During a recent episode of After 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff spoke on if he thinks Vince McMahon has lost his touch. Here’s what he had to say:
That’s such a hard one. It’s because it’s such a complex answer. The entertainment industry is changing every single day. I think it’s true that Vince is committed to a formula that has provided an unbelievable level of success for the wrestling industry as a whole.
There isn’t anybody that can look at what the WWE has accomplished in terms of its global significance in the world of entertainment and not recognize that the formulas that Vince McMahon relied upon to achieve those levels of success were unquestionably amazing success stories, and the formulas worked. Now do I think there may be some reluctance to adapt new formulas in light of the ever changing nature of entertainment? Yes, I do. Do I understand why people are reluctant to change those formulas? Of course I do.
WWE has to walk this really fine line of satisfying the audience while maintaining, not creating new relationships with advertisers although there is some of that going on, but maintaining the relationships with the advertisers they currently do have, and sponsors, which are very significant.
There are things I’m sure WWE would love to do creatively that they just can’t because they know the blowback they’ll get from advertisers. It’s a little bit like producing an action movie for Disney. You gotta be really careful how you do that. That’s probably the best analogy I could give. Does that mean he’s out of touch? Or does that mean he’s catering his business to his customer? The real customer, being the advertiser, because without the advertiser, there are no viewers.
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Credit: After 83 Weeks. H/T 411Mania.