that stanchion, and I know when they're rehearsing, I happen to be out there, I could take a stopwatch and figure it out. They haven't allowed, and I think it's really important to just talk about this as a background. They haven't allowed legally the order of the songs that the halftime performer is going to sing. Why? There's a rehearsal and there's people who know. The sponsor of the halftime show gets 100 tickets to watch the rehearsal. That's 100 possibilities for it being compromised. So the only people, the only organizations that are taking bets are often the offshore books that don't have the regulations. And when they take the bets, they present them, they prevent themselves from being completely compromised by not allowing you to bet that much. Which brings us to the WWE. how many people are privy to what is going to happen now i'm very well aware of and you're more well aware of on the inside what happens when there there are scripts that are changed until the

last minute there are things that are changed but for the most part there's someone or many people the tv partners the execs even if it's vince and a couple people uh there are There's a bunch of people, especially in the big events, WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, that definitely know and have to know. And so if you were to care this much about gambling, the process and who knows and how you can prove that only those people know would have to change dramatically. Now, you know Nick Kahn, in fact,

how do you tell the story? How do you know Nick? I was one of the youngest people ESPN ever hired, and I was with another agent out of the gates when I was 22 years old, and Nick came after me, and he was at ICM at the time and said, I want to represent you, and I believe in you, and I believe in the business of sports. And I think in 2004, I went with him, and then he went to CIA, and then obviously did an incredible job in negotiations, not only made me a lot of money, but made a lot of people money. And, you know, just it's so great to see him where he is at the WWE. Do you have any in the data that you've compiled, going back now to the NFL, shift the gears for just a second. We all kind of know anecdotally that, yes, gambling, legalized gambling on sports

certainly makes sports a lot more interesting even for passive viewers, but active gamblers, right? Is there any data that supports, for example, what percentage of people are watching Monday night football, for example, that are really only watching it because of legalized gaming? Is there any data that points to a suggestion of what percentage that might be? I think it's too early still. You know, you can't really build all the trends over a really like a two-year period of time, three-year period of time. But you can look at the core tiles of the TV ratings and you can see how many people are still watching in a meaningless game. And you can also see, despite what the NFL has said previously, that Nevada, Las Vegas, is in the top

five to ten markets. Now, they had always been. This was before the Las Vegas Raiders even came. So clearly, betting is a big part of things. Now, what's interesting about the NFL is that they still tell their announcers before every season, do not overtly talk about lines, totals, spreads, whatever, and then it always seems to be funny, and this is something that if you know my Twitter feed, I get very angry at, because I don't think it's funny, when the broadcasters say, well, that meant something to some of you. Like, enough, you're taking the money from all the gambling outfits, start talking about it. I don't need it to be 10 minutes of the game where someone who doesn't bet thinks it's intrusive. But to continue to,

think of it as something that is negative and shouldn't be uttered is really dumb. So the XFL and Dwayne the Rock Johnson has kind of taken that and said, you know what, we're going to bring in Doug Kazarian of ESPN and we're going to talk about the lines as they're happening in the game. But, you know, the interesting thing is if you think about the WWE and what they can do and what eventually can be done because there's been. some game cast broadcasts by notably NBC Washington and some of these stations where they're showing you the odds splits.

They're showing you how the odds, how the spreads are changing live. Very interesting. Now the NFL is doing none of it. Could the WWE, if you close your eyes and say they were able to get away with this, could you see a who's going to win based on a? live line of what is happening? Can that be more exciting? Instead of who's going to win, you voted on the WWE app, this is where the money is in the moment. And I think over the next couple of years, we are going to see a dramatic shift in how broadcast reports betting data

live and it is going to make it even more exciting. I want to follow up with you on that there, Darren, because that has been the most fascinating thing. I was in sports television for years. To see how quickly networks and leagues have embraced and mediated sports betting as part of their broadcast presentation or as part of just openly inviting fans to become of that process, even in a four or five years span, it went from taboo to embrace. What is your take on that in how quickly these organizations have taken to that and where that leaves us in the next few years? Well, it's almost comical, right? I mean, I was in Vegas when the Las Vegas Golden Knights became an expansion franchise. And I remember Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, saying, you know, we're not really that pleased that a mile from here or half a mile from here you can gamble on this game. And we're going to do what we can to ensure that that doesn't happen.

You know, and this is obviously, you know, before the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1982 was repealed. So it was before May 2018 where things really started to happen. And they were in Nevada where it was legal. And the NFL fought tooth and nail. Like, you know, we don't want this. This will compromise our sport, which never makes sense because anyone who knows gambling knows that if there's nefarious things going on, that clearly you can look at the bets being made and things that don't look right. And if it's legal, you're going to be able to tell.

If it's not legal, you won't. So remember that all these sports leagues opposed New Jersey's fight to allow states to make their own decisions. And it's almost, it's embarrassing to see, you know, like Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball go from this can't happen to, oh, we think this is going to help because baseball is the perfect sport for the speed that we have and the speed people live bet at. So for someone who's covered it from pre-2018 to now, it is the biggest flip ever, but of course it makes sense in the name of the almighty dollar. And I'm just curious, given your relationship with Nick Con, given WWE's foray into this world,

has Nick reached out to you? Are you consulting? Did he pick your brain? Anything? No, I talk to Nick all the time. As a good reporter, I reached out to him. He didn't respond to me, but I think that was probably strategic. You know, I think this is a WWI.

