83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 268: Hulkamania Australian Tour

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad discuss Hulk Hogan's 2009 venture down under for the ill fated Hulkamania Tour. Eric shares how the tour was developed and the sports and entertainment Australian company that was determined to make it happen. He goes into detail about Hulk Hogan's heath issues at the time of the event and why it was crucial that be Ric Flair involved. Eric also gives his thoughts and opinions on the latest with AEW's Wembley Stadium show, CM Punk showing up at RAW, Goldberg wanting a retirement tour, and so much more on this exciting edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. GAMETIME - Snag the tickets without the stress with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code WEEKS for $20 off your first purchase (terms apply). Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. 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. HELLO FRESH - Go to HelloFresh.com/83weeks22 and use code 83weeks22 for 16 free meals plus free shipping SLEEP.ME - If you need better athletic recovery or are suffering from hot, uncomfortable sleep, you gotta check out sleepme at sleep.me/83WEEKS. Save up to 20% on a sleep system if you use promo code 83WEEKS. 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 www.empiraa.com/eric today and start your journey to success!  FITE + - Fite+ is the ultimate digital platform for live sports and entertainment, and they are now offering a free 7-day trial at TryFite.com 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. FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NMLS number 65084 Equal Healthy Lended. Woo! Tax season is here, which means you've received or are expecting that tax refund any day now, and you're thinking about what to spend it on. How about a new home? With savewithconrad.com, we're helping renters become homeowners every single day, and it's more affordable than you think. You don't need perfect credit.

You don't need a huge down payment. In fact, you may not need a down payment at all. At savewithconrad.com, we take the stress out of the home buying process, will determine your buying power will even help you find a realtor and unlike the banks we don't say no we say not yet but here's how so if you're not ready right now we'll get you on a plan to be ready stop throwing your money away paying someone else's mortgage with your rent and start the path towards owning your own home today at save with conrad dot com Hey, hey, it's Godd-Ran Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff.

Eric, what's going on, man? How are you? I am great. As we record this, it is Wednesday morning. We very, very rarely record during the week. But I'm here, and believe it or not, I'm just about 8 to 10 miles down the road from headquarters for WWE. I'm in Connecticut. I'm back in Connecticut.

First time, I don't know, three and a half, four years. It's awesome. wait wait you like connecticut nobody ever puts over connecticut well i like it because i got to hang out with bruce and his beautiful wife stephanie last night we had dinner together and i get to leave tomorrow morning so it's a lot easier to fall in love with a place when you know you get to leave the next day and you had fun seeing your friends so yeah i'm having a blast i'm glad you got to catch up with bruce uh it's been uh a crazy couple of months for that man as they march towards WrestleMania and all the behind-the-scenes stuff that's happened with the actual

company and everybody is waiting with bated breath to see what's next for WWE but what we know is man that stock has been on a tear I'm sure you're talking about that and a lot more over on strictly business but the real test I think for a lot of wrestling fans is this coming weekend AEW is putting their Wembley Stadium tickets on sale the seek map as you and i are recording this has been released and it looks like they're set for a hundred thousand uh and and i've seen some talk online that maybe they're trying to challenge the wwe's all-time attendance record from dallas at russomania a few years ago man a hundred thousand whew it's a big benchmark what do you think you think they can

you know i when i heard about this i think you and i discussed it um and you initially, I really expect it. I do expect AEW to do really well. Yes. A hundred thousand though. I don't know about that. That's, I hope they do it.

You know, it'll be good for them. It'll be good for the industry. It'll be a good thing all the way around if it happens. But that's, I don't know. I think I'd manage my expectations a little bit on that one. I think that's a big number.

I don't see it. Here's the thing that I hate, Eric, because, and I know that at times you and I have both been accused of being AEW haters. I think that's silly. I think everybody who listens to this knows that you and I are pulling for the wrestling business, the entire industry, and AEW doing well is good for the entire industry. So we're both pulling for that.

But the narrative that, well, if they only sell 40,000, it's a fail. If they only sell 60,000, it's a fail. If they only sell 80,000, it's a fail. like there's this zero-sum conversation like you've either got to sell 100% of the tickets and and and shatter WWE's record or it's a fail and it's like wait wb did this one time and in what stratosphere would having 40 or 50 or 60,000 fans be deemed a failure that'd be the largest a DW crowd in history it can't be in that negative it's a positive yeah i don't i don't i don't know who's saying that or where they're coming from i think

I don't know. That's just weird to me. One of the things that I'm most excited for AEW about is that whether they sell 40,000, 60,000, 100,000, whatever, whatever they do, they do. But I think it establishes AEW as a legitimate international property. Yes, it does. I think it's going to open up a lot of doors for international television opportunities. So I think the real benefit to AEW, whether they sell two tickets or 100,000 tickets, well, two tickets are being extreme.

But regardless of what they sell, they'll establish themselves as a viable, legitimate international touring property, which will open up television, international television doors, which will result in a lot of revenue downstream. And that's the play that I think is the biggest play, regardless of how many tickets they sell. Obviously, you want to sell us, you want a great headline, right? especially AEW. Tony loves good headlines. Yes. And you want a good headline.

You need a good headline. You're growing business. But aside from headline, I think the downstream impact financially is going to be significant for AEW. And I think it's going to open up doors down the road. Other promoters are going to see this and go, hmm, maybe we can, you know, we can't bring WWE to our market, but maybe we can bring AEW.

So I think it's going to be a great thing. And I think anybody focusing too much on how many tickets they sell as being a little juvenile. Well, I'll tell you what, it's exciting to me is to have this conversation with you because you did something similar to this once upon a time and I'm sure some people won't be able to draw the parallel right away but hang tight. Eric has talked a lot on this program about how signing Hulk Hogan to WCW once upon a time. Who will be talking about later on in our topic today when we talk about Hulkomania's Australian tour? But when you talked about bringing Hulk Hogan on board

with WCW, yes, there was conversation I'm sure about he'll have a cell. merch and he'll help us sell tickets and he'll help us sell pay-per-views and all of that was written about in the observer but the intangible that didn't get much discussion in the industry newsletters at the time is what you shared on this program that bringing Hulk Hogan added some legitimacy to Madison Avenue so when you're going out and you're pitching national advertising national marketing national brands national licensing instead of trying to explain what WCW was, you could explain that you had Holcogan. Let me expand on that.

WWF at the time was really like the Kleenex or the Coca-Cola or the Band-Aid of their industry. Band-Aid is a brand, but a lot of us just say, hey, we need a Band-Aid. Really, you need a bandage. You might not need a tissue. You might not need a Kleenex. You need a tissue. Those just became interchangeable. and WWF became the brand and that still exists today and I think that we in the wrestling

bubble we all know what AEW is but a lot of the mainstream especially mainstream international may not but when you put a qualifier in there like you did to say we have Hulk Hogan oh this must be pretty big if they've got Hulk Hogan if you can tell those folks well we just ran Wembley Stadium Oh, this must be pretty big. It sends a message, a shot across the bow to the rest of the industry for live events, for licensing, for marketing. We're big enough to run a huge stadium show.

It establishes them as a disruptor brand, a challenger brand in a big way, does it not? It does. It does. And unfortunately, you know, AEW is going into the market without a tremendous amount of television. You know, I don't know what kind of television distribution that they have in the UK, if any, or if they're distributed on a streaming platform. WWE's been in that market for, what, 30 years? Probably more. And it is very, very well established.

But the advantage, the disadvantage is that EW's new. They probably don't have the television distribution that that WW has. However, that new car smell, that the fact that they are a disruptor, the fact that they're merging into the market. And I think the fact that, look, AEW has been in the wrestling zeitgeist. I think that's the first time I've ever used that word, by the way. I've always kind of shied away from that word. I don't know why it just bothers me when I hear people use it. but here I am using it.

But AW has been in the, especially on the internet, it's been in the wrestling zeitgeist now for a while. It's been dominant in the internet. They've built up a lot of anticipation. That's why I think it's going to do really well. There's a tremendous amount of anticipation to see what AEW is all about it, experience it live. And while they don't have the television distribution,

the fact that they're the new kid on the block or, as you say, a disruptor, absolutely, I think it's going to play in their benefit. And I think the same thing, to your point, we'll probably hold true in other markets internationally. It's going to be exciting to see how well it does. My, the real, now this is where, you know, I'm going to come off being negative. The real question is, how are they going to do next time? Because doing well the first time, when it's that new car smell and you're the first time in the market, we see this here domestically in the U.S.

You know, AEW has attempts to do really, really well the first time when they're in a market. and the drop-off is fairly significant afterwards. Let's see what happens. They're going to have to really deliver, over-deliver, big time. So when they leave Wembley Stadium, everybody that came, whether it's 100 or 100,000, leave talking about it, excited about it, and telling their friends and family about it. If they can achieve that,

they're opening up some big doors that are going to pay big dividends for a long time. if you are going to announce a surprise like a lot of people are saying hey if they're going to try to sell a stadium they're going to need to pull out all the stops and that means I've heard discussion of Bokata I know that's big to the hardcore fan

and that's big in Japan I've heard names like Goldberg I've heard names like Mercedes and I think most of us expect seeing punk to be there would you think that you want to sort of one, two punch these announcements? Like, I expect, because you and I are recording before Dynamite, I expect that the announcement that Punk is coming back will be either tonight or next week.

By now, everybody will know the answer to that, I suppose. But would you try to get one more big announcement or surprise before tickets went on sale? Or would you do that once the momentum of this first rush dies off? Because it does feel like there's, as we understand it, there's over 50,000, 55,000 email addresses registered for their pre-sale. The idea being those 55,000 in theory, aren't just trying to get one ticket. Maybe they're trying to get two.

Do you just try to make the punk announcement, make it clear he's going to be here and see what happens with the on sale and then maybe announce a Goldberg or a Mercedes or an Okada as we get closer to do the last minute push. If you need that help getting over the hump, what would you do? I like the idea of letting my announcements and my surprises and my build play out over a period of time

rather than just blowing it all out. Because once the buzz is over, it's over. That's right. 80% of your buzz, your chatter is going to be within 24 hours of the announcement. After that, it dies down significantly. So I would, yeah, to your point, suggestion, I would stretch it out a little bit. I'm not so sure that I would want to bring in a Mercedes or even a Goldberg for a one-off like this because it, I don't know, does it, I don't know that I would do that. And I don't think they're going to need it, quite honestly.

