83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #38: WWE Record Earnings, The Elite Re-Sign with AEW

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

On this week's "Strictly Business," Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba do a deep dive on the WWE earnings report, debating why the company has found so much success in the past year. Plus, thoughts on The Elite re-signing with AEW! Special thanks to this week's sponsor! Manscaped- Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code WRESTLEBIZ at Manscaped.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

Hey everyone, John Alba here, co-host of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff. And what I love about wrestling podcasts most is that there's so much variety out there. And that's why I want to tell you about the other podcast I host right here on podcast, heat and ad-free shows.com, the extreme life of Matt Hardy. Every single Friday, you can hear the future Hall of Famer, one half of the iconic Hardy Boys tag team, the broken and woken one himself, Mr. Matt Hardy, tell great stories from his three decades in the wrestling industry from a fairly unique perspective. Few people have gone through the

personal and professional adversity in wrestling that Matt has and lived to tell the tale. But as our listeners know, he truly is stronger than death. The extreme life has been praised by fans and even some of the top wrestling talent in the world for its candidness, honesty, and transparency. Yeah, transparency in an industry that rarely allows for that. From the first tag team ladder match to tables, ladders and chairs, broken mad and beyond, the extreme life covers some of the most memorable moments from one of wrestling's greatest minds. So join Matt and I every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts, and at extremehardy.com. Get rid of your credit card debt, get a lower monthly payment and skip your next two house payments at save with conrad.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 withconrad.com. How's it going, everyone? It's time for another edition of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff, presented to you by ad-free shows and the podcast Heat Network. I am John Alba, but I am joined by the man of the hour of the star of Strictly Business. He is.

Mr. Eric Bischoff, Eric, how are we doing today? Hair is looking good, man. it is coming in quick it's coming in fast but i think i'm going to keep it short yeah i was actually considered uh considered for a moment just going flat like kurt angle steve austin bald right um but my wife she was a little luke war money idea so we compromise so i'm going to let it grow out a little longer than this and this little fade and let it go with that man i dig it i dig it i don't know if you would need to go all the way kurt maybe if you did the wrestling head gear that he used to do with the wig on top of it maybe you could pull that off but i'm plenty

cool with the look you trust me only kurt angle can pull that off oh my good what a great because nobody's going to laugh at him well to his face anyway you know what it is man kurt just he had the best personality for it because he could be an ass kicker one moment and then he could strum his guitar with his little head gear on the other moment and that's what made him one of the most versatile performers of all time and we're very grateful to have him here on the ad free shows network and we're very grateful to have our top guys and top gals in attendance for this. We got Eric Green in here. We got Mr. Lopez in here. We got Andrew in here. We got Coach Rosie in here. It is a party with the top guys and top gals, Eric. I love it. I love when we go live. We get to hang out with

their family and friends from ad-free shows and occasionally interact lives. Great opportunity. Got Mike Hoop in here as well. Eric and I are going to cover a bunch of different things. Today was a very busy week in the business of the business here on Strictly Business, especially in WWE land where we had the earnings report call just yesterday as we tape this with some pretty interesting news that came out of it as far as the company is concerned. And as far as the man who runs the company is concerned as well. So let's get right into it, Eric, and let's not waste any more time. WWE reporting a revenue of $410.3 million for the second quarter,

2023, an increase of 25% and a quarterly record for the company. Viewership for Raw and Smackdown increased by 19% and 26% respectively. And in the demo, it was excellent as well. Each premium live event, so WrestleMania Backlish and Night of Champions at global unique viewership records per their press release with year over year increases of 29%, 34%, and 45% respectively before we get into the element of live events, which I'm very excited to get into record revenue across the board here. It really does lend some credence to the argument that this is truly one of the hottest times in wrestling history. Certainly for WWE,

it is. No question about that. These numbers are staggering, you know, particularly when you step back and realize that this is a live entertainment company. that's struggled, but yet still prevailed during COVID. I mean, the effort that went in, I mean from everybody, from writers and producers and obviously talent and anybody and everybody that was on location and traveling during that period of time, to be able to struggle through something like COVID

for any business, but particularly for a live event business, is hell of an accomplishment all by itself. So WWE survives that once in a generation situation. We hope it's only that. And then you go into an economic downturn. Then you go into all of the drama with regard to Ms. McMahon and the publicity and all the things that could have gone absolutely haywire for just about any other company.

Get through all that, enter into a negotiator, with Endeavour to sell the company for $9 billion, which is much higher than many people who are industry experts, thought that it could possibly sell for when the sale was announced. Yet it did. And now, in the midst of all that, to be producing this kind of result is just phenomenal. Mr. Epic, Mr. Chad Epic says, I should probably check my stocks. Yeah, if you got WWE stock, that's probably a good idea to check it after. an earnings call like that, I would say.

No, I got to tell you this. I was at Conrad's down in Hustfield, I don't know, three or four years ago. And it was right during the period of time that the two co-presidents, I can't remember the names right now. George Wilson and Michelle Arias. Yeah, they resigned. And the stock just started tanking, right? At one point, it was down to about 40 bucks a share.