I am not part of this in any way. I did think when the first report came out that just from what I know, it would be nearly impossible to pull this off. When you think about what I just referenced where nothing is scripted, right, the national anthem and the time of the national anthem isn't necessarily scripted, but there's a rehearsal and that drives the gaming control boards mad and says you can't bet on this. to even know that there's a script of something, whether there's one or a hundred people who know, knowing the gaming control boards and how conservative they are, I don't think that is, you know, a possibility. And then you go to the sports books themselves. So, you know, there was a comment from, there was a big gaming conference this week.

And when this came out, Contessa Brewer of CNBC asked the chief marketing officer that MGM. whether they would take bets on wrestling. And I think he said NFW, which most people know what that stands for. And the reason why his reaction is so negative there is because it's not only the states that are worried about being compromised. It's the sports books, right? So if we are going to be offering wrestling, we have to be able to really. offer it. We can't say, oh, your limit is $10. Because if the WWE wants to do this, they want this to be more than just, hey, we're just doing it and we're dipping our toe in the water. They want you to

really be able to bet. And the bet MGM wants to be able to say, we offer this, not as a novelty, but we offer this to really bet on it. And so he says NFW because I think the juice is not worth the squeeze here where it's just you could see that it's just too easy to be compromised. Now, what's interesting is they mentioned Colorado and Michigan. Those are states that normally are a little bit more lenient in terms of allowing things that, you know, they are both Oscars states. So they are one of probably eight states that allow Oscars betting. and each state has their own rules and has their own commissioners running things and their own board.

So I would say like the state of Massachusetts, which is now legal for online gaming starting today, they would no way in hell ever do this, ever, ever, knowing everything that they require all the operators to do. And so it's kind of a state-by-state thing, but I think the WWE would think that it would only be. be a big victory if they could get the majority and it wouldn't be a novelty just by virtue of being in one or two states. Given that I don't know anything about gaming or regulations or the gambling control boards, I don't know anything about your world. So some of these questions may seem a little naive. But is there a path that of least or less resistance if WWE really had their eye on

Fanduil or Draft Kings or a fantasy site like that is the process to bet easier? No, so they

have it, they have, the WVE now has a deal with Draft Kings which is basically a free to play deal.

The last time I looked at it is like can you guess all seven winners of Raw? And you can guess those. It's free to

play. So one of the ways around argue gambling is for these guys to use free to play where anyone can play, which also means that even if you don't, if you live in a state that doesn't have legalized gambling, you can play free to play games on these apps. Now, the operators love this because it's not legal in that state, but it gets you to download the app. So when it comes time for it to be legalized, then they have you. So draft Kings already has a deal, a free to play deal. And you actually don't get money, you get it back in Draft King's bucks or Draft King's dollars, which then converts

to money. That is how precarious it is right now, right? So there is a wrestling deal. It's a marketing deal. It's free to play. You can't win actual dollars. And so to go from there to we can actually take bets. It's not. Draft Kings and Fandul are, they are reliant on the gaming control boards to say yes. There can't be any side deal to do something where first wrestling has to be approved as a sport that they can take. And so in that way, it's free for everyone to post. So a marketing deal, as you're asking, doesn't really help if you're going to say, well, let's just do a one-sided deal with these guys and not worry about what the state has to say. Not possible.

So let me follow up with this then, Darren, from the perspective of sports gamblers who are ingrained in this every single day with Major League Baseball, the NFL, NHL, NBA, etc. How much of an appeal is there to break into that pro wrestling space? So I know the reaction on Twitter, I mean, you guys are obviously following more. wrestling people but the reaction on Twitter from the gambling people that I follow was oh give me a break here right like like no like no way but there are listen there are there are people who do not like a sport and then when they are told about that you can bet on it that changes things I do believe even though I just destroyed him I do believe that you know the game of baseball is relatively slow. They have the pitch clock, which is now helping. And then if you want to do microbedding,

which is not kind of like long-term betting, like who's going to win and who's going to lose, but what's going to happen in this inning? So let me tell. This is a funny one. I think you guys might laugh at. So there is kind of a new bet, which is called Nerfee, which is called no, which stands for no run first inning. And people and betters have been so impatient. with baseball that they're like, what happens if we bet whether there's going to be a run or not a run in the first inning? That's going to make it really exciting. And this turned into one of the most popular bets over the last year, the no run first inning. So like, and baseball is emboldened by that. Hey, someone who wasn't watching baseball at all, well, at least I'm going to watch the first inning.

So the idea behind betting and like, okay, now I'm not watching wrestling and now I can bet on it and now I'm going to watch it. The whole, what's funny about this is I always said, you know, it's very interesting. When Dana White and I have had our battles and, you know, we have, it's always over that the wrong person won because I'm thinking about it from a business marketing perspective, and I'm thinking about Amanda Nunez and it not being Holly Home or Rhonda Rousey or Chris Cyborg and Amanda Union is not that marketable and isn't it? shame that she's so good right and so in a way and then i also think about from the

w w from the ufc standpoint you the the guy who's controlling it the referee is a state employee he's not your employee do you realize how crazy that is that that when you're talking about chokeouts and life and death and all this and like how close they are that you that person's not an employee right so like all these things about the you UFC control, not control. And I always think about, man, it would be a lot easier for Dana White if this stuff was scripted. Their business could be so much.

But that's also why betting on UFC has been so compelling, right? With one move, someone goes from being a minus 300 favorite to a plus 200 dog. Or, you know, like literally that you could be winning the whole way. And this doesn't happen in basketball. When we're watching March Madness right now, a team's up by 20. 30 seconds later, they can't be down by five. That happens in the UFC. So like, and I'm always, as live betting gets to be bigger in this country.

