83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - 83 Weeks #253: WWE Sale? pt 2

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

On this edition of 83 Weeks, Conrad & Eric are STILL not done talking about the potential WWE Sale. They specifically talk about the possibility of Vince taking the company private and how EVERYONE got the Saudi Arabia Sale wrong. Special thanks to this week's sponsors! CamperMaxx -Specializing in MAXX discounted pricing on Travel Trailers and Fifthwheel RV’s.Visit: campermaxx.com or call 256-320-7033 Athletic Greens- Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1x-year supply of immune-support Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/83WEEKS. WoooooWings- Wooooo! Wings, a virtual restaurant concept from The Man himself, the Nature Boy Ric Flair. Enjoy the legendary flavors and world-championship wings by ordering with your Uber Eats or Postmates app. Wooo Wings is now open in Nashville, San Antonio, Jacksonville, Florida as well as Huntsville and Tuscaloosa in Alabama, with many more locations coming soon. Try the only chicken wings worthy of carrying the name of the 16x World Heavyweight Champion. FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com Get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9 over on AdFreeShows.com. That's less than 15 cents an episode each month! You can also listen to them directly through Apple Podcasts or your other regular podcast apps! \AdFreeShows.com also has thousands of hours worth of bonus content including popular series like Title Chase, Eric Fires Back, Conversations with Conrad, Mike Chioda's Mailbag and many more! Plus, live, interactive virtual chats with your favorite podcasts hosts and wrestling legends. All that and much more! Sign up today at AdFreeShows.com! Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks with Eric Fischoff. Eric, what's going on, man? How are you? Conrad, I don't think I've had a better weekend in so long I don't remember. I'm grateful for it and excited about it. And I can't wait to do this show. Well, how about that? Well, I'm excited about today's show, too.

Of course, last week, we were supposed to be. talking about the one and only buff bagwell and with all the news going on in w w e land we thought you know what we got to call an audible and talk about current stuff so today i'm glad that we're back to talk about w w current stuff again sorry mr bagwell but uh duty calls but here's what we're going to do we do have a a special trick up our sleeve stay tuned we're not done we're going to be talking about mr bagwell a lot this year uh but before we talk about anything else i i got to ask what are you what are you wearing is that a am i seeing that right oh here let me my microphone is in the way there you go you ran a shirt

manscape man i got i got a new manscape package delivered to my house this week with all kinds of goodies in it shower gel shampoo and conditioner this little pad we used that you know scrub your junk it's awesome you scrub me like i think i may like it too much oh my gosh i got to clean this junk in park county wyoming but uh no man i love manscape they have great products they've been a long time sponsor of this show and i just and they send me this t-shirt this manscape t-shirt and it's black it's my favorite colors black there you go back in black uh you know speaking of uh things that are back i couldn't believe this is real but wrestling was back at center stage this past weekend an impact put on one hell of a show on friday the 13th

the name of the show was hard to kill i've talked to a lot of my friends who grew up as big t and a wrestling fans and then somehow some way lost their way they weren't quite following the program or product like they used to and just sort of fell out of love with TNA but we've talked about it enough here on the program and hyped enough enough that they checked it out and what a show they saw the feedback I got was overwhelming I didn't see a single negative review I'm convinced that impact is probably one of the best kept secrets in wrestling including the main event what went on last title versus career it was Mickey James last rodeo she was challenging

Jordan Grace the the impact women's champion the impact knockouts world champion and I'll be darned Mickey James has done it again the career continues and what a cool shot we saw her son jump in the ring after mama's the new champ Mickey James an impact in the main event spot and pulling off and telling great stories this was a good show was it not you know I did not see it I'm always honest about that stuff and and I typically don't comment on things I don't see However, I did see a clip of Mickey's entrance, and I thought it was so cool. And I'll be honest again, when I first saw it, I wasn't sure. Now, Mickey is part Native American, and I'm a big, I love Native American history.

It's one of the reasons why I was so determined to live where I live. because I've read a lot about Native American history, and I'm very, very interested in it, respect it. And when Mickey's entrance started, my first reaction was, I'm not sure. But as it went on, I really fell in love with it. And when it was done, I showed it to Mrs. B. and her reaction was similar to mine.

Now, she doesn't know Mickey, you know, and I had to, you know, inform Mrs. Bee that Mickey does indeed have Native American heritage. And this wasn't a gimmick. It wasn't cultural misappropriation, you know, all the woke nonsense that floats around out there. And as I watched it, it really drew me in. and I think had that same entrance been produced in a larger venue, center stage is a small venue. There's only so much you can do from a production value perspective there.

But I thought it was so cool. And I was happy to see that because I think, you know, the Native American culture has been represented in professional wrestling for a long time. You know, guys like Wahoo McDaniel and Chief Strongbow and others who, Tatanka, you know, people who have, and I'm not sure if to talk how much Native American Tataka has in them. And that's not suggesting he doesn't, by the way. I just don't know. But I do know Mickey.

And I knew Wahoo personally. And I think to represent the Native American culture in such a legitimate way, I was so happy to see that. long overdue long overdue it was a super main event i highly recommend it and man the way they started the show was with what i thought was going to be the main event josh alexander and bully ray josh is their world champion they did a full metal mayhem match which was really an unbelievable match it went 17 minutes you want to talk about brutality they had it all here whether it was tables or thumbtacks or just crazy stuff then the motor city machine guns one of the best tag teams in the world taking on heath and rhino the major players and the

bullet club joe hendry in there with moose and that brought out your old pal santino he's their new authority figure there was something for everybody including eddie edwards and jonathan gresham tearing it up go out of your way to see this if you haven't already you can watch it on their Impact Plus app as well. I'm a big fan of what Impact is doing, man. I think they're one of the best kept secrets in wrestling. I think their production looks good. I think they've got very talented wrestlers.

They tell good stories. They've got incredible matches. And I think it's one of the best values in wrestling. So if you haven't already, check it out. But the big news coming out of that show, at least for you and I, is that our old pal Frankie Kazarian has done something pretty big and pretty bold. And I don't have all the details. details, but Mike Johnson reported that after he had that phenomenal match at the end of last year on pay-per-view against Josh Alexander, I think they went more than 40 minutes. It was a match of the year contender, if you haven't seen it. He, uh, he went back to AW and asked for his release. I guess as Mike Johnson would summarize, maybe Frankie thinks he's on the downhill slope of his career, if he's only got a handful of years left or however long he's got left, whatever that looks like.

he wants to be in a more featured spot and it's out of a bloated roster to say the least on a w and it's difficult to get all that talent service and it's in tv time so he's coming home and he's signed a long-term deal with impact not a lot of people are walking away from a w these days but if there's somebody i think who can pull it off and be successful i have no doubt our pal frankie kazarian can you know i've said so often I talk so often about the amount of respect I have for Frankie as a talent, first and foremost, no, not first and foremost, as a person, first and foremost, and as a talent next. He is an amazing talent, but he is so underrated, so underrated, and I don't know how much time Frankie wants to spend, you know, in the industry. You know, you get to a point as you get older where, you know, you've done it all.

You've been a part of some really big things. And for Frankie to walk away from AEW, because let's face it, there's, yeah, it's a big roster. There's a lot of talent there that should be on TV. That isn't. It's hard. It's one of the challenges you have when you've got a roster that big. I know that. I have that.

And I took a lot of criticism. for having guys under contract and paying, you know, paying them anyway to sit at home. I mean, how many times have you heard that criticism of me in WCW? A lot. A lot, right? But I also understand it. You know, I understand why Tony's doing it. I think maybe he's overdoing it to a degree.

But I get it, man. It's a new company. And there's a lot of opportunity there. So I get it. However, for a guy like Frankie who has so much talent, and he's got such a, the camera loves him, he's got the look, he's got the charisma, he's got the mic skills, he's got the entering skills. I don't think, I can't recall injuries becoming a real factor in his career. I'm sure he's been injured from time to time, but this is not a guy with a lot of nagging injuries that sometimes performers, 15, 20, 25 years younger than him are plagued with. I just think the world of him,

and I respect the hell out of him for having the balls to bet on himself because very few people have that kind of courage. And Frankie did it, man. He walked away from a comfortable environment, probably paid him very well. And he said, you know what? to end my career on a high note the way I want to end my career and I don't want to be sitting on the sidelines. And you have to respect anybody for making a move. No doubt about it. I'm

pulling for Frankie and I know that, uh, that you will be too. And I want to encourage everybody, you know, listen, we talk a lot on this program about AEW and WWB. So we're guilty of this too. But remind everybody, the best kept secret in wrestling is impact wrestling. I mean, just think about all the great talent that we just rattled off there a moment ago. Not just Mickey James and Jordan Grace and Josh Alexander and Frankie Kazarian, but really talented performers like Chris Saban and Alex Shelley and on and on, Jonathan Gresham, on and on and some of the best in the world. If you are a traditional wrestling fan, and you are going to absolutely love what they're doing at Impact Wrestling. And I'll tell you what else they're going to love, Eric, and that's

Hello Fresh. You and I have been talking about Hello Fresh for a while now. And if you haven't already. Let me remind you that if you're looking for an easy way to eat well and save money this year, maybe you're looking to cut back on expensive takeout and delivery, why not get started with Hello Fresh? You'll love how fast, easy, and affordable it is to whip up restaurant quality meals right in your own kitchen. Fast and fresh recipes, Hello Fresh's latest line of meals featuring robust flavors and filling portions are ready in less than 15 minutes. got some really cool stuff on here too like southwest pork and bean burritos and seared steak and potatoes something for everybody but it's been my experience that this is not only something

that is cheaper and faster it's going to bring you closer together because when we get the hello fresh delivery at my house my wife can expect me to be in the kitchen with her that's not required but i'll tell you it pays dividends let me just give you a little pro tip uh i love the hello fresh recipes I love just the process they send you the right portions they send you everything you need you just open it up and bam you're good to go but they keep it fresh maybe you've been in some sort of a rut maybe you feel like you're eating the same things over and over and over again well this got us out of that rut and brought us closer together and Megan's happy because it's better for us and I'm happy because it costs less

might be asking hey what is hello fresh well you're going to get farm fresh pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your door means you can skip the trip to the grocery store and instead just count on hello fresh to make home cooking easy fun and affordable hello fresh y'all it's america's number one meal kit go to hellofresh dot com slash 83 weeks 22 and use our promo code 83 weeks 22 and you'll get 22 free meals plus free shipping one more time go to hellofresh dot com slash 83 weeks 22 and use the code 83 weeks 22 for 22 free meals plus free shipping hello fresh america's number one meal kit dude 22 free meals how do you beat that eric you can and i think as as we've all experienced you know

i know i have recently i went to the local albertsons here uh and cody and you know i was last no it was last weekend i was all excited about making a recipe and it I had to get certain ingredients for it. And lo and behold, you get to the supermarket. And for whatever reason, half of the things that I needed for that recipe, we're basic things too, by the way. Just not there, not available. And I think people are becoming more and more satisfied with the idea of having their food

delivered to their home when it's high quality food at an affordable price. Because, I mean, some of the prices I'm seeing, I mean, I picked up a dozen eggs the other day, you know, and I, we only use organic eggs because the local, I have a lady down the road that's got chickens, and I know what she feeds those chickens, and we get our eggs from her, but she was out because when the weather gets really cold, the chickens get a little funky, they don't like laying eggs. So we ran out of eggs, and I was forced to go to the store to get them. I could not believe, $7 for a dozen eggs, $7 for a dozen eggs. It's ridiculous what's happening with pricing now.