And I told my wife, and I didn't have a lot of disposable cash at the time, it's not like I was sitting on a pile of it. to invest right but i it's like man if it gets down to 35 i don't care what i have to do i'm going to buy me a chunk of it and it got close it may have even bounced off 35 for a minute or two and i i didn't pull the trigger quick enough but that same stock at least the other day i saw it going for 119 a share that's pretty amazing yeah i'll give you a real-time update here the stock is 105 44 right now that's down 0.3% today but still pretty pretty fantastic all things considered well the stock market as a whole is down because of the you know the

united states losing a uh it's triple a credit rating and you know we're down down there now with you know third world countries i guess but uh the whole the entire stock market is down based on that as well still over a hundred dollars a share which if you were to say that about a wrestling company uh just a few years ago that would have been asinine and now wwe has truly fully cultivated itself as this global entertainment juggernaut in a way that we have not seen it before. They are predicting here that come the end of the year, they will have a target record revenue achieved between $395 to $410 million, which, as I said, would be an all-time record for the company. They also reiterated that the transaction between Endeavor and WWE

is expected to close on schedule in the second half of 2023, even though it did not give a specific date in mind. And the one thing that I really wanted to hit on here with you, Eric, and it even ties a little bit into AEW as well, which we'll get into the live events, because this was just staggering to me. Live events revenue, according to the report, increased 51% over the year, over year period.

So turn the clocks back a year to summer 2022 when all the changes are happening with Vince McMahon stepping down, Paul Levec moving into the content creator role. They say it reflected a continued strong demand for domestic and international events. North American live event average attendance was 9,870, an increase of 45% and a quarterly record. That to me, John, is the most, I mean, aside from the financials, the financials are what they are. and they're obviously very exciting if you're a stockholder or an employee of WWE. But the live event turnaround to me is the strongest indicator of all. That's kind of the pulse. You know, you look at the revenue and, yeah, there's a lot of things that go into that revenue, right?

There's a lot of revenue streams that gets you to the end result. But the one revenue stream that I think is the most interesting, maybe not the most important, But the most interesting to me is the live event attendance, because I think that's about as close of a direct connection that you can get on the pulse of the audience. If they're not buying a ticket to come and watch the product live, that obviously suggests that the product on television just isn't really that compelling. They may still watch it because it's a habit. but you probably won't go to an event. That's just been my experience. And once you start turning things around on television,

the first indicator, obviously other than the ratings, that's easy to track within a couple 24, 48 hours in most cases. But the live event attendance to me is like putting your hand right on the juggler to get a pulse. And that tells you exactly what's going on in the minds of your audience. That's the one that I would be doing back flips over if I was in WM. They mentioned that the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, which, as you recall, took place at the O2 in London, was WWE's highest-grossing arena event in company history. Money in the Bank also set new records for viewership, sponsorship revenue, merchandise revenue, and social media activity. So the engagement, Eric, which is also very important, the engagement was there across the board for them turning this pay-per-view, this singular pay-per-view into a multi-day event from Friday Night Smackdown into the pay-per-view across social channels, a resounding success.

And talking about this live event attendance being up and the revenue being up from it, it really is a fascinating, it's a fascinating reflection of where things are right now. because let's turn the clocks back just before the pandemic, okay? Live attendance for pro wrestling, specifically WWB is not great. I was going to say, you know, when I was there for my cup of coffee in 2019, you know, I spent a lot of time with a lot of the different department heads, getting to know them, getting to know their processes, figuring out how we were all going to work together. That was predominantly, you know, my first couple of months in WWE.

so got to spend a lot of time with the folks that were heading up the live event side and they were getting their ass kicked those numbers were horrible there was a lot of you know and it's funny because interesting i should say because when i was there in 2019 the stock for example was around 70 74 dollars and people were pretty damn excited about that i mean there were elements of the company that were still from a revenue perspective still functioning very well and a stock reflected that but the one weakness or the obvious weakness to me at least a period of time was people were just not going to live events and you know I had several conversations both in the office and just away from the office in general and the tone of some of those

conversations these weren't serious strategic conversations let's make that clear I wasn't sitting around an office table with other executives and looking at options and choices and discussions our decisions. This was more like out for a sandwich and a beer and just talking about business in general. But there was a lot of conversation about maybe the live event portion of the wrestling business is no longer viable. Perhaps because of viewing habits, perhaps because there's so much wrestling on television, or perhaps it's just because it's getting expensive to go to live events. Parking is getting expensive, you know, when you, when you go to an event. And if you've got kids or you're on a budget, kids start taking a nick out of you. And I think

a lot of our discussions where maybe it's just part of the evolution of this industry where the live event component, which used to be the cash cow back in the day, is no longer viable in the way that it was built. Meaning maybe you, and these were some serious discussions. Perhaps instead of 300 shows a year and a lot of them in smaller markets and not doing well in those small markets

because of the economies of scale, perhaps it's better to do less house shows, but do them in bigger venues and make them more special as an event. That was discussed. And here, four and a half, four years later, we're looking at record revenues and live events. So it just goes to show you how quickly things can turn around when you start doing things right. WWE doing things right is putting on a compelling television problem.

And there's a few elements to it that I'd love to dive into with you there. But I want to piggyback off what you said. I remember being in the weeds because I was all over the reporting for the thought. Thunderdome because I was down there in Orlando when they started using the Thunderdome and then eventually in Tampa. And I remember speaking to people in the company who at the time were saying to me, Eric, this is the future of WWE production. It will be centralized where they can control the environment. They'll still do select live events, maybe pay-per-views for crowds, but WWE having its own production facility where they control the environment and do all the events, that's where

this is all headed. And now, here we are just a few years later, seeing these record revenues being produced by these live events, it just doesn't even seem like were anything close to something like that. And there still is merit. And it's amazing, isn't it, because had the industry not changed to where the majority of the income is coming in from licensing and TV rights agreements, and if it was still based on the gates and the house money that would come in from that, what would have happened in the pandemic, Eric?

