83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #28: WWE TV rights, AEW in Las Vegas, and More

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

The business of the business is back! Join Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba on this week's "Strictly Business," as they dive into WWE CEO Nick Khan's recent comments about future TV rights, AEW running Las Vegas, wrestling fan tribalism, and more! Special thanks to this week's sponsors! Factor-Head to FACTORMEALS.com/WRESTLEBIZ50 and use code WRESTLEBIZ50 to get 50% off your first box 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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Get what you earned. Visit shoes.va.gov. Not all veterans are eligible for the type or amount of benefits mentioned here. Get rid of your credit card debt, get a lower monthly payment, and skip your next two house payments at save withconrad.com. In the MLS 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 with Eric Pischoff, presented to you

by the ad-free shows and podcast Heat Networks. I, of course, am John Alba, joined as I am every single week by the man of the hour. Mr. Eric Fischoff, EZE, how are we doing this week, my friend? we're doing good busy as hell one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest as they say but that's how good I see you are on your way to the UK coming up is that true yeah got a I think it's a five-seat tour in the UK we're going to be in Ireland and Scotland and UK and looking forward to that well we are rocking and rolling here on ad-free shows we got a bunch of people in here we got coach rosy in here saying what's up fellas uh your boy jimmy sorens

this is happy early birthday to one of the greatest men i've ever had the privilege in honor to know mr eric bischoff who still has the most iconic hair ever well that's like for maybe a couple more weeks right eric man i had to bring the news to my wife this morning we're sitting in a sauna together and uh just chatting and i said uh by the way hon um looks like i might be getting my head shaved down in Huntsville and she looked at me like what in the hell are you talking about and i said look i made a bet looks like i may lose it um it is what it is but i'm a man of my word and if i if i lose that bet because a lot of things can happen between now and then um yeah i'll be getting my head shaved but i'm going we're going to shoot it we're going to tape it and uh we'll

see it live on or not live but we'll see it all exclusively on 83 weeks and i'm sure we'll do a replay here just to make you happy. I did show the first pitch that you threw because we had to make sure everyone saw it. So I think you're a dick. That's why. That's what seems to be the consensus among the strictly business faithful out there, which of course you get strictly business every single week by being subscribed to the 83 weeks channel, 83 weeks.com, wherever you get your podcast and strictly business gets uploaded every single week.

We got a plan here, just like our pals at Empira. you're going to be hearing about in just a little bit. We're not going to talk really about the CM Punk stuff on this week's episode. I feel like we've talked about that enough to death. But, yeah, yeah, I mean, the announcement was made collision going to Chicago. So all things, not looking too promising there for you, Eric Bischoff. Do you like the promotional strategy, though, of not necessarily announcing someone and kind of leaving that speculation to sell the tickets?

Well, I don't think there's any speculation. I think it's been, it's pretty clear to the AEW faithful that punk is going to arrive. And unless there's, you know, something happens between now and then. I don't think there's any anticipation about it. But, yeah, it's kind of hard to promote something if you're not sure it's ever going to happen, which has been the case until recently. So I don't think it's going to hurt anything. You know, I think oftentimes curiosity could be a very,

anticipation, speculation, whatever you want to call it, can be a pretty valuable tool. So I don't think this confusion or the circumstances are going to hurt anything. And it may help a little bit. They did that when he debuted, where they sold out the United Center without even promising him. I thought we were going to talk about this dipship. Well, no, we're not talking about punk. We're not talking about punk. I'm turning this into a conversation about promotional strategy.

I promise you that. to it. Okay. Well, the idea of not fully plugging your big attractions and leaning into speculation but not actually airing a vignette or not putting it in the fine writing that, hey, this person is going to be there. Is that a strategy that you ever found yourself diving into or were you of the traditional mindset advertise everyone that's going to be there? No, I was the opposite. Very much. Nitro success. was built in large part, not exclusively, but was built on the idea that you create this feeling within the audience that you have to tune in to see what's going to happen. Now you have to deliver on that, and I'm sure that AEW will in this regard. But if you consistently condition

your audience that you're tuning in to be a part of the show, you're not tuning in to see a match or a series of matches, you're tuning in because this is a fucking great show and you won't want to miss it because things happen that are going to be unexpected or that are going to be shocking. That's how you should promote wrestling. I was firmly against the traditional strategy of, you know, Jim Ross was great at this. I didn't agree with the strategy, but Jim was great at it is when he would do play by play, he's plugging all kinds of things that are going to be happening next week, matches and so forth. I never, I, I, I didn't subscribe to that strategy. I felt the opposite. I want people to tune into Nitro because Nitro is hot, not because

there was a specific match that was hot. It does feel a little passe in old school to kind of throw everything out there. And I don't like that as an excuse when people say, well, you're, you're not promoting so and so. And that's why the tickets aren't selling. I feel like we're in an era, Eric, where the event and the brand is what sells. People buy tickets to a WWE event because they're buying the experience. They're not just buying to see Cody Rhodes or the New Day or Becky Lynch. It's that brand experience. Do you agree with that at all and how that mentality may have shifted over the years? No, it's what I just said.

