83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #22: CM Punk's Potential AEW Return

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

On this week's edition of "Strictly Business," Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba take a deep dive on what a potential CM Punk return would mean for AEW! Plus, thoughts on Roman Reigns potentially dropping the WWE Universal Championship in Saudi Arabia. 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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It's savewithconrad.com. how's it going guys time for another edition of strictly business here on the ad-free shows and podcasts e-networks i'm john alba you know that already but i know you're all here for you're here for the man of the hour himself mr eric bischoff what's up brother how you doing another edition of strictly business what's going on man you're on the road uh yeah mrs b and i are in salt lake city utah here for a couple days and then heading to cave creek arizona for a little bit of sunshine absorption by the absorption i have a hard time talking this morning by the way that music is like really cheesy 70s porno music not that i was spending a lot of time with porn in the 70s although i did to tip my toe in the water just a bit just a little bit that's some really cheesy music i think we're going to have to work

on updating that music i don't know to put that together but that is just cheesy as all get out well we're a bit of a work in progress here sometimes on strictly business and hey we've got music that's a big step forward right that's a leap into the future 100% and listen there's nothing wrong with being a work in progress sometimes even your business is a work in progress and our friends over at impura want to help you out you're going to hear more about them in just a little bit, but you head to Empira.com forward slash Eric and use that code wrestle biz and you'll get 20% off your subscription and 14 days for free. We got more on them coming up in just a little bit here on Strictly Business. So you're out on the road. Eric,

last week we got a chance to talk about the WWE sale in depth and I'm happy to share that next week, a little teasery. We're going to have on one of the most credible sports media analysts in the world on our show. And shall we reveal who it's going to be or should we leave that as an open-ended tease? Oh, no. Reveal. Let's show them everything. We got Richard Deich

from the Athletic, formerly of Sports Illustrated coming on next week. He is one of the most in-tune sports media analysts out there and he's a huge, huge, huge Eric Bischoff fan when I extended the invite. I think he marked out a little bit. So it'll be a fun, interesting, and

educational conversation. And Mr. Dech will indeed be enlightening us. And I love that because we spend so much time enlightening our audience. It's great to be enlightened along the way by somebody else who knows more than we do about certain things. And that'll be the case. No doubt about that. And Eric and I are going to take a dive into the AEW realm here today on Strictly Business. In the meantime, if you're not a subscriber, guys, to ad-freeshows.com, what are you waiting for?

get in on all the goodies there and all the fun. We'll have an update on what's cooking over on ad-freeshows.com and just a little bit here on Strictly Business. We're also live right now for the ad-free show's top guys. If you are watching Eric and I live, leave us a comment. Leave us a question. Maybe we'll get a chance to venture into it here on this edition of Strictly Business. So, Eric, I think we should hop right into it here, man.

This has been the talk of the town this week in, wrestling, specifically as we record this on Wednesday and Thursday. A.M. Punk, who has not been seen on A.W. television since the all-out incident brawlout, as dubbed by some. It sounds, according to several reports, including from our friend Sean Ross Sapp, that he may be back in the fold here in A.A.W. In the very near future, according to Fightful, he has informed those around him that their target. targeting the June 21st episode of AW Dynamite, which will come to us from Chicago for his impending return,

a polarizing figure in his own right, someone you've chimed in quite a bit on, your initial reaction to these reports that seem to be gaining quite a bit of traction here. Don't give a fuck. Straight up. Straight up. Who cares? This is just such drama for the sake of drama.

You know, it's a good thing that this drama is actually taking place because there's nothing worthwhile watching AEW for. It is what it is. And if you're a fan of AEW, God bless you, go with God, enjoy the product. But it's flat, it's boring. It's just, there's nothing going on except for the drama outside of the ring. If Tony Con had the ability to somehow manufacture a fraction, a small, fraction, an infinitesimal amount of the drama that's taking place outside his company and

figure out a way to integrate it inside of his television product, it would be another situation. But it's not. When the drama outside of your company far exceeds the drama that you're able to create inside your company, if you're a scripted rustling company, you've got a problem. And I think this is indicative of a much bigger problem. The fact that, look, C.M. Punk's got leverage, right? Two of the cosplay executive members of the executive committee, whatever they were, executive vice presidents, got into a physical confrontation with them. CM Punk's got leverage. God bless him for using it. I don't blame him. He's a smart guy. I don't particularly think he's that talented. I think he's overblown. I think he's highly

overrated. I think he's been able to manage and create this persona. that has somehow survived and good for him for doing that. That's an art form in and of itself. But in terms of what he can actually deliver in the ring, we've seen it, we've experienced it. It's not nearly, it doesn't live up to the hype of CM Punk. But hey, he's got leverage. You know, he's probably got a multi-million dollar lawsuit

waiting in the wings and attorneys that are more than willing to go after that. You know, he's probably getting a check every month. I don't know what Tony's paying him. I've heard members ranging from $4 million to $7 million a year. So while he's waiting in the wings for Tony to figure out what Tony's going to do and the attorney's representing Tony, he's got all the leverage and he's taking advantage of it. And wrestling fans are right there and they're waiting for him. They're there for him.

