Brett Lauderdale on Triller Still Being a Good Partner for GCW Despite Late Payments Issues & Not Liking WWE Changing WrestleMania 42 Location

A recent episode of The Business Of The Business podcast featured Game Changer Wrestling owner Brett Lauderdale as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Lauderdale’s thoughts about GCW’s current working relationship with TrillerTV.

“Our relation on a day-to-day basis is still strong. We still work with the same people and from an operation standpoint, everything is still seamless and working smoothly. There are other elements that aren’t as smooth as we would like them. They are still a good partner. As broadcast partners, the app remains strong. As far as a fan standpoint, nothing is affected. Fans are continuing to get everything that they paid for. It’s all seamless and still a great deal for the fans. Everything is still cool. They are as good as they could be given the circumstances.”

Lauderdale also confirmed that Triller has been late with payments for GCW events aired on their service but GCW still has a good relationship with them despite the issues.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss exactly where we are at. Of course, I am aware that there have been delays with other people. There have been delays with us at certain times in the past. But I think, and it’s hard for the casual observer to understand the way the Triller business works and how there are different wings to the Triller universe. There’s TrillerTV, formerly the FiteTV side and they do one thing. There’s a whole other side to the Triller umbrella, which is a whole other thing and they are sharing resources. A majority of revenue comes from one side but it is being absorbed by the entire umbrella.

As someone that has been with FITE for many years before and after the acquisition, from what I can gather and from the people I talk to… I’m not at the meetings that are going on way above my level but everyone feels confident this portion of the business is still strong. Whether the parent company survives these current choppy waters, whether they make it through that or not, everyone seems to be pretty confident that the TrillerTV side will continue in one form or another… When a company goes through what Triller is going through, when they run out of money, there are creditors and what ends up happening, a lot of times assets get sold off and I think Triller does have some assets. Bare Knuckle and TrillerTV seem to be the assets that have some life in them. I don’t see a scenario where TrillerTV would just shut down tomorrow if the parent company has to cease operating. Any content producers who are frustrated with the current situation, I would say as a long-time member of the team, hang in there. This side of the business appears to be strong and I think at some point something has to give. Something is going to give in the right direction.”

Lauderdale also gave his thoughts about him not liking WWE recently moving next year’s WrestleMania 42 event out of New Orleans for Las Vegas again.

“I don’t like it. I think it’s against the spirit of WrestleMania, you know? The whole idea is it’s somewhere different every year, you know, the Super Bowl doesn’t go to the same town every year. Part of the fun for people and the hardcore fans, and dedicated fans, is that they make trips out of this. WrestleMania is like their pilgrimage. (Traveling to) Vegas, one year was challenging for a lot of people, now you’re making people go back there again. I think it dampens the whole idea.

I can’t believe it, that’s so unprecedented. You go out of your way to make a deal and announce it. I mean, people already made travel plans, people already booked stuff. First of all, how do they even get away with that? Isn’t there contracts that are locked in with lots of money on the line? I guess at the end of the day, they don’t care, but it doesn’t seem like a great look for a corporate entity to do that, right?”

Lauderdale also stated that GCW was in discussions and scouting for venues for The Collective for next year’s events and had been moving towards finalizing a contract but had not signed anything prior to WWE’s announcement. Lauderdale stated that GCW “would have been in a lot of trouble” if they had signed anything prior to WWE moving WrestleMania out of New Orleans.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, PostWrestling.com