83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - 83 Weeks #261: Bischoff Shaved Bald...Again! (Impact Wrestling 03/15/2010)

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

Get ready to hop in the time machine with Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson as they take you back to a classic episode of TNA Impact! This episode is a must-watch as Eric gets his head shaved by none other than Mick Foley. But that's not all, buckle up as they discuss some of the biggest names in wrestling history, including MJF, AJ Styles, The Nasty Boys, and of course, the Hulkster himself. As always, Eric and Conrad bring their unique perspectives and insider knowledge to the table, sharing stories and insights that you won't find anywhere else. And just when you think it couldn't get any better, stick around until the end for an intense argument about TNA's ratings. So whether you're a longtime fan or just discovering the world of professional wrestling, this episode is one you won't want to miss. Tune in and get ready to take a trip down memory lane with Eric and Conrad on 83 Weeks! Special thanks to this week's sponsors! Manscaped-Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at Manscaped.com. Factor-Head to FACTOR75.com/83WEEKS60 and use code 83WEEKS60 to get 60% off your first box. SleepMe- Head over to sleep.me/83WEEKS to learn more and save 25% off the purchase of any new Dock Pro, OOLER or Cube Sleep System. Empiraa.com -Sign up now and receive free onboarding, your first 14 days for free, and 24/7 support. Get ahead of the game and save 20% on your subscription by using the code 'wrestlebiz' at checkout. Launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before. Visit www.empiraa.com/eric today and start your journey to success! 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! If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the final trivia question, what is the largest mammal in the world? Sir in the orange, phone away, please? Um, my Kid a Smart Smoke alarm sent an alert through the ring app. See, the train monitoring agent is calling now. Hello? The Kid a Smart Smoke alarm sends real-time mobile alerts in the ring app. And with a subscription, emergency help can be requested even when you're not home. A compatible ring subscription is required for 24-7 smoke and carbon monoxide monitoring, sold separately. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks.

And of course we couldn't do it without the Hall of Famer, the creator of Nitro, the founder of the NWO, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Eric Bischoff. Eric, how are you, man? I'm doing well, my friend, doing very well. Looking forward to another exciting week. Lots of fun stuff going on. Just a good week. Man, I can't wait for it.

Well, I can't wait to talk about what's going on in wrestling. And, of course, we're going to take a look back at something that was pretty fun in your career once upon a time. When you got your head shaved in T&A, we're actually going to do this a little different today. We're going to do a watch along. We'll give you all the details on that in a moment. And before we talk about that or modern wrestling, I want to just get a little personal update

from you. You revealed to us last week that for the first time ever, you and Mrs. B, we're doing a get together with your neighbors. How did it go? it was great. I've got some pretty cool neighbors. It was a lot of fun. I went out on the Rectec and cooked some amazing beef tenderlines, sliced them up real thin. Lori made a chummy churry sauce. It was a little spicy. We had that and just put out a great spread of hors d'oeuvres and appetizers and libations. And it was really quite enjoyable. It made me wonder why I didn't do it

before i gotta get out of my i gotta get out of my shell i'm such a hermit here so it was fun well i'm glad you had fun and uh i know a lot of our listeners had fun this weekend well the heck of an a tv show it was a very well reviewed show had something for everybody but when it was all over with everyone was talking about two things the violence in the hangman adam page john moxley match and whether or not it went too far and then of course whether or not mj f went too far he was victorious in sudden death beating brian danielsen for the a w world championship and it was an iron man match that went to overtime iron man is my least favorite step we've talked about that on a lot of our podcasts i just i don't like it i don't think it makes a lot

of sense i'm not a fan of it i thought these guys had as good of a match as you could have with that stipulation but that's not what everyone was talking about what everyone was talking about is MJF throwing a drink in the face of a little kid that a lot of people when they saw it assumed it was water because it was clear oops it was his mom's tequila that got dumped on the little boy and there was a lot of blow up on social media about this and I think AEW tried to spring in the action to make the little kid and his family happy as best they could but it was literally the first question I asked at the press conference too you are a guy who was often said heat is life. I thought this would be a great time to ask you. What'd you think of that? Is there a line? When is there too much heat?

Are there rules of thumb about what to do or not to do with kids? Talk me through it. What did you think of this? Well, first of all, were they serving straight tequila in that venue? Well, I mean, it was a venue where they sell alcohol. So I'm sure that you probably could have had a tequila neat or on the rocks or a tequila soda or whatever. But yes, they were serving alcohol at this.

Okay. And I, they're here nor there as far as what we're talking about here. But I was just curious, you know, it's kind of. She didn't sneak it in if that's what you're asking. Yeah. Well, that's kind of where I was going with that. I was curious. Look, it's not my kind of heat, to be honest.

I kind of liked being arrogant and smarmy and just totally unlikable without having to do a whole lot, if that makes sense. Sometimes you can get heat with a look or a smile or other forms of body language and the way you carry yourself. And that's kind of what I relied on. I would taunt to the crowd a little bit, but I would do it. in a fun way that still pissed him off without having to make any contact or risk doing something that somebody's going to come back and sue you for or get a lot of bad

press. So it wasn't my kind of heat. I understand it in the moment. I understand how it can happen. I just think it's crossing a line when you do something physical and all this isn't really physical. There's no real contact. But throwing a drink in a kid's face, I think, for me personally, it's not my kind of heat a little over the line. If you're going to do it, do it with an adult. Right. Do it with somebody that's taunting you that looks like they want to come over the rail. Do it to that guy. Don't do it to a kid. That's not that that's, that's not money heat. Right. It's just not. To me, it's not. Well, I think we should also mention, uh, and I think the world knows, I don't like him, J.F. in real life. I don't think he's a good person. I think he's a

turd human. We are not friends. We will never be friends. However, just to play devil's advocate here, he's 26 years old. And I only mention that because I think that a lot of us who are saying, oh, you should never do that. We're probably a little older. We've probably had little kids in our lives. He's playing a character. He's knee deep in this character. He's trying to make sure everyone hates him and at 26 man I think we can all admit we were making some choices we probably wish we had back and this feels like this might be one and that assumes that he has any human decency about him which we know he doesn't but still I uh I don't know I kind of think at 26 even he probably thinks maybe that was too far I don't think we'll see that again what

you know you're you're very clear about your feelings about him but do you know him personally or you just you do? Yes. Just a bad guy, not a good person. Really? Yes. Well, I don't know him that way. I mean, I only know him peripherally.

You know, I bumped into him a few times and we've hung out briefly. I do, uh, I do admire his work. And I do kind of stay in touch with him off and on, just, you know, supporting him and letting him know what I think of some of the stuff he's done. all that but i i don't know him personally i've never hung out with him away from a venue or away from the wrestling business so i i don't know him personally but i love his work i like you i agree man when you're 26 years especially you're 26 years old and you've been thrust into this world yes where you're i don't i think he's the hottest commodity in AEW personally i don't think that's

debatable yeah he is and that's a that's a new thing man he's he's he's going to make mistakes he's going to learn along the way. He's going to continue to learn along the way until he's well into his 40s because no this stuff comes in a playbook. You're going by instinct so much of the time. And he will learn. And I'm certainly, I wouldn't hold it against him. You know, professionally I would have a chat with him if I was Tony Khan.

Because there's also, you know, there's risk there. You know, I guess in some places that could be consistent. a salt and battery against a child. I don't know. It's a little risky just for heat. There's better ways to get it. Right. Safe to ways to get it.

And actually better ways to get it. It's kind of disgusting heat, right? We've heard people try to describe different forms of heat. To me, it's money heat or it's not. There you go. And to me, that's not quite money heat. What would, uh, is, is there anything acceptable with, uh, of because we've seen like Hulk Hogan get in the face of grandma and her swing is

cane and you know all that stuff so uh old people are okay uh we know that uh adult male fans are okay you know what if he had thrown the drink in the woman's face is that okay or is that the same thing no i just think the whole throwing throwing a drink on somebody anything i know it's not physical in the form of you know body contact but it's right you know If somebody threw a drink in my face in a bar, I'm not going to fuck out. There you go. I mean, there's a line. And I think that's crossing it.

I look, for me, I would rather get my heat by taunting, threatening, provoking somebody to throw a drink at me. There you go. That's heat. And then oversell the hell out of it and be so. angry and in and pissed off that's my to me that's money heat is let let let the audience get one over on you and then just act like they committed the worst atrocity known to man how dare they i'm mj f and you throw it and then you know make it look like you're going to come over the rail

there's all manners of fun that you can have with that without stepping over that line but i would I would rather let the fan on the other side of the rail get one over on me and react to it than getting one over on the fan. I love that. That's why I wanted to talk to you about it because you're exactly right. Getting them to throw the drink at you, that's the move. That's the money. And here's why from a psychological point of view.

And I could be just, my head could be completely up on my ass on this, but this is just how I feel in this moment. Because when you taunts, when you taunt the crowd, you get the crowd, react and they, for example, if the woman would have thrown the drink on MJF, everybody in that arena wishes they could be her. So you're kind of collectively creating this moment where one fan is able to express their disdain for you and the whole crowd would have gotten behind her in a way that would have been money heat. But I think throwing a drink on the kid And I'm sure a lot of it was subconscious, and maybe some people didn't even care.

You know, who knows? It's a wrestling event. But I think by being the aggressor and throwing a drink, especially on a little kid, that falls into the disgust category, and that's not the kind of heat you want. Well, you know a thing or two about heat. And you also know a thing or two about keeping it clean, baby. time to do a little spring cleaning with Manscaped. Spring has sprung.

Our friends at Manscape, the leaders in the below the waist, grooming, have some of the best tools for spring cleaning in your pants. Trust me, your confidence will be blooming like the flowers. Look your best this spring and join the other 8 million men who trust Manscaped and use the code 83 weeks to get 20% off, plus free shipping at Manscape.com. They're here to change the way, fellas take care of themselves with the

performance package 4.0 inside this manscaped ball care bundle, you'll find the lawnmore 4.0 tremor, the weed whacker, ear and nose hair trimmer, the crop preserver, ball deodorant, the crop reviver toner, and even the performance box

or briefs, all with the travel bag to hold your goodies. The lawnmore 4.0 trimmer is an elite electric trimmer that provides this proprietary advanced skin safe technology, and the trimer is designed to trim hair on loose skin although your balls might look like punching bags you don't have to treat them like one the lawnmore 4.0 is also waterproof and it's equipped with an LED light so you can trim

in the dark or the shower have you ever found anybody who thinks nose hairs are sexy probably not and that's why we're getting you the weed whacker nose and ear hair trimmer once again proprietary skin safe technology going to take care of you there they even include the ball deodorant and the crop reviver and boys if you don't know about ball deodorant it's a game changer you're going to love it and so will other people in your life if you know what i mean and right now you can even get two free gifts the performance boxer briefs and the shed travel bag which jr still uses when he travels for a w tv every single week always get the right tools for the job and head to their website check out all the tools they have so you can upgrade your hygiene routine

but why not save 20% off and get free shipping with our code 83 weeks at manscape.com. One more time, y'all, that's 20% off and free shipping with the code 83 weeks at manscape.com. Your balls will thank you. And Eric, I'm pretty excited about today. We're going to be watching a very special episode of Impact. This is the second episode of the Monday format. It went down on March 15th, 2010 and you can watch along with us at home.

I want to encourage you to check out impactwrestling.com slash packages. That's impact wrestling.com slash packages and use the promo code Jeff. That's J.E.F.F. Just like he spells it. Impactwrestling.com forward slash packages. And if you've already got Impact Plus, we'll just fire it up. Hover over and select Classic Impact from 2010. Then you want to go to March 15th.

2010. It's March 15th, 2010. And Eric, I think I'm ready to go on my end. Do you ready to go on your end? I am so ready. Well, here we go. Let's take a look at a very special Monday night impact where somebody's getting a little trim. It's going to be a bad day here. Be careful how you say that. Yeah, there's an old school slang term there. With four imprint, finding the right promo products has never been easier. You get free samples, expert help and art assistants to ensure your logo looks great. Four Imprint offers thousands of options to choose from, including summer ready gear, brand and apparel, drinkwear, outdoor, and more.

