83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #56: The End of WWE House Shows?

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

In this edition of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba discuss the future of WWE house shows, discuss the possibility of RAW's TV deal coming much later, Jey Uso's trademarks, and more! Thank you to this week's sponsors! Damn Healthy Dose - Get two free sessions of ADHD life coaching when you mention Strictly Business at DamnHealthyDose.com BlueChew- Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code WRESTLEBIZ at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. 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

What's going on, everyone on, everyone, it's time for another edition of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff presented to you by the ad-free shows and podcast heat. networks i'm john alba but i'm not the star strictly business instead i'm joined by the man who took it to vince mcman week after week after week 83 in a row as a matter of fact he is 104 combined but yeah 83 week in a row let's get our facts straight dude i did i said 83 in a row mr eric bishop what's going on my friend how are you howdy everybody this is my second open for this show the first one's really fun but to avoid getting de-platformed uh we we've censored ourselves so this is going to be a slightly less exciting of an open. Well, we will always have excitement on our show when we have our ad-free shows family

joining in with us. We got Josh Henny here. We got Jerry O'Sullivan. We got Doug Ritter. We got Aaron in here. It's a fun crew always. We got Adam on the ad-free shows platform, Eric, a chance to get an opportunity to interact with you and so many great talent here on the AFS network.

Hey, guys, don't let me interrupt John. I'm just feeling very fucking chabby today. If you see me doing this, it's because these are like $9 cheaters that I got at the local grocery store.

My regular glasses, I lost the, whatever this is called, the arm on it, the hinge broke. So it's getting repaired. So in the meantime, I've got these $9 cheaters,

which are really good for reading, but really, sucked for this so i want to make sure i know who's here oh this is we got a good one from adam says long time listener of a three weeks new ad free members so welcome at them hey we love to have you yeah welcome to the family hey we got coach keith is in here with us as well so you got coaches everywhere coach roger coach keith we really do have a lot of coaches this your wife is a coach everyone's a coach we are in a coach intensive environment here no doubt about that eric you're in a very intense environment yourself right now.

You're putting your body through it with this diet. I've been seeing it all over social media, but it seems like it's going pretty well for you. It's freaking awesome. Five-day water fast. All I have is water with electrolytes, coffee, and I've had a couple cups of herbal tea. Zero food. No cheating whatsoever. I'm telling you, I feel amazing.

I haven't felt this good in 20 years. 30, 40 years. How old am I? I'm 68. 40 years it's been since I felt this good. It's amazing. It's really amazing. And from here, I'm going to do a three-day transition,

meaning I'm going to eat, I'll use some bone broth just for protein and to get my digestive system slowly kind of integrated and working again. Have a couple slices of avocado throughout the day of tomorrow. And then gradually work up to over the weekend. and maybe having, you know, some chicken or something. And then I'm going straight into a carnivore diet. Yeah, that's right, you people.

I said carnivore diet. I'm going to eat meat. It's all I'm going to eat is meat. I was inspired by Dr. Sean Baker. Look him up. Dr. Sean Baker. I heard him on Joe Rogan. I've followed, I found his podcast.

I've heard him in interviews and other podcasts, very knowledgeable. And the man's been doing it for eight years. he's a world class athlete too by the way is that like bill gates that fat fuck walking around looking like he's going to die or should any given day because he's at such an healthy in a healthy state telling the world how they should be healthy this is a guy who's actually healthy in doing it i think he's a world champion rower i mean it's crazy he's had nothing but me for eight years. And because I was inspired by him, I did some of the research.

And I thought, you know what, I'm going to give this a shot because this sounds great. So I'm doing it as soon as I come off this water fast, I'm going to go 30 days on the carnivore diet. And then I'm going to do another five-day water fast. And I anticipate that I'm going to be doing five-day water fast once a month because of the amazing physiological benefits that come with it. And if you don't believe me, just listen to me. now. This is a different Eric Bischoff coming to you. My mental clarity, my focus, my ability to

articulate is off the freaking charts. It's 10 a.m. and you're ready to run for a wall. Give me a mountain to climb. What do you want me to do? I'm saying you're ready to run through a wall right now. I am. Indeed. It's been a fiery morning here over at the strictly business crew. Last week, we had one of our biggest episodes ever. So thank you to everyone who listened to Eric discussing C.M. Punk and some of the other topics that we hit on for that episode. We also open talking about Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift, which had a lot of people talking as well. I want to put on the record, though, Eric, this was your idea, correct? What do you mean it was my idea?

You sent me a text and said, hey, have you seen this story? Oh, is that how it went? Well, because you follow Paige Van Zant on Twitter, and you said, hey, look what Paige Van Zant said. And she was, why are you putting out on me, bro? Well, for the record, that wasn't how the events unfolded. However, I was more than happy to discuss it. I'm always down to talk a little pop culture. Well, I thought you would.

It was my idea. I'll come clean. I don't bullshit. But yeah, it was my idea. But I thought it would be straight up your alley because of sports. And you're a big time sports guy now in New York. Come on. That's right.

