83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #20: WrestleMania, Cody Rhodes, and the WWE sale

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

On this week's "Strictly Business," Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba look ahead at WrestleMania! Hear Eric's thoughts on Cody's breakout week, how WrestleMania became larger than life, plus, an update on the WWE sale process. Special thanks to this week's sponsor! 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 On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And you don't need perfect credit or money out of your pocket to do this, but check this out. No house payments for two months. It's savewithconrad.com. How's it going, everyone? It's time for another edition of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff, presented to you by the Ad Free Shows Network and Podcast Heat. I'm John Alba, joined as I am every single week by the man of the hour. It's WrestleMania week, Mr. Eric Bischoff. How are you, my friend? Always an exciting week, isn't it? It is. You know, we're recording a little bit early. It's Tuesday as we record this. I'm heading to Las Vegas tomorrow morning. You're off to Los Angeles. for WrestleMania. But even though it's only Tuesday,

it's an already interesting week shipping up so far, heading into WrestleMania weekend. Isn't it amazing how over the years, and you got to see this kind of firsthand, how WrestleMania evolved from a wrestling event to this cultural extravaganza that brings in Super Bowl-level money for the cities that bid to host

WrestleMania and the event. events that surround it. When did you see that change kind of start to be made inside the realm? Well, in retrospect, you know, you can kind of go back and look at some of the early WrestleMania's and the effort that went into them and the kind of crowds they attracted, you know, Pontiac Silverdome, for example, whatever the final number really was. I don't know what it was. I've heard anything from 85,000 and 93,000 or whatever. But when you start establishing yourself and you do so consistently, for a long period of time as an event that can draw those kinds of numbers,

it's only a matter of time before cities start bidding for you and hoping to gather or get your business. But I honestly didn't see it happen in a major way until really after I got out of the business. And certainly when I was a talent in WWE and subsequent to that is when those big numbers started really rolling. There was always, you know, offsets. The city, you know, they won't really write you a check, but they'll provide X amount

of security. They'll provide X amount of this. They'll provide X amount of that. The city will make as many concessions as they can to get your business. But once you get into the, once you get to the point where you're not only getting concessions from the city in terms of logistical support, now you're getting cash. That's pretty cool. It says a lot.

And it takes a long time, man. It takes a long time to get there. It also adds to the grandiose of the event as well. It really does make it feel larger than life. And now we have the two-night WrestleMania, which is something that you and I have talked about, what that has evolved into. I do want to ask you real quick here. I know that you've really admired a lot of what Cody has accomplished over the past few years.

Now he has a chance to do something very special. And that has become the face of the franchise, win the WWE Universal Championship and fulfill the legacy of his late great father. How meaningful for the industry. And as someone who's known that family for so long, do you think a Cody Rhodes title, when would mean? Yeah, you know, when I think about this, I kind of have to separate a little bit on a personal level. You know, I think it's such a fantastic story. you know, if you just look at Cody Rhodes and forget about the story inside of the ring. I'm talking about the real story, the real person.

You know, he made his way into WWE. And by all accounts, you know, when Cody left WWE, he left a fantastic payday behind. Well, he may not have, but Cody may not have been where he wanted to be creatively and all of that or felt like he could achieve more. he was still making probably mid-six figures for a long time for a very very young man that's a stellar career but cody believed in himself enough to walk away from it and bet on himself that's such a dusty thing to do in fact when cody did it when cody left wwe i was actually it was in l.a i was in a meeting and just finished up my meeting when i heard and and i texted cody uh and he called me

back. And I said, man, I'm so proud of you because you just, you're your dad. Dusty was the kind of guy that would be willing to walk away and bet on himself if he believed in it. And I was so proud of Cody when he did that. But Cody made that move. And then he goes to AEW. Fantastic opportunity. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Maybe once in every two or three lifetimes type of an opportunity. to partner up with Tony is someone who has that much access to funding, who's passionate about starting a wrestling company. My gosh, you could not walk into a better wrestler's dream than what Cody. When I say walked into, he earned it.

But nonetheless, that was an amazing opportunity. And what did you do two and a half years later? He walked away. He walked away. and bet on himself again his father's son trust me when i tell you that is dusty roads and to not only bet on himself but to win so big to to over deliver and to win so big in in that comeback and now to be in the position that he's in on a personal level I don't think there's ever been a better story in professional wrestling, a real life story.

I just don't. It has everything. It has every element. Now, on a business level, mind-boggling, I know not about it. I think it's going to do great business. I'm so excited to see, I'm already looking past WrestleMania. Like, don't get me wrong. I'm looking forward to WrestleMania.

I can't wait to, I'm going to be watching it in Las Vegas. Vegas, of all places, at least the first night. And I'm very excited for it, but I'm even more excited about where WWE goes post-Rustlemania because they've done such a great job setting the table creatively to not only knock it out of the park on WrestleMania, which they typically do anyway, but to be able to continue the momentum. And if they can achieve that, that is a major turning point in this industry. That is consistency, creative consistency, that to me represents not just a couple good ideas strong back to back, but a different creative strategy, a new approach, whether that approach is execution, which I think it probably is a lot of that, just the process of how creative is done, right?

