83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #58: BOLD BUSINESS Predictions for 2024

Episode Date: December 23, 2023

In this week's edition of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba make BOLD predictions for the wrestling industry in 2024! Plus, a dive into what a potential Warner Bros. Discover/Paramount merger could mean for AEW or WWE. 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

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How's it going, everyone. It's time for strictly business with Eric Bischoff, another edition of it, headed your way, courtesy of the ad-free shows. podcast heat networks i am john alba and as i am every single week i am joined by the man of the hour this week on location mr eric bischoff how are we my friend i am doing great we're here in uh clear water florida and with my son our son our daughter-in-law and our grandson wayland just having an absolute blast with him it's so amazing you know we always talk about everybody says it know time flies well when you have a grandson that you only get to see a couple times a year it puts time flying into a whole new context it's amazing but anyway hey i let you know before we got started my batteries are really running low i'm not sure i'm going to make it through a whole

episode maybe maybe not let's jump right into it brother all right well i don't want to waste any more time then we got a bunch of fans on ad free shows joining us happy holidays to all you guys who are tuning in. Eric. Merry Christmas. Oh, ho. Oh. That was fairly. Happy Hanukkah, as the case may be. Whatever it is. That's very jolly of you. I like to hear that. I'm a jolly muckold brother. Eric, last year, we did our bold predictions for 2023. Remember, you are, you are Mr. Nostradamus here, right? Like, you love to remind everyone of that. That's Nostra fucking Damas to you, but yes. That's right. Well, I wanted to take a look back at those picks today and make our bold predictions for 20, 24, because we are just around the corner

to that. And I'll tell you what, Eric, I went back and I looked at what you had to say. And some things were awesome. You were dead on. And other things, not so much. So let's, let's run through what your picks were last year. And I'll mention mine as well. Your number five, you said CM Punk leaves AW without a contract buyout. not too shabby i was with you on the record on that i'm that i'm that guy i did you envision him getting fired uh i don't think i thought through it i just knew it wasn't going to work it was an untenable situation from the get go and it was not getting better it was getting worse on a daily weekly monthly basis so i you know i don't think it was that much of a you know great prediction because

To me, it was so obvious. Well, as we know, he is over on the WWE side right now, being a featured member of the Monday Night Raw television program, which takes me to your next one. You said Fox or NBC will get all of WWE's TV rights. That one, not looking so good. I mean, we do know NXT is going to the CW, but as far as Monday Night Raw goes,

that is still technically up in the air. We know that Smackdown is going over to U.S. do you still feel there's any possibility that USA could walk away with both of those properties highly unlikely but let's not call the patient dead until the time of death so let's wait and see well that's a morbid way of answering a question what are they come from i must i must have fallen asleep watching a medical drama last night or something you're full of them today man you're full of them well on on the inverse of that you said that you saw AEW renewing with Warner Brothers Discovery.

Yeah, I'm surprised that hasn't happened. And I'm sure we'll talk a lot more about that, provided my battery holds up. And you know what I'll do? If it crashes, I'll come back on my phone. Yeah, you can come back on your phone. We'll make it happen. I'll try to make that work.

But yeah, it should have happened. I think if business was as good as, you know, the surrogates like shit-stained day meltser, and the rest of the internet wrestling community that is so in love with AEW, despite the fact that, you know, we've been hearing for two years now that, you know, Meltzer anticipated doubling

or tripling their license fees because he was comparing wrestling ratings to hockey ratings and extrapolating a number. Just proves without any further discussion what a complete moron Dave Meltzer is and how little knowledge and understanding he really has of the business. He only knows what he read last or what somebody told him last.

He has no real experience. So even though that information that people share with him might be interesting data points or an interesting observation, Dave Meltzer has no way to interpret it and apply it because he has no experience in anything other than writing a shit sheet. So I think all of the rah-rah AEWs, they're worth billions of dollars because they're media rights and sports. I mean, you and I argued about it. argue you agreed but you hated hearing me pointed out what what do you see you're playing in the narrative no you just no i know it's uncomfortable you don't like uncomfortable conversation i get that a lot of people don't my daughter's the same way right my son doesn't he just prefers

not to be around it i on the other hand absorb that shit right i wallowing it but yeah um i'm surprised it should have been done and the fact that it's not been done i think is more of a clear indicator about the tentative situation at AEW and Warner Brothers Discovery despite all the oh we have a really good relationship and we're frads and you're so excited

about us and they did press releases talking about us it all comes down to math your number two was that Vincent Kennedy McMahon this is a good one in hindsight ready Vincent Kennedy McMahon will fight his urge to fight for his spot at the top of WWE and return to power and decide that it's best for business, not for him to return. That was right, huh? I wouldn't say so. What do you mean?

You wouldn't say so. What's he doing right now? He returned to power and facility. He doesn't have any power. Who's running a company? Who's running the company? What? Con and Triple-A are running that company. He forced his way into a board takeover in order to the company. Yeah, and what's he doing now? He maintained the executive chair power at the top of it. It means nothing. It's a figurehead position. He's much like Ted Turner. Eric, come on. You can't round him out into this. Look, he fought his way back. He returned the power and now he's gone. Here I go. I was right. He's out of the creative power, but he very much is on the board still he's the executive chair of the company it's a figure head it's a ceremonial position it was a nice

thing to do for the for vince mcman on his way off the door it was nicer than kicking him out of the building and not giving him a key code to get in he's have you read a press release lately from the desk of viz McMahon or speaking for wwe or tkow no you haven't because there hasn't been one right but your prediction was that he wouldn't come back in the first place period and he very much did we did we did we nail that to out of or are we talking about the end result? Because if you're going to pick, all right, I'll give you that.

I can only fight so hard. If I had more battery, I'd fight harder, but we can move on. You are a professional bullshitter at the highest regard, man. It is unbelievable. That is, that is, that is, that is good. You got Pirates trolling. Eric with the W on that one. Okay, sure.