There were no live events to be had. the industry could have collapsed on itself. But the way that money is made in the industry changed, where now house shows and live events are almost a luxury of sorts. Yeah, you're right. And I, you know, when the news broke, I don't know what it was, several months ago, that AEW was going to start,

I don't want to say increasing their live events because they weren't really doing any live events. For the most part, they were just doing television and paper. obviously I didn't think it was going to be a revenue generator for them you know at best I thought man if they can break even that's going to be a great move even if it costs them a little money to do live events it's a smart move in the long run because a lot of the talent that are on that AEW roster you know many of them are not that experienced they're relatively young and relatively new to the business and haven't had the you know five seven an eight, 10, 12 years that it takes some people to really find their groove and to figure out what works for them. It's a learning curve. You don't come out of a wrestling school or out of an indie scene and jump right into television and pay-per-views and wrestling in front of large crowds. You don't show up there with all the experiences you really need to reach your potential.

So when I heard about the AW live event schedule, I thought, well, if nothing, else it's going to improve talent it's going to create creative opportunities because in the process of doing these live events where you're not you don't have a strict you know hard television time you still have to stick to a format and want to try to hit your times and things like that but there's so much flexibility at a live event where there's no television cameras to experiment you know if there's something you think you may want to try on TV months from now, just start working it into your house show routine and perfecting it, getting a feel for it, making sure the audience is as excited about whatever it is you have in

mind as you are, because sometimes there's a disconnect there. And that's the benefit that you get from experience in working live shows in front of 300 people or 900 people or 3,000 people. So all in all, I'm glad that the live event business is, is proving that it's still viable. I hope people also recognize that it's a reflection of great storytelling on television that creates an urgency and compels people to engage beyond just passing through with their remote. It's a good thing for AEW, and it's a good thing for WW. And great thing for the talent. I think the storytelling and having a story as hot as the bloodline story is no doubt a big part of that. I think Eric, one of the biggest reasons as well in WWE's instance.

I think it's truthfully the emergence of Cody Rhodes as a top-tier baby face. I think that having a baby face who gets receptions to the level of Cody Rhodes, which the company has not had in a really long time, really since John Cena was anchoring things down, I think that is a direct correlation to positive reflection with bringing kids and younger audiences to these live events, bringing more people into the arena because they have someone who they're truly invested in rooting for. Can you attest to anything when it comes to the power of a strong baby face as a draw when it comes to live events from your experience? Let me see if I can think of one. I don't know. Hulk Hogan?

Yeah, that guy did. Okay. The Rock, you know, Steve Austin, you know. And look, it's easy to pick out guys that are icons in a business during their periods of time. But I absolutely agree with you on Cody, by the way. I agree with you, and I'll throw in 10% more. How's that?

But I think the kind of success that we're talking about here in this WWE report reflects not only a super hot baby face in the positive reaction from the audience that manifests in live event sales and ticket sales and merchandise and all the things that go into these quarterly reports. But at the same time, you talk about bringing younger fans to the venue or to the product, while you're bringing in this white-hot, incredibly talented, Cody Rhodes,

you're also doing business with Logan Paul and you're bringing in that massive fan base that are fans of Logan Paul's and he's bringing them along as well. Now, hard to quantify it. Yeah. You know what I mean? We don't, I don't, maybe WWE has some data

and they've done some research that helps support it. But I just think anecdotally, anybody would have to agree that, holy crap, you know, You've got white hot baby face. You've got guys like Logan Paul. You've got an incredibly hot storyline in the bloodline. You've got emerging stars like J. Uso.

You've got L.A. Knight, which the guy is just catching on fire. And this is where if WWE's not careful, they're going to find themselves soon with a trajectory that they have, finding themselves in a position where everything that they touch is going to be. going to turn to gold. Steve Austin, the rock, John Sina for a long period. You know, fans can think what they want to think about John Sina,

but from a business point of view, he printed a money. Business is good, right? And when you, and I experienced it for a brief period of time in WCW in really in 97, 98, early 98, where you almost could do no wrong. and even if you did things that were two, three, four, five years ago,

eh, that might catch on. When you're white hot, that maybe it will, maybe it won't catch on, turns into a slam dunk because the energy's there. And I'll give you an example, Bill Goldberg. Bill Goldberg is a perfect example of what I'm talking about because WCW was so hot when Bill emerged and began his career that it became so much easier to position him

to become a superstar because he was surrounded by so much great talent that was over, that was white-hot, the nitro itself was white-hot, it was the definition of must-see TV, and it just, it was perfect timing. The moon, the stars, everything was aligned. The audience's interest was super hot.

The media was covering it in a way for us, at least, for WCW. It never had before. So it made getting Bill Goldberg to the point we did, getting him over to the point we did, so much easier. So much easier. Bill Goldberg would have come along six years earlier, five years early. If Bill Goldberg would have emerged and had some of his first matches in 1993 or 1994 or even early 1995, I don't think he would have gotten over.

We would have been able to get him over to the extent that we did. And that's where WWE is heading. They're headed to that sweet spot. It doesn't last forever, but they're heading into a sweet spot where a guy like L.A. Knight, who I didn't even, I mean, I knew who he was, but he was off my radar six months ago. And now he's all over my radar.

He's everywhere I'd look. Every time I turn on, you know, I open up my X. Who knows, whatever it's called. I'm going to call it a Zwitter. When I open up my Zwitter and look at my Zwitter timeline, I get used to saying that. It doesn't just roll off the tongue. He's everywhere. And I've watched some of his clips.