So right now, about 70% of betting in Europe is live, which is amazing considering they have soccer and it's like what's really happening from second to second. But in football, like I bet 80% of my bets are live. And I'm trying to say, okay, in this moment, like, I don't think I'm getting pre-match. I don't think I'm getting, I don't know what the indication of whether these guys are going to come out hot, how they'll match up, how they're different with this personnel. I want to watch it. I want to see. And so it would be interesting. I always said that track and field, you know, that's a sport, right?

You have a 10,000 meter race. They're going around the track like 25 times. They recently canceled doing that in the Diamond League, in the pro. division because they're like it's too boring. And I'm like, wait a second. What happens if you throw live betting into that? And I'm saying the guy at the end eventually going to win. So the idea that betting is going to solve things and drives interest is certain. But how you would ever figure this out, I just don't know. The only thing I can think of that's crazy enough is I guess this won't work. But what happened? What happened?

happens if there's one fight a night that is, that, that, that is inscripted. And you got to go all for all. I don't know, but I don't know how that would go down. Like, how that would go down, you know, it would be ugly. It would be ugly. Yeah, they tried that once. And it was like, it didn't work. It was just ugly, horrible. It's a funny thing about watching wrestling when it's really, really good. It's because it's an art form. But if you watch two guys really go at it, it's just a cool looking bar fight. Right. Right. You know, without the technique that you see in the UFC for the most part.

Yeah, so if I was a betting man and I am a betting man, I just don't think this could have. I don't think under any scenario, even if only Vince knows and it's under lock and, well, only Vince knows, but the fighters have to know. Okay, so that's three. How many people, let's discuss this, how many people at a minimum have to know?

It's got to be the lowest you could get it down to is 20 probably. Yeah, I mean, you have to really think that through because wrestling is episodic. You have to know what you're going to do the next night. You have to know what you're going to promote the next night. I mean, it would really require just a massive overhaul in terms of the process. I mean, you could easily, let's say it's John and I in the main event. And we lay out, it's the same match, but it's a different finish. And we rehearse the two of us, our match.

where John wins, and then we rehearse our same match with my finish, and I win. So the two wrestlers could conceivably get to the ring. They know what the body of the match is. They know what the story is. They know what the psychology is. The only thing they don't know walking to the ring is the finish. And you could hand them the finish right then and there. Right.

And, of course, the referee would have to know or whoever handed them. Right. You're Ernst and a young guy in a tuxedo, you know, hands him the envelope. But what I'm saying is that even the envelope has to be handed is. And printed. It is kind of the issue, right? So like in this year's Super Bowl, Molson Coors, which owns, you know, Miller Light, the Coors Light was like, okay, let's do a Super Bowl ad.

Everyone's on the edge of their seat. And we're going to do a free to play game. we're going to do a game where you are betting on will there be a cores light silver train bullet train or whatever will there will it be for cores light will it be for more like it's a brilliant idea when all these people have given away their Super Bowl ads and you're like oh I already saw this online on YouTube three days ago so it's a brilliant idea but when it came time to say oh and then they said even our CMO doesn't know because we've done five ads of this way and five ads of this way right the C same thing you just told me and still there we go and still it had to be free to play so it couldn't technically be a bet right and uh you know no gaming control board would even say yes you can do this where you can bet on this because one person has to know whether it's the guy pushing the button or whatever right so that's what makes it so crazy that you guys just told me Eric you just told me okay doesn't matter like we'll know at the very end it could even be a hand signal it could not even

someone in the audience could could go up or you know could go up or down for either one of you and that's the hand signal and it might not even be live betting right like there's no live betting it's already pre-match so everyone put their bets in but someone knew before the idea that someone knew before the match that someone was going to win someone was going to lose and that was predetermined. I think for 100% of the state gaming control boards, that's enough to say no. Yeah. Very interesting. And there's no way around that because, you know, I've never thought about this before, but no matter what kind of mechanism or design you come up with to keep everything confidential, somebody has to actually print the envelope. You know, somebody has to seal it.

It handed it. And then you've got the added confusion of going forward because wrestling is episodic and it's story driven, you kind of have to know what you're doing for the next couple of weeks or months, ideally, but it would be kind of hard to plan all that. You'd have to book two different storylines. I was surprised when a bunch of gaming control boards took on the Oscars. And that's something that is certified by accounting firms. And they even tell you how many people look at this and how many people this and that. Now, the way they got around it was, you can't really bet $25,000 on a particular actor to win.

So in that way, it's still a novelty. They allow it, but it's still a novelty. If the WWE were to do this, they would want it to be real because then it would really have a material impact on the business. They could sell a sponsorship for more bucks if the handle and the money coming into the sports books was more. So that also is the issue that let's say one state does take it. The max bet is going to be like $250, which means it's not real. I also think about the art form of it where the art form becomes compromised in a way

because this is so, as Eric said, episodic, where you box your stuff. in and Eric and I have spent so many weeks the past couple months here talking about listening to the crowd and how the crowd response often dictates where you take a story in pro wrestling. If you are locking things in like hypothetically you're locking in a Royal Rumble winner to go all the way through WrestleMania, you then lose that ability to, hey, how's the crowd reacting to this? And how can we adapt on the fly? That is totally gone. Do people inside the industry put any thought into elements like that when determining whether something like would be feasible? Well, I was shocked when I really started learning about wrestling. I was shocked

at how much was done on the fly. I never knew. Like, I thought it was more well predetermined, but then I've talked to people, you know, on the inside, and I can't believe how many changes are made the night of or the minute of or, you know, those changes are, are there because something happens or they think about the crowd or they think about something else and so the question for me becomes uh let's just play this out would a would a state like for it to be completely decided ahead of time or would they like for it to be determined by someone on the fly see to me neither works right because that person is still determined it, and that person could then change something based on, you know, him saying to someone else,