I wanted Nitro, the brand to be why. I used to tell everybody in WCW, production, marketing, talent, you know, I want Nitro to be the party everybody wants to come to. You don't have to know what kind of food they're serving at the party. They're just going to come to the party. And that's exactly what WWE has done. WWE, I think very meticulously over the last 10 or 15 years has made the WWE bigger than any of their talents on the show. It's the WWE. As you point, you did a really great job.

It's the experience, being a part of that experience. And I think that's, look at AEW. Look at the success they had over in the UK. I think there's a lot of matches being promoted. There's a chance to be a part of the party, and it worked. And I think people should think about that and kind of break it down a little bit and figure out ways to continue to build upon that strategy as opposed to coming up next week, luchosaurus against Jungle Boy, whatever.

Who cares? But if the audience knows, or anybody in WWE, same as true. there by the way i'm not picking on anybody here but when you've convinced the audience because you've done a great job of creating that experience and that the subconscious need to be a part of it because you don't want to read about it you want to experience it live and that's the magic that's what should drive television it should be episodic in nature yes but you should want to tune in to see what, if anything is going to happen based on what happened this week. That's called episodic television. That's the way it should be promoted. What do you think of Las Vegas as a city

for running pro wrestling? And, you know, it's in the past, it's been a mecca for boxing. And over the years, it's become a hotspot for MMA. And wrestling, like last year, they ran double or nothing at T-Mobile. I remember the crowd being a little tepid at times. But historically, it's a big event area, and we see pro sports teams now investing more time than ever. Any context you can give us to running Las Vegas from your experience there? Just one of the reasons I put what I felt was our most important pay-per-view of the year in Las Vegas. It's a great market.

We'd sell out the MGM grand in minutes. Not only is there a strong local permanent fan base in and around Las Vegas, more so now than probably ever. because the population has increased so much. So many people are moving there to live there full time. But then you've also got, you know, a new population of people looking for things to do that come in usually every Thursday afternoon and look for something to do all weekend. You know, on one hand, it's a little, Vegas is tough because there's so much to do.

Right. Whatever it is you're into, you know, if you want to go see Cirque to Saleh or whatever, there is so much going on in Las Vegas that you are competing for attention, clearly. but you've got such a big population of transient fans coming in and out of Vegas, and you've got a very solid base of, you know, home fans, resident fans in Las Vegas. I think it's an ideal market. You do run the risk of people deciding, I'm just going to go check out this wrestling thing that may not be, you know, weekly viewers, and they're not going to be as emotionally invested

in what's going on. but they're still there. And if you put on a good show, you'll suck them in. You'll get them, you'll get them, you'll get them screaming and yelling eventually. But I think Las Vegas is great. You know, when Brian Bedal and I and Steve Greenberg were going to relaunch WCW, there was a reason why we wanted Las Vegas to be our home base for Nitro.

We were going to produce Nitro there every single week for the very same reasons that we're talking about here. Yeah. And I think any time that you run a destination, city to like Las Vegas, you open yourself up to attracting some of those people that you were alluding to that maybe they're not the traditional pro wrestling fan, but they'll help you fill some seats. And right now, as things are standing as of this moment in time, the pay-per-view is not tracking to outsell last years, but still should be a pretty good house there. I found, and this is just something I want to bring up, because I can't believe that we exist.

in this society right now, especially in the social media climate, where there's just so much tribalism, Eric, like fan tribalism of, if you like WWE, you can't like AW, if you like AW, can't like WW, you can't like WWE. And if you hate WWE,

well, then you just have to talk about hating WWE. I can't stand that stuff. And I was on social media today, and I saw someone tweeted this. And there were flyers put up at a restaurant. This is at a restaurant in Las Vegas claiming that they were giving away free tickets to double or nothing with the purchase of a regularly priced hamburger and fries. And I said to myself, there is no way that this is an actual real promotion being run by AEW. So I did like that.

Well, so I checked up. I made some phone calls. And it was adamantly denied to me. that this was an AW-affiliated promotion, if it's real at all. Then we made some messages shot to the restaurant where this allegedly took place, Pub 365 there, and they denied that this was real as well. Well, good for you. I'm glad to hear that.

I'm glad somebody dug into it and found out what was true or not true. Debunking, Eric. Huh? It's debunking, misinformation. Debunking. Very good debunking. bunkage on your part so well i want to bring this up though because it just blew my mind that someone went out of their way to write up a fake flyer go to a restaurant and put it up

on the different postings at the restaurant throw it to social media and be like ha ha a w in the mud not able to sell enough tickets look at this it blows my mind and i just think that that has become one of the most unhealthy elements of the wrestling business is that tribalistic mentality among fans i was just curious if you had any you think this is new john i don't think it's new but i think with social media that has become much more vocal and as a result it becomes amplified more how did you combat that or deal with that from your experience well the same was very true. There was just, there was no less tribalism between WCW fans and WWE fans. In fact, you could argue because WCW started out as for the most part

its strength was in the southeastern part of the United States, even though it was national cable television and TBS and all that. For the most part, the densest portion of the audience a population of the audience was in the southeast and when nitro came along in prime time and we started going head to head for a large part of the audience it was like what's a wcw what the hell and because of the nature of the things that i was doing giving away their finishes and all that the other crazy stuff i did there was because wwe had such a loyal fan base to this day on a regular basis when I do an autograph signing or go to a convention or whatever. And I'm talking to fans and it's like, oh, I hated you. So I hated WCW so much.