I am guessing only, but I would bet heavily that with Polovec overseeing, with Bruce in there, you've got a system now that is much more conducive to good creative and paying attention to details because you're not ripping stuff up and starting from scratch four times during the course of one week. It probably helps, Eric, that they're, they're installing Empira and all the Titan Towers offices there because they're helping. Because they can track their pillars. They can track their story. Exactly. They could call Impera, right? Sign up for Empira. And I know, you know, they're going to have to use my code to do it. But if you're listening, Nick Kahn, if you're listening, and I hope you are. I know you are. When you're listening, be sure to write down the promo code because Nick, I know you're a smart guy. And he's been around the block. You were like the top guy in sports and C.E.

one of the largest talent agencies in the world. But Nick, if anybody understands the power of communication amongst your team and having a tool that your team can use collaboratively to track progress, to plan their work and work their plan, it's Impera. And you know that, Nick Con, you know that. And that is just a tease because in just a little bit, we're going to tell you all about Impera and how it can help, not just WWE, but you as well get your business together in a big,

way. Man, you know, it's funny. Talk about the Cody stuff. I was watching Raw, the main event segment of Raw, the go home raw for WrestleMania, bloodline stuff's going on, and Cody wrestling solo. And it just racked my brain, Eric. I was thinking about this. We're in this modern era of wrestling, so many fans have rejected the guy that they're told, hey, this is the person, right? Like, this is going to be the guy. This is going to be the ring leader for us. They've rejected. push back i'm watching cody and i'm like hands down this is the guy he is the guy that is going to take the reins from roman rains and he's going to be the guy that you can put the ship on their back and he's going to carry it i just think it is an amazing amazing turn of events given

everything that has happened the last seven you're you've jumped further ahead that i don't know that cody's going to win it oh okay all right i'm not i'm not saying he's going to interesting i'm saying the story leading up to it is such a phenomenal story the the fact that he has this opportunity in this moment in time is to me it's it's everything the title is just an affirmation after the fact huh is cody tan enough are we good on that front or what's the deal here no i haven't checked him out lately but i do know this from time to time that he's a little pasty so cody uh i know nick hans listening so nick why don't you buzz cody tell him just be on the safe side you never know showing up looking like a glass of milk can work against you just get a tan it's not that big a deal

you can spray them on now it takes you know 20 minutes home you're done you're good you look like a goddess or god oh my goodness can you imagine can you imagine i'm waiting for the documentary the w wb biography on that one 20 years from now on roman rains versus cody where cody didn't go over because he wasn't tan enough oh my goodness it wouldn't be the first time wouldn't be the first time ad free shows.com go check out the archive on that my friends because you know that we have got the great stories on 83 weeks and if you're subscribed to 83 weeks you get access to strictly business which drops every single week we've had a couple great episodes in the past few weeks two weeks ago we had chris van bleed on eric and i last week hit on a couple

hot button topics that i thought there was some great content to be had But today, Eric, we are talking about not just WrestleMania, but also we got an update on the WWE sale. We got a couple big updates that I know you've been yearning. You've been Anson to talk about this. And it seems like if anything is going to be happening, it may be relatively imminent. The update that we got this morning as we record, this was from David Faber, CNBC. And I'm going to read quote here for you. Lots of people had doubts about it being the sale for any number of reasons, including, of course, whether or not Vince McMahon, who still owns 37% of the company and in many ways controls it would ever really sell.

From what I'm hearing from people familiar with the situation is shaping up to be a pretty good sales process. Some people saying pretty hot and heavy, and those who were doubtful, you'd get to a sale at the end, seem less so. So, Eric, perhaps the water's opening up a little bit here. what do you make of that little anecdote there not much it's just gibberish it's just cnbc time filler gibberish sources close to the situation give me a break nobody that knows anything is talking number one that's a fact and the only if someone is talking to someone in the community in the news, financial news community, they're leaking information that they want to be leaked. That's it.

None of it, none of this, I mean, it's interesting. It's, don't get me wrong. I mean, I'm, you know, I'll, I see the headline. I'll jump in and read it. And it's, you know, it's, it is interesting. But there's nothing new there. The, I guess the nuance there is, well, a lot of people didn't think he would and now they think he might.