You know, I haven't sat down and watched him on a show. I've watched a lot of his clips. I've watched some of his promos. And I get, you know, Kevin Nash, you know, he came out and took a little bit of a, half-ass shot. But I understand why he said it. I saw the same things Kevin did. But, man, he's, he's on a verge of really getting over. It's, it's fun to watch, man. It's, it's what makes me interested in WWE. Isn't necessarily watching the storylines play out like most people. I get off on this kind of stuff. This is going to, reading this report is going to make me to

tune in to WWE more regularly to find out how they're achieving this. I want to see what they're doing, as best you can on television, a lot of it you can't. But I want to see what they're doing creatively, at least, that's generating this kind of success. That makes me interested in their product. Now, I want to pitch this to you, and I'm curious on what your opinion is. I know you have a lot of respect for Vince McMahon, but there's one thing that is undeniable. Vince McMahon leaves his position a year ago and this increase in production

correlates directly to that time period. It started on that. And even though yes, he came back, he still has not been anywhere near his hands-on as he was with the product prior to that. And business is booming bigger than ever. Do you, in your opinion, feel that maybe with the common audience,

They were ready for something fresh, something new, something different from the old regime. Could you see any correlation there, Eric? I understand why people would try to figure out a way to connect those dots because you have a fact and you have a fact. What's the term? Causation is not necessarily correlation. I think that would probably. applies here I understand why people could say that because you're looking at two

obvious facts why not try to connect them or see if there is a connection I go a little deeper than that the bloodline the commitment right to Roman Reigns let's go back this show may go a little lower so bear with me hopefully you'll have the time, John. But do you remember when it was so long ago, I don't, but do you remember when Vince McMahon said, damn it, Roman Raines is our guy and we're going to make the crowd love him? Yeah, 2015. And he was pushing Roman Raines down everybody's throat. And the audience gagged on him. What did Vince McMahon do? Stuck it out. He stuck it out. He stuck with Roman. Raines. He believed in Roman reigns. So while we're looking at the manifest, we're looking at

a storyline playing out right now in front of our eyes, let's not forget that this storyline is the result of a commitment made to Roman Reigns. And arguably the Usos, by the way, who gave WWE more than enough opportunity and justification to fire them more than once, right? Believed in him, stuck with them, helped them get through their shit. All of that is what's led up to this moment or the last six months of it, the last year of it. So while it's easy to go, fact, fact, I don't know, I think they're connected here. This must be true. You've got to look a little deeper than the surface. I think a lot of the success that we're seeing financially had everything to do with people that Vince McMahon put in

positions of control and power, i.e. Nick Kahn and others. There's a lot of really talented people at WWE. Let me tell you really talented people. And you don't assemble that level of quality in your executive team by accident. So yes, you can draw a connection. You can maybe say, maybe the audience is ready for something different. I don't know how different it really is. you know, I think there's a different commitment to certain talents. Yeah. Quality of the storylines are playing out much better because there's less frenetic interference and just, I don't know.

I know I approved this last night at midnight, but now I don't like it anymore. Let's start over. Yeah, but boss, it's 10 minutes to showtime. I don't care. Do it. You know, there's less of that, which I think leads to better storytelling on TV, leads to better execution with talent. But beyond that, I think trying to connect any more than that is probably a stretch for me.

I want to push back, though, on the Roman thing. Because I understand your general sentiment is he rode Roman reigns until the end here and he stuck with him. I get that. But let's not forget that this was five, six years of this character is going to be presented the same exact way, in the same exact position, and you're going to love him. And it didn't work. It didn't work for five to six years. He was rejected.

And it wasn't that people were rejecting Roman Raines as a main inventor. They were rejecting the presentation of the Roman Raines character. And then Roman is supposed to work WrestleMania 2020. He chooses not to because of the COVID concerns. He's off TV for seven months. Well, let's, yeah, COVID concerns and also he's better leukemia. Well, that's what I'm saying the COVID concerns. Yeah.

Interjection. Was it leukemia? I'm sorry. Yeah, he was, he recovered from leukemia and given the uncertainty of COVID at that time. He didn't want to take any chances. Understandable, right? So he goes away for five, six months. When he comes back, finally, he is given the opportunity to be more authentically himself and lean into some of the tropes that he was safeguarded against.

And now, wait a minute, John. So when, when did all that start? in the summer 2020 while Vince was still there yes but what I understand what I'm the point I'm making here is that this old age thinking per se

he's going to be this guy he's going to be this guy this could have been alleviated so much sooner Eric it could have been alleviated years earlier than it ultimately ended up being so that old mentality of thinking of this is how we have to present this guy this how we have to present this guy

But I think it correlates to what happened last year where people were excited by the notion, not necessarily Vince McMahon stepping away, but the notion that we might get something a little different with WWEs. See, here's where I, this is where you lost me. Okay. That's assuming that what was the increase in ratings, 29%, 19%, 15%, for one of the two shows, whatever it is. Yep. That those are Internet.

These are people that live on the Internet that even know about any of that. I don't, I disagree with that. Look, I think social media is certainly a big component of everything nowadays, especially wrestling. So I'm not dismissing it, but to suggest that there's enough Internet wrestling warriors out there that are reading about, oh, now there's a change.

and this fan is no longer hands-on, so now I'm going to watch. I don't, I reject that. I don't think it's the internet fan. I think it's the lapsed fan. And I think the last fan know. What did they point out? I mean, there was a big story.

That was a big, that went beyond just what's on the dirt sheets. Vince McMahon retiring was a big story. So your premise is that people, the laps fans, they all read in the Wall Street Journal, what was going on with Vince McMahon, and he resigned.

So those lapsed fans came back. I think there was inherent curiosity. I don't think it was, oh, my God, we're going to stick around now that Vince is gone. I don't think it was curiosity. Yeah, is there a morbid, you know, car wreck alongside the highway. Right. Yeah, probably. I mean, I was interested, you know, in much the same way.

But for different reasons. We got months of money over it. It was great. But I don't think that that's that, I don't think you can attribute the success of any of these numbers to the fact that Vince McMahon retired. So therefore, now the business. is all of a sudden elevated. I'm not attributing that. I'm saying it's an interesting correlation in terms of here's what happened here. Here's what happened here. I'm not saying it's direct, but it does, I have to say, like in the tropy way, it does make you think, Eric.