If they'd have 55,000 people that have already signed up for pre-sales, nobody's buying one day. I don't think. I don't know anything about this. I've never done this. Hang on now, Eric, why wouldn't you bring in, like, they do that for WrestleMania every year. This is kind of the AEW WrestleMania here, is it not? No, it's not. It's the first time they're going to the UK in a big market.

It's not an established pay-per-view. It doesn't have a track record. It's not a brand. It's a big event. Don't get me wrong. I'm not, you know, pissing on it. I'm just, it's not WrestleMania. And I, I wouldn't want my brand, my story, my talent to be the reason that this event is successful.

I wouldn't want the perception, or in this case, maybe the reality of having to rely on somebody who's not a part of my company to help sell that house. I said this last week when I was talking to Cassio. I mean, I think it was Cassio. It might have been John Alba Home versus Tricked Business. I wouldn't even want punk on the card. If I'm Tony Khan, I want to be successful. I want to have a huge event. I want it to be successful.

I want it to be critically successful. I want fans to have loved it. And I want to have done it without someone like CM Punk. And certainly without someone like a Bill Goldberg or a Mercedes. Nothing against them because I, you know, in the case of Bill Goldberg, Goldberg, I like Bill a lot. He's a good dude. And he's, and he's probably, if he does end up there, it'll probably help quite a bit. Same with Mercedes, Monet. But I just didn't, I wouldn't, I'd want to be able to go over there and do it on my own. And, and, and, and, and know that my roster, my stories,

my brand is what sold that event, not relying on somebody else. I think this could, as far as, as far as punk goes, I wouldn't give that piece of garbage, the leverage. I wouldn't, I wouldn't want him to think for a second that he is the reason that that event sold out or got close to us, whatever it is. I wouldn't, I wouldn't let him even for a moment think that he had anything to do with the success of what, what, what, what I was doing over in the UK, if I was Tony. I do want to talk about funk and what happened last week. But before we do, how could you argue that this doesn't. feel like it could be AEW's first WrestleMania. It's their first stadium show.

I understand you're saying WrestleMania as a brand. All in, while it hasn't been an AEW brand, was the show that launched this whole thing and was a pretty iconic thing because it was quote unquote, just three guys who sold over 10,000 tickets in a handful of minutes. This feels like, you know, the part two of that. Now they're going to see if they can do it for a stadium show.

a w's first stadium show man this if this is success as successful as we hope it is you don't think they could keep doing all in the stadium shows and do it internationally that's no i i do you i mean my my comment was you know what i'm what i guess what i meant to say is it's this is not russomania russomania is a long established brand an event this is their first time in that market maybe it will be someday To your point, if they do really, really well and they do it annually, maybe Wembley that maybe they show up there every single year or they do stadium shows, you know, around the world every single year or one big one.

Maybe in the future, it could be their WrestleMania, but it certainly is not now. I would be shocked if they're not going to use celebrities and soccer stars and all the pomp and circumstance you see for a WrestleMania. I think you'll see on this show. I would imagine they would, and particularly given the family's relationship with soccer or football, as they say in the UK, I'd be shocked if they're not a lot of celebrities there as well. And that's the other reason.

I talked about this with Alba and Strickland Business. One of the reasons I'm so confident that they're going to do well is, again, it's the new car smell. There's been this buzz that's been building. There's an awareness of what AEW is, and the UK is obviously a big. market for professional wrestling. All of those things point to success, right? But God, I forgot where I was going at that. I wanted to make a point. You were talking to Alba and about celebrities and. Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But one of the things that I think will also, if not ensure their success, certainly give AEW a big boost is the

infrastructure that already exists, the relationships that already exist in a, you with media, with local print, radio, television, you know, the cons have been in business in the UK for a while now and been in the sports business. A lot of great relationships come with that. So it's not like they're going over there for the first time with a bunch of people that have never done anything in the UK, never promoted anything in the UK. They're going over there with, you know, a fair amount of existing infrastructure, if not infrastructure, at least relationships, which are going to prove to be really, really beneficial. Well, I'll tell you what else is beneficial.

When it comes time to look for tickets, look no further than game time, we're talking a lot today about tickets in Wembley and tickets across the world. And we're even going to be talking about tickets over in Australia. And for a lot of us, man, we can get pretty stressed having the plan, you know, months in advance. Oh, man, that went on sale already. It sold out. Oh, I forgot.

I missed it. that's why you need game time you get exclusive flash deals on tickets for things like football basketball baseball concerts comedy theater everything you're looking for but maybe my favorite thing about doing business with game time is the peace of mind you get not only do they make it easy to get your tickets i mean seriously two taps and you're all set they send the tickets straight to your phone you don't even have to dig through your email doesn't get easier than that but the peace of mind you get with the game time guarantee Eric this is the game changer for me they guarantee you'll always get the best price here's how they do that if you find tickets in

the same section in the same row for less money game time will credit you a hundred and ten percent of the difference that guarantees you that you're getting the absolute best price they also eliminate the guesswork I think we've all taken a look at like a seat map like if you took a look at that seat map from the Wembley show man it is massive and it's hard to really tell from that all right where am i going to be okay and what is my view going to look like game time makes it easy they're going to show you images of your seat before you buy so you get the perspective of all right this is what it's going to look like bam you can pull the trigger it's that easy two clicks two taps tickets are in your phone download the game

Time app. Snag the tickets without the stress. Just download the Game Time app. Create an account and use our promo code Weeks. We're going to get you $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem our code weeks. You'll get $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Eric, you're actually in an area of the country where there's probably a lot of stuff going on tonight. You're going to use Game Time tonight? No, I'm not going to tonight because I'm going to be a, uh, a little bit of a little busy this evening at an event, but I have to admit I got on game time two days ago just to see what was going on in the area. Now, I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything,

but that's the thing I like about game time is if you travel a lot, you're going to different cities. You may end up with some time, especially if you're going on business. A lot of times you've got time on your hands. You're there by yourself, whatever. You're sitting around in the evening. There's not much else to do. You sit around and watch television. But you can go to game time to see what's going on in the market, whether it's comedy, whether it's a concert. And the other thing is there's a lot of, what I noticed especially, is a lot of musical acts that I really hadn't heard of before, you know, smaller, in smaller venues. And you see somebody's playing, you know, I'm going to go check out their music, go listen to

a little bit of their music over on iTunes, find them. You can discover a lot of great music and probably a lot of great comedy that same way. But if you're traveling, for someone like me, that travels and I get to a location, I get bored real quick, it's an awesome opportunity to just find something fun to do. It is easy and I love it. I love the app. It's probably going to end up seeing a lot more events than I would otherwise because the process of getting to, especially lately, all you hear about it is how horrific it is to get tickets and how complicated it can be sometimes and expensive. But game time makes it so freaking easy that I'll probably enjoy more entertainment than I would have otherwise.

They make it easy, two taps, and it's in your phone. They give you the peace of mind of knowing you got the best possible price. And they eliminate the risk of getting stuck with a bad seat. Who wants bad seats? Get great seats today with game time. Use our code weeks and get $20 off your first purchase. As a matter of fact, Conrad, I saw Willie Nelson has got a tour this summer and he's touring with several other artists.

And I discovered that on game time while I was on there looking for what was going on in this market. But I did notice that Willie Nelson is on tour this summer. And I'm definitely going to be taking advantage of game time and checking out Willie Nelson. Well, what I can't wait to hear is what you thought about seeing punk, checking out Monday Night Raw. Of course, at this point, Monday Night Raw is in the rearview mirror and they were in Chicago. they debuted a brand new big gold belt we'll talk about that in a moment but before we knew any of that the rumors were out that wait a minute there's a visitor backstage at monday night raw in chicago and of all people was talked about guy in the business the last several weeks

mr c and punk hanging out at a w e show what do you think what a desperate bitch what I loved it. I thought it was awesome. Why? I mean, listen, I can't believe that Mr. Controversy creates cash doesn't love this move.

Like, we know he's coming back to W to AEW. We know he's going to be the face of this Saturday show. Um, I just don't see a scenario where this is bad to have the entire industry talking about it. And like, you got to think by showing up early to Monday night raw. that it's going to leak, that then fans in the crowd will know that he's there.

Maybe you're hoping there's going to be some CM Punk chance. But if the entire industry is talking about him this week and he shows up on the regular AEW show, they just make the announcement, he's coming back. Doesn't that just add to the momentum? Like, that's a huge deal. I don't know. Maybe it's because I have just zero respect for him, like none. Um, to me, it just came off as a desperate.

move for attention. I just, you know, I did controversy. When controversy works in your favor, it's great. But controversy could also have blowback. I don't think there's going to be any blowback or negative reaction to this other than maybe for me, which doesn't clearly matter. But to me, it just comes off as a desperate, it's just a desperate little bitch, which is really what he is.

He's a bitch. He's a whiny, overrated. little bitch all right listen maybe i missed something help me understand i know once upon a time you weren't happy with a comparison he made about you know wcw and hauling nash jump and ship and he compared it to what was happening at the time in a w and you didn't like that i get that's nothing i didn't like it it was a reflection of of who he is and what he is to to i i don't really care what he says or anybody else for that matter but when you come out and make a statement like punk did and suggest that he is he's going to make a bigger impact on AEW however he said

I'm paraphrasing and butchering it obviously in the process but basically made the comment that you know him coming to AEW was a bigger deal than Scott Hall and Kevin Nash when they came in and we created NWO is such a stupid thing to say. And obviously, he was dead ass wrong, but it was such a stupid thing and desperate thing to say, desperate for attention, that it made me lose some respect for him. I understood it.

