On a recent edition of his “Strictly Business” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff discussed the recent WWE employee meeting led by Nick Khan, Vince McMahon, Ari Emanuel, and other executives.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Vince McMahon saying WWE had been stagnant during employee meeting: “I wasn’t in the meeting. All I know is what’s been reported, so the entire context is lacking. But people need to keep in mind that when you’re running a publicly held company, a multi-billion dollar company that has an international footprint — you’re distributing your content and promoting your live events all over the world — you have to look into the future. And I think perhaps we should at least keep an open mind to the fact that Vince is looking like any good executive must do. Japanese famously have 50-year business plans and 100-year business plans. The United States, you’re lucky if you have a three-year business plan, and after you develop a three-year business plan, you pretty much chuck it out the window 30 days after you get it done. But you have to be looking into the future.
“And while I think yes, WWE has been breaking a lot of financial and otherwise records over the last couple of years, perhaps the future didn’t look quite as bright because, you know the old saying, what goes up must come down? Well, when you’re running a company like WWE or General Motors or whatever, you’ve got to be prepared for what comes down and you have to avoid what comes down at all costs. So perhaps the opportunity for growth had become stagnant, and therefore a merger or a sale in this case, was the best way to ensure WWE’s continued success. How many times have you heard me say, John? It’s hard to create momentum. It’s even harder to sustain it. I think this is a perfect example, and I think a lot of people are probably reading into that comment and coming up with their own dirt sheet universe explanation for it and in reaction to it. But I don’t think it was anything more than saying something perhaps like the future of WWE needs to be one that is bigger, faster and stronger. And that’s what that merger was.”
On whether he thinks WWE will return to PPV following UFC merger: “I don’t know. There’s too much we don’t know about the future and the strength of streaming and the value therefore in having premium live events being part of a growing platform, as opposed to relying on something that’s been around for several decades. It’s not about where the value is today as much as where the value will be five years from now. You have to be careful. And that’s kind of going back to the comment that started this whole thing about media is, you know, ‘Did Vince McMahon put this all together because he wanted to stay in power?’ That is such a third-grade juvenile, ignorant in the sense of the word, the literal sense of the word, lock of information or knowledge. And part of what I think Vince was doing was trying to see into the future and perhaps, as I said — not to repeat it too much, but it correlates. If Vince McMahon, is looking into the future and realizes that he has tapped out all of the resources and opportunities available to him in this particular moment as a single entity, and in order to grow into the future, he needs more gravity. He needs more weight behind him. He needs more resources behind him. That’s when a merger makes sense. And part of that is looking into the future. And I think the value of a WWE Premium live event today? Perhaps today, it could be worth more in terms of immediate revenue in a more traditional pay-per-view model. But by building the streaming platform and using the PLEs as a strong selling point in order to grow that business and create more value in that business in the long term will benefit the company much more.”
On Vince McMahon being able to see into the future: “It’s kind of like looking through a crystal ball. I mean, that’s what you’re trying to do. And that’s what some people are good at. Some people are really good at — Warren Buffett, he’s got like the hottest crystal ball on the planet. But they’re not all making decisions based on what worked yesterday. They’re making decisions on what they think is going to work five years from now.”
