83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode #263 : Ask Eric Anything 03.27.23

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

On this episode of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff, Easy E is back and he is answering your questions! Join us as Eric tackles topics on WrestleMania, his fascination with wrestling memorabilia collectors, if Tony Schiavone should be in the WWE Hall of Fame, if he ever fought Vince McMahon (back in the day) how he would beat him, and so much more all on this fun welcome back episode of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. ROCKET MONEY - Get rid of useless subscriptions with Rocket Money now. Go to ROCKETMONEY.COM/83WEEKS. Seriously, it could save you HUNDREDS per year. Cancel your unnecessary subscriptions right now at ROCKETMONEY.COM/83WEEKS 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. HENSON SHAVING - It’s time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that’ll last you a lifetime. Visit HENSONSHAVING.com/83WEEKS to pick the razor for you and use code 83WEEKS and you’ll get two years' worth of blades free with your razor–just make sure to add them to your cart. EMPIRAA - 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 http://www.empiraa.com/eric today and start your journey to success! SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC -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 FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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but check this out. No house payments for two months. It's savewithconrad.com. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. Eric, what's going on, man? How are you? I feel different. I love that music underneath the intro.

Come on now. It makes me feel alive and tingly. I like that. Awesome. We are alive and tingly together. Greatly. appreciate everybody jumping on to join with us. Of course, we're talking to our live studio audience from ad-freeshows.com.

We always say you get the shows early and ad-free. It doesn't get earlier than real time. So good morning this early Saturday morning to Tim and Kyle and Keith and Coach Rosie and Liam. Appreciate everybody showing up and showing out for us. We are going to have some fun today. We were off last week. You were out of pocket and unavailable.

So I miss you, man. I'm just glad to see your smiling face here today. I am so glad to be back. You know, I've said this for a long time, and I think sometimes people think I'm just making it up, you know, but I, this is like the highlight of my week. I really enjoyed doing this show. So when I miss it, it's like, oh, I can't wait to get back. You know, it's, yeah, feel blessed to be able to do something like this that I look forward to doing every week instead of feeling like I have to do every week. So thanks to you and the team for making it so much fun.

And for everybody that's listening along, especially live over at everyshows.com, we got coach rosy leom ellens all right from the uk dig it keith morrison two cow kyle jeremy priest i love it we're at three show friends hanging around this early it's like seven o'clock in the morning for me here in wyoming wow and in your good mood rip roaring ready to go we're going to have a fun show today we're doing ask eric anything i'm pretty excited about this we uh we get to cover a lot of topics this way sort of like um rapid fire style it be fun. But before we get into that, we always try to just take the pulse of what's going on in wrestling. And this is the go home wink, man. I can't believe it. But this weekend is

WrestleMania. What do you think of the build so far? What are you looking forward to? What do you think's been overdone? What's just right? Give me the good, the bad, and the ugly. You know, I've been a little out of pocket over the last 10 days. So I can't speak to what, what's happened recently on television. But prior to that, just, you know, I'm tired of hearing myself say it so I can't imagine how everybody else feels at this point but storytelling structure pace just managing the energy managing the anticipation and it's so critical the closer you get the more critical it is you know how do you keep them hanging on to the edge of the seat without giving them too much because you want to give them everything you've got at the at WrestleMania

that's that's fun to watch that being managed and I don't think it can be done better than it has been at this point I'm pumped I can't wait it was a last minute decision for me to go the original plan I was not going to Los Angeles this year but well I'm hoping to see my pal Cody do the damn thing what do you think Sunday night when the final curtain falls will we have a new undisputed WWE Universal champion? Here's I mean I want to see it's so bad, you know, not just, obviously for Cody, you know, where I've watched him grow up, you know, I knew him when he was a little kid. And in my relationship, our glory of mine,

relationship with Dusty, we were close. So for very personal, just the truth is, selfish reasons, for us, I want to see Cody, I want to see that. And I think a lot of other fans, you know, a lot of fans do as well. But you just never know, right? You just never know. And that's the magic. That's the magic. But I want to see it because I'm like you.

And I think one of the reasons why your shows, all of your shows on the podcast Heat Network do so well is because of the history and the legacy and and the nostalgia that makes professional wrestling so cool and has such history generationally and for you know to see Dustin after or excuse me Cody what he's gone through you know leaving going to AW and stick it up for himself and believing himself and putting it all on the line and let's not forget Cody walked away from a massive financial opportunity when he first left WWE. He may not have been happy creatively,

but I'm sure he had, I don't know what it is, but I'm relatively certain. He had a contract that most people would only dream about. Yes. And he walked away. He bet on himself. And that is a human story.

In addition to the great wrestling story, it's such a human story. And then we saw that, journey through AEW. And once again, Cody decided I'm going to roll the dice on myself. I'm going to bet on me. I'm not going to bet on this big contract. I can probably get out of Tony Con. I'm going to bet on me. And here we are. So for the human interest aspect of it and personal, selfish relationship and just history with the family, I want to see it. But from a wrestling point of view, man, you just never know.

You just never know. Because it's a little bit obvious, isn't it? Yes. And that's what makes, that's what gives me pause because it's just a little obvious. Well, what's not so obvious is what should close night one of WrestleMania? Of course, I believe it's out there that the plan at least once in time and maybe it still is. was to have the ladies close when Rea Ripley is going to challenge Charlotte Flair

but there's been a lot of talk that going back to what you said story the story everybody cares about is maybe the tag match I don't think a tag match has closed WrestleMania since well the first one but this is one hell of a story the Uso's taken on a reunited

Kevin Owens and Sammy Zane would you put that on last would you start with that do you close with that if you were building the card you've got the pencil so to speak what closes the show on night one i know charlotte is such she's in another category she's an attraction right she's she's in that very rarefied air that very few talents that even become hugely successful get to breathe and ria is coming on very very strong i think i voted for on sports gidia's one of the heels of the year i think you know she's really coming on strong but sometimes timing takes over timing wins and right now i think the timing is for the tag i think it's what the people want

I think it's the biggest thing. It may not be the, have quite the attraction that a flare Ripley match has because it's two individuals and it's easy to focus on. It's the marquee is cleaner and more powerful. There's a lot of reasons why I like singles match in that spot. But I think the timing, Sammy Zane, everything that he's done, the Uso's, everything they've done, I think to not have it in that close first night position is underserving the story. It deserves it.

I can't wait to see what happens. I'm pulling for some new tag team champs there. And, you know, this is really a, a WrestleMania rematch for Ria and Charlotte going back to the pandemic WrestleMania. Ria didn't get her hand raised that night. But maybe now in front of a big old crowd, she'll get her hand raised. And I think you and I are mutually aligned with Rhea. We both think, man, what a star she is.

She just has that star quality about her. And I can't wait to see what's next for her. And of course, I'm kind of pulling for Charlotte to be the first person to 17 world titles. So I'm not tore up about the idea that she might not win. Excuse me. It's going to be fascinating either way. It's a great card, you know, Los Angeles. I wish I could be there.

I'm going to be in Las Vegas, by the way. but maybe I'll bet on something. But it's going to be a great car. It's going to be a great weekend. And I don't think you can lose either way, man. There's a great story. And what's fun for me being this story near that I am, I can't wait to see how we come out of where are we going next.

Yes. There's a lot of, there's a lot of really beautiful landscape ahead of us. We're sitting in that big motorhome going down. And that big WWE motor home going down the highway, looking at a beautiful landscape. landscape ahead of us. We know we're going to pull off to the side of the road, spend a little time

at this thing called WrestleMania. Then we're going to jump back on that bus and keep going down that road. And I can't wait to see where the stories go from here. I mean, the real question is, let's say Cody wins. What's he do next? And more so than that, what happens to the bloodline? Like, you've often said one of the problems that you wish, that you wish you had a chance to do over in your WCW tenure was to.

was to give the NWO story a proper close. We didn't really get that. Would you try to put a button on the bloodline storyline or is it one of those things where we can take a pause, take a break and then when it comes back, it comes back bigger than ever? What would you do? You know,

the answer is I don't know. But here's your possibilities. Again, that big landscape ahead of us. that's the the bloodline storyline may never have to end it may morph a chapter of that story or book one of that story may come to a close with Roman Uso's the present story but the characters are still there and can extend in another version of the bloodline story it can carry forward you know it doesn't have to necessarily come to an end it would have to

dramatically change and it would have to be a resolution to the open-ended stories any open-ended current storyline would have to be resolved before you could really move on in building a version 2.0 right with maybe some of the same characters maybe different characters but it would have to feel like one ended and one began, almost like a marble movie, you know, you can still have some of the same characters in the underlying theme, but everything else, the nature of the story, the motivation of the story, obviously the characters within the story, all of the elements that make stories work would have to feel so unique that it didn't feel like, oh, now they're just changing out a couple people and they're just continuing, which is what we did

with the NWO. We just keep adding, kept adding people. We didn't add that much story. We just kept adding people. And I guess that's what I'm trying to say. If the bloodline storyline continues with some different people, some, some of the core elements, but all of the other storytelling elements feel different. Keep it going, brother. You can go forever. well we're going to be able to go forever today because we're doing a ask eric anything but of course it's russomani week so we had to touch on that i at least want to uh bring this up i know that you have another podcast on our same feed here every week called strictly business if you haven't checked that one out you definitely should eric talks in long form about all things

about the wrestling business not necessarily the creative and story but the actual dollars and sense. And there's been a lot of discussion this week about CM Punk. There was a message board post from Mr. Dave Meltzer where he talked about what the plans were and how maybe they changed and he dropped more knowledge in that Observer Post board or Observer Board post than he did even in his newsletter about all this. And as the story goes, Mr. Punk went to Instagram and told his story on a story and they quickly deleted it but basically said that Moxley refused to lose to him and Jericho was a stooge and really quote unquote spilling the tea and now there's become this big debate we'll see him punk ever return is there a path

to making it work it seems as if he's interested in that he posted he had been reading Steve Kern's new book and there was a story in there where two guys got into it for real and luller drug them into the office and made them squash it the next day. Punk told that story and wrote fascinating. So clearly, he likes the idea of getting his jersey back. Would you give him his jersey back? No. Really?