And your number one, this one, I got to hand it to you, man. And you nailed it, NXT will outperform AW Dynamite in 2023. Yeah, and several times. I think that makes up for the one. I'm going to, we're going to split the difference on the Vince McMahon prediction. I'm not going to call it a W. I'm not going to call it a NL. I'm going to call it a neutral.

But given that NXT, because I can create the scoring system. Of course, yeah, of course. I can do whatever you want. It's a plan. do it you don't have a podcast yet one because you could do whatever ridiculous shit you want and no one can fire you for it it's awesome but the fact that nxtee beat a ewe so many times in twenty twenty two i predict it once i didn't expect it to be you know week after week after well i wasn't week it was two or three times whatever you are on a roll today

We're going to call him Eric Gaslighting Bischoff for this week's episode. Hey, what is Gaslighting be? I don't even know. I hear that all the time. I don't know what the fuck does that mean. What does that mean? So gaslighting is exactly what you just tried to do with Vince McMahon, where you were like, no, I meant it as in this.

This is what happened. So even though we are well aware of the events that actually occurred, you try to convince someone that it happened a way in which they don't remember. That's what Gaslighting goes. Well, Dill Carnegie, you wrote a book back. in a 30s called how to win friends and influence people and i read that book when i was 14 fucking years old you call it gaslighting i call it persuasive conversation see like you try to tell me that nxte beat a w week after week after week after week meanwhile i'm like i don't remember that

happening that would be gaslighting okay i just call it bullshitting but whatever of course of course i'll never be woke i will never be woke i think that has they do with being woke i think that's just uh the the term for it today no because it woke motherfuckers gaslight people the time that's what that's what it is okay i had a few predictions of my own a couple of these came true a couple we still don't even know about truthfully i had said that w w a new japan we're going to have a working relationship that did not come to fruition if you remember there were a lot of rumors about that at the beginning of this year that they might get into business yeah by the way who cares on that shit who freaking cares working relationship new japan pro wrestling god bless them

they're great they you know they've got their fan base they have their their little business it is a pimple on a pig's ass in the big scheme of things in terms of it being a legitimate media live event touring promoter like it used to be it's not that anymore it's an indifed i look at it i look at more as wwee trying to get into japan and open nxte japan down there at some point like that's what i figured that would try to lead to in ways on that i said that Roman Raines would transition to a part-time wrestler. As we know, that did come to fruition. You and I both kind of thought he'd be headed to Hollywood this year,

but unless he's filmed some secret projects, plus we had a giant writer strike and actor strike, so that did not come to fruition. Yeah, and I think your prediction is right. I think we're going to give it a pass because of the strike. So let's add another six months or so into the equation and see where we're at, you know, starting in July or June or July. because if if that's true, I think you should get a win for 2023.

I said punk would leave AW as well with you. Cody Rhodes would become WWE's top baby face since John Sina. What do you think about that? Do you think that's how things played out this year? You know, it's so interesting. I would say yes, barely. And only because there's so much other good stuff going on. I think L.A. night, the emergence of L.A. night as a legitimate star that forced his way into the picture.

And the reaction from the audience was so undeniable that he literally forced his way into the top of the card. And I think that took a lot of attention, you know, not off of Cody, but you could only spread the love. So why? Trust me. I'm not sure. If I, you know, go back into my 20s and 30s, oh, my God. But you got to kind of focus. You got to, if you're going to take somebody and turn them into a John Sina or Stonecoastie Boston or whoever at any point in time was the face of the company, Hulk Hogan,

that's a lot of focus and attention and time, much like they put into Roman reigns, much like they put into John Sina. Part of being the face of the company has nothing to do with what you do in the ring. so much of the time and the effort and the energy and the work and the sweat and the grind is in all the things happen that happen away from the venue away from the arena and they haven't put that into Cody quite yet but I do expect I first of all I think he's the top maybe face of the company but I'm biased I'll call it secondly I do suspect WrestleMania is going to be his moment okay so we're a year late on it but it's going to happen

we feel we feel good about that can i can i can we throw a flag because of the writer's strike no fuck it didn't have anything to do it never and my number one was that mjf would cement a new contract with a w which truthfully may have even happened last year and we just didn't know about it but i think you think there's a possibility that this is all just a part of a work in what sense that he hasn't signed or that he is i mean from what i've heard he said he hasn't signed anything yet yeah he said i mean i don't believe that at all i think he's absolutely under a contract right now and what makes you say that um well i can tell you that i personally pinged a couple people in wwee to gauge interest and i believe sean ross sap did a thing

on this on his fightful show too where he meant it and there just hasn't been any outward interest from them because they don't believe that he's actually a free agent and if that's the case then there's no smoke really there plus they haven't leaned into that at all with the storytelling on a w tv when for so long it was part of it which tells me that he's probably signed up as a baby face going forward with a company on an extension i have i have no i just wish to do the best happy honica mjf i i wish him the best i think he's a great talent i love hanging out with him i've only hung out with him a couple times for great periods of time but he's got a good energy you know you can just tell yeah i hate to use the term vibe because it's so overused right it's

It's so woke, right? Well, he did warn us that his computer was probably going to die, and it did. And now we are 24 hours later picking up with our re-recording of Strictly Business. But, Eric, it's good to see you back there for Mrs. B's computer. So shout out to her for making this happen here. You were talking about MJF and your assessment of him as a human being. What did some of your thoughts on that? Well, I don't like, I don't want to assess him as a human being.

I don't know him that well, but just the little bit I've been around him, communicated with him very, very briefly, social media and so forth. I just get the impression he's a very grounded person. I know we see the character, MJF, but I get a vibe from him, and it's a good vibe. So whatever's going on, I hope it ends up well for MJF. Well, he's in the Iron Claw movie that just came out. And I would imagine Hollywood will certainly be in his future. Have you had a chance to see Iron Claw or do you plan on seeing Iron Claw?

