Eric Bischoff shoots on Tony Khan buying Ring of Honor 

Eric Bishoff is at his best when discussing the TV business and how it works

I love the push back from Conrad in this, challenging Eric and disagreeing on opinions. The last thing Eric needs is a Yes-man. Keep it up.

83 Weeks should just transition to a wrestling current events podcast. People like Eric's take on stuff.

I was a fan of Ring of Honor stuff over the years. But this idea that a new crop of paying customers will appear to watch the ROH catalog is optimistic at best. Weren't they already showing their library on Fite or wherever? How much revenue was that bringing in for Sinclair, considering they opted to sell it?

22:30 They might have the library to use, and indeed it is a great idea, but it will not bring any new eyes to the product. Let's be honest, the people that watched ROH are most probably already watching AEW and probably know the backstories.

Buying Ring of Honor was a waste of money. Having said that, HBO Max would've benefited from having old WCW content and airing new WCW events.

Eric raises a good point. He also had to deal with that at the end of the WCW days. Time Warner didn't want to air wrestling, and most Turner people didn't want it on TNT or TBS only Ted did. But it got a lot of ratings and was relatively low cost to produce shows. These network/streaming service nerds need to be most concerned about original content that can bring in new viewers. And wrestling can do that. regardless if it fits with the rest of what they are offering.

$40 million or so for the name, intellectual property and library. Tony K.overpaid for ROH especially since it will not broaden the appeal of the AEW brand. The same fans AEW has are the same ones who will watch ROH. Tony is trying so hard to out Vince McMahon Vince McMahon that he is making some seriously stupid business decisions.

doesn't matter if that dork bought that thing and wants to go head to head with wwe on the streaming thing. do you actually believe that shit can compete with all the programming wwe has ? oh hell no.. years and decades of wrestling. Versus a small time indy promotion that went bankrupt last year, it not gonna bring wwe down. not gonna happen

ROH seems to have an overvalued price tag. I don’t think its a good idea for TK to be booking both companies

My issue with Conrad is that he's a bias Mark that believes every single thing Meltzer has ever said. Problem is, while Eric isn't afraid to admit his mistakes, he hasn't been able to modernize, so, it's a lose-lose lol

The point Eric might be trying to make is that the television industry has changed because of streaming, so how the audiences intersect , the timing people watch, and the infinite amount of content makes television even harder to figure out plus the internet, social media etc.

Of course, Eric makes sense and the host holds AEW'S Stick... It looks like the big ass roster was smart, does it not? Hell no

No one except hardcore wrestling fans care about Ring Of Honor. Tony shouldn't have hyped it up as a big announcement, he should have just came out and announced that they had purchased it as soon as the deal was done.

Connie may be on Tony Khan's payroll just like Meltzer and Alvarez! He defends everything with them. Eric is looking at the situations from all angles and Conrad just doesn't want to face facts.

WWE did do the cross brand with RAW and Smackdown perfectly when they had HHH, Austin, HBK, Jericho, Kane, Flair, Batista, RVD, Orton, Jeff Hardy, etc. on RAW... And Brock, Angle, Benoit, Cena, Eddie and Chavo, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, etc. on Smackdown.

News flash: other than hardcore wrestling fans, nobody cares nor probably knows who CM Punk or Daniel Bryan is.

Wasn't the ROH "library" that ~2% of wrestling fans would actually want to see just a series of dozens of supercard indy shows released on DVD? That's not exactly a rich history of any wrestler. New fans don't care about any of that shit to begin with. That's part of the reason I feel wrestling keeps losing its audience. You tune into AEW and you're expected to know what happened on an Ian Rotten show in 2001. It's ridiculous and not appealing to the average joe.

With these changes happening in Turner being on the tail end of a contract not a good place to be. The new person in charge is most likely not a wrestling mark

I always enjoy listening to Eric‘s perspective on things

"A fool and his money are soon parted."