So it's, it is what it is. I think when he comes back, it'll make a, if he comes back. It'll make a lot of noise. Everybody in the AEW world will be foaming at the mouth and frothing at the bed and can't wait and they're all excited. In a month later, things will be right back to where they are right now, which is an average viewing audience of 850 to 900,000 people. Nobody will give any more of a damn six months from now than they do today. That's my take. not holding back as Eric Bischoff typically does not do so you asked me the question

I'm not careful when you ask me certain questions because you know you're going to get an honest answer maybe I may not be right but I am honest that's what people love about you Eric Bischoff easy E listen man I understand your perspective on that I will push back in this regard wrestling tends to be most interesting when we are blending elements of real life into it to create these compelling stories and storylines and story arcs you yourself know that the NWO was built on blending elements of reality into telling this great story

would you agree or disagree that there is an opportunity to capitalize on something that was very much in the real-life realm to create a great story that could bring viewers in wherever this story unfolds on AW television. Not with the current brain trust involved in creative at AEW, I don't. That would take imagination and cooperation. That's the other thing. You know, because I'm not involved, I don't have a dog and I really don't give two shits, whether C.M. Punk goes back to AEW or not. It's not going to affect my life one way or the other.

But if I did care, which I don't, I would have to ask myself how honest is C.M. Punk about coming back. How willing is C.M. Punk to kind of mend the fences that were torn down not that long ago. And if I were the type of person to give CM Punk the benefit of the debt, by the way, his name is Phil, I don't call him CM Punk, it's fucking stupid. His name is Phil, Phil Brooks. If Philip were to wake up one day and say, you know what, this is kind of a messed up situation, this is not the way I wanted to go out of the industry, blah, blah, blah, blah, I think I want to come back.

would the first thing you would expect him to do be to bury Chris Jericho and to bear and to continue to bury other members of AEW roster, which is what he did just a week or two ago? So how sincere, how honest is he, Philip, about making, you know, making amends and making things work? It's stupid. the people involved are equally as stupid for engaging in this, knowing that the outcome is going to be pretty much the same as it's been.

It's just, I don't know, it's, hey, go forward. You know, we all love watching a good train wreck, right? That's probably a bad way to say it. We all love watching a good demolition derby. Demolition Derby has been at the core of every state fair since probably cars were invented and demolition derbies are fun because cars just banging each other and they tear each other up and nobody really gets hurt and you know at the end of it you've got one beat-up old jalopy that's worth about 75 dollars spinning around in the dirt track celebrating a win that's

what this is this is a demolition derby and people love watching demolition derbies and the people love watching this demolition derby but when it's done it'll be over with and you're stuck with the same product you've been stuck with for a long time with a talent that is highly overrated and very, very limited. There's a lot to, to borrow a Conrad term, there's a lot to unpack there, but I, I, not really. Well, okay, I guess the way that I look at it is trying to take the optimistic point of view on it. where I recognize that there was so much buzz around what happened, that there is just such an opportunity to capture something

that could really, really, really invigorate your program in a way that even in the short term, you're capturing eyes that you may have lost and hoping to leverage that into sustained viewership. When CM Punk came into the company... It's a lot of hope there. It's a lot of hope there, Mr. Elba. You're reaching into the clouds,

grasping at unicorns. Yeah, that would be... And I don't mean to interrupt you, brother. I'm sorry, keep going. No, no. I mean, listen, I have no stake in AEW whatsoever. It does not matter to me at the end of the day, whether AW grabs more viewers or not.

I want to see that for the sake of the industry. That's good for the health of the industry. If more eyes are being brought in, that's awesome. That means more opportunities for talent, et cetera. But I just feel like, Eric, we haven't seen an instance, rather, like this in a very long time in pro wrestling where it was so widely recognized that something so heated occurred. And with how these stars have aligned, now there is an opportunity to capitalize on that. I want to read more from Sean's report here. He says that Fightful is told that there's also a meeting

plan between CM Punk and Chris Jericho, you alluded to them having some issues before, to see if the two working together is a possibility. You've known Chris Jericho a very long time. And I think it's undoubtable that Chris Jericho has a very, very high standing ground in AEW. Knowing Chris in the way that you do, what's your perspective on the willingness to maybe do business in a situation like that given his professional past? I think first and foremost, Chris Jericho is a businessman and a good one. He's very smart. He's got a lot of experience. And while he may not have danced this particular dance before, this is pretty unusual, even in the world of an unusual.