Yeah. I think it's all. I think Paige Van Zant is. is going to go down as she's going to go from being a very entertaining, a beautiful, accomplished, physical athlete to becoming, to falling into that Prussian category where you could see things into the future because she was the first one to throw a flag on this bullshit Taylor Swift, Trevor Kelsey

nonsense. It's all fraud. It's a work people. It's a work. Trevor Kelsey. What's his name? Travis. Travis. Trevor. Who gives a fuck? Do you see him play football last week? Who cares? She's the kiss of death to that team. Hey, we got a couple questions. They lost to the Green Bay freaking Packers. We're very good in December, by the way.

We got a couple questions about your fast here real quick before we get into the meat and bones of our episode. Adam wants to know how was the meat and bones to me until this thing is over because I'm really hungry right now. I'll avoid saying that. Adam wants to know how is the first day or two of fasting any headaches or mood swings? Here's the amazing part of this and this whole show could be about this because this has been an amazing journey and I've tried to document most of it, you know, at least touch on it, not in detail on social media. But day one was super easy for me. Now, keep in mind that I've been doing intermittent fasting for about a year,

year and a half. And I will four or five times a week, I'll go between 14 or 16, sometimes 18 hours without eating. And I eat within a window, beginning, sometimes around two, ending at six, sometimes four, ending at six, whatever I can accomplish that day. And sometimes, you know, you're out doing things and it's a little harder. But I've been pretty good at intermittent fasting. and I think because of that, it wasn't as big of a mental challenge for me. Day one was super easy. Day one, I almost forgot.

I was fasting, literally. I didn't get hungry. I was fine. Day two, felt it a little bit more. But by day three, day three, I woke up. Here's the one thing I have. It's harder for me to fall asleep. That's a downside for me,

because I enjoy getting, you know, I go to bed at 8 o'clock or 8.30, and I wake up at 4, 4, 3, 5 o'clock in the morning. I love that schedule for me. But I have had a hard time almost every night getting to sleep for whatever reason. I don't know what it is. But I wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning, like clockwork. And when I wake up, what normally takes me a half a pot of coffee in order to get my gears grinding sufficient.

enough that I can actually engage with a conversation with my wife when I bring her coffee at about seven. Usually it takes me an hour, hour and a half before I can even have a coherent conversation. I wake up at four and I'm ready to go. Before I even have my coffee, I'm clear headed. I'm ready to work. Ready to talk. That's fun. So I've started a new thing. because all of this started with me wanting to improve my discipline. Lori told me something on the way back from Minneapolis, coming back from Thanksgiving. We were talking about nutrition and kind of innovative ways

and new information and people like Sean Baker and others. And she said something, and this wasn't her original quote, or mine, obviously, but comfort is a thief. And I've become way too comfortable. Not that I don't have pressures like everybody else and have commitments and obligations that put pressure on me. That's true. But I've been able to put myself in a situation where I can manage it all. And I live in this beautiful place that millions of people come to every year for the sheer beauty of it all.

And I live here. And I'm fine. but along with that sense of freedom and and and being grateful for all of that with the comfort comes a little bit of I don't want to say lazy because I'm not lazy but I lack discipline and you know you hear all the ADHD and everybody's trying to cram pills down your throats and everybody's got a pill that solves every problem in the world and I was honestly I'm going to tell you the truth here I'm coming clean on this thing. I was, I had tried ADHD medicine in the past. Because it's easy to get. I went to a doctor and I was, and this was like eight years ago. I still had my apartment in LA and I had an office in

Los Angeles and Jason Harvey and I were running and gun in and making TV shows and silent TV shows and all that crap. And I thought, man, if there's a way I can up my game and I just go see a doctor and have a conversation and get a fistful of whatever it is that could make me go faster and focus more and all that, I'm going to give it a try. So I got a prescription for Adderall. And I didn't like the way. I mean, the first couple days was, oh, bang, I love me some Adderall. But after about a week, I could, I was really cognizant of how I was beginning to feel

So, yeah, I got the folk, and I'm saying, this is me. Everybody else is different. I'm not trying to convince anybody to do or not do anything. I'm just telling you my own experience. So I went through it, and I started going, yeah, there's an upside, but there's a downside. And I think the downside is a little too heavy for me. So I just walked away from it all. But I've always thought, well, maybe, you know, maybe I am that way.

Because I'm, you know, I've got 25 things going all the time. in my mind at least in some of them in reality but that no i'm not going to do it i'm not going to do it anyway what's happened as a result of this five-day water fest for me not saying it's going to happen for everybody but my focus has become laser like it's unbelievable and like i said my mental energy is off off the chart so it's it's all been good for me and i'm going to keep doing it once a month well it's great to hear man i hope everything ends up working out, especially as we turn into the new year and the holiday season. By the way, guys, real quick, just want to give a shout here.

We just opened up a brand new box of gimmicks store just for Strictly Business. So you head on over to Boxingimics.com and you search the collections. You're going to find the Strictly Business store and there's all brand new Strictly business merchandise. What better way to wake up Christmas morning looking under that tree and seeing some fresh Strictly business merch. How about that, Eric? It's the Christmas season.

I love it. I love to hear that. And it's great that we've stepped up to help others who are wrestling fans, and more importantly, 83 weeks or strictly business fans, enjoy the holiday season as we share that joy amongst the masses. Certainly. So Coach Rosie, by the way, says we are live in his freshman economics class. So we're really taking it.