In addition to the supply chain issues, a company like Hello Fresh can solve a lot of that for you. You get great quality food delivered right to your door, along with the recipes. And like you and Megan, man, I really encourage people to spend time cooking together. You know, it's become a part of our culture and our lifestyle that's kind of, you know, evaporated over the decade or so because we all get busy and it's easy to have, you know, fast food delivered to your house. Fast food's horrible for you.

It just is. It's full of a lot of stuff that if you knew it was in it, you probably wouldn't eat it. And to be able to get high quality food delivered to your home and an affordable price is something I think more and more people are going to be doing. And Hello Fresh is a great way for you to enjoy those benefits. 22 free meals and free shipping when you go to Hellofresh.com forward slash 83 weeks 22. And use the promo code 83 weeks 22.

So Eric, we, we tease at the top of the show that we're going to talk. about what's going on in WWE land and man it feels like every day there is a new story I've talked to some people who say man this thing changes by the day and then I talk to other folks who say it changes by the hour and I think there's just more and more information coming out of course less than a week ago a lot of folks thought Saudi Arabia is going to own the WWE they're going to take it private and there's lots of rumor and innuendo out there I think you and I always kind of knew that it's a little more complicated than that. It's not as if you just make a backdoor deal and flip the switch and boom, it's over.

So there's going to be a lot more involved in this process. But I think you and I, as we've spoken off air, have sort of landed on the same thing. Because there's lots of discussion right now. And Meltzer even would go out and actually, uh, freestyle to that, hey, uh, Nick Kahn went to the college football championship game because that's where all the power players were going to be. They had conversations with this executive at ESPN and that executive at Disney and blah, blah, blah. Tell us what you've heard and where you land on all of this. Well, I've only heard the same thing everybody else has heard.

You know, I have no inside information. I know nothing. I know nothing. And neither does anybody else, by the way. there are so many people certainly in the wrestling world those who cover the business and publish their newsletters or their websites and unfortunately some of them are like Meltzer by the way did you see the story about Meltzer you know being caught smoking gun red-handed hand in a cookie jar publishing false information let's talk about that a little later all right

we will get to it today we'll close with But there are so many people like Dave who are suggesting that they have an idea what's going on. Nobody has it. You only know what WWE wants you to know. And including Nick Kahn going to a football game. Guess what? He used to be president of CAA sports. Imagine that.

A guy who was president of CAA sports going to a college football game. Oh, there must have been something behind that because he met with Iger. and others and oh there it is that's the deal no it's not it's not you're you're connecting dots and trying to create a picture and you have no idea what you're talking about when you get sucked into that kind of thing i i said when this whole thing first started a week or it seems like a month ago there's been so much news but when a week ago my gut told me whatever we see going in the press, which is only what WWE wants you to see because they know useful idiots will run around and repeat it and there'll be a narrative.

I think it's going private. I don't know what's going to happen to it after it goes private. I don't know if he wants to get back in the saddle and go back to the way things were a year ago. I don't know if he wants to take it private and sit on the sidelines and be a consultant and let the current executive team, you know, continue to do a great job managing it because they are. I don't know.

Neither does anybody else. We don't know Vince McMahon's motivations. Even those people who I think know Vince pretty well, certainly a lot better than you or I do, I don't think they know. Right. The one person that knows is Vince McMahon. And just because you crunch numbers and you're a quote unquote analyst of the business, that doesn't give you any insight.

And you're not a telepathic psychiatrist. You can't sit in your office and know what's inside of the mind of Vince. And neither can you and neither cannot. But I really do believe, and we'll get into this in some detail, why I believe whatever is being discussed in public, I think that there was a plan long before all of this. And maybe it's a plan B. But I think when this whole thing started going down,

there was a plan for Vince to take the company private. I'm, if there was a place I could bet on that, I would bet almost everything I own on it. So you think we should expect in this calendar year, WWE going private? I would not be surprised if it happens before the end of the month. Before the end of January. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. No, I'm not saying I know it, but would it surprise me?

Absolutely not. Is it possible? Yes. If he's going to take the, company private it's possible and here's what here's here well go ahead i'm sorry i'm i'm i'll get so far ahead of myself it's not funny so i'll let you steer the ship well before we talk about he we could go private this month i want to talk about something that boy a lot of wrestling fans are talking about um and let's just press pause for now did you watch any of the playoffs this past

weekend i do not well saturday night for the second week in a row. Unbelievably, the Jacksonville Jaguars pulled it out. I did read about that. That game started out with an interception from Trevor Lawrence and then another one. And before you know it at a half time, it was 27.

Zero and everybody, myself included, it was just background noise. It was a squash match. It was a bad, it was background noise. Nobody's watching. Nobody's paying attention.

But I don't know. There's nothing else. on. We'll just keep watching. And then when I looked up and I saw, hey, damn, they just scored. They're only down 10 points. They went for two and now they're down by nine. And then they score a touchdown and they're down by two. And then with a second left, they kick a field gold and win the fucking game 31 to 30. It's one of the damnedest things I've ever seen. An all time great comeback. It cemented Trevor Lawrence as a legend in Jacksonville forever and ever. And somehow, the luck continues and wrestling fans are excited because tony con not only owns a w but his family owns

the jacksonville jaguars as well and that's a cool thing if you don't really have a dog in the hunt in the NFL and you're a big wrestling fan yeah let's pull for the jaguars so i get that sentiment and then fans started to have some fun and say man what if the jaguars win the super bowl i don't think they will but i didn't think they were going to win the last two weeks either but if they did would that mean WWE would have to send them a title belt that had the Jaguars logos on the side that would be kind of fun but now wrestling fans have gotten the story that was back in the rounds this week that you and I both kind of just smiled at but hey the cons are interested in being potential buyers for WWE

and so now a lot of wrestling fans are saying man what if Tony wins the Super Bowl and WWE and I don't mean to be negative I think you know know i'm i'm friendly with tony i like tony but i don't see that happening i don't see a scenario where he gets his hands on wwe what say you is that a real possibility never say never because we're talking about professional wrestling yes but i wouldn't go near that bet i my opinion it's all it is an opinion is that tony and his dad are taking advantage of the hype they're taking advantage of all of the news and they're getting you know they got some great press out of it CNN is talking about it I don't know if that's great press or not but CNN's talking about it

at least putting it out there for for the public to consume and create a narrative and it's fun to think about it is fun to talk about yes if you take off your reality hat and put on your wrestling hat in terms of the creative around wrestling, it's fun to think about. But I think all the cons we're doing is taking advantage of what's going on to get some press for their company. And by the way, I think it's awesome. I would do the same thing. I'd probably take it two or three steps further. You know, I'd call some friends of mine over at TMZ and say, hey, just so you know, I'm going in for a meeting. I'm going to be at Stanford headquarters at 10 o'clock Tuesday morning.

If you want to comment, I'll see you there. And I would make, and by the way, I'd show up, I'd walk in, and I'd ask for directions to the nearest Mr. Donut, and then I'd walk out, and then I'd have a conversation with the press. I would create as much of a perception and a buzz of me being involved in the interest, and maybe making a play as I possibly could if I were the cons, because it's good for them. So I'm not criticizing them, but I think it's just, I think it's fantasy booking at this point, but it's fantasy booking that served a purpose and it got them a lot of exposure.

So I don't blame them for doing it, but I think it's just showbiz. It's Shakespeare. I don't think it's real. And even if they were interested, it's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. So we'll talk about why as the show progresses. Well, I am curious. why are you so let's back this up a lot of people would say because i've seen some

a w haters that i have in my life who would say well they don't have the money well buddy they got the money and even if they didn't want to use their own when you got that much money people line up to loan you more uh here's just the the cruel reality of the lending business as from somebody who's been in it 21 years the folks who really need the money the most those are the people who were toughest to help. But when you don't need anything, boy, the bankers are just line up to give it to you. Especially if he puts enough of your own money in the game. Yes.

If, if the con family decided, okay, we really want to make a run at this. We don't want to, you know, I doubt that, you know, whatever Tony's father is worth. $12 billion. $12 billion. How much of that is liquid? How much of that is sitting in a checking account? Yeah. fair. I mean, not a lot of it. Not worth mentioning because, you know, a lot of times we hear people present themselves as millionaires and a lot of people who, well, this sounds awful, aren't millionaires. Assume that means that, oh, well, he's got a million dollars in his checking account. That's not the way it works.

No. He's got equity in property and businesses and stocks and bonds and blah, blah, blah, blah. The money's not just leaning around. But here's, but here's what, you know, for example, the cons or anybody else for that matter, that have that kind of, well, It could put, and trust me, I'm sure that Tony's father has a fantastic rollerdecks and is very well connected with people just like him that have a lot of money, right? But if the con family said, look, we're going to put in a million dollars of our own money or two, or one, or whatever, and then go out, because now they've got skin of the game. They're not just using other people's money, which is what normally happens. but now they're they're stepping up and putting in their own money that makes it a lot more attractive for other investors private investors go well if he's putting up his own money

I'd feel a lot more comfortable I'm going to throw in too and you can put together five six seven people um that all come in that could put up enough money now in fact I went through this. When Fusion Media, when I first started working with Brian Bedal, and I'm going to try to get him on strictly business this week, by the way, because Brian Bedal knows what he's talking about when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. But whether I get Brian on to talk about it or not, I can tell you firsthand that when Fusion Media decided that they were going to take a run at purchasing WCW from Turner Broadcasting, the first thing they did before we hit Wall Street, because I did the dog and pony shows with them on Wall Street with some of the biggest investment firms

in the world at that time. I was in the room. And one of the first things in their, in their dog and pony show, which is a big presentation to, and it was usually a room full of investors, right, not just one or two. There was probably on an average eight, ten people in that, in that presentation, all of whom had enough money to play. But one of the things that Fusion Media did, before they went out and pitched anything is they committed their own money they came in with and I don't remember how much money it was but it was significant it was enough to matter they came in and said our investment is X and we're here to round out the investment and then the pitch carried forward so the cons could do the same thing anybody else could do the same thing

without necessarily you know liquidating their assets well so that talk to me. He said, but it won't happen. Why do you, why do you feel so sure that it won't happen? I was, you know, again, never say never. I'm going to go because I don't want, you know, six, six months from now to go, man, was that wrong? It could happen. Technically, it could. It's possible. It could happen. I don't, in my mind, see a scenario where Vince McMahon would work for the cons. I just don't. And, you know, when, when some of the news broke, one of the comments I heard was, you know, and I'm sorry, I don't know Tony's father's first name. Sean.

