"Much ado about something that’s really important" - Eric Bischoff chimes in on AEW, Nick Gage, and Domino's Pizza
The AEW Dynamite match between Nick Gage and Chris Jericho last Wednesday certainly drew its fair share of controversy, and Eric Bischoff chimed in on the subject on the latest episode of his 83 Weeks podcast.
The former head of World Championship Wrestling had plenty to say about the match itself, as well as the response from one of Dynamite's advertisers, Domino's Pizza.
Eric Bischoff on "random hardcore matches for the sake of random hardcore matches"
When it comes to hardcore matches themselves, Eric Bischoff has made clear that he doesn't care for them... with one exception.
"[With] these bloody hardcore matches, you have two risks that are out there that are real risks. The first risk is that you turn off your audience and... for every one person that may really enjoy this [kind of match], you run the risk of alienating two or three others that don’t..."
"I want to make it clear... just because I don’t like hardcore matches and generally, I do not like hardcore matches—unless, motherf******, pay attention—unless it’s a logical part of the storyline and then I’m all in."
A wrestling show, Bischoff explained, needs to have something for everybody, and hardcore matches certainly have their place. But "random hardcore matches for the sake of random hardcore matches" will just serve to alienate the rest of your audience. That, Bischoff reminded us, includes advertisers.
“Take it from the guy that wrote the book, Controversy Creates Cash, there is some controversy that really works in your benefit and particularly in the state of affairs that we find ourselves culturally today. There’s a lot of controversy that can kick your ass and not be a benefit."
Eric Bischoff also explained that it's not AEW that sells ad time to sponsors, but the network. Plus, the loss of one advertiser due to controversial content can start somewhat of a chain reaction.
"Do people not recognize that in the world of the advertising industry and the media buying industry there are trades, there are newsletters, there are conversations, there is narrative so that when a company like Domino’s and more importantly, their ad agency, this is the part that people don’t understand in terms of recognizing the risk."
"Do you think that they’re [Turner Networks and AT&T, their owner] concerned that there’s something on their network in primetime on really, their most valuable network that are causing advertisers, in this case, an advertiser, to threaten to pull the plug? Do you think there are not executives... in charge of ad sales who are... concerned about the... Domino’s incident and how it could affect other potential advertisers to the network, not [just] to AEW?"
Eric Bischoff and his co-host, Conrad Thompson, suggested something like this would be better suited for a PPV but that, in the end, Bischoff doesn't feel like this is going to be an issue in the future.
Neither Bischoff nor Dynamite's advertisers should have too much to worry about when it comes to Jericho's match tonight on Dynamite, as he'll be taking on his former WCW rival Juventud Guerrera.
(H/T to Wrestlezone at Mandatory for transcribing this episode. You can read the whole thing here.)