83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #66: Ask Eric Anything!

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

It's time once again to ask Eric Bischoff anything about the business! This week on Strictly Business, Eric answers YOUR questions, including AEW's ad sales, salaries, the Young Bucks/Sting story, WWE sponsorships, and more! Special thanks to this week's sponsors! 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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no house payment for two months. Let the team at Save With Conrad run the numbers and see what's possible for you. Give them a call at 8884250105 or go to www.safewithconrad.com today. NMLS number 32416, equal housing lender, savewithconrad.com. How's it going, everyone, John Alba here with another edition of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff, presented to you by the ad-free shows and the podcast Heat Networks. We got a great episode ahead of us today. It is ask Eric Bischoff anything, and we cannot do that without the man of the hour himself. Mr. Eric Bischoff, what's going on, my friend? That peach fuzz is growing back.

I know, right? And I forgot to bring my hat out here. I was in L.A. for a few days this past week, and I didn't, my flight with all kinds of flight issues. I don't want to talk about it. But I got home really late last night, so I've been kind of a half step behind all day. and I'm blowing out the doors to come into my studio this morning, and I realized I forgot my hip. But you know, what the hell?

You look good. You look good. And you're blessed with the hair that grows back very quickly. And that's huge. That's huge, huge plus. So you could make as many wagers about CM Punk returning as you'd like to. Yeah, I'm done with it. Okay.

So done with it. Just had to ask. I mean, you could bet on when he's going to come back from injury if you really want to. But it's great to see you, Eric, a busy week in the wrestling business as always. And we are going to be taking the questions from the 83 weeks and Strictly Business faithful here with Ask Eric anything. We are live on ad-free shows.com. So if anyone is watching live, you can throw a question in the live chat and we'll try to pop it up as well. We got Coach Rosie in here, of course.

We got Andrew Lynch in here as well. And if anyone else wants to come hang, we got Mike Hoop. That's going to be a good time here on Strictly Business. So I'm very excited to get into this. You want to hop right into things, Eric? Yeah, let's, where are we at, man? I have been paying close attention this week to all the goings on in professional wrestling and haven't really been able to watch any show.

So I'm anxious to get caught up here. Yeah, I mean, on the WWE, and I think we're probably going to get some answers as to where we're headed with the WrestleMania main event, at least as far as the Rock is concerned, relatively soon. maybe even as we record this on Friday, potentially as soon as tonight, we might get some answers on that. But he's been leaning full into going to Hollywood heel here, Eric. It's definitely impressive to see Dwayne leaning right back into that.

Do you have any thoughts on that? No. Let me, let's see how it plays out. I am having a hard time. Just my visceral reaction is, ooh, why? He's, but no, but look, he's an amazing performer. If that's what Dwayne, the Rock Johnson has decided he wants to do, then I would definitely give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's see where it goes.

I always fell in love with just the shit talker, Rocky Maya Via. So if we get some of that here in 2024, I'm not upset about it by any stretch. Amy says, hello, one of my favorite shows. So there you go. He said, Fade Eric is the new Fade Darren Revelle. Both legends, though. Interesting. Okay.

We had Darren on the show. You should check that out in the archives, everyone. All right, Eric, let's get into it. We got Frank asking our first question, very interesting question from him. You know, this has been the past calendar year, huge year as far as free agency is concerned with pro wrestling. He says, do you think that every talent in major pro wrestling should have their contracts be public like they are in MLB, NFL, MBA, etc? What are your thoughts on that, Eric? No.

There's nobody's fucking business. Why is it anybody's business what someone's contractual status is or what the details of a contract? Why is it? Should we also have access to your personal income tax information? Maybe your bank account records? I mean, why? It's not that it's not a good question, but the idea that for some reason, if you're a professional wrestler, or you should have your contracts made available to the general public.

I convinced me that that's a good idea, John. I don't know that I can, honestly. I think that the reason it happens in a lot of pro sports is because pro sports, many of them are dealing with salary caps. So how much someone is making is very relevant to how much money a team can spend. Only if you're the general manager of the order of the team. It becomes part of the public forum because all of the team's business that is done publicly is related directly to that. So that's why you see a lot of those contracts announced officially by the teams.

Major League Baseball doesn't have a salary cap. So those contracts are not public. The numbers you get from Major League Baseball are only numbers that are reported by reporting. So those are coming from agents, obviously, when that stuff comes out. But that's typically why you see in pro wrestling. I don't really think that it's super relevant, honestly. I'll go a little further and say it's nobody's business. I can't see any potential upside for that.

How does it serve anybody other than the curious of those who like to criticize people for making too much or too little money i don't it's all we need is more bullshit drama and professional wrestling right i guess if you wanted to get to the micro level of it where would be of interest for other wrestlers would be if they knew how much someone was making they'd try to leverage that for their contract they do anyway telephone telegraphed tell a wrestler are you kidding i was going to ask you about that so when a wrestler back in the wcw days would come to you about contract renegotiations or you guys were having those conversations was someone else's pay ever leveraged as part of those negotiations um as official negotiating points that were

discussed between agents and attorneys maybe a small handful of times something may have coming up however the the brotherhood was tight back in the 90s and talent looked out for each other for the most part not all the time but for the most part so everybody knew what everybody else's deal was either because people were bragging about it or bitched about it it's either one but that that conversation took place all the time and probably still does i think perhaps to a lesser extent now because the despite the narrative there's really only one company where one can go and make significant money for an extended period of time. The only people that are leaving WWE really are people that don't really have a place there

in the long term. They're being cycled out more often than not. Sure, they can end up in AEW and get a nice payday. But there's not a real competitive environment for top talent. other than potential top talent migrating to WWE. So I don't see that it's just, no, no, no more drama, no more drama. Can you tell I'm having a little bit of a PTSD moment, post-traumatic contract discussion, whatever that is? I'm having that moment right now.

Was there ever a really bad instance where something like that? I think the one, and this is a little bit different in a sense, because it was the same attorney that represented two different clients. But when Henry Holmes repped both Paul Kogan and Bill Goldberg, that was a nightmare scenario for me. That was a nightmare scenario for me. It got ugly, ugly. It turned into performance art.

It got so ugly. Want to hear a funny story? Let's hear it. You may have, maybe you've heard this. I don't know. I don't think I've ever told this story before, at least not on the strict of business. There was a point in time when Henry was representing out. Hugg's deal was done, so there was no conflict.