Okay. Is that news? not really we still don't know who the buyers are it's a very it's a very um secretive process everybody we talked about this here this show has done a better job discussing analyzing laying out potential real potential about a proposed acquisition or taking the company private which is where my bets still lie um we've done a better job than just about anybody out there All right. We've had some great resources on this show, Brian Bedal. Nobody knows media in the merger and acquisition business,

particularly in the wrestling category, anybody better than Brian Bedal. We've had some real experts on to talk about this proposed acquisition. At the end of it all, though, it's still a very, very confidential, very secretive process. There are people probably involved in the actual bidding. process, not hyming and hawing on the sidelines just to get attention for themselves, but I'm talking about people who are actually engaged in exchanging financial information. There are probably people that are not on anybody's list. There are probably people that should be on people's list that I suspect might be on that

list that nobody's really talking about yet. Time Warner. I had somebody asked me a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, I can't remember. somebody asked me, you know, wouldn't it make sense for Time Warner? Yes, it would. Don't be surprised if they're not engaged in the process, but you're not going to hear about it. So we'll see. We'll see.

I still think, you know, it's interesting because I think, I'm not sure about this, but I think, again, I was on this show, probably one of the first people to come out and say that I saw an endeavor play. And, of course, Endeavor came out a couple weeks ago and said, we can't take on any debt. Didn't say he wouldn't want to buy it, just said he didn't want to take on any debt. So we'll see. We'll see.

Well, because there would be other partners involved with a potential endeavor sale. That's not something that. Other partners, perhaps, a restructuring perhaps. There's all kinds of. It actually did mention that in the CNBC report with Endeavor, specifically where different assets would be moved around within the company in terms of who controls what if intercompany allocations is such a wonderful thing right can you provide any additional perspective on that on how something like that works

for people not really okay but one of the pretty newsworthy things that i think did come from that report too was that he said that by all accounts and keep in mind this is a comcast owned property cmbc that comcast is not involved in this and sean ross sap who did a pretty extensive report for fightful later in the day, Tuesday, also reiterated that he has heard the same and that the most important and prevalent part of Comcast's potential bid would be that they're not interested in having Vince McMahon involved in actually overseeing anything should they make an acquisition like that. Do you buy into the notion that Comcast could be out on that? Because I hear that, Eric, and that just blows my mind, given the tie-ins to the property that Comcast has,

with WWE. Yeah, I, I guess I'm surprised. And by the way, earlier I said, Tom Warner, I meant to say Warner Discovery or Discovery Warner, which wouldn't that be something? Yeah. Something. Woo.

Could happen. But Comcast, yeah, that does surprise me. Obviously, they've already got a big investment, right? I don't know how that's structured, but it's, gosh, they've already got a big investment. You know, WWE has been such a massive part of USA Network, Universal, for decades now, it would surprise me, you know, management issue with Vince, who knows, maybe, I guess, perhaps. My perception, even when I was working there, and I was privileged to certain conversations with the USA Network,

the feeling I got was, you know, there was a lot of respect there for Vince McMahon. So it's like it would be weird all of a sudden. And maybe with some of the baggage that's out there, that could be it. I don't know. Again, I just don't put any stock into what anybody says publicly. I just don't. It's like the endeavor statement, you know, I really want to buy it. I just don't want to go into debt, which is code for I'm going to figure out a different way

because it's a really good opportunity. that's what that means is comcaste saying we don't want to buy it as long as Vince McMahon's in is that like a soft kind of negotiation or publicly I don't know it seems unlikely to me it doesn't I don't think that's how big companies operate but what do I know I you know I don't know sitting here in like treehouse in Wyoming could that also be a way of putting fuelers out there for people to maybe become part of a shared bid for something like that so like if endeavor saying oh we don't have the capital ourselves to do it right now it's not in our best interest they don't need to put out feelers trust me right arraband you well doesn't all he needs to do is pick up a phone i guess more testing the waters more than anything yeah i don't think so yeah i think they're well beyond that yeah i i'm asking that out of genuine curiosity because there's so much nuance involved in this process there was one thing that sean said in his report that i i think kind of hits the nail on the head with what makes WWE so valuable, and I'm curious your thoughts on it.

He said that the industry as a whole views WWE so valuable because of what the content would do for streaming specifically, that WWE has raw smackdown and premium live events specifically that could bolster any potential streaming service attached to a potential buyer. What do you think of that? I've talked about that. I've talked to ad nauseum about that. you know, this streaming platform is one of the most valuable assets, I think, in WWE.

You know, you look at what WWE accomplished. You know, they were one of the first to go direct consumer over the top. You know, they've pioneered. There are no peers in that business at WWE. That's kind of a big, damn deal in the world of entertainment. There would be a lot of people. And again, I'm speculating, but I'm literally pulling names out of the hands. hot but whether it be discovery warner to build their stream because streaming is where it's going

streaming is the future it's not linear or cable television it's just not television but do you what you need to show up television because it's still a financially it's a necessity it's viable but slowly but surely advertising is going to streaming platforms and it's just not going to be enough left in traditional television to support the cost of production of content to keep viewers coming to it. So what do you do? You keep producing television. You do the best you can. You cut your budgets. You squeeze every nickel out of traditional television that you can while you're building your streaming platform. It's one of the reasons why when the AEW rumor before television was announced or anything else, someone asked me about it, what would you do?