oh, don't, you know, yes, we see. And what would the, what would the, would the, would the gaming control board say, yes, this is scripted? Guess what? We must see your script. Hmm. And then you've got, and this has got nothing to do with the gaming side of it, the legal side of it, but this from a management side of it, now you've got two top talents. You got a Roman reins and a Cody Rhodes, go to the WrestleMania. presumably neither one of them know the finish they get to the ring they find out

somewhere during before during the match they find out the finish you have no idea how many hours are spent when you get to that level with a Roman reign's level I'm not saying it's Roman I've never dealt with Roman but generally when you get to talent that are at that level finishes

and outcomes and where the story is going is often a long protracted negotiation of weeks discussion it's it's that that's the other side of it just how manageable is this from an internal process things that would have to change you know start to set my hair on fire and Eric on top of that who's to say the two performers wouldn't go in there in the ring and change to finish on a fly on their own merit obviously there'd be consequences to that but what if one

of them was in on a bet yeah that's interesting because we just we came off the football season and in week 17, the Action Network prints out a list of guys who have incentives for either catches or more yards or whatever. So as, you know, so as to say, hey, we should let you know that this guy makes a million dollars if he has more than one sack. So or we should let you know, especially with a running back or a wide receiver, like, you know, maybe when they go into the huddle, this guy's going to call his own number and tell the what, tell the quarterback, well, I'll split it with you.

You know, so that that on the fly, actually, especially in the last week of the NFL season, knowing the incentives that these guys have, actually plays into gambling. Wow. Well, Darren, I can't thank you enough. I think we've covered the potential for WWE to break into wrestling. I'm not going to put any of my own money on that after talking to you. But before we let you go, I have to ask you this question. I asked you before about Nick Con and whether or not he reached out to you.

Do you think that perhaps it wasn't a strategic issue with regard to him answering your call? That perhaps it was because at one point in time, you were a suspect in the assassination of Mr. McMahon. I was. This is actually a great story. So I can't remember the year, but it was probably 2008-9. I'd have to look it up. But if you look at when I was at CNBC, if you look at the time, certainly the, the, the, W.E prospectus for an investor, it says the number one material risk of being an investor and what could follow is if Vince McMahon is no longer with the WWE. And so at that time,

that was when Mr. McMahon's limo was blown up and they were talking about whether he had lived or died. And I swear I wasn't trying to be an a-hole here. But from the standpoint of someone covering the business of sports, you know, there might have been people who did not understand the distinction between Mr. McMahon and Vince McMahon, the character and the executive. And so I just decided I was going to make a deal of it and said, listen, I think the SEC should ask the WBE if they think that this is appropriate. And they came back to me and they said we have it. we have a statement that I actually went by the news desk at CNBC.

Is it W.W.E. is going to be providing a statement on this thinking that it was going to be about the SEC and they should stop, they'll stop doing this, or say Mr. McMahon and Vince McMahon are two different people or, you know, whatever it is. And of course, in a classic Vince and W.W.E. style, they said we are looking into murder suspects. We don't know if he's dead or not, And the number one suspect is CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell. They actually issued their release, WWE logo, everything. And I read it. And I was like, this is, this is so good.

This is so good that they twisted it like that. And of course, they all moved on. And then we've recently had, the stock is flying. And Vince was gone for a while. Now he's completely back. And now we, of course, have the storylines of the potential sale on the way. Well, for what it's worth, Darren. I know.

I know it popped. That did not happen pretty much, like, right? Well, so I was just going to say real quick on your point, Donald Trump, this is a true story. Donald Trump called the day after Raw aired, he called the McMahon family to make sure that Vince wasn't actually dead. That's not true. It is a 100% true story. Oh, my God. So I think there was some merit to you actually putting that out there in the first place.

There could have been confusion. Oh, I do have the ticket from the, from the WrestleMania where the hair got cut for the Trump, the Trump McMahon hair. Well, you've got a bunch, you get a bunch of memorabilia. Tell us a little bit about what you like. Well, I do, listen, I do believe in old things that were, you know, not supposed to be opened or that we're supposed to be open that are not open. that are not opened. So I have about 25 LJN rubber wrestlers from 1985 to 1987,

which I've recently bought that are sealed. So these things, you know, the Hogan, the one that looks like him like this, you know, that wrapping on that seal was supposed to last for four to six weeks. And the fact that I'm on year 37, I feel good about it. But I think these are real legit investments, you know, so I have a Superfly Snuckus signed by him, you know, the actual sealed toy. And then I do collect tickets. So I have a full ticket from WrestleMania 1. Obviously, WrestleMania 3, which to me was for me, you know, the biggest. I have one ticket signed by McMahon, one ticket signed by Hogan. And then I do have that, the Trump McMahon, WrestleMania, too. Yeah, big ticket collector. Tickets are things that have natural scarcity because you've never know where to put them, right? Unlike cards, you know, these things went on bulletin boards and maybe in scrapbooks,

but for the most part, a lot of us threw them out. And so certainly in the last five years, as PSA, which grades cards, has started to grade tickets. I've invested heavily into it. And unlike cards, it relates to the moment. You see the ticket from WrestleMania 3. mean, it's so hokey. It's, you know, Pontiac Silverdome. And if you look at the ticket, the, the L, it said the word live is in there. And the L is actually upside down and backwards on all the tickets. And it's, that's so 1985. Like, you can't make that up. You know, like, no one noticed

and they printed 60,000 of them, you know? Wow. That's awesome. And I mentioned when we introed you, you're also an entrepreneur, you're in the beverage business. Tell us about that. Yeah, I got a, I got a canned cocktail called Kickstand Cocktails. It's the only cocktail whose chief differentiator is spice. Listen, I love, I love the business. It's amazing to participate in the sport of business. And to be in the canned cocktail space right now is you have to be certifiably crazy. But it's to try to figure out what the real game is. and how to win is is great fun. So that's one of the things we're doing.