Your order will be packed with care, delivered on time, and backed by their 360-degree guarantee. That's For Imprint Certainty. Need your order fast? Four Imprint offers quick turnaround options too. Visit 4imprint.com and see how easy ordering can be. With the conflict in Iran, global markets are on edge. Oil prices are surging, volatility is spiking, and the U.S. dollar is under pressure.

This isn't a distant headline. You're feeling it at the pump, in your grocery budget, even on your utility bills. When uncertainty rises, many Americans turn to physical gold and silver, tangible assets that have protected wealth for centuries. And with gold recently topping $3,300 an ounce, experts believe the upside is just getting started. That's where preserve gold comes in. They make it simple to get started and offer real support every step of the way.

Right now, they're giving away a free wealth protection guide. Just text iHeart to 50505. Plus, you could get up to $15,000 in free gold or silver with a qualified purchase. Don't wait. Text iHeart to 50505 today and take the first step toward protecting your savings. Thanks.

Let's get to it here. In three, two, one, play. This is the biggest night in the history of T&A. This is TNA's reckoning day, brother. Hogan can stand only so much before he gets involved. Referey Mike Posey, he has to try and get some control here. There is the return of the icon state.

It's judgment day for Flair and AJ, baby. What's going on here? What the hell are we witnessing? Hey, Flair! We're going to finish this before the night's over, and it's going to be a no disqualification, brother. You owe me an explanation. I owe you nothing.

Dixie, I owe you nothing. You want to mix it up tonight, or you're going to get your chance, and I hope you're ready, because you're in a match. In a match against two. Oh, man, damn! hottest free agent and professional wrestling oh he beat stag only r bd could explode on a scene like that you could just see the bad intentions that sting has in his mind here r bd debuts here

in tna with a monumental victory but then pays the price at the hands of the icon sting yeah it's really hard for me to see you go out there like that I promise you, this is the last time for me. I'm going to be okay in Abyss. He's got my back. Wind him up. Power him down. Blackhole slam.

Abyss just pinned the TNA World Everyweight Champion. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's Desmond Wolfe. That's Jeff Hardy. This extreme enigma returns to TNA! Impact Zone! Impact zone explodes for the return of Jeff Hardy. What an incredible night!

Ladies gentlemen, welcome to TNA's impact on this Monday night. And as we look outside the impact zone, we see that that's a, it's a Hummer that's arrived outside the building. Well, I like the color. And there you see. Yeah, Hulk Hogan, Abyss, Jeff Hardy, and RVD, Rob Van Derbyd. damn they've all arrived together tonight at impact some serious plays just arrived baby what should i have is what the hell's abyss driving that's got to be dangerous all right

so we can cut the out of here what do you think of this open here this is uh the second monday night show you're trying to go head to head it was a big uh splash i think dixie and hogan did a big press conference announcing that they had spike tv's approval they finally got their wish they're going head-to-head with Monday Night Raw, and Wade Keller would say that T&A officials had wanted it for years and their goal was to grow enough and maybe even just survive long enough to make this happen, and it finally happened. And I find it interesting that when it does happen at the press conference, it's Dixie and Hulk Cogan, but you just saw like the recap of the hype and the build.

You were a big part of this. And even the backstage shot of the Hummer arriving, orange of course, which is why Tas complimented the color. It felt like WCW a little bit back in the day. The formula was there. When you watch that back, what did you think? I was thinking, I wish this was in a bigger venue. That's all. I think, you know, if you could imagine, imagine the same event in front of eight or 10,000 people. It would have been a completely different vibe at home to people watching on television. And by the way, that was Matt Morgan's Hummer, just for the record.

Not that anybody cares, other than maybe Matt, if he's watching. Matt, I remember that Hummer. But, no, it was a good setup. It told the story, right? And this is one of the things that I am, I often point out, it's not being critical. It's just an observation is that I wish, I wish they would do this more often,

WWE and AEW, I wish we would see highlights, story points that led up to the event we're just going to see, not just to remind people that didn't see last week's episode. That's not it. But to really drive home to the viewer, what's important tonight, why you should watch tonight, and why you do not want to touch your remote. It's kind of a call to action in a way if it's done well. And if people would think of these packages in the beginning of the show is not a recap package, but a preview package, because you're telling the audience what's important, subconsciously, but it will hold them. If you tell them that something's important, you make it visually exciting, you do a great job of setting up the backstory and teasing what can happen this week. That's a very, very effective tool. and one that every successful episodic series on television today that I'm aware of

utilizes that format I have not you know I'm watching you know I like your honor as by the way have you seen your honor that show one of the best shows going unbelievable Brian can't Brian Cranston is just flat out incredible particularly in this kind of a role where he transitions from the everyday guy into something much more complex and and dark some respects. But same thing. You know, succession. Another one of my favorites. Do you do the same thing. I don't know why wrestling doesn't do it. I know everybody's flirted with it. W.W. We tried it. It's one of the things when I went to W.W.E. in 2019. I didn't try to sell it because I was still, you know, the ink was still wet on my business cards. But it's like, why don't we do

that? Why are we not telling people what's important at the head of? Well, we tried that and it didn't work. Everybody decided we should open up hot with action. Eh, eh, I don't believe it. But anyway, I liked it. Overall, I liked it. I love the vibe. I love the feel.

I love the drama that we saw between Brooke and Hulk, the intrigue. Great, great editing. David Sahati, good job. By the way, David Sahati lost his father recently, and I know it's really, really hard on him. David and Lou, David Sahadhi's father had an extraordinary relationship, father's son relationship, and texted David last week and gave him my best. But David did a really good job of editing that open together. Well, we should be talking about what's happening in the ring right now because we see

Rick Flair paired with AJ Stiles. And AJ Stiles is dressed like Rick Flair in 1985. And instead of the big gold belt over his shoulder, he's got the T&A World title over his shoulder. He came out and delivered a pretty calm promo talking about how Abyss is a scary looking, but stupid monster. And yes, do you really think that magic ring is going to help you when we wrestle this Sunday? I don't believe in magic rings, blah, blah, blah. And then here comes Flair. And now he's going to try to make himself bleed. He's tearing off the jacket. It is a fired up old school Rick Flair promo. And he's bleeding just punching himself in the eye here. It's splashing on the

camera this is over the top but a fair i fired up rick flare is a believable promo and it's hard to believe what we're watching right now so he's just bleeding a gusher here look at look at the look on a j's face yeah he's going what in the hell i'm just a kid from georgia that likes to wrestle come on now what am i doing here with this guy i do want to talk about that a little bit because that was one of the first things now the idea of pairing a j with rick was not my idea Um, I think Hulk had a lot to do with that, you know, and it spent a lot of time talking to Dixie and AJ about it. If, if my recall on that is correct, AJ was not comfortable. He didn't get it, you know, and much like we've talked about the Claire, what was Claire's lesson?

Claire Lynch. Yeah. AJ didn't like that either, but I think in both of these situations and pairing himself up with Rick and trying to get that, I don't want to say a rub, but trying to. broaden his repertoire a little bit by working with a guy like Rick and getting obviously the rub is there he's Rick Flair for God's sake but just getting AJ out of his comfort zone I think was an important part of the development of his character I think this was an important part I think Claire Lynch was an important part of AJ learning how to get outside of himself as a character and I

think it, it probably paid big dividends and is paying big dividends right now. So now we see, uh, Jeff Hardy come down to the ring and Stiles is, yelling at him. And, um, this is a different look for Matt Hardy or Jeff Hardy. He's wearing a hat. He's got the face paint. He's got a jacket on. He doesn't have his normal look and vibe. I mean, he's always been a pretty creative guy. I mean, I think the theme song he even came out to here was when he himself made. Do you remember there being creative direction in terms of we're looking for this with your character or that with your character? Or did he really handle all of the look and feel and vibe of his character and how it evolved?

I think Dixie gave Jeff kind of carte blanche to bring his own character to life in any manner and form in which Jeff felt was appropriate on any given week. I didn't find any of it like nothing Jeff ever did to me now this is just you know very very subjective right my taste is different than a lot of people's taste when it comes to what they enjoy in professional wrestling which is the way it should be by the way um I never found any of Jeff's the versions of Jeff's character to be compelling like not one stood out over the other but fans dug it man Jeff has so much charisma that he could come out painted pink wearing a tutu and the crowd would still be into him and it was just the logic of Jeff Hardy you talk about a special talent you got three in the ring right now I mean when you think

about wrestling Hall of Fames it'd be hard to imagine there being a Hall of Fame that didn't have Rick Flair, Jeff Hardy, and AJ Stiles. Is it difficult to watch, you know, stuff like this at times and think, man, what could have been? Because I think if you take a look at this roster now, I mean, there are at times

where there's more star power on this roster than there was the WWE roster. And you had the Spike TV deal, but it always felt like there was just one thing missing that kept you guys from breaking through that glass ceiling. Did you feel that way back then? Absolutely. And it's still

frustrating for me to this day. And I'm, you know, I made a mental note to myself on my way out to the tree house. I call my studio my tree house, but actually my wife does. But on my way out here, you know, it's like don't, don't let it get to you. Don't get all wound up and agitated because of missed opportunity. And this is a classic missed opportunity. All of the elements were there for T&A in 2010. You had the unwavering, without question, unmitigated support of Spike TV. Spike TV wanted TNA to be more successful more than TNA,

and that's a true statement. Spike TV wanted T&A to be more successful than TNA did and was willing to do whatever they could to contribute to that. That's a very, you know, it's not usual. you know, Spike TV threw a ton of money at T&A above and beyond their license fee to bring in Hulk Hogan, to bring in Eric Bischoff, to bring in Sting, to bring in Kurt Engel. That didn't come out of Dixie's pocket. Right.

You know, the narrative in the internet is, oh, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff tanked TNA. We didn't make those decisions. Dixie made those decisions and she made many of them before we even got there. but nonetheless the talent was all there the appetite for wrestling was there the appetite for an alternative was certainly there the only thing that wasn't there was the commitment to really build and grow the brand it was no how much more how much more money can we make if we if we stay in in the soundstage versus all right we know for the next two or three years we're probably going to at best break even more than likely we're going to lose money over the first

two or three years of touring this brand they didn't do it and i still believe to this day if they would have been producing their television in front of a real crowd in a real venue and not a sound stage where they do game shows and tv commercials you would have had an entirely different outcome t and a would still be in existence today mention that um this is a pretty big time show that we're watching backstage we saw a fabulous skit that we're just sort of glossing over here because you're talking about some context of things that were going on at the time we saw you and uh mc foley have a backstage conversation where you were upset with him and then you say hey we're got to turn you into a proper executive so we're

going to have you shave your head and beard and foley would say yeah but my hair is my trademark and you say, well, not anymore. Uh, and then we saw a little backstage clip, uh, of an attack at the food truck and now in the ring in 2010, the nasty boys and Jimmy Harder here. And here comes team 3D, the 23 time world tag team champions. Of course, we remember them most as the Dudley boys. Listen, I love the nasty boys. They're a guilty pleasure of mine.

I just don't imagine that we would have seen them here in 2010. Is this just, uh, Part of the Hulk Hogan package, was that right? Yes. Okay. There's no other way to say it. Yeah. So was Jimmy Hart.

You know, that's just part of doing business with Hulk Hogan back in that period. It's funny, I can't get away from Jimmy Hart. I had a dream about Jimmy Hart last night. Was there a red light on? No, well, maybe. But it was, you know, the end of the dream. We were at a venue of some sort. And I was standing there talking.

to someone might have been Hulk can't remember and dream but jimmy heart was like running laps in what looked like a high school gymnasium like that's where we that's where the dream took place and there's jimmy heart running laps like he couldn't stand still that's that's jimmy we're going to have a match here talk about a throwback the nasties and team 3d they're going to go four minutes unbelievably the nasties and jimmy heart are going to get the win here that's right the six-man tag, the Dudleys, along with brother Runt, former Spike Dudley, taken on the nasty boys and Jimmy Hart. What, Spike, I heard somewhere that Spike Dudley is now a financial advisor. Have you heard that?