I get it. You know, it's the wrestling business. You're promoting, you're hyping, you're telling stories, you're doing everything you can to create attention. That's the nature of the business, and I get that part of it. but it wasn't just that one thing when punk came out and said that he was a more significant signing than hall and nash it wasn't just that it was when he first came out when punk first came out made his debut in aEW the first thing he did one of the first things he did was

barry holkogen now i'm not here defending holkogen okay people are going to have their opinions about halt and and as as do i and we all know that i i think the world of Holkogen. But for for Punk to come out in his first promo and bury Hulk Hogan in order to try to get himself over, to me, that told me everything I needed to know about C.M. Punk. That's the cheapest freaking heat you could possibly try to get. And if that's all you got, dude, if you're relying, first of all, he doesn't know Hulk Hogan.

I don't think he's ever met Halkin. He certainly never worked with Halk Hogan. So to come out and bury a guy. and call someone a piece of shit that you've never even met and you don't know, I'm sorry, that's a reflection of your character or lack thereof. And that's what really turned me off to him. When I heard about Punk coming to AW, I was excited as everybody else. I didn't know Punk.

I didn't really have much of an opinion of him good or bad. I really wasn't watching very closely when he had his run in WWE. But I could just tell by the energy. that was created by that announcement, the fact that he was coming in, I was excited, just like everybody else. And then to come out and have to rely on cheap heat like that to get yourself over with the internet crowd,

to me that defined who Phil Brooks really is and what he really is. And I think he's freaking overrated. He was in the right place at the right time, got a great opportunity. He made the most of it, and he's done a good job keeping up his mystique. But once the bell rings,

and you see what you see in the ring. Eh, not so much. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I just don't think he's that good. How can you in the same conversation defend Hulk Hogan and then say, when the bell rings, punk ain't that good?

Dude, come on now. No, when the bell ring, first of all, he looks like the guy that changes my oil at fucking jiffy loop. Number one, he does not look like a star. He's built like a, why are you doing this where's all this come you're asking me what i think of him and i'm telling you i think he's overrated he doesn't look like a star he doesn't carry himself like a star he can't cut a promo like a star he's really he's just overrated i mean if i see one more still shot

i'm seeing him punk covered in blood looking at his belt and with tears in his eyes i'm gonna fucking gag he's just overrated in my opinion that's all who is he overrated by i don't know the majority of the AEW audience i guess that put him over talk about how great he is i don't know the rumor the discussion is that this second Warner brother show this Turner show $52 million a year. And the rumor is that deal was contingent on punk. You still don't get it?

It's not a matter of I get it. Look, my opinion of him is based on what I, after having been a wrestling fan almost all my life and spent 30-some-odd years in the business, look for when I'm looking at talent. And to me, the cat is overrated. I'll give a fuck, who's spending $52 million on them. I think that's like the dumbest,

move in a world, there's going to be some executive somewhere that's going to be wishing they didn't make that call. I just don't get it. I don't. But hey, good for him. Good for Tony. If you can, if Tony can suck it up and realize that he's bringing a guy back that made him look like an absolute douchebag, sitting next to him at a press conference, he made Tony look like this smallest piece of trash, I can imagine. And you're going to bring that guy back because somebody's going to pay you a lot of money to do it. Good for you, man.

Good for you. I wouldn't do it. I would not do it. It's not worth it. Just so you know that started all this with you and punk, I think. They did it at a press conference. Quote, if you're competing with somebody on another night that's got a 30 year head start, that's fine.

but to me our competition is our audience as long as we keep them engaged and keep them happy i think that to bring it back around that's what we're doing so i'm not hogan or savage daniel brian and adam cole they're not the outsiders i see the parallels but this is totally different i'll go ahead and say it and people can quote me and they'll be pissed off about it but to me this is bigger and i guess you took issue with that and man it's just been a downhill slide with y'all ever since and no it's look what he said in that exact quote in and of itself it doesn't it doesn't bother me one bit but it's a combination of things with him it's the promo that he cut on his first day out and reaching into his cheap heat bag because he doesn't really have much else

to say or deliver and to have to dig into your cheap heat bag of tricks and try to get yourself over with the internet audience by bearing a guy that by the way see him punk couldn't carry hall cogan's boots in any in any shape or form is he technically capable of doing more in a ring sure does it fucking matter absolutely not in the big scheme of things we'll see him punk go down in any kind of wrestling history books as achieving the kind of success that Hulk Hogan created and and achieved absolutely not he's just a guy that was in a right place at the right time time and took advantage of a great opportunity. But that quote didn't necessarily bother me.

It's the combination of things that he said and done. What bothers me the most, and I don't know why it should, because I don't have a dog in the hunt, but for CM Punk to do what he did to Tony Kahn and to the whole company in that press conference, that's what put him over the top for me. that that to me that told me everything I need to know about

and I wouldn't go near him with a 10-foot pole I don't I don't care I just doesn't I cannot imagine why Turner TBS is spending $52 million a year

on a wrestling show that's going to air on Saturday night anyway because there's just no audience there but to make CM Punk quote unquote the face of that brand in that initiative knowing his track record good fucking luck by the way how's how's the rest of the roster how's the rest of your company feel about this move you know that that's another thing you know this this guy's i think he's cancer

and i and i and i think bringing him back for any amount of money is a mistake well i guess we'll agree to disagree if i was tony kine i'd be working at bringing back too um but i'm a punk fan and uh i don't know i'm excited to see where it goes i'm excited to see how they do when tickets go on sale this week and i'm excited for our topic today talking about when you and hulk hogan and rick flair invaded australia polka mania has been a powerful brand since at least 84 eric would argue before but it was still hot in 2009 nostalgia just sells everybody wants to feel like they did way back when and that's the reason you see some of these old bands still touring all these years

i mean they just started their their retirement tour their farewell tour 25 years ago they're still going is that crazy um so at this point in your career 2009 man you've done it all you've been with the AWA, you've been with WCW, you've been with WWE, and the rumors were always there from the first time WCW shut its doors, somebody's going to start up a new thing. And Hulk Hogan is going to have ownership in. And Hulk Hogan's starting his own promotion. We heard that at least twice a year, seemingly every year. And there was always discussion of what television network was interested and

where will Hulk and Eric go and start a new promotion with a new television network. Do you remember ever having a serious conversation about you and Hulk trying to do something with the television network? Just thinking back, there, you know, I had separately, not with Hulk, I had a couple of conversations, but nothing serious, you know, nothing at all serious. There was never a serious. There was never a serious offer or serious discussion on the table. I think Hulk and I took a couple of different meetings. We did meet with Fox at one point, but even that, that was probably the only meeting

that Hulk and I took together. I think David Hill was the guy. I think David Hill at that point was the head of Fox Sports. I can't remember. It was a long time ago. But even that meeting was more social than it was real. but no there was always a conversation you know there was always people speculating but there was never anything real or tangible so along the way i'm sure Hulk got a ton of offers from

independent promoters i've seen uh rick get crazy offers uh in the last several years just here and there and yon and whenever these would come around for Hulk Hogan i imagine that a lot of times promoters would reach out to you, hoping that you could put them in touch with Hogan. Was that a pretty regular occurrence once in a time? It happened pretty frequently, but I was also handling a lot of Hulks business, not just wrestling business, but I was also handling a lot of his licensing and merchandising and different opportunities. So I would get a call probably once, twice a year, on average, from somebody interested in

and possibly bringing Hulk in or creating a tour. But out of those one or two a year, you know, very few of them were serious or really had the resources to pull it off. I, um, I got to ask why Australia, like how does this deal come together? Who helps put this deal together?

Just talk us through the Hulkomania Australia tour as a concept and an idea, like the first pitch. Yeah, it was interesting. And, you know, knowing I was going to do this, this, we're going to cover this topic. I spent the last couple of days trying to remember exactly that. How did this thing, what was the catalyst? What was the first conversation on who is it with?

And some of the names obviously escaped me. But the pitch came from, I think it's Rikishi's cousin, Reno. I think he wrestled. this black swan super guy by the way really super guy but he had been working reno had been working with a promoter actually two of them father and son can't remember their names either but michael michael was the son's name i was the guy that i dealt with the most but they had reno had been working with this promoter in australia previously i think they had done some shows in Australia, smaller shows with this promoter. And Reno wanted to try to see if Hulk would be

available and as well as Rick and some of the other bigger names that we could put together. So Reno, I didn't know Reno and he reached out to me through the William Morris Agency. I was repped by William Morris at the time. And Reno knew that. So he reached out through my agent, took a meeting. I liked Reno a lot. It seemed like a really bright guy and had his shit together and I ran it by Hulk and Hulk got excited about it. You know, Australia was, Australia was always that market that, you know, I think Hulk and, and others felt like, man, if we could just do one big tour in Australia, because it was a hot market and Hulk hadn't spent a lot of time in Australia. I'm not even sure he had been there

before. I have to do, I have to check on that. I don't remember that. But it may have been the first time that Hulk had even been to Australia. And I think the idea of going to a market where Hulk had never been before in a big market, Australia is a big wrestling market, to go there for the very first time without the WWE was really attractive to Hulk. So when I, you know, I met with Reno. I did a little research on the promoters and had a couple conversations with Michael. I'll think it was last thing before this thing's over with, I'm sure, but I had a couple conversations with the promoters. And by the way, they also booked the Rolling Stone.

They were rock and roll promoters primarily. And they had booked some major acts, including the Rolling Stones. So clearly they had their shit together and knew what they were doing, had the relationships with venues and all the other things that you really need to have to be a successful promoter. So they were credible. And, you know, I write up by Hulk. And he got excited about it.

Hulk wanted Rick on the card. That was a big concern. Hulk was in really, really bad physical shape at that point and also knew that he had to be in there with somebody that he could really trust and depend on that could help him overcome some of the limitations that he had physically because he was in really bad shape. All the back at the time?

All back, yep. His knees were an issue, but he could work around that, but his back was really bad at that point in time. I was shocked he even agreed to go he couldn't sit he couldn't stand he couldn't lay down and you know you got a 18 or 20 hour flight or whatever it is to get over there and it was it was brutal but he did it and he was excited about doing it the australia thing i have to admit is something i hadn't really thought about that hulk hogan wouldn't have been there but uh yeah i mean i guess that makes sense like as i understand it um he had not

never wrestled in Australia, which does seem a little interesting. But when you think about it, I think WCW ran over there in 2000, but by that point, you know, they weren't using Hulk as often. And I don't even remember. I think one of them was in the fall. So he would have been gone after Bash of the beach 2000. And I guess the, the WWF never really went between like 86 and 02. So yeah, that's, that's crazy to think about.