You pick tough careers. You know, again, I put my toe in the water in the beer business with the idea in mind that I was going to distribute a branded beer nationally. And I found out after I spent a boatload of money that every state has its own liquor laws. Yep. And in some states, like the one I live in, in Wyoming, each county has versions of the state's liquor laws so distributing liquor is yeah i mean they're challenging one of the one of the keys for me that i've learned is you have to go into states try to go into states where uh you can get into supermarkets

because when people go into a liquor store they usually make a beeline for the two or three items they want when people go into supermarket they yes some people go with a shopping list but for the most part people have a very open mind about what they want And so you're actually going into places where you have a better chance, certainly as an upstart, if you can get into states with supermarkets. And these are the kind of things that you need to learn. You know, in Ohio, 20% of liquor stores are owned by Indians who don't drink. And so you come in and you say, hey, I invented this great can't cocktail, try it. I can't.

I don't drink. And I'm like, okay, well, who runs the inventory in this store? I do. What? And the first time I heard this, I was like, I have to leave this. I have to walk out the door because I am going to be really enraged. And I said it to myself so I didn't have to say it to the guy. I'm like, wait a second. This guy every day wakes up and goes into a store and he looks over things, none of which he knows about every single day. And then what happens if I sell you into this store? Wow, you like my branding. You think it's a good idea. sell you into the store customer comes in what does that taste like i don't know so like so like it's it's it's a it's a crazy it's a crazy game and some of the big boys i do believe they make bad product just to make bad product and to fill up the shelves and the floors just so that you can't get into it shelf space is everything it's it's everything well dear and i can't thank you

enough man it's you've you've classed up our act here by the way you've you've you've you've level this up so much that I'm really excited about it. But again, thank you so much, man. You made time for us, and we both really appreciate it. Well, I appreciate the WWE and CNBC for allowing me to talk about something that I never really thought I'd seriously talk about. So, especially as a murder suspect. Really, really impressive. Thanks, Aaron, one of the best. Thank you, Darren. Really appreciate your time. Eric and I have a couple more things that we want to get to here on Strictly Business before we wrap up. But yeah, man, I thought that that was such a great conversation, Eric.

It's such a fascinating world for both you and I that it almost just, it feels foreign, doesn't it? It doesn't feel forward to me, but it's so complicated. Yeah. It's so complicated. I mean, just, you know, listening to Darren, talk about the actual, the legal side in the process, getting the gaming commissions on boarder, gaming control boards on board. Then you've got to get the sports book comfortable. And every state having its own view of the world when it comes to what's legal or what's not

legal, it just seems like a massive, massive challenge to me. Now, would it be a great thing eventually? And maybe that's one of the things. Maybe they're just putting their toe into water and are going to try to roll this process out at a very limited basis and grow as the gaming control boards get more comfortable and like they did with the Oscars or Academy Awards, whatever, kind of open it up, even though they were close to it. I don't know, but it seems like a real uphill battle to me. It is so complicated. And what I've learned, Eric Bischoff, that sometimes in the business world, things can get complicated. And you just need structure. You need a little bit of organization.

And thankfully here at Strictly Business, our pals over at Impera want to help you get in a manageable state with your management. Head on over to Empira.com. That's E-M-P-I-R-A dot com slash Eric. And use that code wrestlebiz for 14 days free and 20% off your subscription to what has quite frankly, Eric, become one of our favorite partners here on Strictly Business. It has. And, you know, I've been playing with the platform on our dashboard. And I think you and I and Steve and probably one or two other people will be jumping on and taking a look at that in the next week or so. But the way it's set up and the platform will walk you through the different pillars of your business. And it forced me to think about things that I hadn't otherwise thought about in terms of measuring activity. For example, We know that the more clips that are out there on social media, on YouTube, whatever, that's our advertising.

That's our promotion. But as of right now, everybody's just working hard and Genovius is working and Steve's working. Genovius is helping Steve and we're promoting. We get these clips out, but there's no methodology at this point. There's no set goal and there's no way to measure said goal because said goal doesn't exist. So those are the types of things that this platform, which is such an easy platform to navigate and such an easy tool to use as a result, forces you to think through aspects of your business that you might have overlooked so that you're maximizing your opportunity. I think Impera does such a great job in making it easy for the average person like me who doesn't spend a lot of time on a computer. If I can do it, anybody can do it.

And not only that, Imperi gives you a free onboarding opportunity. So you've got a live human being on the other end that walks you through and helps you understand how best to use this tool for your business. So whether you're a business of one, two, three, five, ten, twenty, or two hundred, this platform is an excellent opportunity to execute your business. And as an business owner and operator, it allows you, as they say, to impair it to focus on your business and growing your business as opposed to focusing in your business because you're doing things that you don't necessarily have to be doing.

Dude, I felt like we were in the Impera for Dummies course. And it was so easy to pick up and understand how the dashboard worked because they literally walked us through a piece by piece. We're talking, they show you how to set a vision statement, how to, to set your core values, and then you assign pillars for the foundation of your plan. You can assign team members all in one very easily accessible backend dashboard that, as Eric said, it keeps you out of the weeds and holds everyone accountable for doing their jobs. If you're trying to come up with a plan, Impera wants to help you implement it in a very easy way.

We're talking 14 days free, 20% off your subscription by heading over to Empira. com. That's E-M-P-I-R-A-A-A-D-com forward-slash Eric and using code R-E-S-W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z. And plus, Eric, this is a platform that is run by wrestling fans. Absolutely. I want to help wrestling fans. Absolutely. Check it out.