No. Well, let me see how I am. I just, I can't help myself here. No, I wouldn't. I barely finished asking us. the question and I answered it so definitively and abruptly. So let me just rewind that. I don't know, man.

I don't know the cat. I've been pretty hard on on CM Punk. I don't think, well, actually, I don't think I've been harder at him all. I've been honest about my opinion of him. Don't have much respect for him. I think he's overrated.

But he's done a great job of keeping his brand hot, right? He's staying alive. People are talking about him. Will he won't? He will Tony won't? Tony? Is he coming back? Is he maybe going back to WWE? He's keeping himself, you know, at a real high temperature, even though he's not doing anything. And hats off to him for that. You know, that's, that's a valuable thing to be able to do. But is it worth it? Is it? We know what

we're going to get. We know what you're going to get out of CM Punk. And we've seen a lot of it. Is it, I, I, I wouldn't bring back. I don't think the risk is worth the reward. We've seen the best of CM Punk. You've gotten the most you're going to get out of CM Punk. CM Punk isn't going to grow as a more valuable asset as time goes on. If anything, it's diminishing returns. And I don't, and, which is not a bad thing in and of itself.

You know, you can have a great long, you can have an amazingly long career. career and you're, you may be in the diminishing return category, but the returns are still so high, it's okay if they diminish a little bit, right? You're still very viable and valuable to the franchise. But, and I'm not saying that pump doesn't have any value in that respect, but I don't think we're going to see any growth in that value. Now, add on top of that, historically, he's a pain the ass he's a moody bitch you know he's you know based on what i've heard and read and people that i've talked to that know him fairly well who i have respect for and don't they don't just you know say negative things about people for the sake of it um not worth it man move on

there is no lack of talent in a e w there is no lack of talent that can't be as big or bigger than see them punk. You just got to put the time in and do the work. And it's fresher, it's newer, and there's no drama. The drama is killing it. It takes the fun out of it. This back and forth high school baby shit that these back, oh, my God, I think it's just so, I think they're,

I don't, degrading is not the right word, but it's demeaning to me these guys are demeaning themselves by going back and forth with this kind of stuff it's just i don't get it it's just it's just not me maybe i'm just i'm old my time has passed me by but if you got a bitch you know and you're playing this internet back and forth game and you know speaking your mind in social media i just that's just not the way to do it not for me and i and i think it demeanors or diminishes the people involved. I don't disagree, man.

I, um, I can't believe it's still a topic of conversation. And I realize that part of this is a challenge because he's been rehabbed an injury. But to me, as soon as he's ready and able to come back, he should come back. Like, I can't imagine a scenario on the other side. Like, you know, we're hearing chatter that, well, boy, they'll lose the locker room if he comes back and that sort of thing. Can you imagine somebody saying that about Vince McMahon on the WWF? well if they bring in so and so the whole locker room's leaving what that would yeah and that's

you know that's that's another that's unfortunate you know and again i don't know what the i don't know what the politics or the drama the stories of the relationships are backstage right me neither you know it's been pretty tumultuous since he arrived right didn't take long and that was what i've heard about him i haven't had this experience he's never seen puck has never said well he's never he's never offended me in any way shape of form, right? Never worked with him. I've never had a conversation with him. So I really don't know him and should do better at giving him more of the doubt that I typically do. But that being said, his history is what his history is. And I just don't see the upside long term. But if you've got a

situation where, you know, when Tony, Tony has not had, you know, look, he's young as a business, AEW is still got the training wheels on as a new company. You know, there's going to be a learning curve. Yes. You're going to make mistakes in a new company. The faster you grow, the more mistakes you're going to make, and the more obvious sometimes they're going to be. And that's all a part of growing very, very quickly,

which is what AEW has done. So don't take this as criticism, biatches. This is just stating what is pretty much the obvious in any business. you go through growing pains. But while Tony is in the midst of those growing pains, unfortunately for him, one of the most vulnerable areas and the highest profile part of those growing pains

has been his ability to manage talent and be in control. And as much as you hate to say, you know, you shouldn't have to worry about that. Well, no, you shouldn't have to, but you actually do. It's a problem.

And it's unfortunate, which is another reason why I wouldn't roll the dice. Bet on the team you have, not on one guy who's got a track record of being a pain in the ass. And you're, again, he's just diminishing returns. He is what he is. He's old. He's broken down. He's older. It's not old, but he's much older.

He's seen the peak of his career. It's, why? I mean, but Aaron, bang your head on that rock one more time. Let's just bang my head on that rock one more time. Could we not just change, I mean, like, everything you just said, I could have played back to you as reasons not to sign Hulk Hogan in WCW, not the first time, but one of the contract renewals.

He's, he's seen his peak. It's going to be diminishing returns. He's older. I mean, everything you just said could have been used to describe a Hulk Hogan contract renewal in WCW, but it did affect the bottom line. And so my thing is right now, like, you're going to pay him. Why not get some value out of it? Sure, he could sit home and be on a shelf and collect a check and now it's just a debit on your P&L. Or, hey, man, let's use

him. I'm not saying we're going to go re-sign him to a lifetime contract like the Undertaker did with WWE, but hey, let's get some value for our dollar here. I don't think that's crazy. No, it wouldn't be crazy at all. It would be a smart move if you were dealing with somebody who didn't have a track record of just being a paid any ass. And this guy does. And you are going to bring him. There's a bit of it. You can't really compare Sam Punk to Hulk Hogan in any way, shape, or form. But the situation, I understand, the age, injuries, diminishing returns, that I understand your perspective on that. But there's no other way to compare those two beyond that.

Hulk Hogan, even with the injuries and had been around for a while, the diminishing returns brought more equity and value amongst mainstream advertising that see a punk ever will or ever have i'm not arguing that i mean listen that's that's the big difference but and look the fact that he's under contract and you know i've i've not even going to speculate what the numbers are i've heard so many of them i don't want to be guilty of doing that stupid shit but it's a lot of money it is a lot and yes you do you're either going to pay him to sit home or you're going to pay him to come to work you're going to pay him either way i'd rather pay him to sit home and not mess things up i'd rather not have his drunk

drama and his ego and whether it's fair or unfair whether he's created it or not i you're going to pay him anyway why why pay the the the drama tax you're going to pay you're either going to not pay a drama tax or you're going to pay and pay a drama tax i'd rather just not pay the drama tax i'm going to hit you with the uh dave sylva at the buffet at lunch i said dave why are you going back for your third plate and he goes i'm going to get my mom money's worth. If I'm Tony con, I'm getting my third plate. I'm going to get my money's worth. And speaking of money,

I know how you can keep more of your own money. I'm talking about a rocket money. No debate here. We're all wasting cash. Right? Not just on contracts and letting guys sit on the sidelines. We're letting contracts sit on the sidelines and just get drafted

out of our account every single month. And that's why I love using rocket money. Formally known as True Bill. They have helped me cancel unnecessary subscriptions. I have saved, I'm not exaggerating here, thousands of dollars with stuff I didn't even remember signing up for. Are you wasting money on subscriptions? It's like 80% of people have subscriptions they forgot about. Maybe for you, it's like an unused Amazon Prime account. Or maybe you and your wife both signed up for a Hulu account. Well, there's this great app.

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They did for me. Mine was DeZone. I bought it for one fight and 18 months later discovered, shit, I'm still paying for this? Yeah. Thanks a lot, Rocket Money. you might be even getting double charged that happened for me and the wife

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slash 83 weeks. Cancel those unnecessary subscriptions right now at rocketmoney.com slash 83 weeks. Eric, let's get into it. We've got tons of great questions. I don't think there's any chance we'll get to them all, but let's fire through some.

On this day in WWE says, Hi, Eric. I'm loving, mostly, reliving nitro and thunder in real time from a quarter of century ago. He said Tyson, was the moment you got worried about the WWF, but was this week

25 years ago a panic point, the return of Piper and a brilliant champion versus champion match on free TV? Panic point? No, absolutely not. I mean, what, 23 years ago, we're in 1998? Yep.

This time in 1998, uh, we were posting record, Revenues, record television ratings, record attendance, licensing deals with companies like EA sports with five or $7 million advances. No, there was no panic. There was awareness. And it was certainly the first time that I went, ooh, this may sting.

This is serious. But it wasn't panic. Don't give me wrong. There was no panic. Of course, WrestleMania 14 was 1998. That's the one where Tyson was involved. March 29th. So here we are.

It's hard to believe that was 25 years ago. But of course, the next day on TV, you had Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan, you had Randy Savage and Kevin Nash taken on Sting and Lex Lugar. It was a big time show, man. And I could see how that would be,

I mean, you got to bring your A game for the night after WrestleMania to compete with Monday Night Raw, the night after. You got to roll out the big dogs, right? Absolutely. If you've got powder and it's dry, bring it. Yeah. There's no holding back on a night like that. And that's the fun part about head-to-head competition.