He is. That is in fact, true. That is awesome. He's a great guy. I wish him nothing but success. He deserves it. And tough as hell. And that guy talk about taking abuse. Holy cow, he was durable. With 4 Imprint, finding the right promo products has never been easier. You get free samples, expert help, and art assistants to ensure your logo looks great. Four Imprint offers thousands of options to choose from, including summer ready gear, brand and apparel, drinkwear, outdoor, and more. Your order will be packed with care, delivered on time, and backed by their 360-degree guarantee. That's 4-imprint certainty. Need your order fast? For Imprint offers quick turnaround options, too. Visit 4imprint.com and see how easy ordering can be.

With the conflict in Iran, global markets are on edge. Oil prices are surging, volatility is spiking, and the U.S. dollar is under pressure. This isn't a distant headline. You're feeling it at the pump, in your grocery budget, even on your utility bills. When uncertainty rises, many Americans turn to physical gold and silver, tangible assets that have protected wealth for centuries. And with gold recently topping $3,300 an ounce, experts believe the upside is just getting started. That's where preserve gold comes in. They make it simple to get started and offer real support every step of the way.

Right now, they're giving away a free wealth protection guide. Just text iHeart to 50505. Plus, you could get up to $15,000 in free gold or silver with a qualified purchase. Don't wait, text iHeart to 505. 5.05 today and take the first step toward protecting your savings. We should talk about somebody who, uh, well, maybe wasn't quite as durable, at least in this environment. This is the era where Awesome Kong is going to ask for and get her release. It's just a few weeks after she got into it with Bubba the Love Sponge backstage.

Awesome Kong, we know, has gone on to be a part of. of that fabulous glow series and then was it was an early part of aew i think she's happily retired now what was your experience working with awesome kong and i know how you feel about bubba the love sponge what do you remember of this incident whose side were you on i was an awesome kong side yeah i loved it you know because you know bubba and i think he's just one of the scummiest people on earth i just i have nothing but to stain for him and zero respect. He was one of those guys that was always poking people. And he thought he was funny. He thought because he was Bubba the Love Sponge and Howard Stern's little

minion and, you know, that he had the weight of the Howard Stern kind of network behind him, that he was some kind of a big time celebrity. And the truth is he wasn't. But he acted like one and his Bubba's sense of humor was to always just mess with people right and people that he didn't know right that he would first meet the first time I met him he started fucking with me and if he had been a friend of Hulk's and with Hulk I probably would have reacted a little different but I just took it you know I didn't say too much um but he was just an ass and when you see somebody like that and is able to get away with it you know because Most people are pretty civilized.

No one's going to haul off and knock him out just because he says smart-ass stuff. Even though they want to, you know, usually he got away with it, right? Especially when he's, you know, travel with Hulk. And it's like, okay, whatever. But I don't know what happened. I don't know what precipitated the incident at all. All I knew is she went after him and from what I heard, and I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard she pretty much took it to him.

I, you know, if I wouldn't have already been married, I might have married her after that. It was great. But she was, look, she was, truth be known, professionally speaking, she was out of line. She should have just walked away. But she didn't. And I don't blame her. But she paid the price. She was a little volatile and a little tough to manage backstage.

From what I've heard, I never dealt with her. I had no interaction with her whatsoever. Other than saying hello and, you know, being personable whenever I saw her backstaged, stage but I never really sat down and talked to her trying to lay out a match or a promo or anything like that with her well unbelievably jimmy heart gets the pen here over bubara dudley and now the nasties won a little more they're here to beat up on brother runt and jimmy heart is dragging the table into the ring and jimmy heart involved in a six-man tag i don't think i had that on my bingo card here in 2010 yeah needed it anybody else but

jimmy and jimmy's whipping everybody with a bell and look there who's this handsome fellow who is that i can't see i've got my screen minimized here maximize your screen all right i'm going to maximize my screen so i can see better it's jesse neal thought he was uh garrett's buddy jesse deal yes he is he was gerrit's but I don't know if they still hang out or not. I know what they did for a while. Jesse Deere was a great guy. He was a great,

great young man. Came up through the Dudley school, which is probably how he got his break into TNA, but a former, he was in the Navy. Fine young man. They're taking a break, so we will too.

I want to hit pause right now and tell you about our friends at Factor. Power up for springtime with Factor. America's number one ready to eat meal kit. get nutritious chef prepared meals delivered straight to your door leaving you time and energy to tackle everything on your to-do list look and feel your best in time for warmer weather with calorie smart meals around 550 calories or less maybe you're too busy to cook well with factor you can skip the trip to the grocery store as a matter of fact skip the chopping the prepping and the cleaning up too factors fresh never frozen meals are ready in just two minutes so all you have to do is

heat and enjoy. Factor has delicious flavor-packed meals to help you live your life to the fullest. They've got keto, vegan and veggie, calorie smart, and even Double J's favorite protein plus options. All of these meals are prepared by chefs and approved by dietitians, so each meal has all the ingredients you need to feel satisfied all day long. And you'll never be in a rut because they've got 34 different weekly options. All of these options, chef prepared, dietitian approved. So you know that it has everything you want and nothing you don't want. They've even got something for breakfast like egg bites and smoothies and more. How about snacks? Well, they got that covered too, nearly four dozen of those. If you're looking to cut back

on takeout, why not get factor instead? Not only is it cheaper than takeout, but the meals are ready faster than restaurant delivery in just two minutes. So put that time and money to better use. By the way, you can eat vegan or veggie. They make it a snap here. You can even mix it up and add a little protein if you'd like. You see, Factor makes clean eating easy and enjoyable without all the hassle. You simply choose your meals and enjoy fresh flavor packed meals delivered to your door ready in just two minutes, no prep, no mess. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to FactorMeals.com slash 83 weeks 50 and use the code 83 weeks 50 to get 50% off your first box.

That's code 83 weeks 50 at factor meals.com slash 83 weeks 50 to get 50% off your first box. Eric, factor meals are delicious. Megan and I've had it. We loved it. What did you and Mrs. B think? I love it.

And I live pretty much a keto lifestyle. Um, not 100% of the time. I'll go off the reservation every once in a while. But I just feel better when I'm on a. high fat, nutritional fat, not garbage fat, but a nutritional fat diet, minimal, not a minimal amount of protein, but less protein in terms of grams through a daily diet. Majority of my calories come from nutritional fat, then from protein and very, very few carbs. I function better, I feel better, I think better, I'm more active, and by the way, I lose weight

in the process. I like that, but eating keto can sometimes be a chore in terms of prepping and preparing. So I think, you know, having ready-made meals home, if you're a fan of the keto diet or lifestyle, because it's really a lifestyle for me, it's not a diet, but it is what it is. But it makes it so much easier to have it right there because a lot of times you're busy. And it's not like the old, you know, it's not back in the 60s where the family all gathered around the table and had dinner together and all that, you know, three-course meal.

Times have changed. People are busy and people are working out of their home. more and more and more and it makes it so easy just to have it right there in your refrigerator you don't have to run to the store you don't have to remind yourself to go grocery shopping it's all right there for you and by the by the way grocery shopping is not as much fun as it used to be either you know here I go to my local Albertsons is what it is owned by Kroger now I think and you never know from one day to the next what's going to be on the shelf and what's not for a variety of reasons so having that stuff delivered

to your home is it's easy it probably will fit your lifestyle perfectly and like I say depending on what kind of nutritional plan you're on it's right there waiting for you you heat you go I love that you're going to love it try it if you haven't already we can't recommend factor enough and we can't recommend this episode of impact enough so without further ado let's fire it back up here on impact plus hopefully you guys hit pause and then we'll play here together in three, two, one, play. I'm here with Scott Hall and six pock. Gentlemen, we found out last week.

It's official this Sunday, a destination next to two of you set to do battle against your former partner, Kevin Nash and Eric Young. In the situation is this gentleman, if you're victorious, you'll both be awarded contracts to be part of the T&A roster. If you are not victorious, it's Sionara for the both of you. You know what? We've been kicked out of better places than this. Remember, Bischoff, except maybe this.

This time, not by FedEx. There's nothing to worry about when Sixpock and Scott Hall say they're going to do something, they get it done. Destination X, big sexy, no, big sellout, Kevin Nash, you're going to get what's coming to you and Eric Young. You shouldn't mess in business that's not yours. Right? I think the situation... No, no, I'm not done. The following Monday, you're going to be looking at the two new big money players for TNA.

Contracts in hand. They're talking about big money, big money. Yeah. They seen you get your ass kick last week. I don't know what you were watching. I killed it. That's why he's over there. I mean, we're gonna go Sunday anyway.

But since we're talking about big money. Yeah, I like money. I got some money. How about tonight, you and me, five minutes? You last five minutes with me in the ring. Five minutes, I get all that money? Yeah, 25K, yours. Really?

Yeah. You in? See, out there, I'll be the one who looks like Elvis. remember you probably need this health care pretty expensive nowadays tell you story there you go Eric we should talk about what the idea here is you know this is starting to feel like there's definitely some

shades of nitro we had a crazy Rick Fleer promo people that are arriving in the back we've got some familiar faces and Scott Hawke Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman what did you think of that execution and what was the long-term goal here was the plan and the hope that you could get, you know, Scott Hall to pull the nose up and get into some good ring shape for quote unquote one last run or what was the initial goal here with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman.

I don't know that there was a goal in mind. It was more of a let's see if we can make this work and we'll decide, you know, how it ends up. And nobody was really committed to an outcome. It was more of an experiment. And if, you know, Scott was right on the money. there. He was clear-headed. When I see Scott promos, I can tell how much fun he's had that day before he does the promo or how much fun he was trying to have. But he was very, very clear-headed. You know, that was Scott Hall, you know, making an attempt to get himself cleaned up and get himself

back in the game. But I like the format. You know, we've already, you know, we saw a great set up at the beginning of the show, teasing what's coming up, telling the audience what's important. You know, the arrival was designed to create anticipation. Here you've got a B story, you know, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, that we presented early on, our act one of that story, if you will, happened early on in the show.

And that's the kind of format that I think works in wrestling. It keeps everything moving, keeps you informed. Some things just kind of happened spontaneously like we just saw, but it does it in a progressive kind of logical manner. or the execution on that, I thought it was a little too laid back. It was a little too familiar. There wasn't enough tension in that confrontation, if you will.

