83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #63: WWE to Netflix, The Rock to TKO

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

In this special breaking news edition of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff joins Jon Alba from the airport to discuss the industry-shattering news of WWE Raw to Netflix! What are the business implications going forward? Plus, thoughts on The Rock joining TKO's Board of Directors! Special thanks to this week's sponsors! Manscaped- Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code WRESTLEBIZ at Manscaped.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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So don't make saving money a resolution next year. Make it happen today. at save with conrad.com. strictly business with Eric Bischoff, presented to you by the ad-free shows and the podcast Heat Networks. As I said, an unexpected edition at this juncture. I'm John Alba. And coming to us via satellite from the airport is none other than Mr. Eric Bischoff. Eric, a historic day in pro wrestling.

Vince McMahon shaved his mustache. Well, that in and of itself makes all of this work. worth it. That was like the best porn mustache of all time. Yeah. Gone. As WWE makes a historic splash in the entertainment industry signing a 10-year deal with Netflix valued at approximately $500 million per year for the rights to Monday Night Raw and additional international content. It is going to change the landscape of professional wrestling, also the rock, now a member of the TKO board of directors. A lot to get through here, Eric. Man, we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for this shoe to drop and everything at once.

Your initial reaction before we dive into the nitty-gritty of all this. Well, it's, you know, it's a monster deal, and I haven't had a lot of time to think about it. I was out of an airplane when the news broke. And it was like two big pieces of news. One, Rock joining the board of directors of TKO, which I think was fantastic. And the other, of course, being Netflix. And the Netflix deal, you know,

it's funny with all the conversations that we've had, not just you and I, but everybody about where Raw may go. And certainly we talked a lot about Amazon, I think Amazon being the 800-pound gorilla in many respects, made a lot of sense because of, you know, the ancillary opportunities that came with it. But Netflix has been the real 800-pound gorilla in the streaming space for quite some time. And why we didn't see it coming, it makes a ton of sense for a lot of reasons.

And I'm there for it, man. What a great day. Yeah. And if you remember, we did our beginning of the year predictions. And, man, I'll tell you, I felt so confident that WWE would be going to a streaming platform because they always like to be a step ahead of where. everyone else is going, right? That's always been their MO. They did it with the WWE network. They were the first to go OTT. Now, a clear industry leader in making a move like this,

getting into some of the nitty gritty, as I promised here. This is going to be taking place in January of 2025, obviously the first time in the three-decade history of Raw that it will not be aired on a linear television network. The deal, as mentioned, is valued at $500 million per year for 10 years. This is coming via variety here. Netflix has the option to opt out after the initial five years and to extend for an additional 10 years. That is significant in its own right, Eric.

The WWE's current deal with NBC Universal has Raw airing until October of 2024. And according to Variety, an individual with knowledge of the situation was asked exactly where Raw will air between the end of that deal and the beginning of the Netflix deal, and that is said to be still to be determined. Under the deal, Netflix will become the exclusive home of Raw on the United States, Canada, the UK, Latin America, and other territories once the deal begins, with more countries and regions to be added over time. Netflix will also become the TV home for all WWE shows outside of the U.S., including Smackdown and NXT, as well as PLEs and documentaries, original series, and additional projects. The Financial Times reports that Netflix

will be producing additional content just for WWE's properties on Netflix. So Eric, this is much more and it's much greater than just a TV deal for Raw. This is a true content deal. What do you think of WWE obtaining a bundle like that to help elevate the other properties in the process? I don't think it's, well, obviously that's a big benefit, right? I don't mean to just dismiss that or just coming but look at the picture here you know and i was just on with tm z a few moments ago before this call i was asked about this this deal and it's in fact if you look at you know i've talked about patterns right a lot on this this show you know you see little dots over here little dots over there you start connecting those dots and you come up with a pattern or a picture