Man, I would put all my resources into building a streaming platform, even if it meant I lost money for the first several years. Because that, why not put, why not invest and get ahead of the curve as opposed to trying to catch up to it because you're putting all of your resources into traditional television, which is dying anyway. It really is so fascinating, isn't it? that Warner Brothers Discovery hasn't leaned

into utilizing AW for any of its streaming platforms yet? It's not big enough. There's not You don't think there's a desire to see No, there's not. There's 845,000 people on average that give a shit. Yeah, but I mean, you don't think any of that translates

to anything tangible? A little bit, but that's, it's not, A.W. is an infant. It is a child. it is prepubescent at best it's going to be a long time before AW builds up a big enough fan base and platform to be truly viable could it work sure it could be okay but it's not going to change anybody's world it just doesn't have a big enough audience you know Eric one of the elements about WWE as a company that I always found so interesting,

especially in the Vince McMahon era, was that WWE really became a production company more than anything. It was a producer of content than a wrestling company, a sports entertainment company. It was a content producer. We had WWE films, the studio. You had the Tough Enough series that was being licensed out to MTV and in coordination with them.

total divas all that kind of stuff i'm curious with a potential buyer how much more emphasis would be put on the production company aspect of wwe aside from just raw smackdown pay-per-view because that is something we've seen wwee roll back a little bit in recent years because it wasn't profitable you're either in the movie business or you're not you're not kind of in the movie business. And it was a good, I mean, I remember when WWE Films was first rolled out. I pitched a couple projects to them early on. It was an exciting time. And WWE, I think, did as good a job as could be done, taking their

talents and integrating them into, you know, low budget, mid-budget films, but utilizing their talent. I think it was a great effort and probably moderately successful for a period of time, but it wasn't sustainable and it wasn't scalable. I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no, no, you go ahead. No, but when I say that, I mean, you know, for something to be a success, it needs to be able to grow.

You need to be able to scale it without necessarily reinventing the wheel every time. and I think WWE probably reached a point where they maximized the revenue for the kind of films that they were able to produce with the talent they had to produce it with. And realized that over an extended period of time, it was not a business that was going to grow, and it wasn't scalable. The only way you could make it scalable would be to invest a lot more money,

and now you're competing with the big studios. And that's not their business, which is why they probably backed out of that deal, phased it out eventually. But I guess what I'm more referring to in the modern day is think when the WW network launched. So we're going back almost 10 years now, which is crazy in and of itself. But one of the biggest appeals of the WW network was you're not just getting raw smackdown and pay-per-views. You're not just getting this massive tape library we have. We have all these original series that we're going to be producing for this network as well.

they had that like punk style series that they did a they had the camp wwee series they had they had and and guess what they got out of that business it's it's too much it's they have got a met i i and i trust me i would have done it because that's my nature grow keep growing keep growing you know try this try that do this do that i would have done the same thing but they scaled it all back because it wasn't profitable i i i don't think that they'll ever be a wwee production studio that's producing different types of content i know if that's your question i don't see that ever happen i guess it was more so would a potential buyer would a potential buyer see that as an asset that would be worth adding to their arm the production side yeah

Perhaps, but, you know, let's talk about potential buyers, Comcast. Disney. They have their own sports units. What unique attributes does a WWE production company bring to the table that they don't already have in spades? I don't see it. I don't see that as being, I don't see it being a bad thing, but I don't see, I don't see that. And that's not like the streaming platform where if it does $1, it's actually worth

for because it's got so much potential. It's a one-to-one kind of a situation. If it costs them a dollar, it's worth a dollar. I just don't think it's added value to an existing studio. If it's a Comcast or, you know, Discovery Warner or whatever it's called now, I don't know. Warner Brothers Discovery. Warner Brothers Discovery.

That's what it's called now. Yeah, I guess. Paramount. Could be Paramount. Ooh, I like Paramount. Paramount's doing some magic stuff. Let's throw that one out there. What do you like about Paramount?

I like everything about Paramount. That's a name that's not talked about here at all. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But you look at what Paramount, look at the franchise that Paramount built with Taylor Sheridan. Taylor Sheridan is a, he's the Steven Spielberg of our time in terms of television. If you, Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, king of, a mayor of Kingstown, the Stallone movie, the Stallone series that's out.

he's got five count him five absolutely on fire series at paramount he is a machine taylor sheridan and and he produces everything through mtv productions at firecom he's got some great partners got by name of ron burkle ron burkle used to own all the supermarkets in los angeles sold him made a ton of money now he's now he's a finance guy so he's partners with Taylor Sheridan and in his production company. You'll see his name on the credits. He's a grocery store guy. Made a lot of money.

Ralphs. Made a lot of money at Ralphs. But, no, Paramount's, and they've got a great streaming platform. They're doing a lot of things right. Paramount's doing a lot of things right as a studio. Well, Eric, you just mentioned Ron and how he was able to take that supermarket at Imperium and turn it into what he was able to make a small fortune or maybe a quite large fortune out of that.

