On this week’s episode of “83 Weeks” on AdFreeShows.com, Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts on AEW’s business model. Bischoff feels AEW needs a larger than life star to grow their audience:
“AEW has to grow their business,” Bischoff said. “They haven’t thus far. Now they’re inching up since NXT is no longer head to head. Dynamite, they’re probably 10% or 12% some are estimating ahead of where they were this time last year. But they’re still having a hard time consistently breaking a million viewers. It’s up and down with a super loaded roster.”
Bischoff continued, “At some point, they’re going to need a world champion, or two, a men’s champion and a women’s champion, they’re going to need somebody that’s a legitimate larger than life star, not just physically, but larger than life to a broader audience. Or they’re going to have to accept the fact that AEW is basically a million viewers a week tops. I don’t think that’s what they want to do. Maybe they’re happy with that. Maybe more importantly, maybe TBS is happy with that, and if they are, it doesn’t really matter so much.”
“But if they’re not, and they want to grow, and they want to be doing 1,500,000 or they want to push Monday Night Raw in terms of ratings, and get into that 1.6 or 1.7 (million) category, they got a long way to go, and they’re going to need to focus on some larger than life type characters that are going to attract more than just the hardcore fanbase that they currently have.”
Also on this week’s podcast, Bischoff watched the 2/24/97 episode of WCW Monday Nitro. That show happened one night after “Macho Man” Randy Savage joined the NWO. Other topics on the show include Shawn Michaels losing his smile, Jeff Jarrett thinking he’s in the Horsemen, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan challenging Hulk Hogan and more.