That's what gave the Monday Night Wars. It's kind of generational status is, you know, one of the not the golden era but yeah close yeah that's the golden era that period of time was so special because it was just that head to head what are they going to do punch counterpunch in real time it was fun fun fun question here from josh he wants to know what fascinations have you discovered fans have that never occurred to you while you were in the business that's a great question josh it is a great question and part of it is just Just, you know, getting to know you and a lot of your friends that are really into the collector side of things.

Yes. You know, it's just, that's never been a world me. I've never, the closest I think I ever got to that was when I was a little kid. I used to love to collect coins. You know, I was fascinated that I had coins that were from the late 1800s. And I used to think about all the people that handled those coins and what life was like during the 20s or the 30s or the 1890s. You know, I was my, my fascination as a young kid, but that's the closest I ever got to being interested in collectibles.

And now, you know, I, you know, I come to your home or I talk to people that you're friends with that are also into collecting. And I see how big that market is. And I'm thinking, man, I wish I would have done what Sonny Ono did. That little more, he packed away. He was like a pack rat, man. He got stuff stacked in warehouses and, and, and, and, but he's, saw the value in that. You know, it's really funny is when I went to the first time I went to

Japan, Lori came with me. No, it wasn't the first time I went, but the first time I brought Lori with me. It was, I was, Lori and I and Sonny brought his wife, Julie. And we had an amazing time together. One of the things that we did is we went to Sonny Ono's uncle's house. He had an an uncle that was, I guess, in the 70s back then, but it was really, really, he was a great shape, very active, great sense of humor, love to drink beer, eat bogogi. It's a Korean barbecue dish, but we, uh, we went to his house and, which was really cool because you're sitting there with a guy, you know, Japanese, he didn't speak in English, but through sunny, we were able to communicate, you know, he was, you know, part of World War II in the Japanese

army and the last survivors on a little island off the coast of the Philippines and the war was actually over before he found out it was over and that kind of thing you're sitting there talking to someone like that but we got done we had a dinner at his home and had a couple beers and they gave us a bunch of gifts because that's a very Japanese thing to do and then we went walking around but he took us shopping in these little because sonny's uncle was like a rat he was like a pack rat and he had watches and jacking his all this stuff and that's exactly the way sunny is sunny's the same way as his uncle you know you go to his house and he's got a garage wall and he's got warehouses and commercial property he's got so much stuff

that he's got randy macho man savages harley no i mean he's got a lot of got a lot of cool stuff that's amazing uh Lucas has a question for you what's the biggest thing you miss about being on the road 300 plus days a year. I've never been on the road 300 days a year, but I've been on the road I'd see on average 200 days a year, 225 all in awe. Well, I don't miss anything about I miss I miss the adrenaline rush. I miss the pressure and the process when you've got a good team. I don't miss the process when you don't have a good team. But when you've got a good team of people with you that you really enjoy and you trust, ah, man, that's fun.

And the more pressure you're under, if you're a good team, the more fun it is. Because that's, you know, the challenge is the fun part. And don't get me wrong. It's nice when everything's going great and everything's easy. There's no problems. nothing blows up unexpectedly. That's not bad. I'm not saying I wouldn't want to spend a fair amount of time in that state of mind.

But there's nothing wrong with having a good team around you when shit blows up and just watching really good people come together and solving problems. And sometimes, you know, in the process of solving problems, cool ideas come out. That's fun. I miss that. It's kind of like being in, I imagine if I would have wanted to be a doctor, I would want to be in the emergency room. I'd want to be a triage surgeon.

I wouldn't be one of those guys that would want to study a surgery and learn. And, you know, I'd want to be slapping body parts together and, you know, under that pressure. And that's what I miss is that adrenaline rush that comes with that. Man, I have never wanted a fucking blue chew ad so bad in my life. And he said slapping bodies together. But, you know, here we go. A four-finger discount says,

what's the craziest brand or company that you turned down for a crossover with WCW? You know, it wasn't so crazy. It was just the timing of things. I don't remember exactly when, but when things started turning around for WCW, I would say probably 94, maybe even 95 before Nitro. Um, Trojan came to us.

Oh. Yeah. And they wanted, they wanted to sponsor. They wanted in programming. They didn't want to do because if you wanted to advertise in WCW, you wouldn't call WCW. You'd go through Turner ad sales. Right.

Your ad agency would contact Turner ad sales and we'd never even know about it. But when you want to have ring posts, for example, or a ring apron or something to happen within the body of the show, not the commercial pod or the commercial break, but within the body of the show, that's a different conversation. And Trojan, I think it was Trojan came to us. And look, I mean, for crying out loud, who would have a problem with that? But back then it was a little bit, eh, a little tacky. And I had to get permission for that one.

And the consensus from ad sales was, we don't think so. man i'm going to tell you now silver better get to work because i'm going to need a photoshop where instead of at hallowing havoc the ringposts were slim gems maybe i follow you maybe uh mike nation wants to know does eric believe w we will eventually add tony chivani to the hall of fame and does he believe shivani will accept the honor know. I don't know what goes into WWE Hall of Fame consideration. You know, sometimes things are really, really obvious to me and sometimes are not. I think, for me, I think, yes, yes, even though you don't necessarily think about Tony Chavani and WWE in the same sentence because Tony was such

a iconic part of WCW from the very beginning. And even before that, in the crocketeer, Troy and the Crockett years, Tony is such a part of the legacy of Jim Crockett promotions and then WCW that you don't think about Tony with WWE, but, you know, it's all one big, well, fun wax now, right? It's, so I think, yes, I can't imagine that there won't be a time when Tony's not in consideration. and I think Tony would I don't know you know you probably you know Tony better than I do at this point he says he won't I say bullshit I wouldn't you like why wouldn't why I wouldn't

I mean maybe he's got a reason I just can't relate to but it's not a it's your peers yeah yes it's a WWE Hall of Fame but these are your peers these are people you've worked with, whether they were in WWE or WCW or whatever, these are people that you worked with and spent the largest part of your career with, a large part of your life with in some respects. Why would you not want to party with your peers and just get that moment of acknowledgement because that's what it is. Yeah. It's what it was for me, you know, it's, it's, it probably means different things to different

people. But I would, I would hope Tony would give me a shout, at least chat about it, because it's a very it's a very cool thing to be acknowledged by your peers when you first i mean let's think back a few years ago before you were a hall of famer did you have an attitude like we've seen a lot of guys do where it's like eh it's x number of grand and a payday and a clash ring i don't care but then i've heard those same guys say well that's what i tried to tell myself once i was there and i was on stage the magnitude of this designation and honor really hit me like whoa this is a pretty big deal I don't expect to feel that way was that your experience I had a weird relationship with the

idea of going into the hall of fame and it probably has a lot more to do it's just the way I manage myself personally and my emotions um wow I don't want to say this the wrong way So bear with me. I have low expectations, meaning I don't expect anything. I hope for things. I enjoy things. But I don't expect anything from anybody or any situation. And part of that is just managing my emotions,

because if you don't have unrealistic expectations, it's really hard for anybody or anything to disappoint you. And that's kind of my defense mechanism is it's pretty hard to disappoint me. It can happen, but you have to work at that. Nothing surprises me. And the way I went into, you know, because look, you know, for how many years every time this time of year rolled around, I'd get that question or those questions for months leading into every WrestleMania. Are you going to go into the Hall of Fame this year? Do you think you'll get

voted? You know, and it's like my response was, you know, if I do, I do and if I don't, I've had a wonderful career. I'm not going to let whether or not I get inducted into the WWB Hall of Fame make me feel differently about myself or more my time in the industry. That was my way of just managing my expectations. So that up until the point that I got that phone call, I would have never felt bad. I would have gone to the Hall of Fame to watch and be a part of it and support everybody else without feeling like, oh, man, I can't believe I didn't get in. That wasn't the way I felt about it. I still think the Hall of Fame is one of my favorite parts of WrestleMania because it's so real and the emotion is so real. So I was, I had a great defense if I never would have gotten

into the Hall of Fame, I would have not felt bad about it and I would have supported everybody that did. However, once it became real, it affected me much more so than I thought it would. And I, you know, look, I found out. I talked to Bruce, right? So I found out very early in the process before it was announced. And even though I knew when Corey Graves called me two or three days later and I did a podcast with Corey Graves where it was officially announced. Keep in mind, I already knew for three, four, five days, whatever it was. And it was about a week later or so that WWW wanted the official announcement or wanted the announcement to come in the form of a surprise, as it were, on Corey's podcast.

So I knew exactly what I was doing when I sent down and hit play. and we're doing the podcast together. And the minute he said it, I started crying. Which is why I'm really good at building up defense mechanisms because otherwise I'm just, you know, turn into a wimp. But it still had a really big effect on me, even though I knew, even though I had preconditioned myself for many years of saying, if it happens, it happens.

If it doesn't, it doesn't. Truth is it freaking mattered. well my thing to tony shavani is always hey man if you get the opportunity you got to go and he says something like oh i don't care about that i'm not going i'll turn it down no he won't he's feeling the same way i was feeling and i want to what my thing is do it for your kids those boys they love the idea and that lovely daughter of saying yeah my dad's in the hall of fame that's a cool thing for the whole family it's it's a cool thing it's also a cool thing for the wrestling fans, Tony.

Yes. It's not all about you, Tony. There you go. You got a bunch of wrestling fans out there that want to see you at that position and want that for you, even though you may try to convince yourself because I ain't buying it, brother, I did the same thing.