Even in the unusual world of professional wrestling, this is pretty freaking unusual. But even still, you know, Chris has been around long enough now and has seen enough and been involved in enough that he's got great judgment. And I think he'll exercise that judgment. He also has leverage. There's also a limit to what Chris Jericho needs to do in his career.

I'm pretty certain when I say Chris, Chris is financially more than secure, so are his children, so are his children's children in all likelihood. So, you know, at this stage of Chris Jericho's career, how does he want it to end? Does he want it to end in a dance with an unpredictable, emotionally unstable, self-centered kind of, i don't know moderate talent however popular that moderate talent may be he's an average talent slightly above average at best is that how does chris want to risk his career or at least this stage of it the end of it because he is entering the end of his career when i say that it may be the end of chris's career it may it may be like the kiss farewell tour that started

I don't know you know it's chris jericho anything is possible but you know you'd have to no matter how much of a chris jericho fan you are and i am a big chris jericho fan you have to admit this guy's probably on the tail end of his career does he want to does he want to get in the mud with this cat who i don't know i don't trust him i wouldn't trust him am I going to sit down and try to have a meeting of the minds with a guy who, as recently as two weeks ago, decided to bury me publicly? I wouldn't waste my time. I wouldn't spend five minutes of my day sitting down next to somebody who, as recently as two

weeks ago, decided to do the same thing that created this mess in the first place, all while saying, I'm kind of interested in coming back. That's not story. That's just childish. It's immature, unprofessional actions by a guy that has made a career of it in Phil Brooks. So I don't know. If I'm Chris Jericho, I wouldn't go near it. But hey, you know, Chris is an independent spirit.

He may look at this completely different than I am looking at it. Chris may be looking at this as a way to turn a negative into a positive. It's possible. And that would be a feather in Chris's cap if he was able to do that. I don't know. You know, I don't know Chris well enough to know which side of that coin he's going to fall on. I know I wouldn't take the risk of getting into the mud with this guy again. He's proven.

He's a proven commodity. And it's not somebody that I'd want to be in business with. If I was Tony, I just eat the whatever it is, however many millions of dollars a year he's paying, just pay the cat off and chuck it up as a learning experience because you're going to keep learning one way or the other. You're either going to pay this cat off and learn a hard lesson and move on with your life or you're going to let this festering wound continue to infect the rest of your business going forward and you're still paying him. So I don't, I don't get it. I don't get it. we got top gal Lindsay in here saying hello gentlemen miss you both we miss you Lindsay we miss you too girl how are you we got Mike Gallagher in here as well

good to hear I don't miss Mike as much as I miss Lindsay no thanks big pop for me on that one uh listen you brought up a very interesting point about your return on investment right when when you invest that much money in a talent what is your return on investment going to be and there's no No doubting that Tony Kahn and higher powers of AW invested quite a bit in bringing CM Punk in both financially and inequity. This is a guy that beat Hangman Page, a guy they set up to be world champion. He beat him clean in the middle of the ring to become their champion. And then he also beat John Moxley, a guy who had a ton of equity in his own right in AW to give him this opportunity to be world champion.

And then he, as we know, he got hurt. and then the all-out incident as well. There is one thing that I will push back on what you said. And it's that when punk debuted and for those first few months of his run before he got hurt in May of last year, in the spring of last year, viewership was up for dynamite. By how much? Well, when punk debuted, as we've covered on this show,

they were treading in that 1.4 territory for the first few shows. for the first show for the first show let's be accurate well the three weeks where did they end up they were still around one million and on the on the positive side around one million now my point is I'm sorry I interrupted you again I'm okay I'm so you're okay I just want to say is that you know live attendance was up as well with CM Punk in his return

and then it has fallen back quite a bit since then you would have to think that there'd be some sort of boost that would come with bringing him back in the short term, especially with that all-in show coming to Wembley, where I don't know, Eric is using logic here. It feels like having CM Punk on the marquee for an international show, your biggest show ever that you've ever done, seems like a no-brainer that you'd want. No, and hey, that I agree with. And that'll probably be the tipping point for young Tony Kahn is, wait a minute,

I've got this, because there's a lot of pressure on Tony. And as I talked about with you last week, I think, I think Wembley's going to do great. with or without punk i would prefer if i was tony con to do it without punk because that makes a real statement right who drew the house did a e w draw the house or did c m punk draw the house if i was tony con strategically looking forward i would absolutely not book cm punk on that show even though I would know that doing so would ensure more sales. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't sell my soul to that piece of garbage.

