83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #25: WWE Draft, AEW All In, and More

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

On this edition of "Strictly Business," Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba discuss whether or not the WWE Draft means anything, AEW's All In ticket sales for Wembley Stadium, Tony Khan calling out a reporter, AEW hiring Will Washington, and more! Special thanks to this week's sponsors! Manscaped- Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code WRESTLEBIZ at Manscaped.com. Empiraa- Sign up now and receive free onboarding, your first 14 days for free, and 24/7 support. Get ahead of the game and save 20% on your subscription by using the code 'wrestlebiz' at checkout. Launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before. Visit www.empiraa.com/eric today and start your journey to success! Fite+- Fite+ is the ultimate digital platform for live sports and entertainment, and they are now offering a free 7-day trial at TryFite.com 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 ad-free shows on the podcasting network. I'm John Alba. So, so damn happy to get the man back in the back of the Cadillac here. I am joined once again, drummel by Mr. Eric Bischoff. We're back, baby.

Ah, the cloud goes wild. Well, not wild, just. They go mild. They go mild. How you doing? I'm good, man. Good. Finally back home.

It's been a busy week. It has been a busy week. We're going to talk all about that. We got a whole bunch of business to get into on the business of the business here on Strictly Business. And of course, as you know, as it is every single week, strictly business is powered by our friends over at Empira. We're going to talk about Impera in just a little bit, 14 days free and 20% off your subscription by going to Empira.com forward slash Eric. And using that code, wrestle biz. But Eric, we were on the road.

It was like the old territory days this past week, heading up the home of the Fresno Grizzlies. to do a lot of fun that was a hoot i had a blast dude the fans in fresno who came out for this live edition of 83 weeks in strictly business first off shout out to all the hospitality derrick and lance and all the others involved jonathan they were amazing with us what'd you make of our little weekend there our little baseball foray i i first of all i had a blast the hospitality was second to none the vibe was great as how's it how's the phrase go the crack was good um now it was it was great and it also reminded me of how cool the fans in fresno are fresno is a great wrestling market has been forever and it was just it was just nice man

what a pleasant way to spend a day it's the only way i can put it we're going to hope to do more of these live events eric told stories that he's never told before on air and if you were there in person you got to experience them but if you were there in person you also got to see eric throw out the first pitch and i know you might be saying what a debag you are for bringing it up i mean i wasn't just going to bring it up i'm actually going to show it to everyone here so let's oh here we go The last one spot in the biggest five pick. And especially the first kid with the head.

Thank you. One of the opportunity next, especially then if you so, and the fact is the end up. On the table, let's see your first fit. All right, thank you. All right, thank you.

The walk of shame, Eric, after you double bounce the first pitch. Was that a double bounce or single bounce? Oh, it was a double bouncer. See, I couldn't see it. I've got my screen reduced. So I thought it was just because it was so blinding fast. I couldn't see it. I guess it might have hit the dirt before.

I like the showmanship throwing the hat backwards. That was good. I couldn't help it, man. It was the music. You heard that Voodoo Chau music. in the background i just couldn't help it thrown from the mound though i'll give you the kudos on that you got smoked by our friend fran unfortunately i think she hussed fran wow she had an arm on her she did she surprised everybody and then she made you sign her cm punk belt that was ridiculous

that was a ridiculous moment but it was so much fun thank you again to the fresno grizzlies and we hope that we can be bringing podcast to the podcast at the plate to you soon here through 83 we weeks and strictly business and then eric of course everyone was talking about it they hear that iconic theme song i'm back and i'm better than ever on monday night raw eric bischoff returning to w w we for the wwee draft how was your experience man it was fun you know that i was in i was norwalk connecticut on thursday night i think by the way big shout out to the entire team over best trivia ever another great experience i got to hang out with my buddy Bruce Pritchard, his beautiful wife, Stephanie, his daughter, his son,

her daughter's, your boyfriend. I mean, it was like, you know, it was like a family reunion. It was great. And I just had a blast. And then on to San Fran, to Fresno, and then from Fresno back to San Fran and on to Dallas on Monday. And then, yeah, back at Monday Night Row, I felt it always feels good. You know, you see some people that you haven't seen.

in a while and get to reconnect and just put your toe back in the water. It was great. Got to say hi to, you know, Paula Beck and Stephen Regal and saw Bruce again. Amongst others, it was a, it was a great night. I enjoyed it. We're going to be talking about the WWE draft here on this edition of Strictly Business. You got to read a couple different names out there. Trish Stratus, man, still kicking ass. How about that? she is amazing you know she's a cool chick sorry maybe chick isn't the right thing to say is that socially acceptable can i can i refer to tris stratus as a cool chick i think you can say that good i'm not going to get like canceled or no i think you're just going to stand up in front of

my house and protest or anything like that i think you're good all right well then she's a cool chick and she's in great shape and she's still going strong kudos to tristratus love to hear the complimentary words the last thing eric before we launch into business the business of the business a friend of mine gifted me this the other day because he knew i did this podcast with you and he's a bit of a vintage collector and it's this wcw versus n w o world tour official strategy guide and i'm like man i'm going to look up the cheat codes here i got to find eric bischoff's page oh you had a page brother i'm going to pull i'm going to try to get this close you can see the different images there wow your character uh you were listed as

six foot 185 pounds a headlock punch and a face rake where your signature moves what what was a headlock punch and a face rake what you think about simple sets that's some simple stuff that doesn't take any talent that that sounds like me if you did if you tapped b you would do a groin kick which i think that kind of tracks with your karate right now i've never been a dick kicker you know when i used to compete different parts of the country would have different rules and in the midwest like chicago indiana ohio the promoters there allowed dick kicking and i just hated it Because everybody go out there and all you did is protect your groin.