Hey, it's also first day of Hanukkah. So happy Hanukkah to all of the Jewish people around the world celebrating Hanukkah, especially today this year. Absolutely. Well, we're in a freshman. economics class and we're talking the business of the business. So I think it's very appropriate, Eric, that we talk some business of the wrestling business. We got a bunch of WWE notes to hit on this week because there are quite a bit happening on the TCO side and

some big announcements as to where the company is head. And there's three topics in particular that I'd really love to pick your brain on. And we can begin with this one because a couple weeks ago, we dropped an episode during Thanksgiving when you were away that you and I had taped, man, almost a year and a half ago that was on the paywall side, but we dropped it publicly about live touring, and even so much about live touring and wrestling has changed in that year and a half since we taped that episode. So we got an update this week. Mark Shapiro, who is the president of TKO, was speaking this week, and he dropped a lot of notes. And this is the first one that I want to hit on. And I'm going to read the quote in full and we can break it down.

He says, quote, WWE has over 300 events a year with 170 televised. There's probably, while all those other superstar events, there's a reason to have them because it's good for the brand. We're building the audience. We're putting them on C&D counties. So we're really stretching the brand and amassing a greater array of eyeballs for all demos. It's good for our long-term growth. For a margin perspective, they're dilutive. They are probably opportunities as we go through our efficiencies and synergies to cut back those non-televised events, which will, of course, push our margin up. We're going through that exercise.

Now, this comes on the back end, Eric, of WWE making some more staff layoffs this week. Let's take it one at a time, one at a time, John. Well, this is. I'm just saying they made some staff layoffs this week, McKenzie Mitchell, who was an NXT talent on air, let go. So we're seeing the cutbacks in real time. Live events being cut back on. It's an interesting strategy from a financial perspective. What are your opinions on that?

It's why I often don't pay attention to these. you know, public announcements or comments or even, you know, the Wall Street stuff that happens once a quarter, whenever it is. It's just such nonsense. And that was like a whole bunch of verbiage. For those of you that read Dave Meltzer's dirt sheet, that means words. It's just a whole bunch of Gaga basically saying we're losing money in small markets. So we're not going to go there anymore to save money. That's it. That's all it means. It doesn't mean anything else. don't have to be a Harvard business grad to react to something like that. They're losing money in small markets. It doesn't make any sense anymore. They're growing in other markets,

so put your resources behind your growth and quit spending money doing things that don't make money. Fuck, I was running a Kool-Aid stand. That would be the same thing. Simple. Good for them. I did the same thing in WCW. Well, that's what I was going to ask you about. So cutting down on some of these small markets, there's going to be an upside financially for you on it. But there is also a downside for those fans who I'll use Bangor, Maine as an example. You know, Bangor was a spot that WWE for decades would hit. And those people don't ever get TV events. So their 5,000 fans would come out and pack that arena.

And they'd get their one show a year where they got to see the superstars up close and person. person. They're going to be losing out on that experience now. And they might have to drive an extra two, three, four hours just to get that experience. And who's to say that they stay as loyal to the product as they have been if they're not getting a chance to actually see it with their eyes? I mean, there's got to be some give and take there, I'd imagine. Is that a difficult decision to make or is it strictly on the books? This is how we look at it. You know what it is, John? It's strictly business. Yep. How about that?

That's good. No, I mean, it is. Look, this isn't a public service. This isn't a 501 C3 company. They've got stock, they've got shareholders. They've got to answer to those shareholders. They have to make the decisions that are most efficient, most profitable for the company, period. That's the first, that is their fiduciary responsibility. Google that shit, if you don't know what I'm talking about. It is, their fiduciary responsibility to provide maximum value to shareholders. And if they're engaged in a strategy that is costing the company money and doesn't reflect growth, they don't have a choice. It's not, oh my gosh, those 5,000 people, they're going to be able to get to come once

a year or another, they're going to have to drive two hours. That's sad. I'm not why I am making fun of it, but I'm not, because it's life. It's life. If you want to go to a mall, you have to drive two hours, too. I live in Cody freaking Wyoming. You know the nearest mall to me? Real mall? Not a glorified strip mall.

I'm talking about a real mall. Denver, Colorado. It's an eight-hour drive. Wow. So fuck off. It's not that big a deal. Here's what will happen. If you're living in Bangor or wherever it is in Maine,

where there's only a few people in WW. We only comes here once here, and now they're not going to come anymore. And you're crying in your coffee as you listen to this or your beer, depending on your beverage of choice. Look at it this way. There's only one event coming to. You have to drive two hours, but that's the fun part. It's the anticipation.

It's the story that you'll come away with when you and your friends jump in your car, your van, whatever it may be and drive that two hours. It's a road trip, man. That's a part of, that's a slice of fricking Americana right there. Road trip. You need more road trips. take a freaking road trip grab your friends grab your family whoever you're going with make a night of it go to the event get a cheap hotel somewhere party like a freaking rock star or just hang out with your friends whatever the case may be and you'll enjoy it even more than if it was just

right down at the road so it's it's how you look at it yeah Aaron says the journey is what we No, Aaron says the journey is what it's all about. The journey is what it's all about, whether it's a storyline or whether it's the trip to go see that one live event a year that used to come to your town but no longer can because it doesn't make financial sense. Don't be angry. Don't be sad. Just jump in your car. Go to the event and have a blast. There's also, forget even the company just running the event and losing money on running the event. And I'm sure there's a lot of travel involved for the talent that are on these shows and the road crew that are on these shows that I'm sure they love doing these shows in these smaller towns where these fans appreciate it. But their schedule gets a whole lot easier when you cut some of those C&D counties out of the equation. Well, and look, if I remember what Shapiro said, they only ran 23 events in C&D counties, right?