But Henry knew every detail of all of Halk's agreements with WCW, and because he wrote them. So this isn't a situation where you've got two talents necessarily exchanging information. This is the attorney that put both of these deals together. And Henry was playing such hardball. I mean, it was brutal. And it just pissed me off. And Henry was smart. He knew he had us.

He had leverage. He had a lot of leverage in that moment. And he used every bit of it. But Henry was, Henry was easy to piss off. And so was I. You know, it's probably why we ended up getting along

and becoming friends in the long run. But when we were adversarial, which we were at that time, it got ugly. And one time, I remember we were deep into the early into the Bill Goldberg negotiations. And Henry was always, he'd always drop names. Now, Henry Holmes represented George Foreman and Martina Natalova, a lot of other very high profile athletes. But Henry couldn't. resist just constantly name-dropping every time he got the opportunity to the point where it was

kind of an inside joke amongst those of us who knew him and dealt with him on a regular basis anyway fast forward so we're going back and forth where you know things are heated fine I said look I'm going to be out in L.A I've got some meetings over at CAA which I was represented by CAA at the time and I said I'm going to be there anyway and we got some pitches I got to take and I'm making a few pitches. Why don't you come since I'm going to be in L.A. anyway, I'm only got a couple hours. Why don't Henry, if you can, his office wasn't far down. His office was over on Rodeo Drive. I said, why don't you just meet me over at CAA, which is just down a street, really, on Wilshire? You said, okay, great. Well, I didn't have any meetings at CAA. I wasn't

really even going to be over there, right? But I wanted to, I guess I just wanted to throw Henry off, right so Henry I said don't worry I've got an office they'll let me use one of the meeting rooms and you and I can meet well Henry I get there beforehand and I get I go to my agent and I say look here's what I want to do I want to get every assistant every intern every junior agent anybody that doesn't have a lot going on for like an hour I want to rent them and so when Henry Holmes walks into the room i wanted to look like i've got about 16 or 17 attorneys and agents now i was just fucking with him you know it wasn't like i didn't really think it was going to achieve anything i just wanted to see the look on his face right so i'm sitting i'm waiting there i got there early we're all

sitting in the conference room and i don't know how many people i had maybe eight or 10 12 it was it looked impressive because they all wore really nice suits right looked very impressive i'm sitting there in the middle of them, I'm flanked by a six rate of my ice side of me or whatever it was, four to six. Henry comes walking in. Now, before Henry walked in, I told everybody there, I said, here's how this is going to go. We're going to make some small talk. Hey, good to see you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

At some point, right before we get down to business, Henry's going to tell you the George Foreman Grill story because he does every single time. no matter what you're talking about or you want to talk about no matter what the agenda is before henry does anything he's going to tell you the george foreman grill story and when he does i want you to bust out laughing just bust out laughing whether you're faking it or not just do it so of course everybody's sitting there they got their notepads henry comes in we make the small talk and on cue he goes into the george foreman story in the entire room of what Henry thought were CAA agents

that were really just interns for the most part. Busted out laughing, cracked up, Henry got so pissed off, he got up and stormed out the door. And I thought, that's exactly what I wanted to have happened. It was perfect. It was perfect. I know it seems like a little petty thing, but it was. But it was so much fun.

I enjoyed it. And eventually it helped get us to where we needed to be. the leverage move i was like okay if you want to play games let's play games right if you have time to play games henry then so do i and that's exactly let me let me ask you as you might have insight on this because this is something that i'm pretty sure hulk has claimed over the years but hulk has claimed a lot of things over the years some of which are based in truth others or not was hulk offered the foreman girl before foreman yes yes that is true and that is part of henry's story it really was a timing issue.

There was pressure to get a deal done. It was Hulk Hogan or George Foreman. Henry called Hulk. Hulk wasn't around, didn't answer his phone, whatever. And we waited a little while, didn't want to lose the client. Called George Foreman. George said absolutely, boom, deal got done. Hulk found out about it later.

How wild is that? I've heard that from Henry as well. How wild is that? That is, uh, talk about like what if that ultimate multiversal story it would always come up you know and it was kind of like a point of contention you know it was a fair amount of humor about it at the point that i you know started doing business with hulk and henry but you know i all hulk never let him forget it you'd always bring it up as a rib yeah i would do uh rosy asking is impact a good company

to buy if it's offered at a rock bottom price or would it be throwing good money at bad um i don't know financials, you know, without having audited financials to look at the idea of analysts or anybody, especially cosplay business analysts that are also cosplay journalists who write a dirt sheet like Dave Meltzer, you can't analyze or put a valuation on anything without having information and audited information, not anecdotal. predile, press release, you know, internet garbage. I'm talking about real audited financials. I can't say it without having some sense of where they're at financially.

The fact that you have a television show on the air does not automatically make you valuable, especially if you're losing money in the process or not growing your business, that just simply having a wrestling company doesn't necessarily mean that you can put a valuation on it that's positive. You just have to look at the financials. Yeah, the impact TNA story is going to be a really fascinating one to watch over the course of the calendar year

with Scott DeMore's dismissal and what the company chooses to do in terms of maneuvering forward if they try to cut back on stuff, if they prime up for a sale. we talked a little bit about it last week, some ideas of what might be going down there. But I'm really interested. So if TNA was for sale, what would a buyer get? I don't know.

I would think this where they're going to start, Eric, is probably trying to license off T&A impact, the show, the television show. Because right now it's airing on a network they already own. They're not making money off it. They're not making ad money off of it. so i would think that starting by trying to get the tv show on a network where they can make some money off of it would probably be the first step so what could you even pick a network that you think might be interested in i have no idea i have no idea because i mean i guess you'd have to look at the stations that showed any interest in wrestling program over the last year and

then go backwards from there. We know NBC Universal ain't doing that. We know Warner Bros. Discovery, we're still waiting to find out what the situation with AEW is right now. We know the CW has got NXT and they even have a streaming deal with NWA right now. So you'd have to think it would have to be some sort of property that would just take a low-grade flyer on them. And those don't exist. right you got to answer you answered the question really um the coach proposed but it's worth whatever you can get anybody to pay for it at the end of the day but without financials in knowing that there's a very very low appetite for unproven unsuccessful wrestling content because that's what teen a impact is it exists it's serving a purpose evidently for the people that own it

in so much as it's providing content for that network and you need to have content on your network. You can't have black holes. You've got to fill it up with something. But if, as you say, I'm not saying it, you said it, I'm repeating it. If they're not making money on ad sales, at least not sufficient money, I don't know what their pay-per-view revenue looks like, but I would imagine, since there's so few people watching the show, the pay-per-view revenue it was relative. So that's probably, if not insignificant, close enough to be insignificant. Licensing and merchandising, don't see it.