if you will and if you look at what nick con has done over the past year or a year and a half probably a lot of these things have been in play or been developing before they're announced but it is clear to me at least that the growth opportunities for wwee much like the NFL we've discussed it before here on circuit business the growth opportunity for wwe is international now what does that mean with netflix i don't know how about 240 million subscribers in a hundred different 190 different countries That's a big opportunity to grow your international live events, your PLEs, and just establish a broader footprint internationally beyond, you know, the UK and Europe, which has traditionally been a good market to a degree for the U.S., but by going to streaming and not having to rely on cable or terrestrial broadcast in countries, for example, in Europe, that each market within the country has different broadcast standards. and it makes it historically i don't know if it's the same way today but when i was distributing overseas germany had a different set of tolerances for example than the uk did

uk had a different set than than france did and within those countries some of the markets had restrictions because it was considered generally violent entertainment this allows w we assuming that some of those challenges are still in place to just sort of been it off and now their content is going to be as easily accessed in the U.K., in France, and in Germany. I mean, you look at the U.K., $1.5 billion revenue market for Netflix. It's the second largest just behind the U.S. for Netflix. That is a massive growth opportunity because there will be probably more people to have access to the product, or it will be easier to watch the product.

So it's just all about international growth. To me, I think that was probably the reason behind this. move and it's going to be fascinating to watch. One of the biggest talking points, Eric, over the course of the past three hours, and I think leading into it as well, was what type of audience growth or decrease would WWE expect domestically if it were to have moved to streaming? And that's understandable, right? We've been so accustomed to linear TV and measuring viewership through that lens.

and Netflix between the U.S. and Canada has more or less 75 to 80 million subscribers or so. So you can say that that's tangential to the amount of homes that USA was in in the United States. Do you imagine that there will be any sort of challenges in maintaining the consistent viewership once you make that pivot to streaming and over the top on a week-to-week basis for a program like Roth? Who knows? I certainly don't know nor do I have access to the data that would suggest how many people who watch WWE currently on cable also have Netflix. I would imagine that's a pretty big number and I'm even more confident that there is research and data there to support a decision. It would probably suggest that the actual user viewer relationship with Netflix probably won't change that much over cable. That's exactly what I was going to ask you, because you've talked about focus groups and studies in the past. Explaining this to the casual viewer per se, it's not like WWE makes a move like this without doing the necessary focus group research. Like, they're recognizing that probably a good majority of its audience has streaming properties like Netflix or Hulu or Amazon at their disposal, right?

You think? I mean, they're already in the streaming business. They know so much already. And between the WWE database, the proprietary database, and that of Netflix, I think you would be able to sit down with some really smart people who actually know what they're talking about and be able to paint a picture that would, like I said, overlay current WWE viewership against Netflix subscriber base. And you probably find that there's a lot of duplication in or short story. I don't think you're going to lose any brown. Yeah, plus, like you said, 240 plus million subscribers. That alone is significant in your global reach.

And Netflix is pricey. You know, there are different tiers where there are ad tiers and there are non-ad tiers. Some of it up to $16, $17 a month, depending on what tier you have for a subscription. I'm curious as to whether or not that would go up with a rights increase like this. This is, Netflix does not have any existing deals like this, Eric. This is the first of its time for Netflix trying to get into the live sports property streaming service business. It was something that Netflix really denied for a long time that it had interest in until they made a bid for Formula One rights, not all that long ago. From a business strategy standpoint, having WWE as a partner, what do you think it allows Netflix to do?

Well, you know, it wasn't that long ago that we were reading headlines about Netflix, you know, being. in financial peril and cutting costs and laying people off and slashing some of the bigger budget initiatives and i think this is a great way for netflix to take the next step in its evolution and growing its audience by having a product you know go back to go back to ted turner and ted's vision that if you have wrestling the people will come that is the essence of why ted believed in wrestling as much as he did and now I think we're seeing it with Netflix Netflix needs to grow their audience too I've said it before on this show a thousand times if you're not growing in the television industry you were