Maybe if he had Impera in his back pocket at the time, he could have made even more money because I'm sure when you're overseeing something as large as chains and chains of grocery stores, it's going to be quite the endeavor. But thankfully, us here at Strictly Business, we've got Empira in our corner. And if you go to impira.com, that's EMPI-R-A-A-com forward slash Eric, and use the code wrestle biz you're going to get 14 days for free 20% off your subscription overall this is every single tool wrapped up in one that you would possibly want for launching your business plan in an efficient and effective matter is it not eric bischoff it is indeed and i'll tell you what a business

plan it's exactly that it's how you plan your work but impira is how you work your plan uh-huh huh you heard that here first ash everybody over in australia right here a business plan allows you to plan your work but imperia a lot imperial allows you to work your plan you get to sit back with your dashboard you get to see where all your pillars are moving or not moving so you and your team can figure out what it's going to take to move that pillar reach those goals in real time you You could track your business. You could communicate with your team. You can set new goals.

Perhaps you set a goal back on January 1st so that by the end of the first quarter, you wanted to achieve, oh, I don't know, let's say why. But instead of why, you achieved Y and Z. Now what do you do? You reset your goals. You move your pillars and you adjust your plan accordingly and you work your plan. Love that. I love Impera, and it's cheap.

A couple of these, a couple cups of coffee. That's all you need. See, this one says, fire. Don't get fired. Get Empira. That's how you don't get fired. You'll be doing a lot of hiring, in fact, if your business gets off to the right start with Imperia, because Imperus allows business owners to work on the business, not in the business.

And that is the difference in success in the business world. And if you have any questions, which believe me, Eric Bischoff and I, we had plenty of questions when we met with these guys, the beauty of it is they're. basically at your disposal. You shoot them a message. They got 24-7 support going on over at Empira, and they've been so great to Eric and I. This is like not a gimmick here.

We're talking for real. They've been so great with us in helping us get our stuff organized. And I know that they're going to be doing the same for you, especially as they expand internationally. They just launched a little branch in Denver, Eric. And I'm telling you, see, right now, if you're a listener here in Strictly Business, right, And let's just say you've got a side hustle.

You're working out of your, you're working. You got your day job, your night job, whatever it is. But you also got your side hustle. It's you and your wife, or you and a partner, you and a friend, whatever. And you've got to work your plan. You get impaired. Let's say you've got a bigger business. Maybe you've got seven or eight employees.

Maybe you've got 12 employees. Maybe you've got 1,200 employees. But if you're listening to the show, you're getting in on the ground floor of a tool that's going to give you a distinct advantage, against your competition because you know what your competition's doing if they don't have impaired they're chasing their tails they're running around in circles they look like a bunch of monkeys fighting over a football that's not right what i was about to say but damn i caught myself it's an amazing tool that you can use to get a productive competitive advantage no matter how bigger how small your business is because it's customizable to your needs i love this product

Oh, I know you do 14 days for free, 20% off your subscription, as Eric said, cheaper than two cups of coffee. Come on now. Empira.com, E-M-P-I-A-A dot com forward slash Eric, use that code wrestle biz, W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z, and we thank Impera for sponsoring strictly business with Eric Bischoff. Hey, guys, Eric Bischoff here and just want to call a quick timeout. I want to tell your listeners about what I've been telling everybody at over at 8,000, three weeks for quite a while now about all the cool things that are happening over at ad-free shows.com.

A brand new series has arrived on ad-free shows. Top of the card unpacks everything you need to know in the wrestling trading card space. And we're starting with the granddaddy of them all, the 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A set. Now, this set was not exclusive to any one territory at the time as we were still right at the tail end of the territory era of professional wrestling. So it was basically a who's who in professional wrestling with card number one being Andre the Giant. Others included in the set include Hulk Hogan, Rick Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, and others. 20 years ago, Eric took on Stone Cold in the main event on Raw, but the real main event

was the confrontation that happened backstage before the show. Now the next week, I'm sitting in this chair and that same guy, I don't think I had said word to him that day. I don't think I had seen Rick up until the point he came through that door. And he's, you know, getting me, just telling me to get up, get out of the chair. He's so pissed off. He's bleeding. I'm on the phone and he's got blood running down his chin because he bit his lip. He was so mad. He bit the inside of his mouth. He's got blood on a backstage conference. I hadn't even gotten out of the chair yet. Ab-free show's members got to sit shotgun alongside Kevin Nash and click this co-host, Sean Oliver,

as they watch back some of the worst matches in history. None more so than the Yeti. Randy now? The mummy is not Frankenstein. You don't walk with your arms straight out. With the arms out, right? And a Yeti is also not a mummy, but I don't know. Is it Jim Hurd?