Where's the revenue going to come from? And why would a television network or cable outlet or even a streaming platform go, oh, you mean you want to sell it, you have your own network, you can't make it work. so you want to sell it to me so I can't make it work. You know, that's what I mean. If there's no revenue, if there's no velocity in revenue coming in, going out, cash flow, if there's no projections for growth, why would anybody want to pay for it? But, you know, who knows?

Well, I think a lot of what Scott DeMore was planning on doing was trying to trying to invest in it, make it a sellable product again, and try and find a spot. But it's a lot of what if, right? Yeah, and I get it. I mean, I get it. And perhaps Scott has relationships with a network or a cable outlet or has some honest reason to believe that that's a viable strategy, perhaps. But absent that, the fuck, I wouldn't do it.

it. I mean, Tony Kahn, we talk a lot about, is AEW good for the industry? Right now, AEW is proving to be bad for the industry, particularly bad for people like T&A Impact or even Scott DeMore if he has an idea or a vision for selling professional wrestling to another television outlet. Because AEW is not working. Despite Dave Meltzer's bullshit and the valuation that he's pulling out of his ass or other analysts are pulling out of of his ass, they're asked because nobody's looking at the numbers, right? They're just projecting based on things that they think might be true. They have no idea. So the fact that Tony is throwing as much, and he has to his credit, he's put his money where he's, he's put his money

where his mouth is. It's not, Tony isn't suffering right now because he's not investing the money, suffering because he doesn't know how to run a business. But the perception is that holy cow, if this con family owns the Jacksonville Jaguars and all these professional sports teams can't make this wrestling thing work as evidenced by what we're seeing in AEW and its current trends, both in television and in paid attendance, why do we believe Scott DeMorkan with significantly less investment. That's what I mean about what's good for the business, what's bad for the business.

It's a little bit like, you know, too much blood and really, really pushing the envelope in terms of content. Yes, it'll attract an audience, whether it's WWE or AEW. Yes, the audience will suck it up, just like they suck up whatever kind of drama they can find in the news or a TMZ or whatever. If it's a celebrity involved in some personal, ugly situation, situation, everybody wants to see it. If you're going over the top in content wrestling,

everybody will tune in and they'll see it. They'll probably enjoy it. But advertisers may not. And if you rely on that strategy too heavily, you start turning advertisers away from the product, advertisers will be reluctant to differentiate between WWE, AEW, TNA, X, YZ, Z, John Elber Wrestling Company, whatever. It's just wrestling, ah, wrestling. Then, it can become bad for business and right now i think tony's situation is precarious enough that people are looking at it who might be interested in looking at wrestling and go wait a minute if this guy can't figure it out with all his money background in sports teams infrastructure why would we want to try it that can be bad for business i want to push back on that and not out of being a smart ass

or anything like that because i find what you said very interesting and i genuinely would like to hear your thoughts on this. So you say it's not working and that it's bad for business. And you said, you referenced Dave Meltzer trying to say, oh, well, this is working. This is good. This is what the barometer is for it being good. Well, if you're suggesting that AW is bad for business and not working, what is the barometer then that says that it's bad? And it's not working because the way I look at it. No, you're asking me a question. I don't care how you look at it. Are you asking me a question or am I asking you a question. Because I want to hear what you see as far as what I'm teeing up here. If a show, viewership-wise, AW, 800,000 viewers, let's just say, hypothetically speaking,

if that is still by far and away higher than any other company out there aside from WWE, and it blows every other company away in terms of viewership, I think we can agree on that. How is that a barometer? I'm not going to agree on that just because you said it. I'll leave that door open. I won't disagree with it. But I think you need to be a little bit careful about that. But go ahead.

What other wrestling company is anywhere in the realm of that? Oh, now we're talking about a wrestling company. You said any other? No, I'm talking about wrestling. I'm talking about wrestling. I'm talking about wrestling. Because we're talking about the wrestling industry, the wrestling business. Okay.

So how is that a barometer for being bad? And I'm not being a smart ass here. I'm genuinely asking for your opinion on that. Okay. If a network executive, and I've dealt with many of them one-on-one, face-to-face on dozens, several dozens of deals over the years. So this isn't me just talking out of my ass because I know somebody that knows somebody

or I read it in a book somewhere. Whether it's professional wrestling or a sitcom or reality show or a documentary, whatever a form of content is that is being considered to occupy a valuable piece of real estate. And think of television programming, particularly in prime time, as vacant beachfront property. It's very valuable to that network. They live or die by their ability to sell advertising on that beachfront piece of property. so whether it's wrestling or any of the other forms of entertainment i told you it is generally evaluated by what can it do for ad sales that's why anytime i've ever sold a show

or attempted to sell a show i never got a green light and some of these executives some of most of them are gone now they retired or moved on or whatever but a lot of these executives they're they're in that chair they're the top dog in a chair but they will not make a decision good or bad or positive or negative as far as green lighting a show until ad sales chimes in. And ad sales rules 90% of the time. So if you're if you say you come, I come to you and I said, John, I've got this idea for a wrestling show. I think it really work. And I'll show you all the examples of why I think it'll work. I'll point to all kinds of data that will suggest that what I'm saying is right.

I'll get into the creative. I'll put it on the table. Maybe I've got a sizzle reel. Maybe I've got a demo tape. Maybe I've got a casting tape. Maybe I've got artwork. I'll do all that shit, right? I'll tell you what the first season of the show is going to look like with the first 26 episodes.

If it's a weekly show, 52 weeks here, if it's a wrestling show, we'll talk about the growth and where things will go over the next two or three years and who I'll bring in a bit. Talk about all that shit. You know what? You can have people leaning over. foaming at the mouth, hyperventilating, reaching for the pen, and they won't until ad sales chimes in. And if ad sales goes thumbs down on it, it won't sell. So what does ad sales do?

They look at the marketplace. They're going to look at it, if they're looking at it, if AEW is up for sale right now, somebody's going to look at that and go, okay, what's it done over the last 12 months? What's it done year over year? Does it done for the last three years? Let me see a trend. Where's it going? What's it doing? Okay. The audience is deteriorating steadily. Not falling off the cliff, but it's deteriorating pretty consistently over the last several, two years at least, probably three. Okay, well, that's not the end of the world, because as Dave Meltzer will point out, people who are now watching television as much as, that's the current excuse du jour. It is a reality, but somehow that same reality.

isn't affecting, I don't know, WWE, but whatever, I don't want to go off on a tangent. The point is, ad sales are going to look at any television opportunity, including wrestling, they're going to look at its trends, they're going to look at that audience, and they're going to look at the ad sales. Somebody's going to say, okay, Time Warner, AOL, Time Warner, AOL, Time Warner, WB, Time Warner, let's discover, whatever it is called. Let's take a look at what the ad sales has. been for AEW for the past 12 months.