It makes you think if you live in that kind of. And that's, that's a difference. You know, that's why the, you know, the, and look, I'm a part of the internet wrestling community. So who might have I can say anything negative about that, right? And I don't mean to. But there's a limit to what I'll accept in terms of being interesting or, or even analyzing when it's based off of so much speculation and not really looking under the hood. The way we just did, you know, look, maybe you're right and I'm wrong. I don't know. I believe what I believe, and I've got some experience and whatever. It's my thought. It's my belief, but I think anybody that looks at that correlation is wanting to engage in the narrative that exists on the internet, and none of that necessarily reflects reality in life.

And listen, I'm not sitting here saying it's the case. Part of my job here is to play devil's advocate and push things towards you and get your opinion on them. And I appreciate that, by the way. That's why you know, you and I are probably more. different in terms of our personalities and our life experience and all that than just about anybody I've ever sat down and done a podcast with or had a conversation with right we just come from you know you're older than you are you grew up in a different part of country than I did and we have different life experiences we turned out to be quite different people but I love the way

we can have different opinions break them down and then learn a little bit along the way I agree with you entirely, my friend. It's always a blast here on Strictly Business. Now, I do got to ask you, I got to pitch it to you because when I texted you that it happened, you said, whoa, and that was in this release. We did hear that the, well, I'll just put it bluntly, federal law enforcement agents executed a search warrant and served a federal grand jury subpoena on Vince McMahon just a couple of weeks ago.

And the company says they're complying with all. investigations. Vince said that he did not knowingly do anything wrong. This is related to the previous special investigation that we were made aware of earlier this year, of course, into Vince and last year. Do you have any thoughts about any of this? It seems like Vince is always ready to take it to the feds and he's always up for a fight with him. So I think, you know, Vince McMahon's nature in my experience, both competing against him and working with him is I was, you know, I was used a, use a phrase that I used to say that drove my wife nuts, but I was about to say, you know, but Vince said, man, my opinion is one of those guys that we'd rather

fight than fuck, but I'm not sure that that's actually true in this case. And I mean that as a compliment, Vince. Yeah, that, boy, that would be a poor choice of words with this. But, look, Vince is always, he's a fighter. He is a street fighter. He may not have grown up in the streets, so to speak, the way people think of when you talk about growing up on the streets. But he grew up hard, he grew up mean, he grew up tough,

and he is not afraid to fight anybody, including the federal government. He's proven that. in terms of, you know, the indictment, it was shocking to me because I didn't realize it was older news, right? This happened in the middle of July, so it's already two weeks old. So that surprised me. But, you know, I wouldn't want to be under investigation or indictment or having subpoenas served on me, nor would anybody else, especially by the feds.

But I don't know enough about it, neither does anybody else, to really have a comment on it, other than I wouldn't want it to be me. Let's see what it reveals. I mean, there was no charges filed. I mean, he was. No charges filed. So there's no charges filed. It just could be, they could be looking for financial records.

They could be looking for a little black book. I don't know. Neither does anybody else. So I don't really read too much into things that I don't know about. I may try to find out, but I don't have any comment. Pretty interesting. Hey, before we go, or before we're going any further, I want to shout out to Andrew Miller, who's with us from every shows.

He says, how's it going? It was awesome meeting at the MCW event. You were there with me, brother. Thank you, Andrew. Good to have you here. Great to see you there, Andrew. I got to say this real quick on the Vince thing. Pretty interesting that he got this life-altering.

back surgery two weeks after getting a subpoena from the federal government, huh? Again, fact. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, fact. Fact. And now you're trying to connect those to the images of the image of Vince in his neck braces. He's coming out after being acquitted by the federal government. I understand why you're going there, dude.

I do. I'm just needling you with that one. Look, if it was up to Vince, right now, I'm sure there's no place he'd rather be that on a, you always talk about your beachfront property, right, Eric? You're out there in the middle of the summer and you're not worrying about anything that life is throwing your way. Well, ironically, Manscape wants to help you do just the same

when you head out to that beachfront property. They want you looking good and feeling good because it's time to unleash the beach beast within you. This summer Manscape is here to help you level up your beach game with their new Beard Hedger Pro kit. They're going past waist deep. in the grooming gaming, diving in headfirst to your facial hair fantasies. The beard hedger is a game changer, Eric.

It's going to allow you to shape your beard like a true beach babe. So this summer, let the beach balls bounce and turn heads all over the place. Visit manscape.com. Use code wrestle biz. That's W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z for 20% off and free shipping. Eric, I don't know about you, but the summer rolls around. And now that I've been doing this facial hair gimmick for a couple of years, I didn't realize how sweaty your face gets.

And the beard hedger is helping me keep clean this summer. I was just in Asbury Park yesterday. I took the beard hedger to my face. It was a simple, easy shave. And I felt real good with that breeze moving past me. Have you had similar experiences this summer? Yeah, I kind of grow my beard out about once every three or four weeks. I'll let it grow for a couple weeks.

And I get bored of looking at myself. And then I shave it off. And it feels wonderful. It makes me ask myself, why do I let this damn thing grow out only to feel so much relief when I finally shave it off and it really comes down to my wife she likes that stubble yeah it looks good man it looks good she thinks I look like uh Sean Connery oh okay I see it I see it especially with the hair now I get it so yeah I take you know I grab out my Manscape kid because I've got the entire kid

I've got everything. I can trim the hair in my ears, my nose, my junk, my arms when it needs it, everything. Mancy has me covered. But when I need a little bit of that stubble for Mrs. B, I just let grow up for dear too. That's me. You don't got to go all the way down to the skin here because with the Beardheader Pro kit, you're going to get a cordless trimmer that has a rotary wheel that gives you 20 hair cutting lengths all with one guard. So no more messy drawers full of extra add-ons.