It's taken all the headlons. I will see it at some point. I haven't yet. But probably after the holidays is when we get caught up on things like that. But yeah, I'm sure I will. Yeah, critical acclaims so far for that. Really excited to see what comes out. You know, it's funny, Eric, yesterday as we recorded the beginning of this,

we talked about my New Japan prediction. in New Japan, working with WWE and having a working relationship to maybe build towards something with NXT. Well, today, as we record, all Japan Pro Wrestling announced a working relationship with WWE NXT, where they're going to have an NXT talent come in for the beginning of January, and that could lead to some more things down the line. You have any thoughts on that? That's kind of interesting, isn't it? A little bit of chess going on there. So, yeah, let's, I'm sure this will result in the AEW having a working relationship, whatever that means, with New Japan, because it's, yeah, I get it, fun, love it. Well, they already have the forbidden door stuff, and we did find out Hiroshi Tanahashi, actually, who is essentially the John Cena of New Japan is now their president.

We found that out yesterday as well after we recorded, so a lot of things going on over on that front. I want to get into our bold predictions for 2024. Do you want to let's, before we do, Eric, any wagers on the line here? Or are we just? No, I'm, I'm just, I am so done. Like, I'm right all the time. The only time I'm wrong, the only time that my, my average gets down to, like, mid to low 80s is when I make a bet.

So no more bets. No more bets. No more bets. No more bets. I'm done with it. I'm tired of it. No. By the way, guys, Eric is on his computer microphone because he wasn't able to transition that stuff over technologically. So that's why it sounds a little different than our... Because I'm a high-tech redneck. That's right. High-tech redneck. Okay, Eric. Let's get to your number five, bold prediction for 2024 for the business of the business. What do you got for us?

Honestly, God, I hadn't even thought about this. So I'm winging this. What's my number five? My number five. What is the least significant prediction that I can make out of five significant predictions, hopefully not to have an adverse impact on my overall successful prediction rating average? Because I will hold these against you. Make no. I know you will. That's why I have to be so careful. Okay, number five, the least significant. I think we'll see far fewer talent transitions between television. television companies in 2024. You saw a lot of them. They were high impact, big names, a lot of surprises. I think we'll see half as many. I don't know how many we had in 2023, but we'll have half as many in 2024. Half being qualified, by the way, not just anybody. I'm talking about people

that have wrestled at least, oh, 18 times over the course of 12 months. You'll see fewer of those people making transitions from one company to another. Why do you think that? Because I think that I think the high profile, absolutely meaningful players, I think we've gone through that market. I think it'll be a while before that market sees expiration dates that makes it, well, it creates a situation what you see as much velocity as we have in in 2023 in terms of the just number of people that were able to jump ship. I think the contract situation is probably such that we won't see a lot of open-ended contract opportunities for another couple of years. Interesting. I've got some thoughts on that I'll get to later on in this podcast as it pertains to free agents. Do you think that

the TV rights deals that end up getting done? Could that have any effect? on free agent pursuels? So I have to make sure I understand your question. So I think you're asking me, is there anybody out there that could be a free agent in 2024 that could impact television rights renewals? Not so much that. More so, say, hypothetically speaking,

AW didn't end up back with WBD and ended up with someone totally else. Would that affect their ability, in your opinion, go after a high price free agent that's more my question of course okay of course i mean yeah that would that definitely because if you're if you're a top if you're a top prospect in the nfl if you're coming out of college and you're a top prospect or you've been drafted you would you rather play for the xfl i mean would you rather go to canada play for the canadian football league right doesn't make sense

to me. Maybe. I can't imagine it, though. Okay. I was just curious on that. My number five, Eric, I think you'll like this one. I've got Lex Lugar headline in the WWE Hall of Fame class. I think with Triple H now being the guy who's leading the way on that stuff, you're going to see a lot of people who may have been shunned by Vince McMahon in recent years and maybe some more international talent who had a cup of coffee in WWE or WCW start to get that recognition. Who do you think may have been shunned by Vince? Hmm. China.

China is one of them. There was a long time where... I'm not touching that one, by the way. Yeah, I'm just saying, I've been speaking bluntly. I think she is one of them that was. For a long time, we know there was a whole dispute with macho man that eventually ended up being... So you don't think the previous relationship between... China and Triple H and the drama that was related to their relationship and split up

and enter Stephanie McMahon. You don't think that that has something to do with me? Well, China did eventually get inducted as part of DX. So something was smoothed over on that front, or at least bygones, were to be bygones. So let me dig into that more because I just need to understand some of these comments. So if it was smoothed over before, what would suggest? that there was shunning going on after she's already been inducted once well i'm saying as an individual performer i think people read way too much into that you think so yes i don't think there's

any shunning going on that's my that's why i wanted to dig into this i think look there's first of all it's subjective number one but to the in some things just don't make sense to others when they're subjective it doesn't matter it is what it is everybody's eventually that deserves to get in, we'll probably get in at some point. But I just don't, to suggest that Vince McMahon shunned China, I think is, that's kind of, it's a bad take. I mean, perhaps shunned is not the word. Perhaps maybe it's more just shied away from.

But China's the micro example here. What I'm saying is I expect you to see more people like Lex Lugar, who, if I'm not mistaken, didn't exactly have the best fallout with Vince McMahon upon and leaving for WCW. But again, here we go. That's just such an assumption. We don't know why. Lex hasn't been inducted yet.

We just don't know why. That's all. It's rumored in any window. Let's be clear about that. It's rumored in it. I don't know that that's true, by the way. Okay. And it might not be.

I still think that there's going to be more international presence in the hall of that. That would make sense, wouldn't it? That would make a lot of sense. If you want to expand your business internationally, how better way of doing that. than to acknowledge some really significant international superstars. I guess my point that I'm trying to make here is I think we're going to see a very different

approach to the Hall of Fame than we have in years past. And my particular guest this year is that Lex Lugar is one of the headliners for that. I hope you're right. I hope you're right. Man, he is such a good example of what can be. And you talk about a guy that's overcome and just has been challenged in every way. most of us can only try to imagine and then to come out as positive and

productive because he's a very inspirational person I think that is Hall of Fameworthy in my book any day of the week. 100%. He was a big star too, man. He was a real big star back in the day. He's a bigger star now to me. He's a much bigger star. Yeah. You know, like so many top talents

in any business, you know, music, wrestling, acting whatever ballet opera you know to when you have that limelight you know that puts you on the map and makes people know who you are and what you do for a living that's a phenomenal accomplishment and sense of accomplishment but to be able to achieve that and then find the bottom find the bottom so well that you can describe it in graphic detail and then come back up the way that someone like Lex has and others have in life. I, those, those people, these are a special mouth. He's a very inspirational story.