dying and I think this is a great way for Netflix one of the great ways for Netflix maybe future life sports will become more important but a live events I should say but this is a big opportunity for Netflix to inherit a worldwide loyal audience for a product that up until this point has only been available on terrestrial or cable television now that audience is going to move to Netflix and i think there'll be a lot of growth particularly internationally in in in Netflix's platform simply because of the wwee keep in mind you know comedy doesn't really translate well internationally drama yeah sometimes does sometimes doesn't the one thing that's

speaks all languages is professional wrestling and I think there's going to be a significant amount of growth for Netflix as well as for WWE as a result of this and just think of it too Eric like since this is the first property that Netflix is investing in on a deal like this think of the caliber and quality of promotion WWE is going to get from Netflix they have to like they have to go all out in promoting something like this because they're investing so much in it heavily up front WWE is going to reap so much benefit from just that alone. I think of it like this. We think so much about WWE as a linear TV property,

but now with this shift happening and getting into the streaming realm, the streaming venture, we have to start looking at WWE programming, at least specifically raw, very much akin to euphoria or stranger things, where this is a streaming property now. It's no longer just a live television property. And I think that might be a bit of an adjustment for some wrestling fans to wrap their heads around.

But think of the possibilities and IP opportunities that that could produce for the company in the future, too, Eric. Oh, it's amazing. It's an amazing, I hate to use the term landscape changing because we've heard so many things that we're going to change the wrestling landscape and change wrestling forever. and all that happy horse shit but this really will and and really has not that it will it already has and again i like to step back and kind of look at history professional wrestling before cable television was probably the most watch form of entertainment in any major market across the united states now it was on independent stations and they were buy-ons and it wasn't a traditional distribution model necessarily.

But nonetheless, in terms of eyeballs watching the product, in just about every major market in the United States, professional wrestling on either Saturday or Sunday was one of the highest rated shows, if not the highest rated shows long before cable. Cable television comes along and Mr. Van embraces it, sees the future in it, and before we knew it, professional wrestling, on the leading edge of cable television in terms of success as a form of entertainment and stability. out of cable television evolves pay-per-view what become one of the most consistent top performers in all a pay-per-view professional wrestling then the digital age comes along the wwee universe footprint digital

wwee dot com one of the most successful platforms in the entertainment business worldwide and now you've got the street o t platform hugely successful and now a transition into third-party streaming again professional wrestling, maintaining its record as living on the leading edge of the evolution of not only production and entertainment, but also distribution. I think it's freaking amazing. I love it. Yeah, and it's so unique that this wild, crazy industry is at the forefront of the general change and shift in the streaming and cable paradigm shift that we're seeing across the board. One of the things that stood out to me, Eric, from the press release, and I'm not sure if you got a chance to read the actual press release. I am not.

It was never referred to as Monday Night Raw. It was strictly referred to as Raw. And that's been something that a lot of people have been thinking about. We've talked about it in the past on this podcast, where if another property were to acquire Monday Night Raw, could you move it to another night? And now with streaming, it's kind of like a blank can't. isn't it, where Netflix could put this show wherever, whenever, for however long it wants

to. Do you see a possibility where this thing moves off the institution that is Monday night wrestling? Could, could, as we've talked about, you know, on this show many times and on 83 weeks as well. One of the things about the professional wrestling audience, one of the benefits of having a large loyal audience is that they are so loyal. And the audience will find you. It doesn't, you know, And I've had shows that were, that Jason Hervey and I created and produced and placed on a network, a cable outlet, and, you know, you can move a cable show around from night to night, and you're going to get your ass kick, right? Any television show. Once you change nights, it's difficult to get the audience to go with you, except for with professional wrestling. The audience is so loyal.