I was WWE, you know, all the way through. I couldn't stand you or WCW. And then I kind of fell in love with it. Same thing existed. But to your point, we didn't have social media. And I, you know, I think like when I first saw that, I thought of a couple different. things. It seemed unlikely to me that that was an AEW initiative just because it looks cheap and cheesy. And Tony's got money. He knows how to promote stuff. But I thought, well, maybe if it wasn't AEW directly, perhaps, and this could still be the case. There's a chance it could be true. But if WWE, or excuse me, of AEW, for example, hired a street team. Or if there working with a third-party promoter.

That could have been them. Of course, if the restaurant didn't know anything about it, then it's definitely not true. But, you know, there could be a third-party doing things like this. I guess that's a possibility. But I think it's even a bigger possibility and probably 99% accurate based on the debunkage that you were able to provide us. that it was probably a subjackass kid that decided he wanted to get some traction for his he wanted to get some likes and wanted to get some attention for his social media post

and that seems to be what drives people more than anything is getting attention we have an entire country that's starving for attention and a stunt like this is a cheap easy way to get it that's probably what it was I guess I just don't understand why you would hate watch something or pay attention to something. If you have so much disdain for AEW or you have so much disdain for WW, why waste that energy talking about it? Because you need attention. You want people to pay attention to you. You have a deep seeded need almost clinical to feel important because otherwise in the course of your normal life,

You're just a dweeb and you really don't have anything going on in your life. You live in a town of Las Vegas and you're just a little nudge. It doesn't have anything going on in life, but you can get a reaction from people by hating publicly. And I would venture to say that whoever did this doesn't have a disdain for AEW or when you see something similar. you know, done to WWE. They're just people that are crying and desperate for attention. Yeah, I don't know, man.

I feel like, look, weak people do stupid shit. It's true. Right. And this is obviously a socially awkward. Like I said, dweeb that otherwise doesn't really get any attention. And by doing something cheesy as this, they get it. I guess I just struggle to wrap my head around

why someone would invest that much energy into something. You're thinking too much about it. I guess I am. Don't overthink it, brother. For the record, for the record, to provide context on what you said earlier, back when young John boy was a little kid

and he was a diehard WWF fan. He wasn't watching WCW, but one day I was at a friend's house and he had like a WCW it was some sort of like bed frame or something attached to his bedroom furniture and i said you like the wrong federation so i remember that so just guilty of it as well i was so guilty of it young me that tribal is why then why is it so perplexing to you if you've experienced it yourself well because i was six years old so i thought that maybe maybe some people had grown

up this jagoff that the post of this is probably mentally and emotionally not much of him. It's a fair point. He could use someone holding him accountable. So maybe he should sign up for our friends over at Empira, Eric Bischoff, because Impira is one of the best tools for holding yourself and any of your employees accountable when you're launching your business plan, making it faster and with less effort than ever before. Head on over to impura.com, E-M-P-I-A-A-A-com forward slash Eric and use that code. Russell-B-B-I-Z to get 14 days free. and 20% off your subscription with Impera.

That's just by going to Empira.com forward slash Eric and using code wrestlebiz. Eric and I have been signed up with Impera for a couple months now and the process of getting signed up was just so freaking easy with some of the best support that I've ever experienced on the customer support. And what say you, Eric Bischoff? I think Empira is possibly one of the most valuable and important tools.

that is available to entrepreneurs or small, mid-size, even large businesses today. It's a way you can track your progress. You can stay on top of all of the important parts of your business pillars, as they refer to it in Pira. You can not only keep track of it, you can manage it, you can adjust. Oftentimes you have to adjust. Cost of goods changes, marketing, promotion, volume of traffic, All of the thing, labor costs, all of the things that determine whether a business succeeds or fails, all have variables that you need to pay attention to every single day.

And Impair is a great tool that allows you to do that. It's affordable, less than two cups of coffee, you know, a month to be able to help manage your business and communicate a lot of the things that it's important to different parts of your business, no matter how big or small you are. It's a great tool. I can't recommend it highly enough. And Empira has gone global. They have opened up offices right here in the United States. And I think that has been one of the most valuable tools for me. If I want to get in contact with someone, if I need support, hey, something on my dashboard, I don't understand it. Hey, can you explain to me how to do this? Empira is there with round the clock support. It's very personal, too. They'll hop on the phone with you. They'll hop on chat with you. I think any organization that personalizes that experience makes me feel like I am part of that experience with them. and it makes me feel good about signing up for it. So again, that's impura.com, E-M-P-I-R-A-A-A-D-com forward-slash Eric,

and use that code wrestlebiz, W-R-E-S-T-L-E-E-E-E-A-S-E to get 14 days free and 20% off your overall subscription. We really appreciate Empira, teaming up with us here at Strictly Business, and we hope that you'll choose to team up with our friends over at Empira as well. Hey, guys, it's the hardcore legend Mick Foley here, and I need to call a quick timeout, a brief timeout, because I wanted to tell your listeners what I have been telling fully as pod listeners for a while now

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So I wear the 5X. Yeah, and I've got, if anyone's been watching most wanted treasures, you'll see that I'm literally getting by the entire season with three long-sleeved flannel shirts, a cutoff flannel shirt, and about five different t-shirts. And that's pretty much it, brother. That's just a small taste, a sampling, if you will, of what we have waiting for you, with four levels to choose from four. See for yourself why Add Three Shows is the best value in wrestling today.