over the course of a year. Yeah. So it's not like they're running 200 C and D counties a year. There's 23 of those damn things over the course of 12 months. It's not a big number. But you're right in the sense that as, and I can just tell you from first-hand experience, as much as I enjoy performing,

or used to, I should say, when I was doing it, as much as I love performing, as much as I love so many things about being in front of a live audience, When you're doing 300 of those mofos a year, some of them fall into the kind of a grind category. And what people don't realize, well, again, speaking just for me, I'm not speaking for every performer out there because every one of us are different than the other. But for me, the smaller the crowd, the more difficult it was for me, I would have to work twice as hard to try to get the reaction out of 5,000 people as I would. 25,000 people. And I think that's just the nature of the energy in the building,

which is going to end up being a segue to another conversation about AEW running 10,000-seat arenas when it can only sell 4,000 tickets. Because the energy in that arena is, it's communicative, meaning it's like a communicable, communicable disease, everybody's sitting around you catches it and it's a it's a great thing because the people that are sitting there in that arena that 5,000 seat arena they're experiencing something collectively

and if the energy is low they go to the event and the people in the ring are working her asses off but if you're not getting the crowd behind you and you're not feeling that energy the people sitting in those seats are probably a little let down because it's not the vibe you were hoping for but you get you're out there sitting with 25,000 people who are excited about what you're excited about that energy goes through the roof and that's fun the other thing is you know every event that you work you're going to risk injury it is what it is yeah I think it's johnny con you know i don't think it is just my gut Oh, how wrong could you be?

No, you're wrong. It's my son. Hold on one second. Please, by all means. Hey, buddy. I'm doing a podcast. I'll say this while Eric answers that call. I can even equate this on the WWE end, Eric, where you look back to 2019, which we've even discussed on this podcast, that live attendance was down for WWE.

they were struggling a little bit with the Fox transition from a content perspective like we just passed the anniversary of Roman Raines having dog food shoved in his face and the crowd engagement then versus the crowd engagement now is night and day in the WWE product where they're so collective well there's more stories

they're collectively invested in the talent as top tier players it's just a huge change and you're absolutely right it's a very infectious feeling infectious that's a much better word than communicable that's a mouthful for me even in my heightened state of clarity yeah getting communicable out i'm not sure 100% that that's the right way to say it i'm gonna go with it because i've already there and can't pull it back but yeah i wish infection would have come to my mind a little sooner yeah so you know losing you're in a mood today and i'm enjoying it

but you're right you can have a house show of it look at set ralins back in 2015 i think it was when he was wwee champion he was on a house show doing a sunset flip a move he's done a million times on television and destroyed his knee on a house show yeah and he was and there's a balance though john because here's if you if you go one extreme to another extreme i think one of the challenges and it perhaps it hasn't really manifest yet in aew but they don't write on house shows. If they do, it's a very limited amount of them. That's an environment where people are going to get hurt more frequently, in my opinion. And I'm not speaking from experience. I wasn't a wrestler. I didn't travel. I didn't work on the road 200, 150, 200 days a year.

I wasn't taking bumps for a living, right? So I'm not trying to speak from firsthand experience, but I can't even count the number of talents that I've worked with over the years that have all expressed the same perspective that being you don't get hurt from working too much you get hurt from not working enough when you're working a lot your body is in your condition for it your timing's better everything's better and and you're taking those bumps and your body gets conditioned to the bumps you take too much time off and you become more susceptible to injuries because your body's not used to what you're putting it through particularly on a television show or on a pay-per-view a premium live event,

how you want to call it, doesn't matter of me, pick it, I don't care. But when you're not working consistently, you're more likely to get hurt. So I think that balance is really important. Well, and it also brings to question the macro question, which is, what is the ultimate value of live events in today's wrestling space? Back in the day, live events, house shows,

getting that gate was a big way, of how wrestlers earn their pay. Now, with the way that contract structures have changed and with TV and media rights being the main driver of money for these wrestling companies, you're not as reliant on the house show from a financial perspective. So what is the value of the house show in today's wrestling environment? Here's what that snapshot is lacking. Because you're right.

It's not that you said anything that wasn't correct. But the question is, what benefit does it provide? One of the reasons that wrestling has been successful since the late 40s or early 50s as a television product is because the stars of that television show perform in the local market. And your local market, your fans connect. They get to know. They get to feel like they know. They have a relationship in their minds, however subtle as that may be, to that talent.

That's their talent, whether they love them or hate them, and they go to those, and they went to those events in some territories, particularly in the Southeast, every week. In other territories like Vergagnas in the Midwest, it was once a month. And that connection between the live performance and the live audience, solidified the viewership in that local market. That's why wrestling has been one of the leading forms of entertainment in the history of freaking television since the day television was invented. I'm sure there's someone who can tell you that there were previous wrestling television

examples compared to the one I'm going to give you. But the Dumont Network, which was based in Chicago, and I think it was in 1954, was one of the first major networks to offer professional wrestling. And there was a point in time in the 50s, in the 60s, in the 70s, before cable, when you could go into any local market and the highest, most viewed wrestling, most viewed television show in those markets were typically professional wrestling. Now, they were, they weren't, they got no national advertising. it was all used cars and local stuff because it was a barter engagement.