I think it could, if they were to turn the dial up a little bit more on the intensity in that promo and not been so laid back, it would have probably been more effective. But I like the idea that they did it. I like the idea we did it when we did it. We got a lot of talent here in the ring. It's Mr. Anderson teaming with Desmond Wolfe. who we know maybe better under a different name, Mr. Nigel McGinnis. They're going to be taken on Kurt Angle and the Pope,

DiAngelo, DeNaro. I think you and I have spent a lot of time talking about the Pope, how we feel like this was maybe a missed opportunity. You've got a lot of bona fide main eventors here. I mean, Mr. Anderson, fresh off of WWE run where he had a lot of buzz and hype. Kurt Engel, arguably still one of the best wrestlers in the world here. Desmond Wolfe had been one of the best champions, ring of honor ever had and his counterparts are enjoying big success in this era in the

wb and he got the pope who we all think is is is is money but they're here almost in a in a mid card spot on the show and they only get three minutes um you know listen perception's reality do you think maybe this wasn't the right positioning for these guys maybe we didn't do enough to set the right expectation or is this just the function of hey man we're trying to do crash tv that's the way it's going to be you know i i'm not sure what the thinking was on on this particular match and by the way i want to shout out to pope i just saw pope a couple weeks ago down to melbourne florida garrett and i were had the uh good fortune of being on the same card with pope and uh teel piper i didn't even

talk about that i got to meet teel piper actually i want to have her on the show sometime just do a quick interview with her. She's a very cool chick. And when I saw Teal, I don't say it has nothing to do with your question, but it just occurred to me. I saw Teal and I went, wow, I got to go say her and I went to say hi to her because I never met her before. Well, I did when she was a little kid. But I started talking and I got teared up and had to walk away. She probably thought I was a weird guy, you know. Eventually I circled back. I said, I'm sorry. This is just kind of an emotional thing for me. Last time I saw you was with your dad and you were just a little kid and now here we are on the same card right it was really fun but pope was on that card too and garrant and i

got to hang out with pope for quite a while he looks as good today as he did in 2010 the man does not age right i mean it's incredible he looks so good and he's such a class act what about kurt angle here in a mid card match here oh you had to go back to that did you i tried to circle away from that try to make a pimple you're of it. You brought me right back to it. Why the hell did you do that? Why the hell did you bring all that talent together to a three-minute match in the middle of the show with probably not much story? I can't answer that. I really can't. I don't think I was involved in booking this show other than the things that were, you know, Hulk Hogan related. I don't know. I can't answer

that. I wish I could. Here, let me admit this. It doesn't make a lot of sense. It's great filler. It's great action. And it's great to have that much talent that you could afford to spread it throughout the show. So there's, it's not like there's a downside, but from a perception perspective, to your point, it's kind of like, how important are these guys really? Right. I get that. I get the criticism on it. I do. We should also mention that there's going to be blood at the end of this segment and let's not forget we open this show with a bloody promo from Rick Flair and Wade would write in the torch impact is gambling based on this and last week that a lot of viewers are craving blood on cable wrestling was that a

decision that you wanted more blood and guts you wanted more I mean I know there's been initiatives that we need more ladies and there's been initiatives that we need more fast pace and we need more crash but was blood ever a discussion or is this just, you know, the time of the year, the season for the Booker to just lean into it is, you know, it's a go home for a pay per view. Is there something else at play? No. Listen, I want to make it really clear here because it's so many of the, you know, podcasts that we do, you know, it's Nitro, it's NWO, it's the Monday Night War era.

When I was either very involved in creative or at least a part of creative, because Kevin Sullivan was really the guy that booked a lot of the stuff underneath the main event and the semi-main event kind of stories. But I was not the booker here. You know, this was a Vince Russo Dixie thing for the most part. Again, I had influence, certainly had influence over the format, which you probably noticed or you did notice in the beginning of the show. But in terms of blood or no blood, that wasn't the Eric Bischoff discussion.

That was a Dixie, Vince Rousseau. probably Rick Flair had a lot to do with it. Rick likes to bleed. We all know that. Rick was, you know, really intense and threw himself into this opportunity. And Rick did what has always worked for Rick. I wasn't a part of a blood, no blood conversation. Had I been, my views on blood have always been consistent. I've never really thought it's something that should be done frequently. I think it's something that can be done very, very occasionally at the right moment and maybe can have some added value to the dynamic of a story or presentation. But for the most part, I just think it's distracting in a way exposes the business.

And I've never been a fan of it. And I've been consistent about that from day one. I was always a fan of Mr. Kennedy in the WWE. I thought for sure he had a really, really bright future. it gets cut short there he's going to try to pick up where he left off a little microphone bit of calling for it to fall down from the ceiling now he's using it to just get right in kurt angle's face as kurt's bleeding having been hit with that MVP necklace just talk to me about this look and presentation or just mr anderson as a whole did you think this guy this character was money definitely

yeah definitely i mean he was so good on the mic and he was he was he was He wasn't excellent in the ring. He wasn't Kurt Engel, not that too many people are, or maybe anybody is. Right. But he was good in the ring, and he was intense, and he was really good of the mic. And he could improv. You know, people don't know this, but, you know, he can spend some time studying, acting, quite a bit of time, put a lot of effort into it.

and while he never really made it to the big screen, so to speak, a lot of the things that he learned, he incorporated and did it very well. He was a great, great performer. NMLS number 65084 Equal Healthy Lenders. As an adult, don't we all miss spring break? Nothing like taking a week off from all your responsibilities. Well, here's the next best thing for adults. A spring break from house payments.

Savewithconrad.com can help you get rid of all your credit card debt, just like that. We're routinely helping our listeners say 5, 6, 7, even 800 bucks a month. And you don't need perfect credit or money out of your pocket to do this. But check this out, no house payments for two months. It's save with Conrad.com. Let's track Hulk Hogan talking to Rob Van Damme and Jeff Hardy here. Nice. You got it, bro?

RVD, you know what to do. It's going to be fun for you, brother. I can't wait. We're good. We're good. All right, brother. We're good, Hulk. Thanks, dude.

Well, that's California style, man. This is Florida. This is Florida, okay. What up, what up? Everybody on the same page appears? Oh yeah, yeah, they're good, they're good. We just had a couple of surprises we're gonna throw out there tonight that keep everybody on their toes.

Right, let's talk about surprises. You know, I love surprises. I love surprising the audience. audience bringing in RVD and in Hardy brilliant stroke of genius don't you think I should have been in on it could you at least told me about it well I apologize for that you know it was like a audible you've had your hands full brother come on I mean you get this huge deal tonight with Foley the haircut I mean that's that's crazy stuff and between Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley you

know you've been holding school and you've been really busy so I'm I mean, I knew this was the right thing to do. We're a team, man. I knew you'd love it. Okay, I apologize for you bringing it up. And as far as Foley goes, yeah, tonight, I get some business to take care of. It's time certain people get reminded just exactly who's in charge. No, brother, we're a team, man.

I mean, we don't have to apologize. It sounds like Max's wife or something. You're right. No, we're cool. We're cool. Thanks, man. Hardy and RVD, come on, bro. You know the deal.

They're going to, they're on point. they know how to take care of this situation for us you're right you're absolutely right great call man thank you buddy great call that was weird Eric talk me through that I for one think maybe there's too much backstage stuff in wrestling these days you know I admit I like the old studio format of television that the Crockets would do and in Memphis would do when I realize things have to change times have changed and you need some of those different venues to tell some of these stories beyond just a guy holding a microphone in the

ring I get it but sometimes and that may be a good example of it it just feels like bad soap opera what say you um I didn't feel that way watching that um and maybe because I'm not objective about it. What that scene did was create doubt. Yes. And a little tension. I'm not saying it didn't serve its purpose, but the idea that Hulk Hogan is sitting at a desk backstage and

guys are just, they just happen to be standing there, having a conversation with a cameraman there, and then you just immediately happened to walk in. It feels a little. Contrived. Yes. Well, it is.

It has to be. You know, you need narrative. You've got a couple of narrative opportunities. You know, you've got your play-by-play in color, which should be supporting the vast majority of the narrative. They should be telling the story, the backstory, explaining the stakes, discussing what could or couldn't happen as a result of what we're seeing going on tonight, as well as calling the match and building the characters. That's where the majority of your narrative comes from. The other narrative opportunity is when you've got a wrestler with a microphone, either with, in this case,

you know, J.B. or me or Gene Oakland or somebody else standing there holding the mic. That's another way of performing narrative. But you need narrative to tie the stories together. And back in the crock it stays, the stories weren't as complex. Sitcoms weren't as complex. Dramas weren't as complex. The stories were much different back in that period of time. Stories have evolved. The ways of telling stories have evolved, if you have a story.

But in this case, we needed some narrative. We needed a plan of seeded out. And was it good tribe? Sure it was. The whole office seat looked like a set. It could have been done much better. And as far as Hulk Hogan is sitting behind a desk, keep in mind it was hard to get Hul Kogan standing for any length of time

or being involved. I know that sounds like an excuse, but it was a reality. We had certain workarounds, so we wanted Hulk Hogan involved. We wanted to create that tension in that scene between he and I or some doubt. We wanted to leave the audience thinking, what's Eric really thinking? That was the intent of that scene. Probably could have been done a little shorter, but I don't know that.

I'm usually pretty critical of my own stuff. I think that was pretty effective. And to your point of there being too many backstage scenes, I think there's too many backstage scenes or there's too many narrative opportunities that don't really advance a story, that I agree with. But when they're done well, they're absolutely necessary. Listen, I think it accomplished what you were looking for is just a plot device. But I just think, you know, as a, as a fan watching with critical eye, so Hulk Hogan

is the boss of this show and he's running the show, but he also. showed up in an orange Hummer that Abyss was driving in a mask right as the show was starting. So to me, like, we got to be one or the other. We can't be both. And if we did want to have a conversation with Hulk Hogan, wouldn't he be most likely just sitting on one of the TV boxes in the hallway backstage as a lot? This was, I mean, we were positioning Hulk as the guy with the stroke. Yeah. See Carter still, she owned the company, but we're positioning Hulk as her kind of right hand man. Right. So I just disagree with you. I don't think it was inappropriate. You could argue that it wasn't the production value of it wasn't what it could

have been or should have been. And I would probably agree with that. But in terms of the segment itself and the way we use Hogan, I disagree actually. Hulk Hogan, by the way, in my opinion, that dude should be doing voiceovers for commercials. He is a great voice. like how is he not the voice of Ford trucks or ram trucks or some such I agree you know I think Hulk Hogan's voice is is unique and identifiable is his Fu Manchu and his look yes I've often thought the same thing man he's got a powerful powerful voice and maybe it's because people associated with professional wrestling and that's always an uphill battle when you're selling trucks and booze and other things.

But he does have a powerful voice. And then there's, you know, then you've got to get him to actually sit down and do it. That's the biggest challenge. Well, there is that. Let's talk about it. Hard to motivate a guy that doesn't need money. Yes.

Well, said. With the conflict in Iran, global markets are on edge. Oil prices are surging. Volatility is spiking. And the U.S. dollar is under pressure. This isn't a distant headline. You're feeling it at the pump in your grocery budget, even on your utility bills.

When uncertainty rises, many Americans turn to physical gold and silver, tangible assets that have protected wealth for centuries. And with gold recently topping $3,300 an ounce, experts believe the upside is just getting started. That's where preserve gold comes in. They make it simple to get started and offer real support every step of it. the way. Right now, they're giving away a free wealth protection guide. Just text IHeart to 50505. Plus, you could get up to $15,000 in free gold or silver with a qualified purchase. Don't wait. Text IHeart to 50505 today and take the first step toward protecting your savings.

Somebody who is always talking about the money and is always in the money, Mr. Rob Van Dam, It's reported in the torch that him coming in really did rub a lot of the talent the wrong way. Quote, more than one person has noted that Rob took an unnecessary shot during a recent interview when he spoke about working with the top stars in WWE and then questioned why his fans would want to see him work with Christopher Daniels now. In general, there's a lot of grumbling amongst the longtime T&A wrestlers due to the perception that the established stars will be paid big money, yet don't work many house show dates. although the terms of van dam's deal have not been disclosed he has made it clear he's not

interested in working a full-time schedule i'm not saying this was your decision to bring him back or any of that but i am curious do you remember there being any quote-unquote heat amongst the other guys about van dam coming in you know nothing that that i could see you know but it doesn't mean it what it didn't exist you got to just got to realize you know first of all Hulk and I were both new on the scene. It's not like we had, you know, a lot of longstanding relationships with some of the TNA veterans, if you want to call them that.

People that have been there for a long time. So I'm sure they had a lot of feelings or concerns whenever that I never heard about. Just the way it was. But it's also kind of human nature, right? You've got all this talent. It's been there from day one. and are not getting the opportunities that perhaps they think they should be getting, or maybe they just would hope to get.

