On the latest episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff discussed the significance of live broadcasting in professional wrestling.
He emphasized that while it has always mattered, the shift towards consistent live broadcasts, particularly with Monday Night RAW first popularizing the concept on a regular basis, and then WCW Nitro going live every week, was a pivotal development in the industry, and how professional wrestling would go on to be conceived. He stated,
“I think it definitely matters more now. I think it always mattered. But clearly, they just look at the values of WWE content because it’s live. It’s not sports, but it’s as close to sports as you’re going to get on television because sports are generally live and so is professional wrestling. And I think that moved to the live format consistently weekly because WWE had done Raw. They’d had one live show, one tape show, one live show, one tape show. So it wasn’t like we were the first, Nitro was the first live show. We were just the first live show 52 weeks a year. And changing that paradigm and making that standard operating procedure.”
This set a new standard for the industry, making live shows the norm and contributing to the high values of wrestling content today, according to Bischoff. He added,
“It’s one of the reasons why the values for WWE today are what they are. Had it not been for Nitro going live every week and then WWE in order to compete, going live every week until it became the standard? That’s what you do if you do professional wrestling and you want to be successful at it. It is one of the reasons why professional wrestling content today is worth what it’s worth.”
Bischoff then highlighted the urgency and connection to the audience that live broadcasts provide, reinforcing the message that viewers should be part of the event as it unfolds. He said,
“But even back then, 25 years ago, a quarter of a century ago, life still had… there is an urgency to it that a tape show just didn’t have. And it’s hard to explain. I think some of it is subconscious in the minds of the viewer. They’re there. They’re watching as if it’s really happening. It’s not that the show is necessarily any better creatively or in terms of the talent performance, but the connection that you’re making to the audience, however conscious or subconscious that may be when it’s live. Matters. I believed it back in 95 when we launched Nitro, which is why I wanted to do it live every week. Even though it was more expensive, it was a bigger investment to go live every week. It would have been cheaper to do what WWE was doing and go live tape or even just tape the shows. But I wanted it to have that energy conscious or otherwise subconscious of being a live show. It reinforced the message I was trying to send to the audience, which was that you have to be there. You don’t want to watch it after the fact. You want to be a part of the event as it’s happening. And it clearly worked.”