There was no national advertising like you see today in wrestling back then. It was all local stuff. But regardless, those weekly territory wrestling shows often got higher ratings and more people watching them than some of the more national broadcast. And then you go fast forward through the 60s and into the 70s. Now you've got cable emerges, right? Professional wrestling has been. from the beginning of cable television and continues to be one of the most successful.

In fact, depending how you want to look at it, other than actual sports, professional sports, not quasi-semi-entertainment sports, but other than real sports, professional wrestling is the most successful genre of entertainment on cable television. Because it's been there from day one. And then at the end of, as cable evolved and now because of cable, we got this new thing called pay-per-view. What's been one of the most successful forms of entertainment on pay-per-view, other than porn?

Pro wrestling. Pro wrestling. Now we're in the digital age, and one of the most powerful footprints in the world of entertainment is who? Pro wrestling. WWE. So, wrestling has always been there in a large part of the reason, and it continues to this day,

is the connection, however conscious or subconscious it may be, between the performers, the stars, and the talent, or excuse me, in the audience. And the fact that they can connect in ways that, oh, I don't know, the cast of any other network television show can't. Why isn't, why aren't some of the great, you know, scripted television shows around to this day? Because you can't tour them. You just can't.

So I think the live event component of the overall business of the wrestling business is a critical one. Not so much, yes, it is from a revenue point of view because you're selling tickets, you're selling merchandise and all that. But I think it goes beyond that. And it goes to that unique connection that professional wrestling has with the people that watch it on television that no other form of entertainment other than actual sports. provides well and then there's also the element from the performance side for the talent where having those house shows gives more reps for maybe a less seasoned talent or if it's a more seasoned

talent they have a chance to run their matches before they get to television and actually try to litmus test them and and again you're absolutely right but i'm going to add one you can try shit yeah you can have an idea and obviously you're going to communicate with the people who are the agent or whoever is running the event you know you know just going out there and freelancing at least not in wwe but have a have a conversation say hey i think we're going to try something a little different tonight let's see how it works and you get to go out and experiment you can't experiment on television there's no experimenting but you can experiment in a house show you can try to some new things and see how that crowd reacts.

It's kind of like performing in front of a focus group. Another reason why the live event aspect of this is so good, because even as producers or directors, you're watching something happening live on television in the crowd. And by looking and feeling and understanding the crowd's reaction, it can help the creative process. So I do think the live event component of professional wrestling is critical, but I also understand that it has to be smart and running C&D counties because of the expense because of the wear a chair and a talent isn't smart yeah you'll appreciate this story the Matt Hardy on my other podcast Extreme Life and Matt Hardy has told this story before where back in the late 90s the Harties were doing a bunch of matches with the APA the acolytes JBL and Ron Simmons and one loop they were doing the event Omega which

is Matt doing a leg drop and Jeff doing a splash off the top ropes at the same time onto Ron Simmons. And they did it a few months, or a few shows in a row, rather. And on the third house show loop, they're like, Ron, what do you think about us doing the event Omega on you here? And after they've done this on three shows in a row, Ron Simmons and his deep, burly voice just goes, we won't be doing that again. so there's that house show let's try some things out and if they'll actually get over and stick or not eric i want to bring up this from adam real quick here before we transition to something else he says honestly as a fan i enjoy house shows more than tv tapings the town are more accessible at house shows

too and i think that's a big part of it yeah and that goes to the experience right it's exactly what i was talking about a few moments ago about that relationship between the audience and the fans and the and and and the superstars the talents at house shows they are and that's a good point it's another one of the benefits um there's less pressure you go to a television taping those guys are on at say 10 o'clock at night they got to get back changed clothes get to the hotel because they're leaving at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning to go to the next town and not a lot of time to hang out and say hi and in a house show environment more often than not that's not the case and you get a more relaxed relationship or conversation with talent.

Certainly. So, hey, you were talking about ADHD earlier, Eric, and one of our partners here on Strictly Business wants to help anyone who's combating ADHD. And that is our pals over at damn healthy dose. The holidays are upon us. And with New Year's resolutions around the corner, it may be time to think about your mental health as we head into 2024. So I got a question for you.

Are you feeling like you're in a rut? Are you feeling like you're distracted? Many people these days are questioning whether they could have ADHD or wondering, well, isn't everyone a little ADHD? So if you find yourself thinking along those lines, you can't get out of your own way, maybe it's time to actually talk to a life coach. Meet fellow ad-free show supporter and wrestling fans, Steve from damn healthy dose.com. Steve is a certified ADHD life coach and getting you unstuck is what he does. period. Working together, his job is to help you come up with strategies and provide you with the tools you need to set you on the way. Eric, just earlier in this episode, you were talking about

how different things work for different people and a life coach combating ADHD. Certainly doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. I mean, I'm very, very excited about this relationship because, again, I don't want to go off on a tangent because I'm passionate about this, but I understand that not everybody is. but we are bombarded by the pharmaceutical companies out there, bombarded with advertising convincing us that we need a pill for everything. But often I see ADHD medicine pharmaceuticals being shoved down our throat and convincing people that they have a condition that perhaps they don't have, perhaps they do,

And perhaps pharmaceuticals will benefit that. But I think people have convinced themselves often that they have a problem they need a pill for. And I think to have someone that's a certified life coach, certified ADHD life coach that can help you walk through what you're going through, talk through what you're going through, explain things to you that perhaps the pharmaceutical companies aren't going to explain when they show Abby family out of the public. having a great summer day because they took this pill. Well, God, wouldn't we all like to be out on our boat with our families on a bright sunny day in the summertime? But when the pharmaceutical company spent so much time convincing you that you have a problem that you may not have, I think that's an issue.