Uh, looking at cage match, it looks like, yeah, he wrestled four times. in Australia and it was it was always this tour that's interesting that of all the places of all the corners of the world Hulkomania had touched apparently not so much for australia what was your preconceived notion of australia did you have one like as far as their wrestling fandom or what have you no i didn't i i obviously i was excited you know i've always loved going to new countries and and experiencing different cultures and learning that's always appealed to me. So I was excited just generally to go to Australia.

I had never been to Australia personally at that point. So it was exciting for me on a personal basis, on a business basis, the deal that we put together on paper was a really, really sweet deal financially. I knew that the wrestling audience was large and loud. I knew that there was a big wrestling audience there. but beyond that I you know I didn't didn't really have any expectations had you ever spent I mean whenever I think of Australia I think of the old legendary promoter Mr. Jim Barnett did you ever have any conversations with Mr. Barnett about Australia or no not really

you know generally we did you know from time to time you know Jim would tell stories about certain people wrestlers and Jim would reference a lot of the things that he did in Australia but never really got into much detail about it. I just find it interesting that, you know, here this huge wrestling crazed country is that maybe the biggest star in wrestling history had never really gone to. It is, it is interesting.

2002 is a show I want to bring up because you're in the company here in WWE when they're going to Australia. And Hulk is advertised for this show. so it was supposed to happen in 2002, back when you guys were both working with WWE, but he winds up leaving the company before the show happens. In a weird way, that kind of becomes a blessing when it's time for you to promote the 2009 tour because it's the first time Hulk Hogan set foot over here, right? It was a big deal.

It was. And I don't remember the details or why Hulk left WWE in 2002. I'm sure. some of the WrestleMania payoff usually. Yeah, yeah. He and Vince got into a bitch contest, but yeah, it was a big deal. And the anticipation, not only from the wrestling fans, I think that was real, but also from the promoters themselves, you know, the venues.

You know, we wrestled in some of the biggest venues in Australia. We'll get into that in a little while, which was kind of a mistake in a long run. But I think the anticipation and the expectations of Hulk showing up was huge. Not just with wrestling fans, but the promoter, the venues, media, got a lot of media. It was great. Talking about this particular venture, Condon, sports, and entertainment. Michael Condon, that's it. That's it.

Thank you. This is the promotional group who's putting it together. You said it was a really sweet deal. The terms of the deal that you're talking about is they were going to give you guys X number of dollars to put together the wrestling card or here's how much Hulk's making here's how much Rick's making here's how much I'm making well it's a little bit of both um again Reno was he had we didn't build the entire roster okay so once we got Hulk on board Hulk wanted make sure that Rick was on board and then you know rudest the freaking barber

beefcake was on board, the nasty boys were, you know, so we had certain people that Hulk wanted to bring along. But the rest of the card, Reno put together. So it was kind of a combination. And look, Hulk got the majority of that revenue. I don't remember what the deal was. It was very significant, though. And it would have had to have been to get Hulk on a plane, especially given a condition he was in at that point to fly all the way to Australia. So it was a massive deal financially. And we would have, we, meaning Hulk and I, and our side of that equation would have received the bulk of that. And Hulk would have received the bulk of that money.

But even for myself and for Rick and in others, it was financially it was a good deal. Well, I'll tell you what else is a good deal. Hanson Shaving. Very seldom do we get to come on this program or just in life, Eric, and talk about how something is better, but yet still cheaper. normally when we reduce the cost of something and something is cheaper we consider it to be less than and it's not as good and the more you spend the better it gets or some that's the way it works in

our brain so i have a little trouble with hinson shaving it's not only better than what i was doing i mean seriously this is the best razor i've ever had it's also cheaper i just love these guys hinson shaving is a family-owned business you know i love that and they're an aerospace parts manufacturer. Huh? Yeah. These folks made parts for the International Space Station in the Mars rover and now they're making metal razors using their aerospace grade C&C machines. They're making the thinnest razors I've ever heard of. 0.0013 inches. That's less than the thickness of a human hair. Think about that. A razor thinner than a human hair. Now what does that matter to you? Well, it means less wobble.

vibration, less nicks, less cuts, less scrapes. As if that wasn't enough, Henson has built-in channels to evacuate hair and cream. It's going to make clogging virtually impossible. What I respect about these cats over Henson is they really wanted to make the best razor, not the best razor business. There's no plastic here, there's no gimmicky subscriptions, there's no proprietary blades that won't work next year, there's no planned obsolescence at all. This works with a standard old school dual edged blade, it's like all the boys in wrestling

use and just like your grandfather's, except these are thinner than ever, 0.0013 inches. So you get the old school feel, but the benefits of new school tech. And once you own a razor, and I think this will be the last razor you ever need, once you own a Henson razor, you're going to spend like $3 to $5 to replace the blades. three to five dollars a week not three to five dollars a month not three to five dollars a quarter three to five dollars a year that's crazy is that not nuts it's unbelievable think about this if you think to yourself well i'm gonna live another 30 years you might need ninety dollars for razor what are you talking about that that's what we used to spend like

for a quarter on razors when you go down to the drug store they keep the replacement blades under lock and key you got to ask an associate to come unlock it that's how expensive it is this gave me the best shave of my life I loved it so much I bought one to keep at home one to keep at the office and one in my travel bag my barber's even got one now think about how many razors she's used in her life she says this is the best one she's ever used you will absolutely love it and it just feels old school it feels substantial it feels high quality it feels like a sense of occasion like you're going to love it i can't recommend it enough let's say no to subscriptions

let's say yes to a razor that will last you a lifetime visit henson shaving.com slash 83 weeks pick the razor for you and use our code 83 weeks and you'll get two years worth of blades free all you got to do is add them to your cart that's 100 free blades when you head to H-E-N-S-O-N-S-H-A-V-I-N-G dot com slash 83 weeks, and use our code 83 weeks. This is the real deal, is it not, Eric? It is, and it's so cool. You hit it right on the head, though. It's like that old-school feel.

And look, because it's like that old, the old-style razor like, I remember as a little kid, watching my dad shave with his razor. I was like, oh, wow. You know, pretending I put shaving cream on my face, and I didn't have a blade, and the razor, obviously, you'd do the same thing. It's like comfort food for your face, that old school feel and vibe and look to it. But the technology is absolutely stunning. The fact that those blades are as good as they are, as thin as they are.

And like, you're talking about the pricing. It's just every time I hear you talk about it, it's like, how do they do that? How do they do that? You know, you can't buy anything for two or three dollars or five dollars hardly anymore. I couldn't get a cup of coffee for five dollars anymore. and you're talking about razor blades it's just nuts it's a great opportunity and i love it i i use my i like to look at the mirror and look at the old school look of it kind of proud of it i leave it out it's in my bathroom i don't put it away i can't leave it out because it's just cool

i agree i leave mine like i've got the little stand i bought the stand i mean listen here's the real deal guys we vet our sponsors so they'll send us something to try we see if we like it I liked it so much. I was impressed with it so much. I talked it around the office so much. My dad said, okay, I'll buy one. And I said, well, hey, let me put the promo code in for you. Just look, I want us to get credit. So I go to type it in and I finally saw how much the razor costs, and I thought, this is the greatest product. I mean, we have to talk about this product forever and ever. And I want to tell you how much it is now, but I will tell you this, you're going to be shocked. Because when I heard, I knew the deal. All right, razors are three to five dollars a year.

so that means the razor must be very expensive that is not the case so so affordable I said shit dad I'm getting you this razor but I'm going to make sure I get this little stand for me I've got mine displayed in the back I love it seriously go check it out right now henson shaving.com slash 83 weeks so listen you you said a minute ago Eric that you weren't really uh putting the entire roster together um what was they asking you for up front like we need you to help us secure flair and hogan we need you to help us cut some promotional items so we can put them out in the market to sell tickets maybe we need you to do some media and what else did they need you to do well i had to you know i put together

the agreements the talent agreements the contracts um that was basically yeah it was you know get hulk on board hulk absolutely wouldn't have done it without rick so i had the conversation with Rick. I think Hulk had the first one and I followed up and worked out a deal with Rick. And then, you know, the nasty boys. And like I said, Bruce, the freaking barber beefcake and a couple others that we, we put together. I put those deals together. That was basically it, negotiated them. And that was basically it. Everything else they took care of out of Australia. So it makes the observer, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, we've been talking about starting a promotion of doing overseas touring for seven years,

finally announced to start the Hulkomania promotion with four shows for Australia in November as a part of a ton of news this past week involving Hogan. It's been noted that this will depend on advanced sales when tickets go on sale September 24th, as someone close to Hogan noted, it's all going to depend on how the advances go. But others have noted,

Hogan has signed the deal that would leave him with a major financial penalty if he was the one to pull out of the tour. They had been talking about doing a European tour of late as the debut of the new group and pulled out of it.

The dates announced are November 21st in Melbourne, November 24th in Perth, November 26th, and Brisbane, and November 28th in Sydney, all running the same large arenas as WWE runs in those cities. So you set the record straight right away. If Hogan would have pulled out, no major penalty.

That's, I don't know, I don't know where the, I, no, no, it's none of, none of anything that tapeworm said in what you just quoted was true. None of it. Yes. Not even, not even, not even close to it. We hadn't been talking about, I mean, look, independent, independent promoters would come to Hulk or myself from time to time and there'd be a conversation as I told you a few moments ago maybe once or twice a year somebody would call but they weren't real there was never any

real discussions about doing anything internationally they weren't real so Dave's reporting if you want to call out reporting is absolutely a lie none of that was true and as far as the a penalty in Hulk Hogan's contract absolutely untrue, absolutely untrue. I don't know where or why, even in particular, they would come up with stuff like this. I don't get it, but no, not even remotely true. Timeline wise, are you, is this the same timeline where you're also working on an impact deal? Yes, that's right. Yes, it was because I, yes, we had started the discussion.