And then all of a sudden you bring in a wave of established talent that came in from WW or WCW or wherever, and we're big stars and we're high paid stars. Well, guess what? They're going to take up your, they're going to take up TV time. They're going to take away any hope you may have had of getting your break. And it's going to naturally breed some resentment and, and, and, and, and, and, comfort. And once that starts, it's a little bit like a virus. Once it starts, it's easy to catch and starts to spread. It becomes more intense. I'm sure that that existed. But it wasn't

obvious to me. There's sting. We got Hulk Hogan in the ring cutting a promo and Hogan is saying, hey, I need to know why sting. Why? I can't get over it. It's not the first time it feels like I've been hit by a truck, but why sting? Why would you stab Dixie in the back? Are you jealous? Is the spotlight not shining on you enough? I know you're in the rafters. I can smell you and I can smell the fear. You're scared to death to face me. And now we see sting walking around the rafter. So again, Hulk Hogan in the ring, cutting a promo and sting in the rafters. Yeah, this feels like, listen, we could say, well, this isn't original. This is a reboot. They're just ripping on.

off nitro but part of me thinks you're just leaning into the nostalgia here you know and clearly it's not even nostalgia but you know it's 2010 yeah it was you know 12 years you know previous that this was any fever pitch and was driving a massive part of the wrestling audience and the success of the industry as a whole um and yes it was a callback to that but that was sting's character it is still stings character to this day in AEW I don't know if they have them hanging around my rafters much anymore. But this character, this quiet, mysterious, dangerous character worked in WCW. It's what was working here. And it's still working today. Why would we have, what would we do? Bring them back as like the chicken man. Right. I mean,

I, yeah, it maybe feels nostalgia, but that was his character. The Rafters, thing I could have done without because those rafters me that's what I was referencing yeah yeah I mean you're about 12 foot above the ring and it's small and the the impact of sting being up in the rafters doesn't quite have that eerie sense of foreboding that it did when you're in a big arena and see this little guy up there and it's oh that sting he's got a buzzard on his back and that was cool this was kind of cheesy but it's all we had by the way it was either that or shoot him in the hallway it's just it's all we had well we got rob van dam now attacking sting from behind uh and you see hulk hogan cheering him on here but the basis of

the promo was why sting why don't you stab dixie in the back was dixie liking being a part of the storylines i mean i know you guys have talked about it before where we at least discussed your conversations with dixie and vince rousseau about whether or not. Dixie wanted to be an on-screen character. Were you for that? Were you a proponent of Dixie being a part of these storylines? Yes. Okay. Yes. I mean, I had, I hesitated because I had a lot of concerns about it in terms of her ability to perform. You know, she wasn't, she didn't have a lot of experience. She was very self-conscious. And self-conscious isn't the right to work. But she was overly concerned about certain things and the way she would be perceived.

And anytime you go on camera and you have these kind of, oh, my gosh, what are people going to think or you're inhibited in any way, you're going to come off somewhat contrived. So I was concerned from that perspective that she could actually deliver as a performer. And the truth is she actually did a pretty good job in many respects. She got thrust into some situations where she wasn't good. um she really didn't have the ability to not that everything should be an improv but there's a point where if you have to spend three to half or four hours to go over a three minute promo you probably shouldn't be doing it but but i did support it for the most part we see uh you come

into the ring along with some security you're going to jump in between hogan and sting and you're going to get after hogan say hey we came here to lead the company and I'd fight our own battles and you made a promise to your daughter that you were done with all this last week so be done with it and the crowd is going to start chanting Hogan Hogan and they're going to show Brooke at ringside holding her face in her hands and then you're going to walk away and I guess Hogan's going to start trying to think long and heart about what you said what you think of this creative well since i created it i thought it was awesome there you go look but seriously it's telling a story

now you could argue oh we should have just had should have been physicality involved there should have been a better way to tell that story but there wasn't a bit i'm not a wrestler right the the relationship between myself and hulk oven was pretty well established at that point it made sense to the audience. It was believable. And we've got an issue here. I thought it played out pretty well. And by the way, I thought Brooke did a great job. Brooke was a great performer. It's a shame she didn't get an opportunity to do more in the wrestling business because number one, she is a physical specimen. She is incredibly strong. She looks great. She carries herself well. she was really good on the bike like really really good on the bike had she trained

you know in the ring down at nxte or wherever and been able to combine her her backstory her relationship as a hogan and really performing the ring she she could have been a huge star we're seeing right now hernandez approached jeff charrett backstage you happen to be walking up and over here in the background as Hernandez is saying you gave me my first shot so I want to help you deliver some payback and then you interrupt and say hey the days of Jeff Jarrett making matches are over so he's going to tell Hernandez you're going to tell Hernandez that it's a two on one against beer money and Jarrett is saying he shouldn't take his frustration out for him out on Hernandez so there's some back and forth here and of course

he's going to be a referee and you say your next step is going to be tearing down the ring if you screw this up right down the middle jeff right down the middle is how you finish this segment this jeff at dynamic here in 2010 in the company what was that like it was weird it was you know jeff was jeff was right there with dixie when they tried once again to get Hulk to join T&A. Right. Part of that. Jeff was on the plane whenever Dixie and I and Hulk were on the jet, going to or

traveling somewhere. I mean, Jeff was right there in the middle of it. And then once the Hogan deal got done, I say Hogan deal, but it included me, obviously. Once that deal got done, it was like, Jeff was on the outside look again. At least that was the impression that I was given by Dixie. it was there was a weird dynamic that i could never into this day i've never talked to jeff about it really but there was a very bizarre dynamic between jeff and dixie that i could never quite put my finger on well now we see kevin nash and scott hall strutting down to the

ring um and before we actually watch the match that it's not going to be much of a match but it is going to be something i think we should take a time out so let's go ahead and hit pause right now and we will go ahead and tell you guys not to sleep on impact plus and don't sleep on sleep me sleep me has been a game changer for both eric and myself you see science has proven that cold sleep creates better sleep temperature controlled sleep prepares your muscles and improves your cognitive function so you can start your day feeling sharp confident and energized sleep me by the way is the new home for chilly sleep same great sleep but a new name sleep me makes the coldest sleep systems available.

They're going to promote deeper, more restorative sleep by lowering your core body temperatures. Now, let me explain these systems are water-based. Their temperature-controlled mattress topers that fit over your existing mattress to provide you your ideal sleep environment. And I've gotten DMs over the years that we've been bragging about this product, so I just want to set the record straight. This is not a water bed. But water does have amazing thermal properties.

So it goes in your unit at your bedside, and if you want to sleep warmer or cool, Cooler, bam, water helps make it happen with Sleep Me. See, think of this as almost like a smart thermostat for your bed. It's going to get you to your ideal temperature. And your ideal temperature might be different from your wife or husband. My wife likes to sleep a little warmer. I like to sleep a little colder.

Sleep Me makes that happen in the same bed. And they just launched the brand new Doc Pro sleep system with the brand new hyper AI. You heard me. AI for your sleep. this is the ultimate cooling power with the Doc Crow sleep system because when you pair it with the new sleep me app you get real-time temperature adjustments based on your current sleep activity

from the new hyper AI tech. It's the industry's first sleep tech that's going to track and optimize your sleep temperatures and get them to you in real time. So you'll get the best sleep of your life with AI-driven technology. It's been a game changer for me. I have to admit, I was up and down, tossing and turn in, fighting with the pillows and covers not anymore with shilly sleep i have no trouble falling asleep and staying asleep and i wake up feeling refreshed which is how eric and i can record

a lot of times at six in the morning and we're good to go we got a great night's sleep we want that for you so head on over to sleep dot me forward slash 83 weeks to learn more and save 25% off the purchase of any new doc pro uller or cube sleep system the offer is available exclusively for 83 weeks listeners and it's only for a limited time that's sleep s ls ls EEP.m.m. 83 weeks to take advantage of our exclusive discounts and wake up feeling refreshed every day. Eric, my wife and I love our Sleep Me and I know you and Mrs. B love yours as well, right? I do. And one of the reasons that I really have noticed the impact that Sleep Me has had on Lori and I is I never used to dream ever. You know, when as a kid I did, but as an adult,

I don't think I've, I, it had been decades since I had a dream. and ever since sleep me, last night I dreamt about Jimmy Hart. Maybe a nightmare. But nonetheless, it's because of sleep me. And I get into that deep, it's called rapid eye movement or REM state, which is when dreams occur. Generally, you have to be in a pretty deep sleep. And usually I remember my dreams in greater detail because I was in a deeper sleep. So definitely, it makes all the difference in the world.

Sleep is one of those things that I always went asked. sleep, but I'm dead. I don't really need that much sleep. But man, getting a good night's sleep has an amazing impact on your ability to perform at the highest levels throughout the course of the day. So I would not want to live without it. Check it out. Sleep.me forward slash 83 weeks. And let's not sleep on Kevin Nash versus Scott Hall. It's happening here on Impact from 2010. We're going to press play here in three, two, one lay. We can track it here. here.

This deal is just going to be a fight. You know, there's, like we said, with two former best friends here, I mean, Nash tried to help Hall and Six Park get contracts here in TNA. That didn't happen. Two weeks ago, saw a beat down on Nash by Hall and Sixth Park.

That wasn't too nice. He's better not, please. you got count hall here wrestling in a sweatshirt jeans and tennis shoes tas is even going to say nash looks to be in much better wrestling shape than hall and uh they're going to get going and then after just about two minutes walton's going to jump into the ring and clip nash's knee walton's going to then sort of mock apologize and then handcuff nash to the middle rope and hall and walton are just going to take turns stomping on nash eric young's going to come down and make the save and six and haul fend him off double team him six gives young a face

plant six and hall then hold up the 25k in cash that kevin nash put up so nash wins but it's by dq does this mean anything i mean listen once upon a time having scott hall versus kevin nash in a match on your show feels like something that would have been a main event anywhere in the country i mean maybe even a pay-per-view and i know that scott hall's probably not really there yet. And we're trying to do what we can to just tell some stories. But this just doesn't feel like it's a match of consequence. It doesn't feel special.

So we're not going to as fans treat it special. Fair to say? I think it was partly that. I mean, that's a, that's a fair observation to make. But I think that I just don't think fans wanted to see this. Right. It's just. They want them together.

Not exactly. Exactly. And there was no real build for this. Yeah. There was a, I guess you could say there was a build and there was a backstory, but not a good one. There was nothing compelling about this story, nothing compelling about this story. It was just there to check the box. And the fans reacted accordingly. And as well as fans just didn't want to see these two guys against each other. It's not what they wanted. You've sort of glowed lovingly about how much you've even.

enjoy this bloodline storyline that WWE is doing these days and you've complimented them on their diligence and and having discipline and really taking their time and and not rushing things this episode so far feels like the exact opposite I was just going to say this is the opposite of that yes here's here's a perfect example and I was part of it so I'm criticizing myself here folks This is an example of checking the story boxes. Yes, there was story. Yes, there was some setup. But it wasn't compelling.

It wasn't a true story. It was a wrestling story. Not a great story. And you can have great stories in wrestling. And we're seeing it now. And we've seen them before. This isn't it. This is an example in many respects of what not to do.

It was kind of hot-shodding in a way. There should have been much more time and thought put into this. If you really believe that Scott Hall, Kevin Nash in a match against each other was something important that you could actually make money on, it should have been a two or three or four-week build. Right. And there should have been compelling moments

within that three or four weeks that really made the audience care one way or the other. if Scott Hall and Expot got their contracts, that wasn't the case. With the conflict in Iran, global markets are on edge. Oil prices are surging. Volatility is spiking, and the U.S. dollar is under pressure. This isn't a distant headline. You're feeling it at the pump in your grocery budget, even on your utility bills.

When uncertainty rises, many Americans turn to physical gold and silver, tangible assets that have protected wealth for centuries. And with gold recently topping $3,300 an ounce, experts believe the upside is just getting started. That's where preserve gold comes in. They make it simple to get started and offer real support every step of the way. Right now, they're giving away a free wealth protection guide. Just text iHeart to 50505. Plus, you could get up to $15,000 in free gold or silver with a qualified purchase.