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protecting your savings okay eric bischoff you took a lot of pride in being the guy to call it that wwe was going to be purchased by endeavor there's a big bold prediction from you and i would like to get some bold predictions from you and now because we have a little bit of move on the news as far as WWE's TV rights are concerned they are in the negotiating window with various different potential suitors here. Nick Kahn did a couple interviews

this past week including as he was a guest at the JPMorgan Global Technology Media and Communications Conference and I wanted to tee you up on a couple of those things and we'll try to draw out the long-term plan here. There was one thing that he said that was very fascinating. And he said that WWE was open to moving Smackdown to a three-hour show or maneuver it on any other night of the week as well if a partner came along that

was asking for that. He mentioned that Fox no longer had the exclusive negotiation right window open for Smackdown. So Smackdown is currently on the open market in that regard, whereas Raw is still in the negotiation window with NBC Universal. I'd like to throw you the bone on that one, Eric. Let's talk about potential expansion of Smackdown first. Other properties that could be interested in it. What's your general take on that as someone who was there at the very start of this Fox partnership? Part of me is a little surprised because that Fox relationship was like the crowning

Jewel for WWE, you know, to get on a broadcast network in primetime was always a goal. And one that I think a lot of people believed would never really, you know, you could do specials, that's not new, but, you know, a weekly primetime broadcast, especially on Fox, one of the better outlets out there, networks out there. So I'm a little bit surprised, but, you know, you're talking about one of the most savvy, experienced, and sophisticated negotiators out there in Nick Con. This is a guy that has negotiated so many massive deals that this is the art of the negotiation, I believe.

They didn't see a number, I'm guessing. I don't know. I'm not there. And I didn't see anything that Nick had to say, but one can only assume that they just didn't get a number or deal that made WWE go, there's no reason to keep knocking on doors. Or in this case, probably allowing other people to knock on their door. Now, in terms of where it could go and what night it could go on, I mean, only God knows that one.

I mean, there's massive opportunities out there. There's some major streamers, other networks. Who knows? I would say that any other night of the week that Friday night might be an interesting opportunity because Friday nights, for all the reasons I've talked about, Saturday nights, is typically not the best night of the week to have a show that primarily targets 18 to 49-year-olds. So arguably, there may be a better day part with another distributor. whether it be streaming network or otherwise.

But who knows, man, it's just, it's too hard to say because strategy plays into it so much. It's really about which outlet, whether it's Amazon or Fox or NBC or Viacom. Blackcom's been interested in WWE. I'm not going to say any more than that. And by the way, so you mean paramount by that? Paramount. Paramount. By the way, so was Warner Discovery in WWE.

So anything can happen. Anything can happen. And it all depends on what's the strategy for those outlets. Let's just, I'll pick Paramount. Paramount's done a great job, by the way, of turning their programming and their content into business units. You look at Yellowstone that spun off 1880, you know what has there been three spinoffs yeah beyond the obvious spinoffs in the business that's been created look at the licensing and merchandising that's been created by the success of yellowstone

it's a licensing and merchandising machine name another television show out there that has the extent of licensing and merchandising that for example yellowstone has i i can't think of one. Maybe there is, but if there is, I don't know it. Look at the product placement. We all know the commercials that we see when we watch a show like Yellowstone, but pay close attention to the show and look at the product placement and product integration that goes along with it. That's a massive business model. So I can see a studio like Paramount looking at WWE and going, hmm, yeah, we'd like to play with them. It just depends.

And there's so many, there's way too much none of us know to do an adequate job predicting anything. I liked what Khan mentioned about the flexibility of WWE programming, where the reality is they could put any of their shows. on any night of the week without really disrupting any of their typical business flow. You could move SmackDown, as it has been moved. Smackdown has been on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. It is maneuverable, that sense.

I don't see them moving Monday Night Raw as the institution that it is, but they have that flexibility should they want to. He also mentioned, in addition to the potential expansion of programming in Smackdown going to three hours, that they have done a lot of looking into that third hour of Monday Night Raw and perhaps targeting it more towards an 18 to 49 demographic, specifically that 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock hour. What do you think of that strategy?

I feel like that's something that WWE has attempted to do in the past and has kind of gotten cold feet on that. And what do you think could be done in order to attract a more mature audience in that hour time slot. Well, we know it needs to be done, right? It just needs to be a little more salacious. It's not a secret. Sex sells.

