83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #27: AEW Collision, CM Punk, Seth Rollins in Marvel

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

On this week's edition of "Strictly Business," Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba discuss AEW's announcement of the "AEW Collision" TV show, CM Punk's alleged issues with the company, Seth Rollins joining Marvel, and WWE's upcoming sponsorships with Endeavor at the helm. 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

Get rid of your credit card debt, get a lower monthly payment, and skip your next two house payments at save withconrad.com. NMLS number 65084, equal housing lender. You don't need perfect credit or money out of your pocket to save thousands with save withconrad.com. Find out how much money you can save right now at save with Conrad.com. How's it going, everyone? It's time for another edition of Strictly Business here on the ad-free shows and podcast networks. I, of course, am John Alba, but it's not strictly business with John Alba.

This, of course, is Strictly Business with Mr. Eric Bischoff, waving to the sea of fans who are tuning into this one. as the crowd goes wild how are we my friend i'm just getting myself in the mood just getting you know i got to get i got to get into this gear i'm not in the podcast gear throughout the entire week unless i'm recording with you or conrad and doing so requires that i get into a different gear and a different mindset so here i am shout out jeremy priest eric green denovius mac all you guys is joining us with ad free shows thank you so much for being a part of it if you're not part of it it's only because you're probably not a member of ad free shows and you have no idea what you're

freaking missing go to app free shows you can watch these recordings live you could participate you could ask questions have all kinds of fun yes we got jeremy prece here with his first strictly business we got eric green with his first strictly business live recording as well this is what's up guys this is what we love to hear if you are joining us as eric said ask questions throughout we'll take them and we talk about the business of the business here on strictly business and there's plenty of business to get to you you brought up something very interesting just there before you said you had to kind of get yourself in the mindset in in that level to podcast we like that a lot as a performer on camera did you have to bring

something out of yourself once the red light went on or was it pretty easy for you to snap into it. I had a, I had a process that I still, whenever, I used it a couple of weeks ago when I was on raw. Even though on raw I had very little to do, it was a very brief appearance and it wasn't dialogue heavy by any stretch. But I have this process that I go through where I clear my head, I say a prayer, and I visualize exactly where I go through. what it is I want to do. I visualize myself coming through curtain. I visualized myself in this case, this couple weeks ago, standing at the podium. It's kind of like a mental walkthrough, but I visualize almost every step of it. Or back in the day, I hate saying back in a day,

but when I was in the ring and addressing an audience and a crowd and it was live, I would spend a lot more time in that process. But when I got done, praying and visualizing, I just kind of went completely quiet in my mind. I guess it was a form of weird meditation. But I just blocked everything. I used to do it in guerrilla right before I would go out. I would stand there and I'd go in the corner and I'd stare at a wall in the corner by myself.

I'm sure it looked pretty fucking weird. But that was my process. And once I kind of relaxed a little bit that I went into a brief prayer and then I would spend a fair amount of time visualizing. And once the visualization process is over for me, I just cleared my mind of everything. I wasn't trying to remember what I was going to say or do or what somebody else was going to say or do. I just absolutely wiped the slate clean until I heard my music. And it just kind of worked for me. I'm sure everybody has their own unique process, but that worked for me, as it kind of does here.

Now, I don't go through quite the same process here, but, you know, my day-to-day life, when I'm not doing a podcast and talking about wrestling, is as far removed from the wrestling business and the discussions around it as you can possibly imagine, it's quite different. And in order for me to maximize this opportunity and engage correctly, I have to really kind of put myself in that wrestling gear sometimes, sometimes harder than others. You mean you don't wake up visualizing what it's going to be like sitting across from me here on the screen? You're not looking at my image and likeness in your head? No, that's not it, brother. I hate to disappoint you.

I mean, I like you a lot, no, but you're not there yet. That's reserved for Conrad, got it. Okay. Oh, no, I don't think about that at all. No, I don't usually rile me up. I still got to be, we just recorded yesterday. Jeez, you beat me half to death. You just beat me half to death.

So I have to, that's a different kind of preparation, trust me. What were you denying happened that actually happened? Because that's usually what that stems from. Well, no, it was. You know, it's a long discussion about AEW, and we're going to go way more into it here today, I'm sure. But, you know, and this is what I find interesting, is I don't really think about or care to talk about AEW. It is the farthest thing from my mind in any given moment unless somebody asked me a question. Now, I'm not going to put myself over, but I've kind of been there, done that in just about every way in regard to the business of the wrestling business as a performer in the wrestling business, as an executive in the wrestling business.

And I'm not going to go through what I've accomplished, but the fact is I've failed that because there's a lot of that too. But the fact is I covered a lot of ground in this business, and I think one of the reasons that people, people ask me questions is because I have a fairly unique, probably other than one or two people, the only people that have the depth of insight into the wrestling industry as I have, that's not bragging, it's just a fact. But the reason people ask me questions about AEW is because of that experience. So when I give my perspective, and it's not fanboy, yay, rah, rah, it's great for the business and it's, you know, everything they're doing is wonderful, but if I don't give that type of response, then, oh, you're just being negative.

Okay. You know, and that's kind of was at the core of that. I mean, he, Conrad came, and by the way, I appreciate it. I'm not busted his balls for doing because it's what makes our show interesting. Kind of like you, you know, Conrad is a fan. Conrad's never been in the wrestling business. you've never been in the wrestling business you're a fan of the wrestling business you're also in the media and you understand it you're engaged in it and you love to to dig into it and learn about it and talk

about it and that's cool but for the most part your perspective conrad's perspective many people's perspective that haven't been in the business is from the perspective of a fan and that's absolutely amazing and wonderful and i'm grateful for the opportunity to have that perspective Conrad's on 83 weeks, yours here. Because that's what we're doing, right? In a way, you speak as a fan from a fan's perspective. And the people listening are fans. The people that listen to the show, well, there's a handful that are in the business, obviously.