I forgot all about that. That's why I love doing this show. You remind me of things that I completely forgot about. But we had started the discussions for the Australia tour, I think, either shortly before or shortly after we got serious about TNA. And I had to make it clear to TNA that we're going to be doing this tour. because TNA was also talking about doing an Australian tour. There had been some conversation in T&A about that

and I had to let them know that we were doing it and it wasn't going to be with T&A. I mean, we weren't going to involve T&A in any way, shape, or form. Because the deal had already, we'd already begun structuring the deal and trying to include TNA wouldn't work. So, yeah, it was right around that same time. The observer would say at least 30 dates

are on the tentative plans, including to open up several new markets overseas. W.W.Bs never appeared in. The thought process behind it is similar to the concert world, where huge American stars of the 60s and 70s can still go overseas and draw huge crowds, even though they could no longer do that in the U.S. Of course, concerts in pro wrestling are different forms of entertainment, as acts from the 70s and 80s draw huge on the road in the concert business, while nostalgia has some magic in wrestling, it pales in comparison, to music. What was the master plan here? Do you think these Condon folks, they wanted to start a

much bigger promotion and opportunity than just this Australian tour? I never really had that conversation with them. You know, I think the conversation was really focused on this tour. And if it was successful, perhaps there could be other business down the road. But again, nothing ever meaningful. No discussion. that really mattered ever took place about what we were going to do afterwards obviously everybody was hopeful and optimistic and wanted it to do well and if there would be more opportunities afterwards great but there was never a serious because there was never 30 dates you know tentatively booked or anything like that so talk to me about rick flair you know we said up front

that you felt like or hulk felt like rick flair was was vital to um to this whole operation what you're going to try to do here is it a function of they come to you and hawk then you guys have to think of an opponent and he says well it's got to be flare is that the way it goes yeah they were interested in hulk they were not interested the only reason anybody reached out to me was because they were interested in hulk hogan um Hulk for the same reasons that Hulk was adamant about working with rick flare when he first came to wcd because Hulk knew that Rick was someone that he could trust. And when I say trust, I mean, it felt 100% comfortable with in the ring

that wasn't going to go out and try to take advantage of him or try to get themselves over at his expense. Hulk really, really trusted Rick. And the same was true when this Australia tour came up. But there was no question. If Hulk was going to wrestle, there was only one person he was going to wrestle, and that was going to be Rick Flair. Uh, the, the thing that I want to just add context to is at this point, Rick's last

match was his retirement match against Sean Michaels at WrestleMania. That went down March 30th, 2008. You guys are going to have Rick Flair step between the ropes again in Australia for the very first time on November 21st, 2009. So over 18 months later, but still. Relatively fresh in our minds, the Rick Flair's last match. Do you make that pitch? How does that go?

What was Rick's reaction to? I know you just had the greatest send-off in history, but what if we did it again? It really didn't come up much. It just didn't. You know, it was, and I guess it probably should have. And maybe, you know,

Rick and Hulk may have had conversations about that. Right. But when I reached out to Rick, to put the deal together, it was not something that even came up casually. Wow. I shouldn't any observer here. The idea is that now that things are public is to use Hogan and Rick Flair names to try and sell shows to major promoters overseas. At this point, there are no deals on the table for running in the U.S. or filming a traditional wrestling television show.

It's only logical that they could get a television deal in the U.S. pays them similar to spike steel with t and a that that would change particularly since the tapes could be used to better market overseas events you think there's someone on maybe melzer had some sort of relationship with these condon folks because none of this that he's reporting here feels like it's even in the remote same realm of what you're talking about as far as i and that's what mystifies me you know i mean i i genuinely think that dave melzer's got issues i know what they are but when i hear some of the stuff that he wrote back in 2009 and i know i was in it i was in the middle of it and to hear this fabrication these lies and these are this is not a distortion

this is not an exaggeration these are just flat out lies and i ask myself why why would why would you write stuff like this but it's not that entertaining where I don't know man I can't explain it but no there was no we weren't considering using Hulk Hogan and Rick Flair to you know generate business or this was a one-off deal that's all it was all it was ever discussed being there was no discussions between Hulk and I about doing international tours we're in TNA we just signed a deal with TNA so this is such And, you know, I know you get tired of hearing me because I know you feel differently about Dave that I do. But this is, I don't even know how to talk about it anymore.

It's so bizarre. The guy is just nuts. He's making shit up for this. Maybe he feels the need to just fill up as, because he often talks about the fact that he's over 10,000 words. No periods, no commas, no grammar, but 10,000 words. And maybe he was just filling his word quota and making shit up as he went. don't know but none of it was true well it's written here that flair signs a three-year contract with the group and he's going to be holk hogan's main opponent in the main events on the first tour if not

going forward and likely pushed as the number two star with the group so listen you maybe don't know exactly what the terms of flair's deal was but no i do i did the deal there was no three-year deal okay there was no three-year deal i that's what i mean there's no like because sometimes you know memories fade and you know facts get a little distorted not not because anybody has any bad intentions or right right some nefarious reasons i mean just time goes by and you know you remember things differently i'm i'm guilty or a victim of that myself frequently but when you're this far off base something else is going on there But there was no three-year deal.

There were no options. This was a one-off deal. If it would have went great, we probably would have had other discussions. But there was no three-year deal or discussions with other promoters. I mean, think about it. We were under contract to T&A. The only reason that we went over there, having already been signed to TNA, is that the discussions and negotiations took place prior to us getting to TNA.

Right? the ball had started moving downfield before we were official at T&A. But once we were at, once we were at T&A, Hulk was exclusive to T&A. So was I, as far as wrestling is concerned. So just on the face of that fact, doesn't it kind of tell you that this

this guy's lying through his teeth? I mean, isn't it obvious? Is it only me? You wrote in your book, Grateful, how important it was for Hulk to surround himself with people he trusted. So I'm curious, the rest of this tour, if you will, how do we flush out the rest of that roster? Well, as I said, you know, Hulk had a couple guys that he wanted to bring over. And part of it was he wanted to have fun. You know, he was going through a lot personally, had been through a lot personally. obviously his physical situation was bad, putting it mildly, and figured as long as I'm going

over there, I want to go over there and have as much fun as possible, which is why he wanted the nasty boys, for better or worse, you can see whatever he wanted about the nasty boys, but they were fun to be around most of the time. He wanted people that he knew, and he wanted to have a good time. But the rest of the roster really, Reno put it together. There were a lot of, you know, I mean, I think who else was on the current? heard that we put together. Well, so the first one in Melbourne is Nick Densmore, who we know is Eugene.

The Pimp Father, which is actually Godfather, they would take on Rock of Love, which was Billy Blade and Caden Anthony. Brutus Beefcake would beat Heidenreich. Spartan 3,000 would beat Shannon Moore. Spartan 3,000 was Matt Cross or M Dog 20. The nasty boys are going to take on the vampire warrior, who we know was Gangrel. and uh black pearl who black pearl that was reno's wrestling name black pearl uh mr anderson is going to take on sean morley we know as the former valvinus brian christopher is going to team up with

kishi who was rikishi to take on orlando jordan and uh the former umaga and then in the main event hulke hogan and rick flair so that's night one um that's quite a crew here man yeah and again And Reno put that, and Rikishi, I'm sure, had a big hand in that. They put the majority of that. I had never met Ken Anderson before. Obviously, I knew Shannon Moore. But a lot of those names were people that I had never worked with before and didn't know. You know, God, I knew who Godfather was, obviously, but I never worked with him, really.

Closely. But, yeah, they had all been working with Rikishi and Reno. And that's how they ended up on that car. I brought Hulk, I brought Rick, nasty boys, and Brutus. That was the extent of my roster contribution. Hulk is coming off major back surgery. He's got an artificial hip and knee. He's 56 years old.

I'm not saying this to be funny. And I'm sure some of our listeners who classify themselves as Hulk Hogan haters are going to think I'm trying to be funny, but I'm not. how does Hulk work the ring rust off how does he get ready to train for this and make sure that this is a performance that he expects not necessarily that the fans expects but he expects like it feels as if he wouldn't want to just slide in the ring for the first time in front of everybody and i know that that's what people thought rick was going to do this past uh july in nashville but he he had been working a lot to get ready for that was hulk in his head about

can I do this? I got to get back in there. I got to run the ropes. I need to do some walkthrough, some drills. What's the thinking? I think he was really nervous about that. Beyond nervous. I think he was frightened because he didn't know how his back was going to hold up.

He wasn't able to work out. He wasn't able to train. He could barely freaking walk at that point. He couldn't sit for more than 20 minutes at a time. He'd have to get up and try to move. And then after 15, 20 minutes of moving, around he had to sit down again because he couldn't keep moving it was a really bad situation for him so no he wasn't able to work out he wasn't able to get into the ring and

and bounce off the ropes a little bit or take a bump or you know he wasn't able to do anything he could like i said he could barely walk for more than 20 minutes and i think because he knew he was as compromised as he was physically there was a fear that you know he could get in the ring and he could he could blow his back out not be able to continue there was a real fear but he did it anyway. Imagine he probably medicated. He was on a lot of medication at the time, prescribed, nothing illegal, but I'm sure he peeled up, did the best that he could and hoped for the best, but he was concerned about it. This is going to be, we talked about how this is Rick's first match since March of 08, WrestleMania 24. This will be Hulk's first match since April of 07 when he

wrestled big show in Memphis are you at that Memphis show I don't think so no I was not um it's just fascinating to me to how these sort of deals come together the observer would say there are plans to film a reality show with the two of them described as a real life version of the odd couple one of the classic television series of all time where two opposites in this case may not share an apartment, but each coming off a divorce or forced to work with each other to get back on their feet and perhaps try to avoid driving each other crazy. Hogan and Flair have had their ups and downs over the years, but have put on good terms of late, of Hogan even appearing in the pilot that was shot of the Rick Flair reality show.