Always has, always will. It worked for Monday Night Raw. One of the things that Vince had to do to compete with Nitro is to embrace the, the controversial elements of sexuality and in the storylines and character. and all of that, you know, that's, that's what's going to work. It's not, you're not going to get there with just blood and violence. That's not going to get you to the dance. But if you can embrace a more mature presentation, that's being very kind and elegant,

but if you can embrace in that third hour, you get a little more salacious than you're able to get in the first and second hour, that'll work in one respect. But you still, here's why I think it goes back and forth and it, it becomes complicated is because there are some advertisers and maybe maybe the reason there just occurred to me maybe the reason that wwe is more willing to explore that idea is because i think advertisers in general have become less rigid in terms of what they feel comfortable in as the audience becomes more and more fragmented as it becomes harder and harder to reach your target audience you become less rigid in what you feel comfortable advertising in. Previously, I think because of

the nature of the product, for example, you've never seen a beer sponsor in professional wrestling. Despite the fact that there should be, you've never seen a beer advertiser in professional wrestling, at least not on a national level. Maybe I'm a local TV, but not on a national level. And the reason for that is historically, and even to this day, there is a significant significant enough of a portion of people under the age of 21 or teens and preteens that still make up a big part of the overall composition of the WWE audience that someone in that category, alcohol, for example, beer and alcohol, just to who know if you're, we're not going into wrestling. I think now because it's so much harder to reach your demo, you're not as nervous about

that as you used to be. So I think the parameters have changed, possibly. We don't know that for sure, but I think it makes sense. That could be it. But you also run the risk of, yeah, you're going to get a bigger audience, because you will. If it's done well, you will. That third hour could be the hottest hour of the three, possibly. But does it have a negative impact on some of your core advertisers who don't feel comfortable being associated with a brand that is willing to kind of expand and drop the guardrails as it relates to some of the more provocative elements that we've seen in the past? Don't know. But that's probably the reason why there's been a back and forth because yeah let's tip on our water let's get a little more provocative let's

lean into the sexuality of it all let's let's be more adultish right you see it in other forms of programming you know sex scenes today in dramatic television are things that you would have never seen 15 years ago right advertisers have become comfortable with that it's happened slowly over time and the same could be true now in wrestling or you could have a substantial number of advertisers that got no if you're going in that direction i'm i'm out which is i think one of the reasons why we went from the attitude era and all the gratuitous provocative provocative stuff that we saw that got monday night raw back in the game frankly uh and then they backed off of it when they were able to because by doing by backing off of it you're able to attract a larger pool of advertisers

so it's it's always going to be a delicate balancing act i also think with how premium content the HBO's, stars, etc., high-end streaming services, how they have embraced some of that more edgy programming as stuff that they will put on their air as premium content. I'm curious if that is something that has changed how adopting that would be looked at in pro wrestling, hypothetically, if it went in that. Would it still be looked at as lowbrow?

Or would it be looked at instead as following industry trends, with the top-tier heavy hitters of them embracing content like that? It's subjective. I don't think there's a blanket answer to that. Again, I think the risk with wrestling is because wrestling has for so long marketed so heavily to children, teens, pre-teens, that you run the risk of backlash. You know, dramatic series, dramatic television is not targeted towards kids.

Wrestling still is. You know, make a wish. Look at all of the outside of the ring initiatives that we see coming from WWE and to an extent with AEW. It's kind of hard to do that and distribute the kind of provocative content that we're talking about here

at the same time. It's a weird balancing act. It's very, very difficult. Khan also referenced that once this TV rights situation is figured out that they could be adding more shows, additional shows that they would look at specific nights of the week for that and the reference as well that some of that new content could be more adult-themed to satisfy the audience that is looking for it.

You also mention that the goal is for every premium live event to have a state subsidy fee like Cardiff Wales with Clash at the Castle or Backlash in Puerto Rico. I don't know about you, Eric, but I very much see in the next year, WWE holding even more international events as premium live events. I wouldn't be surprised if half of the premium live event schedule is built on oversee events. or destination events where you have that subsidy fee, something along that nature, that seems to be some big brain thinking

from the likes of Nick Con and that upper entity there. What do you make of that? I mean, I agree with you. It's big thinking. It's a big strategic shift. I like the idea going back just a little bit what you said or what you refer to in some of Nick Conn's comments. that he'd be willing to create new content specifically for that audience that wants something

a little edgier and a little less safe, not quite so family-friendly. I think that's a better strategy, honestly, than adding a third hour. Because when you're doing it, you start out and you're family-friendly, right? You're okay. It's still got a little bit of an edge. It is what it is. It's people beating hell out of each other in a fun, exciting, and colorful way. But it is what it is.

But once you step into that salacious zone, the provocative zone, on the same broadcast, that's where I think you could run into a conflict with in-show advertisers. Whereas if you've got another night and that entirely its show has its own list of potential advertisers and you're not catering to the same advertising audience, the same advertising community, you don't run that same risk of offending your core advertisers by having a night exclusively for that type of content because then your advertisers who are not comfortable with that,

they don't have to advertise in that show, where the advertisers who are okay with that have something just for them. I think that's a really smart strategy and less risky in some respects than creating a third hour where you're pretty family-friendly for the first two. Then we're going to do tits and aunts in a third hour. Eh, that's challenging. It's nice.