But for the most part, the vast majority of this show are 83 weeks, are fans. And they want to hear a discussion that involves, their perspective and my perspective. And sometimes those perspectives are radically different and that's okay. That's what makes it interesting. If Conrad sat with me, much like you, sat with me and disagreed with everything I said and just went along with it

and signed off on everything I have to say in my perspective, it would be a boring freaking show. And Conrad is often right when he calls me out. You know, he calls my bullshit sometimes. And when it's bullshit, it, I'll acknowledge it when I'm wrong. It doesn't happen that often, unfortunately, unfortunately for me.

Yeah. So it's the contrast of perspectives that makes interesting banter. Yeah. People who all think alike and agree on the same things and believe the same things. That's a boring show. So I'm, but that's what started it. And I got hot. I just, he get pushing, he get push and he kept pushing.

That's what Conrad does. He likes to do that. He pushes, he pushes, he pushes, he pushes, until I go, bam. And then he goes, see, you're overreacting. Okay. But it was fun. I jest. It was a fun show.

My perspective is always very interesting when it comes to doing this show with you. Because you're right. Look, I come from wrestling media and whatnot. But, you know, I've also been working on the Indies for almost 10 years now on the talent side. And even on helping books are in organizations. well i've been heavily involved with the monster factory and doing the production process and all that but your perspective is so much more business centric you know your accolades are well known when it comes to the talent side of things and producing a world-renowned wrestling show but it's your

business acumen that is something that i lack because i've never worked on that side of the industry and i always find it fascinating i think that's why when we get into these discussions about AEW much like we're going to right now. People draw the parallels to you because AW is the closest thing and I'm watching my words here because I know you'll pick at them like a hawk. AW is the closest thing

in regards to being in the WWE orbit since WCW in terms of money, in terms of proximity. Now I understand impact. Back in the day, was drawn more viewers but television habits have changed significantly over time. We're talking money here.

You know, it's the closest. So I think people value your opinion when it comes to AEW in particular because they see those parallels. I mean, look at this new collision logo, which we're going to talk about right now. The collision logo is an allusion to WCW Nitro. Like, they're not. Illusion is a good word. I'd say ripoff is a better one. But you know what?

John, I'm not, and you know, as soon as that thing was. posted that logo was posted i you know my social media blew up i can't wait to see you and he's going to bury w w a w a w for the lab and it's true this i put a smile on my face and you know i guess you know imitation is a most sincere form of flattery so it didn't bother me a bit but what it did do is make me realize that i've been right and at least i believe i'm right i could be wrong, but I believe I might. When I say that the creative, I would call it a brain trust, and I don't mean that to sound derogatory, but whoever's in charge of creative strategy and brand strategy, whether it's a TBS or AEW, I don't know who ultimately decided that

logo was a good idea, really don't have a clue. There's not a creative strategy. There's no, there's no that I can see, at least, creative strategy that would allow AEW to execute on the mission of being different than WWE. There's just not. They may have more blood. That's about the only thing I can think of that really distinguishes in a meaningful way, not in a fanboy dirt sheet, tapeworm, pig shit kind of way, but in a tangible, visual, consistent manner, they're not doing anything different. And if you're not doing anything different,

I'm going to go back to what I realized a long time ago. You're either better than, you're either or you're less than or you're less than or you're different than and so far AEW is less than they're not different they're certainly not better and I think without a creative strategy that involves a evolved way of presenting the product and by evolved I don't mean completely changing the psychology of wrestling. In fact, I believe that I think the product really needs to go back to, and psychology is another way of saying storytelling, but there has to be something different. And I don't know what that is, to be honest with you. If Tony came to my

house and said, here's $5 million, if you can tell me by the end of the day how I could be different, give me five ways how I could be different, I would struggle, right? Because you also don't want to do something that's been done before. You want to really evolve the product. But whether it be in the format, how the show is shot, the way promos are treated, the way stories are told, production values, all of those things have to fit together. But at the core of that, there has to be a vision that says, this is what's going to make us stand out, and this is why we're different. And I just don't see it. And going retro, you know, let's, you know, behind people at Nitro used to be on TNT.

I just don't think that's very, number one, it's not very creative. Number two, it can be a little dangerous, not dangerous, but it can, it can backfire. I think nostalgia is really hot right now. Like nostalgia culture in general, aside from wrestling, is very, very prominent in the general sphere. And I think that's probably one of the reasons you're seeing something like that. Hey, let's tap into something that people used to love. and let's give them a little bit of comfort with that. But I want to push back on something that you just said.

You said they're not doing anything different. They're not offering anything different. Isn't the whole point of AEW in and of itself that it is the alternative that focuses on the in-ring presentation? You yourself. Then they failed on that mark is 80% of the in-ring presentation is less than. But that's a fact. You can mark out all you want. I mean, the jungle boy, silly nonsense.

I mean, there's so much bad wrestling in AEW that the hardcore AEW fans, they don't care about that, you know, as long as they get their blood or as long as they get one thing that they're looking for. But if you take your, your emotions out of it or your, my opinion, your, I don't want to say loyalty, but if you, if you take off your fan glasses and just look at the product objectively, The in-ring presentation is not better than. In my opinion, you may feel differently and cool, and fans may feel different. But for me, I look at that. If I would have done some of the stuff I'm seeing currently in AEW or have seen recently in AEW,

if I would have done some of that in WCW, WCW would have been trashed. There are people in that ring that are just not ready for prime time. consistently promos that are just not ready for prime time consistently i don't see the difference in terms of the in ring i do see a difference in terms of the product and i think it's significantly less than but couldn't you argue that some of that stems your perspective i'm talking about here some of that perspective stems from a maybe a natural evolution of in ring presentation over time. Like, I think we can both agree that in-ring presentation has evolved since 1995.

It has changed in both good and bad ways. So to say that objectively, it's less than, or I think, couldn't that be more of a opinion that is just formed off of how things were when? No, not at all. I'm talking about basic technical execution. I'm talking about wrestling school. I'm talking about just basic fundamentals of performance in the ring. I'm not talking about styles. I, look, I'm, I am not that guy who thinks wrestling should go back to the way it was. I think there are elements of wrestling that need to go back to the way it was when it comes to storytelling and characters and psychology.