The deal includes a provision where Hogan and Flair will be together on all wrestling-related ventures during the period of the contract. Now, listen, that is intriguing because we know. that you, sir, have put together over a dozen television shows and a Hulk Hogan reality show, well, that seems like something you would have been excited about. An odd couple of him and Flair. Do you remember this ever even being discussed or is this more inaccuracy? I don't remember it at all. That doesn't mean it didn't happen. Somebody else, you didn't have to ask Rick. I wasn't aware that there was a conversation about a Rick Flair reality.

show back then but maybe there was i wasn't certainly wasn't involved in it i think it's safe to say that hulk would have absolutely not been interested in doing it he had come off the uh hogan knows best reality show and i think he regretted ever doing that show probably beginning five minutes after it started and it only got worse so there was absolutely no appetite on hulk's part to to have a Paul Kogan reality show of any kind. That doesn't mean he wouldn't appear on somebody else's. And if there was a pilot that somebody did with Rick, I'm sure he'd show up.

But I just can't imagine that there was any serious long-term conversations about it. He was done after Hogan knows best. Yeah. He didn't even want to watch reality shows after that. What was his takeaway? I mean, I know you don't speak for him, but what was your impression of how he felt about Hogan? knows best and the whole reality experiment with his family i i think he regretted it it it put a lot

of stress on on the family it and you know people think you know having having a reality show being produced in your home is about as intrusive as you can possibly get you know you've got 10 15 people running around your house 12 15 hours a day five six seven days a week because you're on a tight schedule and it's a lot of work and it's it's it's intrusive as hell and i think it put a lot of pressure on the kids it created opportunity as well but it also created issues i think he just regretted it from from day one had a very bad taste in his mouth about it well something you won't regret is using our friends at hello fresh something new for everybody every single week that's what I like about hello fresh seriously you've got so many options that you know my wife

and I we find ourselves getting into a bit of a rut at times well you can take your pick here man keep your taste buds on their toes over 40 different weekly recipes they've even got a hundred items to round out your order all the things like snacks and easy lunches even desserts and pantry necessities you can get it all from hello fresh what I like best about hello fresh though Not only do they keep us out of the rut, they make it so easy to cook at home. When the wife and I have to go grocery shopping together, we always wind up buying too much, and we wind up throwing a bunch out. We're just wasting time and wasting money.

The pre-portioned ingredients mean there's very little waste, and it's cheaper than when we go to the grocery store. That's right. HelloFresh is cheaper than the grocery store. Not only that, it's cheaper than takeout too. I've seen it's 25%. That's been my experience. It's 25% cheaper than takeout. And by the way, you know you're getting everything you need here.

They've got something for everybody, fit and wholesome, veggie, whatever your lifestyle. Man, they got it. But you'll always be trying something new and interesting and fresh. Like this May, they're celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. So for a limited time, you can try all kinds of stuff that I can't even pronounce. But I'm excited to cook it because they send you such easy to follow directions. Eric, not only do they have them printed. They got pictures, brother.

I can follow along with pictures. Okay, so put that in there, got it. And here's my favorite part of this. When they say hello fresh, they mean it? Guys, this stuff was on the farm less than a week before it was at your house. Think about that. From the farm to your front door in less than a week, it's always going to be fresh. It's been a great experience for me and the wife.

we got out of our rut. We were cooking together. I wasn't overwhelmed. And I have to admit, I was nervous about that. I'm pretty good on the grill, but when it comes time to everything inside, I'm like, uh, am I doing this right? These instructions made it so easy and it paid dividends. Go cook with your wife. You'll see what I'm talking about. Head now to hellofresh.com slash 83 weeks 22 and use our code 83 weeks 22. Buddy, they're going to get you 16 free meals plus free shipping. You heard me, 16 free meals plus free shipping when you go to hellofresh.com slash 83 weeks 22.

Remember to use our code 83 weeks 22. We love Hello Fresh and you will too. We'll find out why they're America's number one meal kit. What's you and Mrs. B's experience been like with Hello Fresh here? It's been great and we love to cook. Mrs. B's, she's better like you. I'm really good on it. Well, I think I'm pretty good on the grill.

I'll still ruin something every once in a while by experimenting. But for the most part, I'm pretty damn good on a grill. Lori's much better in the house. But something you said made me chuckle. We love cooking together. Yes. I mean, it's fun. You know, you crank up the two.

It's what we do on the weekends. You know, my life has kind of calmed down quite a bit. So on the weekends, man, we crank up the two. tunes play a little bit of music we do our cooking we have a great time and we have a blast doing it but i like hello fresh because of the other thing that you said it's all you know seven days from the farm to your refrigerator it's kind of a big damn deal because a lot of times you go into the supermarket and you know you can look at the sell on date but you don't have no idea how long that stuff's been sitting in a truck or sitting in a warehouse or sitting you know

in the back of a grocery store waiting to get put out on the shelf. And fresh is better. And that's the thing that I like about HelloFresh the most is the freshness. Hellofresh.com slash 83 weeks 22. Use our promo code 83 weeks 22. You'll be glad you did. Okay. So the observer would continue.

There's some uncertainty from the new company side because Flair has made it clear. He's going to call Vince McMahon before signing the contract and didn't sign until Vince McMahon gave him his blessing. supposedly McMahon told him make sure you get your money up front in a sense that was also a sign that McMahon wasn't looking to bring Flair back as he didn't make a counteroffer to keep him from going on the tour do you remember there being a discussion with Rick that I need to run it past Vince first I don't it doesn't mean it didn't happen it could have and it kind of would make sense because I know that Rick's always always respected Vince

and I can't imagine that Rick would have made a move like that without at least giving giving Vince a heads up. So it makes sense, but I wasn't, I wasn't a part of it, never came up with a conversation. Well, we've always heard that Vince wants to shut down or undermine competition. I mean, even going back to the Crockett days, he would try to, you know, counterprogram them. Was that a concern going in here that you thought, man, if we announced and we got some momentum and we got hulk and flare maybe they'll go on the offensive i mean he did once upon a time with the whole not show man stuff and i know this isn't a television property

it's not necessarily apples to apples but was there a concern that maybe they would try to run australia and undercut this or sign away some of the talent just try to snuff it out up front was that ever even discussed with the event promoters did they know that was a possibility based on the past i don't think that no it wasn't discussed and the reason it wasn't discussed is because the condens had a very good relationship with all the major venues and it already locked them up so no it wasn't a concern at all i believe the story is that you guys were guaranteed half your money up front and the other half held in escrow what do i have that right what was the circumstance yeah that's where it got dicey um

the money did go into escrow but the 50% balance did go into escrow. And we did get half of our money up front. But the promoters, unfortunately, they lost their ass. And they didn't put all the money into the promotion themselves. They had other investors that were financially involved. Because the event didn't draw as well as everybody thought it with, I think they thought they were going to sell out some of these major venues,

like in Sydney and Melbourne. And they didn't. They did well. They did okay, but they didn't sell out. And I think there was so much money. And by the way, they did not spare any expense. They flew all, most of us, a lot of us were in first class on Virgin Airlines. The hotels they put us in were the nicest hotels in the market.

You know, we were in Sydney for a couple days. It was an amazing hotel. So they spared no expense. Again, biggest, most expensive. venues you could find they did a lot of marketing a lot of average so they spent a ton of money and I think they spent a ton of money anticipating sellouts and they didn't get them so as a result of that there were issues with the people that helped finance the tour which ended up in litigation and as a result we didn't get the 50% that was held in escrow it's still sitting in escrow somewhere

they can't get it out and neither can we we've and we've look we've we've we've we've I hired an attorney and we were going to take legal action we probably would have won eventually but suing somebody in Australia is not something is really not something that you want to do unless there's a significant amount of money involved yeah just didn't simply didn't understand the civil litigation differences between Australian law and U.S. law. You know, my understanding or my thought process was as long as we go, as long as we perform to the contract and we meet the obligations that we agreed to in the contract that we'd receive the balance of our 50%. And unfortunately, that wasn't the case. We delivered. We did

everything we were supposed to do. We showed up. We performed. We did well. You know, everybody was on time. but he did everything that they were supposed to do. But unfortunately, again, because of the investors that lost money as a result of the tour, they ended up getting into litigation with the condens, and that litigation prevented us from being able to get the balance of our money out of escrow. And had I known more about Australian civil litigation, I would have probably avoided the escrow situation, but I didn't. And as a result, Hulk ended, yeah, everybody else got paid.

Hulk didn't get Hulk only got a portion of what he was supposed to get but Rick yeah Rick got paid everybody else got paid I didn't get paid um Hulk only got a portion of what he was supposed to get paid but the rest of the talent did get paid wait you didn't get paid at all no I didn't you were going to take yours on that final payment and just didn't get it at all right my goodness but I had a great time well hey i'm that's the right perspective to have i'm sure but uh man so you're saying somewhere you believe your cash and hogan's cash is still an escrow somewhere and nobody can touch it

it's just in an account some uh the last time i checked which was a while ago yeah it was still my attorney said yeah the money it's stolen in the escrow nobody can take it out the condens couldn't get to it and neither could we and it was also believe or not, we also, this was taped for television. It was produced for television by Fox in Australia. And part of the deal was that we were going to receive revenue from the television. I don't think it was on pay-per-view. I don't think it was paper-view. But it was filmed for television by Fox. And a significant production, too, by the way. It wasn't two guys in a camera. It was a significant production.

But when we didn't get paid, we also put a stop to that. So there's a television show sitting in a can somewhere with a Rick Flair, Hulk Hogan match, Amaga, all the names that you mentioned. Because this was Amaga passed away shortly after this tour. It was his last series of matches, I believe. But yeah, it's sitting in a can somewhere in Australia. it's unbelievable that i didn't really know this but you're exactly right umaga's uh last matches are on this holcomania tour that's uh crazy to think about hogan's going to do a ton of media

for this as you might imagine he's going to attend some rugby games travel all over the country to promote it i mean when you see just the marketing plan and you know the investment as far as the air travel, the hotels and what have you. But when you see just the, the media attack, the media strategy, did you think they were going to pull this off or were you, I don't know, a little suspect all along? No, I really thought they would. Again, because they were serious and experienced and successful promoters.