An additional hour or two, that's nothing but a more adult-themed content. Absolutely. It's a smart move. And plus, where that is distributed plays into it, too. He mentioned to Amazon specifically as a particular. potential partner because they have night oriented programming and I could totally see maybe a streaming service being more willing to hop into bed on more edgy content. I mean, look at the bottom line is Eric, the end of the day, you know, those thirsty 18 to 49 year olds, they got to eat,

right? Like, that's the bottom line. They got to eat. And we want to help you eat here on strictly business with our friends over at Factor. I am all about Factor, especially as we get into the summer months here. Factor is America's number one ready to eat meal kit that can help fuel you up fast with flavorful and nutritious ready to eat meals delivered straight to your door. I know Eric in the summer. I like driving around. I love road trips in the summer. I like going state to state. I love doing beach trips. And when you're doing that, you just don't really have the time to cook all that much. Thankfully, with Factor, I can customize my meal plan, get them delivered to me. They're never frozen i pop them in the microwave for two minutes and they are ready to go and they are

absolutely delicious how can factor help you out as we approach the summer season here eric well put me on camera stand by here is the package look at that my factor came in last week What is today is? Today's Friday? I got home Tuesday evening. Mrs. B and I and a friend, Amanda, the young lady who I walked down the aisle, if you remember, she's been become kind of a family friend. And in talking to Amanda, I'm going to tell you a little story here about Factor, all right? True story. I spoke to Amanda a couple weeks ago. just casual conversation and she's got a 12 year old son and she was telling me about her her boyfriend her son and what they were doing and i said hey because when kids come out to Wyoming you get a 12 year old kid coming out to Wyoming it can have a really big and positive impression on them especially for kids that have never been out west before it's kind of cool right between taking them up into yellowstone and seeing elk and buffalo in the wild and experiencing the rodeo

and just the Western culture can sometimes riding horses and all that kind of stuff can have a real positive impact on a kid that has never experienced that. And I like when I have friends or family that have young kids, I like them to come out here and bring their kids. And I like to expose kids to that because it had a big impression on me when I was younger. So I'm just, you know, casual conversation. Hey, you know, man, if you ever, you don't want to bring a kid up here and hang out and your boyfriend up here, whatever, come on. You know, it's a great place for kid for the summer well as it turned out her son couldn't leave and her boyfriend was working so amanda came up to kind of hang out and she wanted to spend time with laurie because lori's kind

kind of coached her through some stuff and anyway long story short so amanda comes up and or on the phone before she got here she says eric i got to tell you that you know as you may recall both her parents are deceased which is why i ended up walking her down the aisle in the first place how we got to know each other and she had their ashes and she said eric my My parents' ashes, excuse me, my parents' wish was to someday have their ashes spread in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Well, she didn't know where in the Black Hills, just the Black Hills. Well, the Black Hills is kind of a big area.

So I said, absolutely, while you're here, he says it's a seven-hour drive. I said, while you're here, we'll head out to Deadwood, South Dakota, because Deadwood's a really cool town, a lot of history. And I know some really great places in and around Deadwood because I've spent a lot of time on my Harley driving around there, Spearfish Canyon. and all that. So I know some beautiful places. So we'll go. We went and we spent about four or five days in three or four days in Deadwood, South Dakota, spreading her parents' ashes and just hanging out and visiting some of the cool things around Deadwood. Drop Amanda off at the airport

Tuesday afternoon. Now, we'd been gone for four or five days, hadn't been shopping, didn't have anything prepared. We pull up into the driveway and there's a box of factor sitting right at the doorstep. It had just been delivered. And we had nothing to eat. I didn't feel like going out and eating out again because I was just tired of eating out. So we opened the box of factor. And lo and behold, the first thing I grabbed was a turkey and chili. You can't see it here because the lighting. Turkey and chili zucchini. zucchini. And it's chili. Turkey chili with zucchini with enchilime it is a keto friendly

keto friendly package because when I ordered Factor I had the option of the kind of dietary food that I was looking for and I've been on a keto diet now for a long time so I chose the keto option and lo and behold that's what I got I'm going to be honest

I was I don't want to say skeptical or cynical or cynical, but I have tried other products like this in the past and have been less than impressed. Now, I am a food snob. I will admit that. So is my wife. We love to cook. We love to eat. And we love really, really good food. But I was freaking starving and I didn't feel like going out. And I wasn't going to eat pickles for dinner. So I reached in and say, If Mrs. B, I don't call her Mrs. B, I call it, but I said, hey, Lord, do you mind? Let's give this a shot.

Perfect time. Again, low expectations, not low, but manage them. She made it and it was done in like 12 minutes or whatever it was. And I cautiously, ever so cautiously, approached this dish. I put it on my plate. And the first thing I noticed was it smelled great. Now, part of that might have been because I was really freaking hungry.

But still, somewhat hesitant. And I grabbed my fork. And I took a small portion of it because I wasn't fully committed because I was not expecting to be impressed. And I took that first bite and I went, whoa. yeah this is kind of awesome so much flavor and not only am i a food snob in general but when it comes

to chili you've got to work really hard to get my attention because i am a god when it comes to making chili i make a smoked chicken chili that will blow your brains out i make a white bean chicken chili that people leave my home with tears in their rise over it's so good so when it comes to chili you really got to work to get me on board and i took that first bite and i couldn't stop i snarf that stuff down i didn't even look at the zucchini zucchini was sitting on another side of the other side of my plate i didn't even look at it because i was way too focused on my turkey chili from factor and it was awesome and i thought oh my god I ate that so fast.

I'm still a little bit hungry. Ooh, I still got that zucchini. Now, typically, I'm not a big zucchini fan. I don't hate it. I don't think about it. I thought, well, I should try there's zucchini. I love zucchini now. There you go.