Shot. You know, Sean and Tony would, would be willing, you know, to allow Vince McMahon to stay in his role. Are you fucking kidding me? Are you kidding me? I don't see that happening. So the next question is, yeah, and this is the part I really want to get into throughout this episode. I see so much commentary by people who pretend they know what they're doing and guys like Meltzer who pretends he's an investment banker or has knowledge of investment banking. Talking about, yeah, well, you know, this guy could bid. Like he's selling a car at the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction. And all you've got to do is make a bid.

And if it's the right bid, Vince McMahon and the board has to take it. Eh, wrong, not true. That's not how it works, folks. There are terms that go along with this bid. And there is language of anything that you purchase. You know, you know, in the mortgage industry or in the real estate business. You know, I want to sell my house. But you've got to close before the end of June.

Or you have to close in 30 days. Well, that eliminates a lot of buyers. Some people aren't prepared to close in 30 days. It takes longer. And you think that's not true with the publicly held company, the amount of due diligence that would have to occur for a transaction like that. A lot. Yeah.

I mean, that's a very complicated. I want to try to get into it too deeply because I'm not familiar enough with the SEC and all the things that go along with that. But I do know, again, I'm going to go back to personal experience, and that's something that I read on somebody else's website. You know, when Fusion was actually, when we, after we signed the letter of intent, I think it took us about four or five months to do due diligence. It's a complicated process, very complicated.

And the bigger the company is, the more complex the company is, the longer that due diligence is going to take. So guess who gets to set the terms of a sale? Vince McMahon. Oh. There's not a law that says he has to take the highest bid. Because there are other factors involved. You could have someone. You could have, who's the, the crypto creep?

Who's that guy? FTAX. Yeah. That guy could have come along and said, I'll write you check right now for $12 billion. Freed has no ability to run that company. He has no experience in running that company. That's not in the best interest of the company. So his bid wouldn't, no one would even know he made that bid.

So just because somebody has, the money doesn't necessarily mean that they're automatic it's not like buying a car at an auction it's just not and as Vince McMahon has the ability and this is something that I've learned by the way I've done a lot of research a lot of research into the process take the personalities out take the cons out because it's cool to talk about it's fantasy booking you know take all the speculation out of it and just go with what you know. And you have to do the research on this stuff to fully understand it. And I've only scratched the surface, but I know a lot more than just about anybody else that's talking about it because nobody's really digging into the process.

When WWE announced, when Vince announced he was coming back and it's either going to explore a sale or media rights, maximize shareholder value, that's all the language that has to be in a press release like that. Because currently it's a publicly held company, you have to be very careful what you say publicly so that you're not misleading investors. So everything Vince said was true. Or within the guidelines of SEC.

Because shareholder value is the most important thing in a publicly held company in a transaction like this. But, for example, Goldman Sachs or any... investment banking firm, agrees to work with a company like WWE. WWE gets to set the terms not only of the acquisition, but of the process to a large degree, meaning there's an NDA. If you, if anybody, if you and I, Conrad, decided we're going to buy WWE when we're serious about it, what do we do? We have a representative, Jack Goldman Sachs, because we want to be a bidder.

And the first thing that we're going to have to do is sign an NDA. Guess who gets to write the NDA? Oh, no. It's not Goldman Sachs. Vince writes that too? It's not J.P. Morgan. It's the board. Okay.

Guess who controls the board? Vince. So Vince gets to decide what kind of teeth that NDA has. And the teeth in that NDA would, I'm guessing, because I don't know, I haven't seen it. And this is standard practice, by the way. This isn't unique to WWE. This is just how these transactions work and how the process works. That NDA can be something that's very easy to sign, or it could be ominous.

But what do you mean ominous? I'm making this up now. You and I decide to bid. This is, again, I just so desperately want to make sure that people understand that I don't have inside information. And I don't own a nickel of WWE stock. So I'm not worried about that. But I am concerned about the amount of diarrhea that is so prevalent in the way everybody's covering this.

A lot of parroting going on. Shit. It's a joke. But if you and I were to go and say to Goldman, or excuse me, J.P. Morgan, we want to buy it. We're going to get an NDA that was created by probably Vince McMahon staff and reviewed by Vince McMahon. And it might sound something like, okay, Eric and Conrad, if you sign this NDA, you have access to the information that's available to you. But here's the deal, Eric and Conrad. You can't talk about it now, during, or after.

Never. Anything. You can't even talk about the fact that you're bidding. That would not be unreasonable. And it's very typical of Vince McMahon to write a very strict NDA. He's got some experience at that. right we all know that I've I signed one and they're they've got teeth and I can only imagine the teeth at the NDA that McMahon WWE has crafted that people who are

legitimately legitimately in the pool I'm going to get to that a minute but are legitimately actively engaged in the process you're not going to be able to talk about it. The best you're going to get out of them is no comment. That's it. And that's why all of this, you know, when I hear the pool of investors. What's a pool? Who decides what the pool is?

The pool is nothing more than a wild-ass guess based on things that are kind of obvious. Comcast is obvious. They've already got an investment in the property in the form of licensing fees. They've got a streaming platform, NBC Universal. So the idea that there's this pool of investors is nothing more than a wild-ass guest from people in the, you know, CNBC used the term pool of investors. I've seen it from, you know, I've seen it in a lot of places outside of just, you know, the wrestling media. So the real pool of investors are going to be people that know,

knows about. And that's why I think, it's part of the reason why I think this whole con thing is just, now, is there a possibility that the cons are publicly talking about their interest? Yes. The minute they sign that NDA, you're not going to hear a peep out of them or anybody else, unless, unless WWE wants it to leak. Then you'll hear about it. well something you're going to hear about right now is athletic greens our next partner on the program is something that my wife and i have used for years seriously megan had to start using ag1 at the start of the pandemic to optimize our immune system but we think you should take a look at ag1 if you feel like you don't have time or maybe you want better gut health

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and pick up the ultimate in daily nutrition. Eric, you've been using AG1 for a long time, man, and you started using it before they were even on this show just like me right yep joe rogan turned me on to it listening to his show i'm not personal friends with joe don't want to imply i am i wish i was but no i said i listen to joe a lot i think he's fascinating man i listened to joe as much as i possibly kept but i heard joe talking about it and mrs b i think we're on a road trip to florida because that's when we typically listen to podcasts a lot and miss b heard it because my wife i call her mrs b Her name's Lori.

She's been studying nutrition actively for over 20 years. And when we started hearing about gut health and probiotics, and Lori knew all about it, I was just kind of getting smartened up to it. But look at it like this. You can put the highest quality gasoline you can find in your Ferrari. But if the carburetor is messed up, that high quality gasoline, fuel isn't getting to where it needs to be. And think of your gut as a carburetor.

And if you don't have the right probiotics to break down and disseminate the nutrients that are in the food you're eating, it might not do you as much good as you think it is. You could be spending a fortune on supplements and all kinds of other things or eating healthy, buying organic, which is really expensive, by the way. If you think regular food is going up in a crazy way, try shopping. shopping organic. But you can spend all that money trying to get healthy, but if you don't have a healthy gut, if you don't have the right probiotics in your gut, none of those nutrients or not as many of them, I should say, are going to get where they need to be. It's really important.

It's like having, you know, a dirty carburetor if you don't. I don't know if that's a good analogy or not, but it's the way I see it in my head. Check it out. Athletic Greens.com. forward slash 83 weeks Eric we we've done a lot of discussing so far about what might happen what could happen one can't happen there's a lot to unpack here

but I do want to quote the observer quote last week sports business reporter John O'Urand predicted that NBC you would make a play to bring Smackdown from Fox and put the show on NBC such a scenario WWE with a weekly show on NBC would have been considered

unthinkable, but as television declined, Smackdown winning Friday on Fox most weeks makes WW more valuable to other networks. But at the same time, even winning the night, Smackdown still fetches the lowest ad rates of any Friday night primetime show at $47,000 per minute. Now listen, we don't know exactly where all Dave gets his information, but $47,000 per minute to me

doesn't seem accurate that that's not dave getting information that's dave repeating something that somebody else said which clearly he's made a career out of i'm just saying i've been quoted to advertise on fox before national and it was more than 47,000 dollars minute yep yep so that information and it's not dave's information he's just regurgitating something you read um that information what is that information come from. I assume it comes from the sports business reporter that's referenced in the area. No, but where does that individual get that information? Right. He gets it. Now, maybe, perhaps he has some inside connection within NBC universal ad sales. I don't know. That's suggesting

he doesn't. But I'm suggesting that number probably comes from SEC quarterly filings. That's publicly held information. That's true. You probably figure that. that out on your own by looking at certain elements of the quarterly reports for WW. It's probably an estimate, or perhaps it's somebody giving him some information, but it's not necessarily accurate. But here's the interesting part. It doesn't matter, because here's what we don't know. Let's just take it at face value, which is really hard to do. But if we take that at face value USA is only getting $47,000 a minute

for WWE ad time. Fox is, you mean. Or Fox, okay. Does anybody know what the terms of that licensing agreement between Fox and WWE is? Okay, yeah. So, I'm sorry, kind of, go ahead. Morgan Stanley did an analysis for Fox on Smackdown.

This is directly from Dave. It felt they couldn't justify the price tag for the show. In the 2021 or 2020-2020 television season, Fox paid $196.7 million on the show and ended up with $134 million in losses. In 21-22, Fox paid $208.5 million and ended up with $145 million in losses. The conclusion is that there simply are not enough wrestling fans to justify the kind of money Fox spent on the show, and that the number of viewers is not likely to change over the next two years. They estimate that losses will only get worse with a projection or a projection of 155.6 million in losses for the 22-23 season

and 166.9 million for the 23-24 season. Boxer's deal is 221.1 million for the payment to WWE Smackdown in 2223 and 23 and 23. 4.3 for 2324. But because nothing has the reach of broadcast television, they recommended that WW should take less money for the more exposure from broadcast over taking more money for a deal with a streaming service or a cable station. So this to me, when I first read that, Eric,

and again, I haven't been involved in mergers and acquisitions and all of this the way you have. But when I read that as just a small business owner here, in Alabama I said to myself self that sounds like we're trying to paint a doom and gloom picture yeah it sounds like we're trying to create for lack of a better word a little subterfuge look over here don't worry about what's happening over here look over here and I take a look at the w stock which in in the week after the announcement that Vince was coming back was up like nearly 30% and I think are they trying to paint the picture that hey guys investors

shareholders this is as good as it's going to get right now it's all downhill from here maybe we set that up so we're a little more bullish on an alternative strategy that's the way I read it what say you yeah well again this is speculation but here's here's the point I'm trying to make. What don't we know? Right. A lot. We don't know if NBC Universal or Fox are participating in other forms of revenue in

addition to the ad sales. So they may be not quite getting whole on ad sales, but they're making up for it by participating in other forms of revenue. For example, and this is a what if, but what if in that licensing agreement, NBC Universal also participates in the upside of other events, premium live events. Who knows? There's a lot of ways to participate. It's one of the reasons I wanted Viacom to invest in TNA so that TNA had a solid television partner.