But even if you can convince yourself, it really doesn't matter that much to you. It matters a lot to what 30 years worth, 35, 40 years worth of wrestling fans out there that I'm watching you. you then and Tony you've impacted their lives just like I found out much later that I wish I would have that the things that I was able to be a part of in some respects really touch certain people so it's now about you Tony what uh what do you remember about Tony back in the WCW days as far as his cheer height it's become a whole big topic of conversation I guess

uh Bobby Heanan and Mike Teney at times have done interviews where they sort of joke about Tony always wanting his chair to be taller than everyone else and we make fun of him on his podcast for his little feet dangling underneath the desk I just think it's a hilarious visual do you remember that ever coming up like in some sort of production thing because that was really your first you know big piece of work is hey I'm going to take care of the television side of this was Tony's chair height ever a discussion? I honestly no

if it was now truth is Tony probably wouldn't have come to me and confided in me that there's this vulnerable part of his psyche because he he does have little short legs

little tiny toy story legs like yeah he does have those short little legs and probably has some sensitivity about that. You know, growing up with short legs is a, you know, people have tough time with that. I'm guessing Tony probably went to David Crockett because Tony would have had a much

different relationship with David Crockett. And David is a pretty short legs too. So I think there might have been a little bit of, you know, empathy going on there. That's my guess. It never came to me. Be sure to pick up our new short leg Jones shirts available now at 83 weeks merch.

Forever and ever, whenever I see Tony Chivani with you, I'm going to go like this and make the sound of it. It's wonderful. Why not? Here's a good one for chef reactions. Where did you have the best and worst meals during time in WCW, WWW. Oh, chef reactions, by the way, I follow him on Twitter.

He's a legit chef. He's a cool cat. He's got some cool posts. Follow him on Twitter. encourage you if you like to eat um i always like going to buffalo has de palos yes italian and and having you know i don't live on the east coast i have in the past and when you live on the east coast you know you can find some really good italian food right lived in chicago same thing, really good Italian food.

Grew up in Detroit, really good Italian food. But once you get into the Midwest or the South, certainly out west where I live right now, really good Italian food is hard to find. So because it's been so long since I've had really good Italian food, when you ask that question, I immediately go back to Dennis De Palos family restaurant, I think was the one that started that restaurant. I go back to De Palos because there's not only a, such a great family and a great support of the local community, Buffalo Bills,

wonderful human being, but magical Italian food. So I'm going to say Buffalo. I love that answer. C.J. Whitmore wants to know with AEW running house shows occasionally now and W.D.B.'s house shows doing well recently. What are your thoughts on companies running house shows? I think it's, I think it's necessary. You know, I, again, I'm not speaking from the perspective of a professional wrestler because I've never been one. But I've worked with them for a long time. And I think across the board, one of the things that I learned early on is one of the most dangerous things for professional wrestler doesn't happen in the ring.

It's what happens when they're not in the ring. Meaning if you're not getting your reps in and you're not staying in ring shape and you're not keeping yourself active, that's when injuries happen. You know, and I think I talked about this early on with AEW as one of the, you know, for the talent, it's great because the talent doesn't have to travel, more time with their families. There's a lot of reasons why not having a heavy house show schedule is a benefit to the talent. But the unintended consequences generally are,

especially with talent that's in their 30s and 40s, is you start injuries become a bigger issue. and more prevalent as a result of not getting reps in. So I think in terms of the overall health of the talent, I think talent will probably be less prone to injury because they're more active, number one. The other benefit to live tours, it has nothing to do with money,

is the creative, what comes out of it. Because in a house show where there's no televised, vision, you have so much more latitude to try something new and different and get that crowd reaction and build perhaps if you, Conrad, if you and I are booked for a match in three months and in AEW and we're on the road. Now, we know we're going to be in a pay per view in a few months. We know we're going to have a match. Probably have an idea what's going to happen in that match or at least we know there's one of two or three choices. And you can start building story and coming up with ways to do things within the body of a match and try it and practice

it and do it in front of people instead of in front of a camera. That's a very valuable thing. And the more time, and you've heard these stories, Conrad, I've heard them. I haven't really been a part of it because, again, I didn't travel on a road with a talent. But I've had enough of it. I've had a taste of it to really understand it. But when you got guys that are traveling on the road and they're hanging out together and maybe they're driving 300 miles on an afternoon together and they're talking. That's where ideas are born. That's where they should be born from. That's where the most fun ideas come from. Not when you're locked in a room and you're under the pressure of having to come up with good ideas. The best ideas come sometimes in a

free flowing form of just discussion and that is another you know big benefit that you can't really put a price tag on let's do one here from adam this is a great question in an alternate universe when brett heart sean michael's and the undertaker have had the same impact that hall nash and hogan did as the nw o now before you answer here I want to ask because we are in a fantasy booking scenario here. So in this alternate universe, Hulk Hogan is not in WCW. He's still on the WWF.

And maybe they've grown frustrated with this glass ceiling. And somehow, some way in 1996, both Brett Hart and Sean Michael's contracts come due, they're going to make the jump. And the third person to be revealed, who is the third man it's the undertaker so in that scenario hall and nash and hogan are still all in the w f could they have switched teams and this story still worked

i don't think so maybe it's hard i mean you know how do you know you know yeah it's fantasy yeah fantasy right i i still think the reason the n w worked was so intangible Many reasons. It was, and it just all had to do with chemistry. That chemistry in that particular time between Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Holkogen, I don't think you could come up with any combination of talent that at that moment in time would have clicked and resonated in such a bizarrely powerful way at that point in time it was just magic it wasn't thought and design and being a good booker

it wasn't it's just timing and magic and just the right personalities and the right period of time if we were to try to bring those same three guys together a year earlier it probably might not would have went right it's just timing can be such an important factor that gets so overlooked and i think the timing was just right and i don't think you could have replicated that that same situation even during the same period of time. I don't think you could have re replicated that situation with anybody else other than Hall Nash and Hogan. Let me ask this.

What if that third man, it doesn't wind up being Hulk Hogan, his contract was up. He was on a hiatus, if you will. What if that third man was Brett Hart? They'd all fresh. They'd all be fresh off WWTV. could Brett Holland Nash have worked? Maybe. You know,

because Brett did have, Brett had a depth to his character. Brett was able to bring kind of a darker, edgier character to the table. Would Brett have stepped out of his character enough? I don't know.

But I think that's a good possibility. it's an intriguing one for sure just visually just look at it and it's a little bit like casting a movie you know you yeah you're looking at a movie script you go okay we get we need three guys you know and this is going to star this it's going to be a buddy thing you know we need three guys and you start to visualize what that movie poster is going to look like long before you know read through the entire script what's that poster what's it communicating so if you just visualize, you know, Brett, Nash, and Hall, it's a pretty good looking poster. That's, that's got, that's got danger written all over it. So yeah, that could have worked,

you know, maybe who knows? Well, we won't be losing any sleep over it because what we got with the NWO was just once in a lifetime. And in fact, you and I aren't losing any sleep at all thanks to Chili Sleep. Well, actually now it's called Sleep Me. They're bringing the same great sleep that Chili Sleep offered, but under a new name, you see, Sleep Me makes the coldest sleep systems available. They create the environment that meets your body's natural need for lower core temperatures promoting deeper, more restorative sleep. These sleep systems are water-based, temperature-controlled mattress pads that fit over your existing mattress to provide you your ideal sleep environment. Think of it as like a smart thermostat for your bed. They keep your

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Eric, let's jump into it. We've got another great question here from the Rosencoaster. With the stress of funding the production of thunder without network assistance, in addition to three-hour nitros, well, there are other instances where Turner executives wanted WCW to promote other projects without their financial support. Not really. I mean, there was co-promotion, you know, whenever there was a show. And I always embrace these.

I love the opportunity to try. But for example, the new adventures of Robin Hood, I think, was a T&T initiative. And Brad Siegel came to us and said, look, can you come up with a way to cross promote? Come up with some ideas. I love that kind of a challenge. You know, when somebody says, come up with some ideas. You know, there's no, you've heard the saying there's no such thing is a bad idea, which is not really true, by the way.

But when you can sit in a room, again, you know, collaborate and and try to come up with a unique way of doing something that had never been done before. That's, that's a blast. And we got called upon to do that quite often, but that was never a burden. It wasn't like coming up with a prime time television show and funding it yourself. That was a little different. That was the only other thing. Cross promotion. That was always fun. Henry Jasper says, in the business of the wrestling business, what is Eric Bischoff's opinion on how much money and importance should be put into production? How does hiring production people compare an importance to talent budgets, etc?

Oh, I mean, that's a big question and it's a good question. It's a hard one to answer. I don't think there's a rule of thumb that says you should say out of your total television budget, 62% of it should be allocated towards talent and this percentage should go over here and that person, you know, it doesn't quite work that way. Look, entertainment is by nature a talent-driven equation. It just is. It is the nature of entertainment.