They will find you. And it's interesting, you know, can law now, no longer Monday night long, but can law on Netflix avoid Monday night football conflict? Sure. Can they move the schedule around seasonally? Maybe. I mean, anything's possible. But I think the fact that the wrestling audience is so loyal gives the Netflix opportunity even more. It's even more interesting for me. because of that what about the idea of monday night raw because this is what everyone wants to know monday night raw we know became a three-hour show in 2012 because of the possibility to expand on ad revenue uh you know netflix has the built-in ad tier if if they were to bring in live ads that would be something very different for them that we haven't seen before i mean could you see a scenario where now where this flat rate is given to WWE for this property that Monday Night Raw maybe goes back to a two-hour show? This has been one of the most inquired about questions

with WWE and Ross specifically. Who knows? I mean, unless you're sitting in the meetings, you know, I don't think there's any way to predict what's going to happen with regard to two hours. The one thing I will say is that WWE now for a number of years has really learned how to produce a three-hour show. They've gotten very good at it. You know, if you watch your quarter-hour ratings, now it depends, you know, on what time of year it is, of course. But overall, they've been able to maintain their audience pretty well over three hours. I would say very well over three hours. I would say amazingly well over three hours compared to other forms of entertainment other than actual sports.

They built a roster around the fact that they have a three-hour show over the last few years. We talked the other day on 83 weeks about how top-heavy in some respects AEW is, or excuse me, WWE is. But that also gives you the ability to do more. So whether or not they go from two hours or three hours, hell, unless you're in the room or sitting outside of Nickon's office or somebody at Netflix, no way to know but it'll sure be fun to find out let's take a pause because this episode of strictly business is sponsored by blue chew let's talk about sex gents remember the days when you're always ready to go now you can increase your performance to get that extra confidence in bed here's how you do it blue chew dot com blue chew's a unique online service that delivers the same

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Now, Eric, we know the WW Peacock deal runs until 2026, but if that were to be the case, Netflix would pretty much have access to just about all of WWE's live programming options. aside from Smackdown and NXT domestically here? Yeah, I mean, again, too hard to predict. You know, it makes sense on the surface, doesn't it? Because Netflix is a streaming platform. Combining WWE into a rolling WWE streaming into Netflix, just on the surface makes a great deal of sense.

But you can also argue that, you know, if your WWE, perhaps you want some diversification in your assets. And you may not want all your eggs in the Netflix. Right. A lot of that depends on the check that comes with it. Well, and also, too, I know it's easy to get caught up in this Netflix news, but they still have a very profitable and resourceful relationship with NBC Universal. Like, let's not take that off the table here.

They just re-uped with them for the rights to Smackdown for a nice rights increase. That's a good point as well. You want to keep your partners happy. Yeah. And by all accounts, the peacock relationship has worked out wonderfully for both sides. So I don't see a scenario necessarily where it's automatically just shifting the content to Netflix domestically. There has to be some sort of incentive for NBC Universal to maintain this partnership in the way that it is. Because believe it or not, in three years time, Eric, we'll be talking about what's next for Smackdown.

Well, and that's why diversification equals leverage in some cases. you know if you're wwee you want to maintain a little bit of leverage as opposed to like i said putting all your eggs in a netflix basket so it's just going to be so much fun to watch you know for a for a business geek like me you know i watch wrestling from time to time because of what i hear about what's going to happen in the ring like i did with hook and smojo last week whenever it was but you know what gets me going what gets me excited is where the business of the business is going. And the fact that WWE here and, you know, WWE in particular is, as Wayne Gretzky would say,

skating where the puck is going instead of playing where the puck has been. Just I'm so excited to see this kind of growth and forward thinking as opposed to some of the other things that we're seeing or not seeing in the industry. This is called growing the business. This is doing something, that's great for the industry. And it's so exciting for me to see. This industry is gonna be around long after I'm gone. And that's awesome, like me,

who's grown up in the business professionally. This is what you love to see, man. This thing's gonna be around a lot longer than any of us. One of the facets of this deal that I find really interesting is that Netflix is much more than a streaming service, right? Netflix is a production company. And that opens up a lot of possibilities or WWE programming.

Like, we know there will be documentaries involved. But maybe there's even opportunities for scripted programming. Like DeNovius here asking, with this new deal making news, do you see more WW movies being released on Netflix with better writers, stories, and quality? I mean, Eric, there's certainly an opportunity here to have some crossover with some very talented people in WWE to maybe be part of other Netflix properties, right? Yeah, I mean, I can speak from experience. I worked with Todd Phillips and Todd Phillips, who just directed the most recent Joker and directed the one previous to that, Scott Silver, who wrote both of those movies.