That is what's going to tell the story. And what I'm suggesting is the ad sales are not strong. I can tell by looking at who advertises in their show. That says a lot, by the way, the kind of rotation that they have. I'm suggesting that AEW is not making money. It's probably losing money. I'm 90, I'm pretty sure that the, The Fight Forever video game, whatever it's called, is a fucking landmine of a disaster financially.

You're going to look at that business and go, okay, it's not losing money, or excuse me, it's losing money, it's losing audience. There's management in place that seemingly understands business and football and sports and the guy that runs it was a wrestling fan since he was 14. somebody he obviously knows what he's doing but it's not working that's bad for business those are the benchmarks it's performance that you could well yeah but only we're only going to talk about wrestling that's fine but you're talking about beachfront real estate and networks live or die the people running the networks live or die based on their ability to maximize that beachfront up that beachfront primetime space the head of ad sales lives or dies career-wise in terms of terms of his or her ability to maximize the potential that beachfront property.

So they're going to analyze whatever it is they're going to put on that property to make sure that they don't lose their jobs or lose money for their network. And right now, there's not anything that anybody can point to other than Tony Kahn's exuberance and childlike bravado that AEW is anything other than circling the drain. Not fast, but it's circling the drain. There's just from a creative point of view, and you and I'm getting off on a little bit of a tangent, but you were talking about, no, I think there's story in AEW. Really?

Just look at their main event story with Sting that's that we've been building up to. You could, there's so many holes in that. You could drive trucks through it in opposite directions simultaneously. That's how big the holes are. They're like bridge-like holes. It's crazy. But again, they're going to look. we'll look at that we'll look at some of the social media chatter we'll look at some of the

trends we'll look at the youtube searches that's kind of like the process i think of any kind of program including wrestling there's stuff you said that i i definitely agree with you on especially i always appreciate when you make the beachfront property analogy because it's very easy to understand and i get that entirely i mean you you did say to some presumptuous degree there about the ad sales that by your indications that you don't see it as something that they are growing or obtaining quality ad sales. But factually, we don't know the answer to that. That is correct. So we don't know. And the only true indicator that we'll get is whatever their next TV media rights deal is, because that will give us something to leverage off

of and have some sort of indicator on. But you know, you said WWE wasn't struggling in it. Well, WW did struggle with it to a degree. We heard that on that Fox call where Murdoch himself, Lachlan Murdoch said that they struggled to sell these ads. No, no, you're conflating two statements I made. I didn't say WWE wasn't having a hard time selling ad sales. I did not say that. I said, despite Dave Meltzer's assertion and his coverage for AEW,

by saying, yeah, I know the audience is declining, but that's because television's declining. If you factor out, actually saw him post something where he came up with some kind of extrapolation, some mathematical formula that somehow added in the deterioration of audience on top of AEW's numbers. See, it's really actually quite successful. I mean, it's the most mind-boggling shit in the world. I don't know who Dave Meltzer thinks he's fooling. But no, I said what's happening is, in my opinion, ad sales is an issue based on my observations and experience

in the industry and who I see advertising on. their show. WWE suffers the same situation, as you pointed out. Lachlan Murdoch decided they weren't going to renew WWE because they couldn't get the ad dollars to match up with the cost of the programming. What WWE is not suffering from that apparently AW is, despite Dave Meltzer's fucking weird math,

is that even though there's deterioration across cable, that is a fact. It's not inside information, folks. WWE's ratings, not their ad sales performance, but their ratings continue to be stable, up year over year, growing, improving, not deteriorating. That's what I said. That's what I tried to say.

Maybe I confused myself. No, I mean, listen, there are going to be parts of it, as I said, like we don't know the numbers on some of that stuff. They are a lot of private numbers that only people in those entities know at this juncture. And all we can go off of our indicators, like you said. And the greatest indicator we'll get will be whatever meteorites deal they get coming out of that. And we should know about that pretty soon. Because if there is not an announcement and a strong presence at the cable upfronts,

which happened in the next 30. to 60 days, I guess, at least they used to. I don't know what the schedule is now. Usually mid-spring. If you don't see an announcement and a heavy promotion and presence at cable upfronts by AEW for Warner Brothers Discovery, there's your answer. Because that's the time of year that networks make a significant amount of,

you know, they're called upfronts because advertisers make an upfront commitment for a flight of advertising. I don't know what the percentage is. It used to be about 75% of the ad sales revenue that a cable outlet would take in took place during the cable up fronts. They'd hold back about 25% to take advantage of opportunistic sales, depending on what was going on and what the network is. They would hold back some for make goods just in case.

their commitments during the up front. So if I come to you as a, John, I know you're, you, you, you, you manufacture high performance sports cars. And I want your advertising dollar. So here's what I'm going to commit to you, John, in the up fronts, I'm going to commit to you that if you buy a hundred ads, that those hundred ads will be seen by a million people in this demographic, whatever your demographic is.

Let's call it 25 to 49. okay I make that commitment to you and I don't reach it I come up short I have make goods I have commercials in the bank that I can use so that I don't have to refund your money is really what it boils down to so I'll use a certain percentage of my inventory for make goods that's why when I say you could tell a lot about how successful a show is by looking at the ads. Do they actually fit the demo?

If they do, that's a good sign. If they don't, it's a make good. It's oh shit, we got to use, it's just eyeballs. The advertiser doesn't care they just want the eyeballs. We have to do, we have to do make goods because we've already taken their money. We don't want to write them a check. So let's use some of the sexist commercial inventory that we've held in reserve to make sure we don't have to give any money. back. I don't know why we went off in the tangent, but I thought it was important that

people understand why up fronts are important. Why, if we don't hear and see about AEW soon in those up fronts, I think it becomes more likely that there won't be a renewal and AEW will be shopping your show. I guess we'll be finding out pretty soon. I mean, you seem pretty hellbent not buying into the whole young Buck Sting storyline. So Are you fucking kidding me, John? Are you going to defend that story? I hope you do, because I'm ready for it. Well, I think that, uh, okay, you know, actually, let me ask you this then.