And, yeah, in many respects, it doesn't make a lot of sense for Viacom to own it unless they're participating in other revenue streams in the upside within them. And there can be a multitude of those opportunities within that agreement. I'm not saying that exists. I don't know. But it could. And it could make that whole doom and gloom picture by Morgan Stanley a moot point. There's so many things we don't know.

And by the way, no one does. No one does, except for the principles themselves. And I do agree with you. I think it's a, oh my gosh. You know, the WWE better take, you know, a lesser deal. You know, the television rights aren't as valuable as everybody think they are. That's great narrative if you want to take the company private, isn't it? Wouldn't it make a taking the company private?

You may be a shareholder going, oh, my gosh, just think the licensing deals that are, the WWE is going to get in their new agreements. It's going to go up even more, and our stock's going to go up even more. but you've got somebody like Morgan Stanley painting a doom and gloom picture that makes taking the company private a much more palatable alternative, doesn't it? Especially if in the process,

you're a shareholder. Let's just say you bought it. When I was down in Huntsville, when George and Michelle, George, I don't remember your last names, George and Michelle were co-president. George Barry Oscea Wilson. Yeah. Right. When they were to let go, right? I was sitting in your office when that was announced, and I'm looking at my phone

and I'm watching the stock price for WWE. And it's a d-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. It's down, I don't know what it was, like $45 or whatever it was. Let's say you went, I'm buying. 45 bucks, WWE, looking at their history, I'm in. I'm betting on Vince McMahon. And you bought it in at 45 bucks. Now you're looking at something close to $100, $90, 95, whatever it is.

I don't know. I'm not tracking it. But last I looked a couple days ago, it was up to $90. You just doubles your money in less than a year and a half. half. Yeah, maybe I was hoping that the media rights fees would really increase, but it doesn't look like they are. But I don't really care because if he takes his company private, I'm doubling my money. That's why I say that what we hear and what we read and what everybody thinks they know and what they're predicting, including me, right?

I'm not predicting anything other than I think he's going to take it private. We'll talk about why in a minute. I am, I am predicting that, but it's all speculation. Right. It's just speculation with a little bit of insight, a little bit of insight. And I worked with Vince closely for a period of four months. I competed against Vince in a very public way for a period of a couple years. Do I know Vince McMahon? Absolutely not. Do I have some insight into his? him? Yeah, I think I do. But nobody that's writing about this stuff does. Nobody knows what's in Vince's head, including people like Brandon Thurston and the other people who have come out publicly and said, and listen, I don't know, Brandon Thurston. I do enjoy his work. I find it

interesting. I find it credible as a guy who's analyzing numbers, because I like that kind of thing. But he came out yesterday and said all these non-wrestling people, you know, talking about what ifs, don't understand that Vince McMahon is willing to crater, I'm paraphrasing, crater his own company, you know, because that's just the way he's fucking Brandon Thurston doesn't know. Nobody does. It's just, it's fascinating. It's fun. It's entertaining. This is the most entertaining thing that's happening in the wrestling business in a long, long time. Can't believe this is real, but Wu Wings, your very own virtual restaurant concept is now open and fans can enjoy the legendary flavors and world championship wings are ordering with their Uber Eats or Postmates app. Wu Wings is now open in Nashville, San Antonio, Jacksonville, as well as Huntsville and Tuscaloosa, right here in Alabama.

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I want to talk about the stock here for a minute because I do think it's worth mentioning that a year ago, uh, we'll go to January 18th of 2022. The stock closed at $52 and $45. As you and I are recording this, it's $89.40. So over the course of the last year, we're up 70.45% and Steve, if you'll click on five years right there you'll see that we're up 164% this time five years ago the stock was at $33.85. I mean, it's remarkable the growth that this stock has enjoyed. So even though we may read a report that says, well, Fox is incurring losses. And again, that was an

independent study where someone said they didn't think it was worth it. But the reality is and let me just let's just take a time out here and stop talking about wrestling do you think that jeff bezos is getting an actual return from having the thursday night NFL games on amazon it's a long that's a good point kind of it is a long term investment and i understand that we as pragmatic people who run our own financial household and we we are used to hey well if i'm going to spend this amount of money am i going to get that amount of value right now that is the way we do it like we don't just you know what the cable company you guys have done such a great job here's a thousand dollar bonus we don't do that but these are business owners

you're making a long term investment bezos did not recapture he didn't break even he didn't come close to it with his investment this year but what he did do is he introduced a lot of people who might not normally have that product to it my dad amongst them he was not going to miss that Thursday game. He had no clue where to find it and how to find it. But he figured it out and he had to open his wallet to do it. And in time, guess what? But that's going to use Amazon more. It's what business owners would call a lost leader. We get them in here for our penny beer promotion. But while they're here, guess what? They're going to order a shot and pay full price. They're going to order some boneless chicken wings that we got marked up and got a 300%

margin on or whatever it is. I'm saying all that to say. There's more at play than just saying, well, pragmatically, this was not a good investment this year. That's not the way business at that level always happens, right? Yeah, especially, like you're at that level. Yes. At that level is because these people play for long term. Yes. This is long ball, folks.

This is not buying and selling a car. It's just not. People are covering it as it is, but it's not. This is way more. complex and again you know i'll go back to ad sales you know how valuable is it for fox or let's just use fox for fox to talk about owning the key demo on friday nights right how does that affect their ability to sell other programming advertising with other programming how much more attractive are they because they lead the world the television world in that demo

on Friday nights. Yeah, maybe they're going to lose a little bit on WWE, but the fact that they're in control of that demo or have such a great demo compared to other networks is a valuable selling tool. It is a unique selling proposition, isn't it? Yes. And that unique selling proposition enhances their ability

to sell other advertising. They are a more attractive network as a result of it. That's important. Are they losing, perhaps, perhaps, are they losing a little bit? Are they losing a lot, I guess, on a percentage basis, maybe not all that much, but are they losing money on the licensing? Perhaps are they making it up in a lot of other places, either revenue participation and other business units or just the ability to go out and say, hey, at the upfronts.

Upfronts are when the networks, cable outlets, once a year, they get together, They tell everybody what their programming schedule is going to look like the following, you know, year, tout all their programs. What they're really doing is trying to sell advertising up front in advance because they get advertisers to go, okay, I'll commit X amount of money for six months worth of advertising in that show because I really dig that show and I believe in it. And, oh, by the way, you've proven that you know how to capture that 18 to 49. So I'm going to do it.

that's that's the dog and dog and pony show in the up front ad market business um and having the ability to market yourself as a network as the leader in that 18 to 49 year old demo is a critical unique selling proposition in that world I want to talk a little bit about uh the board but before we do I do want to bring up something that that we discussed with Jim Hurd years ago when we did our conversations with conred piece for ad free shows.com highly recommend you check it out and i know that you know the wrestling has decided oh this guy didn't know wrestling he was an idiot well he was in the television business and he understood his task

when he came on with turner and he sort of laid out to me eric and i don't know if you remember the interview but he talked about how turner had the braves and they had the hawks and so they had these different sports properties and they wanted to slide in that college football and they wanted to slide in the the wrestling component and offer a sports package with the idea being they they were spending so much in their sports leagues that they needed to charge a higher premium for those ads but oftentimes it wasn't in the budget for them to go ahead the agencies to go ahead and make that purchase but by adding the wrestling component at a much lower cost per CPM, the result is we could get the tonnage

that we're looking for and bundle it together. And now it's a much more attractive opportunity because now we can say, hey, we'll put you in all of these shows and it gets you and it's this big crazy number at the bottom. And of course, most people would assume being not really in the wrestling bubble. Well, most of those people are watching the real sports. they're not watching that fake wrestling well the reality is wrestling was pulling great ratings it just wasn't pulling great ad revenue as a standalone by but when bundled together with the rest of sports it could be really strong i'm saying all of that to say that was turner's initiative way back when in 1989 and now right now it's something that fox is doing

because yes they have the NFL but it's expensive yes they have this show and that show but it's expensive but rest things a little more affordable i'm just saying those opportunities exist in television that did not go out of style it's still something that happens today right here's a yes absolutely in fact if you read you know i read a book about i don't know if it was a biography or an autobiography i don't have the book anymore but when i first started working for turner i read a book about ted and if you go back and if you find that book or you just do your own research you know And when Ted started TBS, it was a sign company that he inherited from his father that before it became TBS. And Ted had a vision to launch the superstation.

He had limited money. He didn't have a lot of cash to go out and buy, you know, first run programming or even, you know, really popular programming. He didn't have the money initially. But he knew, he believed that the wrestling audience, even though he had a hard time selling it, he knew that he could build up the perception of his network in terms of audience and viewers. Because he knew that the wrestling business was 52 weeks a year and the audience was predictable and it was constant. And he leveraged that. Now, he didn't leverage wrestling. He leveraged the viewership of the network to build upon. And that's the same thing that it still happens in different ways,

but it's still happening today. But here's another look at, ad sales and SmackDown or even raw. And let's just take the Morgan Stanley thing at face value. One of the advantages again for Smackdown in particular on Friday nights is they're usually number one, number two in the key demo, right? I don't know how many commercials you have in a two-hour show. I've lost track, but it's a lot. You know, every commercial breaks two and a half, three minutes long.

Probably 30. Say that again. Say that again? I think it's 36. Okay. So let's say you've got 36 minutes of ad time. Well, again, let's go back to the up front. An advertiser comes to you and they say,

I want to advertise in this scripted program that you have. I really like that program. It suits the psychographics. People don't talk about, they talk about demographics, but they don't always talk about psychographics. But it fits what we're targeting here. and the network will make a guarantee during the up-fronts.

You guarantee a certain amount of return to that advertising agency based on that buy. You guarantee that a certain number, a certain number of 18 to 49-year-olds are going to watch that show. Well, let's say you come up short. What are you going to do? You're going to give money back to the advertiser for the agency? No, you're not. You've already spent that money. but what you are going to do is a make-good.

So you may have, let's just pull numbers out of thin air. I'm an advertiser. You're an average because you do advertise. Conorazzy says he's going to spend $5 million during the upfront. He's going to commit. He's going to advertise in this program because the network guarantees him a certain number of 18 to 49-year-olds. Shit, we're halfway through the season and we're not making our guarantee. What do we do?

Do we give them our money back? write them a check no we do make goods we move that that that add over to this show that is over delivering on the 18 to 49 or delivering a great 18 to 49 it's a make good happens every day so well yeah on on the surface it may look like you're losing money but if the if the network has the ability because they have a certain number of 18 to 49 years or old 18 to 49-year-olds in that demo, they know they have that in the bank because it performs consistently 52 weeks a year. What a great way or great opportunity to deliver on make goods. So you don't have to give any money back. There's so much more to it than meets the eye.