Triumphing in the face of tragedy. I've met him a couple times. I don't know him like you do, but I found him to be nothing but super pleasant and I wish nothing but the best for him. I'd love to see him get that acknowledgement. All right, Eric, what is your next old prediction? The holidays are here.

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To learn more, visit Damn Healthy Dose. That's D-A-M-HalthyDose.com or email Steve, S-T-E-E-V at DamHealthyDose.com for a free 30-minute consultation. mention strictly business and Steve will provide you with the first two sessions for absolutely freaking free to see if life coaching is a fit for you. Don't wait if you're feeling stuck, visit damn healthy dose.com. This is going to be number four. Yes. I think AEW will end up being forced to or coming to the realization that they need to drop

at least one of their shows. Okay. So between collision, dynamite, and rampage, one of them you see? I see one of them going away. Okay. Now, that's assuming that they stay at Warner Brothers Discovery. All bets are off if they end up getting bounced from Warner Brothers Discovery. What's your thought process behind the contraction of a program here? I think people are going to realize that the resources, and I'm not talking about

financial resources because Tony has an unlimited amount of that. That's not the issue. Money is not the issue here. The issue is focus, vision, and discipline and creative. In a certain degree, they're all kind of really related, just different components of the same real core challenge. But I think that, I hope that, let's put it this way. I hope that AEW remains on Warner Brothers discovery but that there is a realignment of priorities and resources and again not financial necessarily but creative human leadership you know more resources in those areas and and in the process probably get a much much better product it is a really interesting conundrum in one regard as far as I see it because on one hand, you have all three shows as a chance to showcase this crazy roster that you have.

There's so many talent there and three shows allow you to get all these different people on it. But what is the interest? Are people flocking to the Saturday Night Show at the rate in which they were hoping they would? Are people investing in Rampage at 11 o'clock or 10 o'clock rather on a Friday night what they were hoping for? Are those results that are being produced befitting of what Warner Brothers discovery is looking for? The dynamite rating this week, Eric, I don't know if you had a chance to see it, but the quarter hours, too. The show started at 964, and then by the end of it for John Moxley versus Jay White, they ended at 709. They had a five-minute overrun where it bounced up just a little bit.

But we're talking a pretty significant drop there between the start of the show and the end of it. And I don't think any of us really know what Warner Brothers' discoveries true expectations are for this show at this juncture, especially as we go into this renewal season. Raise your hand if you want your nails to look perfect all the time. Me too. I'm Sarah Gibson Tuttle from Olive and June, and this is exactly why we created the Manny System.

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To tune in daily for the latest Packers news analysis and insights from every angle. We've got multiple shows covering everything from game breakdowns to roster updates. Don't forget our fan favorite call-in show, Packernet After Dark. That's right. call in and talk about whatever you want because here it's all about you and your passion for the packers so what are you waiting for subscribe to the packernet podcast today and never miss a beat well again there's there's a lot of variables within that comment expectations are you want the show to at least pay for itself right you want to see some

some indication of potential future growth, that's pretty much it. I don't know what other expectations someone could have. If you're a programming executive and your job is to make sure that you're programming, your schedule is as efficient and profitable as it can be, just like if you were running an assembly line for, General Motors, right? If you're a plant manager, efficiency, profit. So you look at the efficiency of that time slot.

Let's say it's a Saturday night time slot. It's really not that of efficient of a time slot anyway, right? You're not selling out a lot of Saturday night. Usually that inventory is, this is what it used to be, okay? Perhaps things are different now. I have to acknowledge that because it's been a minute. since i've been in this world but unless it's changed significantly saturday night is a great night to find inventory that you can if you're a network let's say for let's say your turner

network tell or your tbs turn and broadcasting and you sold john elba two at one advertisement one commercial and you guaranteed because this is what happens you guaranteed john elba i guaranteed John Elba that I was going to get at least 100,000 viewers for that ad. So John could then look at his computer and go, okay, well, if I can get 100,000 viewers and I know I can convert 3%, because that's the average direct response, I know I can convert somehow or monetize 3% out of that 100, if my demos are right, uh, is that worth it to me? And there's a formula that would suggest it either did or would or wouldn't, right?

But let's say I sold John Alba that $100,000 viewer guarantee. And whoops, come Friday morning afternoon, I found out I only delivered $50,000. Shit, what am I going to do? Am I going to give John Half of his advertising dollar back? Or am I going to do what's called a make-good? Self-and-time story? And where will I do that make-good? Because I don't want to put it in my prime-time beachfront property that sells out or maybe

sells out or has a higher dollar value than what I originally sold on Saturday. It has a higher rate card is what it's called. It has a higher rate card in prime time on say a Tuesday or a Wednesday or Thursday than it does on Saturday. So I don't want to give them the beachfront property, but I want to give them something similar. So I'm just going to go from this little suburb over to this little suburb. And I'll give him a make good on Saturday night because I've got a lot of inventory I can't sell on Saturday nights. Nobody's interested in buying it. But people, people still watch it so i'll do make goods all right that's what a saturday night at least it used to be from an advertising perspective and probably to a degree what it still is today i shuddered

to think what a john alba demo is like as you mentioned that you got my point so when when when you talk about shows like dynamite and rampage and collision or monday night wall or smackdown you look at the the quality of the commercials right does I talk about seeing patterns and dots and I start connecting dots in ways that most people that talk about wrestling don't when it comes to the business of the wrestling business because that's how my mind works. I notice things. I see patterns in people and in situations and an execution. And by kind of looking at those patterns and thinking about them, you can develop kind of an idea of where something's going, whether it's going well or not going well.

