On the latest edition of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff spoke about IMPACT Wrestling and how he doesn't consider them to be part of the wrestling business:
âItâs f*cking IMPACT, I can get more people to watch me cooking a burger on my big green egg on a Saturday afternoon than watch IMPACT. Theyâre not in the wrestling business, they have a wrestling show but theyâre not touring, theyâve got no licensing, theyâre got no merchandising, hardly anybody is watching their show and it has nothing to do with the talent."
âTheyâve got some really great talent but it is what it is, they shouldnât even be in the conversation about televised wrestling because itâs silly. Theyâre not a wrestling business. If you enjoy that product, good for you and good for them but to have a conversation about licensing and merchandising with IMPACT Wrestling is [laughable]. Of course they gave [Matt Hardyâs Broken characterâs licensing and trademark] up, because they donât have any reason to hold onto it, theyâre not in that business.â
Bischoff then spoke about AEW and how they can grow their business:
âNobody else out there that is manufacturing products is looking at the AEW brand right now or anybody in it and going, âwow, we can build our future on that. Theyâre looking at it and going âwow, this is interesting, letâs see where this tracks for the next year-three years. And if thereâs consistency and they see that the belt program that AEW has for example at Walmart, and is actually tracking and growing and creating revenue, that will give future licenses the interest in coming out and trying to build some of their product on AEW licensed properties. But that doesnât happen overnight, it didnât happen overnight in WCW. Providing AEW continues to grow, which arguably theyâre not, theyâre kind of flatlining at a million viewers a week, but if they can grow that industry in such a way that it gives confidence to manufacturers and distributors to go ahead and invest money in that licensing in hopes to increase sales off their products, thatâs when youâll start to see real growth in AEW. Itâs not a knock against them, you canât do that overnight. No one is going to take that risk until youâve established yourself in the marketplace.â