Certainly that meets the eye in the dirt sheet universe. Well, I'll tell you what, there's more than meets the eye to ship station too in a landscape where free and fast shipping is the norm. It can be harder for smaller e-commerce businesses to compete. Well, we suggest that you keep yourself competitive with Ship Station. When you use Ship Station, you can lower your shipping costs to make returns easy and keep your customers happy. And with all the time you're saving from your automate, by automating your shipping tasks, you can really focus on growing your business all year long. And I want to mention that we actually started this with Eric as a free trial. And he saw that it was a quick,

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a company or service that over delivers on expectations extremely rare i signed up for ship station because I had, I don't know, 100 books, 120 books that I had autographed and needed the ship out. And I thought, wow, here's an opportunity. I'm going to use ship station. I'm going to try it. Now, everybody knows I'm not the most technologically advanced person in the world, right? Like programming my iPhone is a challenge for me. So when it comes to this type of a service and this type of a product, I'm not the most fluent when it comes to.

technology. However, I signed up, and I'm not exaggerating any of this. I signed up, and within 30 minutes, I get a phone call from ship station. The lady's name was Lauren. And she said, hi, Eric, I'm Lauren. I'm not going to give you her last name. I've since talked to her a few times because I was so fascinated with this aspect of ship station service. She goes, hi, Eric. My name's Lauren, and I'm here to help you on board. I said, what? And because when I hear on board, it's usually in the context of, you know, talking to the advertising agency about the product or service we're about to sell and make sure we understand. She's no, I'm here to help you, you know, on board so that you feel

very comfortable using ship station and we get, and we get your dashboard set up. I want to make sure you don't have any questions. Are you kidding me? That's never happened to me before. No. Ever. And she walked me through the entire process for my first shipment. And I probably, because I'm technically challenged, technologically challenged, probably technically too.

But when it comes to this type of thing, it's harder for me than it is for a lot of people to do this stuff all day long. I don't. She walked me through the entire process all the way up and to the point, including the point, where I hit the button to print labels. Unbelievable service. And I said, Lauren, she actually, actually, here's how it really went down. I went through the whole thing, set up my dashboard, printing my labels, and off I go.

She called me back the next day just to make sure I didn't have any issues. And I said, Lauren, I've got to ask you a question. Are you doing this just because I'm a, you advertise on my podcast? Is that why you're giving me all this extra attention? She said, no, we have a whole staff of people that do this every time somebody signs up to try Ship Station. We walk everybody through it. Is that fucking amazing or what?

Check it out. Shipstation.com forward slash 83 weeks. I think you're going to dig it. Eric, I dig talking about what's next for WWE with you. And, uh, the board is something that has been discussed a lot. And your boy, Brandon Thurston laid out that the, uh, board of directors, well, the way it looks has changed a little bit. Of course, Vince McMahon is on it and Akon is on it.

Paul Levesque, as we know as, uh, Triple H is on it. Michelle Wilson is on it. George Berrios is on it, the former WWE leadership. They're back. Michelle McKen. who has a background in the NFL and now doing consulting for chief intelligence officers and the like she's on it Steve Coonan who was in leadership for the Hawks and the state farm arena there the former Phillips Arena in Atlanta he's on it and Steve Pomone

versus the trailer company that used to do battle wraps back when that was a thing a few years ago they're all on the board and there's a handful of empty board seats I've said all of this to say when you take a look at this board you start to say this is a pretty wwe friendly board i mean clearly vince paul nick michelle george they're in the company and have been involved for a long long time i guess technically michelle and george are not anymore but lord they know this business inside and out and steves are you know with verses and and helping run the hawks and i think mr coonan with the hawks he's on a bunch of boards and i don't know i'm saying all that to say this board doesn't exactly seem as if there's going to be

anybody given vince any shit i don't know another way to say it any planer do you know i know i know steve cunin i did not know that i haven't talked to steve at a long time but you remember in wcd when there was a new uh coca cola product called surge yes that was steve steve steve steve also he worked for Coca-Cola. Before he was with Hawks, he was with Coca-Cola for a while. And we're a bunch of awards there. Yep. So I've worked with Steve.

We actually, I worked with Steve closely to launch that Coca-Cola product. And that's, that's how I know Steve. I haven't talked to him since that time, but that's how I know Steve. So Steve also has a lot of background, not only with the Hawks, but he knows advertising, right? Coca-Cola, because I have that brand. and probably others. But let's talk about whether it's friendly or not.

I don't know. I read somewhere may or may not be true because I read it on the internet and I take everything at face value. But wasn't it Paul Leveck and Stephanie that voted against bringing Vince back? Well, I don't know that all those are out there, but that is what I wanted to talk about because it looks as if we've seen a lot of people, there's been a lot of reports, as if to say Hunter and Stephanie are aligned and they're against Vince returning.

There's some personal stuff and play there that we'll table. I know there's whispers, not our place to discuss it. But I want to just add some context to all this. Sean Rosep a few days ago tweeted out on the heels of Smackdown. Triple H led the talent meeting today in Green Bay. He told talent that Vince McMahon's return is to see whether or not they sell and who they should sell to. He said this will not change the creative team or process. he would go on to say that he and Vince McMahon have conversations about creative

but Vince defers final saying to Triple H now we sort of talked about last week on the program where I think a lot of wrestling fans were nervous about Vince coming back to creative that I just thought and I hear you it's Vince's baby yada yada yada and I kind of always assumed Vince is coming back to worry about a business deal not necessarily creative for this guy wrestles this guy and blah blah blah but clearly it's something wrestling fans are still concerned about so let's discuss it do you believe that triple h is getting final say creative right now i do and the reason i do is just again taking personalities and perception and just setting that off to the side is

I think Vince is pretty focused on what he's doing right now in terms of either a sale or media rights negotiations or taking the company private. I'm pretty sure that even though Vince McMahon likes to work 20 hours a day, those 20 hours are pretty filled up with things that are a lot more important right now than creative. So yeah, I do believe. Hey guys, Double J. Jeff Jarrett.

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So let's talk about whether or not, you know, Vince is going to relinquish that creative control. Uh, you believe, and I do too, that he's going to sort of leave it to triple H. But I think a lot of people are worried, oh,

what is this going to mean for our creative? Is this going to mean that the direction or the course of the company is changing? And it feels like they're really just talking, about that creatively, I want to talk about how it could affect the business that we know as professional wrestling. If the thing went private, because you started this program by saying your belief is that it would go private and you were going to explain more and more as we went on. How do you think the business changes if it does go private? Hard to say. You know, this is again, you have to get inside of the head of Vince McMahon.

And trying to do that is daunting. It's a complex dude. But let's just look at the patterns. You know, what's best for business? One of the things that we know is Vince McMahon makes decisions that all of us at some time or another were surprised at, whether it was bringing me in after, you know, years of competing against him and almost putting him out of business. And I had some pretty crappy things to say. You know, I did some pretty crappy things.

giving away their finishes and all that stuff. I was the enemy. I was the Antichrist. Had I walked into WWE headquarters back in 1997, I don't think I would have walked out until I got hired. And I was one of the key figures on camera for whatever it was, three or four years.

Nobody thought that would happen, including me. Nobody thought that he'd bring back Ultimate Warrior. Right. Right? I mean, but Vince, this has been part of his, his, you know, his public persona is that he will do what's best for the business, even if it's distasteful as hell. Even if it makes him throw up in his own mouth in his private time, if it's best for business, that's what he's going to do. Now,

if you accept that and you go, yeah, that's probably true, maybe it's 100% true, maybe it's 70% true. But it's true. But it's true. if you if you accept that and you step back and you take your emotion and your your wrestling fandom out of the equation what's best for business currently i think the existing creative team from triple h and bruce all the way down to a lot of writers that i do know personally that are fantastic talent fantastic talent um what's best for business is you let them keep doing what what they're doing because it's working So there's a part of me that says, yeah, even if Vince takes it private, I could see him continuing to allow that process to exist as it does as long as it continues to be successful.

I believe that in my heart, having worked with Vince, having been one of the, hell, he brought me in as executive director of SmackDown. Come on. Now, it wasn't, it didn't work out for a lot of reasons, most of them because of me. My inability to adapt or unwillingness to adapt maybe subconsciously. It doesn't matter. It didn't work out. Maybe it shouldn't meet his expectations. I don't know.

But it doesn't matter. The fact is that was a big position. And it's distasteful as he may not, maybe he hated my guts. I don't know. But he brought me in, gave me an opportunity. Right. And I think that aspect of Vince's nature is what a lot of, me to believe that even if he takes the company private, I don't think you're going to see

a radical change in what we're seeing right now when it comes to creative. Let's talk about the buyer pool. You sort of referenced that a little earlier. And we hear lots of different names thrown around. We hear Netflix. We hear Disney. We hear Comcast. We hear Amazon Prime, but we've also heard Saudi Arabia. And that created a lot of nervousness in and around the industry this past week. There are a lot of people who were reporting it as absolute fact, as if a deal had done that, been done that quickly. I think you and I both thought, well, there's not really a chance it was done that quickly.

But I think you and I were both sort of in tune with the idea that, hey, he might take it private. And when he takes it private, he does have less supervision. He does have less accountability. He can do more of what he wants. He is less scrutinized, for lack of a better word. But how do you make an exit like that? And how do you deliver shareholder value and make it look like,

hey, there's no real damages. Meaning if he comes back and he tanks the stock, now there can be all kinds of folks who are up in arms. And I know there's a class action lawsuit that was started. I don't think anybody expects that to go anywhere, because again, what are the damages? There are no damages. Since Vince is back, you made more money. You're suing because you got 30% more money.

Like that's not a thing. That'll get thrown right out of court. Now, if the thing goes the other direction, like we've seen with Tesla and some other stocks this last year, perhaps maybe some of those folks can have an argument. But the just sheer involvement or discussion of Saudi Arabia made a lot of people nervous and a lot of people were sort of predicting the sky is falling hey man this company's going to go out of business nobody's going to want to be in business with them if they're owned by the Saudis look at what's happened with live golf they've struggled to find a television

partner blah blah blah but we have seen that they made investments in other areas and it hasn't been a big pushback and by the way I saw a lot of people saying hey it's going to be off fox it's going to be off USA because of Saudi. Well, NBC has happily aired the Saudi Arabian specials on Peacock. So I can't say that they necessarily are totally opposed because it feels like if that was an issue, it would have come up by now. Do you believe there is a chance that WWE takes an investment from Saudis? Do you think that they could become the majority owner?

Do you think they could navigate television with Saudi as a partner? Do you think it would change the on-air programming? Like maybe the ladies have to wrestle in turtlenecks or some silliness. Talk to me about Saudi Arabia in your perspective. There's a lot to talk about there. But let's just break it down. And one of the things that I learned in the research that I've done over the last few days is that when a foreign entity, any foreign entity, decides to buy an American company.

There are antitrust issues and hoops that have to be jumped through with the Securities and Exchange Commission. So right off the bat to suggest that, oh, that transaction is going to happen. It happened this afternoon, and it's going to be announced tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., which was kind of the narrative

that was floating around for a minute. It's a joke. If the Saudi Investment Fund actually want to acquire WWE, that is a long process and a complex one with no assurances that it would be approved. Maybe it would, but you don't know, and you wouldn't know for a long time. It's a complex process. So there's that.