Don't wait. Text iHeart to 50505 today and take the first step toward protecting your savings. Let's take a listen to this beer money promo here. You know, all we ever wanted was an opportunity, an opportunity to show both Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff exactly what beer money was made of. Because ever since those two men walked through the doors here at T&A wrestling, beer money's been pushed aside.

We've been left in the back like a couple rookies, like a couple nobodies. Now let me ask you something. Is that any way to treat the hottest commodity in professional wrestling today? Is that any way to treat the greatest tag team in the world today? Let that stupid look up your face. Because the answer just isn't no. The answer is hell no. You see, Eric Bischoff gave us an opportunity.

the opportunity to whip somebody's ass. The only problem is the opportunity was the founder of T&A, Jeff Jarrett. And this week, he gives us another opportunity to dish it out. Well, we're going to serve it up, and this week's plate goes to you, Hernandez. They say nice guys finished last. We're sick and tired of being the nice guys. We're sick and tired of catering to these stupid fans. For now on, it's all about beer money.

Making cash, they didn't trashed. Derek, Hernandez, sorry about your damn luck. Eric, what do you think of beer money? Are you a fan of beer money? Very much so. Very much so. Beer money, when they were,

when they were at the peak of their beer moneyism, um, they were great. You know, I mean, just listening to that promo, I want to break that promo down a little bit. Bobby Rood delivered what I think is the ideal promo. It didn't come off contrive. He didn't have that pace in it. Let me tell you something.

Here's what I'm thinking. When I get in that ring, there's a cadence. that comes with so many wrestling promos that indicate to me that it's really not the character, right? It's just memorizing stuff and trying to deliver it. And I'm not picking on James

because James had the ability to do really great promos. This just wasn't one of them. This was fine. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't as real to me as Bobby Root. Bobby Root's came off very real to me. James Storms came off

like every other wrestling promo well, I've probably heard over the last 40 years. But when James and Bobby were both in tune, they were entertaining as hell. The stuff they did in the ring was entertaining. I thought their characters were the types of characters that really the crowd related to them. They were, I don't want to say Joe Sixpack, but they were, they were one of them. And I thought they were phenomenal.

I really did. well we're going to see a two on one match here against hernandez jeff jarrots our special guest referee you've made him uh call it right down the middle or threatened him to be the guy sort of putting the ring together and here comes matt morgan down to the ring and uh tas is going to say hey maybe he should be down here motivating hernandez but instead he's going to come put on the headsets that was weird that was really weird yeah why would you do that why why i'm asking you but what why would we have done that i don't know that's weird you know coming down with the belt on making his way down to the ring you're going to

get the now you're getting first of all the audience is going to look completely away from whatever's going on in the ring now they're looking at mad morgan who's very impressive he's wearing the the championship he walks down like he's going to get into the ring and he goes and now i'm going back here i don't i don't i don't understand what the intention was for that let's get them excited so we can hurry up and let them out i don't get that we uh we're going to have a three-minute segment here i mean this is it feels like we're trying to cram a lot of stuff in here you know if you just take a look at our match times they're all really really fast like angelina love and daphne was two minutes uh the the anderson and wolf and kurt angle and denaro thing that was three

minutes. I mean, it's just one after another. Nasty's and Jimmy Hart at this point, I've had the longest match with four minutes. As we said, Holland Nash was just two minutes. This one's just three minutes. You know, this is the era where people would start to count the number of minutes in wrestling. That's, oh, it's a two hour show and there were only X number of minutes in wrestling. And I've seen some criticism, believe it or not, of AEW recently, where they would fans would say man that was a four hour paper view and it was just all wrestling it was just all matches are you sort of damned if you do damned if you don't or is there a good rule of thumb as far as how much quote unquote story and i guess we paterson might call it

gaga and then how much is in ring action is there a in your opinion when we're talking about discipline is there a number a rule of fun i don't think there's i don't think there's a number i I think there's a balance in there somewhere. I think some matches require, I get frustrated because I know I say the same things over and over again. I try to find different ways to say them so that doesn't get boring for the people listening. But your main story, your A story is going to require a lot more narrative because it's a more complicated story and there's more at stake, hopefully.

As you go down through the format into your C stories and D stories. and so forth, it's going to require less backstage narrative, or as Paterson would say, Gaga. But the key is finding the balance. And the real challenge and the art within producing really great wrestling is not only finding that balance, but tying the narrative and the match in the ring together in a way that makes sense. Right. And when it's done well, you don't know.

Nobody's counting how many minutes of wrestling versus how many minutes of backstage. Nobody cares. They only start caring and talking about it when they really don't care about what's going on in the ring. Or they really don't care about the narrative. Then you're going to hear about it. But when you find that balance, that sweet spot, and there's no hard, set, fast rule that says your A story should have 75% of the story is being told in the ring, 25% is being told outside of the ring. maybe there could be that. I wouldn't mind trying to explore that and find doing that as a part of a formula

that you could rinse and repeat. But for the most part, it's about finding the balance and making sure what you're doing in the ring and outside of the ring is compelling because if it's outside of the ring, it's compelling, nobody's looking at their watch. Right. By the way, Jeff Jarrett looks better now 13 years. later than he did then what the hell you got a personal trainer isn't that crazy he looks he looks

awesome now he didn't look bad then but it's like oftentimes we go back and we watch these things from 10 15 or more years ago you're like oh wow man i got really look good then jeff looks better now than he did then totally agree as he's pulling his shirt off here these days my man's super tan he's got abs he's ready to roll and you you asked him to call it right down the middle and he can't help himself he's getting in the middle. We're seeing some of those famous Memphis punches. Jeff could punch. Can.

Yes. Could. Can. It's one thing I always love Jeff's work in the ring. I've had issues with the characters that he's had throughout the years. Sometimes I just thought they were goofy, like the stripper, bailed whatever gimmick that he used to wear, he used to drive me crazy.

Yeah, Venetian blinds. But when it comes to in-ring, storytelling, psychology, in execution. I've always put Jeff up there at the top of the list. He was so good. Let's try. Oh, wow. We're going to commercial minutes.

How are you? Jeff Jarrett, your ass is mine next week. Mark my words. But right now I want to talk about some business that I've got to take care of. See, it's time to clean things up around here. Not only in terms of what's going on inside of the ring, but the very look of the company, if you get my drift. McFolly, we've been trying week after week after week to make something out of you. It's impossible.

So I've decided to take matters into my own hands. Foley, get your big ass down here, put it in the chair. Let's clean you up. What's it for all? Amen. We had our research team reach out to Vince Rousseau, who was handling creative here. And get ready for this. Vince Rousseau said, this was your idea.

Quote, Eric knew that he was there to get the wrestlers over. There was never an ego with Eric as a talent, never. I don't we need to mark the day and time because it sounds as if Vince Rousseau is being complimentary of Eric Bischoff I'm just looking around to make sure lightning doesn't strike us what do you what do you make of him saying hey this was this was Eric's idea and he never had an ego as a talent I don't remember this being my idea it's possible and likely since it me right and I wasn't subject to having to do anything that anybody else came up with not to sound like an arrogant prick but that's just the way it was um so I guess is probably true

and I didn't have an ego when it came to getting talent over that was my job and I was pretty good at it it was never I never had an ego about anything that I did in the ring I mean, if you think about the stuff that I've done in the ring, I pretty much subjected myself to being humiliated, getting my ass kicked, being put in my place. That's the job of a heel. That's what heels do is get baby faces over. If you're a good heel, the baby face you're working with is more over after your scene or your segment or your match than they are going into it.

if you're good at what you do and i was fucking awesome at what i do oh yeah okay just so the mandible claws that worked you he uh he blocked mr mcfoly blocked you from uh shaving his head throws the mandible claw on you and now here comes the big shave and wade was pretty critical of this and he says it's just astounding to see t and a burn through so many angles that historically when milt draw money but get comparatively little from them because they just rushed through them foley then woke up bischoff and showed him his ridiculous haircut bischoff through a fit which was good for a little laughter from the crowd bischoff tried to cover up foley waddled out of the ring gloating holding up the mirror you know listen i think that's a fair

criticism we've been talking about here that we're just we're rushing through some stuff and i just can't help but wonder if maybe that's the reason that this sort of low l t and a narrative has existed maybe we never really caught fire and got the momentum and all that and it wasn't because no i disagree with that that's that's narrative nonsense look at the bully rate look at look at the aces it ain't storyline so when you say things not you but the narrative the general narrative oh the tn a never really spending time telling stories go back and look at that story i i would agree with Wade here though by the way I think that is a very

fair critique of this particular segment but to apply that to TNA at least during my time there overall I think is a little bit unfair look at that haircut what did Mrs. B

I mean you look like somebody started with Manscaped and gave up halfway I look you fucking ridiculous and I love it I love it. She was, she was just like, oh, God, because it's not like the first time I've ever done it, right?

Right. It's like, she just shake her head. But the goodness is my hair grew, it's slowed down now. Look at that. What's stupid. I try to put my hair back on my head. That's funny. My hair grew so fast.

Two weeks later, you couldn't tell anyway. So it didn't really matter. What are you thinking of this show so far? we're coming back from a commercial break here and we're showing the replay of the head shave just moments ago yeah you putting the hair back on is good comedy stuff man what do i think so far i think it's 20 pounds of stuff and a 10 pound bag i agree with way you're completely on this particular episode too much too much too fast hey guys it's the hardcore legend mc Foley here and i need a quick time a brief time out I wanted to tell your listeners what I have been telling you,

hold his pod listeners, about all the cool things happening over on ad-freeshows.com. An all-new edition of The Insiders is here, as Conrad sits down with former WWE exec, John Filippelli, who discusses his transition from the world of sports to pro wrestling and his ultimate transition out of the company. Every take was getting worse than the one before it. I said, you've got to stop.

You've got to stop this. You got to calm down, stop. Calm down. Stop yelling at people. Take it easy. Tell them exactly what you want. We'll get through it. Which is, I have done a hundred times since, and I would do 100 times more.

Yes. But that was Vince McMahon, and you don't do that to Vince McMahon, particularly in front or around. Other people, yeah. That was my mistake. I mean, if you want to call it a mistake, although I would do it, I've done it since and I would do it again. Referee, Nick Patrick is answering your questions every other Monday on our new mailbag secret. But Holland Nash was there. You know, they were great work,

so they could get people had psychology. But they were cool. And a lot of people liked it, you know? Yeah, we're still in merch, you know. And, and, and, and, and, and he had heat, he turned, he had actually the more heat than them. You know, they had heat, but a lot of people liked it because they were cool.

I was right the only real character that they was calling into the other time that everybody hated. You know, everybody wanted to see me. It worked. You know, they have, you know, that's all. It worked, you know.

Tony and Conrad have taken their shenanigans in front of a live studio audience as they sat down live with ad-free shows members. Hey, did you ever pet Jake's snake? No, never did. I had a chance to in Chicago, but it was way too big and out of my league. What's the right-sized snake for you?

One that just coils up and leaves me. alone yeah have you ever orange to cassidy before orange to castie yeah would that be with uh with the with one of those juices the juice machine or just squeeze it until all the juice comes out of it yeah i know that your leg or his leg you got to be you got to be specific here with your your dumb-ass question here, Cassio. look interviewing Shannon Moore looking as only he can look what a look he had all the tattoos the crazy gear and maybe one of the most interesting haircuts in wrestling a very talented performer you guys have got so much talent on this roster

I'm not going to compare it to modern day AEW certainly they have a much more quote unquote talent laden or bloated or listen if you want to put a negative or positive slant on it no matter what we all agree on this a lot of guys under contract AEW. Did you ever feel like at some point you had too many talent here in TNA? Or was that not the case? I never, I never thought about it.