Now, I believe they're with Warner Features now, but they were with Netflix, and I'm sure still have a great relationship with Netflix. That level of writer, director, producers creates a whole new opportunity for WWE content beyond just what we see on wrong. Now, obviously, we look at how this impacts WWE directly. It's monumental, it's massive. But there's another domino that falls with this. WW Warner Brothers Discovery is not happening. And that opens up the lane for AW to go secure that TV deal with Warner Brothers Discovery and re-up. A pretty significant opportunity at that, Eric.

Now, our friend Andrew Zerian, who's been on this podcast, podcast a couple times. I did report earlier today, Tuesday, as we record this, that as far as AEW content is concerned, I'm going to quote him, said, a source mentioned to me that it's very possible for AEW to become a cable streaming hybrid show, much like how the NBA simulcasts on TNT and Max, and that there's been a push for something like that to happen. So for those not grasping that, hypothetically speaking, dynamite would air on TBS, while also simultaneously streaming on Macs at the same exact time. Now, you can currently watch Dynamite or Rampage or Collision via streaming if you're a TBS or TNT

subscriber and you can watch it on their website or their app, but this would be specific to Max and TNT or TBS on television. Where do you see the headway being made here between A.E.W. and Warner Brothers Discovery. What do you think about the idea of a dual hybrid streaming platform or deal in that context. I am not bullish on a renewal for AEW. I remain very suspect that there'll be any deal going forward with AEW, irregardless of Roth in WW. We'll see. I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. I don't think I am. I typically am not when it comes to this kind of thing. But who knows? Anything can happen to the television industry as we saw as we woke up to

to this morning is in every evolving landscape where the parameters change and dynamics change. Who knows? It could be good for AEW. I just think their lack of performance and mismanagement that's made its way into the public domain is not a good reflection on the future of that property with Warner Brothers discovery. But I could be wrong. Well, I have to hold this to you, though. It was about a month and a half ago, you said on this very show that you felt pretty confident about WWE and Warner Brothers Discovery getting across the finish line, and it didn't happen. So what? I could be wrong.

Right. So, I mean, what do you see changing then in that respect? Because you felt pretty confident about that. Well, I felt confident because I had on good authority that Warner Brothers Discovery long before this subject came up of the potential of while moving to Warner Brothers Discovery, I had on good authority that one of whether's discovery was interested in acquiring wwe way back last summer before any of this offer and that's a significant interest so it only stood to reason it's logical that if they were interested in

buying it they might possibly likely be interested in licensing that but i certainly didn't anticipate Netflix popping up out of you know you and i talked about amazon we considered that might be an alternative for wd but none of us, including me, saw Netflix on the horizon, because they typically haven't been in an acquisition mode for the last year or two, perhaps three. So this was a bit of a surprise, but it doesn't change the fact, as I've been saying for two years now, that the lack of growth in AEW does not bode well for its future. You're either growing or dying. Well, you're dying, you know, by being decapitated, or you're dying by death of a thousand

cuts death is death it's just a matter of time but couldn't you argue that a report like that where you're having some sort of hybrid streaming deal where you're on tv but you're also accessible on max couldn't you argue that that's growth seems i mean that seems plausible me no i mean maybe it's it's i don't know i mean i don't know that i could because i think it's a potential growth opportunity but i don't think you can i don't i wouldn't call it growth i would call it an opportunistic experience and challenge that could that could provide growth but i don't know it's too early to tell we'll see i think one of the biggest elements at play there too is well there's two obviously still the mba tv rights as we talk about every single week here but also this report of merger

between Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount, and should that happen, then you're potentially combining streaming services between Paramount Plus and Max, and then there certainly would be an opportunity for more eyes, but we have no idea what that's going to look like, how long something like that would take. It's such a, I mean, projecting that far out and trying to put pieces together into the future like that, is I'm sure a lot of dirt sheet writers will be said. I'm sure Dave Meltzer is going to be sitting there with a calculator doing the math and extrapolating numbers like, well, Raw is worth $500 billion, and it gets this rating.