And it really, I think, inhibited the athleticism in amateur sport karate. So I used to hate it. But every once in a while, I'd do it just to say I did. The profile reads, Eric Bischoff is one of the most powerful men in wrestling today, earning him Richter scale levels, cheers and jeers. I think that's totally great. Yeah, mostly cheers. I think that's still the case, my friend.

but I know that you were a big draw this past week in Fresno, and it was a great time. Let's talk about this draft. You and I were kind of talking about this in the car. And I think it's so fascinating that back in 2002, when WCW went out of business and WWE was going to use WCW as a second brand, and then that didn't end up happening, they split Ron Smackdown into separate rosters. And it's something that over the years has gone back and forth as to whether or not they're going to keep it or not keep it. sometimes we see integration without cause other times we see it telegraph that they're going to

break down the rosters this year they've decided to do a draft again we've got media rights conversations coming up they're in discussions currently for USA Fox and potentially any other partners I want to ask you about the value of split rosters you were there in 2019 for a little bit especially as they were getting ready to break away Fox and smack down together what is the value, if there is any, of having the split rosters and what kind of conversations were you privy to from the networks on that side? In 2019, I really didn't communicate much to Fox. I was overseeing the Smecton brand for a cup of coffee.

And as a result, all my conversations were kind of focused on that brand. And I didn't really have a lot of communication with the network a little bit when it came to the brand more as it related to promotions and things that we wanted to do leading up to the brand split or the draft at that point. But it's interesting you said, you know, what's the value of the brand split? I don't think there's a value in a brand split. I think it's a necessity. There's a difference between a value. And I guess the value you could argue that, well, the value is that you have two distinct brands. Therefore, you have two distinct television licensing opportunities because as in any television show and wrestling is no different, the quality of that show is

oftentimes linked directly to the star power on it. And in order to have two successful brands where you have two major media companies buying for the rights and bidding for the rights for those brands, that value has to be there. But the networks look at the rosters. And that's the challenge. So it's not so much immediate value beyond the fact that you do have two separate brands that you can license. But it's a necessity in order to keep your television partners happy. And that's where it gets tricky. Because not all talent, is created equal and you could have your roster set and feel really good about it and then you have somebody emerge as you know the biggest star in the company well who gets that star who you know

because both networks are going to want that star and that's when it becomes tricky because you've got to keep your television partners happy right and if you've got one star i'm not going to pick out names here but you if you've got star a who is perceived to be and is every measurable way a bigger star that gets better ratings perhaps or by any other metric is just considered to be the star in WWE at that particular moment well if that star is not on your network you're not happy about that so that's the challenge is keeping your network partners happy. That's the biggest challenge. And, you know, going into, when I got to WWE in late July of 2019, most of the strategy and most everything with regard to the Fox

premier and the draft that went along with it, excuse me, most everything that went along with the premiere of WWE on Fox, a lot of those logistics and to promote. emotions, so much of that had already been worked out by the time I got there. Really, all that was left was determining two things. At the top of the list, there were many more, but at the top of the list, there were two things, primarily. One was, who's on my roster. The other was, who's my writing team.

Now, I get there in July, end of July, they give me like a week or so to get my, you know, get set up and moved in and all that stuff. started showing up in the office probably the first week in August. And I had no idea who my writing team was. I had no idea who was going to be on my roster. And it changed every single day. Every time we had a meeting with events, it would change. Both of those issues would change and continue to change right up until I think a day or two before the premiere on Fox. So it was a very, very, very stressful time. I can't even articulate it.

You know, my job was to try to, okay, get my writing team together, kind of manage that team, get everybody on the same page, set a tone, try to create a system, but I never knew who was on my team. And management didn't want the writing, the entire writing team. They knew that they were going to be split up, but management didn't want anybody to know which team they were on.

So it was a really bizarre situation for me, personally. But a lot of that just had to do with the timing of when I came in and in the premiere of the show. But just the whole draft thing was really stressful. But not just for me. I mean, I was, yeah, it was for me, especially since I was new on a job and trying to, you know, figure out what I was going to do with this opportunity that I was given. But, you know, first of the talent, creative, it's hard to be creative. You know, put yourself on a writing team for either one of those shows.

Number one, you don't know if you're going to be on that team for very long. You don't know who your boss is or is going to be. It's going to be one of two people. At that point, it was either going to be me or Paul Heyman, if you're on the writing team. But you didn't know who was going to be on your roster. So the pre-planning for post-pre-bere on Fox was impossible. it wasn't a challenge it was freaking impossible so yeah it was a it was a interesting time to say the least from your perception would the networks rather have their own people but a

smaller amount of them rather than share the larger stars together i don't know i've never had that conversation with with anybody from either network though, that scenario that you just described creates a much bigger problem. Now let's go back to the very first brand split. That was in WCW, Nitro and Thunder. And one of the challenges that that brand split created, there was a lot of them. But beyond the economics of it, because I was mandated, I've talked about this before, It was mandated to produce a two-hour show in prime time for TBS, but I was not given a budget to do it.

It literally had to come out of my own pockets, WCW's own pockets, so to speak. So that was a challenge. But the bigger challenge was we knew going in that if we didn't keep the talent separate, in other words, if Nitro didn't have its roster and Thunder almost cold at SmackDown, didn't have its roster and you have the talent going back and forth so each show could select from the larger pool of talent you would just dilute your pre now you're just doing four hours of wrestling under one brand and it delutes everything it delutes the story it delutes the talent it's just just waters everything down and that's the problem with having one pool of talent

and just i'll just use you know this these five people you know on on raw Monday night and we'll use three of those same people on smackdown Friday night it's the audience that won't track it it's it's not a good situation i guess for me one of my biggest issues i have with the current way it's set up at least back when you were doing the whole gm thing of raw you and paul hayman are picking people for your brands because you want your brand to be the best brand in story right like that's the whole idea behind this i don't know know what the why is with the way the draft is currently set up why are why is raw choosing this person and smackdown choosing this person who is choosing this person for this show you know that's

that that john you just hit on a just such a basic fundamental task when it comes to anything creative is you have to answer the question why. Whether it's a storyline, whether it's somebody attacking somebody from out of nowhere and blindsiding them or somebody's got heat with somebody, there has to be a why. And that is a major piece of the puzzle that I think is kind of missing. It still comes, you can build it up, you can promote it, you can hype it, you have triple H out there and, you know, the legends out there. you know but if the audience can't relate to the why of it in this case maybe the how

it just seems arbitrary it just and i think that the fact that it's arbitrary or feels arbitrary it's not there's a design i mean there's a lot of thought goes into it don't get me wrong a lot of thought goes into it some of it comes down to personal issues sometimes talent doesn't want to work on Friday nights. Some talent doesn't want to work on Monday nights. Some talent doesn't want to work with some of the people that are on Friday nights. I mean, there's just weird dynamics, you know, that are human dynamics, and you've got to take them into account to a degree.