What do you dislike about the story? First of all, it's not a story. I'm going to make one thing perfectly fucking clear. I've heard so, and I get the biggest kick out of this. People in social media, oh, you can't believe. Did you watch the match? There's a story in the match. Here's what I'm talking about a story.

about a consistent episodic narrative, an arc that keeps me coming back because what I saw last week left me compelled to make sure that I watched this week because I want to see what's going to happen. That's how television is supposed to work, by the way. It's not a new idea. There is nothing in that story that makes sense from the get-go, including that pathetically weak excuse of using the CM Punk backstage internet bullshit as their inciting moment to get them to turn heel. That is the weakest shit I've ever heard for a national primetime wrestling show to use as a premise. Maybe not the weakest, but damn close.

For a main event, something of this magnitude, absolutely weak. Now you're taking two characters that they're just never going to be heels. they literally are the personification of the term baby face they look like babies they're not going to they're not great enough performers actors are great in the great athletically taking that away from them don't don't get me wrong but in terms of being able to portray a character that is 180 degrees from their DNA is never going to happen they don't have the talent to pull it off they're just not their great athletes are not great actors that's being kind so they're miscast now let's go over to sting rick flair sting yay cool nostalgic get it there's kind of a big deal people can feel

whatever they want about rick flair but i saw rick flair being advertised on a primetime news spot tonight. Live. So Rick Flair is relevant. Rick Flair still gets media outside. I saw other clips of them smoking weed with Mike Tyson. I thought, God, I was kind of jealous, but, you know, Rick Flair is out there in the public eye. We're going to bring him in. History, the tie between Sting and Flair. Where was Rick Flair last week? Oh, I don't know. He went around. Wait a minute. Sting got beat up with baseball bats bloodied and this guy who you're Rick Flair, who you're bringing in because this is rich relationship, 30 years, whatever it's been, and Rick's not even there?

And, oh, I didn't even hear an announcer reference, Rick Flair, while Sting was getting the shit kicked out of them and his kids. Now, fast forward, Sting gets the shit kicked out of them, bloodied. These two, they look like high school kids. The young book should come out of a plane. wearing dry blood like whatever you know i guess if you know you're gonna you're gonna do blood just double down triple down so you can't sell an ad whatever you want to do i don't have a dog and hunt makes me laugh they show up no reference at all to what happened last week no nothing from sting

nothing from the kids no follow-up no nothing it's just shit being thrown up against the wall And if it's an angle that even resembles something that they've seen before, say, oh, no, that's a great story. It is so pathetic in the excuses and the people trying to defend is just, it's hilarious. I mean, it's the most entertaining thing in social media is watching people trying to defend AEW and their great storytelling. So my thought on that whole story with The Bucks and Sting and Darby Allen, I think this is as much of a character journey story on the Young Bucks as it is about anything else. Again, this is how I perceive this watching the TV show every single week. Okay.

the young bucks if you've been following their character arc for the last four years in a w they started as these baby faces that were putting everyone over left and right based entirely off their independent run where they started the revolution right all that jazz then their insecurities get the best of them when they turn heel and they are doing the whole hangman page story line. They're all suckered in on Don Callis and Kenny Omega's influence. They are insecure with their positioning in the company, both at an executive level and as a performer level in story. And only when their best friend, Hangman Page, starts to finally get his come up and son Kenny Omega, do they start to realize the errors of their ways? And you see them turn baby face guy they get that when the realities of the c m punk situation starts seeping into the pro wrestling discourse the young bucks did what they've done their entire careers and that is lean into the bit right that's all they've done their entire career is whether you like it or

whether you don't like it they've always done that and sting's retirement gets announced months ahead of time to sell these tickets for Greensboro, which, by the way, is trending to be their second largest gate ever for a show, which was announced this week. So as they come back into the equation, they start deciding, okay, if this is the perception that people have of us, that we have no actual power as EVPs. You yourself has said this on this podcast. Don't include me in this bullshit. No, no, but you're not alone.

You're not alone. A lot of people have said this. That they were just EVPs and named, right? Like, no actual power. It's a vanity plate. I mean, AWW is a vanity company that was giving up vanity titles. It's consistent. So, sure, right there. So they start as characters leaning into that and say, well, fuck that.

We're going to try and prove to everyone that we actually are these vindictive EVs. And what better way to show their power that they supposedly wield here than by deciding they themselves want to take out Old Yeller at what is supposed to be his big send-off? We want to deprive the people who have been taking shots at us for the last calendar plus year that we are no good little bitches and we have no power. So we want to deprive them of their hero having his moment. And they set their sights on that. We get the angle the other week where they bloodied them and bludgeon them to emphasize that. They had the angle set up with private party or not private party top flight a few weeks ago where they kind of showed them. I can't take much more of this.

I mean, this is fucking ridiculous. But what I'm saying here, Eric, is that this is a story of them being insecure. It is not a story. You're taking reality. How is that not? Those aren't. I don't give a shit. But Eric, I don't give a shit either way.

Like, genuinely, I really don't give a shit either way how people perceive AEW. Like what you want to like, dislike what you want to like. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. But when you look at characters having progression over a sustained period of time. If you call this progression, we've got nothing to talk about this. This is a, this is just a. It's a clown car.

There's no structure. There's no arc. There's random incidents and situations that we're kind of pulling out of the fucking sky and putting into a line and saying, well, maybe it's a character art story. It's bullshit. It's not compelling. Nobody cares about it. The audience is deteriorating.

Nobody's willing to buy a ticket. But that's, that's, that's an accurate. A three thousand seat. But that's not accurate. They literally just sold out 13,000 seats for the pay-per-view for this match. John, if you believe that, if you feel that that, that what they're doing is good character story or good, or is an arc in and of itself, I can't help you.

There's nothing for us to discuss. But then don't you see a way here in which this is all being done to enhance ultimately this amazing moment for Sting? which he's going to get at this pay-per-view where these... He would get an amazing moment if he went out there and beat you. The tickets they've sold from Reisville have everything to do with Sting and have nothing at all to do with the drek that we're seeing every week that some people seem to think is a great story.

It's horrible. The audience is turning away from it. It just sucks. It's random situations plugged in and thrown up against the wall, hoping something will stick. And people go, yeah, but it's... It's really a great story. It's not.

It's horrible. And the proof is in the pudding. The proof is in the numbers. Numbers don't lie. Numbers don't have an opinion. And yeah, the pay-per-view is good. I guess the paper-view is going to do okay. But in March, how many tickets they sailed the minute they announced Sting, right?