That means the AEW is worth this, you know, and tried to come up with an evaluation like that. It's, let's just see, man. Let's just see. Can't wait. Yeah, it's significant. You know, when we had Richard Deichon, we talked about the beachfront property in Maui that Nick Kahn's going to be sitting on in a couple of years. I think he could buy a couple more islands, don't you think? guys going to have no shortage of places to go vacation that's for sure he's got to be like after

this i mean this is clearly something that nick con's street credibility health maneuver and obviously are you manuel being in the play here too but nick con has to go down as maybe the most significant personnel hire in wrestling history right yeah i think that's a very safe statement i mean he's done an amazing job he's a big thinker he's got the relationships to make it work. You know, it's one thing to have great ideas. It's another thing to have great relationships. But when you've got vision like Nick Con clearly has, experience like Nick Con certainly has,

and you've got the relationships and the credibility in the entertainment industry to the level that Nick Con has and now already Emmanuel, you know, one of the things that we talked about when the whole endeavor, you know, TKO, WWE thing happened, it's like, what, you know, what's the potential for that? can happen with that. We talked about the synergy, and it's a word that I very rarely use because it's overused and misused so often. Much like existential. I want to slap anybody that uses the term existential in the sentence and really doesn't know how to use the term or what it means. But synergy is another one of those words in the business industry that

everybody aspires to, everybody talks about, everybody has a plan for, and it goes against human nature, generally speaking. People are territorial by nature, and that extends into the business world as well. That's why I used to say, AOL, Time Warner, Turner happened. It was easier for me to get, you know, a guy by the name of Peter Goober, was a former chairman of Sony pictures on the phone than it was for me to get a phone call return for someone within Turner broadcasting that I needed to talk to. That's an example of, you know, the theory of synergy, but it doesn't really work. But with a guy like that, Nick Kahn now and his relationships and the WWE opportunity.

I see so much synergy, licensing, merchandising, international growth. Now this Netflix deal, all of this feeds into massive amounts of expansion. It has got to be so exciting to be in the halls of WWE right now. It's got to be, man. Cheers to the new year from our friends at Manscape, because your resolution shouldn't be the only things that are well kept. 2024 is the time for new heights, new opportunities, and a new look for your Times Square balls. Manscape's lawnmower 5.0 Ultra is every man's cheat code to look good, feel good, and turn the page on confidence this year.

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of what WWE can be. Where now, it's no, there's nothing linear about WWE right now. That's why I always argue with wrestling fans who say, well, there's no way this match could happen at this show because historically it hasn't.

Or there's no way that WWE could be on a streaming platform because historically it hasn't throw all that out that's no longer relevant we're in uncharted territory where anything can happen like that used to be an old mantra of vince McMahon anything can happen in the world wrestling federation we're in that territory now where anything can happen with these properties and these licensing deals i have no i'm i'm waiting for the wwe theme park to open like like it's it's inevitable right like we are that's where we're headed right now where this brand is so much bigger than a pro wrestling company oh it's it's yeah they they left

professional wrestling a long way yeah the basics are still there it's storytelling it's character driven um character driven storytelling with larger than life characters it's always been that it continues to be that and it's the reason we're hearing and reading about what we're hearing about today it is pure entertainment. Imagine that W.W.E. theme park, you got the Cody Rhodes roller coaster where you're just about to get over the hill, but you never quite get over because you can't

finish the story. You never know, man. It could end up changing the game. I do want to talk about the rock, though, because that was something massive this morning as well. WWE made two appointments to their board of directors. Entrepreneur Brad Keywell was added to it,