I just wouldn't do it. I wouldn't compromise my company. I wouldn't dilute my leverage as a brand depending on a guy who six months ago absolutely buried my company while I was sitting right next to him. acting like a petulant 14-year-old piece of garbage. No, I wouldn't do it. Even though I know that putting CM Punk on the card would ensure a much better turnout. Hey, I got an idea.

Book CM Punk and Bill Goldberg. You want to book something that's going to sell at Wembley? Book that. Bill Goldberg's last match against CM Punk, dare you. dare you grab your balls tk go with it dare you fascinating for the record i know we like kind of talked about this a few weeks ago i don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that bill goldberg shows up in a w not only either i'm just bills bills if bill i said this a couple weeks ago if bill is money motivated and he could be i don't think he needs the money but guys like bill

aren't about needing the money it's about wanting the money and if if bill decides pay a couple million bucks to show up over in wembley thrash phil brooks around a little bit proved to everybody what he really is and isn't i'd take it who wouldn't it'd be fun i don't know if it'll be over to k okay probably get a private jet dk tk probably fly him over there right roll out the red carpet hang all over give him all kinds of big hugs say wonderful things about him give him two three four million dollars whatever fly him over there in a private jet wouldn't do that i would in a heartbeat is goldberg a hug guy he doesn't strike me as much of a hug guy a couple million bucks he'll hug you i don't think he's going to give you a handy but he'll

give you a hug good stuff there question from top guy Brian he says is there too much dependence on punk from an AEW side does AW feel punk is more of a draw than the rest of their roster and before you answer that I'll ask you to elaborate from your experience

was there ever a time you felt that your roster was too dependent on one person I just kind of it's a great question Brian and and I think it goes back to my position early on in this conversation is I wouldn't compromise my company or my roster or my brand depending on Phil Brooks. I just wouldn't do it. I would want my roster and my company to be responsible for this success over at Wembley or even going forward beyond Wembley, not proving to the world that I am beholding and dependent upon one individual,

who is at the very least unprofessional and, in my opinion, highly, highly, highly, highly overrated and overvalued. So yes, I think there is too much dependence on the idea of coming in. It's what's driving the discourse around AEW right now. Nobody's talking about anything else that's going on in AEW. Nobody else gives a shit. The only thing you're talking about is CM Punk. That's, to me, that's bad business. If that's the only, only thing people are talking about in your company after you've been around for four years and brought in the level of talent that you brought in and making the moves that you're trying to make. And all anybody wants to talk about is this piece of garbage. I think that's a bad

reflection on your company. And yes, you are too dependent on this one individual. And I think it's a mistake. It's one of the reasons I feel as strongly as I feel about it and why I reacted the way I did early out in this conversation. Now, was there, your second part of your question, was there a time when WCW became too dependent on any one personality or character? I think that's a fair question, and I think the honest answer is probably yes. You know, I think at one point in time, we probably did hang so much of our future on Holkogen that it was very, very risky.

Same could probably be said about the NWO. it got hot probably 97 late 97 probably too much dependence on on the NWO of which Hulk Hogan was a part so kind of one and the same that is a fair observation and the honest answer is yes what did you learn from that not to do it not to do it what did you learn little Billy you put your hand on the hot stove and I know it hurt what did you learn don't put my hand on the hot stove some people would say they learn to put a glove on instead of putting the hand on the hot stove directly

you know um yeah listen that that's all interesting and i'll say this i know you're not watching the product every week i really think that the a w main event scene right now is like actually really good and the story that they're telling with the four pillars of sammy guvara darby allen jungle boy jack perry and MJF being involved in this one cohesive feud with different layers and sting. So why mess it up?

So why, if you're right, you're right, I haven't been watching it. And I will. It's not, I'm not watching because I'm a, you know, I don't want to watch AW. I'm just, I'm not watching because I got shit to do on Wednesday nights. But I do tape it and I'll go back and watch it. And let's just assume what you're saying is true. And you, you've got a good eye. You're, you've been a wrestling fan for a long time.

Why would you mess that up? why now that you finally got your ship somewhat balanced right you've gone through your garbage with mjf that was equally as bad but it's behind you mjf is a team player he's a company guy he's proven himself over the last few months you've got if you're correct and i'm just going to give you the benefit of the doubt you've got a great story a cohesive story between four people why would you want to fuck that up well in theory

if this CM Punk return were to happen in June I would imagine this feud will have been blown off at the May double or nothing pay-per-view at that point but still there's something to follow up with obviously and listen punk could easily slide right back into something with MJF hypothetically

because that's where the story set off with him at the all-out pay-per-view and MJF was clearly going to be feuding with CM Punk before plans change, pal. But I get what you're saying. You've got something that you can tangibly bite into, why mess with that?