That I absolutely. But I'm, look, I'm the probably is responsible. as anyone on an executive level of introducing lucha and the cruiserweight style and that high-flying aerial you know i was the first one to ever do it i'm not saying that but i was the first one that ever did it on a consistent regular basis and built an entire division around it and brought people in from all over the world to be a part of it and i think that style the lucha style of wrestling of which i'm going to include a lot of the japanese style in that whole broader category i'll refer to it is cruiserweight style that that cruiserweight presentation high flying super athletic

action is probably what led to the evolution of some of the emphasis i agree now i still i enjoy it i'm not the guy that says no man we got to go back to headlocks drop kicks you know no no no everything evolves and i embrace the evolution i just don't think it has to to be binary. I don't think it has to be one or the other. I believe it can be both. And I think relying on one to the exclusion of the other, meaning lying on, you know, I'm going to get my shit in. I got to get my bumps in. I don't care if I land on my head five times and then I get into my finish. Putting the emphasis on the dynamic physical presentation as completely or for the most part other than paying some kind of lip service to it.

eliminating or just ignoring the storytelling aspect of it and making it believable and allowing the audience to get sucked in instead of watching Cirque the fucking Soleil. That, I do believe, is a problem. And that has nothing to do with whether or not I think wrestling should go back to the old ways. It has everything to do with the core of the wrestling business is good guys and bad guys and stories that people relate to.

That will always be the very essence of it. any combat presentation, whether it be a movie and the UFC ring or a wrestling ring. There are characters that people relate to and identify with in stories that engage them. And yes, the physical presentation is a part of that. But to emphasize that at the exclusion of everything else is what I see in AEW. And you can argue, oh yeah, but that was a great story. That was a great story. In your opinion, it's a great story.

My opinion, it's not. It's an excuse for a match. is what most of the stories that I see are. They're not compelling stories. They don't evoke emotion. They're not relatable. They're an excuse for a bloodbath. Not my thing.

That's not evolution to me. That's just, and it's certainly not better than, or different than anything that we've seen before. I think, and again, I know you're not watching week to week. I think the elite story that they're telling right now is just fantastic. and the callbacks that have been occurring in this main event storyline that. But nobody cares. The proof is in the pudding.

Nobody cares. It's not moving the needle, is it? I mean, 855,000 viewers after the promise of a big announcement that had weeks of internet chatter and anticipation, including you, discussed it here. But he's excited about it. It's a great thing. See him punk.

They're building the show around him. And it's all rumor and bullshit. It could be wrong. It could be just tapeworms and pig shit mongers. They write silly dirt sheets and spread rumors or Reddit fodder. Who knows where it all came from. But despite where it all came from, it existed. There was anticipation, weeks of it.

Weeks of it. And they did 855,000 viewers with a demo that was in the mid to high 20s, 0.20s. So does it really, is it really a good storyline? I mean, I would argue that adding an entirely new primetime television show. Not prime time. Saturday night is not prime time. Primetime is Monday through Friday. At least the prime time that I've ever lived in.

i understand that saturday can be viewed as a not super desirable day for some but there's no denying that saturday nights are still a big draw for sporting events and i know wrestling's not a sporting event i understand that but i don't think that there would be people necessarily backing down from that real estate but my point here regardless of when and what this is a significant expansion from warner brothers discovery to add this show collision which was a officially announced this past week in the press release, and I'm only saying this because I know you'll get a chuckle out of this, it stated that AEW has reached 23 million total viewers so far this year across

all of it shows on TBS and TNC, with the caveat being a one thing. What a hand job. Well, it made me laugh because like this is very PR speak. Regardless of AW, this is like very much Turner, Warner Brothers PR speech. Oh, that's a Turner thing. That's an 80% thing. It said the caveat, it had a little asterisk next to it. it's at a one-minute qualifier, meaning that 23 million people have watched at least one minute

of AEW programming this year, which I would imagine it would be. That just reeks of, like, why would you do that? I thought it was odd. I think a person is going to look at that and go, what the hell? I just don't say anything would be better than saying something is ridiculous. I thought it was an odd inclusion for sure. But I do want to bring this paragraph up from this press release. And it comes from Jason Sarlanus, the president of Turner Networks.

And it was very eye-opening to me, Eric. He says, quote, we're doubling down on wrestling with AW collision, which gives fans two more hours every week. AW's roster of talent has expanded so quickly that we felt it needed another night to bring our audience the epic rivalries, unforgettable matches, and stars they love to watch. Adding collision to our programming mix on TNT will allow us to satisfy the massive demand we felt from our hardcore fan base and be the ultimate compliment to AW Dynamite on TVS. And it's that last sentence that stood out to me where he said that it will allow us to satisfy the massive demand we felt from our hardcore fan base and be the ultimate compliment. So to me, Eric, when I hear that, you know, one of the arguments in the discourse always is, well, AW plays to its hardcore fan base too much. They're not trying to get enough casuals.

And based on that statement from Turner, they're plenty fine embracing the idea that we're going to cater to our fans who are most like. to spend money who are most likely to watch week to week and they're going to invest an extra two hours of programming on a Saturday night for them. Yeah, we'll see if Jason's still working at Turner by this time next year. I mean, look, I try not to react to press releases because they're just hand jobs. That's all they are. It's just marketing. It's kind of like the, you know, 23 million people who watched AEW. Well, that was ridiculous. And so is this press release.

It's all in, it all falls within the same bucket. The press release is just an, it's just a marketing tool. So it's whatever. Look, here's the truth. Reality. Turner made a decision to invest in another program. We'll find out if Jason, and the brain trusted Turner is way smarter than I am

and see an opportunity that I don't see because I'm not in the business, right? I'm not. I'm on the outside looking in like everybody else. We'll see. Maybe I'm wrong, and we're going to find out. Maybe Jason is right. And maybe a large percentage of that dynamite audience, that hardcore, that massive demand that's,

that allowed dynamite to be the number seven most watch program on Wednesday night on cable. Kind of like 23 million people watch for a minute. It's kind of reaching to pat yourself on the back for that one. But nonetheless, we'll see. Or we may see what we have seen on Friday nights, which are just as bad as Saturday nights. And we'll see how much of a massive demand it is. from the hardcore fans to see the product.