But, yeah, it's, there's an arbitrary vibe to it, no matter how you dress it up, that I think causes it to come out of the shoot kind of, right once the initial newness of it wears off it's at least give me this say hey the USA network selects Trish Stratis for Monday they've done that they've done that but in this one they didn't not this one they didn't and there might have been a reason for that and maybe there is maybe because the TV rights are coming up I don't know but but give me who is making like in the context of story who is making this selection why should I care that this person is going to be on Raw versus Smackdown.

I just, I think that's something that 2002, 2004, 2005, you guys did very well. And I think that's where having the different general managers of the different shows also plays into it. Because I got to imagine as a talent back in the day, you guys probably had a blast leaning into that stuff in the brand warfare. That had to be a fun period of time creatively for you. Well, you know, I got to work with Stephanie, who was an amazing talent. And there was natural story there.

There was natural backstory because of who I was, where I came from and who she was and who her father was. So there was a lot of just right off the bat relatable rivalry between Stephanie and I. Now add to that that she's an amazing performer and just fun. She was just fun to work with. It made it easier, right? because it kind of felt a little real. It's like I was invested in beating Stephanie and McMahon. Stephanie was clearly invested in beating me because of who I again,

because it was backstory. There was 10 years or whatever it was, five year, eight years, I don't know, get out my calculator. There was years of backstory there to play off of and to either include or just know that it's subtly, it's in the background and it's there. um whereas now it's just like i said after it's over after the announcements have been made i think two or three weeks from now you'll be hard pressed to find an average fan who can tell you who is

on what show three weeks ago you know what what was the roster for raw before the split you'll have a hard time finding anybody that can really tell you unless they're a you know really strong i'd say die hard i hate using that word but zealous wrestling fan what do you make of the, because we didn't get a chance to chat with you last week, what do you make of the new championship that was introduced, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship? Explain to me, I mean, visually, what do I think of it? I mean, either from a concept and visually. Well, on a concept, I guess I have some questions before I can really respond to that.

But I think aesthetically looking at it, you know, I guess I'm neutral. And I say that because I have to think about it. I don't feel it. I have to think about it. Anytime you have to think about something in professional wrestling, chances are you've already lost the audience. So when I think about that belt, looking at it, that championship, sorry, Vince.

Easy that now. I know you're still out there. But when I think about it, it's kind of cool because it's the big gold belt. And no matter what everybody says, that represents, and I think a lot of people's minds, WCW. But you've got that big WWE in the center, or logo for WWE in the center.

I think it looks great. I think it's a beautiful piece of work as belts go, I guess. Not a belt guy, so, I don't know. But beyond that, I don't really have an opinion of it. As far as the strategy, I've got way more questions and I've got responses. What are some of those questions? Why?

Go back to your very first comment. Why? Why do we have the spelled? And what does it mean? And maybe some of these questions have been answered, by the way. You know, I don't try to pretend that I will follow law or AW religiously. I don't. or SmackDown. I drop in on all three fairly regularly, but I'm not following closely.

So perhaps these questions have been answered. But to me, it's just like, man, how does this, how does this new championship fit into the big picture? Does it mean more than any of the other two championships? Does it mean less? Is it equal to? How is it going to be defended and where? but more importantly why why do we have this new belt this new championship old habits die hard i'm sorry i think the idea is that they want another major championship on the brand since roman rains is going to be exclusive to smackdown so they won another championship on raw and you know in theory eric that's great and all but what i push back yeah but roman rains can bounce back and forth well well now but he can't according to these new rules of the draft that he

they said in story that he doesn't he doesn't want to work mondays essentially so he's going to be exclusive to smackdown so he has those two championships that count as one and that's where the whole cody not winning at russomania thing really bothers me because you had a natural way to split those championships back up with cody had he won at russomania and i understand this is fantasy booking and everything at the end of the day but i'll throw something at you here eric right let's say Cody had won that championship at WrestleMania. And the next night on Raw, he comes out and he says, I finished my story. I won the WWE Universal Championship.

I won the WWE Championship that evaded my father. You know, we got the draft coming up here. And I've got these two belts. And the championship that means the most of my family is this WWE Championship. And because I believe in this company, I want that other brand to have something to fight for. Roman Raines didn't let anyone fight for anything. I want someone to have something to fight for. So this championship is going to be used on SmackDown,

whereas the WWE championship is going to be on Raw. And that's me throwing out something randomly here. But there are so many ways that you could have gone around this other than... But here would be the argument to that. Sure. Like if we were sitting around in a writer's room and you were to throw that idea out, the response to that would be, okay. So Cody wants this one, but he doesn't really care about that one.

well, that kind of devalues that belt. Now, I understand the backstory and Dusty and it alluded to my father. Okay, that, that's an attempt. But nonetheless, Cody said, here, you take it. Because I'm a nice guy. You have it. It's yours. You all fight for it.

I'm good. That kind of devalues that championship, doesn't it? I think it's more you take it from the sense of this is best for business. Like, I recognize that we have another brand, and I want to see more fighting champions out there. Again, this is me throwing a scenario. That's not to say this is the best scenario that you could possibly book. I just think there's more creative ways to do it than just being like.

And I'm not, look, I don't want to sit here and try to book, book that. Sure. Book a solution to a problem that doesn't exist anymore. It just feels to me like the sorry you couldn't beat Roman Range Championship. Yeah. And some people may feel that. I don't know. Let's just see how it plays out.