This wasn't their first, it was their first wrestling rodeo, but it certainly wasn't their first rodeo in terms of being performers. or excuse me, promoters. So they had the credibility, number one. They had the resources. They did have a great marketing plan. There was a ton of media associated with it. And we believe, all of us believe, including them, especially them, and their investors,

that the wrestling market there was ready for this tour and was anxious to see Hulk Hogan in person. because as we talked about earlier, it never happened before. So all the indications were there. There was nothing that made me go, I don't know if these guys really know what they're doing. Quite the opposite. Every experience that I had with them up until it came time to get paid have been extremely positive.

Well, listen, it's written in the Observer. I hate to bring it up, but I feel like we should. It's discussed in the observer that both Hogan and Flair, well, let me just read it. While it's sad that both Flare and Hogan have to return to the ring at their respective ages, financially both need to make money, and it's the best mess that out there for them to make money, especially if they can parlay it into the reality show idea, get that exposure and try and tour. Both have had expensive divorces, I'll say.

And in Hogan's case, huge legal bills from his divorce case and the Grasiano case, as well as the money spent trying to launch his daughter's singing career. Claire has a reported $22,000 monthly bill for alimony alone to ex-wives. So lots written about the divorces and how costly they are and Hogan's got the legal front and Brooks trying to launch. Was this, listen, you've known Hulk Hogan at this point for a long, long time and been really, really tight friends. Is this the first time?

Maybe he's in a more precarious financial spot, but just because he does have the lawsuit and the singing career and the divorce I mean the divorce with linda has been written about and discussed a lot maybe one of the worst divorces and maybe the worst divorce in wrestling history yeah i don't i don't maybe probably if it's not it should be i don't know but i don't hope wasn't hurting for money yeah and i don't know what rick's situation was back then. Right. But Hulk wasn't doing it for the money. Don't get me wrong. Hulk likes money and certainly did back then. But he was not despite and nothing that Dave wrote is not true. It was an expensive divorce, very expensive divorce. There were a lot of other legal bills associated with

with other things that were going on, the Gratzea on the case that you described. So, yeah, there were, there was a lot of expenses going on, but Hulk still had enough money that he wasn't, he didn't do it for the money. He wanted to be in control of his own destiny. He wanted to go out.

You know, I don't know, Conrad. Sometimes it's hard for me to this day to figure out what makes Halt tick. And he probably has a hard time to occasionally. I think for Hulk it was like it was a place he'd never been I think to a large degree or some degree I should say I think Hulk just wanted to experience that rush again talked about this before and it's not unique to Hulk Hogan or Rick Flair or anybody else but I think when you're a performer and you perform at the level that a Hulk Hogan did or a Rick Flair or a lot of others it's kind of defined so. who you are in your mind. It's a part of you. And to be able to go back out there and experience that rush one more time and that connection to the audience is something that drives a lot of performers. I think it's the reasons Rolling Stones still tour. You know, Stevie Nix still

tours. Why? Not because they need the money because it's part of who they are. And they feel more complete when they're out there on a stage and i think the same is true for people like hulk and rick and anybody else that's performed at that level for as long as they have i'm just curious um i think a lot of people expected when they hear your name attached to this the diamond dallas page is going to be part of this why wasn't it i don't know i i don't think there's a reason I think, you know, we sat down and Hulk said, here's the guys I'd like to bring along and Page's name wasn't on that list. And it wasn't like we needed to fill out the roster because Rikishi and Reno were

going to basically supply everybody that we needed to complete the roster. But, you know, I can't, there was no reason. It wasn't like I brought Paige's name up and Hulk said no or I didn't call Page and he decided he didn't want to do it. it wasn't nothing like that it just didn't make sense at that point in time just as a reminder he had been out of the ring since oh six but he would pop back up do a match in 2010 a match in 2011 uh and then of course we know he's been in a couple w battle royals since and even came back uh maybe three years ago and did something on dynamite for a e w so i don't know it just feels

like could have been maybe ddp's last hurrah too no i you know i you know i I'm thinking back now, trying to recall, you know, some of my conversations with Page, because we were still pretty close at that point in time. You know, we didn't live in the same neighborhood any longer, but we were still pretty good friends. And he would come out to L.A. occasionally and I would come out to L.A. occasionally on business. And he was living there at the time, I think. And we got together a few times. But I was always under the impression that Page was really over it. And I think he had a couple of injuries himself that he just didn't want to aggravate.

any further. So I don't think there was a strong desire on Pais's part to actually get back in the ring. Let's talk about Jeff Hardy. It's written in the observer that there were at least discussions with Jeff Hardy. Um, the idea may be Jeff Hardy versus Um, those are big names, especially in this era and Rick Flair and Hulk Hogan. Those could sort of be maybe your co-main events. Of course, send everybody home with Rick Flair and Hulk Hogan, but Jeff Hardy doesn't wind up being on this tour either do you remember having discussions about that or was that yeah that might have been rickisha and reno may have um i i didn't have any conversations at all with joe uh bill goldberg jumps in on twitter and says zero plans to join hogan's tour the old man wants

all the money for himself plus three reality shows on tap what'd you think when you read or heard that You know, I was kind of like, why? You know, why? We didn't offer to bring Bill over. Nobody approached Bill. I remember reading that. Why would you say that? I mean, Hulk Hogan, Hulk Hogan was the reason that Bill Goldberg ended up making a lot of money.

Yes. Hulk took Bill under his wing. Hulk made sure that Bill Goldberg had a great attorney in Henry Holmes, who was Hulk's attorney. Hulk did a lot for Bill. And it just struck me as odd that Bill would say something like that about Hulk, even though it wasn't horribly disparaging or anything, but calling him an old man and suggesting he wanted to take all the money. I don't know, it just seemed kind of out of place to me. Well, especially when you consider that sentence in the current context. Bill Goldberg said he wants to do a four city retirement tour and he wants to self-promote it.

When I heard that, wait a minute. Did he say this recently? Yeah. Right now, Eric, in 2023. He wants, I've been out of touch, man. I've been traveling. I haven't been paying attention. so he he wants to do a four city retirement tour and promoted himself self promoted four city retirement

tool put it out there last week wants the buzz wants everybody talking about it and i think to myself imagine if somebody that bill wrestled on this most recent run that welcomed him back into wb who maybe is no longer in wb i don't even know who that would be but imagine if someone were to tweet out zero plan to join bill's tour the old man wants all the money for himself plus three reality shows on tap it feels like I guess what I'm trying to say is once by the time Chris Jericho would go just dump all over Hulk Hogan and say oh he's an old guy hogging up all the TV time that's ironic isn't it fast forward and now Bill Goldberg started doing the same thing here back in 2009 but here we are in 2023 and he says he wants to promote

a self-promote a four-city retirement tour. Hmm, four-city retirement tour. Volcomania, Australia was four shows. Guys, let's maybe be better to each other and stop shitting on each other. Like, this is history repeating itself here,

is it not? Yeah, it is. This is a shocker to me. I jokingly said, I wasn't joking. I was just being me. But if I was Tony Conn, I'd book CM Punk and Bill Goldberg. It'd be fun to watch.

I'd actually fly over to the UK to watch that one live, see that one in person. It'd be fun. But I jokingly, I said it jokingly because to me, I can't imagine a Bill Goldberg needs the, he doesn't need the money. Right. I mean, what's the motivation? He's been quoted as saying he wanted a proper retirement match. was supposed to be a handshake deal with him and Vince and he never got the proper retirement match

so he's going to do a four city retirement tour that he self promotes himself got good luck bill bill if you want if you want bill you've got my number give me a shout i won't i won't charge you a nickel let me talk you out of that let me just talk you out of that let me just talk you out of that let me be your consultant and let me explain to you all the reasons why you don't want to do it bill if bill were to do it bill would need a story right i mean he can't just come out and book matches with free agents and think that's going to sell an arena right not at all yeah not at all i i get i don't you know i don't know what his motivation is maybe somebody's talking to him maybe he's got partners that are really excited about this i don't know but man what a horrible

idea what a horrible idea it's rick flair he saw well wait a minute if rick flair can damn near sell out municipal auditorium at his advanced stage i'm fresh off w w tv i'm sure that's the thinking and i get it yeah but yeah i'm going to say this and i like bill personally i get along with bill but it bill's not Rick Flair. Yeah. Well said. He's just not. You know, and that doesn't. You don't mean that negative either. No. I know where you're coming from. You're just saying there's not the emotional connection for decades and decades with exactly. There's not generations of Bill Goldberg fans out there. There are generations of Rick Flair fans out there. Yes. Rick Flair is arguably as popular today in some respects as

he's ever been. Yeah. And largely because he's got this amazingly charismatic personality, but he's also got generations of fans, people that have grown up watching him. Bill, comparatively speaking, has been in the business for five minutes. Right. When you compare him to someone like Rick Flair. So I just, I hope he gets a lot of money up front. Let's just put it that way. And you know, when you talk about, and this is just my, I mean, I'm trying to imagine if I was Bill Goldberg, well, what would I want? First of all, if I was Bill Goldberg and I have Bill Goldberg's money, the last thing that I would want to do is get into a wrestling rank at this

stage. No, I mean, it's just because Bill's, look, Bill's an amazing athlete. Again, this is going to sound negative and I don't mean it to be, but it just is what it is. Bill is not physically what he was 10, 15, 20 years ago. Nobody is. Right. And Bill didn't have the kind of repertoire and experience and skill sets to begin with. He didn't need them. He broke into the business at a point in time, and he was a certain type of character, and we were able to build upon that

and turn him into this monster that he became, but not because he had a tremendous amount of skill set. Right. Right. He was a character and a great one. To get into the rain now at this stage of his life, without that skill set, having never had it to begin with, I just wish you wouldn't do it.

And here's the other thing. You want to be remembered for being at your peak, right? And I used to feel this way about Hulk, too. You know, I tried to have this conversation with him a few times, but it's a hard conversation to have with someone, especially someone that you respect and you like. you just don't want to see him go out there and be less than you remember them being at their peak. It's the same reason why, you know, when Mike Tyson was going to get back into the ring with the exhibition,

I didn't really, I'm not a huge Mike Tyson fan, by the way, and have been. But I didn't want to see a lesser version of Mike Tyson get back in the ring. And I don't want to see a lesser version of Bill Goldberg get back into the ring. And again, if he doesn't need the money, which I can't imagine he does, I don't know why he would do it. I really don't. Rick, I understand. You know, Rick, Rick's one of those people, as is Hulk.