Let me go on record saying for all you trolls out there and all you people that like to pick out one thing that I say and characterize my entire perspective as a result of that because you pick little elements of the overall conversation. I truly, truly hope that AEW and Turner absolutely succeed with collision. I absolutely do.

There's no reason for me not to. I have no dog in this hunt. My life is not going to improve or deteriorate one way or the other based on what happens with AEW or certainly collision. But I hope for the people that I know that are friends of mine that work at AEW. And I hope for Tony Kahn, who's put a, the money is part of it, but Tony's put his, Tony's invested himself in this. And I have empathy.

I can understand how that feels. And I hope ultimately it's successful, despite some of the things that he has done along the way to kind of make it harder for himself. But I do have an opinion, and I think the opinion, and this is what started with Conrad, and I just think it was a bad choice. It was a bad decision.

AEW is not ready yet. at any level, creatively or organizationally, the infrastructure, the experience, the decision making, off-screen, is, appears, I have to be careful, because I'm not in the offices, but it appears from the outside looking in to be as almost as dysfunctional as some of the stuff that we've seen in the right. And until AEW can get their feet underneath them on a lot of different levels, I just think the pressure of another show is going to ultimately have a negative impact. But again, I hope I'm wrong. Well, Eric, one way I know, I know this firsthand. from talking to sources across the industry is that there is a way that you can avoid all of that drama

and hold people accountable for the things that they do. And that, of course, is with our friends over at Empira. You head over to Empira.com, E-M-P-I-A-A-A-A-D-com, and use that code wrestlebiz, W-R-E-S-T-L-L-E-B-I-Z to get 14 days free and 20% off your subscription Impera is helping people launch their business plans faster and with less effort than ever before by helping you organize your dashboard and hold everyone, including yourself accountable. Eric Bischoff, they would probably be avoiding a lot of the drama in AW if they were using Imper.

I feel pretty confident about that. What say you? Well, I think any organization can improve. There's not an organization on the face of the earth, in my opinion, that couldn't benefit from better communication, from better focus on your business details, the pillars, if you will, as they're defined in, you're a tool. Because it is a tool.

It's a tool that allows you to track your performance across different business units of your business. So you can make sure that you're on track, that you're following the outline of your business plan, And you're communicating to all the people that are involved in that process. And Impera is a phenomenal tool that even someone like me who is technologically challenged, who tends to resist anything new as it relates to another new form of technology or another app, because oftentimes they're just too difficult to really take advantage of.

They're not all they're cracked up to be. Pira was the exact opposite. Even someone like me can get on the phone because you will get on the phone. For less than two of these, damn it, you're going to get on the phone with a live human being and you're going to explain your business and what it is your goals are. And they're going to help you create a dashboard, a dashboard that you can go to every single day and update and follow and see where your business is at. Are you reaching your goals?

Are you exceeding your goals? Are you falling short of your goals? If so, why? And just to be able to analyze your business on a daily basis, start your day every day that way. It's kind of like getting up and working out. If you start your day every day, doing something healthy for yourself, guess what? You're going to get healthier. And if you start your business out every day, looking at your performance across your business

units, tracking your success or lack of success, and having the tools and the ability to communicate it to your team, easily you can all track the same things powerful powerful tool why would you not i don't care if you're a one-man band like i am it's just me i don't have an assistant don't have a secretary don't have any support everything is on me but having a tool like imperial allows me to track a lot of things that otherwise may just not get my attention on any given day but if i start up every day and look at all of the pillars of my business to see where i'm at it's like I said it's a great way to attack your business every single day or if you're if you've got five employees you got 10 employees you got 500 employees the more employees you have

the more you need impera check it out hey john where'd you go there we are see i really should have made sure that i was unmuted i said that is the biggest thing that's important about impura is that. It doesn't matter how big your business is, is always a good time to hold yourself, hold your employees accountable, and Empira's going to help you do that. Empira.com, EMPI-A-A-A-A-com forward slash Eric Code, wrestle biz, 14 days free and 20% off your subscription with Empira. Launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before with our pals over at Empira. Hey, guys, need to call a quick time out here. I wanted to tell your listeners what I've been

telling my listeners over at oh you didn't know for a while now about all the cool things happening over at ads free shows.com an all-new mailbag series debuts later this month on ad-free shows as we picked the braid of a man who has spent 40 plus years in the wrestling business long-time wcd and wwee referee nick patrick answers your question sent her an angle bring a beer on it or me no it ended up being my own blood austin bed had the title it had These jagged edges aren't, right? And it had a deal where Angle pulled me in, and I took the belt shot. A little bonus content comes your way, courtesy of the Kurt Angles show.

A dream match became a reality back in 2016 as Kurt Angle squared off against Cody Rhodes on the Independent. For the first time, Kurt watches back his match against the American nightmare. This kid's really talented. He's selling the ankle here on the Leap Frog, went down on it awkwardly. He's outside the ring talking to the... the referee. This is like you said, all part of the match plan. Hey, start to show that weakness in the ankle.

Yeah, yeah. This was his idea to make it look like he hurt his ankle. So that when he did lose, he had to be right about. Add three show members have chatted one-on-one with AEW stars like Eddie Kingston, Dax Harwood, Ricky Starks, and many more, including a recent live interactive session with Renee Paquette. He still continues to do that. he's on commentary in A.A.W.

So I think it was cool for him to kind of put on that analyst hat and get to kind of test out those waters a little bit. But end of the day, it was a thing that I think made him feel like, you know what, wrestling can be okay again. I can have fun in the wrestling space again. And now we have Sampunk Wrestling. So you're welcome. That's just a small taste of what we got waiting for you with four levels to choose from. See for yourself why ads free shows is the best. best value in wrestling today.

Sign up now at adjfreeshoes.com. So let's talk about CM Punk, Eric Bischoff, because that was a reported big part of this collision rollout initially. It was expected that AW would be announcing CM Punk's return as the headlining star here on this collision show, so much so that an initial draft of the press release had CM Punk's name in it. Do we have that? Do we have what?