Music, film, television, hell, your local gentlemen's club. It's all about entertainment, and that comes down to talent. But you can't underestimate production. you know you can it's a balance it's the only way i can say it's a balance and if you find if i ever found myself in a position where i had to compromise on talent in order to achieve something unique in production i would forego the production element and bet on talent it's always entertainment's always going to be a talent driven industry well sad top guy josh wants to know is there a current wrestler in any company that you would love to see you get a push

or story if so who and what type of story would fit him or her the best is there somebody sitting on the sidelines that you're really rubbing your hands together thinking man no because i just don't i don't spend any time any any any time thinking about things like that i do have ideas for wrestling characters sometimes that popp into my head like i don't want to go too far into this but you know i'd love to see how do i describe her oh uh a tough a real kickass female attractive but more more of a badass and attractive single mother with a bit of that's fearless just with a dangerous edge to her and I'm not taking away from any of the

other characters because there's a lot of great characters out there but there's like just a little bit of a niche that isn't being filled and I'd love to see and I think about that character a lot because I think it it's a relatable character right now and I'd like to see that who would I plug into that I don't know I don't I don't pay attention to people that are sitting on the side not I shouldn't say I don't pay attention to them I'm just not aware of them they're not in my world so I don't know who's out there floating around that I'd be bringing my hands over to try to get but I do think about characters sometimes and what's kind of missing from a character landscape

you mean like uh the chick from terminator not well yeah yeah but a little more relatable okay like i don't know where she came from i want to know what factory she worked she worked in in youngstown oh okay i'm really blue collar i want i want her to be able to if she if she loses a transmission in her 68, you know, Dodge Charger, I want, I want to see her in the garage fixing it herself. I want to see her drinking beer in a local tavern after work and stand, being able to stand up for herself. So you want ODB on TV again?

I kind of see, I almost said, because I dig ODB. I love her character. But maybe. turned down just a little bit in some respects and turned up in others. But yeah, as an archetype, ODB would be, that's where I would start. Fern Dog has an old school question for us. Was Mandalay

Sports or SFX really in consideration about WCW? And if so, how close were they? Not Mandalay Sports. Mandalay Sports was owned by a guy by named Peter Goober. Peter was a friend of mine. Peter was a former chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures at one point in time. Peter was a very, yeah, it is very thinking, I think he owns part of the Lakers or Dodgers or something. He owned at the time five or six different minor league baseball teams in addition to Mandalay films. Very, very successful dude. I really enjoyed getting to know, Peter. He had me speak to a class at UCLA was, a film class.

really he's one of those guys man if you got to be in a room with him just shut up and listen just absorb like be a sponge piece just full of knowledge and and perspective and super guy but there was and he had a lot of money but he was peter was the guy that turned us on turned me on to brian badal and steve ringbird because they kind of lived in that rarefied air you know they all met once a year who's the who's the big investor i can't remember his name um he was out of washington anyway they all get together once a year and aspen all these big time hugely successful people and they share notes and strategies and Steve uh greenberg and Brian Bedal were part of that group and so was peter gruber and that's how i met them but now

peter was peter would always say and i to this day i remember this You know, I say, Eric, never use your own money, other people's money. That's what he was best at. You know, Peter would, Peter makes huge investments and put together these massive deals, never touched a nickel of his own money. He reached, you know, everybody else made money with Peter. But Peter was one of those magic guys that, uh, did amazing things, but never risked his own money doing it.

Here's a great question from Mike. What if Vincent answered? Eric's challenge to a fight how would the Turner execs have reacted to a real fight taking place on their programming I don't think they would have cared no you know somebody would have gone to the hospital or worse maybe that would have been a different situation but of all of the outcomes that were likely to occur occur i don't think they would have cared i think ted would have been proud of me hey it's stupid and silly and it's a waste of time however let's have some fun with it if you in here

let's say that fight did happen what would we've been expecting what would the outcome have been in 1998 what would your strategy have been mono imano the jacks chairman from north North Carolina, and Detroit's finest, EZE. What would that look like? God, you know, I didn't really think about it much, to be honest. In 1998, there were certain things I was still, there was only two or three things from a physical perspective that I was highly confident in my ability in. And there were simple things.

And when it comes to self-defense and fighting and things like that, it's not all the fancy stuff that really matters quite as much is, you know, believe it or not, just really, really good basic fundamentals. And I still had it in 98, I still had pretty good basic fundamentals. And the things that I relied upon at that point were my left hand, even though I'm right-handed, I had, and study would tell you this, or Ernest Miller or anybody that actually had been in the ring with me, my left hand was pretty good. And it's unusual for a right-handed guy to have a powerful left hand, but I did and fast. And I had a good front leg. So I would have probably worked his legs.

I would have stayed away from Vince because obviously he was much stronger than I was. And that wasn't, you know, lost upon me. But again, I, you know, throughout a large chunk of my life, you know, I wrestled in high school. I wrestled in college. I wrestled Greco. I wrestled freestyle. I knew how to, and with my martial arts experience, all of that really, the big advantage that all of that gave to me was just that I understood how to manage distance and timing. And I have pretty good footwork.

So I would have probably tried to tire them out, you know, usually guys that are. big like that blow up pretty quickly. The more musculature they have, the more oxygen they need. So if you can stay away from them for as long as you can and fatigue them a little bit, then all of the strength and the leverage and the advantage that they have with it starts to diminish pretty, pretty quickly. And the other thing that I've learned with people that aren't trained fighters is when they get into a ring or into a street fight, the first thing they're about is getting punched in the head you see it all the time especially if you watch those videos guys get in there and are leaning out they throw a punch but they're leaning backwards because

they're afraid to get hit in the head i never tried to hit anybody in the head i try to go elbow deep into their body it's a lot easier to knock somebody out to the body than it is to the head it's a lot easier to hit people in the body because they don't expect it and there's an area right there in the center of your chest just below where you're your ribs come apart that if you can land a solid kick or a good straight punch in that area, even if you don't drop somebody, you're going to take a lot of steam out of them a lot quicker. And then it's a lot easier to attack the head.

So I would have kept my distance. I would have moved in and out. I would have taken advantage of my speed because I was smaller and faster. And I have pretty good footwork. And then until I gassed him a little bit, I would have worked him from the ground up, meaning I would have worked his legs until I got into his body and I would have tried to drop him to the body. I wouldn't have tried to, I wouldn't even have tried to throw a punch to the head.

You could have helped him tear both of those quads early, you know, seven years early. Yeah. So you just want to look in the camera right now and say, I would have mop the floor with Vince McMahon, because that'd be good. No, I don't think I would have. I think it would have been. We're having fun, Eric. Well, I know, I know.

I mean, I would have kicked his ass. I'd have sent that bitch packing with his little pedicures and his manicures in his little stuff suit and his $1,500 little tie with a cute little nod on top. And I'd send that bitch packing back to Connecticut, whining like the punk he really was. All right. How's that? Was that fun?

Thank you. That's what I needed. That's what I was looking for. I appreciate that. All right. Two shows nightly, try the veal, tip you waitress. uh bobby wants to know do you think you would have stayed in the wrestling business if you had not gotten the executive producer role for wcw if so what would you have aimed to be

if not i don't know man that's a great question um no i would not have sucked around i was on my way out the door i've talked about that before i was i actually had sold a show to uh fox television fox kids network to a lady by the name of molly miles with Jason Hervey. We had sold a kid's show. I was heading in that direction. I had auditioned for a new show that I almost got, by the way. Access Hollywood.

I almost got the hosting job for Access Hollywood. So I was on my way out the door when the executive producer role came to be. And getting the job is what made me stick around. but what you know who knows who knows where i would have ended up it could be working on the car wash and dondo beach i don't know that'd be fun uh david wants to know what was your favorite and least favorite booking decision and for least favorite what changes would you make so let's go with least favorite we know the favorites the n w duh but what is the least favorite like if you have to do over

again or you're saying oh man i wish i had another bite at the apple on that oh gosh i don't know i i can't i don't know like nothing stands out in my i mean there's a lot of average to below average to horrible storylines i guess that i could choose from but i just they don't come to my mind oh maybe this one well it's like you know i only remember good things. I don't remember bad things. I don't always usually only remember good things about people and places. I never remember the bad thing. I know, I grew up in an area that a lot of people grew up in that don't have any good feelings about it. I'm the opposite. I really remember the good stuff. I don't remember. I don't drag the bad stuff with me. And I think part of that

is why I have a hard time. So what's the toughest decision you ever made? It's like, God, I don't know. Yeah. I made a lot of them. I can't tell you. I feel bad because it's a good question. and I want to participate and have fun, but I can't think of it. Ken Moore has a fun one. With all the conversations you've had with Vince McMahon, did any of them involve discussions about Nitro or Raw where you or he said, how the heck did you pull that off? Or that was a dick move.

So let me rephrase this for Ken. In your social time, not that you had a bunch of social time with Vince, but it wasn't all work all the time. There might be just a casual conversation here or there about something other than how's that weather looking today or what have you does he ever wax nostalgia with you and say man when you did da da da da da da da boy that pissed me off you son of a bit i mean i could see that does that sort of conversation happened never it's like it you know while i was there even you know when i was there as a talent and then even when i went back for a very brief period

of time in 2019 and at that point in 2019 that was with vince either one on one or in a very small group probably 15 hours a week or 20 hours a week um or more actually unfortunately um most of that was waiting for him by the way but we never it's like none of that ever happened never came up i wish it would have you know that in a fun just because believe me vince i don't think you know can probably highlight in vince's you know ultimately the way things ended up he's very proud of it and he should be um so i don't think it was like sore spot i just it's not how vince just it's just now it never happened everything you know for me with vince everything was pretty superficial there was no real

conversation between he and i very just like guys yeah it was it was all business it was just all business very little personal J.M. Wagner wants to know, what can you say about the Hulk Hogan Celebrity Championship Wrestling on CMT in 2008? Who came up with the idea of that show? You were a producer. Was that before you were also an on-air judge? Who from the cast had the most potential to be a pro wrestler? My partner, Jason Hervey, and I created that show, developed that show and sold that show to CMT, to a lady by the name of Melanie Moreau, by the way, who was the program director.