You know, hopefully there's a plan and it's executed properly. I have every reason to hope and believe that we're going to see some of the same creative magic that we enjoyed on the journey leading into WrestleMania, which I think was some of the best creative that I've seen in 20 or 30 years in the industry. So let's hope that that same brain trust, creative trust, is going to work their magic and make some sense. of this. So three months from now or two months from now or whatever, we're going to look back and go, oh, okay, well, they had a great plan and I liked it. Or we'll be sitting around in two or three months and going, this didn't make any sense because there was no real reason for it. And it seemed like a compromise solution. And compromise solutions generally don't work well. When you're trying to make everybody happy, somebody's going to leave the room happy. So

let's have to see. Well, you said you hope that they've got a plan. The good thing is, Eric, we've always got a plan with our friends over at Empira because they want to help you launch your business plan faster and with less effort ever than before. And they're helping our listeners here on Strictly Business do that so easily. 14 days free, 20% off your subscription when you go to Empira.com. That's E-M-P-I-R-A-A-A-com forward slash Eric using the code

wrestle biz. W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z. Eric, there are a lot of people out there launching businesses these day, big and small. How can Impera help them get their product out in front of people in an efficient manner? Well, I mean, I think you said something there that I'm going to jump on a little bit. Please. I don't think Impera helps you launch your business plan. I think Imperial helps you manage your business plan. Why don't you get business plan as easy? You turn on the lights and you say, first of all, you put together a business plan,

which can be very, very laborious and tedious. You're paying attention to a lot of just new shit and detail, which is absolutely necessary. But having a business plan is one thing, managing it and staying on top of it and knowing when and how to modify that plan, because everything changes. You know, we're just talking about, you know,

the new World Championship in WWE. Well, guess what? Things, there are going to be variables that are going to happen in the weeks and months to come that, you know, people may or may not have anticipated. Everything changes every single day and every walk of life. And you have to have the tools to help you stay on top of the things that change, whether it's inventory issues or,

cost of goods and services or rent, shipping costs, timelines. I mean, there's so many variables that occur in every business, every single day, and some of them change a little bit, some of them change a lot. Some of them change slowly. Some of those variables can hit you from out of nowhere. And you have to have a tool that allows you to stay on top of it and track it and communicate and make informed, knowledgeable decisions about the variables that you're faced with. What you thought you were going to do when you laid out your phenomenal business plan that you may or may not. I've put together a couple of business plans and I've done it professionally with people who do nothing but put together great business plans.

and it can be very expensive. But once that process is over, that's when the work begins. And that's why I love Empira. I think it's such a valuable tool. If you're in business for yourself, if you're thinking about starting a new business, by all means, reach out to Apira, less than two of these.

They jump on the phone with you. They onboard with you. they'll customize your dashboard to your business and your needs in a way that will allow you to on a daily basis track your business what could be better if you're a one-man band like i am it's an valuable tool if you've got three or four people working for you it's important that everybody stays on the same page and god forbid if you're fortunate enough to have 10 20 30 40 or 150 people working for you, then for sure you need because everybody on your team needs to stay on the same plan.

Yeah, accountability is a big part of the deal with Impera, and you can hold all your employees accountable and yourself accountable with that easy to access and navigate dashboard that Eric was referring to. If Eric Bischoff can navigate a dashboard on a computer, I promise you, you can too, because Impera is there with that round the clock support that he was alluding to, and they're real people too. I think that's the thing that stood out to me most in our conversations with them, Eric, is that they're real people who genuinely care about you getting the absolute most

out of the Impera features. So we want to help you. They want to help you 14 days free, 20% off your subscription. Go to impura.com slash Eric and use that code wrestle biz for 14 days free and 20% off your subscription with Impura. Hey guys, Double J. Jeff Jared. Need to call a timeout real quick here. I wanted to tell your listeners what I've been telling my world listeners for a while now.

It's about all the incredible things happening over on ad-freeshows.com. An all-new edition of The Insiders is here as Conrad welcomes David Zoddy, the man behind so many iconic video packages WWF fans grew up on, including one that left Vince in tears. You got it. And Conrad, I swear, I walked outside the studio and Vince was sitting down on the concrete floor. crying hysterically, just saying thank you, thank you. Wow, thank you.

I went up to call Kevin. He says, good job. Can I want to see it. 15 minutes later in the stairwell, then he's still sitting down in a different spot now. Crying, saying thank you, thank you. Jim Johnston created the soundtrack for generations of WWE fans with some of the most iconic themes in history.

Jim sits down with Conrad to take us behind some of those classic themes, including The Ultimate Warrior. And then I recorded that, And then just over that, you're just doing. You know, it's so simple, but that's what felt like him. Hey, that's just a small taste of what Ad Free Shows has waiting for you, including a brand new perk, getting to join in on the live recordings of the shows with four levels to choose from, see for yourself,

while Ad Free Shows is the best value in reality. wrestling today. Sign up now at atfreeshoes.com. That's right. Sign up today at at free shows.com. Now, wait a minute, John. Thank you for that plug, Jeff Jarrett, and reminding me, because this is really the first time that you and I have done this show in our normal setting when I haven't been on the road. But Isaac Riston, Grammy Award winner, multi-time Grammy Award nominee I think he's won a Grammy twice most recently at the Grammys this past season wrote us a song wrote us an intro sent it to us just because he's a fan of strictly business yeah I love that I love that it's a great thank you Isaac Kristen it's awesome thank

you so much for that Isaac it is really fantastic we got a lot of great fans out there we had Isaac on our podcast, go check that out in the archives, 83 weeks.com. I do want to ask you one more thing on the WWE front here real quick, Eric, or not even so much just asked, but just to bring it to your attention. We did get the Q1 earnings report from WWE this past week. Business was down a little bit. They reported that they still exceeded Wall Street expectations. Overall revenue dropped 11% to 297.6 million from the previous Q1 of last year. They primarily blame that for not having a Saudi Arabia event this year in the first quarter. We know that is coming up at the end of May instead.

There is also the revenue decrease from January and March period was partially offset by an increase in revenue related to higher media rights fees for the company's flagship weekly programming and higher North American ticket sales. Q1 operating income fell 43% to $53.1 million amid the lower revenue and relatively flat operating. expenses. Net income for the latest quarter came in at 36.7 million down 44%. But ultimately, these were all reported during the period of time, Eric, that they were working on this potential sale, which we know

eventually Endeavor would end up being the winner. They would spin off UFC into this combined TKO company that is yet to be named with WWE. And they did say they expect the sale to close as expected in the second half of 2003. Khan added that the immediate focus for WWE are the talks on the

domestic media rights renewals now underway with incumbent rights holders NBC Universal for raw while Fox is negotiating a potential renewal of a five-year deal for WWS smackdown. So I think that last part there is probably the biggest piece of information that we've been waiting

for. WWE actively in renewal talks with both NBC Universal and Fox. I'd say that's probably pretty good news for all the parties involved, wouldn't you? There's no bad news in there anywhere. There's not a lick of bad news. And I, yeah, I, I, I predict it's going to be a very successful negotiation.