Now, I don't know. Saudis have investment in Berkshire Hathaway. Saudis probably have investments in a lot of companies that we probably don't even know, minority investments. They're minority shareholders. Shareholders just like everybody else. So could, I guess, I don't know, I'm not an expert, could the Saudis help fund the process of taking the company private as a minority investor? I would think so without it being a big issue. But if they wanted to buy the company and own the company, that's a different conversation that comes with a tremendous amount of complexities as it relates to antitrust

issues. So there's that. Do I, and if they became a minority investor or even in the mind-bogglingly remote chance that they actually bought the company, no, I don't, I don't think women would have to wear what they typically wear on a Saudi WWE premium live event, for example. No. Again, it's wrestling fans.

It's dirt sheet writers. It's unsurious people with lack of information or knowledge projecting what could happen in their wrestling fandom psychology. It feels like it just gets people fired up. It gets people talking. It gives them something to talk about.

and one of the big things that everybody's talking about is what does this mean for the future of wrestling specifically Triple H? We know, or I shouldn't say we know, it's been reported that the entire board of directors, Kahn, Levec, Coonin, McKenna, and Pomone were all unanimous in not wanting Vince back on a vote that was done on the 27th.

But yet they voted unanimously for his return as chairman of the board. Now that's out there pretty hot and heavy. And it makes me believe, as we sort of laid out on the program last week and we were just freestyling. But now with that information, it feels very apparent to me.

Vince came back and already had a plan. It's not like he's going to come back and just see how, it goes he already knows what's going to happen we just don't we're learning because he's not he's not spilling the beans so to speak but for them to go allegedly and unanimously say no he should not be back and then do it about face and say well we've changed our mind he should be not only back but he should be the chairman he came in and he pitched something and clearly the stock has risen as a result of just his return and these reports.

And it makes me say to myself, self, he's planted these stories. He's leaking these stories. There's no other way for me to wrap my head around it. And I want your two cents. Am I being too conspiracy theorist to make that assumption? No. No, I don't think so at all.

I agree with you 100%. It makes all the sense in the world, particularly, and again, through the preliminary research that I've done into this process, I'm even more convinced now than my gut told me a week ago, I think he's going to take it private. I could see him teaming up with an endeavor as a minority, private investor, you know, because there's some parallels. There's some very unique parallels, and I'm going off track here for a second, very unique parallels in the UFC business model and the WWE business model. There are two different things. One's apples. It's a real sport. The other is oranges.

It's scripted entertainment. However, it's pay-per-view. It's television rights. It's licensing. It's merchandising. You know, it's negotiating with venues. There's a lot of similarities between the UFC and WWE where I could see, I hate to use the word synergy because it's overused and abused.

But I could see that play because of those synergies. It makes sense on paper. But I do agree that while Vince was off on the island, doing whatever he was doing, I don't think he was sitting around working on his tan. No. I think he was making, I think he had a plan probably 20 minutes after he left the building

and made his official resignation. I do think he has a plan. I do believe he's going to take the company public. It's not going to cost him as much as people think. Private. To take the company public? Private. Or take, yes, I'm sorry, take the company.

company private it's going to cost them under four billion dollars yeah and by the way shareholders are still going to make a fortune hang on time out let's talk about that you threw it out there i know how you did the math explain to everybody how you did the math Vince doesn't have to buy out his own shares he only has to buy the outstanding shares there you go so you see how many total shares there are you see what Vince doesn't control you figure out a price per share and then there's your buyback. And the result is a number, I think when you and I did the math off air, it's like 3.9. We're rounded up. It's $4 billion. Right. Yep. Now, does Vince have $4 billion in his back pocket? No. Probably just like the cons. No. He's, who knows? But he can get it. I doubt it.

But does he have a billion of his own money? Or what if? This is a what if folks. take any action based on this scenario because it's a wild ass guess but it's possible what if Vince decides I want to do this and I don't want to take on any more partners than necessarily unless it's strategically opportunistic opportunity how would he come up with the money if he doesn't have the cash himself how would he come up with the money if he doesn't want to take on too many partners so you're saying if he doesn't just want to go to the Saudi investment group and say give me this for x number of shares well listen i'm just guessing i'm going to play the game uh that you're but you're laying out based on what we've heard

wwee scrapped the network because they did a licensing deal with peacock and then wwee scrapped doing their own merch and did a licensing deal with fanatics uh and and and and and it feels like everywhere you look there's a new licensing deal so are you going to say maybe there's there's another thing he could license for a bunch of cash or spin off what if what if he what if he what if he what if he sells the the rights for this basically sells a streaming platform what if he sells it you can do it i don't know what it's worth we know that there's an office building that's going to be vacant this year right there's another asset So he could spin off an asset that generates enough revenue for him to be able to take the company private in addition to his own money or maybe a minority stakeholder like endeavor or somebody else.

It's a possibility, folks. And again, under $4 billion, he doesn't have to bid. It's not like going to the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction. He doesn't have to bid against himself. He doesn't have to buy out his own shares. He only has to buy outstanding shares at the current stock. value and that right now would be under $4 billion. It wouldn't be that hard for him to do.

Let's talk about this. We alluded to it earlier. The Amazon deal with the NFL, in case you hadn't paid attention to that. Maybe you're not an American football fan. We are a global product here. It's a billion dollars a year for 15 Thursday night games a season. So they're paying $1 billion annually.

for 15 games 15 Thursday night opportunities some of those games are better than others some of those games did better than others but still it's a billion dollars for 15 games that to me and again as you said we're comparing apples and oranges here the NFL is obviously a much bigger deal domestically than WWE however I would go so far as to say the WWE has a really strong draw internationally. I'm not saying it's greater than the NFL, but I'm saying as crazy disparate as it might be here in America. There's probably other corners of the world, but they're much more familiar with WWV than Tom Brady. Yeah. Um, so I'm saying all that to say that is proof that there is a ton of value

and content, but I am curious if you think, do you really believe in your heart of hearts, that $4 billion is attainable? And I assume you're saying that over the course of a year, but maybe you do a four year, five year, hell, a 10 year deal, whatever it is, and you come up with some number, some value, right? I don't know if it would be the streaming platform or any other asset or business unit that could be spun off. I'm just saying it's a possibility.

It's a, it's a, it's possible. That's it, man. It's just a possibility that I don't think based on the, the coverage that this situation is getting that people aren't realizing or thinking about. Again, I think so many people that are writing about and talking about this situation, they're positioning it as it's an auction. And you got to, it has to go to the highest bidder. And there are so many terms and conditions that Vince could include in that offering that would

give him the ability to manage what deals have to go before the board. He has so much more control over this process than people realize. I don't know. I don't know. The question is then, it's a general question, is, are there assets within WWE that could be spun off and sold to another entity that would allow Vince? to help fund taking the company private. And I think the answer to that is yes,

it could happen. Towie could raise the money without having to dig into his own pocket and liquidating his own assets or taking on too many partners. I'll tell you this. You don't have to liquidate any assets at campermax.com. Campermax specializes in max discounted pricing on travel trailers and fifth wheel RVs delivered anywhere in the lower 48. You heard me.

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you these guys are personal friends of mine for a long long time rod wagger and his crew are going to take great care of you they've always taken great care of me if you've ever heard of me or my crew going to a paper review or convention or something like that and rolling up in an RV my man rod made it happen and he'll make it happen for you at campermax.com don't forget there's two X's in campermax is c-a-m-m-a-xx.com and let them know that I sent you get that friend of a friend discount. Hey let's talk about the board again. I know I keep coming back to it, but listen, I know that there's a lot of fans concerned about, hey, if Vince comes back, what does this do for Bray Wyatt? I'm not saying that doesn't

have value. I care about what happens to Bray Wyatt too, but I think long term, Ray's going to be okay. Um, the board changed a lot. Vince took three folks off of the board, Dylan, Speed and Wexler, uh, two others, uh, La Houd and Singh quit because they were adamant that Vince shouldn't be back so we had five departures and then of course three new ones coming in george michel and vince all back uh but still seeing as a reminder is the guy who ran the board's investigation of vince McMahon and his behavior last year speed was a key pair a key player in that they're all gone and in my head he has a fairly amenable board now but boy the I think you called it last week.

The Palace Intrigue exists. And there's a lot of people who are wondering, what does this mean for Hunter and Stephanie and Vince? And a lot of people believe that Hunter and Stephanie are directly opposed from selling. They like things the way they are. If Vince takes it private, he can kind of do with it what he wants. Let's just talk through that.

If Vince is successful. what you believe and I believe is the end goal of trying to take the thing private what would and boy I hate to say it this way because so many parallels have been made to the television program on HBO what would the succession plan look like in your opinion and and I say in your opinion because I want to state and aloud and clear voice you and I have no inside information we haven't talked to Vince we haven't talked to Bruce for that matter we haven't talked to Hunter we haven't talked to Stephanie these are just two guys sitting on a couple of bar stools,

chugging a beer, saying, hey, man, what if? If Vince gets this thing, and if Vince takes it private, what do you think the succession plan does look like? It's hard to imagine. You know, it's hard to get to guess. And it's, it becomes complicated because of Stephanie's resignation. Yes. Not only did Stephanie, along with Polovac and the rest of the board,

unanimously agree that Vince should not. come back. That's not a very friendly board, but that was there. It happened. And then 24 hours after it's announced that Vince McMahon is back, Stephanie McMahon, along with Nick, Khan, and everybody else involved, came out and said, no, we're here. This team is 24 hours. This team is going to stay in place. Stephanie is going to remain as a co-CEO. Con is Nick Con. Nick is going to remain, is going to remain over-creative. And then 24 hours later, she resigned.

The fact that she resigned, there's one of two things, I guess, maybe more, that are going on there, that are kind of obvious to me. One is, there is tension between Stephanie and Vince. And not only did Stephanie vote again, against bringing Vince back, her father.

As soon as he did come back, she resigned. That suggests, perhaps, in the Machiavellian view of things, that, oh, there's heat there. Between Vincent Stephanie. Ooh, I wonder what's going to happen to Paul. Is he next? We don't know. Because there's another scenario.

And I guess because I'm a glass half full guy. And I have, again, just a small amount of insight into at least what I thought that relationship was like, you know, let's go back in time. The leak happens to the Wall Street Journal. That's what started this series of dominoes to start falling, right? Vince, however, Pallas Coo, call it what you will, is forced out by the board. Stephanie comes out of retirement because she took a leave of absence. Why did she take a leave of absence? She took a leave of absence originally because she wanted to spend more time with her family.

That's believable. It's relatable. I get that. I can imagine Stephanie McMahon never having to worry about money again for the rest of her life, nor will her children ever have to worry about money again for the rest of their lives. and at that stage, the stage of her life where she's at where her kids are now teenagers and wanting to spend more time with her kids. I believe that.

