During a recent episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff spoke on the WWE releasing talent and gave his thoughts on why it might be happening. Here’s what he had to say:
I think, if I’m involved in some of the decisions to try to get that stock price up, I’m looking at talent roster, which is a significant part of expenses in WWE. I’m thinking to myself, ‘Wait a minute, we’re not gonna be touring the same way we used to. I need to start making good decisions. We have 300 people under contract, perhaps that’s too many.’ Maybe there was a reason for it. Maybe the emergence of AEW a couple of years ago. The awareness of the unknown and not being sure what AEW was gonna mean or not sure what that impact was gonna be. I would agree that locking up some talent, or perhaps paying more for that talent than I might otherwise pay, makes sense. But now we know what AEW is, and that’s not discouraging in any way. I think [WWE] probably went, ‘OK, we need to shore this business model up and make some adjustments.’ The world is a different place. I’m more convinced now than I was last week that what WWE is doing is aggressively managing their business model…..I think when the dust settles, we’re gonna see WWE stock price back to where it was pre-COVID and a new touring model that makes more sense in the long run. I don’t think WWE is going anywhere, at least not in the near future.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: 83 Weeks. H/T 411Mania.