but most importantly, or at least significantly in the public realm, Dwayne Johnson, now a member of the W.W.E and TKO Board of Directors. And with that, quote from the press release here, WWE has also entered into a services and merchandising agreement with Johnson that provides for his promotional licensing and other services and an intellectual property assignment agreement pursuant to which Johnson has secured ownership of his trademarked name The Rock. This is pretty significant because for years he was unable to go by simply the Rock publicly. He had to be Dwayne the Rock Johnson if you want to utilize that

name. But Ari Emanuel said today on CNBC that they reached this deal because he recognized how important that the rock name was to the Johnson family. And now they believe there will be that synergy between the two. Massive. Eric, what do you think about WWE and TKO bringing in the Rock as a member of the board of directors? Well, I'm excited. I mean, I don't know Duane Johnson personally. I've worked with him briefly. when we were both in wwe but um almost insignificant really so i don't know him i only know of him i'm surely you know friendly with brian goards who works for seven bucks seven bucks production which is rucks company and i you know i like to stay in touch with with brian but um i don't know

duane johnson at all to be honest but i'm he's such a powerful dynamic charismatic and and smart individual you know look what he's doing with with uh professional football and and and data initiative obviously a success in the movie and television industry including wrestling i just i sum it up by saying i can't wait to see what's next and i'm in that this is you know the story is fascinating what we're the story about what we're reading and seeing now happening is fascinating to a guy like me who's been in the business all of his life professional life and now it gets to sit back on the sidelines and watch it grow and prosper. It's so interesting and fascinating for me.

I think Rock being involved makes it even more so and opens up even more doors because of the power of his celebrity and who he is and what he can bring to the table. It's just a fun time, man. Here's what I predict. Hardcore prediction here. It's going to be fun to watch. Can you put your hair on the line on that one, too? I'm done.

I'm done. I'm on my way. I'm here. I'm on my way to New Jersey. I'm doing a deal with best trivia ever Wednesday night, New Jersey. Excuse me. Yeah, Wednesday night, New Jersey. And then I'm going on to Tampa. And yes, I'll be getting my head shaved one more time because I lost another bet to Conrad Thompson. But this is it. I'm not betting anymore. Well, at least not my hair. Not my hair. That's good. What do you think about The Rock retaining the IP and what that does for him as an actor, as I'm, one-man business property i don't know do i don't know how much i don't know if that was a personal if that was mostly personal for the rock a personal goal or if it is a strategic business goal i can't imagine that dwayne the rock johnson now having rights to the rock will have any positive or

negative effect on his movie career i think he's pretty well established i mean i call it you can you probably call him elmer fud if he's still doing pretty well i agree with that but but just the simplicity of the rock and the brand recognition of the rock to me it's better but it's better but it's going to get more is it going to get better movies because of it is he going to get better scripts because of it or is it more of a personal satisfaction i earned it i deserve it i want it no shape for i don't know you you would have to know him in order to kind of get a read on that and i i don't want to pretend i do i don't licensing always helps too where he can print his own property with the rock on it that that definitely helps uh right now as we record this pat mackafee has nick con

on his show i'm trying to follow along for notes as we record uh con said that the netflix deal came together in the matter of the past couple of months and he says that the reaction is internally, overwhelmingly positive, which should be expected, I would imagine. So within a couple months, Eric, you know, this stuff had been steamrolling for the past year, more or less. And it was only about two, three months ago that we got news of the NBCU Smackdown deal. So it's very possible that they got Smackdown out of the way and then started to make the headway on Raw immediately after that. It gives an interesting insight as to how that process works. Indeed. And John, I hate to bail on you guys early. Normally, I like to do this show for at least an hour or so, but it's getting a little busy here at the restaurant and a little noisy too. So rather than suffer through the audio issues, I'm going to say goodbye and look forward to doing this again next week. And hopefully we'll see you in Florida.