The copy of the press release was CM Punk's name in it? There was a screenshot by Jimmy Trayna from Sports Illustrated that had the initial like underlining text that had him as part of the meta text. So I'm going to try to pull that up here real quick. I guess it's an important reason I bring that up, John. I'm sorry, interrupted you because again, in talking to Conrad, yesterday, Conrad suggested, I don't think he believes 100%, but he suggested that this whole thing about punk and AEW having issues and the last minute being pulled from the press release and all

that is actually an elaborate creative strategy by TBS and the AEW so that when punk does show up, it's an even bigger surprise. What say you? I say no, but could be. Here's but let me here's jimmy's thing right there if you can see that uh so you see the link the hyperlink it says tn t launches a second night of wrestling with a w collision featuring headliner cm punk thunderosa mirro samoa joan powerhouse hobbs on saturday june 17 okay i didn't see it it didn't come up but that's okay up i'm sorry it should have come up i'll i'm doing this more for the youtube view i mean i I saw it. I saw it on social media.

So I've seen it. But again, I'll go back to, you know, yesterday what one of the things that led to this blow up. In fact, Conrad said,

you were going to be, we actually made a bet. I know we're going to be talking about man scape. Yes. And all that. But we actually made a bet. Henson's razors. We have all these grooming products,

right? And Conrad said, I bet you, he's going to show up at whatever it was, a 17th or in a paper view, whatever. It's going to be a surprise, and this is all a big work, and TBS is involved, and a press release, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I disagreed.

And then the conversation escalated. To the point, Conrad made me bet. He made a bet with me. He said, I bet you, and if I'm right, you'll shave your head on 83 weeks. I bet you that punk shows. up at either the pay-per-view or the TV show and this was all of work i said i'll take that bet under one condition that if i'm right and this is not a creative strategy i hate to say work

creative strategy then conrad you are going to shave your head on 83 weeks oh no whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa he looked like Rick flair doing a Rick flair oh whoa whoa whoa just so we can try to ball shot you no no no no no so we'll see I think that that's and I want to get into the business of the business reason why I don't believe but what what's your take well my take is I think it's possible he shows up eventually and that all this is smoothed out but I don't think as things stand right now when this rollout happened that that was part of their plan I think they planned on announcing him as part of the press release and i think tony con's announcement was going to be that they were going to debut collision in chicago with cm punk there that's what i

think i'm speaking off my gut instinct and i agree with you and and i think that something happened which the reports indicate from multiple outlets including fightful and pw insider that it has something to do with a steel but i think something happened there's a miscommunication and it held things up for now. Will it totally completely throw things off? I don't know. But I think that Tony Kahn's announcement on Dynamite this past week was not as it was originally planned to be.

That's just me speculating entirely. No, I agree with that. Unfortunately, though, as it relates to what the big announcement and the perception of punk coming back in the new show did not manifest in more interest. And that audience didn't know about all the things that were going on behind this. What they knew was what he knew was what

have been promoted. Big announcement, big announcement, all the hype around punk coming back and the new show, and none of it materialized. And I think it, it, here's, here's it from, now let's get out of the drama and into the business reasons why I don't think, why I don't agree with Conrad. I understand that it is a different world today in cable television than it was five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. I get it. But I cannot allow myself to believe that a major publicly owned television network cable or otherwise would allow their PR, their public relations team to engage in the creative arts of the professional wrestling business.

Agreed. There are points where that PR division and your public relations team have to deal with serious issues. And if all of a sudden now, you're just part of a wrestling angle, you lose credibility within the industry. What are the they going to believe agreed and and i don't i can't imagine that any executive would see so much value in the little swerve about being a part of this what i think is a it's not a creative strategy it's it's just a mess it's just a and then there was the statement too from warner brother's discovery to comic book that said cm punk is not involved with a w collision and that's a really that one is the other you know that's the other tell for me um and and again i agree with you i think

unfortunately tony will find a way to allow this to continue and punk will be back which i think is a major mistake who the fuck is a steel anyway are you going to i mean who is you answer that or yeah who is he so ace steel is someone that has worked closely with punk throughout his career in wrestling he was a close confid on when punk came in a steel was brought in two with a w and he worked closely with him uh ace steel is the one who in the brawl out incident bit kenny omega he's the one who latched his teeth onto him so he was let go and then the reports again from multiple outlets here have indicated that at some point there was either a promise made or a discussion made that A. Steele would be able to come back onto payroll with punk coming back and then I guess

it was decided that he was not going to be allowed to be at venues. Again, we're dealing in rumor and innuendo here. But that's allegedly, that was the catalyst for what set off this. Okay. So I know who the person is, but why the fuck should he be, why in the world does this guy, why is he the whole? Because he's a confidant of C.M. Punks. Be allowed. to jeopardize the network premiere of a brand new show. Are you fucking kidding me? So when people, you know, oh, he's just being negative. When I refer to the dysfunction within the infrastructure

and the business side of AEW, how in the world, let's just step back, CM Punk, eviscerates Tony Khan in the entire roster and the brand. in a press conference totally makes tony con look like a walking talking douchebag as well as dumping all over the the roster the company as a whole in a very very public way you're probably one of your top paid guys if not your top paid guy and then there's a fight there's all of the legal drama that's going on as a result of the physical confrontation and then we're going to bring him back and make him a focal point of an entirely new show but he decides to shit the bed

because his confidant isn't allowed to be on TV or is it allowed in the video who care let's see him punk pay him he's making five or more million dollars a year if he needs to have a confidant let punk pay him this is people you know it's like these hardcore wrestling fans and and punk himself who was so anti halcogan for being selfish and all the other things punk's worse this is incredible to me that Tony conn and AEW would have open-ended legal issues going into this announcement that had obviously have not been resolved or this mess would have never happened. There was not a clear meeting of the minds, which is what a contract really is, is a meeting of the minds. There was not a clear and firm meeting of the minds regarding the issues surrounding all of the

the Michigas and the drama and all the stupid stuff that's come with CM Punk. It hadn't been cleared up, but yet we're moving forward with this big announcement. that is a total abject failure on the part of the business side of AEW and quite frankly TBS because they went did they check they were certainly aware of all of the drama in the legal issues did anybody sit down and say okay before we come up and we're going to write a press release okay we're going to do this show but before we do let's make sure we know who we're doing it with unbelievable to me now i want to say there are always multiple sides of story as far as like the acil stuff is concerned and whether for all we know eric there may be other elements of

this that are not public that we are totally unknowledgeable about so i don't want to sit here and be like this is the sole reason that this happened for all we know oh we're dealing off what's been reported in the in in the peripheral media and in some cases a lot of it is coming from Alvarez and in the tapeworm and the wrestling observer. And we know how that is. Look, we've seen it before. The patterns have been well established, the false reporting, the distortions and all. So none of us should get to, I'm not.