You'll be glad you did. Absolutely. 100%. Eric, I want to talk a little bit more real quick about AW since they just came off their big pay-per-view. They had their press scrum this past week. you had a chance to see anything coming out of the pay-per-view uh no i haven't i haven't i haven't i've just uh i've been a little busy but there's just nothing of interest there and it's just

nothing that kind of calls out to be and says you should really check it out well there was one very interesting thing that i was listening to the press conference about and tony con mentioned that there was only so many hours of a w television he was asked about getting roster members on TV. And he said, quote, I think three hours of television right now, people can count on the best lineups we're putting out on TV. But I think we absolutely have the capacity to do more and to do more TV if that opportunity presented itself. And I think there is demand for it. And when I heard him say that unprompted, my ears perked up a little bit. And I started going through the wrangling and stuff. And I noticed that about a week and a half ago,

two weeks ago now, AW trademarked something called AW Collision. And it was for potentially to be used as extended programming, another wrestling programming show. So I'm putting the pieces together in my head.

I'm saying, oh, huh, maybe there could be a third television show in the works here. And then that has kind of picked up some steam on the internet. I saw Andrew Zarian from the Wrestling Observer hinting at it. There's been a lot of chat. matter, Eric, a third hour of, or it'd be a fourth hour, I guess, of A.W. Television. I mean,

what's your initial take on that? Should something like that come to pass? I can't imagine them do it. John, early on in A.E.W. I was asked, should A.E.W have a second show and my response was eventually yes but build a strong base first grow your business first before you think about adding programming and of course they added rampage we've seen the results now it's a Friday night so that's cut it's a tough night and I you have to acknowledge that. But just looking at their core program, their core program is not strong. Why would you focus on expanding your business when the very foundation of it is wobbly? I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. Now, if there's a big revenue opportunity at the

other end of it, I guess. We're all, everybody's in this business to make money and to grow. But if there's not, you know, a check at the end of every episode waiting for you somewhere, Man, I would really focus on the core business. I know that sounds boring and stale, but if your core business is strong, it provides great growth opportunity. If your core business is shaky, everything you add on top of that shaky foundation makes that foundation even shakier. I just wouldn't do it. It struck my interest because I heard that specific line that he felt that there was an appetite. for more programming here.

Maybe on the internet. Well, and I'm curious, though, maybe, maybe from the internet, maybe there's an appetite from Warner Brothers Discovery. Maybe they still see this as a brand that they want to build around. We know the All Access show is coming here. A power slap, by the way, in its final week, its lowest ratings to date. So I'm curious to see if we ever see that back on that platform.

But maybe there is value in Warner Brothers Discovery seeing this company build their library on their platform. And, you know, one thing we haven't really talked about is that, as Tony alluded to as well on the media call last week, that Turner has a one-year option on AW programming, Warner Bros. Discovery, I should say, where they could extend it for another year, presumably for an increased cost, or at least the same cost. It just got my wheels turning, Eric, and thinking that maybe, this is a sign that there's a long-term investment and a long-term play here with

AEW should there actually be an appetite here I I'm not buying it I'm just not buying it I can't see it and then I could you know look I admit I could be wrong I'm not in that world anymore I don't talk to anybody at Warner Brothers Discovery I don't I don't have any insight as to what they may be thinking you're doing but just on the surface you know AEW year over year is less like 12% in total viewers in about 25, 28% against 18 to 49 in the past 12 months. That's not good. That's not good at all.

I don't see how adding more content and further diluting your core product is anybody looking at, I just can't imagine how anybody's looking at that is a good opportunity. If there's additional program, by the way, before I babble on any further, Did the reality show, the new reality show premiere recently? Not yet. It's premiering soon. Not yet. Okay.

What is it premiere? I believe it premieres next week. I can, let's see, AWOL access premiere date. I think it's next week. Sorry, it's March 29th is the premiere. Okay. All right. Well, that, you know, but that's a different type of a product.

That doesn't dilute the core product that conceivably, if it's done well, could enhance the core product. How does a ring of honor show or a new freshly titled AEW show by the same people who are doing dynamite and rampage creatively? How is that going to help the core product? Is it going to dilute it? Is the viewer at some point going to say, well, I don't really have to watch Wednesday night because I can pick up my AEW fix on Thursday night. I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. One of the things that comes to mind for me too, Eric, is what day of the week would this go on? The week is so saturated with wrestling content. The only day that really pops up in my head would be a weekend. And maybe if they want to do something on a...

And you're up against sports and... I mean, they have they have experimented with doing some Saturday events on Turner. And, you know, give or take, they've... on about 400,000, 500,000 for those. But as you said, especially depending on the season, you could be going against some pretty substantial competition from a multitude of different leagues. But, you know, we're getting in the weeds at that point. And our friends over at Manscape, Derek,

they want to help you stay out of the weeds. No, they want to help you whack your weeds. They actually have a weed whacker over at Manscape. Yes, they do. And it's the brand new weed. Weakker 2.0 that if you head on over to Manscape.com and use our code, wrestle biz. You're going to get 20% off on plus free shipping. John, can I interrupt you there?

Please, by all means. Because I got my weed whacker 2.0 in the mail three days ago. Now, I had the original weed whacker, and it was a handy tool. Because, you know, when you've got silver hair like I do, it's almost white now, actually. It used to be silver. It used to be platinum. Now it's just white. But when your nose hair is white,

you can see that shit from across the room. Right? So if somebody's shorter than you, like I'm 510, a little over 510. So if I walk up and meet somebody that's like 5,7, and they're looking up at me, what do you think they see? Yeah.