Eric, sounds great. I'm going to let you go. I'll wrap here on Strictly Business. Thanks for hopping on here, of course, and safe travels to you. I hope everything goes well with you. you. And I look forward to seeing your bald head next week. We're on the 50 business more than everything. Appreciate you, everybody. Thank you, John. And, you know, I just want to say, too, guys, this is truly one of those things where everything changes in the wrestling industry, right? Everything changes going forward. Unlike Eric, I do think this does open up some headway for AEW to maneuver with Warner Brothers Discovery. I'm curious to see

when that domino actually falls because now there's not nearly as much pressure on AEW to have to explore other options. Warner Brothers Discovery doesn't have as much leverage in terms of negotiating with

AEW, even though it still has certainly a fair degree of it too. It's going to be a fascinating, very, very, very fascinating next couple of months here. in the wrestling realm as we move towards this. Matthew, we talked about this at the start of the show. Do I think that WWE might lose viewers initially for people like this dad

who has no streaming platforms? There's no interest in them. You know, it might be an adjustment period for some people to make that switch. But I don't foresee that having too much of an impact. Netflix has an amazing, amazing reach. And if you have a smart TV or if you have Roku, Netflix is right there for you to click on even if you don't have cable. So the option is there for people to view this show if they want to. I don't think it's going to be as significant as some are suggesting.

And their global reach is going to improve significantly because now it's all in one. It's all encompassing. It's a place where everyone can show up to and consume this content. And let's say that WWE strikes a deal with Netflix here where they're producing original content, they get the library there. All of a sudden, Netflix is your one-stop shop, essentially. So if you want to consume WWE content, that's going to be the place. And wrestling is evergreen in that regard where people are going to consume it no matter what. even as the general audience size has decreased for pro wrestling,

the money has improved substantially over the years because the value of the consumer continues to increase as well. That's how I see it. I think it's going to be an amazing time. I am interested to see if WWE moves raw to a different night. I'm interested to see if it goes back to two hours, if it stays three hours. My gut says it probably stays three hours.

But there are a lot of options now. You're not beholden to traditional television. There's no other time slot. And also something that Eric and I didn't get to talk about that I wanted to, on-demand accessibility improves tremendously with the deal like this. In theory, RAH should be available right after its broadcast. We don't know for sure, but in theory, that would make sense. Which now traditionally you have to usually wait at least 24 hours.

So the ability to watch Raw, whether it's live or immediately after or the next day, on the same platform, you don't have to be subscribed to multiple platforms to do so. That's invaluable. That is invaluable. I'm really excited for what this means for pro wrestling because I do think it raises the bar. And I do think it'll have a trickle-down effect. It might take some time. But I do think it opens opportunities for AW and maybe other companies,

down the line to increase their reach, it's a good day for pro wrestling for something like this to happen. I know that might be an unpopular opinion for some, but we have to get out of this mentality of thinking that wrestling has to be one way. The Rock did say today as we record this that he sees him in Roman Reigns being a big WrestleMania match down the line. Didn't necessarily say now, didn't necessarily say next year. could happen at some point.

We talked about the possibility of it happening at Elimination Chamber. It doesn't seem like that's going to be the case anymore. But the reality is pro wrestling can be anything now. You have to look at it in terms of a stranger thing, of a euphoria. It's no longer beholden to just traditional linear television. This is a property that can be picked up anywhere. And Lindsay brings up a great point. and I remember a lot of people having similar question and conversations when WW moved to

Peacock from the network. I'll take it back even further, Lindsay, when WW went over the top with the network. People were like, there's no way they're going to subscribe to that. Everyone was so hell-bent on it. It has to be a cable television network. Nah. We saw how that worked out, right? Worked out really well for them.

Just a second. Just a second. There's been a lot of fun guys. I want to remind you, if you want to get on board, with Strictly Business, head on over to Advertise witheric.com. Get your business, get your product out in front of thousands of listeners every single week, especially on special episodes like this. It's going to make sure your business or your product is being seen and heard by a lot

of people. We'd love for you to join our team. That's advertised witheric.com. I know it wasn't the most ideal scenario today. Eric was on the road traveling, and he had to make sure that we could squeeze this in. But this will be your episode of Strictly Business for the week, and we will be back next week after the Royal Rumble goes down. By the way, guys, if you're interested in my work,

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