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And we appreciate Steve and his partnership with us here on Strictly Business. This was another interesting part of what Shapiro had to say, Eric. We've been monitoring this the last few weeks. Last week we had a discussion about it. This is regarding the TV rights for Monday Night Raw. Quote, we're in conversations on Raw. Our deal with USA is not up until October of next year. We have time.

We have time to be flexible. We have time to be creative. We have time to develop different solution models depending on what the player may be. We could go before the NBA if the price is right or after the NBA if somebody is left at the altar. Our job is to maximize the rights value of raw. I thought that was a very interesting comment from him given a lot of the chatter lately has been.

Will the dime drop before the NBA TV rights are settled, which won't be coming until at least the beginning of 2020. or would they be able to wait until after? Do you buy that, Eric, that you can take things down to the wire like that when you're negotiating such a massive TV rights agreement? Yes, yes, not ideal because keep in mind, let's say, for example, Warner Brothers Discovery decides they want to buy those rights. They're going to want to know that well enough,

advance that they can plan their up fronts so they can maximize the opportunity the ad sales component of this is very very freaking critical as we found out from lockland murdock when we when fox talked about the reason they didn't renew smackdowns because the ad the the ad rates didn't support the cost of the program in a long run well one of the ways that a network can ensure that they can maximize their investment or at least get a return on on it is to have enough time to plan to sell to promote and while waiting until october is certainly plausible because the up fronts aren't until the following spring so there's still time but it would be much better to get that nailed down sooner here's my takeaway from reading that and listening to you

read it the one thing i took away is we got time they are in the driver's seat they are Raw is, WWE is representing one of, if not the most successful show on cable television. Name one that's been around longer or gets anywhere near the ratings. 52 freaking weeks a year. That makes WWE and Monday Night Raw one of the most coveted opportunities in Hollywood,

probably right now, and certainly into the future. And yes, it's expensive. And yes, there's an ad problem. There's still a stigma. It's still there. It's gotten better, but it's still there. But is there another opportunity, programming opportunity,

if you're a network programming executive, can you think of one cable program out there that if your network wanted to plan a flag and become a viable contender as a top 10, top five network, Is there any better program out there than WWE? Let me answer that. Fuck no. So they got time.

That's my takeaway. What do you think about the notion of waiting until the domino falls with the NBA and having the NBA lead the way for how the suitors may follow after that? Do they have a choice? If the networks aren't willing to move until they find out which way that the NBA is going to fall, then it's not a lot. like WWE gets to vote. What are they going to call the network?

Say, no, no, you're going to make a decision sooner. Take it to leave it. I'm not going to do that because they're going to leave it. Now, I think it's common sense. I'm sure there would be partners who would be, I mean, they've been in discussion. So I'm sure there would be partners who would be willing to make a move now. But I guess my question is, does it benefit WWE to wait it out?

see where the NBA ends up, see what outlet, what company might be more in the market for a property like WWE craving something that's quote unquote sports centric like WWE, how they're trying to present themselves now. Would it behoove them in that sense? No, because they don't get the vote. Whether it does or doesn't, doesn't matter because they don't get the vote. Here, so let's, let me give you an example to prove my, or present my point. They go to, I'm going to use Warner Brothers Discovery again, not for any reason other than

it's part of wrestling conversation. Warner Brothers Discovery doesn't know what they're going to do with the NBA, do they? Question, answer? Oh, I thought you were asking that rhetorically. No, I mean, they're still trying to. All right, so they don't know. They don't know. What does it mean to you, from a financial perspective, what does it mean that they don't know? It means that they're not going to commit to any vast amounts of money that could adversely impact their ability to bid on the NBA. They're not going to make

massive commitments until they know. And also because of their schedule. They don't know what their schedule is going to be. They don't know how much the rights are going to cost them. So to negotiate with Border Brothers Discovery or any other network that may be in the hunt for the NBA rights. To force that issue before the network knows how much money they actually have to spend and commit, the end result is you're going to get less for your product than you would if you weighed it out. Again, Warner Brothers Discovery, they're in a hunt when I'm again using them because there's been rumor in innuendo that in fact they're interested in the rights. very well may be because I know they were interested in buying WWE at one point, have it on very good authority.

They get the NBA. Now they got a scheduling issue. They don't get the NBA. Now they don't have a scheduling issue, but they're willing to spend more money because they're not having to commit it to the NBA deal because they lost it. That's why it's a benefit just to wait and write it out.