It's going to be people are buying tickets to see Sting's last match. It's got nothing to do with the bucks, nothing to do with the story. And that story could have been so much better if they didn't have fucking holes that you could fly planes through in the story. Going back to Rick Flair, why even announce it? Why even bring him in in the first place? Why tie him to, to sting as a baby face? If you're not going to use them. I don't disagree with you on Rick. I'm totally. It's horrible. And when you see holes that big, that suggests to me that there's no thought. There's absolutely no thought. If there was any thought at all, you would have at least had the announcement. You would have at least had the

announcers cover Rick Flair we would find out why he wasn't there I'm curious that something happened we would have established before the match even started that Rick Flair wasn't here otherwise Rick Flair looks like an idiot I'm curious if something happened with Rick because he has like totally been dropped from this story and I don't understand what happened there at all I'm total agreement with you on that front um look I'm just saying I think the ultimate payoff of it is seeing these guys go down this trek and then in the moment, Sting's final moment where he reminds them of the fact that they're just little whiny bitches at the end of the day.

And he ends up putting them in a scorpion death lock as all 13,000 fans go nuts to see those guys get their come up and Sting get his last moment. That's the way I perceive it. Just how I consume it. Doesn't mean it's good. Doesn't mean it's bad. Just how I consume it. And,

Yeah, that's all I get some questions. This is boring me to tears. Boring you to tears. Okay. Well, I'm watching the program every week. So anyway, well, I'm sorry to hear that. Let's take a pause because this episode of Strictly Business is sponsored by Blue Chew. Let's talk about sex, gents.

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And we thank Bluechoo for sponsoring this podcast. Josh, he says, do you have any predictions for viewership numbers for AW Dynamite when Mercedes Monet debuts, will this increase rampage or collision? And he says he still has the Meltzer book in a shopping cart on Amazon for you. You know, you may see a, you'll see a bump, I'm sure. Mercedes got a lot of fans out there. Spent a lot of time in WWE at a very, very high level. So yeah, she'll get a bump. Do I think it won't break a mill?

million, it'll, you know, they may knock on 900,000s, which is a win in today's environment. Anything over seven, anything over 800 is, you know, cause for celebration, I guess. So they do better than that, depending on what they're up against. But, you know, basketball right now doesn't matter. It's like, eh, it's early season. Basketball doesn't start mattering until later on in the season. So depending on what they're up against, uh, I don't. know 875 maybe 880 somewhere near the area and it'll go right back down to whatever it's been

within three weeks that'll be it we got one from mike whittaker he says with w w w going to netflix they won't have commercials we have seen at russomania where they have sponsors so just a match for just a match do you think that we'll see more of that for raw and pay-per-views so essentially do you see wwe obtaining more individual sponsorships just for singular matches going on. Yeah, well, I don't know about that. But I want to go back to no, no commercials on Netflix. Do we know that? Because I've read two different things. I've read that there will be commercials. I've read that there won't be. I don't know. So what I remember reading from the initial release was, and it's off the top of my head, the top tier is commercial free,

but the other tiers are not commercial free. At least that's the plan as of now, obviously subject to change a year from now when we see this ultimately rolled out. I mean it's just interesting as far as producing that because so you're producing one show live and the people who have the top tier aren't going to see commercials but the people that have lower well no well it's kind of a w kind of does it right now too where so um you have the the regular feed that we see on tv with commercials but on triller on fight they don't get commercials yeah but those are two things we're talking about netflix so i'm going to tune in the monday night raw on netflix So it would be two different feeds, I'd imagine.

But here's my point. Typically, when you're laying out a match, you know when the commercial break is going to take place, right? So the match, your producer slash agent, whatever you prefer to call them in today's world, we'll work with the talent so that we've got a three-minute break or a three-minute period within that match where we're going to make sure nothing really significant happens, but we're not going to put the crowd to sleep either. and then literally the referee again how it used to be done is counted down we'll be back in three to what communicates at the talent may know when to pick it up again so now you've got one you've got a referee you've got a match going on some people are going to get a commercial some

people aren't i wonder how that's going to affect the way matches are laid out that's my point yeah again uh i think that it will probably be exactly how it still is right now i don't see you much changing in that you'll see rest hold spots and stuff where enough not a lot's going on all right let me get back to the let me get back to the sponsorship the second part of that question um look we said we talked about this way back when you know i think when i predicted before it was official endeavor one of the reasons for that that i could see is because the two companies complimented each other so well and one of the first things that i remember seeing as opportunistic was taking advantage of Endeavor's relationship in the advertising world,

leveraging some of their success, perhaps other programs. Nick Kahn's vast Rolodex and experience in bringing more sponsorship money to the table. That was one of the areas where combining the two companies where one plus one could actually equal three. There was a duplication there. There was nothing but upside in that particular area. The other one that we talked about is venues negotiating. Now we can, one company can say, look, we're going to bring you six UFC events and six WWE events throughout the year or whatever. The combination is, three and three, whatever.

So now you've got one agent, if you will, representing two of the most powerful live event properties in the United States and negotiating with venues. What does that do? It makes it less expensive for both companies or for both WWW. and UFC because you've got strength, you've got leverage. You're kind of like Henry Holmes with Bill Goldberg and Hall Cogan, right? You have leverage and you're able to use it to reduce your costs, perhaps keep competition out, perhaps get prime dates throughout the year that otherwise you'd have to fight for, compete for, a premium for. The other side of it was the international opportunities. So all of that is kind of coming together, but I do see sponsorship continuing to

be a more significant part of the business model, perhaps leading away from ad sales and the reliance so much on traditional advertising, because that's being spread around anyway. That's getting tougher and tougher to get. Fox, WWE, perfect example. It's getting more difficult. It's not getting easier. So that being the case, in content programming, or in content, it. in programming promotion is a premium.

You get probably 1.5x, maybe 2x on in-content programming versus a commercial spot. Because people can't tune out of it. Perfect. We'll see more of that for sure. Good question. Smart. From Will, I'm curious why we never saw WCW stars compete in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on TNT. Should promoters have a concern about stars competing in extracurricular activities and fear of injuries?

In AWA, the high flyers surrender the tag belts due to Jim Brunzel's softball injury. There's a lot in there. Why do you some W wrestlers participate in an NBA all-star game during like, because, you know, Turner. Yeah, you would think, especially because of the relationship Turner had with the NBA, but they didn't want wrestling anywhere near NBA, they meaning Turner. There was no cross, nobody even wanted to have a conversation about crossover.

Wrestling is wrestling, basketball's basketball, never the two shall meet. That was the approach. That was the mentality. From an injury standpoint, would you have let a talent do something like that and risk that or? Oh, I would have.