Once again Conrad been bias asf . The last thing aew needs is more programming like cmon . They already have 4 shows 3 of them are meaningless, what makes u think ppl are gonna wanna watch a D show called ROH. That just insane thou more content is the last thing aew needs, and no one gonna pay them to stream old ROH tapes like that just stupid . He over paid for this shit and in the end it will fail . This is dumb they don’t need more programming no one gonna wanna watch B stars on a ROH show that just dumb

The only thing I slightly disagree is a streaming service is ideally programming multiple channels. Netflix has their premium content, they have Anime content, Foreign Content etc. Warner also has comic book properties to build a 18 to 34 male audience with and AEW can help with that.

Tony buys a company that amazingly had less viewers than AEW. Groundbreaking. No way does he make anywhere near back his investment.

Eric always keepin it 100 and his mate thinking like a mark as usual. $1000000 for reserve grade pro wrestling in ROH ffs 😂

Tony Khan adding ROH just seems pointless. He should be concerned about AEW getting more fans beyond their fan base.

I can see Tony running a monthly ROH PPV similar to how TNA did when they first started and make it a pure wrestling show. maybe he will just use it as his developmental or scrap it and use the library for a streaming service. I would like to see the ROH championship used as either a mid card Tittle or if they do a roster split like WWE did and use it like the world championship.

I don't understand why Tony Khan did that. I get the purchase. But what about Ring of Honor is worth it? It's a fan focus wrestling format when I'm assuming AEW is trying to get more attention on television. I hope this is a good investment.

I hope they do a follow up video to this when they eventually found out that Tony in fact paid... 40 MILLION for roh!!!!!! 😭😭😭

People that are trying to make the purchase of ROH a big deal are hysterical. This is only a big thing to hard-core indy fans. No one else cares

Man, they saw Tony coming. I'm sorry but there was nothing included that was worth that price. Especially not Ring of Honor.

Think it's funny when wwe had so many wrestlers and so many programs people said this what ruining wwe but now Khan doing the same where same cry

Big boy will never get it Eric! He doesn't have the experience you have. I wish I could Hulk Hogan body slam that King Kong Bundy with hair! By the way, why talk about the garbage of pro wrestling today? It freaking sucks and is the reason I watch the old WCW and WWF. Too bad they both died in the early 21st century and now the way pro wrestling is today, I'm glad they died so their legacies are intact.

If CNN is "one of the most significant revenue generators for Turner"... Oof.

The thing about weighing options on Tony Khan’s decision making is that he NEVER takes the most logical approach.Not even tryna knock him but every move he makes,there’s always an awesome upside but that upside contends on him using actual wrestling logic and he never does. I wanted to believe he was working everybody and pretending to be a unaware money mark but he actually is.

TK: I bought ROH! Me: Ok. So you wasted your money. ROH is worthless, Tony. I don't gv a fk.

Love Eric's expertise but watching some of your content the one thing that bothers me is interrupting and breaking in while he's trying to explain something if your going to ask an opinion you need to let them at least finish their anilization just my observation bishop's been in the game decades.

Tony Khan, isn't thinking financial gains and growing a product to spearhead a massive gain. Tony just appeals to a small niche audience, that view wrestling as good if you have a "5 star match"

If he runs RoH differently as AEW and treats it as a separate brand then I can see it being successful. WCW Nitro/Thunder and WWE Raw/Smackdown are two separate shows under the same banner; that’s why it wasn’t successful creatively.

Conrad's imagination of what Tony Kahn could do is always 90iq points higher that what Tony will do

I love how he just switches the camera off eric to hog the mic....like dude let eric speak seriously, he's the expert here lol

Conrad Really shows his prick side when someone disagrees with him about aew it seems to me.

I was wondering why didn't the WWE bye roh wrestling because WWE has more money then aew maybe the WWE didn't think RH is a great investment to buy

The way people go on about how valuable the roh library is laughable. Look at ROH RU-vid numbers,their ratings and social media impressions in what world would HBO Max be willing to throw millions at AEW for a program that was max getting 50k viewers

I think this can work if it is done properly. Right now, AEW already essentially has two separate rosters. On one side, they have the serious wrestlers like Punk, Danielson, MJF, and FTR. On the other side, they have the indie guys like Omega, The Young Bucks, Orange Cassidy, and Best Friends. Though there is some intersection of the audience, these groups attract two different sets of fans for the most part. For instance, I don't buy AEW PPVs. I would love to see Punk and Danielson, but I don't want to sit through a Young Bucks or Orange Cassidy match to get there, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm sure there are also fans that prefer the indie guys. With the roster being comprised as it currently is, it is preventing AEW from growing their audience. If they separated these two groups of people and put them on two different shows, it would allow each show to attract the fans that are attracted to that particular style of wrestling, and would allow both shows a better opportunity to grow their audience. That's how I would do it if I were Tony.