Again, my life doesn't depend on this stuff. But if you're just looking at, here's a dot, there's a dot, there's a dot, there's a dot, connect the dots you got a pretty good outline of a picture it's a mess it should have never happened it only happened because AEW is a here I'm going to give them some support here they're a young new company that is and I've said it a million times I'm going to say to a million one that are going to continue to go through growing pains and mistakes are going to happen but not at this level they should not happen at this level one thing i do know even though your life may not depend on this and how it plays out your hair certainly does eric bischoff your hair

very much depends on it and thankfully with manscaped things are going to be all right for eric bish off regardless of how this ordeal ends up playing out because i don't know about you Eric, it just hit me the other day that we are less than a month away from Father's Day. And when I'm thinking Father's Day gifts, I think Manscape is right up there for among the very best thing that you can get your dad or the father in your life for this upcoming Father's Day. Not to fear for those of you who are late-minute gifters, the leaders and below the waist grooming are here. I'm talking about our friends over at Manscape. They're saving the day yet again with the total package for the father figure in your life

this year. It's time to upgrade his game from Ways to Face with this exclusive offer from our pals. Have him join the 8 million men worldwide who trust Manscaping get 20% off plus free shipping with the code wrestle biz. That's W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z at Manscaped.com. How big of a deal is Father's Day in your neck of the woods, Eric? Well, since my kids are not here and obviously my father has passed a long time ago. It's, I'm more excited about celebrating Father's Day on behalf of my son,

Garrett, and proud that he's a father. And not only proud that he's a father, he is an amazing father. Our son, Garrett, is just, I'm so proud of him. So I'll be celebrating Father's Day on behalf of my son, Garrett. Way more excited about that than celebrating it for myself.

Now, he's not just an amazing father, Eric, but he's also a well-groomed father because we're making him the ultimate Father's Day MVP with the performance package 4.0. Inside it, he'll find Manscape's signature lawnmower 4.0 trimmer, brand new weed whacker 2.0 ear and nose hair trimmer, the crop preserver ball deodorant, crop reviver toner, performance boxer briefs and a travel bag to hold all of his goodies. I know you are a big fan of the weed whacker 2.0 ear and nose hair trimmer. Are you not? I am, especially the nose hair trimmer, because as you can see,

I don't know if the camera can see it or not, but my hair's kind of white, right? Got that visual? Now, so are the hairs in my nose. Yes. Now, if you look up my nose, can you see up my nose? Can you see up my nose, John? It's a little hard to see up your nose.

Do you want me to get closer to the camera? I see a couple of goblins there, yeah. That goblins, you dips, shit. When you look, if you're shorter than me and you look up at me, you know what you're going to see in my nose right now, nothing, because I make sure that I trim that hair. But if I'm not taking care of business, And I'm not whacking these weeds, trimming these nose hairs, keeping this shit tight.

You can stand, if you're a little short of me, you look up and you know what you see, you see what looks like a garden of white hair in my nostrils. Gross as that may sound, that's what you'll see. Or you would have seen before Manscape come along. Thankfully, Manscape did come along and help people. No one wants to see that, John. No one wants to see that. Trust me, if you're walking around with hair hanging out of your nose and you don't notice it because you're just not looking that closely in the mirror when you groom yourself, you might want to take a look because there is nothing, nothing more disgusting than people walking around with what equates to a small head full of hair pouring out of their nose.

It's just nasty. Same thing goes with your ears. Ear hair is nasty, man. Trim that stuff. Well, Manscape wants to help you do just that. Get 20% off plus free shipping with code wrestle biz at Manscape.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at Manscape.com. Use code RussellBiz, W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z, make this Father's Day one that he won't forget with our friends over at Manscaped. Fight Plus is the ultimate digital platform for live sports and entertainment, and they're now offering a free seven-day trial at Trial.

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T-R-Y-F-I-T-E.com. Well, Jimmy says Eric's got the most legendary hair in the history of time and space. Oh, time and space. That's new. I like it. Jeremy Preeces, man, I didn't know what to expect on the show. We're talking about goblins and Eric's nose. I love ad-free shows.

You never know what you're going to get. That's the reality here on ad-free shows.com. Bobby says, good morning, everyone. We are live for our ad-free shows fans. Anything else on the AW front you want to add before we pivot over to WWE and what's been going on over there? No. Just go Tony Kahn, go AEW, make this opportunity work for you, use it as a stepping stone to prove to everybody how wrong I am and have some success.

Really hope that happens. I love being wrong. I really do. It gives me hope. When I'm wrong, when I feel so passionately about something and I'm proven wrong, it gives me hope because it makes me realize that there are other things out there that I may not be positive about that I could be wrong about and kind of in a weird way keeps me helpful. One thing I was picking up in the sports media spectrum this week was our pal, Richard

Deich, who we had on this podcast a few weeks ago, which you haven't checked out that episode in the archives, by the way, I think that's one of the best episodes Eric and I have ever had with Richard Deich from The Athletic. Go check that out 83 Weeks.com. He actually had Mark Shapiro, the president of Endeavor on his podcast, Eric. And he got into the conversation about the endeavor acquisition of WWE and the merger into the new publicly trade company, which we did find out this week. The publicly traded company name is going to officially be TKO group. That's kind of cool.