Yeah. I mean, I don't disagree at all. I think WWE pretty much has a ton of leverage here because the NBA rights will ultimately, in all likelihood, at least be split between two properties is what I would imagine as it has been for a long time, whether those two properties are Warner Brothers Discovery in Disney, as they have been for a long time. I'm not sure. We'll see. I very much think, Eric, that Amazon is in an all-out blitz for sports and sports-centric properties. Makes sense.

and where Amazon ends up, whether it's the NBA or WWE, I really think they're going to try to be all in on acquiring like-minded content, such as that that would allow for them to air programming at their own wherewithal, essentially. And there's another element, too, that he hit on, wrong graphic there, sorry. He was asked about the WW Network on Peacock. And he said, WWE Network, the deal with NBC is up in March, 2026. We could take it to market all by itself, or we could package it with UFC since it's similar content. Taking it to market by itself doesn't surprise me, but when I hear that bundle with UFC and being referred to a similar content, that perks my ears a little bit about business strategy.

What do you think of that? Remember, when it was finally announced and the deal had been publicized between the U.S. UFC and WWE, we talked about promotional opportunities and leveraging promotional opportunities or touring opportunities or any number of other opportunities. And this is a perfect example of what we talked about six months ago or whatever it was. That's one of the big advantages in a merger. That's the upside. That's where one plus one can equal three and a half is when you merge the right companies

and the right opportunities. Yeah, I think the notion that the content is similar was very interesting because I think if you look at it truly at the micro level, there's a lot of differences, especially in the type of content that is produced by these two companies. Similar is, that's a, yeah, I wouldn't use that word. It's not similar. Yeah. And Dana White has talked about it.

There's been a lot of people that have to be. But it's not similar. It's, no, there's nothing about it that is similar other than the combatants are half naked or in their tights and they're, in WWE, they're pretending to beat the shit out of each other in the UFC, they really are. It's not even apples and oranges. It's apples and bricks. Yeah.

But it's action and it's live. And that, therein lies a similarity. Beyond that, I disagree with a similar. yeah i mean dana white was making fun of the guy that came out and said yeah they're very similar products data white came out publicly and bashed his own executive for saying such a stupid thing they're not similar well here's the president of tk o saying that well he's a dumbass he should have used a different world hey this episode of strictly business is presented to you by bluechew let's talk about sex gents remember the days when you're always ready to go well now you can

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and no waiting in line at the pharmacy blue choose tablets are made in the USA and prepared and shipped directly to your door in a discreet package we are in wrestling convention season that means a lot of travel that means i got to have my blue chew with me because you never know on a moment's notice when the opportunity is going to strike i know eric bischoff is traveling for conventions as well is B is joining him at his side, and you better believe that he is traveling well with a good Blue Chew in his pocket. They help him. They help me. Now they want to help you have better sex. Discover your options at Bluetooth.com. Chew it and do it. We got a special deal for our listeners. Try Blue Chew free and use our promo code wrestle biz at checkout. Just pay $5 shipping.

That's bluechew.com promo code wrestle biz, B-I-Z to receive your first month absolutely free. Visit bluechoo.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Blue Choo for sponsoring strictly business. One more item on this front for you, Eric, and then I got a copyright question for you. Not anything to dig into all that much here, but just kind of a sad thing. This was announced this week that WWE is no longer going to be in the home video category. The licensing will expire. the last WW home video releases will be Crown Jewel coming up later this month.

That was the pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia. Coliseum video, Eric, all these VHSs and DVDs that existed for years. Physical media, unfortunately, is just kind of going away at this juncture. But WWE pulling out of that business really does feel like an end of an era for me. What do you think about that? yeah yeah who cares interesting i mean did anybody get upset when they went from rotary phones to push button phones because i'll tell you the end of an era here's here's the difference between that and we're seeing it with other streaming services outside of wrestling where the content goes from

physical media to streaming and a network will hold the rights to the streaming properties for that particular program. Then they let the licensing agreement go up, expire. Then that piece of media disappears. It's gone unless someone else picks it up. In a lot of cases, that doesn't happen. And people who might want to have that property at their disposal to enjoy for their entertainment, unless they had it on physical media, no longer have that. It's dead. Definitely something that is occurring in the movie and TV industry. Wrestling rights could disappear as well. Not necessarily for Raw SmackDown,

but there are other wrestling programmings that WWE has licensing on that they could decide, we don't want that anymore, and that disappears. So why? Why is the home video DVD business, deteriorating deteriorating across all media platforms.

People are just physical media is just no longer a thing anymore. Nobody's buying a shit. Yeah. Why keep producing something? Nobody's really, there's no market for it anymore. How would you like to,

how would you like to pay all of your bills by selling DVD players? You'd be a Walmart greeter by the end of the month. It's a dying business. Yep. So I'll go, back to my original response so what is what it is do you feel that wcw capitalized well enough on

the home distribution side of oh no no no no no no no no no w we did a great job long before we ever became competitive with w we we was doing a great job of creating the home video business made a lot of money doing it because home videos were hot and DVDs were hot, but they're not hot anymore. But WCW never really developed that aspect of our business. That was on the marketing side. That fell under Sharon Sadello. And Sharon Sadello just didn't have the experience, the Rolodex, the connections in the industry, same thing as a Rolodex. She just didn't have it. She didn't have a vision for it. She didn't know how to build that aspect of our business. So we kept