But she came back once Vince was out the door. Why did she come back? To protect her father's interest? To protect the family? I believe that. I have always seen an extraordinary relationship between father and daughter. genuine love, affection, and respect. That's what I saw every time I saw those two together.

To the point where I almost found it admirable. It's like, well, that's such a beautiful thing to have somebody as competent as Stephanie, and she's very competent, who has been brought up in that industry and has such a relationship with the father that allows her to grow in the, that business and eventually become a co-CEo. I love that. And I, I admired what I saw. Now, I didn't see what was going on behind closed doors in private. I never went to a family barbecue. I didn't get invited to Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know. I, uh, I only know what I saw, and what I saw was reflected love, respect, and confidence. So I could see why, even though

Stephanie may have wanted to spend more time with her family, once Vince is out the door, she's going to come and take that role to help protect her, to watch her father's back, essentially, and run that company in his absence the way he may have run that company in his absence, operationally now. I believe that. I want to believe that. But I also keep the door open for the fact that there's something else going on

behind the scenes that I'm unaware of. And if that's the case, I don't know what's going to happen to Triple H. Nobody does. Again, as I said earlier, I think regardless of whatever drama that has taken place over the last four or five, six months, that may or may not have included Triple H, I don't know. But let's just play Fantasy Booker here and say, yeah, there is. Fact is, Paul Avex is doing a great job. And in my mind, from Vince's perspective, Vince's perspective, that supersedes how he may feel about anybody. Or maybe you take Stephanie's departure at face value if you believe, like I do, that she came back to protect her to watch her father's back and run that company in his shadow, I guess, lack of a better way of saying it, you could take her press release at face value. She went back into, we'll call it retirement, because she knew with Vince there, she didn't have to watch us back anymore. That is so plausible. And we tend because, you know, and I'm, me too, we tend because we're wrestling fans and there's always the story behind the story, right?

Yeah. We tend to lean into the Machiavellian perspective of what's going on and people buy into that so easily because of the nature of the product and the, and the personalities involved. It's an easy thing to do, but I refrain from doing that. I acknowledge it. It could be true, but I look at what I know and what I've experienced, however brief or not it was. When I was a talent in WWE for four or five years, I watched that relationship every Monday,

and once a month on Sundays. um my impression was i didn't kind of think that maybe there was a lot of respect and confidence there there was we don't know it'll play out we'll find out won't we we will and i'll tell you i personally thought when all the stephanie stuff first happened hey the deal here is the optics of the nature of which vince was investigated the optics are good if there is a female lead and it's good for investors if the last name is McMahon. I thought we checked a lot of boxes. And I felt like she was just there to sort of do her dad's bidding and be a

placeholder and be his voice and blah, blah, blah. I'm not saying that's what it is, but that's certainly what I thought was happening. So when I see all these reports that come out and say, oh, no, Turner versus Vince, I just, I don't believe that. It's a wrestling angle. That is a wrestling angle. then this is worth mentioning too right after she steps down and this is worth mentioning too when it happened back during the summer it was a leave of absence now it's a resignation

those are different things leave of absence implies i'm coming back keep my spot ready for me resignation and even her statement i'm just a fan now she wound up getting surgery here in alabama where all the wb superstars go in birmingham and she made sure to put that out there and mentioned that Triple H was her caretaker. Boy, that just got people buzzing even more. And again, you saw, you sort of called it Machiavellian. My brain started saying, this is all a show. I don't. I think we're to be true. Yeah. That could very well be true, couldn't it? Because everything else that we're seeing publicly in social, media or a legitimate mainstream media all that information has been anything that's any what

appears to be inside information is nothing more than an orchestrated leak so we don't know yes and that's what I encourage people look this is fascinating I love it I haven't hardly been able to sleep for the last week by all this stuff you know I there's so much going on and it's hard not to be absolutely fascinated with it if you've actually been in the business or even if you're just a fan of the business, right? But what I really want people to understand is whether you're listening to Conrad and I right now

or you're reading things on the internet, nobody knows shit. Yes. They're all doing the same thing that we're doing right now. which is guessing and speculating. The difference between what everybody else is doing and what you and I are doing is we're looking a little bit deeper

than the wrestling angle or simply repeating what other people are saying and then putting our own personal spin on it and pretending that we know what's going on inside of the mind of Vince McMahon. That's for you, Brandon Thurston. Or Dave Meltzer, because he's a surrogate and he wants and he hates WWE and he hates Vince McMahon and he's going to spin it because of his own personal biases everybody's guessing and people are listening to the show

and I'm sure when this show hits tomorrow morning and it makes it out to the to the masses there's going to be a lot of people that are suggesting oh Eric Bischoff's defending Vince McMan I'm not defending anybody I'm never going to go to work for WW again I don't want to go to work BWE again. I'm never going to go to work for AEW. I don't want to go to work for AEW. Doesn't mean I may not show up for a TV appearance here and there and either one of them someday, but it doesn't, I don't want to work for anybody. I'm happy as fuck right now. And I don't want anything to change that. I'll do other things that I'm excited about. I was so excited yesterday morning, I had to jump in a shower to keep my hair from catching fire because there's a lot of other

things going on in my life. But I'm not willing to do what everybody else that's covering the story in the wrestling universe, at least, which is taking the most cynical, dark, Machiavellian view of it. I would rather spend the time learning and understanding the process to give me a better feel for what might happen than simply regurgitating nonsense in wrestling angle mentality it's it's going to be something we're going to talk about for a long long time i want to do two more things and then and then we'll put a button on this i want to ask well i know you got some of the business you want to tend to and i'll certainly do it number one you said i think he could take the company private as soon as the end of the spline is that your real guess as far

as the timeline do you think this is something that happens You know, let's do it, let's do it NFL style. It's NFL playoff season. So there's over unders right now. Would you say it happens? Here's your over under. WrestleMania. Will it happen before or after WrestleMania in your opinion?

If, if, if we're right in our speculation, based on what we think we know about Vince McMahon and he came to the table with a plan, I think it could happen before. I think, I think Vince McMahon could show up. at the 30th anniversary of Raw. I don't, I don't know that he will or he won't, but you ask me, is it possible?

Yes. It's possible. Probable? I don't know about that. It's possible. Here's the other. Meltzer would write. Analysts have noted Comcasts worth 164 billion

would have the capability of pulling off a deal that analysts are estimating would cost 7.4 to 8.2 billion. With others saying WWE is hoping for 8.5 billion. The idea here is they're trying to, allegedly, they want to be more than double what the UFC got, which sold Endeavor back in 2016. And you certainly look for comps,

you know, when you're comparable sales, when you're trying to sell your house or your multi-billion dollar organization. A, do you believe Vince, I guess we should have, context here. The market cap for the company right now is around 6.5 billion. So to get 8.5 billion is 2 billion above the market cap right now. A, do you think 8.5 is realistic? Well, let's answer to that

first. Do you think 8.5 is realistic? I mean, I saw some idiots saying, well, they're going to get 20 billion from the Saudis. And I realized that the Saudis got more money than they know what to do with but they're they're not dumb yes they spend and they over invest maybe at times and live golf and things like that but yeah they're just going to go willy-nilly yeah we'll give you four x what i just don't think that's real do you think eight and a half is real is that the number higher lower i am not a market expert by any stretch of the imagination i don't play the stock market i'm not in the merger and acquisition industry i don't know here's what i do know You don't have to be in the stock market or be a market analyst to realize that mergers and acquisitions have basically shut down since fourth quarter of 22, 22 or 21, whatever, 22, let's call it 22.

You know, multiples, I've been involved in discussions where multiples of seven, have been discussed for certain products and genres, for example. Those days are over. So I don't think because mergers is an acquies. Nobody's paying premiums right now. Not right now. Five years ago? Hell yeah.

Today? No. I think those numbers are all just a bunch of people throwing numbers around, I'm trying to sound smarter than they really are, trying to pretend they know things they really don't. No, I don't see that. I really don't. It's crazy to say this out loud because,

but you and I both know this is true. Timing is everything in business and life, but especially in business and these sort of deals. And had this been a conversation a year ago, 18 months ago, there was a much different economy for these sort of deals but i think whoever is going to invest is ultimately going to take that long-term look much like amazon did at the NFL with those 15 weeks um and hey maybe you're ready to take a long-term look at saving some money save with

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Eric, I know you started this program by talking about Dave Meltzer and you almost got sidetracked and I convinced you to just hold back and let's just do it at the end of the show because I didn't want to talk about the WWE thing and now this because something came out over the last week or so that got a lot of play in certain circles. David Bixen's fan, a friend of the show, has done some work for wrestling inc.com and he pointed out that Dave may have gotten a story wrong and I think you've taken a look at your social media feed it feels like you've had a little fun with that not only have I had a little fun with that but what's really cool about it is I've gotten more views in the last 24

hours than almost almost as many views is rampage got about that okay let me pull it up here because I can't remember what I said. But I look at E. Bischoff on Twitter. You can see all the goings on at E. Bischoff. Yeah, rather than read it. But, you know, basically when I saw that article, and I read it before I commented, Meltzer didn't get anything wrong.

He was duped because he's a stooge. And he's what I call a useful idiot. And I've known it for 30 years, but until David Dixon's band wrote that story on Wrestling Inc. And I encourage anybody who hasn't read it to go read it. So if you're a fan of Dave Meltzer or you read his dirt sheet, read that story. Because that story is a smoking gun example of what I've been saying, what Bruce Pritchard has been saying, what John Layfield has been saying, what anybody that's been in the business who knows has been saying for decades. He's a fraud. He takes whatever information anybody will give him. He doesn't double-check anything. He doesn't try to get confirmation from multiple sources.

If it fits his narrative, he prints it. And in this case, he not only printed it and he copied it and pasted it. And after I posted that, and I think I've got about 325,000 views right now and close to 3,000 likes. I mean, after that story broke and I reacted to it, I had other people giving other examples of how Dave will just take whatever information suits him at the point in time, whatever mood he's in and we'll either repeat it or copy and paste it. It's just such a smoking gun example of who this guy really is. Now, you can like Dave personally, you've often said if I ever hung out with him, I might actually enjoy being. He might be a great person to hang around with and talk about wrestling with, but if you're relying on his opinion or his inside

information, you're a fool. He is a first-class con man. He's conned so many people for so long into thinking he has sources. The only sources he has are the people that are going to use him to spin whatever narrative they want out there in public because he knows he's enough of a stooge, not to double-check anything, not to verify anything, not to get multiple sources is that anything he's lazy he's sloppy and he's a useful idiot but hey if you have fun reading the sheet by all mean continue just don't take it seriously well and see that's where i kind of land i like dave personally and i like to hear his opinion on wrestling because he does he has watched a lot of wrestling uh so as a wrestling fan i'm not going to call him a wrestling executive

but as a wrestling fan he's seen a lot and has some interesting opinions that i or at least interesting to me opinions so i've always read the observer understanding that by its very nature it is sort of like the national inquire where it's not a deposition it's not just the facts ma'am there is some speculation there is some rumor and innuendo there is some guessing and some personal bias and agenda you cannot leave that out of course of course because let's be clear his match rating system is always his opinion. And he's always said it was his opinion. Let's, let's make a real estate analogy just because that's what I'm familiar with. You have an appraisal that will give you two costs. Most of the time, you have, hey, what is the cost of the construction?