I understand that. And before we talk a little bit about Imperial here in just a second, I do want to add one more element of this to pick your brain on. There is the whole idea here that this third television show, which as Fiple reporting, is going to be a Saturday night show that is

potentially going to be a primetime show. on Saturday night. Rather, you know, we had this discussions a few weeks ago about it being maybe a 605 show in honor of WCW. But instead, it sounds like this is going to be a prime time show. And his report alongside some others as well indicates that this will essentially be the CM Punk show in a way to keep talent away from each other

that aren't necessarily getting along with one another. And I think, Eric, that's... You create a television show to manage your locker room? Right, right. What else is this here? The world is a mess, okay? Let's just face it. The fact that we're having this conversation and then a network is talking about having a prime time show so that we can keep, you know, the people in the locker room that are too immature and unprofessional to get along. But we're going to try to put them on television in a way that we don't have to put them in the same room. Good luck. You deserve whatever you get. Turner, you're a freaking mess. You're not the company you used to be. There's executives in that company that couldn't find their ass with both hands and a compass when it comes to making a good good decision if this is the direction that they're going good freaking luck yeah i think if if that is how this ultimately plays out and it's a big if but if that is how it plays out it's a joke and

so is turner i just don't know how you can turn i am so i feel so bad for ted turner right now i do i wouldn't want my name on that company i just wouldn't please if i was ted i'd have my representative is reaching out and saying, please, take my name off. Do not put my name on anything associated with this company any longer. This is just a mess. CNN was bad enough. Now they're creating a primetime show on a Saturday, which is, by the way, no big fucking deal, because nobody watches TV in a Saturday, primetime or otherwise, right? It sounds good in a press release, but it doesn't make a damn bit of difference in real life. But the fact that you're creating a show to help keep people away from each other, but yet get them on television,

oh man there's some dumb asses in turn of broadcasting right now if that's true if it's true is the big caveat that is the hot rumor here and we like to live to enlighten to the best of our abilities here on strictly business that i mean that would i'm in a bad mood today so i'm letting this shit fly i woke up cross i'm getting crosser by the minute who says cross who says that anymore i don't think who under the age of 90 says i woke up cross. I did. I woke up pissed off this morning. And we just happened to be doing this show and you just happened to be sharing some of these dumbass ideas that are floating around out there in the internet. And I can't help but reacting in the most honest, natural way I can when I'm pissed

off and haven't had enough coffee. Mrs. B just went down to give me some more coffee. We're sharing a hotel room. Obviously, we're sharing an hotel room, right? But she was sitting over in a bed trying to work on her computer and getting things done. She's listening to me and she's looking over her shoulder going, man, oh, man, did you did, did you have to say that? It's kind of rude, Eric, you know, and I picked up my coffee cup and said, just go get me some more coffee. Maybe I'll get nicer as I go.

Doubt it, but maybe. I'm just in one of those moods today. You can say your morale is not super intact today. And Lindsay asked, hypothetically, how much do you think backstage morale? would take a hit if punk comes back and i'll i'll make that more of a macro question eric if there is somebody in the locker room who is divisive and i'm asked you to speak from your experiences here how much does that tangibly split up the locker room is that something that people care about or are they generally able to put business first it's no different than any other work environment

if you've got somebody who's a cancer i hate to use that word because people have to do with cancer But if you've got somebody who is just constantly rubbing people the wrong way, creating a negative environment, just creating hostility, dividing people within on the team, so to speak, why have them around? That's not going to create anything. It's just, it's stupid. Yes, it does create bad morale. It does. in bad morale, whether it's in a wrestling locker room or in an office environment or anywhere else is not productive. It's counterproductive. Why do it? This guy is not saving anything.

He's not going to turn AEW's business around. Is he added value? He was. He came back. He'd been off for what, seven years. And he came kept this, you know, this aura of, you know, because of the pipe bomb interview. He kept this, this mythology alive. Good for him, by the way. Credit. Credit to fill for that. But now we've seen it. It moved the needle for a minute. And then things settled back down in terms of television ratings. Incrementally, did it improve live event? Sure. Incrementally, but enough so that it was worthwhile to have this piece of garbage bury your company while sitting next to you and bury your roster. And as recently as 14 days ago or whatever it was, continue to do the same thing, all the while suggesting that he wants to come back.

Who in the right freaking mind would do that? I do want to just add this too, that they did do their best pay-per-view buy rates with CM Punk. the card who cares does that matter i'm genuinely asking that's not me cares does it is it worth destroying your brand making the president of the company look like a douchebag which is what tony looked like sitting next to cm punk while punk was burying tony and his roster is it worth let making the the leader of your company look like a complete douchebag while this guy buries your entire roster going forward. Is that what

you want to share with advertisers, potential sponsors? Is that how you're going to grow your business? It's insane. To me, this whole conversation is insane. I don't get it. I think there would have to be a lot of apologies all around in order to get... It would have to be more than apologies.