all in one and it's waterproof so you can actually even shave in the shower should you want to do that the titanium coated tea blade is tough on hair but it's smooth on your face leading to single stroke efficiency that brings satisfaction one stroke at a time also eric they're going to throw in the beard shampoo and conditioner all of your hair is different one size does not fit all your beard hair is more coarse it's easier to damage than the hair on your head that's why the kid has made shampoo and conditioner specifically designed to moisturize, reduce ingrown hairs, replace natural oils and promote beard health. And speaking of oils, by the way, they've got the beard oil. That helps relieve dryness, both on the beard and the skin, while still adding

a little shimmer and shine. Throw in the beard bomb and you've got one hell of a kit here. Get 20% off in free shipping with the code wrestle biz. That's W-R-E-S-T-L-E-Z at Manscape.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at Manscape.com. And use code wrestle biz. Manscape Beard Hedger, one stroke, one guard, 20 lengths. And we thank Manscape for sponsoring us here on Strictly Business. 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 Foley is pod listeners

for a while now about all the cool things happening over on ad-free shows. on the debut episode of making the town lumini takes us through the memorable matches and moments of the famed ECW arena including one that was never seen something very special happened after the power went off uh paul haman went out into the ring and spoke to the crowd about a microphone and the crowd just stayed quiet and listened and he gave the most heartfelt thank you to that crowd that night and the biggest shame of it is there's no footage of it because the power went out on an all new tuesday with the taskmaster Kevin Sullivan talks about what some of the greatest factions of all time have in common four horsemen four guys when they're at the strongest NWO four guys when

they're the strongest and then bloodline four guys but they also had a manager each one of them J.J., Eric, and Paul. That's just a small taste, a sampling, if you will, of what we have waiting for you, with four levels to choose from. See for yourself why AdFree Shows is the best value in wrestling today. Sign up now at ad-freeshows.com. Eric, we got a question here from Mike Hoop. So what's the latest on Smackdown and Fox?

To my knowledge, I haven't heard anything new in terms of WWE TV rights, but it does beg the question, Eric, when could you see us getting some answers on this now that we're about a year and two months-ish out from when these deals officially expire? I'm sorry, I was trying to read at the same time you were talking. What was your question? So Mike Hoop wants to know, what's the latest on the Smackdown and Fox negotiations? And I said, while we don't have any concrete information on that, it does beg the question of when can we expect to hear some news because we are only about a year, two months out from when these deals officially expire. Yeah, and what I was reading while you're asking that question, so I didn't hear it, is Zol Lopez responded to my coop in our live chat over every shows. And so that was going to be my question, too, especially with WB Discovery being interested in WWE TV rights. But I know it's just dropped.

So while we were on this podcast, so he doesn't know if it's rumor or innuendo. I don't know. I haven't seen anything while we were listening to the hardcore legend McFoley, talk about ad-prey shows. I was scrolling through to see if there was any news related to WB Discovery being interested in WWE rights. I don't know. I have a strong belief that WB Discovery is an equity player in AEW. I may be wrong, I may be right.

But as long as that's an issue or a question, I can't see, I just can't see that. Why would you, why would WWE enter into an agreement with WB Discovery knowing that WWE, excuse me, that WB Discovery is perhaps not knowing, but questioning whether WB Discovery is an equity owner in AEW? That would be my question. So that comes, that rumor comes from your best friend, Dave Meltzer, who said, quote, there's talk of Warner Brothers Discovery being interested in WWE with the idea that they would have the entire pro wrestling market, but I don't see that at all. There's interest, but I don't see WW going on the same station as AW. And certainly if they did, there would be no agreement to cross promote.

So that's the entirety of Dave's quote. Yeah. Well, I think it's silly. Yeah. I think, I mean, just on the surface, guys. Sometimes you don't have to look too deep to see how ridiculous something is on its face, which, by the way, reminds me. I saw, I didn't watch Dark Side of the Ring Tuesday night just because I didn't,

I knew listening to Vince Russo's voice would, like, drive me nuts. And it might prevent a decent night's sleep as a result. So I got up Wednesday, morning early like because I didn't want I didn't want it to interfere with my day so I got up really early like six in morning or so and I'm sitting down I turned it on I'm watching and I got through about the first eight minutes and I couldn't I couldn't listen to it anymore I thought man I can't start my so I couldn't go to bed listening to Vince Russo because I thought it would disrupt my sleep and then I tried to listen to it the following morning and realized after eight minutes that this is

going to fuck up my entire day it's going to put me in such a bad book so I quit watching it and then uh evan polisher reached out and said hey let's do a watch along maybe get you and jeff jared on you two can watch that together and i'm thinking oh my god now i have to watch it so i i got through the the entire thing and i've made some really interesting notes um but i'm going to respond because i'm you know people are looking for my response to to to the episode and to some of the things that Vince Russo said, which are going to be so easily shredded. But I'm going to save it. We're going to do that watch along.

Hopefully, Jeff Jarrett will be doing it with me. I know he's got a really busy schedule. But I can't wait to do it. I just can't wait to shred Vince Russo because, again, you listen to all of the garbage that he's spewed over the decades now since, most of which he's told the lie. long enough that he actually believes the lie i'm convinced to that or maybe he was just pathological to begin with i don't know but some of the things that he said he he disproved himself you know his entire position and it's so obvious to me and i'm going to make it obvious to

to people when they watch it on ad free shows how's that for a little plug there and tease one thing you should warning brother that's a warning that's not a plug that's a warning that's a warning One thing you should watch is the Cody Rhodes documentary on Peacock. Have you had a chance to check that out yet? I'm sorry, say that again. You should check out the Cody Rhodes documentary on Peacock. Have you had a chance to check that out? No, I haven't.