Not program director, whatever. Had a program for CMT at the time. Super cool chick, by the way. Super cool. She and her daughters have been out to the house here and stayed with us in Wyoming subsequently become friends. No, Jason and I came up with that idea. Dancing with the stars, I think, was kind of new at that time and was big.

And I think Jason and I were probably sitting in a restaurant somewhere and went, well, if you can dance with the stars, why can't you wrestle with the stars? That's where that idea started from. And we laid the idea out on paper. We developed it internally. We pitched at the CMT. CMT bought it. Our company produced it.

And I think in many respects, it was a really good show. It was a very complicated show. But the level of commitment from some of the talent, like Aaron Murphy. Now, you're not even going to remember who Aaron Murphy is, right? No. But she was the little girl in Bewitched. Oh, okay. And Aaron Murphy was like so into this.

She loved it. I mean, she cried when she got eliminated. And it wasn't like fake TV cry. It was, she cared, you know. And Dennis Robin, I mean, Dennis Robin, he put 100% into it. It mattered to him. You know, Dustin Diamond. Danny Bonaducci.

Now, I was shocked at how committed these people were. They weren't just, and look, some of them needed, you know, Danny Boddyucci didn't need a gig at the time. He was one of the hottest DJs in the United States. I think he was like the hottest, he was like the number one DJ in Philadelphia at the time or something. He was making big bank. He wasn't doing it for the money. He was doing it for the fun because he was nuts. Super committed.

it was a fun time the one thing i will say is you know that was one of the toughest periods of time for hulk personally his back was he's a star of our show his back was so bad i'm not even going to begin to try to describe it he we would shoot in the evenings generally we'd rehearse during the day and we shoot in the evenings like i'd go pick hulk up at his hotel like around five o'clock to get him back to the set and try to get him moving. And there was one point in time where I didn't think I could get him out of bed. Wow. He was hurting so bad.

And it took me an hour and a half just to help get him to the restroom so we could start getting cleaned up to go. He was in so much trouble. And then we'd shoot. And then on a Friday night, he'd immediately jump on a red eye, fly back to Tampa. because Nick, his son was going through some stuff, and Terry wanted to be there. It was a really tough time on him, but the show itself, it was a pretty cool show. It's pretty fun.

All right. All right, Eric, let's take a time out right now and talk about something that's not a tough time. It's the easiest decision you're going to make of talking about Hinson shaving. I've had this razor for a few months now, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I bought one for my travel bag, and I've got one. keep here at the house. I've even got one at the office. That's right. I've got three of these razors now. I've converted my dad. I've converted my barber. They know a thing or two about razors. Here's what's cool about hints and shaving. It's a family-owned business,

but they're an aerospace parts manufacturer. Yeah, that's right. These guys have made stuff for the International Space Station and the Mars rover, and now they're bringing that same precision engineering to your doggone face. That stubble trouble is gone. razor blades are like diving boards y'all i just learned this but the longer the board the more the wobble and the more of the wobble well that's where your problems come in you're more apt to have nicks and cuts and scrapes you see a bad shave isn't a blade problem it's merely an extension problem what hinson shaving is done though is using their aerospace grade c and c machines they make metal razors that extend just 0.0013 inches which is less than the thickness of a human

hair. And that means a secure and more stable blade with a vibration-free shave. And it gets better. This razor even has built-in channels to evacuate hair and cream, which makes clogging virtually impossible. Seriously, what I love most about Hinson's shaving

is they wanted to make the best razor not the best razor business. And what that means is there's no plastic here. This is the last razor you'll ever need. There's also no gimmicky subscriptions. There's no proprietary blades. are behind some lock and key down at the drugstore, and there's no planned obsolescence.

The Henson razor works with a standard old-school dual-edged blade, just like your grandpa used to use. But this has the benefits of new school tech. Think about it, 0.0013 inches? I'm telling you, when you hold one of these razors in your hand, you will not believe how thin this thing is. I mean, it feels flexible, but here's what's most impressive to me. not only is this giving me the best shave I've ever had so it's better than what I was doing it's also cheaper and I'm used to when something's better it's supposed to cost more they have somehow figured it out at Henson shaving your replacement blades are going to run you three to

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83 weeks. Eric, let's do one here from Marf. What a name. Was there a licensing agreement with Looney Tunes and Warner Brothers? I just watched StarK96 and Roddy has a Tasmanian devil on a shirt

and there are numerous shirts with animation crossing over with WCW and the NWO. You know, I don't know. That's a great question. Obviously there was a lot of cross promotion within Turner as a whole. We had New Line Cinema. We had the Cartoon Network.

We had Hannah Barbera, all of it under one umbrella. And there was a lot of cross-promotion. I don't think there were any intercompany allocations in terms of licensing. So I don't think there were any formal deals. But there was an attempt as often as possible to kind of cross-promote. Here's one from Billy. Is there an AWA talent that you worked with that you think could have been good or great in WCW, but never made it there?

Not really. You know, by the time I got to WC, or excuse me, AWA, um, all of the talent that could have gone on to make it did go on to make it. Yeah. And Vern was pretty much left with, with, with the exception of Larry Zubiscoe who was still there because, he was married to vernon's daughter um all of the real talent that had any real potential

was already gone here's one from uh not the russomania cody i love this one have some fun with it eric what was the blend of coffee you spilled on eddie guerrero i don't know man it was some industrial like by it by the that kind of garbage coffee was probably why i threw it was probably not even piss. I probably grab that cup of coffee because I have high expectations when it comes to coffee. You heard me talk about earlier managing my emotional expectations. I'm really, really good at that. But I'm very vulnerable when it comes to the things that I like to eat or drink. I expect it to be good. And when it's not, I react accordingly. So I think this whole story that's been so blown out of proportion about me throwing coffee and Eddie Guerrero

wasn't so much about me being angry and throwing coffee, either directly or indirectly, depending of whose story you want to believe, right, or the narrative, okay, dirt, cheat, nonsense. The real truth, most likely was that I took a sip of this coffee expecting a flavorful, robust, just palate quenching sip of hot coffee, and it tasted like crap, and I threw that coffee. And of course, Eddie, being Eddie, a little emotional, assumed I was throwing at him and hence a narrative is born. I was hoping you were going to say Folgers. The best part of waking up is hitting Eddie with my cup.

There you go. Yeah, there you go. K.S says if he had the chance and WCW was able to be revived today, would he do so knowing what he learned the first. time around any big changes all right no there's zero chance eric wants to start a wrestling company no no i was actually thinking about this last night um and in within the context of you being very grateful for a lot of reasons but there just isn't a scenario right now where i would go you know what i'm going to saddle up and do this one more time there just is not a scenario that time that

has come and gone. I wouldn't, I just couldn't even, and there's not, I don't think realistically, realistically, there's not enough money. Because I wouldn't be happy doing it. Not at this stage of my life. I mean, there's not enough money. I mean, there is enough money.

There is enough. Even if I was dumb enough to take it, I know myself well enough to know. I wouldn't be happy. And that's why, when I say there's not enough look, there's always, you know. Yeah, of course.

Stupid situations. But it's also why I said realistically, because I just know it wouldn't make me happy. It wouldn't satisfy me anymore. I would, you know, part of me would love to dabble, but only from a distance and on a part-time basis. And in a way that I felt like I was actually contributing something and enjoyed contributing, but that would not involve a 60-hour.

work week focusing only on TV and wrestling that that it would not be couldn't be let's uh let's do one here for mark if you could be CEO of any company in the world non wrestling for just one day to make a change that has driven you crazy what company would it be Google what would you change I have everything about Google. I hate Google Docs. I hate Google Drive. I hate Google meetings. Anytime we have to do something, somebody says, oh, we're going to do a Google Meet.

I just, I get angry. I say to them, you Zoom. Zoom is easy. Zoom is intuitive. Zoom. Zoom is just so functional. The whole Google products, not. I just I hate Google I hate Google I hate Google me you like the the search engine

I can deliver I can live without it I actually use uh what's the one that I use uh duck duck go oh you're the guy okay we found him uh DP wants to know what was your biggest regret from a talent standpoint of letting a wrestler go and having them wind up at WWE during the Monday night wars none zero I've never never ever ever ever thought twice about things like that it's just because you could drive yourself crazy if you do that well said just once they're gone or gone Matt Brown says if you could only get Hall or Nash but not both would you still have done the NWO angle and if you still would have done the angle which one would you have done it with you can only pick one

Scott yeah you got to go Scott yeah even Kevin would pick Scott even Kevin would pick Scott no I know he would yeah but I just wanted to think that through yeah Scott just had so much unique charisma that if you had to bet on one of one of those horses yeah it would be scott well said jeremy says being the guy behind the famous hogan heel turn what erika have ever wanted

to turn seen a heel and if so how would he have pitched it to him uh i think there was a time when the audience really wanted that yes there's no question about that i How would I have pitched it to him? I would have sat down and said, John, let's have some fun thinking this through and just start collaborating. If he could get, if he had, if his head was halfway open to the idea, if you could get, if you could get John Cena to the point or any talent, we're talking about John here. But, you know, if you get a guy like John Cena, where he was at least open to the idea to the extent that you could start creating. collaborating. John, what if? I don't know this is going to sound crazy, John. But what if if you could start a conversation like that and get engagement and participation, that's fun.

