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The latest episode of former WCW President Eric Bischoff’s podcast Bischoff on Wrestling is now available and features an appearance from his “nephew” and former WWE Superstar & Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore!
You can find some of Eric’s comments reacting to the recent report that there is an increasing lack of interest from WWE fans for “b-show” WWE Network specials transcribed below.
EB: When I moved the PPVs from 4 to 6 per year I was considered the anti-Christ. Then WWE moved it to six and then there was eight and then there was ten and then we went to one a month. Now we are talking about twenty-four a year! The challenge along that journey was to make those PPVs feel special. They had to be a destination. Not just an event. Not just something to watch. There’s already, whatever, five hours of WWE on prime time television every week? So the PPVs, especially because you’re asking people to reach in to their wallet and pull out there money and pay for it, there has to be a reason. A personality, a mission involved in that PPV. In WWE they had WrestleMania and Royal Rumble. They had PPVs that were as they say in the entertainment industry “tent pole events”. That even if you weren’t following the storyline you knew you were going to get a bang for your buck if you bought that particular event. That gets very, very difficult to do the more events you have. It’s one of the reasons I did Sturgis and why that was such an off the wall event. And the Spring Break events that we did. It’s because I wanted those events to feel like something completely different than you would ever see on television. That’s a challenge now in 2016 with twenty-four PPVs a year that WWE has. How do you make those twenty-four PPVs, aside from the big four, how do you make them feel different and unique enough that people are compelled to reach in their wallet and spend money on it? That I think is the problem.
This week’s episode of Bischoff on Wrestling starts with Eric talking to Nick about watching Monday Night RAW this week with his good friend and WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan!
Nick then jumps in to Bischoff on Wrestling’s pro wrestling “topic of the week”. This week’s topic is “PPV Business”. Eric dives deep in to a discussion about the apparent lack of interest in WWE’s “B-Show” Network specials and what he thinks is a successful way to drive PPV business.
Eric then welcomes his guest for the week former WWE Superstar Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore. Dinsmore chats with Eric about:
- How he broke in to the pro wrestling business
- Dinsmore’s short run with WCW in 1998
- The genesis of the idea for the Eugene character
- Eric & Dinsmore’s reactions to finding out they would be working together
- The UK trip that led to Dinsmore being sent to rehab by WWE for prescription pain pills
- Dinsmore’s beauty pageant wife
- Dinsmore’s new pro wrestling company
- WWE taking a more active interest in the independent pro wrestling scene and whether or not that is a good thing
- More…
Once Dinsmore’s interview wraps up Eric moves on to his“Playing In The Dirt” segment. Typically he takes a look back at headlines from pro wrestling dirt sheets from different points in his career. This week Eric instead welcomes a SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST from the pro wrestling journalism field in a not to miss segment.
Eric then closes the show by answering some fan questions from the #BischoffOnWrestling mailbag.
You can listen to the full archives from Bischoff on Wrestling in the embedded audio player below:
