– During the September 13, 2025 episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff and Raj Giri took aim at WWE’s recent shift in ticket pricing following comments made by TKO President Mark Shapiro at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference. Shapiro’s comment—that WWE had “room to grow ticket yield” because Vince McMahon previously kept prices affordable for families—didn’t sit well with Bischoff. While he acknowledged the logic behind raising prices from a business standpoint, he warned that it could eventually backfire in a massive way. He said“One of the reasons that professional wrestling as we know it in the United States has been as successful as it has since the beginning of television time is because it’s family entertainment. It’s a generational experience.” He made it clear that families are the lifeblood of wrestling’s future—and when you price them out, you’re burning the bridge to the next generation. Parents could take their kids and their kids’ friends, and you could go to an event like WWE or AEW or TNA and afford to bring them. Those kids grow up, and they’ll bring their kids one day. If you break that generational cycle, you break the foundation of your audience.”
– Karrion Kross & Scarlett reunited with WWE’s Rhea Ripley at Silver Scream Con!
#wwe pic.twitter.com/yKnif7ABWc
— Steve Gerweck (@SteveGerweck) September 15, 2025
“Because nothing reunites like a mutual love of horror and metal…
When did Bischoff start looking like Brodus Clay? And why?
Someone needs to pass a message to Eric. WWE doesn’t care. Flat out, doesn’t care. As long as people keep forking over the money, they don’t care. And as long as the have paid trolls on Twitter, to put out the idea of unless you like WWE and watch WWE, you can’t hang with the “cool kids”, they will keep handing over the cash. No matter how high the ticket prices.
@Disgruntled Jobber–I’m beginning to think it’s TKO and not WWE that doesn’t care. The UFC and WWE fanbases are different. Sure there’s a little crossover, but Eric’s completely right in his assessment. This move also makes me think it’s TKO that’s making WWE go head-to-head with AEW to try to put them out of business.
@Art123guy,
I can see that argument as well, and I guess in the end, it’s a shared agreement by both entities to raise the price. And to further your last point. I’ve also heard grumblings that WWE wants to book major shows to go head to ahead against Game Changer Wrestling as well. It’s not just AEW. There’s a shared vision at the top of WWE hierarchy that only promotions under the WWE umbrella will exist, and all others would be out of business. At the very least, WWE declares them outlaw federations and blackball any talent that works for them from ever signing with the WWE.