Now, what would that have ended up looking like? Who knows? Who knows? Because you would have to, you know, you'd have to build something that big around that particular. That story would have to be unique to that talent. I have to feel really, really unique to, in this case, John Sina. Couldn't be a standard story. Do you think, do you think Sina's legacy would be what it is had he turned heel? I think he's better off having not turned heel.

I agree. now you know back down i would say no man come on they're waiting for it they want it they want but looking at where john is today and what john accomplished during his career and the legacy that he did create i think he made the right move well that makes me want to ask you about cody roads because of course cody roads right now is the top baby face and the but I as an adult male tend to like the bad guy characters more and I think Cody was an excellent heel and I could see that in him you know he's got that little grin that right now is a is a good charming thing but you could also see that could really work as a bad guy character

too I know he's having one hell of a run as a baby face right now I personally really like the idea of him turning heel, but I do think about with the benefit of hindsight, looking back at legacies, like Dusty Rhodes, okay, he was a heel for a cup of coffee, but he was this beloved figure, much like John Sina. And I could see how wanting to stay that guy and that character, the hero forever, for generations, yeah, that's probably the right call. But as a fan, I find myself feeling the same way about Cody now that I did Sina back when, like, I this is good i can't wait for the hill turn i'm with you and dusty was special you can't dusty was special cody cody is also special but in a much different way dusty was every guy

yeah everybody could relate to dusty therefore the grace of God go I whether you whether you said that out loud to yourself or you just kind of felt it in the marrow of your bones when you saw Dusty deep down there for the grace of God go I that could be me that's how that's how much people related to Dusty for so many reasons promo is number one it was which was a reflection of what his promos were the way he carried himself there for the grace of

god go i i don't think that cody has that same relatability very very special thing cody cody's unattainable he looks perfect i see he's impeccable yeah he's the he's class he's everything most of us will never be ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha so as such i think a heel turn is probably most likely in his long long term future yeah i don't think you do it for years right it's not necessary like let this get stale first right yeah well you don't want to let it get stale you want to let it down down a little he would say does they all had this thing about saying baby you got jump foot you got jump from that lightning bolt baby in fact one of the

first times i was at hawk's house before he built his big you know mansion on the beach he had a beautiful home and it was on the it was on the water but it was a inlet uh instead of the ocean and he had a big round dining table And it was everybody had carved their signatures, you know, that had been to visit Hulk's house. And he used to throw a lot of parties there back in the late 80s, early 90s when he lived there. So everybody had their initials in there. And Dusty, I was sitting in one night, I was visiting Hulk and we were having a beer at that table and just kind of looking at all the signatures that had been carved into the dining room table. And there was the lightning bolt.

That was Dusties. And we talked about it. Because I used to hear Dusty say that all the time. Maybe I don't know when did it jump off that lightning bolt, baby and jump on to another one. And the key to that, the way I always interpreted that is, you know,

you don't want to wait to that label hits the ground. Yes. Jump off right before because when you hit the ground, you're grounded. Yeah. That positive electrical charge that was created up there in a thunder cloud just burned up a tree, but it's gone.

But if you can jump that bolt and ride another one before it hits the ground, that's it. And that's time. so you know you don't want to let that baby face character get stale because now you've gone too far and knowing the right time is the art and the magic but it's got to happen for i think it's got to happen for for coding you know whether it's a year two years or five years i don't know it'll happen relic has a business question for you what goes into using a band song for a pay-per-view or intro to a show does the company reach out to the record label or the band

directly? Never the band directly. Usually go to the publisher. It's where it starts. Check the publishing rights, see if it's available. Some people don't want to license their music out or only want to license out for certain types of things. So yeah, you find out who the music publisher was. Maybe go to the label. Either way, find out who you got to talk to first, usually the publisher. See what the deals are. See what the parameters are. what limitations there are starting to go negotiating from there. Chris wants to know there's always a lot of talk about dream matches we never got. Matches like Sting versus the undertaker, Austin versus Hogan.

Mine is AJ Stiles versus Sean Michaels. What would yours be, Eric? Well, that'd have been a good one, wouldn't it? That's a great one. Speaking of dream matches, did you see Vikingo and Omega? what did you think if he saw it no I didn't see it I was otherwise occupied but no I didn't see that one heard about it what did you think of it did you see it I loved it Dave Meltzer said it was the most important debut and in a lot of ways it was more special than Ray's WCW debut

which a lot of people thought was a little crazy because he was the real innovator but I do think there are those sort of oh I didn't know you could do that moments in wrestling Ray and WCW was certainly one of those and I feel like that's probably the message Meltzer's trying to convey but Kingo showed people things they'd never seen before and that's the first time we've probably been able to say that about a performer in a while yeah I didn't see it but I'll be curious I'll go back on look for it I do record the show so

AEW so I can go back and look at things in particular I'll check that out Big Laz says hey what was a bigger missed opportunity the WCW NBC specials or Viacom buying TNA. Viacom. Yeah. Both big. Both big.

But, oh, you. Both really big. Certainly when Turner Broadcasting prevented me from doing NBC specials, that was a big loss of opportunity. I don't think ultimately it would have changed anything in the end whereas the Viacom opportunity had TNA embraced the opportunity that existed at that point I think we'd still be watching TNA today Super Utility says

What was the thinking of not having Bulldog and Anvil appear on screen or interact with Brett in 98 Bulldog and Anvil would team up announcers would talk about their connection but there was never any creative storylines around it and they were the hottest faction in 97 besides the NWO. Who is the hottest faction in 97?

The NWO, of course. But on the other side, the other show, the Hard Foundation was the hottest faction for sure. Whatever. You weren't interested in, I just, they weren't that hot look with all due respect and they weren't at that point in time

either one of them ready to get any kind of significant real sustained push I appreciate the pause right there we all thought the same thing Jason wants to know I recently rewatch Jerry McGuire and I noticed that a lot of Jerry's mannerisms, cadence, movements, et cetera, were very similar to a 96-98 heel Bischoff. Aguilar came out in 96 and was very popular. My question is, are these coincidences or did Eric Bischoff take inspiration from the character? No, I don't, I didn't consciously, not going to suggest, because I did see the movie. Perhaps, you know, I've learned, you know, the biggest lesson I learned was Larry's

For years, I thought I just came up with the idea of calling it the NWO, the NWO. Like, it just rolled off my tongue from out of nowhere. And the truth was, I had heard it. Yeah. And subconsciously, it stuck with me, but I'd heard it from Larry Zabiscoe. And for decades, I thought it was my idea that just kind of popped out of my mouth from from whence I had no idea until I found out otherwise. So I think sometimes we're all influenced by.

things we hear or see, you know, I know we are. It's human beings. We do that. We mimic things we like. We react in certain ways to things that impress us in certain ways. And you don't realize it happens until somebody points it out or you see it for yourself. So maybe I did. Could have happened. I didn't consciously do it. All I consciously did was turning a volume up on myself. I knew the things that I could do that would kind of irritate people a little bit. So I turned the volume up on that. Dismal abysmal says, can Eric talk about how WCW's talent developed and got their ring gear if it differed from how it worked in the WWF?

I know WWF had higher production and TV, but it often seems like the wrestler's ring gear was a bit shoddy or two by comparison. Oh, it definitely was. Yeah, I mean, in WWE, it was a very, again, I don't think there's, I'm not sure what I'm about to say is 100% accurate across the boards consistently 100% of the time. But I think in WWE, generally speaking, it's safe to say that that process of designing a character or designing a, designing ring gear is a much more deliberate, thoughtful process, certainly than it was in WCW. It was a much more deliberate, thoughtful process where a lot of time and energy went in in the very beginning. Like the minute of talent came in, that was probably a process that began very early on.

Whereas at WCW is kind of like, oh, come up with some rig gear, bring it to TV, we'll see what works. It was an afterthought. Right. Particularly in comparison to the process in WWE. Now, once things started evolving and we became more successful and ring gear and the look became something we had to think about more and plan for more. Then that process started changing and we brought people into design gear and it was more closely similar, a little bit more to what WWE did, but not nearly as sophisticated still. Yeah, exceptions, you know, mortis and, you know, Glacier and a couple of the other characters that were really character intense for a very specific reason. That was a little different.

That process was very deliberate. But the rest of it was like guys would come up and say, hey, what do you think about this? Cool. Where are that? Awesome. Here's a fun question from Scumbag Trav. Kevin Sullivan has stated in shoot interviews that it was his. job to get people to forget that Goldberg lost on TV before the streak started.

He went on to say that Goldberg still had hair at the time and wore Falcons colors. I cannot find any record of this. Does Eric have any info? Man, I've never seen Bill with a hair on his head. I don't know. That's that you have to talk to Kevin about that one. I don't think I've ever seen Bill with a hair on his head. I do remember that he did lose a match, but I don't think it was taped.

It was to Chad Fortune at a WCW Saturday night taping. It was a dark match in Jackson, Tennessee, July 8th, 1997. But then even the other dark matches, he's just rolling right along until the end of 98. Yeah, I don't remember that at all. Yeah. Well, Kevin obviously did a fantastic job. Yeah, because we forgot. So because I forgot.

Yeah. There you go. Getting me to forget anything is not a real challenge. Garrett says if you were head booker for AEW or WW. What would be the first as soon as you get there change you would make in each promotion? I mean, I don't think I would have too much. Too much input on WWE right now. I don't see a lot of flaws.

I think the first thing. I would do with AEW, I would start at the very beginning. It's just basic fundamentals. And I would look at that format. I would start structuring my format and my stories in a much more deliberate fashion. Zane wants to know, what sort of role would it take for you to get back working with a professional wrestling company today? And if you had your pick, which company would it be and why?