Who is here? Well, whose brainchild is this? Who gives a fuck? That's just a small taste of what we've got waiting for you. with four levels to choose from. See for yourself why ad-free shows is the best value in wrestling today. Sign up now at ad-free shows.com. Erica, I find the timing of this news drop from CNBC, interesting,

and subsequently Sean Ross Sapp as well, because we are in WrestleMania week. wwe is in los angeles i feel like from a logistical standpoint there's no better way in place to showcase your product than los angeles where all those head honchos are out there for all these networks for all these buyers it almost feels like a perfect storm for news like this to hit on a week like this almost like it was planned who's to say but but it is fascinating because the clock is really starting to tick on these rights negotiations. Like these TV rights, we're entering that window. We are in prime time as far as getting these balls rolling.

You keep in mind, we're talking next fall, these things are expiring. So you think typically about a year out, you have a general idea of where you're headed with this. How pivotal of a week do you think this could be for WWE from a business standpoint? Pivotal, I don't know. Based on, you know, the last four, five, six months, if we see the same increase in sales in WWE around WrestleMania, as we've seen over the last few months, it's going to be record earnings. it's going to be massive headlines.

It's going to be big, but we've seen big on the WWE before. You know, all of the people that are involved, people that we think might be involved, people that we've never heard of that are probably involved, or people that we didn't suspect who are probably involved, they've all, they all know what a juggernaut this is. There's going to be no surprises.

If anything, I think what they'll be is additional, confidence in many respects for whoever is is ultimately going to be a participant whether it be a buyer or taking the company private it's going to whoever is making a move in whatever form that move takes is going to have nothing but even more confidence after this weekend than they had going into the I'm I'm curious because this is perspective that you can that probably not many people can. I know you weren't involved on the creative side for a WrestleMania or from a business side for WrestleMania, but what kind of internal pressure is there,

WrestleMania Week, to deliver the product in a way that you just don't do it, the other 51 weeks of the year? Is it any different? Oh, I just got to look. I mean, I got a brief peek behind the WrestleMania. curtain. It's freaking nuts. It's not describable. Because you've got to realize that any given week in WWE throughout the year is far more intense than any given week, probably than any other company that I've ever been associated with. It's already nuts.

during the middle of nothing going on year, time of year. Now you get to WrestleMania, and the workload feels like it triples. Because there's just more to do. There's more events. There's more PR. There's more of everything. Absolutely more of everything. Now you throw all that additional work on top of a staff that's already typically working 60 hours a week

on an easy week, it's pretty crazy. Things move fast. Things move really fast. You know, I've had a couple texts from, from friends of mine there. And I keep, I keep my responses real short. I don't ask any questions. I don't want to make anybody feel like they should pick up the phone and give me a shout because I know what it's like.

I mean, I don't know, to be honest. I was never really in the heat of the battle, but I was there enough and was able to get good enough look it's crazy crazy it's all the events right you got the PR events you've got the charity events you've got the shows you got the Hall of Fame oh by the way I may as well ask you about this someone you know very well uh Stacy Kepler yeah what a sweetheart what a nice human being she is yeah what do you think about that one of my favorite one of my favorite of my favorite people she's just such a she's an amazingly sweet person and i could not be happier for her um that's all i mean i was just i was just i was just i that put a smile on my face

she's a very she's a very cool chick sorry probably shouldn't say chick but she would forgive me and i don't really care about anybody else so she's a cool chick now and she was great and she always struck me as someone who was kind of down to do anything what was asked of her had so many different roles was she a team player in that sense yeah i mean i didn't work a lot with her creatively you know i did i think i did some stuff with her creatively as a talent you know she's just one of those people that was always smiling you know whatever you wanted to do she'd find a way to enjoy doing it and have fun with it and and and make it her own and make sure she enjoyed the process So when you get to work with somebody like that, the only memories I have of her are all just having a great time, being a great talent, but just enjoying the hell out of it while she was doing it.

That's great. That's awesome. It's just one of those WrestleMania Week things. I mean, man, listen, like, WrestleMania Week has just become this amazing thing that so many people are able to latch on to it and do big business for their own companies. and we see GCW having like 40 events throughout the weekend. All these local independent wrestling shows happen that are centric to the area, specifically Los Angeles in this case. You get Ring of Honor running the Supercard of Honor.

What do you think of how that has just kind of exploded where these other companies are latching on to the Super Bowl of the wrestling industry? I used to kind of, you know, I want to say resent it because it, it didn't affect me one way or the other but to me it was always kind of like god i just don't know my ego wouldn't let me do that i wouldn't want to just tag along tag in you know it's kind of like showing up at a party where you're really not invited like nobody's going to throw you out but nobody really wants you there either i've been to parties like that's like oh eric's here oh you want to ask him no i don't want to ask him

you ask no i don't want to ask you maybe he'll just leave on his own i you know i don't like going to parties like that and that's it's whenever you know several years ago now when people would you know have events around russomania even when i didn't work for wwee and people say hey come on in we'll pay you you know whatever we're going to pay you and i don't think so kind of tacky and then i needed the bread and i changed my mind and i started doing it like everybody else i knew there was a catch to that but it i mean it is an amazing space for talent to also showcase themselves, right? And, like, that's a positive for the industry as far as I see it.