Like, what is the cost approach for this value on this home? And then there is the sales approach. And as you get deeper into the report, there'll be some subjective things and some objective things. an objective thing would be is the house brick or stucco or vinyl siding is it three bedrooms or is it four bedrooms how many bathrooms does it have those are things we can't really debate they're just sort of facts but hey what is this house worth that's where it gets really subjective because we could go get five contractors to quote us kitchen remodels and we'll get five new numbers it's not as if they're all going to hit the same number so it's just like your opinion man and that's kind of what dave offers and the observer so i've always viewed the observer as it's entertainment it's one dude's opinion he's watched a lot of wrestling he's kept up with the business for a long time and here's his information but if you go listen to gary hart or eric bischal for a handful of other folks they would be proud to point out well this was wrong and that was wrong but i never said i want my money back for this inquirer all of this stuff wasn't accurate and i kind of viewed the observer the same way and i know that i'm going to get a

whole bunch of flack by comparing it to the inquire, but I don't know how it's different in that the inquirer is a lot of, here's what I heard reporting. The observer is too. It's not like he's getting direct quotes from these organizations and just the facts. He's talking to folks and then reporting what they told him. Um, and in, and you kind of, I don't mean interrupt you brother, but an important, the distinction between the way you look at Dave and the way I look at Dave, is you say, yeah, and he gives you his opinion. No, he gives you his opinion in the form of a fact. Look, if Dave said, in my opinion, I think this is going to happen, much like we're doing here, no issue with that. I'd probably subscribe. But when you start reporting

your opinion as fact, because you have a personal bias or agenda, now you're just a piece of shit because that affects people. How many times have we read the information that Dave has reported as fact that's been wrong that actually affects people? That's what people that aren't in the industry don't understand. Because unfortunately, there are some people that are either in the industry or on the periphery of it. For example, an advertiser or a shareholder or a talent. Maybe a Yeah, they're in the business, but they're affected personally by the misinformation and the opinion that Dave Meltzer has that he presents as a fact. That's my issue. And that is why I'm passionate about this, because everybody's, oh, it doesn't really matter. Why do you get so upset?

Why do you hate Dave Meltzer? First of all, I don't hate Dave Meltzer, number one. But number two, I have a disdain for the, for what Dave does because he's not honest. You know, here's, here's one for you. How outspoken of, have I been about CM Punk? Pretty unspoken, yeah. A lot. Yeah. But I also believe that CM Punk has a bitch.

I also believe that CM Punk has ground to stand on. Yes. And that hurt the business. that hurt Tony Kahn's business. People get upset when I have an opinion that I express as an opinion about what I think is right or wrong about what's going on in AEW, which, by the way, let me take an opportunity here to put Tony Kahn over and to put AEW over because I think the quality of their show,

the production values in their show, and the energy that comes along with it has taken a giant leap forward in the last couple of weeks. so kudos now i don't think anybody can argue that the situation between the elite and and and everything else that we don't need to go into it everybody knows what i'm talking about do i think that dave melzer had a hand in that drama i fucking absolutely do because he's a stooge and it hurt the business that's why i'm so against it because unlike some people who professed to, you know, love the business, I don't do things to hurt it, not intentionally.

Dave does. And that's why I'm so vocal about pointing it out. And that's why I don't know David Vicks and Span. I don't think I've ever met him. I don't think I've ever talked to him. If I did, it was whatever, in passing or an interview five years ago or whatever. And I know he's a controversial individual because I had previously blocked him. And I don't block many people. I hardly ever block anybody on social media. The only time I block people on social media on Twitter in particular is, number one, if they just post so much that it clogs up my feet and it becomes an irritant, that's one. Or if people step into an area of opinion or expression that I find to be so ugly,

racially, you know, vile kind of comments, you're gone. Because I don't, I don't even want you thinking that I'm seeing your shit. But people that criticize me and like to rip me apart, I love those people. I find entertainment in those people.

Now, I may mute them if I just get tired of them, but I never want to give someone the satisfaction or the ability to think or to say that they got under my skin so much that I blocked them. Now, I did block David Dixon Span at one point. I don't remember doing it, but I actually, yesterday I sent him a DM. Just, you know, in fact, I think what I said was good on you. Yeah. We're exposing Dave Meltzer for what he really is.

It's about fucking time. And not only exposing him, but having a smoking good. gun to do it. I love that. So I want to send him a DM in it, no, no, he's blocked. I went, oh, shit, I got to unblock him and send him that DM. So I'm not putting anybody over here. I'm putting the fact that someone who I think is actually detrimental to the industry and the people in it and to a large degree, the people that actually think he knows what he's talking about. I think he does them such a disservice and he does the industry of disservice that I'm really grateful that bix and span exposed them and i'm grateful to wrestling ink for having the balls to publish

it okay dokey uh anything else on mouser before we put a button on this one no man i just had i've had so much fun today like i don't really want this to end but it has to well it doesn't have to end i want to remind everybody that uh next week next tuesday in fact on the 24th we will be doing a watch along of the very first Royal Rumble on ad-free shows.com with the very first winner from the very first Royal Rumble. Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Come on now. We've also got incredible feedback from a brand new series called The Book.

It's where we get Jim Crockett Jr's old red books in the handwriting of J.J. Dillon from the genius mind of Dusty Roads. Everything that happened in Jim Crockett promotions in 1985. January is posted now. February is coming up next month and as we're talking, I'll be recording March in just a couple of days and that's the day they buy back the rights for the TBS show from Vince McMahon

that help him fund WrestleMania but boy, JCP takes off like a rocket. So if you're interested in learning the ebbs and flows behind the scenes of creative and the wrestling business and houses and gates and everything that goes along with it, I can't recommend that enough. Check it out. It's at adfreeshows.com.

And by the way, when you sign up at adfree shows.com, you also get to come be a part of what we call Top Guy Weekend. It's happening this June in Huntsville. All of the details will be posted over at adfreeshows.com. And you don't just get these shows early in ad free. Now you get to be a part of a live studio audience. I want to shout out everybody who joined us today, Keith and Callan and Jerry and David.

and Mark and the whole crew. We've got a handful of questions here. We'll hit these and then we'll put a button on this episode. I want to remind everybody, if you haven't already, check out our brand new merch. We've got merch available for you each and every week. And it's in theory, we would have a slide now. And it would show you the different products that we have and where to get them.

Maybe we'll add those in post. I don't know. I'd also like to have you go ahead and check aside on YouTube. It's 83 weeks on YouTube.com. That's 83 weeks on YouTube.com. We're going to be doing lots of fun little special one-off stuff on our YouTube. Let's jump to it here. We've got a handful of questions here for you, Eric.

This one's from David. Stephanie has resigned over the next one to three months. Will we see an influx of other executives and board members following suit? Do you think that's it? Has all the bloodleting finished or will there be more, Eric? Everything depends on what happens. Does the company go private? Yeah, you can see a lot of board members go up because there's no reason to keep them around.

Right. But, you know, the answer is we don't know. I wish I could give you, I wish I would allow myself to speculate more than I'm willing to on this topic because it's such an obvious wait and see scenario. Here's one from Jerry. He wants to know if Vince is trying to go private and we'll be buying back stock. What would happen if the stockholders don't want to sell their stock? Can he make them sell?

How does that work? You know, I don't know the details in that, but if he decides to take the company private and it is at a price and a return on the investment to the to the shareholders they don't get to vote it's the board does but the shareholders don't here's a fun hypothetical from Callan suppose Disney buys WWE how would they address the conflict of interest between Raw and Monday night football I don't think there really is a I don't think that I don't think there I mean there may be a conflict of interest but I don't think so now

Now Disney is not only benefiting from the ratings of Monday night football, they're also benefiting from the ratings of a very successful product, that even when it's competing with Monday night football is still delivering great numbers. Said differently, it's not as if that whenever AEW Dynamite is on TBS, that they just don't have any programming on T&T. Lots of corporations on multiple stations,

and you're going to have to counterprogram all. of it, but as long as you're watching one of their programs, it's a win. They don't care. Everybody wins. Um, Keith says, no question, but I really want to thank Conrad and Eric for giving us the true details of this whole WV sale. Well, Keith, thanks for showing up today. Thanks for being a part of what we're doing. And thanks for checking out Eric's brand new book, Grateful. It's available at Amazon.com. Every time I log in the social media, I'm saying screen grabs of other people who are enjoying it. And if you just can't get enough, Eric Bischoff. Let me recommend grateful and later this week, if you enjoyed today's program,

you're going to love Strictly Business. Strictly Business is an episode every single week for free on this feed and over on YouTube, 83 Weeks on YouTube.com. And that's really, you should probably check it out. It's 83 weeks on YouTube.com. But over there, you'll see Eric talking with John Alba, who fancies himself a rasslin reporter. And they get deep in the weeds about all the business of professional wrestling. And right now, uh, this WVE talk is dominating the conversation. Is it not, Eric? It is. And by the way, I think John Alba is doing a great job. Um, I, you know, we're two different people, two different personalities to, you know, whatever. We couldn't be more opposite in some respects, but I have a lot of respect for John. Um, John is, John has done a great job,

you know, co-host. He's helped get a lot of great guests, um, that were really, interesting that I would have not necessarily imagined were as interesting as they were. But I encourage you, if you're listening to the show, please subscribe to 83 weeks and also hit the alert option because John and I, I think we dropped three episodes of Strictly Business in one week because we'll break it. If something happens at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, if it's big enough, we'll record an episode at 4. It's not just, oh, you're only going to get us once a week. you'll get us when the news drops and you'll get this level of discussion about that news. So please subscribe to 83 weeks.

Hey, give us a five-star rating. Let's kick the shit out of some algorithms why we're at it, people, because it's those algorithms that sometimes make a break the success of a podcast like this. But please subscribe, share, tell your friends to subscribe, and tune in to strictly business. Now, tentatively, we're scheduled to drop a new episode on Thursday. If I had to guess, it'll probably be for that. At the trajectory and the pace that news is breaking,

pretty sure we'll be doing it earlier than Thursday. The only way you're going to know is by subscribing here, hitting that alert button. Find this on YouTube. Do whatever you need to do. You don't want to be walking around dumb as a rock. You want to be enlightened. You don't want to just have an emotional opinion about something.

based on garbage you read out of a dirt sheet. No, man, you want information and insight so you can be the smartest person in the room. 83 weeks on YouTube.com is where you want to go. Hit the subscribe button, hit the notifications bell, and you're going to get strictly business for free and the heads up audio and video, 83 weeks on YouTube.com. Eric, I don't know what I expected today, but I love talking about the business of the wrestling business to you.

And hey, if you joined us live, for this recording you got some nuggets during our breaks that you won't get anywhere else tell your friends that they're missing out at adfreesows.com but we'll see you guys next week right here on 83 weeks with eric bischoff