I, I, it's just, there wouldn't be. Look, if there was. some kind of fun thing that I could do with with WWE and Bruce Oh yeah sure that'd be fun because there's people there that I genuinely

like and enjoy not just Bruce but other people but that's not real there is no scenario that's real that would be workable for them or or actually for me

I know I'd have to be able to do it my home, which makes it impossible, not realistic. And I would not want to be anywhere near AEW in any way, shape, or form. Not, not because I don't want them to succeed. It's just, I, ugh, no, no. James Elkary says, would you rather see a crowd split for both talents in the ring? Would you rather the crowd mainly all cheer for one guy and boo the other?

I'm a simple guy give me good guys and bad guys give me heat and aspiration give me the conflict and the drama that comes from the collision

of an aspirational character and a real heel give me that that's what I want every single time and I'll bet on that every single time and I'll win on that every single time.

The 50-50 gray area, don't get me wrong, I've done it, I've had success with it. You could argue I created it. NWO was that. They were cheering the heels. It was 50-50. It was confusing in some respects. Very confusing early on for traditional baby faces that were getting booed or listening to the heels that were kicking her ass getting cheers. It was very tough on some people for, for, for a period of time.

Not everybody got used to it, but. Yeah, give me just give me an aspirational good guy and a really just detestable heel and I'll bet and I'll win 90% of the time with that formula. Uh, Richie Ray wants to know why wasn't Jimmy Hart in the Man on the Moon movie? as a reminder this is the Andy Kaufman movie that of course had Jerry Lawler who was a big part of WWF programming at the time 1999 Jimmy Hart would have been working for WCW well this had been something that WCW or Turner didn't want him to participate in no yeah no I couldn't tell you I don't even I have no idea I mean there was a red light he know he wanted

to be there yeah I don't know I have no idea but it was Certainly we would not have prevented Jimmy from doing it. Zane wants to know. What advice do you have for young business professionals trying to make it in the world of media and entertainment? Develop a very thick skin network, network, network, network some more. Because it's really a relationship business still is to this day. I've been talking recently to some friends of mine that are in the business and it's still. It's very much a relationship business.

The real deals get done between people that have known each other for a long time and no one trust each other. So, yeah, network. And do shit that you don't necessarily want to do. Not every job, not every opportunity you're going to get is going to be the ideal one. Just get in it, learn, look for ways to learn, know what you don't know. and move on and do it again and keep doing it until you become a pretty valuable asset. It takes a lot of time.

You're going to, you're going to crash and burn many times along the way. Because it's also a, you know, the entertainment business is a fickle business. Any aspect of it, music, television.

It's all political. It's all fickle. It's tough. Got to be tough to do it. Man, business is tough. And that's why we're glad in Pira. is helping businesses plan for the future by turning ideas into actionable plans.

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and have developed some really, really sophisticated business plans. And the people that are really really good at building professional business plans are invaluable because a business plan forces you to think about the details of your business if you're starting a new business or if you're trying to rebuild an existing business a business plan forces you to think through some of the most granular detailed boring stuff but that's what you need to do if you're going to really build a business. But what I love about Empira is it's a tool that allows you to affect your business plan. Meaning it's a living, breathing thing that you can build

that allows you to, it's supportive of your business plan, allows you to execute on your business plan in real time and communicate all of the elements, the pillars that move the needles within your business. I don't care if you're making, you know, birdhouses in your garage and shipping them out on eBay or, or you've got a small business in your home with you and your wife and your kids and you're, you know, it's a side hustle. Or you've got a business of 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 or 50 or 400 people. You've got to communicate. You've got to stay on top of your business. And as a business owner, Imperial allows you to work on your business instead of working in your business and it's a and it's easy damn it's so easy you you sign up they'll

they'll onboard you on the phone and peers it'll you can custom design this unique business tool that is so easy to use someone like me can figure it out but they'll onboard you they'll talk you through it they'll walk you through it they'll give you some ideas and it's something you can use every single day. You get a dashboard. You show up in your home office. You've got a dashboard. You plug on. You can see what's going on in advertising today. And what did we do last week in sales? What do we do? What's our inventory currently looking like? How can we manage this better? And you can communicate all that with your team. So whether you're a one-man band or you've got an orchestra working for you. And Pira gives you the tools that can help you execute, execute a great

business plan. What are you waiting for? 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 at checkout. Launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before and visit impira.com forward slash Eric today and start your journey to success. By the way, and I don't mean to interrupt you, but I want to see, it's like the of two or three cups of coffee a month. I mean, come on. Conrad, you know this, man. You know this better than I do. How many new businesses fail? Yeah. And they don't fail because it's a bad idea. No. Most businesses fail because they didn't really have the right

plan or the tools to execute the plan. You get the plan you need at impura.com slash Eric. that's E-M-P-I-R-A-A dot C-O-M-F-M-S-E-O-M-E-R-A-N-P-R-E-R-B. By the way, we're going to do one more question here, but I want to direct everybody to our YouTube. We're doing something a little different. We're going to have an overtime. That's a YouTube exclusive. So if you're listening to us in your podcast app right now, you're going to get some more content, some questions we didn't get to,

some live questions from our studio audience, and all of Eric's WrestleMania of picks rapid fire so if you want to know who eric is picking everybody's talking about gambling and wrestling if you want to know who eric is picking be sure to check out our youtube channel that doesn't get any easier 83 weeks on youtube.com type that in hit that subscribe button 83 weeks on youtube.com Eric our last question and we'll wrap it up today is for Travis or is there anybody in your wrestling career you absolutely despised working with not really you know i'll joke around just to keep the show moving along sometimes or to try to be

funny but no you know i mean people didn't work out you know honky talk man comes to mind right and i joke about enjoying firing him well it's not a joke but mostly a joke but no there's nobody I just I don't know I never it's hard for me there's people I won't work with but I don't get emotional about it you know I just it is what it is well it is what it is for us this week here in the program in the coming weeks we'll be talking about your boy dDP also be talking about the 25th anniversary of the 83 week streak being broken we'll cover spring stampede 1998 uh your standing and legacy and professional wrestling when we have our fifth anniversary show can't believe that's the thing

uh and uh yeah eric five years of 83 weeks right around the corner man the australian tour with rick flair and that'll be a topic we're going to do and slammerie 98 99 even going to get a little bit of the four horsemen it's going to be a lot of fun by the way all this fun happens early and ad free over at ad free shows.com we've even got a brand new bonus episode of 83 weeks just posted from 20 years ago you took on stone cold steve austin and the main event of monday night raw but the real main event was the backstage confrontation that happened between you and the nature boy we talk all about it and watch your match back against steve austin it's all over at ad free shows.com by the way if you haven't already let me just tell you the first week's on us

that's right you get more than a dozen podcasts early and ad free with all this bonus content starting at just nine bucks a month and the first week is completely free it's a free trial y'all go check it out see if you like what ad free shows is cooking up over to adfreeshows dot com by the way if you want to advertise on this program man if you're looking for men 25 to 54 years old no better place than right here on 83 weeks you've heard us advertise for some of the same sponsors year after year after year you want to know why because it really works and with our super targeted audience there's very little waste find out more of how to advertise here on the program.

We get Eric Bischoff to shill for you, baby, at advertise witheric.com. That's advertised witheric.com. He's on Twitter at E. Bischoff. We are at 83 weeks on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. But for that bonus content you've been looking for, some rapid fire, WrestleMania picks, and even more questions.

Join us right now. 83 weeks on YouTube.com. That's 83 weeks on YouTube.com. And, you know, listen, lots of people going to be getting out and traveling here for spring break and summer vacation. Maybe you need to represent over at 83 weeksmerch.com. Check out all that new swag, man, new hats, new shirts, new tumblers, new stickers. Who doesn't want a big gold at the NWO spray painted it on their laptop? Come on, go check it out, 83 weeksmerch.com.

Eric, I was glad to be back in the saddle with you today, man. Had a lot of fun and looking forward to having a little more fun. right now over on YouTube. We'll see you guys next week right here on 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. Hey guys, need to call a quick time out here. I wanted to tell your listeners what I've been telling my listeners over at OU didn't know for a while now about all the cool things happening over at ads-free shows.com. A brand new series has arrived on ad-free shows.

Top of the card unpacks everything you need to know in the wrestling trading card space. And we're starting with the granddaddy of them all. the 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A set. Now, this set was not exclusive to any one territory at the time, as we were still right at the tail end of the territory era of professional wrestling. So it was basically a who's who in professional wrestling. With card number one, being Andre the Giant, others included in the set include Hulk Hogan, Rick Flair,

Dusty Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, and others. 20 years ago, Eric took on Stone Cold in the main event on Raw, but the real main event was the confrontation that happened backstage before the show. Now, the next week, I'm sitting in this chair, and that same guy, I don't think I had said a word to him that day. I don't think I had seen Rick up until the point he came through that door, and he's, you know, getting me, just telling me to get up, get out of the chair, and he's so pissed off, he's bleeding.

I'm on the phone, and he's got blood running down his chin, Because he bit his lip. He was so mad. He bit the inside of his mouth. He's got blood on a backstage confrontation. I hadn't even gotten out of the cheer yet. Ad-free shows members got to sit shotgun alongside Kevin Nash and click this co-host, Sean Oliver,

as they watch back some of the worst matches in history. None more so than the Yette. Randy now. The mummy is not Frankenstein. You don't walk with your arms straight out. With the arms out, right? And a, you know, a Yetty. He's also not a mummy, but...

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