You know, it wasn't, it wasn't my concern to be honest. You know, if you ask me now, do I think looking back then, did we have too much talent? Probably,

especially since TNA didn't tour, they didn't really do live, live events to, to any real degree. And you had a, lot of talent there that were frustrated and wanted to do more but couldn't do more. And that's just a toxic kind of stew. It bruise and it ferments and it starts getting nasty. And before you know it, you've got an issue on your hands. It happened to me in WCW when I had really more talent

than that I could use effectively. It's probably, oh, I know it's happening in AEW because I have conversations with certain people from time to time. So Tony's facing the same thing. It's great to have a deep roster until your roster gets so deep that the people down towards the bottom of that roster start getting upset and feel like they're the witness protection program. And that starts to, it starts to metastasize. And before you know it, you've got a, you've got a morale issue.

It is a problem. It becomes a problem. but I didn't at this time I didn't think about that that wasn't my concern my only concern at this point in time 2010 was what can I do to help the company grow how can we improve the format and focusing on Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff storyline that was the only thing that I really focused on at this point let's track it here because we've got Generation Me coming out the future young bucks they're being called out impressive since recently joining the T&A roster, but you know, TAS, to me, if there's that true test to prove that you belong in the X Division, it's going to come Sunday in the match that defines the X Division Ultimate X. Wait a minute, wait a minute, guys. Who have we ever beaten?

Well, my brother Jeremy and I, we remember a couple months back in our big debut match, and Well, we defeated the two of you. You remember that? I remember that. I remember that. We remember that. But you know what? There's such a thing called luck.

And you see, any time somebody steps in this squared circle, they can beat somebody else. It happens all the time. In fact, I'll give you guys credit where credits you. You're good, but you're not great. We are great We are the Xbox to your Atari You

That was good You are the station wagons to our Ferraris In fact, while we're on the topic of luck Why don't we talk about the night we spend with your girlfriend there you go way to get a rise out of you got some stakes you know for our paper you mad right here what was it's kentrick brian kendrick has hit the ring just at the absolute point that the guns and generation me started to square off how's kentrick's deal is coming out here we can kill the audio

what did you think of the way we're setting up this ultimate x match for the pay-per-view nice little promo and pretty fun to see the young bucks 13 years ago huh you know i thought the the promo is good but i mean you see that while i'm watching it reminded me what i said earlier you know if this would have been in front of a legitimate crowd and not a studio audience crowd um you would have gotten this would have gotten a much better reaction and that promo would have actually meant something as it was you had two or three people go ooh oh oh Atari Xbox comment and it just takes the air out of it now these guys were nobody in that promo was like a rock star, right?

They were still learning and growing and getting comfortable doing this kind of thing. So I'm not being critical of what they said or did. But the fact that they did it in front of such a sterile environment only exacerbated it and made it feel worse than it really was. But these guys in the X Division, now this guy, these guys should be what, and Tass said it, defying the X Division or ultimate X or whatever. um amazing amazing talent i think they put out a great show here a great match on this show um i thought was perfect we should talk about one of the big decisions that we're going to discuss at the

end of the show and that's not only to go to monday night but to go heads up heads up meaning you're going nine to eleven eastern here do you recall there ever being a discussion about eight to ten or was the desired idea not to have an hour lead in and really started exactly as, you know, Monday Night Raw started? No, there was no, I mean, maybe it was discussed between Dixie and Spike, but I wasn't a part of those, that conversation, if it was, my, my thing was if we're going to do, if we want to make a statement,

if we want to create controversy, if we want to create a buzz and get people talking about TNA in a meaningful way, then do it head to head. And I hate to reduce things always to a fight. But that's what this was. TNA was fighting for recognition. TNA had a roster full of outstanding talent, but they were the tree that fell in the forest and nobody was around to hear it. Well, how do you fix that? Go head to head. Go pick a fight with the biggest, toughest kid in school. and if you come out okay you're gold and that's what we were trying to do here we were just trying to establish t and a to make people aware of who is in t and a and to put on the best show that we could let's track this uh promo from abyss he's going to say something you got to hear x abyss

a j b x marks the spot right well destination x marks the spot where i finally get my hands on AJ Styles. You see, ever since Hulk Hogan gave me this ring and all the power within it, AJ Styles and Rick Flair have been relentless and trying to take it from me. And I realized why. Because for the first time in my life, somebody is jealous of me. They want what I've got. But guess what? You can't have it. You see, it's my time. It's time for this monster to start doing the taking around here. And it begins with you, AJ, when I take your TNA World Championship.

And as for you, Rick Flair, I really hope he decides to get involved in tonight's main event. Because if you do, Mr. Flair, I'm going to show you what it's like to come face to face with the monster of the ring. so what you're going to do a j what's you're going to do flair what's you're going to do when the monster abyss runs wild i'm crazy on you we'll we should uh go ahead and uh take a time out now because they're going to go to a commercial break we're going to do one last commercial and then i have got to ask you all about that abyss promo

but before i do i should remind everybody that impera helps business plans for the future turning ideas into actionable plans impera provides visibility into the success of your plan helping you understand what's working and what's not it's also user friendly fast to start and helps you and your team quickly get to work on your business plan Empira is going to help you overcome the hardest part of starting a business, which is turning the ideas into plans and then breathing life into them. Think of these guys as your tag team partner,

helping you stay focused on what matters in your business. They're going to simplify the process of business planning and let you focus on what's important. They're going to help you eliminate the guesswork and make informed decisions based on data, not just your gut feeling. With Empira, business planning becomes less overwhelming, and more manageable. And Empira provides a structured approach to business planning, keeping you on track and organized.

They'll help you identify potential risks and opportunities. And then you get to make data-driven decisions. So you get to stay focused on your long-term goals and objective. And Appira helps you say motivated and driven. We're going to provide regular updates and insights so you know where you are in your progress. They'll even help you prioritize your tasks so you know that you're working on the most important things first.

We consider Impera an essential tool for businesses of all sizes. They're going to provide you a roadmap for success. They'll enable collaboration between team members and foster communication and teamwork. And you'll have the peace of mind knowing that your business plan is well structured, thought out, and achievable. And I know, Eric, that you think a lot of these guys and this product. What's your experience been so far?

Absolutely perfect. John Alba and I, who, you know, John's my co-host on Strictly Business, which will job on Thursday, by the way. Check it out. But we actually did the onboarding experience with Impera. And by that, I mean, we literally got on a Zoom and we were talked through the entire process, how to maximize the value of Impera, how to use the tools, how to set, how to customize it specifically for our purposes. And I know later on this week, myself, producer Steve, who's on this call, Donovius Mac, who also helps with some of our YouTube stuff. We're all going to get together and focus on the pillars that we've

defined as to what can help us grow strictly business as a podcast. So we're not only promoting it, supporting it, we're actually using Imperial. And we're going to keep the audience informed as to how it works for us on an ongoing basis. Very excited about it. I'm excited because, again, we're in a perfect position. You know, I've got Steve, producer Steve's living in L.A., John Alba's on the East Coast. I'm in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. And it's a tool that we could use and stay in close contact and stay focused on the things that we need to grow our audience. And you can customize a period specifically for your line of work, whether you're working out of the home and you're a sole proprietor and it's just you, yourself, and you, or you've got a team of

three, four, five, or 50 people. Everybody can take part of this. As you said, collaborate. You can change things as you need to in order to set new goals along the way. It's a phenomenal tool. And the onboarding, for someone like me, it was just not, you know, I don't have a lot of native talent when it comes to technology. So for me to be able to get on and figure this stuff out very quickly and intuitively,

says it all for the software. but you get that personal onboarding experience to help you customize this tool for your specific needs. Sign up now and receive free onboarding. Your first 14 days for free and 24-7 support. Get ahead of the game and save 20% on your subscription by using the code wrestle biz a checkout.

Launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before. Visit imperat.com forward slash Eric today and start your journey to success. that's E-M-P-I-A-A-com forward-slash Eric. Empira.com forward slash Eric start that journey for success. Now, let's have a successful wrap to this show. We're going to count us back in,

and then I can't wait to ask you about this Abyss promo. Let's pick it up where we left off here in three, two, one play. So listen, we're setting up, you know, Abyss and A.J. Stiles. of course of this is going to be the special guest enforcer and he's doing Hulk Hogan style promos what you're going to do meanwhile we've got AJ Stiles doing his best Rick Flair I guess we're telling the classic protege type stories and since we're not really going to do Hogan versus Flair everywhere we go this is a nice way to let a younger generation of talent do their thing at a high

level but also to have some real mega star power in their corners. But the thing that always stuck out to me about this is these magic powers, this special ring that everyone's jealous of that Abyss is talking about and doting over and kissing is a WWE Hall of Fame ring. Well, there's that. That's a little stupid. Is it? I mean, like, what in the world are we doing? Yeah. I was not a big fan of this. It was just a little too late 80s for me. um the audience's ability to suspend their just belief was rudely interrupted with this kind of thing i i i just wasn't a fan of it i i wasn't i don't know what else to say

i just absolutely love the idea of um of a j styles and rick flair i know in execution it's not going to be all that well done and part of it is probably well a j styles coming to the ring here in a robe that doesn't look like olivia walker made it it looks like uh put together that the hobby lot good call good observation yeah i mean i'm not trying to be critical listen i somebody put a lot of effort into that but it's not the same no it's not the same it's not a friend of mine often says in business you can be better than less than or different than we're just kind of less than and even though a j's the champ he's out first and hardy who is the challenger is out next a j styles versus jeff hardy is a big time match

in 2023 and it was even bigger in 2010 um and this show is against you know a live raw and we're a taped show that had to be a big challenge and ultimately we know it's not one that's going to be super successful the impact rating which was a 1.0 in their debut for their now permanent time slot is now a 0.8 for week two more specifically it had a 0.8 for first hour and a 0.80 second hour So an average of 1.1 million viewers. And I know the AEW critics and haters are going to say, It's a deal out drew AEW. I get that, but things are different.

We can acknowledge, though, that the rating from week one to two is down 15%. And overall viewership is down 21.4% because the prior week, we had 1.4 million viewers. And this is with a quote unquote dream match. this is in fact the lowest rating since November of 06 when TNA was in a one hour late night time slide on Thursday what did what what did what did what did uh w we get on this this night do you know do you have that raw was up 8.2 percent i mean it's total viewers just compare viewers to viewers don't have that but you got your ass whooped uh their rating

went up and part of it is because they loaded it up knew they were going to have stone cold steve austin as the guest gm and he was going to oversee the contract signing between brett hart and vince mcran uh they also put together you know this is their era where they're trying to build towards ressalmania so they're building towards sean micha versus chris jericho and triple h versus randy orton and john cina versus big show and stone cold man being here for brett and vince i mean they loaded it up in a major way you know when you say that isn't it what occurs to me is the timing for this head-to-head thing was really bad.

That was a bad decision. I think the decision to go to head-to-head was still a good decision for the reasons that I've expressed earlier. But to decide to do it going into WrestleMania, when you got to know, I knew, we all knew, everything WWE is doing is going to be really loaded up. They're really going to be gearing up for WrestleMania. it would, in retrospect, it would have been a much smarter to move to do it after

WrestleMania. Once the WrestleMania buzz is off, then come in and do it instead of going at this time of year. That was a bad decision. I mean, tactically, strategically. So where you guys had a 1.1 million viewership, we had 3.7 million that night for Monday Night Raw. So we were at about 30% in a head-to-head with a stacked WWE card. we were at about 30%, a little more than 30% of their, their number. I ain't good. I ain't good at all. And it's not.

And Wade would actually write that Spike TV actually liked the 1.1 plus ratings on Thursday. And he says they didn't move the show and help fund new talent to see the booking send fans packing. Who said that? Wade Keller? Did Wade to get that information? Because Spike was thrilled. They were happy. Did Wade get that information? Does Wade have that insight because he has that one-on-one conversation with Scott Fishman from Spike TV or? Eric, come on now. Or is that just an observation and a editorial comment? It's called logic. Why would we trade a 1.1 on a Thursday for a 0.8. on a Monday like wouldn't we rather have higher ratings throughout the way like we made a move

that cost us viewership you made a move to get press to get awareness to create controversy that's why you made the move i guarantee you nobody sat down and said we lost three tenths of a point in overall rating this is bad nobody looks at nobody in the tv business looks at things like that. Eric, they really don't. Then why didn't it stay on Monday? It wasn't designed to be a long term. Well, you know, no, no, no, you were stuck in your dirt sheet narrative of the time.

