Eric Bischoff would not spend Tom Brady on WrestleMania.
On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Bischoff was asked where WWE should use Brady, who told Cody Rhodes on his podcast that he wants a storyline and has been waiting on WWE president Nick Khan, then swung at Logan Paul on stage at Fanatics Fest in New York. Bischoff said the answer comes down to where the value actually moves a number.
“If I had to make a choice right now, I would lean into not using Tom for WrestleMania, using him for something other than WrestleMania.”
His reasoning was that the biggest show is largely decided before it is promoted.
“You’ve either got 75 or 80% of your market committed a couple months before WrestleMania, or you don’t. And if you don’t by then, there’s nothing you’re going to do that’s really going to change it dramatically. You’ve already missed target. You can tweak it, you can adjust it, you can do some things, but nothing significant. So then I’d ask myself, okay, I know it has a certain amount of value. Do I want to put that resource, that value over here, where I know it’s not really going to have much of an impact beyond a certain point, or do I want to use it over here and help elevate and create more revenue on this particular event?”
Bischoff said the question he would ask before any of that is what Brady is actually looking for.
“The one that I would ask myself before that, actually, because this is the one that matters the most, is Tom. What do you want to do?”
He drew a distinction with The Rock.
“Rock was already a character, so Rock stepping into the ring would have felt reasonably organic under any circumstances because he’s been there before. He’s The Rock. We all know it. Tom jumping into wrestling is an entirely different move. That’s a different chess move, so it has to be treated differently. We don’t know if this is a one-off for Tom, or is Tom thinking, okay, I’m going to be Dennis Rodman, I’m going to do this thing on TV, and then as needed, I’m going to come in and pop the territory for a minute or two a couple times a year. That’s a different strategy. Both are valuable ones.”
Asked about Wrestlepalooza, WWE’s September event for ESPN, Bischoff acknowledged the scheduling problem and then argued for it anyway.
“The complication here is that I would imagine Tom has a pretty busy schedule in September. It’s September 1, I got to go to work, honey. See you later. He’s prepping probably now. There’s a lot that goes into that role that he’s in, and it’s a full-time job.”
“My point is that I think again this is strategy. How do I get the most bang for my buck? If Tom Brady is going to get so much coverage. This is like me, the first time I brought in Dennis Rodman and paid him a million bucks, and everybody thought I was nuts. And within like 30 days, he delivered about $30 million worth of exposure for us. This is that on steroids. This opportunity is that times 10 because of Tom’s relationship with the NFL and ESPN. Who is not going to cover this story for 30 to 60 days out? And if Wrestlepalooza didn’t reach everybody’s expectations, tactically, I would use Tom there.”
On Brady possibly joining the TKO board
Bischoff was also asked about speculation that Brady could take a seat on the TKO board of directors rather than simply appearing on television. He framed it around Ari Emanuel’s contact list.
“TKO in particular, Ari Emanuel especially, his connective tissue and the depth of those relationships, the closeness of those relationships with key people in key positions. It’s not like people are going into business and doing dumb s*** with Ari because they’re buddies. They know Ari makes money. Ari is successful, and these people want to be in business with other successful people.”
“What that access gives you is speed. What that access gives you is the ability to come up with an idea or a strategy at a Monday morning meeting at 9:48, and know that you could probably put the resources together with the right people shortly after lunch, as opposed to taking six months or a year to figure it out and build a team.”
On Brady specifically, Bischoff was careful about what he does not know.
“What would Tom Brady bring to the board? That I don’t know. I don’t know a lot about Tom Brady, other than his football accolades. Have no idea what kind of businessman he is, or more importantly, how much interest he has in being in business. He’s certainly smart. There’s no question about does he have the IQ? Yes. It’s a question of what does he really want to do with that IQ.”
“If he’s really interested in being an active board member and contributing as much as he can across those platforms, then yeah, this could be really huge because they’ll surround him with people to help him make the right decisions.”
He also floated a structure.
“Wouldn’t it be interesting if there was some kind of a negotiation that said, well, okay, Tom, we know that you bring value, so maybe your participation is part of your entry fee, so to speak, to be on the board, which makes it even smarter.”