And I think all parties are going to leave very, very happy. And we'll continue to see my prediction. And, God, am I so right on predictions, by the way? I mean, I don't know. Yeah, I'm the one that originally called Endeavor. I don't think anybody, any of the other wrestling prod. Gnosticators, talking heads, dirt sheet geeks or whatever else you want to call them. Nobody picked Endeavor, but I did.

You know, I mentioned, you know, and I'm sure we'll talk about AEW. I right off the bat, you ask me, how do you think they'll do? I said, they're going to do fantastic. They don't need Bill Goldberg. They don't need anybody. They're going to do great. And I'm reading just how great they are. And I'm sure we're going to cover that down the road.

But I think my prediction with regard to WWE and media rights is we're going to see Smackdown on Fox. We're going to see Iran, USA, and everybody's going to be happy and revenues are going to be up. What kind of jump are you expecting money wise? I don't know. I don't. And I. Come on, make a prediction for me here. I can't.

You're feeling hot with this. No, I can't. I can make a prediction. And I do make predictions. when I have a basis of knowledge to do so. All right. I just don't pick random shit out of thin air and start making predictions. That's what dirt sheet geeks like Dave Meltzer, the tapeworm does.

I don't do that. I will say that I would be surprised if there haven't been some early discussions well before the official negotiation process has begun. I don't think anybody's going to be surprised at anything. When it comes to, I think the people at Foxx, they know what they're in for, they know what to expect, and they're willing to go there. I think the same is true with USA. I don't think either one of those networks are going to be willing to give up.

Yeah. What is a, it's a media juggernaut, domestic media juggernaut. we did get a lot of questions about the writer strike now w ww writers are not part of the wGA which is an interesting situation in and of itself but do you have any thoughts on the writer strike there were a lot of twitter users and strictly business fans that wanted your thoughts on that yeah that's a very interesting thing very very interesting a friend of mine is a very successful writer in hollywood and just finished up the new uh the new joker movie by the way i can't wait to see that it's going to be great scott

silver shout out to scott silver he wrote the first joker well not the first joker but he wrote the most recent joker before this one um the todd phillips directed and then also wrote along with todd phillips this latest version of joker with lady gaga lady gaga that's going to be fun to watch it should be it's going to be really fun but you know i've I've talked to Scott a little bit about this because he's the only writer I know that's a, that's in the union now. It's going to be interesting. And it will get more interesting the longer the strike goes on. That's what I'll be watching.

15 years ago, there was a writer's strike. It was prolonged. It was a long strike. And it changed a lot of things. You're going to see the short term. you're going to see a lot more just skanky reality program that you can slap together for a bucket of chicken and a 12-pack of Mountain Dew. So you're going to see a lot of just low-budget crap, just to fill time.

You can see a lot of reruns, all that. But the longer the strike goes, the more interesting it's going to get. Because I'm not saying this is going to happen, but I am saying this could happen. the writers for WWE are non-union. True. Very true. But Endeavour represents a lot of union writers. Yep.

Directors, cameramen, operators, and women, production people. If it gets ugly, even though WWW. writers or non-union writers, you could see a scenario where other unions begin to kind of galvanize, turn their heads, gang up a little bit to start putting pressure on. Now, how could that affect WW or even AEW, AEW to a lesser extent for obvious reasons? but I don't know man there's a lot of things that can happen when you're when you're dealing with unions for example let me just give you one example so I'm not just throwing stuff up there without at least giving people an idea what I mean let's say you've got an event planned at Madison

Square Garden or somewhere in Chicago two highly unionized markets and there's a writer's strike And all of a sudden, unions, other than just the Writers Guild, are galvanizing, supporting each other, can create a lot of problems, can create a lot of issues. So we'll see. I think if it's a short strike, it's a blip, it's a headline, no one's going to notice. If it lasts two, three months, no one's going to notice. if it gets into the six-month, eight-month category, shit's going to hit the hand.

And you can expect to see a lot of things that you never thought you'd see. And it could knock off some competition for pro wrestling programs, too. Like what? If there's any scripted shows that it runs, that either of the shows Raw, Smackdown, Dynamite go against,

you might have an inherent advantage there, potentially if there's not first-run programming. There's not usually first-run programming. programming in the summertime though is there anymore i mean i don't know i don't follow network i'd rather just choose let's say this goes into the fall though yeah that falls a little different i think yeah fall could be a bigger issue so we will see on that i can tell you this eric a place you don't have to worry about any programming going away that's our friends over at fight and with fight plus you are getting the ultimate digital platform for live sports and entertainment

they're offering a free seven day trial at try Fight.com. Fight Plus is packed with a premium live event schedule. More than 1,000 hours of live action every year, a library of more than 4,000 hours on-demand plus exclusive content. There's a lot of John Albaugh on there. I don't know if that's something that's going to will you to go there or deter you from going there. I hope it's going to will you to go there. But I promise you, it's great content. Fight is a great partner of ours here at Strictly Business. They support us. So let's support them. Give that free seven-day trial, a try. And you'll be a member for life. That's tryfight.com. T-R-Y-F-I-F-I-T-E-D-com. Eric, you and I had Mike Weber on this podcast a few

months back talking about Fight Plus. I think that's one of our more interesting episodes. Yeah, it was very interesting. And I'm very proud of Mike. Mike worked for me for quite a while, W-C-W and worked his way up and very instrumental in fight being where it is today. And Mike is a very knowledgeable guy, very knowledgeable guy. And I'm very proud of him, happy for them. But aside from the fact that you're on the network a lot, as you shamelessly pointed out, get yourself over, brother. No one's going to do it for you.

The other reason I think people should give Fight a try is Fight really gives a lot of independent promoters and therefore talent and opportunity to kind of be exposed to a much broader audience that otherwise might not get that opportunity. Yeah. That's a reason right there for you give fight a try, especially with this deal. How could you say no to this deal? This deal's freaking phenomenal. It's free.