The decision to go head to head wasn't based on we're going to do this for the rest of our our existence with TNA. That wasn't the reason we did it. The intention wasn't to do it long term. The intention was to get aware. and create awareness, which we achieved. Remember when they moved Seinfeld to Monday night? No.

Because they fucking didn't. It was working on Thursday and they left it alone. When you start moving that shit around, you lose viewers. I mean, you've talked about that yourself. How can we then say, well, we're just going to move for a little bit, but we'll move back later. We got our ass kicked and then we went back and it still wasn't the same. You had momentum and then you moved to another night. We did not have any momentum.

They were stuck into freaking mud. There was no momentum. That's hallucinogenic dirt sheet bullshit. There was no momentum in TNA. It was flat as pissed on a plate. Then let's spend more money and get less people. That'll fucking work. Or let's spend more money and get more attention,

create more controversy and create freaking awareness. If less people watch it, by definition, there is less attention. Not necessarily. no absolutely necessary you're the guy who's always on here saying it's a dirt sheet narrative but then you say well we got controversy where not with more people watching the show but with goddamn dirt sheets yeah you got more dirt sheet buzz who gives a fuck less people watch the show this is a television company and fewer people watch 21% fewer people watch this episode than the episode before that that is a loss but we were going up against

what undoubtedly was probably one of the better raw shows on that night based on what you told me. And the fact that we only lost 21% suggests to me that, yes, indeed, we created a buzz. I guarantee you right now today, if Tony Kahn put the best AEW show he could together and went up against Monday Night Raw or Smackdown, he wouldn't get 30 plus percent in a head-to-head environment. We did. It served its purpose. Eric, this is the most acon conversation you've ever had on this program in the history of 83 weeks. I disagree because I look at the television business from a macro perspective and you look at it from Dave Meltzer's dirt sheet or someone that's never been in the business.

Yeah, I understand. It's hard to understand for people that have never been. Hey, hey, listen up smart ass. We sell fucking commercials based on how many people watch the goddamn show. But you don't build brands that way. you can hear me well you cut out there try it again no i love i can't remember what i said here's what i know ad rates are determined based on the size of the audience don't bullshit us here that's the way they determine what the ad rates are the more people watch the show the more you can charge for the fucking spots you know how i know because that's how we say ads on podcasting, too. And that's the way I've bought radio and TV for nearly two decades in the mortgage

business. You buy based on the viewership. You buy based on the audience. No business owner says, let's make a move and invest more money with more talent and throw more shit up against the wall with our wallet, with cash that this company's not paying for it, but Spike is something you said on this same program. And then we're going to go down 24%. That was not the plan.

No, it was not ideal. It was not, and it wasn't 24%. It was about 21%, by the way, so let's not exaggerate. We're going to play with numbers. Let's play with numbers. Let's look at it from a broader perspective. What was TNA, and I'm asking you a question that there's no way you could possibly answer. So it's a rhetorical question.

But if you look at the radio, what was rhetorically? What was the average audience over a period of, oh, let's just say 120 days leading into this effort? according to Wade Keller you guys were doing 1.1 plus on Thursdays on an average and by the way this match we're watching right now the segment right before did a 0.72 we had two commercial breaks there and they tuned out so this main event the quarter hour number 8 Q8 did a 0.74 normally as you know the show builds and builds and usually the last segment is the highest rated unfortunately you're up against a loaded monday night raw people wanted to see that whether they wanted to see this so even though your overall rating here is higher this is not the highest rated segment on the show in fact it's a 0.74 it barely rebounds from the double commercial break fans just didn't want to see it i don't disagree with that this was not a great match there was not a great story right this was not great great

But since Steve was able to average, give us an average audience in 2009, what was the average audience in 2010? Just curious. I don't know. I'm just curious for the sake of this discussion. Mick Foley would react to the impact rating. He would say, it wasn't what they hoped for.

Quote, we kicked off what we all hope will be a very exciting time for the company. And with what I felt was an excellent impact. I know the rating wasn't quite what we were hoping for, but if we keep delivering the type of show that fans saw Monday night, I have to believe that eyeballs will start turning our way

and the rating situation will take care of itself. That is an excellent attitude to have and good for him for being the company guy. Clearly, he's telling the truth. This is not the rating we hoped. And it was a star

loaded, heavy, I mean, I could see how if you were a regular impact viewer, you would think, man, there's a lot of stuff happening here. Now, in fairness, we've talked about as we see Rick Flair getting black hole slammed through the ramp. I mean, this is this loaded. You couldn't have a bigger main event as far as star power and a post match angle with Abyss putting Rick Flair through the ramp. There's lots of stuff here, but it just wasn't enough and it feels like a bad idea to move to Monday night. There was a lot of, there was a lot of sour power. There's a lot of stuff with no

story right by the way according to uh producer steve t an average in 2010 raised from 1.19 million to 2.2 billion so I don't know arguable I guess well that's the end of the show and we're getting ready for the big pay per view um what did you think watching this show back you know it's most memorable I suppose for you because you got a new haircut you went home with a new haircut but you did get to see some of the storylines and some of the the real deal battle as you're trying to compete with w e on monday nights you had it to do over again what would you do differently we weren't trying to compete with monday night raw

i'll start with that i think it well that's good because you couldn't we You're right. We couldn't. No shit, Sherlock. Congratulations. You're the master of the obvious. And it wasn't the intent going in. Did nobody in their right mind, including anybody at Spike or anybody in Teen A, would have thought that we would have been competitive with the WWE. Wasn't why we did it. But look. Why moved to Monday then? Because Monday. How many different times we have to say to create awareness, to create a confrontation? How many times do we have to say? say that before it registers. Or maybe it will never will. I don't know. Great awareness with who

Eric? Amongst the rest of the fans. Controversy has, oh, look, go back and look what we did with Nitro. Nitro became successful because we went head to head. That's one of the reasons it caught fire. There is a perfect

example of a strategy that did work. Now, it worked for a lot of other reasons with TNT and TNA because we did make a long commitment. And no, it didn't start out being hugely successful, but it built to become successful. So you weren't, you didn't create this. Sorry. You didn't try to compete with, with Monday Night Raw with Nitro, right? I mean, you didn't go on there and give those. We did try to compete. It was a different situation. Had they had to work. And in this scenario,

head to head was, was intended to create awareness. And that did work with the dirt sheet fans. You were trying to get the dirt sheet fan. No, with the wrestling audience across the board. This was promoted. It was promoted outside of TNA. It was promoted on Spike outside of the wrestling audience. There was a lot of promotion and support that went into it that otherwise never happened with TNA. Why not this double down on Thursday then?

We had 1.1 million people watching. Because we wanted to let the WWE audience, WWE audience realized that there was an alternative to WW. But not to compete with them. No. To improve our own rating. So we want people who are watching WWB to switch over and watch your show, but we're not competing. I just want to make sure I'm understanding. No, we knew we couldn't compete. We wanted people to know that Rick Flair was there,

that Hulk Hogan was there, that Rob Van Dam was there. We want to of the wrestling market in general to know that, yes, indeed, there was another wrestling product out there that up until that point was living in obscurity on Thursday night, preaching to the same choir over and over again, producing their show in front of the same audience each and every week that would come out faithfully and pack that soundstage with 250 people. Yes, we wanted to broaden our audience by letting the audience in general, including the WWE audience, know that there were some high power talent like Kurt Angle, like Rick Flair, like Hulk Hogan, like so many of that, like Jeff Hardy,

we wanted to let them know that they were indeed alive and performing. And we decided to go head to head in order to help achieve that. Did we hope we would get a better rating? Of course we did. To your point, but we were really trying to, to create awareness and build a brand. As hard as that is for people to understand. When somebody goes out, when you're advertised on the Super Bowl, and you spend two point,

whatever, or four point, whatever it is, do you hope to get a return on that investment overnight? No. All right. So I just want to make sure I understand, in your opinion,

people who have been watching Monday Night Raw off and on since 1993. You think they might just start go channel surfing. not use their channel guide or anything like, just start flipping around and be like, oh shit, Rick Flares here. You think that was a better opportunity to attract WWE fans. They'd to advertise around WWE programming in the major markets.

Hey, tuned in this Thursday or Tuesday or whatever the fuck, which you already established on Thursday. The successful shows that had great runs historically didn't switch nights. The shitty shows do. Thursday was the was, was when Seinfeld ran. It never switched to Monday.

There's a big assumption there. You're assuming that Spike was really happy with the ratings on Thursday nights. By the way, they weren't. Well, they put it back on Thursday and more people why? They didn't have any choice. We weren't going to continue with these ratings going head-to-head long-term. We weren't going to do that. That wasn't the intention going in, which is the mystifying part in this conversation.

For whatever reason, you can't seem to wrap your head around that. The intention wasn't, let's go head-to-head for the rest of our schedule, the rest of our T&A's existence, we're going to go ahead to head. That wasn't the conversation. It wasn't the intention. No matter how much you try to pretend it was, that wasn't it. We wanted to go in. We wanted to make noise.

That's what we did. You wanted fans to flip over for Monday Night Raw and see the nasty boys and Jimmy Hart and say, God damn, I'm going to get forward. No, no, we wanted them to see Rob Van Dam. We wanted them to see Rick Flair. We wanted them to see Kurt Engel. We wanted to see, wanted them to be aware that there were. There's a lot of talent that was very, very successful and had a lot of equity in

WWE that now has something else to do outside of WWE, and we wanted them to be aware of that. And that's why we did it. Well, I know why we do this show and it's so you and I can exercise the demons. And we're doing a fair amount of that over at adfreeshows.com. And I want you to have a free trial on us. If you haven't tried it already, what are you waiting for? Now's the perfect time. Come celebrate St. Patrick's Day with ad-free shows.com. Next Friday, March 17th, we'll be jam-packed with all new bonus content.

Our lucky seven will feature, you guessed it, seven exclusive bonus episodes with Eric Bischoff, Jake Roberts, a brand new Ask Conrad, and a whole lot more. Check it out Friday, St. Patrick's Day at ad-freeshows.com. And if you haven't already, you can even sign up for a free trial. You get more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, ad free and early starting at just nine bucks that's ad free shows.com by the way if your business targets 25 to 54 year old men there's no better place to advertise than right here on 83 weeks

you've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years and why is that well because it really works and with our super targeted audience there's very little waste go to advertise with eric dot com right now to find out more about advertising here on 83 weeks and you can also be sure to follow our shows. It's easy to do. It's at 83 weeks on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And if you're looking for some good reading material, can I recommend grateful by Eric Bischoff? It's available on Amazon, anywhere you enjoy books or Bischoffbook.com. But if you miss this show, I encourage you to go watch it. Yes, you can do it on the Impact Plus app, but we're actually streaming it as part of what we do on our YouTube. It's 83 weeks on YouTube.com. See Eric nearly bust a blood vessel this

week here. weeks on YouTube.com. And we've got some great new shirts and swag and merch that you can't find anywhere else to support the show over at box of gimmicks.com. Eric, I don't know what I expected today. I knew we'd have a little lighthearted banter about a haircut, but debating the Monday night stuff and the decision to go head to head and some of the creative at the time. And maybe as you said, 10 pounds of whatever in a five pound bag, this was an impact that I won't forget watching anytime soon. I mean either. And that just goes, show you the best one of the greatest qualities about great wrestling is you never know for sure

what's going to happen and when i went into this this morning i had no idea what was going to happen but that's why you should do it each it every week right well said eric and i will kiss and make up and we'll see you guys next week right here on 83 weeks with eric bishaw mucker father