During the latest episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff commented on the differences between TNA and AEW, TNA’s marketing and why he was frustrated by it, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the biggest differences between TNA and AEW: “TNA at different points in time did have some great storylines……I also think in kind of comparing what AEW has done and what TNA failed to do, AEW does a good job marketing themselves outside of their television show. TNA had the outlook or the perspective that all you had to do was put a television show on the air, and people will come. That’s true to a certain degree. But you’ve gotta preach outside the choir in your own church in order to attract a bigger audience or create more awareness or even in a subtle way, making your product feel more important to the people who do watch it on TV and making that pay-per-view feel like it’s must-see. Now, a large part of that is booking, and I’m not going to deny that. To a large extent, that was a failure in TNA and WCW and occasionally in WWE and AEW. There are storylines that are kind of weak, but there are also storylines in WWE and AEW that are really compelling and make up for it. But if you’re not marketing outside of the people that watch your show on a pretty consistent basis, that’s also a flaw.
On TNA’s mindset on marketing the product outside of their weekly TV show: “TNA did not do a good job marketing TNA outside of the television show. They didn’t believe it was necessary. They were of the mind that all you had to do was put a show on TV and you were gonna be successful. That’s not true. You’ve gotta go beyond that. Look at some of the stuff AEW has done in the last year and a half since they’ve been around to promote themselves outside of the people that are watching the show every week. They’ve done a substantial job and made a lot of money. That’s something TNA didn’t want to do. They did not want to spend money marketing themselves. If Spike TV was willing to spend money, great. But they wouldn’t spend their own.
“They wouldn’t even spend money promoting their live house shows. You could go into any market that TNA was in and nobody knew that they were there. Again, that’s small thinking, and one of the things that frustrates me when I talk about TNA – not because of what went on there personally because some of the things there were really great for me. I got to work with my son, and Garett got to get in the ring and work with guys like Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, AJ Styles, Robert Roode, and Samoa Joe. That was a hell of an opportunity I was able ot provide my son, and I never forget that. But the frustration for me comes in what a missed opportunity. What a great opportunity TNA had, but they failed to capitalize on it because of a very small-minded outlook on what the business needs to be.”