Explain. You get indie workers who get put on these high profile shows that everybody is watching if you're an independent wrestling fan number one. So there's more exposure to sell your gimmicks to them, to get your name out there, become familiar with them. If you are seen as a standout WrestleMania week working on different shows, you may get a look at some higher profile independent wrestling organizations. MLW, Ring of Honor, Impact, maybe New Japan, New Japan's strong.

They catch your eye and all of a sudden you're raising your profile and then maybe an AW or a WWE picks you up after a great showing due to something like that. I feel like that is almost like March Madness, where if a basketball player has a great tournament, all of a sudden their draft stock goes up. Well, you have a better feel for that than I do. I don't spend any time going to Indies. There's no Indies around where I live. I mean, if there were, I'd go.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not looking down my nose at India. There's a certain kind of magic about Indies that I love. There's a, there's a, just a, it's a word. Charm. No, it's like, it's like a naivete in a way. You know, young, young people that are just, just getting a break or just beginning to pursue their dream. That's the best way to say it.

because it's a good thing you know it's not a negative thing and being around that and seeing that in that youthful enthusiasm that's fun that's fun but i i there's you know i don't go to indie shows there's just nothing around here yeah closest i can get is a silver dollar on a friday night there's usually a good book he's usually one or two good bar fights between a couple of drunks that are so drunk they can't even hurt each the only thing they can hurt is themselves and that's kind of like some indie shows that i've been to go to the local ambets and see the fish going on hope that there's a lot of it's my life don't make fun of it i'm not it's again there's a charm to it but i i guess what i'm saying is too eric like streaming is the heart of this now with

companies like fight premier streaming network all of these companies are able to get their product out during this fantastic week where all these talent get to wrestle on these shows and i think that's just really healthy for the industry and that promotes of course it is and i mean you look at some of the big names that you know are making you know seven figures today that came out of that indie scene south rollins no come on this guy's rolling in cash got himself a beautiful wife that's rolling in cash came out of the indie scene i mean look what the indie scene did for cody roads once he left w w we without the indie scene cody rhodes doesn't have his revitalization he only oh i totally he so much so eric i don't know if you saw this

on his weight belt that he's bringing to the ring for WrestleMania. He wrote the name of every single independent wrestling organization he worked for during his break from WW. I know I love the guy. Yeah. How do you not love that guy? Mm-hmm. See, he's showing respect. Mm-hmm.

Respect gets respect. That's how that works. He found himself on it. Kevin Owen, Sammy Zane. These are all main eventors of WrestleMania this year. And they're going to, they're going to tear the house down. It is just going to be fantastic. And there, John, is the point that you made, and I agree with.

You have a much better feel for the potential of what all these Indies that are kind of orbiting the WWE moon over WrestleMania weekend. And it is a good thing. And you're right, man. A lot of great talent has come out of that indie scene. And if being a part of WrestleMania, even tangentially, peripherally. unofficially helps, that I think that's a great thing.

Like, I agree with you. Last question for you before we wrap up here. Yeah, give me something to disagree with because I don't like always agree. I want you to get the wheels turn it. I want you to get the wheels turn this one, because this has been big discourse as far as business goes,

because main eventing wrestling is a big deal. It's a big, big deal. And we know that Cody and Roman is going to be the full show main event, night two main event Sunday. But there's been a lot of discourse over what should be the night one main event and what the significance of that is. There have been some that have argued it should be the bloodline, the Uso's versus Sammy Zane and Kevin Owens because of the amount of time invested into that.

And there's also been people who say, well, the women have proven themselves over recent years that they deserve those main event opportunities and that it should maybe be Oscar versus Bianca Bel Air or Charlotte versus Ria Ripley. Charlotte is part of the franchise, right? What do you think has earned the right to be the WrestleMania main event here? And should there ever be restrictions on what qualifies as a main event? Well, that's what we know.

Who's going to enforce it, the government? Joe Biden going to come in with Hunter and decide what qualifies as a main event? No. Be held a score. That pisses me off that you even suggested it. I'm not just all of the things that I agree with you are. I'm talking the discourse. I'm not.

Here we are. We're going to introduce the federal government into the main event decisions of That was a you suggestion. You communist? My God. No standards. Your father? What the hell?

I hear you getting this from. I didn't say any of that. You did too. There'd be some rules in place to determine what's a main event or not. I did not say that. You're hearing things. I didn't hear it. We're going to go back.

You're going to listen. Go back and listen. You suggested it. What qualifies a main event? I'm not saying there are a main event. There's what qualifies as a main event. I'm sitting in the chair. It's my fucking chair.

It's the main event. How's that? There you go. That's how you qualify. You get the guy that's sitting in the chair to go, that's my main event. That's it. Nobody gets a vote. There's no rule book.