EB is correct i did not know about ROH until recently....

I wish Eric could have bought ROH.Tony Khan Man will fuck it up.

I like the hardy's back together but I can't believe he forgives jeff for all his stuff and wont sign the briscoes because of a tweet 10 years ago jay even apologized publicly i dont thnk theres anything wrong with being gay but if a person dont want to and likes being strait an dont get in to it there bad and hated thats a double standard and not right wat a messed up country i feel bad for dem boys the best tag team in wrestling they diserve to be in a top promotion and there younger an better than the hardys

This is why Eric Bishoff is wrong. Warner is falling under Discovery. The same discovery that runs fine shows like Moonshiners and Street Outlaws. And the other 22 hours is various shows about people living and working in Alaska *I am not making fun. But Pro Wrestling seems to be right up Discoveries alley

I’ve never seen so many people gush over a box of VHS tapes and a couple of ring skirts.

Conrad is so full of it. And so is Tony Khan.....maybe someday the'll realize people don't like being lied to......I'm sure those AEW "seat fillers" that are hired for every show need the work. But the online bots and seat fillers are about the only ones who enjoy AEW. The entire promotion is a work.

An AEW streaming service would be lucky to have 10,000 subscribers.

Eric has such a great business mind

Use Sinclair time slots for AEW Dark (in the same way WWE used Heat & Velocity for Raw & Smackdown) and replace Elevation with ROH running in theaters ans smaller building like James L Knight Center and Hammerstein, and try to sell that to HBO Max.

Dumbest investment in wrestling history. It's literally bingo hall wrestling.

They should’ve run it as an invasion angle. Or something lol They just give it all way these days. Storytelling can be sooo vital, and so helpful and beneficial

Considering how many AEW stars got their start at ROH it makes sense if for no other reason that for the library of its current stars

Much respect for Eric

Over 2mos later and basically nothing with ROH besides the titles

I love Eric here because he is talking from experience. Let him think this through. The other guy got defensive about how his ideas could make sense. Eric understands the business he worked in.

I'm first with no life here today, first one here first thumbs up.

That was the stupidest comeback.. hold on, they make two ✌🏼 RU-vid shows a week. Comparing to a television show

Also, Conrad is making a HUGE assumption that ROH is going to be run on a TV network like some sort of ‘second brand’ for AEW. HUGE ASSUMPTION Conrad. Stop assuming ROH is going to be AEW’s Thunder, for lack of a better term. ROH has no where near the pedigree to get an opportunity on even a half-ass TV network. Yes, it’s a great place to send some over that overflowing talent if that were to happen, but my god is that a gigantic assumption of wishful thinking.

Well at least Vince McMahon didn’t buy Ring of Honor!!!!

This discussion is fascinating. Thank you to Conrad and Eric for the analysis of Tony Khan's recent acquisition. Many blessings to both of you and your families.

What about a streamed "WCW Saturday Night" type content with ROH/AEW. Small angles with some title matches like WCW Sat night did?

Hopefully tna will be up for sale in a few years and Tony can purchase them as well as there tape library

"He is talking about turning CNN upside down and inside out!!!".......Good

I'd argue WWE actually did well with a two brand show when Eric was there.

Always had a ton of respect for Bischoff...👍

I can see it now. ROH Botches 😆😅🤣😂

I love listening to Eric breakdown business, entertainment, and his business experience and stories

TK paid $40 million for ROH

won't they just have the same issue that wwe had when they bought wcw? they were not allowed to run another wrestling show on another network?

HBOMAX also includes current movies that are still in theaters which is a big factor that should not be overlooked.

if i was tony he has aew and roh cotent.... i mean they have a working relation ship with impact/tna. i mean tony could just make a deal with them not buy them, but just make a deal a licensing deal and i think HBO max would gobble that up. 3 years of aew content. 20 years of roh and 20 years impact/tna content i mean theres a chance to really spread the wealth here.