So, WWE and UFC will maintain their individual identities, but on the market, they will be TKO group officially. but Richard asked him about something that we talked about on this podcast when we had him there and that was licensing and sponsorships as far as WWE is concerned and how does any of that change once this acquisition is made final and while he said he didn't want to go in specifics because the purchase hasn't been finalized officially yet there was a really interesting quote from him that I'm going to read to you he said quote you want to be all authentic, seamless, organic, and true to your audience.

We're not going to put a brand on somebody's robe walking to the ring. Do UFC fighters wear Venom apparel and project rock shoes? Yes, they do. Could WWE benefit from an apparel deal such as that or a shoe deal as such? Absolutely. We're not going to over-commercialize it. We're not going to saturate it to the point that we cheap it out and trick it out and you turn off the fan base. You have to figure out what's right in the ring, in the octagon, what's right.

in the arena indoor and outdoor what's right with the fighters and the participants and you have to walk before you run i thought that was a really interesting quote eric because we did talk about sponsorships and might we start seeing stuff on the ring or fighters or wrestlers i should say superstars coming to the ring with sponsorships it doesn't seem like that's going to be the approach that endeavor is going to take here what do you think about that i think that's smart and when you think about it again you know pull yourself back and step away from the money that could be created in the revenue opportunities, all that stuff. You know, especially as it relates to professional wrestling,

because the character, the definition of the character, the merchandising of that character is a far more significant issue than the merchandising and the character definition of a professional fighter. Professional fighter really is all about what happens inside of the ring, because it is an athletic competition, just like whatever happens on a field in the NFL, the football field, is all about the game and the action. But with wrestling, it's all about the character and the story.

And I think over-commercializing characters, despite the fact that I'm sure there'd be a lot of money in it, but having wrestlers coming to the ring with logos all over them, like a NASCAR driver, would definitely take, that's an exaggeration, but it would definitely take away from the character itself and the ability to really merchandise that character. So I get it. It's like, you know, I saw a NASCAR promo the other day, and, you know, I'm not a NASCAR fan. I don't hate NASCAR or just like NASCAR. I just can't watch NASCAR.

I've done it. I've been on the infield. I actually sponsored a car. So it's not that I don't like it or appreciate it. It's just that I'm not engaged with it. And it's hard for me to become engaged. Part of the reason it's hard for me to become engaged is because I can't fall in love with a car, especially a car that looks like every other car on the truck, except for

track, except for it's painted different colors and has different logos all over it. And then when the driver, who is the one element of that picture, the driver gets out of the car, he's pasted in logos and wearing a hat. And I don't, you know, you could have the greatest NASCAR drivers in a world walk up to me And you probably wouldn't recognize the average NASCAR fan, you might recognize them. But you don't see them in their helmets. Obviously, they have to wear them. You skip their hats because they got logos on it.

There's no person in there. It's a fucking billboard. And it's a profitable billboard. Very profitable billboard. The NASCAR business is built on that billboard or those billboards. But as far as characters, I just don't see that working in wrestling. Imagine the Undertaker coming to the ring with fucking logos on the back of his gimmick? The Undertaker presented by Sprite.

Yeah, that is just talk about taking you out of the moment. But it's so funny, you'd say NASCAR, because I covered NASCAR extensively, especially when I was in Florida, I'd cover the Daytona 500 every year. I actually, this was super cool. I got in the car with Kurt Busch and he drove me around Daytona International Speedway at 180 miles an hour. It was the wildest thing that I've ever experienced in my life. And it was wild to me because you're right.

You see them in person. You're like, oh, yeah, like, I know what they look like, but I totally associate drivers with their sponsorships. Like, I always thought of, what's an example, Kyle Busch? He was the M&M guy. That's how I thought of him. And I'm curious if we ventured too much into the realm of wrestling, if we would lose some of that character-oriented element to the game.

And I think it's a good thing, Eric, again, these are just words, but I think it's a good thing that he's saying, more or less, we're going to let them do their thing and we'll bring up opportunities as they present themselves. No, and that's exactly the way it should be because otherwise you run the real risk. It's not even a risk. It's a probability. If you don't take that really measured strategic approach and slowly see what the audience is going to react to or not react to, if you just big foot that shit, you can have a massive revolt. your audience will gag if you introduce it slowly you know they'll accept it and i think there's certain things that we've already become used to we're used to turn buckles we're used to ring aprons we're used to a lot of fly-ins and graphics this this segment brought to you by you know we've

been seeing that for years so the audience is already you know it's not like they got their guard up they've already accepted that to a degree but i think if it's introduced slowly, as it sounds like they're going to, you mitigate the risk of the audience who we're reacting to it and slowly grow that opportunity. Jimmy wants to know which driver should be sponsored by 83 weeks or strictly business. I don't know. Who's the most obnoxious? So I was actually going to bring up. Ross Chastain is a big driver these days. They call him the melon man, Eric. It's a great backstory because he grew up on a watermelon farm

in florida i love him and his family his family is associated with these watermelons that are distributed throughout the country and whenever he wins a race he breaks a watermelon on the track my kind guy that's our guy what's his name ross chastain let's get him on the show you can ask you no let's talk about branding and nascar let's talk up against the branding and characters and obviously this cat's a character because he's bringing part of his real life into the race very wrestling into the business so let's let's work to get him on the show i'd love to talk to him very well he'll be our official nascar driver that we'll promote each and every week and he's a bit of a heel too so let's get me his number i'll call him well you know we're talking

watermelons we're talking eating good one way that you can eat good and healthy every single week is with our friends over at Factor. Eric, I love Factor. This is not me just saying this is part of a sponsorship read. I am all in on Factor. And if you're not familiar with Factor, well, let me introduce you a little bit. During this prime spring season,

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Ready for this? These meals are never frozen. They are prepared in their entirety. They're packaged up. And two minutes in the microwave, they are hot and ready to go for you at your convenience when you were on the road with wcw and wwee and you're traveling all over the country how convenient would something like factor have been for you not only convenience

but i cannot beg anybody listening to this show enough to get them from eating fast food because fest food is garbage. It fills you up. It satiates you to a degree because of all the crap that's in it. But it's so unhealthy. And John and I were just talking about this before the show that according to Harvard University, 80% of the medical schools in the United States require zero nutritional training. So your doctor probably doesn't know his or her ass from a bag of rocks when it comes to nutrition, or at least not any more than the average person. But you can feel so much better eating healthy. And it's hard to eat healthy, especially when you're on the road, especially when you're busy. Or if you're single and you're the only

one of the ass, like, yeah, who's going to sit down and spend an hour and a half for two hours your night when you get home from work? You know, preparing a meal for yourself. It's too easy to go out. It's too easy to eat something, you know, out of the freezer and just frozen pizza or whatever. This is good, healthy food, not frozen. And if you don't have the time to sit down and prepare a meal for yourself, and oh, by the way, go shopping for it, because that takes a lot of time too. Some people don't have that time. Factors the way to work around all that and get not only delicious, but real food, not the garbage, the poison and the toxins that you get from fast food. And what I love, too, their options fit a variety of different lifestyles from

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Eric, we got a question from Bobby. Harry says, will WW products and their website have Endeavor listed on it once the acquisition is complete? don't know, I suspect not. And I say that because even in the press release that you read, I think they're gonna really try to keep the brand identities as separate as possible, as they should. So I don't see that. I don't see what the benefit would be, number one.

And by virtue of the fact that they've already recognized and made the decision that they wanna make an attempt to keep those identities separate, I doubt that. that will happen. One more topic I want to hit real quick here before we wrap up on Strictly Business has been an awesome episode. Seth Rollins spotted on the set of Captain America for he's going to be in the movie.

Seth Rollins making the crossover into Marvel officially, very exciting stuff there. I know Seth Rolls is a guy you think pretty highly of and he's right now in the midst of this WW World Heavyweight Championship tournament. There were rumors going around. There was a report that said there was some hesitance because Seth might take off now into the Hollywood sphere now that he's in this Captain America movie to put the championship on him. I think that's a bunch of BS, Eric. I think there's nothing but upside with this, what say you? Yeah, I certainly don't know. I'm not inside of WWE, but what I do find interesting

is how WWE over the years has embraced these types of opportunities where, you know, you go back to the 90s, there are, you know, the number of pretty high profile talents that I talk to on a regular basis to this day that have found out after leaving wwe back in the 80s or the mostly the 90s that all kinds of opportunities came to wwee for talent but wwee would shut them down because they just didn't want to lose access to or whatever that talent while they were under contract and you know i understand that you're paying someone a couple hundred grand a year 500 grand a year or a million dollars a year you don't necessarily want them taking time off to go work part-time somewhere else but that's changed right and i think it

And it's, look, John Cena and Batista and obviously the Rock doesn't even need to be said. There are a lot of talents now that are, WWE is embracing those opportunities. I suspect we'll see more of that with Nick Con and Endeavour. I think we're going to see more and more of those types of opportunities become available to talent. If I was a talent in WWE, I would be really excited about that prospect. because that is pretty cool for Seth Rollins. It's very cool for Seth Rollins. I mean, you look at Seth Rollins. Here's a guy. I mean,

wow, I don't know his backstory, probably nearly as well as you do. But just from a macro perspective, indie guy makes it WWE. Okay, those odds right there, he defied the 97% odds that were against him just to get to WWE. Now to find himself at this kind of in that rarefied air that he's in now with WWE, that cuts that percentage by 80%. And now he's got the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of a rock or a John Sita or a Batista and have this career after his wrestling career if he manages it properly, much like Sina did, much like Rock did. So good for him.

There could be a scheduling reason why putting the championship on Seth Rollins or Seth Rollins having that championship. There could be a conflict, so it's possible, but I don't think it's like a fear of him. Right. I just thought it was ridiculous. Seth Rollins is getting this opportunity because of WW. Right. Seth Rollins is, I don't really know Seth Rollins,

but I'm guessing he's smart enough to realize that he's making giant bank in WWE. I don't even want to try to estimate what he's baking, but I'm guessing it's well, well, well into seven figures. Movie business is hit or miss. Seth has got to be smart enough to keep that solid opportunity base

financial as in otherwise in WWE while he's nurturing his second career because that takes time you can get a big opportunity in assuming stuff does really well in the movie the movie does really well there's going to be more of those opportunities in success but being careful about selecting him and the timing of it that is a process you know and good for him i just thought it was funny because like these set photos of him surface and then And the report goes, well, there's hesitance to put the championship on. I'm like, yeah, as if this wasn't scheduled weeks, if not months in advance, WWE was shocked to find out that Seth Rollins was on the set of Captain America.

I don't think so. I'm not buying that. I'm sure Nick Con went, what the hell? It was like the Lex Lugar moment when Lex Lugar showed up on Nitro. And everybody was going, what the hell? I thought he was under contract. No, it wasn't that. It wasn't that.

Exactly. This has been a great episode of Strictly Business. If you'd like to join our team on Strictly Business, we want you to advertise witheric.com. That's how you get your business or your product like Empir out there in front of thousands and thousands of listeners every single week. Head on over there. You can find us on socials as well at the real Eric Bischoff at John underscore Alba on Instagram at E. Bischoff and at John Alba on Twitter. And of course, 83 weeks on YouTube and 83 weeks.com is where you're going to find Strictly Business. Eric, I saw the other day that you shared one of the great reviews.

for Strictly Business that someone left on Apple Podcasts where someone was talking about how much they love Strictly Business and one of their favorite podcasts. That's a huge way people can help us out as well, right? Leave that five-star review. Yes, please. I'm begging you. Please, watching us on YouTube.

If you don't subscribe, please subscribe first and foremost. Hit that subscribe button. Give us your five-star rating if you feel we deserve it. I know we do. John knows we do. But what's important is whether or not you feel we deserve it. So come on now, we want to keep this party rocking. Give us that subscription.

Give us that five-star review. Tell the world, share with your friends. Let the world know what a good time strictly business really is. And you walk away, smarter than experience. We live to enlighten here on Strictly Business, especially, Eric. Bischoff. This has been a great episode of Strictly Business right here on ad-free shows and podcast Heat Network. Thank you for tuning in, everyone, and we will see you next week right here on Strictly Business.