This guy would have to spend the majority of the next 18 months on his hands and knees kissing everybody's acid within eyesight. Right. Well, I know one thing, Eric, we do our best here on Strictly Business to set you up to run your business as well as possible, not with anyone blown off the CEO of the company next to them. We try to set you up for success here, as do our friends over at Impera. You go to Impira.com, E-M-P-I-A-A-A-D-C-R-S-E-R-E-S-T-L-L-E-I-Z. You're going to get 14 days free and 20% off your subscription. description. And you may be saying to me, John, what does that mean? Why do I care? Well, with Impera, you can launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before. You always need a plan, Eric Bischoff. A plan is the foundation to any degree of success. And Impera is going

to help you get there. Tell us a little bit more about Impera. Plan your work and work your plan. Best advice I've ever been given. Plan your work and work your plan. But you can't work your plan if you don't have the right tools. You can't work your plan if you don't know what goes into the plan and you can't manage and measure and stay on top of those elements that make your, thank you, Mrs. B, I appreciate that. She brought me more coffee. She's hoping that I get nicer as time goes on and the caffeine kicks in. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. B. Thank you, Mrs. B, on behalf of all of us here on strictly business. We appreciate it. Yeah, she, or John's on the receiving end of his blistering commentary that I happen to be providing this morning.

No, look, plan your work and work you plan. And Impair gives you the tools to monitor and manage and modify as time goes on. Look, can you sit down and you create a business plan, you work with a bunch of assumptions, you work with really smart people who have experience in your business and they all come together to help you, you know, create this business plan. But guess what? things change markets change competition changes a lot of things change costs go up opportunities change and guess what you have to change with them you have to modify that plan well if you're working

off of a business plan that made a lot of sense 18 months ago and you don't have the tools to manage and and modify that plan as you go probably not going to go that well It impura gives you the tools to work your plan. Can't say enough great things about them. And by the way, Mrs. Bee just went down. I'm staying at a Spring Hill Suites, a Marriott Spring Hill Suites, and they have reasonably good coffee down there. But for the price of what you would pay at Starbucks for two cups of coffee,

you can have this tool at your fingertips, and you can have a live, live person on this thing. Call the phone. And they'll walk you through in real time. They'll walk you through and onboard you and help you design this tool so that it's customized for you. What? Are you kidding me? If you're thinking about going into business, don't think about it any longer. Stop.

Stop thinking about it. Call the team at Impera. Work with them. You'll be more motivated than you are right now. And you'll have the tools to be successful. And the beauty is, Eric, you won't need to create a third brand to keep your employees apart. Because with Impera, you can manage all your employees. Oh, yeah, you don't have to create a television show to keep people that aren't functional from killing each other.

Actually, what you should do is just let them kill each other. Just put them in a ring. Put Jericho. That's it. Okay, let's book it. Empira, here's what we do. We're going to come up with the pillars. We're going to bring in these people.

We're going to bring in Bill Goldberg. We're going to bring it. Oh, Bill Goldberg. and Chris Jericho have you know they had some heat they got some backstory they took care of it a long time ago but nonetheless it's still there we could draw upon it for good story right you've got chris jericho you've got bill goldberg and you've got phil little fill little fragile fill put them put those three in a ring and have a last man standing match there you go and by the way it's a shoot let's go with that well you can assign you

your team members different responsibilities so if someone's doing the job in imperia you can tell them you're doing the job you can assign objectives to them you can monitor their progress on individual tasks from each objective and utilize targeted communication that allows business owners to work on the business and not in the business and we want to help you out as eric said 14 days for free 20% off your subscription just talking the cost of two cups of coffee a month impira dot com E-M-P-I-R-A-A-A-D-C-R-A-A-A-D-R-E-S-T-L-E-I-Z. Launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before with Empira. 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 83 weeks for quite a while now, about all the cool things that are happening over at atpreeshows.com. He created the soundtrack for generations of WWE fans with some of the most iconic themes in history. Legendary composer Jim Johnston sits down with Conrad to take us behind the themes that we all grew up on, including Randy Orton's voices. Got your rules and your religion all decide to keep you safe. But when rules start getting broken, you start questioning your own. faith I hear voices in my head

they cancel me they understand they talk to me they talk to me they tell me that I will do to show me things out to you

they talk to me you know I wanted it to be a little bit creepy right that's what it felt like is dark, mysterious, creep. That's just a small taste of what we've got waiting for you, with four levels to choose from.