So when you look at specifically a Monday Night Raw or an AEW Dynamite, look at the quality of the commercials. Do the commercials generally fit the demo? If they do, that suggests that somebody is selling that programming against those advertisers. Those advertisers generally want to be in those shows and they're not make goods. On the other hand, if you look at another show and you watch the whole show and you go, wow, this is weird, these demos are all these ads and they're target demos, they're all over the place. Those are make goods. So you've got to look at the quality of the advertising and try to determine whether they're buys or make goods.

That will indicate to you the health of a show, the profitability of a show on a network or the break even point. look for sponsorships you know regular 13 week six week eight week consistent sponsorships within the show those indicate that advertising is the network advertising is actually out there selling that inventory as opposed to using it as a make good so all of those are just little indicators i'm sorry i went off into the week no that's that's some of the best perspective you've given here that's that's great perspective because i think that does translate largely still to what we see think that's antiquated for the most part and i think that's something to look out for when you're watching dynamite next time or you're watching rampage next time or collision next time keep an eye out

for something like that it's it's interesting to think about i want to stay on this a w warner brother's discovery stuff in this edition of strictly business is presented to you by blue chew let's talk about sex gents remember the days when you're always ready to go well now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence in bed as part of your holiday seasons greetings Listen up, head on over to bluechew.com. Bluechew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Cialis, and Lovetra, but in chewable tablets and at a fraction of the cost. You can take them any time day or night so you can plan ahead or be ready whenever an opportunity arises.

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yourself why not be kind to yourself all you got to do is head on over to blue chew dot com chew it and do it we got a special deal for our listeners try blue chew free when use our promo code wrestle BIS at checkout. Just pay $5 shipping. That's bluechew.com promo code wrestlebiz to receive your first month free. Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Bluetooth for sponsoring strictly business. My number four is that I believe A.E.W. will renew with Warner Brothers Discovery. There's a trickle effect that I will get into in a little bit here. But I believe that they will eventually renew. When that comes, I don't know, but I do think it will happen at some point this year. Why? So that's interesting, but tell me why.

Well, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but I think that WWE will ultimately end up elsewhere. And I'll get into that in just a little bit because I think that that will have a trickle-down effect. I think the NBA rights still are ultimately going to be first and foremost priority for Warner Brothers Discovery, no matter how valuable WWE is. And it is. It's very valuable. It's not as valuable as the NBA for them. and I think that the precedence will be put on that. And as a result of that, WW will go elsewhere and an AW. So you're suggesting that WBD will then take on the NBA rights

and then there'll be over budget for WWE. So it's binary. It's one or the other, right? In your opinion? I more or less view it through that lens, that they will ultimately go more in on the NBA than they initially revealed that they would and that more or less retain what they currently have, I feel.

And as a result, they will stick with the current product that they have. So, interesting, not going to argue it, could happen. There's about a million things that could happen, really. And anybody that's trying to predict or sound like they know is kidding themselves. But we can all speculate based on instincts. And, you know, you've got your ear to the ground. in the world of sports. You're a big time New York sports guy now. You know shit the rest of us don't know. So you can hedge your bets. Well, on top of that, on top, I'm not been

anything. On top of that, Eric, we did hear this week. And it was funny because last week, we did a stellar episode last week, by the way, guys, if you haven't checked that episode out, go ahead into the archives where we looked at the prospect of WWU going to Warner Bros. Discovery. But we did hear this week that Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount had conversations about a potential acquisition. And you and I had discussed last week about the idea of Zazlov acquiring more properties selling. There were all these different multitude of possibilities that could fall under that WBD brand.

A move like that would be really significant in the media industry. Paramount is bleeding money, even more so than Warner Brothers Discovery right now. And based on the report from Axios, it seems like Warner Brothers Discovery would be the one, more or less leading the acquisition. And who knows what the trickle-down effect of that could be if that were to come to fruition. Isn't that an upside down kind of a, well, I guess I don't know enough about it to have a strong opinion, but it seems like Paramount would be eating Warner Brothers, not vice versa,

just based on their footprint. Right. The scope of business, right? And granted, there's a lot of, you know, Paramount. it's involved in the movie business Warner Brothers Discovery is not well no Warner Brothers Discovery is now it's more brothers man that's I got to learn more about that's a fascinating prospect and who knows now if that happens I don't know man what the the implications that could have are so broad mass that it's hard to sit here

and go oh yeah but this could happen because that's like whoa it's huge well just think out the media consolidation that would come from that, Eric, just on the surface level even, you've got Max and Paramount, the streaming networks. You'd have to imagine that those would be consolidated. You have CBS News, which is a division of Paramount, a massive institution in its own right, plus CNN and Warner Brothers Discovery. Who knows what type of consolidation you could see on that front. Then you have all the individual properties that fall underneath that it would be a massive earth-shattering merger of something like that were to happen. And as far as places for people to go and properties to go, you lose a lot of options

in something like that. So who knows? You know, it's so interesting people are talking about this. And look, it happens in every business. And I think that's not to get political, but this is kind of a, this shouldn't be a partisan issue or discussion at all because what we've been seeing over the last 20, 30 or more years, really is this, you know, they call it vertical integration because that just sounds palatable. It sounds smart. It sounds strategic. It's also could be called monopolization because as vertical integration becomes more and more a dominant part of the landscape you see fewer and fewer independent

anything independent beer brewers independent anything because everything is getting eaten up beer is a perfect example you know if you if you go back to 2000 i don't know what the dates are i'm not a beer expert but in the early 2000s when craft beers were really becoming a thing. You know, Sam Adams started it off, I believe, and it kind of worked its way west, and laws all of a sudden started changing in states. And all of a sudden, the craft beer business, local craft beer business was eating up somewhere around five or six percent. This was the last time I looked at it, five or six percent of the overall beverage, beer beverage business. Well, once that happened, once these individual brewers all over the country,

Small ones, big ones. I've been to breweries in Wyoming that are out up against a mountain in a barn. These are really, really cool breweries, right? But in aggregate, they ate up enough of the consumer beer market that big beer companies like, you know, Anizer Bush or whoever owns it now in Bev or Molson Coors, because everything, there is no American breweries anymore. They're all owned by foreign companies, right, because of vertical integration. But as all of these micro brews and craft beer business started eating away at the national, you know, retail consumption averages, what did the big breweries do? They went out and gobbled them all up.