Despite the fact that you're on it all over the place. It's still a good deal. Seven day free trial, try fight.com. Uh, company, you can see a lot of on fight. That's AW, Eric. And we got the first returns. here on this AW-W-W-W-W-W-tops 43,000 tickets sold for Wembley in the first day pre-sale. Huge, huge accomplishment altogether for AEW. It surpasses your biggest episode

of Nitro for the largest non-WWE show run on record using the modern-day ticketing service, of course. This is a pretty fantastic accomplishment for AEW. As you said, you have expected something like this to happen. There's still plenty of more tickets to be sold. But there was a little interesting exchange. I'm not sure if you saw it. Mike Coffinger from ESPN reported that he had heard that the Wembley Stadium setup was for just 40,000 fans. And Tony Con quickly took to Twitter and more or less accused Nick Con of feeding that information to the ESPN reporter. I made quite a bit of headlines. I'd love to hear your reaction to this. Tony is a man-child.

I mean, look, I don't, I have no, I didn't see the report from ESPN. I don't know who the reporter is. I don't know. And I did see Tony's response. And once again, Tony, do yourself a favor, do your company a favor. Stay away from a camera. Just stay away. Put out a press release.

Have a spokesperson. Better yet. Have a spokesperson. Do whatever it is you need to do to keep yourself away from anything that looks like a red light. If you see a red light, leave the, leave the area as fast as you can. Because every time Tony Khan steps in front of the camera, he makes his brand look childish and silly. Blaming Nick Khan, you know, like, dude, you are not in a war, right? you can try to compare yourself to WWE and position yourself as being in this war

because it makes you feel like your WCW and and WWE during the Monday Night Wars. It's not that. It never will be. The conditions that created that opportunity are long gone and are never going to return. So let it go and just put your, take credit for. for what you've done, but it kind of goes back to the comment that I made when I first started this thing with Tony and I is shut up and wrestle, dude. Let other people put you over. Let other people say the things that maybe deep down on the side you want to say, let other people say

it for you, whether it's fans or a spokesperson, because it makes you look less significant. That being said, what AEW has done is a huge, huge, double huge success story. There's no way you can look at it and spin it or evaluate it any other way. It's phenomenal. I expected it to be, as I talked about earlier, putting myself over instead of letting other people do it for me. But, man, it's a huge accomplishment. And I think what Tony did in responding in that childish way that he does consistently

is he lessened it. He should have laughed. He should have made a joke of it instead of Nekon did it. It's like something I expect, you know, my grandson's only a little over a year. year so he's not in that frame of mind yet where he wants to blame everybody on anything that you know anything that bad happens he wants to blame it on somebody else he's not there yet no i didn't do it he did it but it's childish it's like juvenile and he's actually taking away from

his accomplishment reacting to what he did but you're you're gonna tell me that eric bischoff let's hypothetically here back in 1997 things are going super well for you you're feeling it you talked about the live show the other day like you had a lot of swagger back then if a reporter came at you and tried to downplay your accomplishment you wouldn't have felt the urge to fire back and wouldn't have i would have shredded the reporter that's what he did would have run the reporter through a meat grinder well that's what tony did no he blamed it on nick con you're missing the point you're missing the point it's like nick it's evil the evil empire wwe is doing all these things to pour little me because i'm just tony con that's the point he should have just chewed the report

reporter up, spin him out, left him laying there in a pile of reporter goo and walked away with a smile on his face. Rise above it. Yeah, if you want to shred the guy, shred him. I don't think Toby's capable of shredding anybody, to be honest with you, because he comes off like just a whiny child when he does it. But yeah, jump all over the reporter for getting his facts wrong or his information wrong or not verifying. You know, there's a lot of ways that you can you could prove that people that report shit are full of shit. I do it all the time. But don't blame it on WWE.

That just makes you look like a pussy. But you don't think WWE fed that information? No. Really? Interesting. Do you? Yes. Is there evidence?

Yeah. I mean, I mean, Mike, yeah, Mike has connections, past previous connections to Nick con in the agency half the people in hollywood more than half i and listen i'm not even faulting w w like i understand they're a company they're going to feed information a w has fed information all these companies feed information i'm not faulting anyone for doing that i want to make that very clear that is the nature of the beast when i don't you're assuming somebody did it i'm telling you

i don't think anybody in wwee from nick con on down gives a flying fuck okay i just don't Okay. I mean, internally, are they taking, of course they're taking notice. Of course they're going to take notice. But are they going to, you know, behind the scenes, you know, try to plant disinformation? No, that federal government will, you know, absolutely. The government will, the FBI will. And pick an acronym and throw it out there.

If it's a government organization, they'll lie to your face. and smile at you because even though they know you're lying they're lying to you but i just don't think this is a thing that a guy like nick con is going to take enough time out of his day to pick up the phone and try to feed disinformation to somebody hoping that that reporter is going to spill the beans i i just whether it was nick con himself or not i don't know but i'm just I'm speaking from experience. That's what Tony said.

Does Tony have evidence? I think he's saying it's coming from that camp. I can only speak from my experience, okay? And this is in wrestling and out of wrestling on the reporting end. I 100% was fed information from just about every major company, every sports team I ever covered, absolutely fed information that was used to undermine somebody else's organization. That 100% happens.

So maybe it didn't in this case, but the context of the original tweet certainly felt that way to me. Look, let's just, let's, let's, let's break it down. Let's just say for sake of discussion, this is a silly discussion, by the way, but let's have it, we already started it. Let's just say, Nick Kahn said, oh, man, let's, let's, let's leak it that the building was only set up originally for $40,000. How does that discredit anybody? It doesn't discredit anybody.

I don't disagree. It doesn't. Well, let me finish. Let's get this thought. Let's let's let's let's make sure for our listeners. There's no motivation that I can see for Nick Con or his camp to take the time out of the day to mislead a reporter hoping that that that reporter is going to just take that information and run with it when it doesn't discredit anybody.