There's no litmus test. There's no in-home voting. Okay. Nothing. Guys sitting in the chair. I'm just asking. I, It has been a part of the pro wrestling discourse in the past couple weeks.

Ah, people are, people need to talk about more. They need better things to talk about it. It should be, no, it should be the men's tag. Okay. And not because of the amount of time that's put in it. It's because it's as hot as it is. That's where I was trying to get out here. That's it.

That's all. Sammy Zane is the second or third hottest property in WWE right now, period, end of conversation. I don't care about the rest of it. None of it matters. It's all subjective. If you think that, if that's your opinion, go with God. Just get away from me because I don't want to hear about it. It should be the Usos. Sammy, Kevin Owens, because that's where the story can go.

That's the future. Not that there can't be a future of a story with some other options, but is anybody honestly, I mean, honestly. going to have a conversation in front of anybody publicly and suggest that there's anything hotter than the Uso's in Sammy Zane and Kevin Owens right now? I don't disagree. I don't think so. And the only people that are arguing it are dishonest brokers who are just arguing for the sake

of virtue signaling and arguing. Screw that. It's wrestling. a virtue signal somewhere else got to have something got to have one thing that isn't drenched the silliness listen man i don't i don't i don't write the discourse i'm just sharing the discourse well share mine with them next time you're in that little discourse okay you let them know how i feel See, the beauty is, I don't got to let them know because if they subscribe to Strictly Business through 83 Weeks.com and adfreeshows.com, they'll know exactly how

Eric Bischoff feels. Yeah, it'll be all kinds. I'll be, yeah, I can't wait to read the hate headlines on my social media after this drops. And by the way, I don't care. So bring it on. Bitches. I don't care.

Well, you heard us talking all about Imper, of course, this again. and thank you, Empira,impura.com forward slash Eric, use that promo code wrestlebiz. But we would invite you to get involved with Strictly Business. If you're a potential business that wants to get your product out in front of so many eyes and ears, this is the place to do it. You see 83 weeks, obviously Eric's primary property that just tears it up every single week with him. Wait a minute.

Who wrote that graphic? Not me. See that? Advertise? Oh, man. Oh, we got to get on. We got to get on them for that. We got to get that.

on them for that. Somebody spells like I do. I might have done that. I didn't do that, but I could have done that. Well, I brought you as Advertise witherick.com. And you can get your name, your business, your anything out there with Strictly business, because we would love to partner up with you. You hear how much love and care with some TLC we put into Imper every single week.

We'd love to do that for your business as well here on Strictly Business. Eric, I know you got your travels to Las Vegas, safe travels for you. Anything else? What I'm going to do tomorrow? What do you got? I'm going, you know, my wife is coming with me, of course. Our daughter, Montana, is running in her fifth or sixth or seventh marathon. She thinks she's going to qualify for the Boston Marathon this time.

So she's very excited. So her and her boyfriend are going to be there. My sister's going to run a half marathon in Vegas with my daughter. And Mrs. B and I are just going to walk around Vegas. We're going to go to old Las Vegas tomorrow evening. evening and we're going to go to the mob museum. Do you know they have a mob museum in the old part of Las Vegas? Okay. And at the mob museum, once you go through the mob museum, um, and learn all about the history of the mob in Las Vegas, then they have a little speakeasy style, uh,

bar there. And I always dig those. It's kind of fun, you know, having a cocktail when you feel like maybe it's against the law or like it was back then. I kind of, to like transport myself so i'm going to i'm going to have a cocktail at the speak easy bar at the mob museum and the rest of the time i'm just going to eat my way through las vegas i know you're all about that i know if it's a japanese place maybe a good steak eric bischoff is there and he is ready to go i'm i'm italian so you know the mafia and all that kind of stuff i might have oh you dig it man you should go i didn't know you're italian oh yeah alba is not not latino for my case it is actually Italian.

So, yeah, so I'm going to have to go check it. Can you cook? Oh, I can cook. Can you really? Eric, I can cook. Eric, I don't, I'm going to have to send you the tweets, man. For my birthday, my friends, they pooled together. They got me three Japanese A5 Waggues. They got me three of them.

And I've cooked two of them so far. And they were unfreaking believable. Oh, I know. Waggues is great. But why I want to know is, can you cook Italian? Oh, can I cook Italian? Can I cook Italian? I can cook Italian.

I'm going to pull a picture as we wrap things up here on Strictly Business because I made some Italian just a couple weeks ago. Here it is. Ready for this? Look at this. Manja, baby. Look at that. Come on.

See, I love good Italian food. I can't go. There's no good Italian food here in Cody Wyoming. No, there is not. I mean, the closest you're going to get is a can of ravioli over a Walmart. A little chef boy R.D. Bring it home, throw it in the pan, heat it up and off you go.

That's it. Next time we're together. We'll do. some Italian up big. This has been great, Eric. Safe travels to you. Happy WrestleMania week, everybody. This has been strictly business. We'll see you next time.