It's really good food. It's healthy. You can get customized food like I did. If you were on a keto diet, it's awesome. It's fast. It's convenient. it's when you really kind of put a calculator to it it really makes sense financially and it's right there and it gets delivered to your home and if you're too busy because you're working you're

traveling like we were you whatever it is especially in the summer because everybody's busy in the summer right i can't recommend it highly though i was not b s in you when i said that i thought these meals were delicious when we talked about them last week i really do believe that you're And I hadn't, to be honest with that, I didn't comment because I hadn't tried it yet. But man, you were, you were so right. Dude, they are so freaking good. I had one of the smoothies before we went on air here because the smoothies are great. There's no sugar in them.

They're fantastic. And now for this summer, you're ready for this, Eric? I know you like to elevate your eating experience. Well, you can elevate your eating experience at home with Factor with their new upscale surf and turf, surf and surf meal options. like roasted garlic, filet mignon, and shrimp, and Cajun Spiced Shrimp and Salmon. I know you're all about that. You bet your ass. I'm all about that.

And we want to help you here at Strictly Business. Head to FactorMeals.com slash wrestle biz-50. That's W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z-5-O. And use code Russell-B-B-B-Z-50 to get 50% off your first box. That's code Russell-Biz-B-Fety at FactorMeals.com slash wrestle biz 50 to get 50% off your first box. And I mean it when I say,

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Last thing I wanted to tee up on the WWE thing and then we'll wrap here on Strictly Business, Eric, is the idea that Amazon, was floated out there and so many people say oh well you know streaming is the future streaming is the future is this make that make a prediction from a year is this the cycle where we see streaming services pick up a pro wrestling television program like raw or smackdown full time or are we still one or two away from that i don't know i i wish i did you know i'm not in the business on a day to day basis so it's so hard for me to with any degree of credibility or honesty, make a prediction like that

because there's just too much we don't know. I don't know. Here's why I think it's possible. Again, look at WWE, look at their pattern. And I often rely on patterns when I make projections or predictions or predictions or even when I form opinions. It's not based on any singular thing.

it's generally based on patterns of behavior and if you look at the pattern of wwee's behavior one of the biggest moves that they made was stepping away from traditional paper views and to help answer mcm's question here hey mick how are you yes i did hear about that firefight i heard about a fire that happened in cindy not far from the opera i think it's called the opera house whatever it is it was a big fire and and subsequently mick mack came up with a joke about fires and it was pretty funny. Hey, did you hear about the fire in the shoe factory? 10,000 souls were lost and the police said some heels started it.

That's actually pretty good. I don't know if it was the same fire that I heard about this morning that happened in Sydney yesterday, but whatever. But look at the pattern of WWE. One of the biggest strategic changes that they made in recent years was stepping away from traditional pay-per-view, direct TV, and all those, and going to OTT and premium live events, where if you subscribe to the streaming platform, then you get those what used to be called pay-per-views because you only, you were one and done.

You bought that pay-per-view, you got the repeat, and you're done. Whereas with the streaming platform and those, what were pay-per-views, are included in the package, you're no longer paying for a singular event. you're buying the platform and getting it as a premium experience. I hope that answered your question, Mike. But one of those, that was one of the biggest, like, strategic moves that occurred in the wrestling business in a long, long, long time. And it paid off enormously, right?

This is kind of the same situation. It's going to take a set of stones to say, we're willing to walk away from traditional cable because it provides such a broad reach because it's so universally available and we're willing to walk away from what has worked for us for so long built the entire business around it and we're willing to embrace another platform another type of platform that's subscription only because in the future we think that's the move just like Vince McMahon and company did when they left traditional pay-per-view and came up with their own OTT, over-the-top platform.

So the pattern that we've all seen, but I probably watch a little more closely than traditional average wrestling fans, the pattern that I see in the way WWE conducts their business or engages their strategy would not surprise me. It would be a big, bald, ballsy move. Can you think of any other description that fits WWE more aptly

than big, bold, and ballsy? So it could happen. Yeah, and I think Nick Conn is kind of cut from that same cloth that Vince is in that regard, in very forward-thinkingness and trying to be ahead of the curve with something like that. I really think, Eric, the big domino is going to be what happens.

happens with Warner Brothers Discovery and this NBA television rights and then what the NBA chooses to do on the back end of that. I think that is going to be a gigantic, gigantic maneuver within the sports media industry. I don't disagree with you. I'm just curious. I think the NBA is the single most valuable television property out there aside from the NFL. and the NFL's not going anywhere. The NFL's locked down with what they're doing for years to come. And the NBA is the closest thing that we'll see to that. Inside the NBA on Turner is the highest rated sports television studio show out there,

aside from SportsCenter. And in fact, it probably beats SportsCenter in its time slot just about every time they go head-to-head out adventure to guess. Those NBA rights are so valuable. And the NBA has been so embedded in sports culture, especially at reaching 18 to 49. The NBA probably does as well as anyone in 18 to 49. So choosing how to tackle that, Warner Brothers Discovery,

I mean, David Zazlov, even this past week, was asked about that and said that we want to retain them, but if we retain them, it's going to look really different, how we do that. And I think that that will create a domino effect on how, and I know wrestling's not a sport, but those sports-centric or sports-oriented properties, how those go about filling the space.