doing the same things we'd been doing since the beginning of WCW time, which was a half-est job. And we couldn't get the attention of the major players that were doing business with WWE, because WWE had the type of relationship with their vendors that didn't include or allow working with other wrestling companies. So we had the lower end of the home video food chain that didn't have the distribution. When it comes to home video, when it comes to anything, no matter what it is. soft drinks, tennis shoes, anything you buy in a retail outlet, it's all about distribution. And you can have the greatest product in the world, but if you're not married to the right distributor,

you're not getting in that store. And if you do get in that store, you're not going to be there long. You have to be with a distributor that has the best relationships, the best credibility. You have to be with an A player. or you're just going to flounder, which is what WCW did, because we didn't have the power. We didn't have the resources. We didn't have the ability to go, hey, we get better ratings than they do up until 1995 or 1996. But we didn't have the infrastructure, short answer, didn't have the infrastructure.

Got one more for you before we wrap up on Strictly Business, Eric. This one pretty crazy that something of this size. influenced something of this magnitude. So Jay Uso, we know he's become one of the big stars in WWE over the course of the past year, year and a half. And one of his catchphrases was getting over big and that was him saying, Yeat. Him and Cody Rhodes were parroting it.

They were making shirts about it. The crowd was chanting Yeat. All of a sudden, Yeet disappeared this week. And the reason that Yeet disappeared and the shirt disappeared is because apparently WWE could not secure the trademark for Yeat. Independent wrestler Casey

Huffman filed to trademark Yeat and Yeat Movement in 2021, and both are filed under entertainment services related to pro wrestling. And the application for Yeet has been suspended since October 2020. And as a result of WWE never officially

filing for the trademark, they had to drop this very overhelement of J. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I want to make sure I understand it. So this cat, this independent wrestler, who filed, who applied for a trademark in 2021. It went dormant in 2022, which means he doesn't have it. Mm-hmm. And as a result of this guy not having a trademark that he previously had filed, probably because it costs too fucking much and he didn't realize it.

It is now a vacant trademark. why would that prevent WWE for making application? That's a great question. But WWE has not filed to trademark it yet, and as a result, has abandoned using it. That to me, again, I'm not Mike Dawkins. I'm not a trademark and copyright attorney by any stretch of the imagination,

but I have had some experience in that area, both working for Turner Broadcasting and even on my own trademarking, different things on my own. and copywriting. My guess is this is a very corporate reaction, risk management reaction to that trademark issue, meaning that they don't,

they mean WWE doesn't want to go out and build this entire licensing merchandising program on this Mark Yeat, if there's any chance that they may not get it. And if there's a cloud, which apparently there is, because it is an abandoned mark that someone else had previously filed for it. There is some risk in that, and perhaps WWE just said, fuck it, it's not worth it. Let's not take the chance.

Because, again, if they're going to merchandise, it's going to print up a ton. And it's not like they're doing the pro wrestling tease version where you print them up by order. They're going to have to go out and print up a bunch of shirts and have a bunch of inventory, they have a much more sophisticated system. And I would imagine they went, let's not tie up a, couple million dollars worth of inventory utilizing a mark that we're not 100% sure that we're going to have yep yeah i think you're dead on i think that's exactly what it's a matter of are you always dead on almost 84.3% of the time yeah is that why you're getting your head shaved again

fuck i forgot to calculate that one i'm back down under 80% again thanks for the minor dickhead are you a member of the movement no no okay you are a j uso fan though right i am indeed big time fan so i thought big time fan he's crud it you think we're going to see the brother versus brother match at mania

uh be really odd if we don't see something like that some kind of nefarious connection between the two i don't know yeah i don't know i mean i dig j usso because he's born out of great storytelling and he lived up to the opportunity and met the opportunity and exceeded it and i just have boatloads of respect for people like that yeah totally agree totally agree la night same la night he's way up on my list because here's a guy that's been around for almost ever should have probably quit a half a dozen times because he really wasn't getting anywhere and he just forced his way into

their life and now he's making money hand over fist that is a story i love so yeah there's a lot of people out there randy orton are you kidding me i'm so happy randy orton is back right now i feel like a fan boy i can't wait to see him again he's awesome looks like randy and roman are going to have a big championship match at the royal rumbull so that'll be awesome that will be awesome i will be watching that one big time match yeah while you're getting your head shaped as a matter of fact is how you'll be watching. Hey listen we are going to have a lot of fun on strictly business the next few weeks. We got a couple special episodes. We're going to be doing the best and worst of the business with Eric Bischoff where he's going to give his awards for

the best and worse of the wrestling business in 2023, which you know will be a good one. And then just like we did last year, the last episode of the year, we will make our bold predictions for the business in 2024, and we'll look it back on how we did with our predictions for 2023. So some fun episodes coming your way at the end of this year. I can't believe we're already at the home stretch of December. Absolutely insane to think about. But here we are. We want you to be on board with the business. Head on over, advertise witheric.com. Get your business. Get your product out in front of thousands and thousands of listeners and viewers every single week last week's edition of strictly business was our biggest to date we are growing every single

week and we want you to be a part of it especially as we enter q1 of 2024 hop on board with us advertise with eric dot com anything else you want to add my friend no brother i'm good i'm i'm i'm going to i'm going to get in the house and put myself a quart of ice cold electrolyte water We'll see you next time.