See for yourself why AdFree Shows is the best value in wrestling today. Sign up now at adpreeshoes.com. Jim Johnson's got to be in the WW Hall fame, right? It's amazing that they let him go. some of the best music ever created in this industry is created by Jim Johnson. And I, you know, to be able to sit down and get inside of his head. And, you know, it's funny. We were just watching the Randy Orton clip there with Jim Johnson talking about how he

created the music for Randy Orton. And I cannot, I mean, just listening to that music and seeing those clips of Randy, man, that was perfect. That's what music should do. It's like scoring a feature film, you know, the music in a feature film or even in a television series. You know, Miss B and I watch a lot of, you know, we, there's some stuff we love watching now. Mayor of Kingstown being one of them, succession being another. But there's some great music that just brings the emotion and the passion that you're trying to create

with a script and with great acting, but it takes it to the next level. And that's what Jim Johnson was able to do so effectively with so many great talents in WWE. Okay, Eric. So, I want to wrap this episode of Strictly Business with a fan question. This comes from someone who has been pretty high up in the wrestling industry, and they're pretty prominent in the broadcasting industry right now. They've asked to remain anonymous in sending me this because they really want to hear your thoughts. Chicken shit. Go ahead.

Chicken shit. They're a big fan of Strictly Business. That's all right. They're still chicken shit. So I'll read the song. He says, so I would like to ask Eric, if there's ever a precedent or history of finishes being purchased, and what are they referring to? Well, they're saying their theory is that instead of Roman Raines dropping the WWE Universal Championship to Cody at WrestleMania, that essentially the Saudis have leveraged to have Roman drop the title on their soil. He tries to reckon with it by saying, this number.

the thousand-day number, it would get close to that with this upcoming Saudi Arabia show in May and that the Saudis would essentially be like, hey, we'll pay you $30 million for the show and Roman Raines to drop the title and have you play that moment that happened here in Saudi Arabia rather than WrestleMania for years to come. Yeah, there's so many video packages over the years, right, Eric, where you get this amazing world championship win at WrestleMania. Well, the suggestion here is that we'll pay you to have someone, create that historic moment on our soil. Is there ever a precedent for something like that?

I mean, if there is, I don't know of it. And maybe there is at a much, much smaller scale. Because the idea is, it's just timing. It's forget, you know, take Saudi Arabia and all the controversy that comes along with it. Just take that out. You know, replace Saudi Arabia with Tampa, Florida. Just for sake of discussion, is there a reason why at a particular venue that making a move like that, Roman reinsdropping or losing to someone else, from a financial perspective, has such so much more potential than doing it in Boston?

So if you're a business person and you're sitting down and you're looking at your plans and you're going, wait a minute, if we do this here, it's worth X, but if we do it over here, it's worth 2X. I don't know. I have to have to give that some conversation, wouldn't you? Your business. You have shareholders. You have people who you are responsible to who you've never even met. like people walking up and down the street. You've got a mailman somewhere or a male woman somewhere who owns 300 shares of your stock

or 100 or 2. You're responsible to that person to make the best financial decisions you can make when you're a publicly held company. And if there's a financial opportunity in Saudi Arabia or Tampa or Czechoslovakia or anywhere else that is so significant and has such a large impact, on your bottom line and the fiduciary fricking responsibility you have to your shareholders do you not have to have a conversation about that of course you do

now is there a precedent i don't know did verne gania at some point sit in a room and go no i could drop the belt to this guy in winnipeg or i could do it in chicago where am i going to make more money i'm going to make more money in chicago so i'm going to do it in chicago i like winnipeg but i'm going to do it in chicago is that considered to precedent? I don't know. If it is, then, yeah, it's probably been done before. A version of it. But this is pretty, this is, this is unique, right? I've not heard this. This is news. And it's a great, it's a very interesting thought. The analogy they used was, it's a, it's a possibility, right? I mean, it's, it's possible that

this conversation is taking place. The analogy they use in this is a much more microscale is indie worker sells a bunch of tickets. Suddenly they get in the main event in a opportunity to win a championship, right? Again, much more smaller scale. We're not talking that degree of money here. But it does make the wheels turn a little bit. So there was never an incident in WCW or an instance in WCW where you were booking a specific market or a specific venue. And for that reason, you were fulfilling the creative to create that big moment. No, no, I never, I don't be careful about saying never, unlikely that I ever made any significant creative decisions based on a venue. Some? Sure. Insignificant decisions? Absolutely. But in terms of dropping a

world championship, particularly one that's been held for a thousand days or whatever it's been, anything as significant as what we're talking about now? Absolutely not. Well, and then there's the added element, of course, of dangling that money, dangling the money like a carrot they're like, hey, you give us that moment, we'll give you a little extra. And that's business. Why would you, like I said, I, you know, I know people, because there's so much, we're so polarized and tribal about everything, not just wrestling, but everything, right? And there is certainly a portion, a large portion of the audience that is so anti-Saudi Arabia.