I haven't, but I will. I will. Excellent stuff. And there was an interesting clip that went viral from it where Paul Levec referred to A.W. as a secondary company. And Tony Kahn responded to it. I thought he responded fairly respectful. respectfully, but noting that

for his words, that AW had overtaken WWE in CERN markets, Internat. It's like binomics. It's so much bullshit. You hated that,

didn't you? You just hated that. You know what I hated about it? Because actually, Zol, I'm going to get to your question here in a second. I promise you that. This was something I was going to ask you, about. We know that there's a lot of inflation right now, right? And I was actually reading an article the other day, I think it was a Wall Street Journal article about how even though there's a lot of inflation, we've avoided a recession because people are still willing to spend a lot of

money. And I thought of that as an interesting tie-in with the live event element and WW getting all these record gates and AEW doing all these record gates for pay-per-views and stuff. I thought those really interesting that people are still willing to pay premium prices for tickets, despite there being a lot of inflation, and it hasn't scared them away from spending money on things that entertain them, things that make them happy. Even with the way that things are inflation-wise, we have this great community here at ad-free shows who are willing to pay high dollar for pro wrestling content. It still seems like pro wrestling content is at a premium right now. It's not just wrestling content. You look at

concerts too oh my god this is this is either a previgin moment or it's a reflection of how out of touch I can be sometimes with with regard to music but who is the who is the the woman young lady singer

how can I forget that name how could I possibly forget that day maybe because I don't listen to any of her music but I do read headlines and there are certain cities that are giving her credit for helping their budgets because of the success of her tour. So it's not to your point. It's not just wrestling content.

It's live entertainment. Entertainment in general. But there was a book I read many years ago called the entertainment economy. And it's a fascinating book. And I think now that I just as a result of this conversation remembered it, I'm going to probably read it again to see how applicable it still is. But in that book, The Entertainment Economy, you know, it goes into great depth how even during periods of time of recession, in some cases, entertainment grew while other businesses were failing because it's the escapism. It's getting away from your job, your life, the stresses of your day, and people, especially as pressure becomes, as the pressure in society becomes more and more intense.

economics, social, whatever it may be, the need for entertainment increases. Yeah. The escapeism, the need for escapism. So it's not surprising if you look at the kind of the socio-economics of it in history. It's really not surprising. It seems odd in a way because, you know, it's like, what are people doing, man? They're putting $800 tickets on their credit card and they can't pay rent. You know, at the same time that's going on, bankruptcies are.

beginning to increase at an alarming rate. If you talk to somebody who's in the traditional bank, the Wells Fargo Bank, America, you know, mortgage side of things, there are, there are a lot of foreclosures stacking up and haven't been acted upon yet. There's going to be an immense amount of financial upheaval more than likely over the next year or so. Credit card debt all time high interest rates at an all time high but people are still willing to spend money on entertainment it's a fascinating look at human beings i got my 10 bruce springsteen concerts this year so it's i get it i'm i'm all about it i you know i get it that's different you know that's an obsession that's not just looking for entertainment that's like that's called he needs

help yeah that's clinical you get a vaccine for that i'm sure if not right you're now you will be able to produce right so let's get back to lopez's question since you haven't watched it what do you think is the over under on how many bros russo dropped on the episode i've already watched it so uh that's a part and it's like i know i'm bullshitting you right but if i say it loud and i have this staccato vibe you're going to believe whatever i say you know it's like fuck Shoot me, please. Well, you know, generating record revenue for the area. I want to bring this up to WWE reported that WrestleMania generated $215 million

in economic impact for the Los Angeles region this past year, which is a new company record. It surpassed $206.5 million, which was set the previous year with Dallas and Arlington. Since 2016, Eric, WrestleMania has generated more than one. $1.2 billion in cumulative economic impact for the cities that had hosted the event. Talk about becoming a destination event that cities are going to be bidding up the wazoo for. You know what? We need to reach out to our buddy, Sean Pendergast, and ask him, you know, how does those numbers compare to, I don't know, the World Series or the Super Bowl

or even NFL playoff games? you know, what kind of NFL playoff games probably don't have the impact. But how does WWE's performance for WrestleMania impact, you know, as far as how it impacted the market? How does that compare to the NFL or Major League Baseball? Yeah, it's, it's certainly. I'd like to know that. Especially when, you know, it becomes a just straight up insane,

must-see gathering event. I'm looking at, I just went up and Googled some stuff just to pull up the numbers. This is 2015 from a story published in 2023. The 2015 Super Bowl made an estimated gross economic impact of 719.4 million on the Phoenix area. State and local governments pulled in over $26 million in additional taxes from hotel stays, car rentals, and the like related to the Super Bowl that year. So that is much, much, much higher than WrestleMania. but even still, I mean, there's no doubt $216 million for the region. That is something to be celebrated.

Yeah, that's probably in the neighborhood of around 30%, 30 some odd percent of the Super Bowl. Yeah. I don't know. That's a pretty interesting position to be in. And if you're WWE to be able to, it's a lot of leverage when you go into a conversation with any major market. proof of concept as they say in the business world proof of concept certainly so do want to bring up one more thing here before we wrap up on strictly business we did find out that the elite have resigned with AEW and there were a lot of people who wanted your opinion on that not necessarily

just the idea of them resigning but in the sports illustrated article the young bucks mentioned specifically that the most appealing thing was the fewer dates that AWW would be guaranteeing them as opposed to what they would have had to have done with the WWE schedule. I have pretty good intuition, Eric, and I don't think I'm breaking any news here, but WWE was very much willing to spend big time money on the elite in potential negotiations. Had they progressed to that point, but I don't hear that. How do you know that? Talking to people directly involved in the situation.