It don't matter if Tony cons about Ring of Honor not going to to beat Vince McMahon

They also have DC comic book movies

The only way to make two shows work is once you have a roster made for each shows you don't do "drafts" you keep it separate and maybe once in a while a wrestler from the other promotion comes in for a fued but it has to feel special and unique maybe you get a big debut on AEW but at the same time you get a huge debut on the other promotion

The nicest thing about ROH was that Sinclair brought wrestling back into homes at a time when many people (myself included) couldn't afford TV or internet access to watch wrestling, since what wrestling was left had migrated away from FREE TV. Now, after almost 7 years, the WWE came back to network TV with Smackdown after over a decade of being on cable, but it would be nice if AEW would keep those Sinclair stations going with wrestling content, if for no other reason, but to provide an alternative to Smackdown for those who can't afford cable

Why would we ask someone who broke WCW? One reason Eric failed, cause he tried to take down one of the original wrestling promotors in America, and went cartoon like WWE

I love these takes from Eric because it shows he's not being negeative it shows he has information we are unaware of that might be a game changer.

Eric has a more objective perspective on things so nothing personal, from a subjective view we want this amd that but I agree Tony Khan has to have a proper strategy moving forward

Whoever took the check from Tony needs to be arrested for grand larceny

This eerily reminds of when Jim Crockett bought the UWF.

Conrad, wrong as usual.

Conrad said, “He can parlay that into a 5-year, $10M per year deal!” Where are you getting these #s from? Why note a 10-year $30M deal!! YEAH!! Or 20-year $50M per year DEAL!!!! It makes as much sense. Can’t even begin to judge whether this was a good deal or not until we know more on what he paid. Anything more than a couple million for ROH in its current state was an overpayment.

*Purely Speculation*

hbo max is also tons of movies and also has other channels and their contect and movies and shows with DC, cartoon network, adult swim, turner classics etc..

Maybe just Sinclair saw Tony Khan as being a sucker that they could rip off? Ring Of Honor,even including the tape library isn't close to being worth 30 million dollars. Especially what shape it was in when he bought it. A ring,a name and a tape library. Even if they do get their tv deals with it how many people got Ring Of Honor. A million people worldwide. I can tell you not even half of those people were watching it,they just had it on there tv.

Actually it is not Eric Bishoff the beated Vince McMahon Jr. in the Wrestling wars it was someone else that hit McMahon in the pocket financially speaking and it was Jesse Ventura. Everybody thought that Jesse The Body Ventura was created by Vince McMahon Jr. unfortunately that's not true it came from Jesse himself he created his own trademark and got royalities. So, anytime Vince McMahon Jr. wanted him as an anouncer he would have to pay Jesse a royalty. That is how you beat Vince McMahon in Wrestling by using the word UNION for the wrestlers oh boy.

Ring of Worthlessness

Put all the luchas and hardly boys, dork order, orange Cassidy on ROH and leave punk, Danielson, MJF, Wardlow and the top stars that actually take it series and don't do bad comedy on dynamite. The RU-vid shows are trash.

Conrad is a huge mark and ROH is a dying brand

Eric has a great opinion and is probably right speaking from his experience.

GREAT BUISNESS 👍 TONY KHAN MADE A GREAT, TOP NOTCH DECISION GREAT MOVE HE DID IT BEFORE VINCE DID IT . I LIKE IT.

Ehhh whatever he bought a small ass promotion that wasn't going anywhere like who cares is this how down bad wrestling is that we act like buying ROH is big news hahahaha Creating competition when there is legit competition out there is ehh lol WWE's first brand split worked we didn't believe they hated eachother but we believed they where two shows going at it to be the number one show in the organisation, buuuut they had the star power and numbers then after they bought two companies over.

AEW needs a ginger invasion angle to be competitive. Happy St Paddys day. Love to friends and fam of Scott Hall!

I think Eric is kinda salty its not him xD You can tell he is resentful Tony is living out his dream of competing with the WWE

eric bischoff is sometime upset that he can not put is finger on that money again he blowing is mind to get involveed in that shit because he loved to fuck up wrestlers life like perfect macho and bret hart from wwf back than !!