Eric Bischoff Discusses The Impact Of WWE Potentially Cutting Back On House Shows

On the latest episode of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff talked about TKO COO Mark Shapiro saying he wants to cut back on WWE house shows at the UBS media conference. You can check out some highlights below:

On WWE potentially cutting back on house shows: “It’s why I often don’t pay attention to these public announcements or comments, or even the Wall Street stuff that happens once a quarter, whenever it is. It’s just such nonsense. And that was like a whole bunch of verbiage — for those of you who read Dave Meltzer’s dirt sheet, that means words. It’s just a whole bunch of gaga, basically saying ‘We’re losing money in small markets, so we’re not going to go there anymore to save money.’ That’s it. That’s all it means. It doesn’t mean anything else. You don’t have to be a Harvard business grad to react to something like that. They’re losing money in small markets, it doesn’t make any sense anymore. They’re growing in other markets so put your resources behind your growth and quit spending money doing things that don’t make money. F**k, if I was running a Kool-Aid stand, that would be the same thing. Simple, good for them. I did the same thing in WCW.”

On how the decision impacts the company: “It’s strictly business. How about that? No I mean, it is. Look, this isn’t a public service. This isn’t a 501-C3 company. They’ve ve got shareholders, they’ve got to answer to those shareholders. They have to make the decisions that are most efficient and most profitable for the company, period. That is their fiduciary responsibility, Google that s**t if you don’t know what I’m talking about. It is their fiduciary responsibility to provide maximum value to shareholders. And if they’re engaged in a strategy that is costing the company money and doesn’t reflect growth, they don’t have a choice.

“It’s not, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s 5,0000 people, the fans only get to come once a year, and now they’re going to have to drive two hours.’ That’s sad. I’m not — well, I am making fun of it, but I’m not because it’s life. If you want to go to a mall, you have to drive two hours too. I live in Cody frickin Wyoming! You know, the nearest mall to me? Real mall, not a glorified strip mall, I’m talking about a real mall? Denver, Colorado, it’s an eight-hour drive! It’s not that big a deal. Drive to — here’s what’ll happen. If you live in Bangor or wherever it is in Maine, where there are only a few people in WWE only come here once a year, and now they’re not going to come anymore, and you’re crying in your coffee or beer as you listen to this? Look at it this way. There’s only one event coming to you. You have to drive two hours, but that’s the fun part! It’s the anticipation, it’s the story that you’ll come away with when you and your friends jump in your car, your van, whatever it may be and drive that two hours. It’s a road trip, man. That’s a part of that slice of freaking Americana right there. Road trip, you need more road trips! Take a freaking road trip. Grab your friends, grab your family, whoever you’re going with, and make a night of it.”

Eric Bischoff on the WWE injury rate going down if they cut back on house shows: “And there’s a balance though, John. Because here’s — if you go one extreme to another extreme. I think one of the challenges, and perhaps it hasn’t really manifested yet in AEW. But they don’t run house shows, or if they do it’s a very limited amount of them. That’s an environment where people are going to get hurt more frequently, in my opinion. And I’m not speaking from experience. I wasn’t a wrestler, I didn’t travel, I didn’t work on the road 200, 150, 200 days a year. I wasn’t taking bumps for a living, right? So I’m not trying to speak from first-hand experience. But I can’t even count the number of talents that I’ve worked with over the years that have all expressed the same perspective. That being, you don’t get hurt from working too much. You get hurt from not working enough. When you’re working a lot, your body is in your condition for it. Your timing is better, everything is better. And you’re taking those bumps, and your body gets conditioned to the bumps. You take too much time off, and you become more susceptible to injuries, because your body’s not used to what you’re putting it through, particularly on a television show or on a pay-per-view or premium live event. Whatever the hell you want to call it. It doesn’t matter to me. Pick it, I don’t care. But when you’re not working consistently, you’re more likely to get hurt. So I think that balance is really important.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Strictly Business with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.