They bought them all. So there's the local independent brewer that was the three guys that you went to college with that pulled all their money and because they loved beer and they created their own little spot and one of them turned into a cook and it started becoming really successful. Oh, and they franchise another one down the street or down across town, those are gone now. There's a new one starting up, and they're all hoping to get eaten up. But the heyday's over. I just think vertical integration, especially in media, is really dangerous, really dangerous.

And I'm not happy about it, man. I want choice. The Department of Justice used to have very stringent rules about mergers, right, in acquisitions, to protect the population, the culture, the society, the economic structure of our country, to protect it from too many monopolies. So we don't get dependent on one or two or only three sources for food or medicine or whatever. Batteries for your cars. But here we are.

And the DOJ just keeps letting this stuff happen. And if this Paramount, WVD merger goes through, you might as well eliminate monopoly laws from the books because it's ridiculous. It's scary because then you're talking about jobs. You're talking about consumer options. You're talking about so much. We're talking about pricing. You're talking about pricing. You got one major company having control of the pricing in the market of 60 or 70 or 70.

70% of the market share or whatever it is. I saw a great tweet. It was like, Hulu, Disney Plus, Netflix, Paramount Plus have all decided to come under together as one integrated model referred to as cable. And I was like, here we are. Back to stage one, Eric. Isn't that funny? Full circle shit.

I love it. It's called unintended consequences. It's what happens when people don't look three or four or five or ten years into the future. It's easy to make short-term decisions. Oh, wow, if we merge with this company, we're going to be huge. We've got this synergy and blah, blah, blah, blah. You can talk your way into just about anything if you're really, really good at talking yourself into shit.

And it starts off great, but there's always unintended consequences. And again, I'm going to go back to this, man. Look at the AOL Time Warner Turner merger. What has gone down in most business history books as the worst media merger in the history of media mergers, although Paramount and WBD may be knocking on the door if that actually happens. But that whole thing, and I was there for, brother, I had a front row seat. I literally was standing in a room four feet away from General Levin as he was standing next to Ted Turner talking about how wonderful the merger is going to be between Time Warner and Turner because you

have the solid foundation and this blue collar blue chip entity called Warner Brothers or Time Warner. them and then you have the entrepreneurial spirit of the turner organization and we're going to bring these two companies together and combine we're going to be the most powerful media platform in the world and we're all going yeah five years later aOL's disappeared it's freaking gone cnn is an embarrassment it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a punchline and when it comes to media and news, I mean, it's just whatever. It's amazing, but we don't learn.

We just, let's do it again. Let's see if this paramount thing will work with WVD because all these mergers are working so great. Yeah. Now you're right, man. You're absolutely right. It's scary. It's scary to think about.

All right. What is your number three, Eric? I don't know, man. I don't have a number. All right. I'll pitch one and you tell me what you think. I got Mercedes Monet, Sasha Banks, returning to WWE this year. I think she will be the biggest free agent on the market this year.

And there had been reports of her going to AEW to do some stuff there. We know she did some stuff with New Japan. It was an ugly exit for her from WWE. But now that Paul Levex in charge, I foresee her returning. And the speculation is that she's going to receive a major, major, major money contract. Charlotte Flair reportedly just re-signed for the biggest contract that a woman has ever received in W.W.E. history, I could very well see Sasha Banks coming pretty damn close to that. What do you think? I agree. You know, it's hard for me to put a evaluation on it. But obviously, major player, let's just really be honest. This is going to say, I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Because when you analyze stuff, you have to look at both sides. You can't analyze things from only one perspective.

I tend to look at things analytically, or I try. So if I'm Sasha Banks, here's what I'm excited about or Mercedes Monet, even one. Equally is excited for both because she's got a great relationship. She has an established market value. There's anticipation. She's obviously got a fan base. Oh, and Charlotte's down for a while. Hmm, that creates, I don't know.

What's it called? Oh, opportunity. You've got all that over here on this side of the equation. And guess what? You don't have any leverage. Because nobody in their right mind thinks for a moment you're going to jump on what appears to be. And it may not be. But the perception is today, if Mercedes-Money, Sasha Banks, at all, that's lawyer talk, folks, at all.

If either one or both of them decided they wanted to make a move to AEW currently, does that make any sense at all? I think not, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. She's getting the leverage. And if Sasha Banks watched Mercedes, wants to just go do her thing somewhere and write it out at AEW until whatever happens, happens, be a part of a big resurgence, perhaps, or be on the ship when it goes down. That would be a really bad choice, and she's got too much, there's too much money on the table, and she's too smart, and she's surrounded by smart people to make not smart decisions. Well, you know, wrestling's a lot more fluid these days when it comes to contracts in AW specifically, has shown that it's willing to bring people in on per appearance deals or short-term deals.

They've done that with several people, Will Osprey, before they were able to sign them to a full-time deal. Al-Qaeda's come in from New Japan on per-appearance deals. And I would imagine that Mercedes-Mone, when they were first talking to her, it was something similar to that because she made it clear she still wanted to do a lot of international work. But I just, I don't see it happen anymore. I think she's by SummerSlam. Honestly, I'll go even more bold. I'll give you a timeline. I'll say by SummerSlam, we see her back in WWE, if not sooner.

I really do believe that. She's a big time star, Eric. I would suggest sooner. Yeah, maybe. Because of the Charlotte's scenario. Yeah. Sean Ross Satt from Fipel has reported that Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch are both three agents this year, two top players in their own right.