But at the end of the day, money's money. Your shareholders are your shareholders, your fiduciary responsibilities, your fiduciary responsibility. People have to realize that businesses make decisions for business reasons, not for fan bases who have opinions. it's a business you know why do major league baseball you know make the rules changes that they made this year you know pitch clock and i don't know you know my ass from two bags of rocks when it comes to baseball but i am aware that the pitch clock was a big deal amongst other changes that were made and has reduced the length of a game from an average of about three hours and seven minutes

or three hours and ten minutes down to two hours and 38 minutes which is good for the game it's a business decision that was good for the game now you're going to have traditional baseball loyalists that are going to be pulling their hair out and threatening never to watch baseball again and you know burning people's lightnesses and effigies blah blah blah blah fucking but guess what it was a business decision and it was probably a good business decision that in the long run will benefit major league baseball that's how decisions are made was right near rob manfred the commissioner of major league baseball at the springsteen show the other night i was watching him rock out to bruce i almost brought up the pitch clock to him that i decided

not to i like are you are you impressed that i know how how much time i was pitch clock has knocked off the average one of major league baseball game are you kidding me i pulled that one right out of my hat like it's been sitting there all morning i had no idea that we were even going to have this conversation somehow the baseball would even come up but here i am I can pull that rabbit out, I can make that analogy, I can make that comparison in a way that helps the wrestling fan understand that this is indeed strictly business. How about that? That was awesome.

Whatever Wall Street Journal article you read before we came on air that told you about that time, I'm impressed, man. That was good stuff there. I don't like The Runner on Second Rule, but that's a whole other conversation for another day in and of itself. I want to get to one more question here from our fans before we wrap up here on strictly business. Bryant asked when going into a major market like London for the first time,

as AW is, do you try and partner with local promotions or just go over based on your company name? I, I can only talk about my experience. Yeah, from your strategy. We, in WCW, we relied totally on local promoters. Local promotion is key, was key.

Now, I don't know, WWE may be different. okay AEW has got and we didn't talk about this last time we brought it up AEW going to the UK but one of the reasons that I feel so positively I know it sounds weird right that I'm positive about something in AEW she said I'm honest right but one of the reasons that I'm honestly positive about AEW's opportunity in the UK is at least in small part because you have to assume I have to assume that there is some promotional infrastructure that exists given the fact that the con family owns a, we'll call it a soccer team, they'll call it a football team in the UK. That inherently gives you a certain amount of reach. It gives you relationships with

sports writers, with media personalities, potential sponsors. There's a lot of infrastructure that comes with owning a team in a market like the cons do. So I think some of that is going to be beneficial to AEW and will help AEW not be totally dependent on a local promoter, but you'll still want that local promoter there, especially one that has experience with professional wrestling, because that's a different market. Yeah, I feel like that would also help with day of sales as well. Walk up. Walk up still matters.

Walk up is a thing that happens to improve gates all the time across any sport or any event. so yeah i'm i'm with you on that good question there brian good questions always from our top guys and top gals they know what's up adfree shows dot com you sign up for that you get access to strictly business plus so much other content as well and if you'd like to join with us here on strictly business and get all the love that we give in an organization like impura you go to advertise with eric com i'm not going to throw the graphic up because we still got to get that graphic fix you mean it's not been fixed yet i haven't gone the fixed one yet if it hasn't been fixed one yet if it hasn't been yet it's kind of a running silver i'm coming for you dave i'm coming for you it's a running bit at this

point so i'm i'm with it advertise with eric dot com get on board with that you got 83 weeks you got strictly business get your message out in front of thousands and thousands of listeners and viewers every single week and have eric bischoff put over your product in a way that nobody else can i'm always impressed by how much love you give to our sponsors eric and i'm sure they are as well so hit us up advertise with eric.com eric i know it's been a long morning for you i know you're on the road i know you want to spend some time with mrs b is there anything else you'd like to do i should want any time with me she's tired of me she's been sitting here listening to me babble on and being negative for the last 60 minutes she can't wait to get out of the freaking room it's good you know what

i think i'm just gonna maybe head back to cody and you stay here in salt lake city after listening to you babble with john elbaugh for the last hour well mrs b i hope i hope you have a great trip with Eric, Mrs. B, if she can hear this. Anything else you'd like to throw out there, Eric? No, I'm done. Okay, he's done. This has been strictly business with Eric Bischoff. We'll see you next time right here

on ad-free shows and the podcast he now.