Anybody from WWE? Both sides. Both sides, WWM and AW side. Not looking to break news here, but I think that's also logical that they were willing to spend big money based on even the last time that the elite were free agents. But my point here is that talent turning down big money in favor of fewer events after we just had this conversation about the value of live events specifically. the way the industry has changed over the years and talents priorities have changed as well are you surprised to see talent turning down opportunities in favor of dates or do you see that as a natural progression on where the industry is headed scott hall kevin nash yeah the same

thing you know it's not new brother it's not you know it's that the you know because look for some, if you're 22, 23, 25, 28, early 30s, and you don't have a family, you don't have a meaningful relationship, you know, that you're concerned about, and you're having the time of your life and you're performing and you're making great money and you're traveling the world, you know, an opportunity to work 300 days a year is a wonderful opportunity. But now, I don't know the young bucks or the elite at all. I know them, obviously, but I don't know them personally. What I have heard is that they're very family-oriented individuals.

And if that's true, and I believe it to be, I don't have any reason not to, but let's just say because that's true, I think that's a fantastic decision on their part. because they're prioritizing. Look, it's not like they're not making a lot of money, all right? Let's make that clear. They're probably both well into seven figures. Now, I don't know what the live event schedule is for AEW. I don't know if it's been published.

I don't know if anybody knows. But I, what are they going to do? 100 event, 100 live events a year, maybe? Less. Less. Yeah, it's just TV. But I mean, the company will be doing about 100, but I'm saying the young bucks themselves. if they're working just a TV schedule, they're going to do a lot less than 100.

Sure, they are. So that's a healthy decision. It's a healthy decision because, look, there's less chance they're going to get hurt. The less times you're in the ring, no matter how good you are or what kind of condition you are, the less chance, the less times you're in the ring, the less of a chance you have to get injured. That could derail your career. Or just accumulate injuries that over time will stack up and matter once you hit 45 or 50. right especially with the kind of the style of wrestling they do so i think taking perhaps lesser money

for for certain less wear and tear and to be able to spend time with your family and be there for those important moments hats off to them good decision i had a former wwe on-air talent text me last night after this news broke and they asked me to ask you this question specifically So I'll ask you this, and then we'll get out of here. Does it damage the legacy of any of the members of the elites of Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, if they never wrestle in WWE? And in minds of some fans, of course, because they never made it to the big league. They never wrestled in the big show. And you, Tony Consons, I know, A.W. Wembley, okay, Dixie Carter used to do the same thing.

She would selectively pick things that, you know, sounded very favorable for TNA when compared to WWE. So I get it, right? It's just part of the, part of the role, okay? But WWE still is the show. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. So the question becomes can or what becomes, first of all, legacy is so subjective.

And then like the entire, you know, wrestling audience has the same, consensus opinion. Agreed. But the fact will remain that they never made it to the big show. But I don't know what could have been. But it's by choice. No, sure. But it's my choice not to try to become a professional football player too for a lot of reasons. They have their reasons. And like I said, I admire them. I respect their their decision to do what they did based on what I've heard of them. But the fact remains, they haven't made it to the big show. And until you've been there, you'll never know what could have been. And I think that will be their part of what people perceive them, or perceive their legacy to be.

Yeah, they were great in EW, but they never made it to the big show. Interesting. Interesting. I guess we'll have to see. I mean, you never know. It's kind of being a great college football star, never making it in the NFL. Well, you'd be the greatest, you know, one of the greatest guys, one of the greatest players on a college football team. And everybody thought for sure you're going to go in the first round and you didn't and you don't and you never will. And wow, that was fast. What could have been? Same thing.

Now they have the opportunity to try to elevate their own promotion to the highest level they possibly can. So people take a look at that within its own bubble and see, okay. that's their like at the end of the day they're making a lot of money they're spending time with their family you know they're they're traveling enough to probably satisfy that it's usually if you really you know if you're very very family oriented you know traveling the world is so it's a must do not a want do when you're doing it for business right you it's just something you have to do so i i would imagine staying home and spending time and their money with their family is probably the most appealing thing to them and that's what their legacy should be by the way

It's just a business, folks. It's an entertaining business, and it's a fun business, but it's still business. Yeah. Well, Eric, as we wrap up here, WW sent out a press release that they set up this big partnership with Slim Jim. Slim Jim is back in WW. Oh, yes, snap into it. I love that.

It's going to be a big part of SummerSlam. It's going to be a big part of Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and WrestleMania. And there's going to be a Slim Jim Battle Royal, a 20-man battle royal at SummerSlam sponsored exclusively. And I hope in honor of Randy Savage, they come out and they're throwing, because we did that once on WCW Saturday, we first got Randy Savage and he came in and obviously Slim Jim was a big part of that, right? So we wanted to make a really big splash. And we had Randy Savage come out, he had a big box of Slim Jims and he comes out and he's in a center stage audience and he's tossing slim gyms to everybody. It was awesome.

I'd love to see him do that in honor of Randy Savage. And to prove that, yes, somebody in WWE Creatives listening to this show, come on, folks, do it. you don't have to tell them you heard it here take credit for it well hypothetically speaking if anyone at slim gym is listening you can partner with us here at strictly business advertise with eric.com get your business get your product get your slim jims out in front of thousands and thousands of listeners every single week i don't know if you knew this eric but as of this past week the 83 weeks podcast feed which includes your 83 weeks podcast and strictly business is the number one podcast feed in north america for pro wrestling so we love to see it and a better way to get your

product out that in front of the number one leading podcast provider of enlightening content mr eric bischoff himself see that little smirk there i love that it just sounds of good eighty three weeks dot com make sure you're subscribed ad free shows dot com make sure subscribe to anything else you want to add here eric no man just uh looking forward to the weekend and spending a little time with mrs b it's our anniversary today happy anniversary 39 years we've been there congratulations together about 41 maybe yes put up with a lot of shit oh no kidding she's still hot she's still hot this has been strictly business with eric bischoff we'll see you next week