And WWE is going to be in a situation now, Eric, where they got to lock up all these big names. And there's no reason not to because WWE, has the financial ability and equity to be able to do that. And these people are worth that investment. They're bringing the money back. It's not like they're not. These are your franchise players. You're Seth Rollins, your Becky Lynch's, your Drew McIntyres, your Sasha Banks, Cody Rhodes, even. There's report this week from Fightful that says that WW is trying to lock him up on a long-term extension right now and not even tempting to let him hit the market at any point or sniff the market. So I think we're going to see this, Eric, throughout 2024, where WWE will double-dead.

down big financially on retaining all of their top stars. I disagree. Really? You just said earlier that you don't see people jumping. I'm sorry? You just said earlier in this podcast you don't see people jumping. Yeah, but not for the reason you just suggested. Okay.

Not because WWE's willing to back up the brink truck and start unloading shit with a shovel, but because there's just, look, nobody in the right mind thinks that AED, is an option for anybody at the Seth Rollins level. It's not the same thing. I'm a friend with Adam Copeland. I like Adam a lot. Adam, he just, you know, this character lived its life in WWE, and it was time for him to move on,

and he got himself into a great situation, probably is making a ton of money, and he's having fun doing what he wants to do. That's not the same as Seth Rollins, who is still relatively, probably mid-career. And are you going to look at possibly sniffing over here at AEW or you think anybody really believes you are, or even if you are pretending to be interested,

that you'd actually make a decision to jump into a scenario that is as precarious as it appears to be right now? Nobody's going to do that. So I think all of these people, now, look, unless something happens and the WBD thing turns around and, you know, AEW is actually in a much better position, business-wise, structurally, with WPD, and has a bigger budget, then, sure, I could see that. I don't think that's going to happen. And as a result, I don't think that a lot of the perceived leverage that existed a year or two ago, perhaps, is going to exist in 24-25.

And that's even with you saying earlier that Tony Kahn has unlimited funds to pump into this. You don't see. Yeah, because nothing's unlimited. There's a limit to everything to how much someone's willing to lose or embarrassment they're willing to sustain. There is a limit. But if you're a top talent mid-career or perhaps in your mind at least, you're not even at your midpoint yet, where do you want to perform? Do you want to perform on something that looks like it may be limping along on some obscure streaming platform a year or two from now? Or do you want to perform in front of thousands of thousands of.

thousands of people every time you step into a ring and be able to perform at the highest levels with some of the greatest talent in the world. That's how a talent would think, most of them. We will find out. I think Sasha is going to be the leader in the clubhouse, honestly, for top free agents coming in. There's some other names out there, Julia from New Japan, who WWB is expected to make a significant offer towards, and obviously, you know, they'll be in on Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. out a book this year, by the way, Eric. I know you're making good. I like Becky.

I don't know her really well. I say I like her. I just, you know, I just give vibes to, you know, you can sometimes you can just feel the energy of someone and you can almost feel their character in a way. I always got great vibes around her. She just always struck me when I was in WWE for a minute. Anytime I was around her, I just, she just felt. like a very comfortable person, comfortable with herself, secure in herself, and she was

enjoying herself. And I like being around people like that. So I hope she writes a book and I'll read it. Can't wait for that. Very excited. She's one of my favorite talent ever. So she will no doubt have some great things to say. All right, I'll go to my next one here. Eric, here we go. Let's let's have some back and forth. Again, these are bold predictions. WWE ops for a streaming service for the Monday Night Raw broadcast rights. Specifically, I will say Amazon. That one's out of my pay grade, to be honest, because I just don't know enough about the business model and what it has to offer beyond the obvious. I can't say I disagree, and I can't say that'll never happen.

i would lean the other way but not by much um i think linear television still has a place in the business model and i just don't see it happening in 2024 but not by much brother you could be right about that i think the real question is not a matter of if it's a matter of when is it this tv cycle or is it the next tv cycle that's how i look at at least amazon is is balls to the wall with getting in on live sports. And again, depending on what lens you view pro wrestling through, we know it's not apples to apples. But I do think on the surface level,

the fact that we know they're going to be in on this in the first place shows that they very much view WWE as a property that they could market along those lines and distribute effectively and efficiently. And I really feel like WWE Air, has historically, especially as far as distribution, tried to be very much at the forefront of doing something different. We know they did it with the WWE network. They really stepped outside of things with the Fox broadcast deal and going to the actual Fox National Channel there with that.

And I very much think that Amazon Prime specifically, not Apple TV, but Amazon Prime, is going to be the avenue where they feel that they are going to be able to lead the charge on. within the industry and for that reason i think they make the pivot there all right well let's keep an eye on that one because it's interesting as hell do you still feel as confident as you did last week that wwee ultimately ends up with warner brother's discovery for raw because you went out of your way at the end of last week's episode to suggest that you see that getting to the finish line with the paramount thing that throws i i don't know if that makes my position stronger or weaker to be honest, there's just so much I don't know about what that potential merger could mean to even

take a stab at that one. I would say, though, if I had to make a choice right now, I'm probably less convinced because this is a big variable. And anytime you have a big variable, it's better to step back and hold your bets. I would definitely agree on that front. I'm curious, Eric, if they did make this pivot to a streaming service, what kind of effect that would have in terms of carryover? Would the TV audience follow them in full? I feel like that's a variable we don't really know much about. We've talked about in the past year as far as football and how they had a drop off of about 6, 7 million viewers when they went from Thursday nights on television to Amazon specifically for Thursday night football. Will wrestling fans make a transition

like that let me posit a thought let's hear it has anybody ever said to you let me posit a thought no fucking awesome yeah when we talked about see that one more time yeah okay okay when we talked about it as far as football's concern we saw there's a drop off of about six seven million from when thursday night football went from tell okay all right that's that's what i want to get so i number one i don't know but here's what i've about to posit i am 98% sure that there has been research conducted over the course of the last 10 or 15 years and updated that could tell you probably within 5 or 10 percent what percentage of an audience is willing and will make a jump from one network to another. And I'm positive to that. I guarantee you in the

analysis, somebody in the research department says, well, let's go back and take a look at what happened anytime WWE left USA for TN, for example, or Spike TV. Let's look at what happens when a program, a wrestling program, changes from one platform to another. Well, I would say WWE. And there's a number there, whether it's being bumped to another night because of conflicting content, you know, sports, for example, oh, no, you move to another network. There is data that will indicate, not tell you exactly, but will indicate to you, or at least give you a level of confidence that you'll probably be able to drag 80% of your audience to your new platform because there's somewhere there's sitting research that will indicate just how loyal

wrestling fans are compared to other forms of programming they will find you they will follow you i mean i've known it anecdotally right just from watching and seeing and again patterns and observing oh wow is they're going to change that you know a network night oh it's going to be horrible well it really wasn't because the audience is so loyal they will find you You've got to promote it. You've got to talk about it. But my gut is that if this actually happens at some point, I think it probably will. In fact, I know it will.