Hold on, though. You're the guy who constantly goes out about how Dave Meltzer takes information that is fed to him, no matter how bullshit it is and puts it out there. And you're saying you don't think that it's possible that. No, because Dave Meltzer has a motivation. He's charging people $10 or $15 a month to sell a dirt shit. full of dirt and bullshit. I'm asking to identify what is the motivation for Nick Con and or his camp,

according to Tony Conn, to feed information to an ESPN reporter that doesn't make AEW look bad. That's it. That's as simple as I can put it. It wouldn't make anybody look bad to suggest that the building was originally set up for 40,000 people when in fact they're going to probably do 80 maybe 100 where is the how does that benefit anybody i think it was oversight huh i think it was oversight what do you mean it was oversight like i think that they thought that putting that out there would be like oh look this building's only set up for 40 they only had these expectations and i

don't think they recognize this is this is the dirt sheet mentality that exists within too many people in a wrestling perifia, including fans and people like us who are constantly looking for that message, that manipulation. I break shit down real simple. If there was any motivation, if there was any benefit, that's it. Follow the money. Where is the benefit in feeding information to a reporter, hoping the reporter is going to repeat it when it wouldn't make AEW look bad?

anyway i think it actually it works in reverse if i was tony con i would have said yeah i just set it up for 40 000 because i wasn't sure but damn i'm hoping for a hundred where's the damage i'm i'm not saying i disagree with you eric i'm not saying it's because i don't disagree with you i think you're right but i also know how this game goes from being on the receiving end of it and i fully think that that was something that was planted you you haven't been on a receiving end of it from someone like Nick con you you you sure so many others have played at a very entry level when it comes to the wrestling industry I think when you get to the level of a nick con now and as sophisticated as the industry is I could could some wrestler have said it

sure I mean wrestlers don't know they don't freaking have a clue half the time what goes on inside the business of the wrestling business most of they know what's going on inside of the ring not taking anything away from talent when it comes to performing but when it comes to the business of the wrestling business they don't know fuck all half the time they make stuff up they're just throwing stuff out seen it a million times so of you it just is what it is but to for tony con because this is where this started now for tony con to come out and accuse nick con and or his camp of deliberately misleading or planting misleading information to a reporter in hopes that it would get out that would somehow benefit WWE how there is no

how it doesn't it wouldn't it never happened well as we figment of Tony Kahn's kind of bizarre imagination literally seconds ago as we taped this show Tony actually just tweeted that AW has now hit 50,000 pre-sale tickets for 6.5 million dollars And this is also the pre-sale. The actual general on sale is on Friday. Without Bill Goldberg or Mercedes-Money, imagine that. And I hope it stays that way. I mean, look, I really hope, despite the fact that I think Tony's bizarreo

and coming out with these childish reactions that I think diminishes himself substantially in the eyes of the fans and the eyes of the industry, the business-to-business community, he looks childish as hell. he may be a child with a couple billion dollars or access to it to his dad's couple billion dollars but his reaction was childish and just whatever it is what it is but i think their accomplishment is massive it's going to be a sweaty day out there in london at the end of summer i can tell you that lots of sweaty wrestling fans and i'm just hoping eric at the end of the day they are using manscape to make sure that they can cut down on the poor hygiene and keep the good hygiene

in the best way possible because listen man i get it i know when you go to those wrestling events you're going to see a lot of dad bods out there that's fun that happens right you got to make sure that you got the summer bod don't be the guy at the beach with austin powers chest hair if you grew some winter man tits the least you can do is make sure they're endless excellent it's time to get ready for hot guy summer by going to manscape.com for 20% off plus free shipping with our promo code wrestle biz. We're talking the performance package 4.0, Eric, this thing is loaded with everything that you could possibly want. We're talking the lawnmower 4.0, waterproof, cordless body trimmer, ton of other liquid formulations to round out your groomer routine. We got the crop

preserver, ball deodorant, the crop reviver, the weed wacker 2.0, the beardhead strimmer. I mean, man, they got everything ready for this summer, do they not? They do. They do. And I want to tell you, I've used

the product specifically to kind of get rid of this chest hair thing I got going on because mine is like white. It's the same color as my hair. And if I'm not careful, I'm wearing that V-neck t-shirt and I look down and it It looks like I've got a chihuahua, an old chihuahua in my pocket.

Just nasty looking. Clean that cup up, clean that stuff up. I almost said something else. Clean it up. Look good. Be proud. Wear that tank top out there without hair coming out all over the place and look like some kind of Chewbacca.

Listen, if you want to go with you, that's a, that's amazing fourth be with you. You know, right? If you want to go out there at Wembley Stadium and rock your CM Punk tank top, I know Eric's going to say power to you, but you're going to look good, nice and smooth with our pals over at Manscape. You got to admit, Eric. Probably look better than CM Punk, by the way. You got to admit, Eric. After the people in the audience are going to look better than CM Punk. You'll be a better shape.

There's a lot of great wrestling. Three quarters of them could kick his ass. Oh, my goodness. I'm trying to bail you out here, pal. there's a lot of great things that we love about wrestling fans here but i think we can all admit that sometimes uh personal hygiene can fall a little short every now i take exception to that i take exception to that on behalf of wrestling fans all over the place that spend a lot of time on their hygiene in fact it's one of the reasons why manscape has been with us as long as they have because

wrestling fans all over the world have great hygiene. They've got shaved balls. They've got hair no longer hair in their ears coming out of their nose because they're wrestling fans. I disagree with you. Well, that's because we've hooked them up here at Strictly Business. Go to Manscape.com and use that promo code wrestlebiz to get 20% off plus free shipping on your order. That's 20% off plus free shipping with the code wrestle biz at Manscape.com. testicles with the besticles at manskinsk. I love these spots. There's a great indie wrestler, Becca in the New England scene.

She would come out, she's a heel. She would come out and she would pass out free deodorant to all the wrestling fans in the front row. I thought that was fantastic. I'm all about it. And I think if we hooked up with Manscaped, I think that would enhance her gimmick just a little bit more. One more thing I want to mention, Eric, on the show before we wrap things up here on Strictly Business. this. This was a really interesting one. Will Washington, who for full disclosure, I've known Will for a long time. And I found him to be one of the smartest and most intelligent and nuanced wrestling podcasters.

He's been in the game for about 15 to 20 years now almost. Tony Con just hired him as AW's first ever wrestling administration coordinator, overseeing different checks and balances in the company from social media to creative to logistics. I think the idea is he's going to be there to make sure that talent are being utilized if they're sitting on the sidelines. Why are they sitting on the sidelines and trying to add a little more conduciveness to the storytelling?