Sure, yeah, yeah. I mean, everything's a risk. You get a lot of talent. You can't, first of all, you can't control. talent they're independent contractors if they want to play in an NBA game they're going to play in an NBA game you can try to talk them out of it if you're afraid they're going to get hurt but why would you know I wouldn't do that I would I would I would be as important as they

could be sure sure let's see we will go to Johnny McCauley asking how did you and other people in WCW who knew the wrestling business know who was a big draw for the company I'm sorry I guess I guess he's asking what was the metric for deterrence who was a big draw for WCW. It depends on the talent. You can start with television. You can look at a performers, a wrestling talent's performance over a six-month or 12-month period of time.

It's not the sole data point because a lot of that depends. And was it a main event match? Did the match take place early in the show? Was it buried somewhere in the middle of the show? Was it a bear sandwich between three commercial breaks? You know, there's so many variables. That's why you have to kind of look over an extended period of time. But you look at the audience's reaction vis-a-vis ratings.

You can do research. You can get what's called a Q rating or used to be called the Q rating, which is a measurement of familiarity and response. Likeable, dislikable, favorable, unfavorable, don't give a fuck. Kind of like the Young Box. Look, you, you, there is research available or that you can contract for that will help you determine that. Some of it is in state.

You know, you're in the building. You feel the reaction. You see the reaction or lack thereof. That's probably the best. And that's the one that I relied upon just as much as I did Q ratings or, or television performance, was if you're sitting in the arena, especially if you sneak into the back and you're sitting out there with the with the audience not sitting back in guerrilla or or watching in an office remotely but if you're out there in the venue and you you can feel it you can see it and

there's yeah five six seven eight thousand members of a focus group right there in front of you yeah brain surgery the eye test doesn't lie sometimes so it's pretty much as simple as that let's get a few more in here eric uh mike asking do you think it was an era on wbb's part to try to mix the Cody story thing with the rock bloodline integration. It seems like the two at the same time are diluting the two. You mean the current story? So I guess he's saying combining the whole Cody needs to finish the story with the whole rock and bloodline.

Combining them at the same time is that harming and diluting both of those. Well, like that's been confusing. Let's just, my reaction, I have been following that because I'm fascinated by it. from an actual storytelling perspective, not a cosplay story. It's been confusing, and I think there was one plan. They executed that plan.

Cody handed off his opportunity to rock. There was a reaction to that, and then there was a reaction to the reaction. and here we are today. So I think that bobble that took place when Cody handed off his shot at Roman to Rock, that was a fumble. And they recovered really well

and now our building. I think we'll see in the next two weeks how well they've really tightened up this story and how well that story is really going to work. But I would agree that it's, that bobble that took place a couple weeks ago was confusing. Or you could say dilutive. But for me, it was just awkward and confusing because nobody knew how to react.

Yay, it's a rock, but not like this. We want this, but we want the rock. So that confusion. and like delayed emotive response as a result of it is what I think the question is rooted in. And I agree with it because I felt it too. But I'm interested to see what they do tonight. I'm interested in what we see next week. That will tell us just about everything we need to know.

Yeah. I really hope we get an explanation as to the why of why Cody gave up his spot in the first place. That's going to be hard. Yeah. Because it's such a logical from a character standpoint as to why he would have done that. And if they're going to lean into the rock being the corporate guy who's on the board and like that's where they're taking this story, which it seems like that's going to be the direction, you know, maybe maybe that's something you can reveal. Maybe that can be a story beat of, you know, Cody actually faced pressure from the rock to give up that spot. And that adds a little more heat on rock.

But we need to have that why explained. And the execution of it. And that's probably where you and I differ so greatly on your view of what's going on on AEW and mine. The execution of, you can explain something all day long, but if it's weak and it doesn't compel, it's not compelling, it doesn't resonate, it's not even a little bit believable or relatable, you can, you can say it all you want. You can have your announcers beat it up all you want. Like an audience, they're going to buy it if it's bullshit, if it's weak. And that beat that you're talking about as to why Cody made that decision in that moment, that's going to be a hard one to execute in a way that's believable and compelling.

I'm not saying it can't be done. But I think it's, I'm guessing here, if you're in that writer's room and you're collaborating and you're bouncing ideas around for hours at a time and your job is to figure, out how to make that make sense it's one of those situations like the harder you try the worse it gets sometimes it's better just as much as you don't want to be put in this position to have a hole whether it's a small hole or it's a hole you can drive a truck through you don't want any holes in your story because that's where you lose the audience especially a story of this magnitude right like this is the biggest story they've been telling in years and you don't want to discuss

connect the audience from it by coming up with weak shit like the bucks so addressing cody's decision maybe he was baiting rock maybe this was all cody having the wisdom to know that rock should have come in and big foot his way into the party sure i'm going to give him enough rope to hang himself because that's what people like you do get a lot of rope and you hang yourself maybe that's the story or maybe they just let it go because the harder they try to make sense of it the weird it gets yeah i would not love i would not love if it's just retconned out of existence and never answered because that is that is a pretty big why in this story and i hope that in some former fashion it is at least addressed because they have a chance to make a really

unique pivot here that it seems like they are making and uh i don't know eric i mean this is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing WrestleMania main events ever. No doubt about that. Certainly the most chatter. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And it's a great payoff to the Cody journey.

And hopefully we see that come to fruition here this year. And, you know, on the buck stuff, like, I know we're needling each other here. But like, again, for me, I think the beauty of storytelling, regardless of what it's about pro wrestling, movies, music, whatever it may be, is that it's going to resonate with people in different ways. There are going to be people who look at this Cody's story and that whole why argument is not going to matter to them. They're not going to care. They just want to see the match

that's in the ring at the end of day. They just want to see what's in the angle. There's going to be people who fixate entirely on just that. And they can't get into the story because that one story beat doesn't work for them. And I think that is one of the great things about consuming any forms of storytelling, especially pro wrestling,

is that people are going to take shit in however it resonates with them individually. There were great stories you told in WCW, Eric, that didn't resonate with people. There were stories that probably were just kind of thrown on TV to fill some time that people remember and say, oh, that's some of my favorite shit in WCW. That's why when we talk about these stuff, like the Young Buck's angle program, whatever you want to call it, with Sting, it may not connect for you. It may not connect for a large part of a casual audience or whatever it is. but there are going to be people that it does resonate with so that's why i always take the stance of

who am i to tell someone that's a shit story that's a good story because for someone it may resonate with them in some way that's the way i view it diatribe over i just i just want to say that i know you're smiling then you're a much better person than i am i'll give you that uh all right one more here let's go to guy who's got a great question here he says eric You said previously that you read the art of war every two or three years. How did that book help you in the wrestling business? I mean, I think art of war is more for me a kind of a study in human psychology and conflict than it is actual art of war, if that may sense, the physical act of war.

it's more about a different way of thinking about strategies. I think the art of war applies very much to business. In fact, I know a lot of people that are very successful in business that often refer to art of war. And like I do, read it every couple years just to remind yourself of some of the basic fundamentals of negotiation and strategy and, you know, learning the difference between a strategy and tactics. People use the word interchangeably, and it's not.