I really think that will be the first domino and people will either follow that trend or try to adapt to what that trend is. They'll react to it. That makes sense, John, that analysis makes a great deal of sense to be. For someone that doesn't follow NBA, clearly, the business side of NBA for sure

and is kind of outside of the loop of day-to-day television rights dynamics, that explanation makes a great deal of sense. And how they react to it, I'm not sure. But if the NBA were to take games exclusively to Peacock or, hey, your Thursday night game every week is exclusively on Amazon, that's something we're already seeing in sports leagues. And maybe WWE has specific live events they produce for specific streaming networks a la carte. Hey, yeah, we have a streaming deal with Peacock for our library, but on Saturday night, May 27th, you can watch Saturday night's main event exclusively on ESPN Plus.

Or you could have your more adult-themed or adult-oriented content on a Thursday night or a Wednesday night. God, wouldn't that be wild? They decided to do something on Amazon on Wednesday nights. Oh, my God. Hey, it could happen. That would be funny. It could. So that's why I think we're still one right cycle away five years from now.

I think that's when we'll see maybe one of these networks hop in and be like, yeah, let's put your programming on us full time. And maybe at that point, society will be adapted at that point. I still don't know if we're there yet as a society where we're ready to fully commit to watching a sports-centric programming exclusively on a streaming platform. I don't know, man, I kind of, I don't know. I don't think it's going to take five years. And now that, you know, we're having this conversation,

I know we're wrapping it up, but it's intriguing to me to think, you know, because you're taking, you know, bits and pieces of information here and create a, you know, dot here, dot here, connect them all. Ooh, there's a picture, lo and behold. But if Nick is, Nikon is open to that adult themed, more salacious, provocative type of content that's going to appeal to an 18 to 49 year old, what better place to put it than on a subscription service, which is no different than HBO and some of the stuff that they used to do.

the strategy is the same. But if they were to create an additional two hours of content on some other night of the week, other than a Monday or a Friday or wherever Smackdown ends up, and placing that adult theme content, that takes the advertising issue out of the equation. Now you don't have to worry about offending your core advertisers for your more family-oriented content. They don't care. Look at Disney. You know, Disney's got, well, Disney's changed a lot over the last few years.

but Disney you know a Disney movie is going to be much different than what's the name of the the other the Disney arm that produces the more adult themed action themed well Pixar is the animated they do a lot of Pixar there is oh I can't think of it off the top of my head but Disney owns a studio that produces content that is more 18 to 49 centric right Disney Studios does produce it but this other studio does i'll think of the name it's going to drive me fucking bat shit crazy if there's anybody listening to this that knows it please tell me now because i'm not going to be able to get this out of my head until i figure it out so it makes sense to me that someone who's interested in embracing that more adult themed adult

oriented content for 20th century no i'll think of it all right i'll post it as follow me on social media because as soon as I'm done here, I'm going to Google it so I can put it up and get it out of my head. Shit like this will stick with me all day. If I don't get an answer to this, I'll be thinking about this at 11 o'clock tonight. Searchlight. No, no, no, don't do that. Just make it harder.

It may even come to me before I get done babbling here. But it does make sense. And that would be really interesting. You know, what are you going to do? If you're going to do that, you're going to pick a night where hopefully you can avoid and it's hard to do between hockey and NBA and everything in baseball. I mean, how do you completely avoid sports competition? It's kind of hard to do.

But that adult-themed Amazon-ish type of platform makes a tremendous amount of sense to me because then you're not going to piss off your core advertisers. Well, and at this point, WWE is a production company. That's what they are. They produce content. And you can license that content out individually should they choose to. They have the rights to do that. And as they look to evolve here with this endeavor acquisition, who knows, man, the possibilities are really endless for them in that sense.

I think it's going to be really interesting to see how they choose to license content out with this cycle coming up here. Anything else you want to add here, Eric, as we do wrap up on Strictly Business? No, I just want to thank everybody for being here. I enjoy doing a show with you. I enjoy engaging in conversation about the business of the wrestling business and not about the, who shit and who's gem bag in the locker room back in 1992 uh yeah no i dig this this is a lot of fun and uh i i love your take on things and uh can't wait to next week absolutely of course if you want to be part of strictly business join us advertise with eric dot com get your product get

your business like impira for example out in front of thousands and thousands of listeners and viewers every single week here i love doing the show with you as well eric make sure you sign up 83 weeks.com is where you can find this podcast and like and subscribe to come on people we need to see this show we're doing okay we're not we're not we're not we're not burning it up the way I hoped we were so we got to get the word out we need you you people listening right now a lot of you that are with us every week here and have free shows live you need to help us get that word out man we're going to deputize each and every one of you get on social

media tell everybody to like and subscribe strictly business because John and I both want to keep doing it. But hey, you know, we're going to buy that peanut butter and jelly, too. Come on now. 83 weeks.com, ad-freeshows.com. That's how you can get involved with Strictly Business. We very much appreciate your support. Little Jimmy Sorensen.

Touchstone pictures. There you go. Yay, Jimmy. I knew somebody would come. I knew if we put this team on it and we'd get an answer before. Had free shows, Jimmy, man. He knows. He knows.

Jimmy knows. I got to run. Happy birthday to you, my friend. Best wishes, brother. Great birthday. We'll see you next week right here on Strictly Business.