21. “The old formula of building up to a PPV is out of the window now” – Eric Bischoff
During a recent appearance on Sports Illustrated’s “Controversial Story of the Week”, Eric Bischoff was asked if it’s controversial that Sasha Banks defeated Charlotte Flair for the Women’s Championship for the third time on Raw. Below is what Bischoff said:
Not at all. I think the only thing controversial about it is the non-controversy associated with it. To me it’s simple business, especially now. Twenty years ago when I was doing it the television industry was quite different from what it is today. With the plethora of programming and the availability of streaming and all of the forms of entertainment that are out there I think it’s even more imperative that the WWE puts their best product that they can on television to drive PPVs.
I don’t even know how many PPVs the WWE has now every year. The old formula of spending four, six or more weeks building up to a big PPV event and then paying it off on PPV… that model is out the window. Now you have to capture everyone’s imagination so quickly and you have to keep their imagination. In order to do that everything is much more fast paced.
Number one, I don’t think it’s controversial. Number two, remember, television drives everything. What they’re doing, I think they’ve done a great job with the women’s division, is make it feel important by doing as much as the possibly can to the widest audience they can possibly have.
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