It's just when, as you pointed out, I bet you 80% of the audience transitions within the first week. And the rest of them will pick it up soon. Sure. But the difference potentially, because we don't know what a package would look like, is that rather than just changing the channel you watch it on, you could potentially. have to be paying for an additional service just to watch the program? How many, another, again, research is wonderful shit if you can get good stuff, but you have to wonder, is there not research, or if there isn't, could you create research that could and would indicate to you what percentage of your audiences

watches, not only your show, but shows on Amazon Prime? I would imagine Amazon has that data. Sure. And if they don't have it, they can get it. Again, I just don't think that that's as risky as the headlines where some of the media would make it. If they make that move, I promise you, even though I have no reason for doing so, because I don't know what that process would actually look like. But I can't imagine, given my limited view into corporate acquisitions, that there's not somebody that's doing the math because it's always about the math. and the math is too easily accessible.

Okay. I'm going to give you my number one, but I really want you to come up with a bold prediction here to go after because I have to have something to hold you accountable for for the entirety of 2024, okay? My number one, this is bold. Stephanie McMahon returns as WWE executive chair while Vince McMahon finally officially retires for good.

spicy palace intrigue if you will one of your favorites why I was really taken aback by the report a couple weeks ago that Stephanie McMahon was at a WW TV taping

and you always talk about connecting dots it's certainly possible that she could have just been there for the sake of being there to say hi to people sure but we like making bold predictions here perhaps she was just there surveying the scene a little bit yen and eye for things you just said earlier in this podcast Vince McMahon he's the executive chair position for him it's

it's only a position that exists so they didn't have to kick him to the curb and not give him the key codes we know that Stephanie McMahon was highly respected within the company Nick con has said as much on the record unprompted multiple times in interviews I think as WWE moves forward expands their content distribution their global footprint

Stephanie McMahon is someone that they will want to bring back into the fold and now that some of the spicier stuff has settled down a little bit with the acquisition and the merger I see an avenue in which something like that could happen it's just a bold pick

it's a bold prediction I don't know i mean you don't that's that that's that's that's assuming that there's some kind of tension between stephanie and her dad but even if there's not even if there's not i still think why wouldn't why wouldn't she be doing it right now why wouldn't she be there right now maybe she just wanted to take some time away all right i can't comment on that one because i can't see that one way or the other um i don't know i'll give you that one so i'll hold you accountable so you want you want you want me to make one bold one bold one real big bold prediction here you are nostra freaking domis i'm not

putting your hair on the line nothing hmm one big one one big one that will hang over your head just as this will hang over mine for the rest of the year mgf makes an appearance in wwe before the end of 2024. Wow. What happens on January 1st when his contract extension with AW is announced? We'll find out. And I will hold my position on that. Yeah. Because a lot can happen between January 1st and the end of 2024. Could you see MJF being pushed right away to the moon as like top top guy in WWE? I can't only because that's just not. not usually. Now, Cody was an exception, obviously. Cody was WWE first and everybody there was very, very familiar with Cody. MJF being a new personality, new individual. Do I see them

putting that much horsepower in someone they hadn't really worked with previously? I really don't. Important, yes. To the moon, to the top. No, not right away. we've seen, even though she's been on the bench for a little bit right now, as they're gearing her up, but Jade Cargill came in and they made her feel very important right out of the gate. Oh, they can make them feel important, but that's not the same thing as wrestling in a main event at a Royal Rumble or at a WrestleMania or any other pay-per-view. Okay, so you've got MJF showing up on the TV.

Taking an appearance in WWE before the end of 2024. Okay. Could nail it, man. We'll see. You know, he calls you Uncle Eric. Well, we have that relationship. Okay, man. I dig it.

Look, it'd be an amazing get for WWE. He's a tremendous, tremendous talent, extremely versatile. We'll see what happens with him and what his contract deal. I think we'll know sooner than later, truth be told, on what his contract situation is with AW. And he is set to main event, World's End, on Long Island, December 30th. His hometown should be a hell of a site there as all those MJF fanatics are going nuts for him as their world champion in the main event at home. It's a real home court advantage, Eric. Hey, man, I hope that your holidays are great.

I know it's something you really value being with your family. And I hope that it's an awesome, awesome time with them in clear waters. The weather has been good, at least, down there? It's beautiful. This morning, I pulled this green tag off my wrist because I noticed while I was scratching my head or something that I had my green tag on. We took Waylon to like a, it's like a petting farm, but it's like a really big farm. It took like an hour and a half to get through it all. And they had all kinds of animals.

You could feed the goats, feed the pigs, feed the chickens, and ride a pony. I didn't ride the pony, but I did feed the chickens and I fed the guts because I had a blast doing it. And it was so much fun, man. The weather's great. I'm having so much fun with Waylon. And obviously our son Garrett and Mary Jane, our daughter, Montana is here. So we're all here and we're digging the hell out of Florida. And yeah, it's awesome.

I think that might be your next wager. Eric Bischoffrod's a pony. That ain't happen. I would not do that to a pony. I got to run. I've got family to spend time with. Merry Christmas, John. Merry Christmas to everybody listening to this.

Happy Hanukkah, whatever the case may be or whatever you celebrate. But thank you for being here. And I can't wait to be here next year. Absolutely, Eric. You go take care of your business. I'm going to tell everyone here at home, make sure you're heading on over to advertise witheric.com. You get your business out in front of thousands of people every single week, right here on Strictly Business. We'd love for you to be part of our team here in 2024. That does it for another edition of Strictly Business. We'll see you next time.