It looks like some kind of Aboriginal warrior, you know, just, eh. And at the original weed, Wacker did a fine job, but version 2.0, I hit that switch and I went, whoa, this is power. And I just whack those weeds in no time. Oh, yeah. And I don't have to worry about meeting someone shorter than me any longer. I have no doubt you were whacking those weeds all day long because the weed whacker 2.0 has improved blade and skin safe technology with a no tugging guarantee. you're digging around up there digging for gold well you don't got to worry about being tugged

on the way down it's never been so painless to mine your manholes that's what manscape tells us and this is all part of manscape's new initiative they want to you know you know what they're good for down there but they're all in on the beardheader pro kit because they recognize that men out there they want to keep that either clean shave look or maybe they just want to look groomed I mean, rumor had it, Eric, this past week. Vince McMahon was at Monday Night Raw sporn a Gomez-Adams mustache. And I'm sure he did it with Manscape.

I'm sure Vince McMahon uses Manscape. No doubt about that because Vince McMahon spends a lot of money on grooming. He used to go to the same. I don't know if it was once a week or once a month, whatever, but he had a barber that he'd go to and he gets his manicures and his pedicures. I mean, he's, he cares about grooming. and I can't imagine that Vince McMahon is not a Manscape fan.

No, and he recognized that the Beard Hedger comes with a waterproof cordless trimmer with a rotary wheel. That gives you 20 hair cutting lengths all with one guard. So you're not fuddling around with all the different guards. It's all in one, and we want to hook you up, just like how Manscape hooked Vince McMahon up. Head on over to Manscape.com. Use that promo code wrestle biz. W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z to get 20% off with free shipping at Manscape.com.

Use that promo code, wrestlebiz. Manscaped always the right tools for the job with Manscape. We really appreciate them sponsoring, not just 83 weeks, but strictly business here as well on the ad-free shows and podcast heat networks. Man, could you have somebody watching us? Mohammed's watching us in Saudi Arabia right now. Oh, or what? how about that we're going international we're going international as well i don't think we're at risk of being sold over there but i think we're we're going to be on top of that hey but if anybody

over there is looking to buy a podcast you're sure i'm just saying con conrad uh we've got his number we can put him in on the deals actually there was a cnbc report that came out today that WWE officials are going to be meeting with potential buyers for the company next month in preparation for first round bids. So this this is a process that's finally starting to get moving here, Eric. It appears that way, doesn't it? It appears that way. And I also read somewhere this morning, and I've been really busy this morning, so I haven't had time to sit down and focus on too much. But I think I read somewhere where Endeavor is still in the conversation. again with Endeavor I think especially as we covered last week a lot of it would be finding that partner to maybe get in on it with them and there's just so many moving pieces with all of this and I still I don't know man I know it's something we're going to revisit week in and week out but I still feel like at the end of the day that there's just not a move that's made and that things are the status quo and stay as such it was very fascinating.

that Vince was at Raw this week, in my opinion. They said it was just to visit John Sina, but he hung around in Gorilla the entire night. So what? Why is that so weird? It just perked my spidey senses that, you know, I think this guy wants to stick around, and I don't think he's going to put himself in a position

where he wouldn't be around. So whether that's a sale where he stays in power or they just hold as is, I don't know, man. that just again perk the spidey senses yeah no i'm not disagreeing with you i just i just think you know him showing up in boston i don't i just don't think it was a big deal i think people are making more i agree with you i and that's why i've said from the get go i think he's going to take the company private and and i would imagine he will have you know an active pardon in w e should

it be taken private that's my personal opinion um but i you know i don't that he's showing up in boston has nothing to do with it. Look, I said this the other night on after 83 weeks. WWE has been in, it has now become a part of Vince McMahon's DNA. It's not just a job.

It's not just a business he started. It's his life. And the fact that he wanted to go back and visit and hang out in guerrilla, it would shock me if he didn't do that at some point. Even if there's a sale. And he's out. I imagine he's still going to come back and just hang out, see what he built.

Too much ado about nothing. Hey, by the way, I want to reach out. I saw Bobby at Keilo-Foxrout 5 Golf Tango X-ray. Guess who's taking their general test tomorrow? That'd be me. All the best to you on that, my friend. Yeah. Bobby knows what I'm talking about.

Everybody else is going, what the hell? What is he talking about? Well, he knows because he interacts with you on ad-free shows.com. and ad-freeshows.com is where you get to interact with people like Eric Bischoff, Arn Anderson, Tony Chivani, Jim Ross, Matt Hardy, Kurt Angle, all these great names. And there are so many different price tiers to get you different access to all these great exclusive events. You've been really busy over on ad-freeshows.com lately.

I have a blast. I just have an absolute blast. I have so much fun that usually on a Saturday or a Sunday once or twice a month, I'll just ask Evan Polisher for, give me 10 names out of the hat. just random 10 names and their phone numbers and I'll just call people and surprise them you know I have fun I mess with them like I'll call them up so says you know the guy I'm calling his name is John phone and ring phone and ring phone and ring and of course they don't recognize my number right it's a Skype number and they'll pick up the phone hello I say John what are you doing

John will say what you mean what I'm doing say I want to know what you're doing what are you up to John, I go, who is this? And then I tell him. And then it's like funny, right? I love doing it. I don't know. I guess it says a lot about where I'm at in my life right now. Well, the good thing is, Eric, because you use Impera,

you've got all this extra time to focus on yourself and do things, you know, on your time. Yeah, yeah. And actually, that's one of the things that I do. You know, I've been thinking about adding as a pillar is being more consistently. with that and finding a way to measure that and promote that. But yeah. There you go. I love it. Anything else on your mind this week before we wrap up on Strictly Business, Eric? No, a couple of questions here. Jay Joseph wants to know if I'm still using Kratum or somebody asked me if I'm still using Kratom. And yes, I do still use Kratom occasionally, not every day.

