Various: Eric Bischoff on Off-Season in Wrestling, Stardom Announces 5* Grand Prix 2021, Trademarks

Jul 6, 2021

Eric Bischoff Comments on If Wrestling Should Have an Off-Season

A recent episode of the 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff podcast had host Bischoff discuss a variety of wrestling-related topics. One of those topics included WWE’s recent declining ratings for their RAW and SmackDown television series and if wrestling should have an off-season as a way to counter the yearly summertime ratings drop-offs.

“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.”

Bischoff also stated that any extended break would also cause serious problems with the deep connections wrestlers have built-in with fans for shows.

“Yeah, but you lose your connection to the audience. Wrestling, and here’s the mistake that a lot of television executives make, is they don’t understand the audience. 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. The secret sauce to professional wrestling is that it’s 52 weeks a year. If you go down to 26 and you have to start your season over again and you’ve lost that daily, weekly connection to your audience, and six months later you’re going to come back with a new season, good freaking luck.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Stardom Announces Full Field for This Year’s 5* Grand Prix Tournament

Stardom recently announced that this year’s 5* Grand Prix tournament will be taking place from July 31st to September 25th in Japan. This year’s tournament will feature twenty-one events and twenty wrestlers split up into two blocks of ten each.

Red Star Block:

Giulia
Mayu Iwatani
Momo Watanabe
Natsuko Tora
Saki Kashima
Starlight Kid
Himeka
Natsupoi
Koguma
Mina Shirakawa

Blue Star Block:

Utami Hayashishita
Syuri
Tam Nakano
Saya Kamitani
Maika
AZM
Konami
Ruaka
Unagi Sayaka
“X”

In regards to Natsuko Tora’s status for the upcoming tournament, she is currently expected to be pulled from the tournament due to a torn ACL injury she suffered at Stardom’s Yokohama Dream Cinderella In Summer event this past Sunday in Yokohama, Japan.