What do you make of a hire like that? We haven't seen too much of that at pro wrestling over the years. Well, it can't hurt. Given the circumstances, it can only be a good thing, at least the attempt, can only be a good thing.

I don't know this cat. So, you know, have somebody that's never been involved in creative, come in and kind of have a voice in creative could be interesting. It's an interesting experiment. Not saying it's a bad idea. It's an interesting idea. And again, I'll say the same thing I said earlier about the new WWB championship. Let's wait and see. Give it a chance. You know, it's easy to be negative and critical and, you know, kind of discuss something like this early on with a negative spin on it. for some people i'm not one of them i'm i'm will washington may the fourth be with you

i wish you the best of luck because it's a challenging gig yeah no and look by all accounts anybody that i know that's worked that talks to me that has worked in a ewe it's a frenetic environment creatively in a lot of different ways so i think anything that tony does to add some consistency especially and some organization and communication. There are people that I know that have communicated with that feel like they're in a witness protection program. People don't return emails. They don't respond to phone calls, texts. They're just off. They're getting paid, but they're off wandering in the desert. So hopefully this will change that because that affects morale and it can only be a bad

thing so this is a step in the right direction and if will is everything that you suggest that he is or is is as bright and talented as you suggest that he is then it's a great thing it's only a great thing i think it's interesting that we've kind of broken that barrier down where now someone who had a voice on the other side is being given an opportunity on the inside and i'm curious how that's going to play out in terms of logistics. I'm sure that there's going to be some people inside the industry that see that and they're like, here's an outsider coming in and stepping on some toes. Yeah, but I'll be the first one to defend Tony Conn on this hire in that regard.

Again, I don't know Will Washington, but the business needs people from the outside. It needs perspective. It needs to shed the, because, right, wrestling is still to this, not so much in WWE. And honestly, I have a bit around AEW enough now. I don't know. I only know from looking at it from afar. I'm not inside of it by any stretch of the imagination.

But wrestling can still too often be overshadowed by philosophies and perspectives of people who have only known the wrestling business. And that's very limiting. So in that regard, I think Tony made a good way. great decision and don't ever be afraid to bring people in who've not been in the wrestling business before you have to get to be careful you don't want to give him the keys to the kingdom for crying out loud um but i think it's a good thing i agree with you step outside the bubble a little bit get some different voices in i don't think that's a bad thing will has tremendous

attention to detail i hope he does very well in this position uh this has been a great episode Eric a lot of different topics it on anything else like brains out i have to get that in just the other side of it i'm putting the guy i'm putting the hiring decision over and you're telling me he's got a great attention for detail and right then i'm thinking oh my god this guy's going to last about a month we shall see time will tell hopefully i'm wrong time will certainly tell here ever wrong though that's the other thing that is the thing ever wrong that's it just blows my mind how always right you are there's present really is tremendous and if you want to attach your voice to it like

how impura has and getting their message out in front of all our fans here on strictly business well then you head on over to advertise with eric dot com and you hit us up you're going to get your product or your business out in front of thousands and thousands of listeners and viewers every single week here on Strictly Business, which, of course, you get early access to at ad-freeshows.com, and you can subscribe at 83 weeks.com, leave that five-star review and tell us specifically why you love Strictly Business and learning about the business of the business with Eric Bischoff. Anything else you'd like to add this week, my friend? No, I just have a question for you, though.

I know because you were kind enough to join me at the Grizzlies game and co-hosts with me, and I appreciate that. I had fun with you. but i also learned that this was your first real experience in san francisco you had not been to san francisco before you actually extended your trip or you're talking about it at least a day so you could go hang and what did you think i thought it was great i got to see i i did a little sight seeing which was not something i typically get to do uh but i did i went by golden gate park and everything like that went over to the beach there it was windy as all hell my hair got

messed up which you know that oh my god that ain't a good thing oh that ain't a good thing oh come on old old school erd bischoff knows what i'm talking about there just put a hat on man yeah i don't look good a hat but uh yeah it was amazing i went over to china town had me some fantastic fantastic chinese what did you get oh man i went for a lot of different dim sum i love dimsum i went for just i mean i tried like five different types of dumplings so dim sum is like that's like a pot sticker tg i fridays right i mean this was not tgai fridays quality it's a pot sticker uh kind of but then there's also i got a ton of steam dumplings that were outstanding oh my god they were so good they were so good i got a different i forgot what the type of chicken that i got was but it was fantastic

do next time you go next time you go get peaking duck picking duck that's what you said i've never had peaking duck before i was in las vegas uh whatever it was a month or so ago, I can't remember. Two weeks ago, I don't remember. I don't remember. A busy month. But I went to a Chinese restaurant and I had one of the best Chinese restaurants in Las Vegas, according to several people. It was awesome. I had never had it before. I'd always heard about it. What is it? Is it a duck from

Beijing or do you make it a special way? And the answer is both. It's a special duck that's made a very special way. So next time you go, especially in town, man, you've got to go get some big time. Oh, dude, it was good. And I thank you for pushing me to go extend my trip a day because I did on your behest and advocacy. So it was worth it. I'm glad you did.

One of the great things about this business or the business, I should say, we're not in the business. We're on the outside of the business looking in. But we talk about it. And it gives us the opportunity like the Grizzlies did in Fresno to travel and to still kind of participate a little bit on the periphery. but one of the benefits of that is to experience and explore places into nothing more fun than exploring especially in places like chinatown it's got so much great food again like you said it's like an

old school wrestling trip you and I were in the car together six hours round trip it was it was fun we made the territory man yeah I don't even I don't want to give you away because we're not in California more so nobody in the highway patrols listening but like a like an old school wrestling trip i actually had a couple beers on the way home while you were driving so that was awesome that is the way to do it let someone else drive you kick back we turned up the temptations it was a good time yeah we listen to some motown i like that we had a good music discussion i like that man it was a blast hopefully we get to do it again and we hope that you guys come on out and support those for the next podcast of later or whatever live event we get to do here for strictly business it was really great

eric this has been a great episode i thank you for your time so do all our fans here at strictly business in 83 weeks. This has been strictly business with Eric Bischoff. We will see you next time.