And learning, reading, especially because the book is just so amazingly well written. I mean, it's thousands of years old, I guess, but, and been rewritten and rewritten. But it's just such a fascinating book for me that it's, it more broadly has affected the way I look at negotiations. in business than wrestling as a whole, or specifically, I should say. Always appreciate your point of view and insight. You're a very deeply fascinating person in your research and the way that you go about how you've set yourself up professionally, and I always appreciate insight onto that, Eric. I know with the way that we bicker sometimes, there might be some people who think that

we don't get along, but I love doing it. in this show with you, and I always enjoy hearing your insight and position. I love arguing. I love to, I love a, I love a almost violent debate, does it, not physical. We don't want to get to that point. But I, hey, heat is life. What is heat? What is heat?

Heat is friction. It's two atoms rubbing together, and that vibration creates heat. That's how microwaves work. Everybody uses a fucking microwave. and nobody knows how they work you just put your shit in there press a button it gets hot but if you ask somebody how does that happen how does your coffee get hot in 45 seconds well i don't know push the button five seconds comes out hot heat is life heat is energy and without heat i there is there is no reason to listen to this podcast that's right good debate there's no

reason to without conflict there's no reason to go to a movie there's no reason to watch a ewe there's no wait a there is no reason to watch anything there's no reason to invent your time in in any form of entertainment if there's not conflict at drama and resolution and in all the human emotion that derives from it that's what life is so hey i don't mind arguing i don't mind and once in a while i'm wrong and i i enjoy being proven wrong it's happened that often i'm not sure you're going to ever be able to do it but occasionally it does happen what a shot what i i i must have got up and took a dick pill this morning or something oh my goodness the common airline's full the comments oh it was a united oh my god

so i leave wyoming on tuesday morning my full of course 75% of that's why i don't fly out of cody wyoming i always drive two hours to billings because at least there's a chance i'm to get out on time. But I decide I'm going to Los Angeles. I wanted it to be a short trip. I'm going to fly out of Cody, Wyoming. United Airlines, I get there. And just like it happens, 75% of the time, my flight's late, which means I miss my connection in Denver. So I didn't get the seat, not to be a 20 bitch. I bought a first class ticket. My flight's late getting out of Cody. I finally get to Denver, and I'm sitting in the back of the plane in coach. Like us, peasants.

It's not that. I paid for something and I didn't get it. And when I went to the desk, and I understand, shit happens. But unfortunately, for me, it happens 70% of the time flying out of Cody, I'm going to get to, or anywhere on United. Denver is horrible. Denver is the worst airport in the country. I think to make connections because they're understaffed. They don't have the air traffic controllers.

They don't have pilots. They don't have crews. They don't have ground crews because they fired a bunch of them over this COVID bullshit. You get the shot or you're fired. And a lot of people left. Now there's nobody to do the job. And as a result, everything is getting backed up, especially in Denver. It's horrible.

So we finally get on a plane. We find out, oh, well, there was a crosswind last night. and the rudder blew off what the rudder blew off the rudder blew off the plane in a crosswind what you know don't don't tell me that lie to me i prefer to be lied to at this point it's just falling off the plane as you're flying through the air we hear about it all the time doors falling off windows blowing out wheel's falling off i mean we're crying out loud what what is the deal but anyway i get to Denver. I finally get to L.A. I do my business. I'm coming back and again, we're late on the way home. We're late. Sit on the, sit on the tarmac for those over an hour,

hour and 15, hour and 20 minutes. Nobody knows why. No announcement, no nothing. It's just, it was just visible. Anyway, you can edit all that out. Nobody gives a shit about my issues. Well, I do. I want to throw a plug for our friend DDP real quick here. Uh, If you haven't seen this, I posted it on Twitter and he shared it as well, I believe. They posted a documentary about Butterbean and the rehabilitation they did with Butterbean as he tries to prepare for one final fight. I mean, this is a guy who was in an electric scooter, couldn't walk, couldn't stand up, and now he's upright fighting, training to fight.

I mean, it's unbelievable the work that Dallas and his crew did here. I just wanted to give that shout. I know you like good positive notes. I don't know if you know. No, and I, you know, I've met Butterbean. I think I worked with Butterbean. I think we used him on Hulk Hogan Celebrity Championship Wrestling. If I'm not mistaken.

Nice guy. I mean, super nice guy. And I did see that video. And it's, it's, wow. Amazing. It's really, it's so fascinating to see somebody like DDP doing such great things for people. I mean, he's always been that way. He just didn't have the platform, you know, back when he was wrestling, you know, he,

Chris Canyon and Evan Courageous and Shannon Moore and so many of that young group of talent that we brought in that were, you know, ended up being part of a cruiserweight division. That was all DDP, man, trying to help young guys out. That's just who he is. And for him to have developed such a great system that can physically change people's lives, emotionally change their lives, save their lives in some cases. I am just so proud of them.

And really not proud of them because I didn't have anything to do with it, but I'm proud to call him a friend because it's so awesome to see somebody that was so invested in the wrestling business. It was his life. It was his passion. And to be able to take that same level of passion

and apply it over here and helping people in such a massive way that's a blessing. Just want to give him a shout. out for that. Go check it out, guys, if you haven't yet already. And head on over to advertise with Eric.com. Get your business, get your product down in front of thousands of listeners every single week here on the Strictly Business podcast. It's on the 83 weeks for you, which is one of the largest in the world for pro wrestling. That's advertised with Eric.com. And of course,

head on over to ad-free shows.com to where Eric is always laying down a bunch of bonus goodies for all of our great ad-free shows, top guys, top gals, and everyone. YouTube, well, we're doing all kinds of fun stuff on YouTube, dude. We're going to start do it to watch along as we're going to cover all kinds of stuff oh youtube oh 83 weeks on youtube.com subscribe and sign up for notifications because y'all are going to get some content that you certainly are this has been strictly business with eric bischoff we will see you next time