But I'm a big believer in alternative medicines. I'm not a fan of the pharmaceutical industry. and I could talk for hours about that. But, yeah, I look for alternative ways to get my nutrition. And occasionally, you know, I'll use something therapeutically like Kratum. It's good for me because it helps my focus. That's why I use it. It's a, you know, I don't have much. I do like a tablespoon sometimes in a morning.

If I've got something I really got to focus on, it just helps with my focus. so yeah still use it do your own research though don't use it because i use it do your own research talk to somebody that uses it make sure you get the right strain and the right dosage and all that good stuff i'll get this last question in from uh mission impossible reviews is watching us on youtube here uh because i asked matt hardy something similar to it i'd love to actually hear your opinion on it says i have a question need to bring in a two posts i've been hearing a lot of various podcasts about a w issues such as talent getting caught blading referees hog in the spotlight spots that don't make TV properly.

And the common thread to me is that the camera and production people are just lacking experience. What advice would you give to AW personnel to improve this? I would really like to hear what Eric has to say as he was executive producer for WCW. Yeah, that's, look, Mike Mansoury is sitting in the truck,

at least to by knowledge. And there is nobody better to be sitting in that truck as a director other than Kevin Dunn. as Mike Mansouri. So I don't think you've got a director issue. Now, when I was with Turner, and this is unique to Turner, and I don't know what the arrangement is over at AEW from a production perspective with regards to Turner. But if you've got Turner sports people, which I imagine is probably the case, just a guess. But if you've got Turner sports people running your handheld cameras,

you may or not have the same team of camera crew on any given week. You know, a lot of the, in WCW, for example, we had Jackie Crockett was our main handheld. We may have had one other. But for the most part, our camera operators didn't work for WCW. They worked for Turner Sports. And as Turner Sports, cameramen and women, they were not familiar with the product.

You know, sports shooters, cameramen, women, follow the action. In wrestling, you have to anticipate the action. To get the best shots, to get what you really want, you have to anticipate it. And part of being able to anticipate that action is having a feel for it or experience. So if AEW are using cameramen who are unfurricular, familiar with the product, that doesn't have anything to do with the director. It's the communication between the director and the

cameraman, the camera person, and that can sometimes become problematic when you've got a camera person who's not really experienced in shooting wrestling. Add to that, now I've seen some of the clips of some of the blading jobs, which I think were just

horrible. That's a talent issue too. You don't blade right in the middle of the ring? What do you think is going to happen. If a camera's not going to pick it up, certainly people at ringside are. There is an art to that, by the way, when it's done well or done properly, I should say. And doing it out in the open so a camera can even possibly pick it up is on the talent. So it can be. As much as it can be the director or a production person, a camera person, there's also a talent issue involved.

that problem and you've got to kind of get all three of those elements figured out that's that's the it's it's it's inexperience and bad communication and from a talent perspective sloppy talent work communication is is the key there at the end of the day i'm 100% with you and we'll wrap with this last question here from andrew lynch because i think there's a good way to bow tie our episode eric this is given what you guys know about gambling and what darren explained would you want W.W.E gambling to be legalized. And I'll just say this. I've been talking to some talent about this all week too. And it just to me, Eric, it just seems like it would be way too messy all the way around. And it would stifle creativity from not just creative writing, but also from the talent in

the ring. And sometimes you have finishes that you do purposely to set up what's to come next. And if you had gambling involved, stuff like that would be really hard to do. Yeah, I don't feel strongly one way or the other. You know, if I had to pick a direction that I would lean in, I would lean in pursuing it only because it forces you to think differently about the way you do things. And sometimes being locked in a room, trying to figure out what you have to do to achieve a very unique goal, forces you to look at your business from a different angle. And every once in a while you find gold every once in a while while you're trying to accomplish one thing you realize that you can achieve something that you didn't even anticipate by

rethinking i almost said reimagining but i hate that term i want to smack people upside the head but i hear him use that term it's just overused to death and anytime someone comes up to me goes i got this new job i'm reimagining the way we do this like get the fuck out of I ain't talking to you. Got no time for you, phony some bitch. But it's true, though, that thinking through things sometimes reveal unique opportunities. And look, I think that the wrestling industry has evolved amazingly.

It's been on the cutting edge of televisions since the beginning of syndicated and network television. It's been on the cutting edge of cable television since cable television. It's been on the cutting edge of pay-per-view when paper TV. review was new. It's now on the cutting edge of streaming and digital. So wrestling has always evolved with the opportunities that it's provided with. And if gaming and gambling can become a part of that next frontier, I think rethinking and retooling the process may reveal nuggets of unintended good consequences. But maybe not. We'll find out. But I'm not a of it. I don't think it'll hurt the business.

Fascinating stuff there from Eric Bischoff. Guys, make sure you're subscribed to 83 weeks.com. 83 weeks on YouTube. That's where you're going to get strictly business every single week you got on Friday this week. We don't normally try to hit it for Thursdays, but you get it in that wheelhouse. And you get every episode of 83 weeks as well. Add free shows.com. That's where you get access to all that bonus content.

Plus, who knows? Eric Bischoff may just call you out of bored and shoot the shit sometimes. It seems like that's something that happens every one now and then. But Eric, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you again to Darren Revelle for hopping on with us here on Strictly Business. Anything else you want to add, my friend? I think we covered it. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff.

We'll see you next time.