Kemo
07-05-2021, 08:45 PM
While a lot of fans believe that having an off season would be a good idea for the wrestling business, Eric Bischoff is not in the favor of the same. The former WCW president talked about the idea of an off season in wrestling on his 83 weeks podcast. He explained why it will not be a good idea for the industry.
Bischoff was talking about the recent drops in TV ratings and how summertime drops are expected every year. However while discussing the idea of an off season in wrestling to freshen things up, Bischoff said that he wouldn’t vote for it:
“First of all, I wouldn’t vote for an offseason, one of the reasons that wrestling works as consistently as it has since the beginning of television time is because it’s 52 weeks a year and it tours. If you take 52 weeks out of the equation and now you take touring out of the equation, you’re going to lose 60% of your audience over the course of five or six years.”
An off season would provide wrestlers more time to spend with their families and heal and it may help the promoters in keeping the storylines fresh. However, Eric Bischoff argued that it may also lead to the audience losing interest in the characters they have developed a deep connection with:
“Yeah, but you lose your connection to the audience. Wrestling. The wrestling audience becomes so familiar with these characters. They identify with them. They live vicariously through them. They’re kind of, in their own entertainment way, addicted to them. If you take them off the air for three, four, or five months, they find other shit to do and other things to be interested in.”
Eric Bischoff claimed that the secret sauce to professional wrestling is that it’s on 52 weeks a year. If you go down to 26 weeks a year and you have to start your season over again then you may lose the weekly connection with the audience.
Bischoff was talking about the recent drops in TV ratings and how summertime drops are expected every year. However while discussing the idea of an off season in wrestling to freshen things up, Bischoff said that he wouldn’t vote for it:
“First of all, I wouldn’t vote for an offseason, one of the reasons that wrestling works as consistently as it has since the beginning of television time is because it’s 52 weeks a year and it tours. If you take 52 weeks out of the equation and now you take touring out of the equation, you’re going to lose 60% of your audience over the course of five or six years.”
An off season would provide wrestlers more time to spend with their families and heal and it may help the promoters in keeping the storylines fresh. However, Eric Bischoff argued that it may also lead to the audience losing interest in the characters they have developed a deep connection with:
“Yeah, but you lose your connection to the audience. Wrestling. The wrestling audience becomes so familiar with these characters. They identify with them. They live vicariously through them. They’re kind of, in their own entertainment way, addicted to them. If you take them off the air for three, four, or five months, they find other shit to do and other things to be interested in.”
Eric Bischoff claimed that the secret sauce to professional wrestling is that it’s on 52 weeks a year. If you go down to 26 weeks a year and you have to start your season over again then you may lose the weekly connection with the audience.