One of those people that's such a big part of who they are, their self-value, the way they see themselves, the person they see when they look in the mirror, so much of it is that wrestling character that's been a part of them for the majority of their lives. I get why they don't want to give that up. I do. But that's not Bill Goldberg.

Bill Goldberg never really liked the wrestling business to begin with. It was an opportunity, and he liked the money. And he, you know, at that point in time, he was good at it. But it's not like he had a passion for the business. So it's just odd to me that he wants to do it. But, you know, hey, people change. Who knows? Maybe Bill realized how much he loves the wrestling business or how much.

important it is to him and that that could be that could possibly be his motivation i don't know just seems a little strange to me yeah bill's been pretty outspoken you know in the past about the wrestling business and what he will and what he won't do and all that so this this one strikes me as being really interesting well i tell you what if bill really is going to self-promote some shows my man might need a business plan and our friends over at impira they could probably help him out with that right eric dude i love impera what a great great tool and bill if you're thinking about it if you're going to put together a business plan don't do it without impira bill please don't do it without appear because empiric can allow you to track all the things you need to track to make sure

that every aspect of your promotion is going to hit its target without doing it, it's hit or miss. And it's the same true. Nobody knows more about business Conrad than you do. And you've been extremely successful. But we both know you have to have a great business plan in order to launch a business. But you also have to have the tools to track your progress into, as I say, you know, plan your work and work your plan. If you're going to work that plan, you've got to be able to measure all of the pillars, all of the benchmarks that you need on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis. You need to be able to keep track of it.

Whether you're a one-man band, it's just you and your idea and you're in your garage or in your basement manufacturing widgets and shipping them out the door, or you've got a company with 15 or 20 or 30 or 40 or more people, and you have to communicate all the different aspects of your business plan every single day to your team in order to stay on track and fix things that are wrong. Sometimes you sit down and figure out a business plan and say, okay, we're going to spend this much money in marketing, and we're going to expect this much of a return on that investment.

Well, if that marketing plan isn't working, you've got to adjust. But if you don't know it's not working because you're not tracking your progress in that particular area, you're wasting a lot of money or losing a lot of money. And Empiric gives you the tools, and it's so easy. Someone like me can figure it out. Literally, you sign up, they get on the phone with you, they walk you through the onboarding process so that your dashboard is, Your Imperial Business Plan dashboard is customized to your business.

And they'll walk you through it all. It's easy. It costs less than two cups of coffee a month. You can't go wrong. If you're thinking about starting a business, or if you have a business of your own, or you're working for somebody that needs a better tool to track your progress, reach out to the people at Empira. You'll be glad you did.

You can call me. You can thank me. You can send me emails, whatever. you'll be forever in my debt for turning you on to Imperip because they're that damn good. Thet 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. That's Russell B-I-Z at checkout. Launch your business plan faster and with less effort than ever before.

Visit Empira.com slash Eric today to start your journey to success. That's EMPI-R-A-A-A-com forward-slash Eric. Empira.com forward-slash Eric. So listen, just like we suspected, WWE starts to promote their European tour the next year. Once you guys announced, they start promoting, hey, don't forget, WWE's coming. And supposedly, they're even reaching out to some people

who were advertised on your tour, including Umaga. do you ever hear that that they're trying to talk to some of the folks on the tour about not working this show and coming back home zero i don't think that that ever happened i don't think i mean i don't know i got to be careful how i say this stuff but i can't imagine look at pw we had been touring europe for a long time it's not like somebody woke up was oh oh my gosh holcogne and rickflare over in australia we better hurry up and figure out a way to do europe or we meant we should go out and a now to announce Europe. So we've established that we're coming back and people

aren't excited about Hallcock and Rick Flair, possibly coming to Europe, which was never discussion anyway. But no, I think this is just more Dave filling pages full of nonsense. I don't think any of it's true. T&A was scheduled to do a tour over in Australia in February. Ultimately, it winds up being canceled. And he, Before tickets go on sale, you and Hulk even appear on the footy show. Any memories of being on that show? No. We did a lot of stuff, though.

I mean, we did, we, we did a lot. There was a lot of media. So the fact that I don't remember one doesn't surprise me or shouldn't surprise the audience who's been listening to me. But, uh, no, I don't remember that show, but we did a lot. You know, went to rugby games. We did talk shows. We did a lot of stuff. When, when tickets first go on sale, what was the reaction internally?

Were there projections? Were you guys disappointed? Were you thinking you were on track? What do you recall about that? We weren't tracking the ticket sales. You know, the promoters were. And there wasn't a lot of, you know, we were on a guarantee. So there was no real need for us to track ticket sales. And I think most of the conversations early on were all extremely positive.

The ones I did have with Michael Condon, I didn't talk to his dad too much, but I talked to Michael a lot. We're all very positive. But as you might expect, you know, your initial response when you go on sale, your hardcore fans, your most avid fans are going to be very aggressive and excited and jump on. It was towards, as you get closer to the date,

that you realize you're only 60% sold or 70% sold, and that's when you start scrambling. But we didn't have a lot of those conversations, again, because we were all on a guarantee. I should mention that in late October, before these shows ever happened, it's announced that you and Hulk have said,

signed with T and A. Do you remember the, the Condon people being upset or disappointed that as you're just weeks away from this event, you're announced as going somewhere else? I mean, I know that you said this was always supposed to be a one off, but do they view that as good publicity or did they take it as a negative that,

oh, man, that means, you know, well, if I miss them here, I can see them later. No, I,

if there was concern on their part, they never expressed it to me. And again, I think because everybody knew what this was going into it, everybody involved, knew that this was a one-off event. There was no conversations or

expectations about the future in terms of touring with the condens. So whether or not we had been announced for TNA had zero impact, in my opinion, and I think it theirs, by virtue of the fact that they never mentioned it,

had zero impact on on australia we uh we should mention the press conference it's a big one gets lots of media you guys do it on um november 18th in sydney uh there's newspapers and tv stations everybody is treating this as if it was a big happening in fact six or seven newspapers according to the observer report what they're about to see here as if it were a real news story. Of course, you probably know what's happening here. Flair is going to throw a table off the stage and attack Hogan. Hogan's going to get some color brother. And wouldn't you know it? He just happens to be wearing a white shirt and now that blood is all over the white shirt. Flair's going to then start punching him, whipping Hogan with his belt. And then they do

a special sale on the heels of this where the unsold seats are lowered to 50. They were charging hundreds for some of these seats before and they're just doing this for a week and then the ticket prices are back up on the heels of this coverage and this media event what do you remember of this angle where we're going to uh i mean because this even makes TMZ by the way where they get a quote from Hogan's people saying that this was real the blood was real the injuries were real of course the blood is real but listen i like this idea let's get them talking let's do a story let's do an angle and i'm sure flare and hulk are all up for this now couldn't talk them out of it and i do remember and it what i remember most vividly is just the copious amounts of blood

this wasn't just a little caller it it was barbaric it was too much And that was my impression. It's just too much. Like where do you go from there? Yeah. You know, it's like, okay, is somebody going to bring a gun to the ring? I mean,

where do you go from there? That's what I remember thinking. Sort of like when Jeff Jarrett murdered Morgan's grandpa in the parking lot in Nashville last year. Yeah. Yeah. That made no sense to me. But yeah.

It's reported in the. observer that your deal with TNA is supposed to be U.S. exclusive. So you guys are going to be exclusive, but only in the U.S. You could still do international. Were you thinking when you put together the T&A deal that, hey, we'll keep doing all this T&A stuff here in America. But if this Australia thing is successful, we might want to do more of this. So let's give ourselves a carve-out for that. No, no, not that wasn't our thinking at all. And I'm not so sure. I think I may have one of my old T&A contracts laying around somewhere on a computer that I no longer use, but I think I have one.

You may have to go back and look at that because I don't think that that's true either. I don't recall negotiating exclusivity and only being available in the U.S. and carving out Europe. I don't think that that's true. It's written at the time that the promoters were expecting Sydney and Melbourne to do well around 12,000, but Brisbane and Perth were not doing as well. Do you remember internally there being an expectation of 12,000 fans? I don't think we camped out on a number, but I do recall talking to Michael Condon,

and he was very convinced that they would sell out Sydney for sure. Dave would say that, you know, Hogan has proven with this, event at the press conference, that he's still a big star and can gather a lot of attention. Unfortunately, he doesn't think that it's going to translate and sell a lot of tickets, at least enough to where this could be a financial success.

The first night is Melbourne, November 21st, and Meltzer would say the two may not have been able to wrestle a classic match, but they can still work a crowd with the best of them. The first match in seven years between the two most enduring prayer wrestling stars, the modern era with one being 56 and a physical wreck and the other being nearly 61 played

out as a big success as far as crowd reactions went on the opening night of the tour on November 21st in Melbourne uh so listen on on the surface this sounds like man these are some old guys doing a match here but the reality is we don't talk about this a lot Jericho's 52 years and still doing his thing on a weekly basis with AEW and Sting at this point as I understand it is north of 60

I meant 64 years old so Sting is older than either one of these cats and Jericho's just a handful of years behind Hogan here this felt like old-timers tour that's not the way it's presented

today has our opinion on age and wrestling or just society changed over the course of the last decade or so Eric or what do you chalk that up to because you do see guys I mean Jeff Jarrett for instance looks better than ever he's almost Hulk's age he's 55 he'll be 56 this year which is what hogan was here and I know these are different athletes with different styles and different lifestyles but it just feels like the attitude is a little different I mean as you and I are recording this tonight Jeff Jared is in singles action against Dax from FTR but this is almost like

a farewell senior tour whatever you want to do for Hogan how do you reconcile the age difference and just how that's different today versus back then I think it a lot of this started the ageism I said it I said ageism I hate it I fucking hate that word too I hate the isn't works because they get used way too much. But I think the age thing became an issue back in the 90s, once WCW started pounding on WWE. Vince McMahon and WWE made a big deal out of Hogan's age, made a big deal out of Randy Savage's age,

talked often about how they were younger, and did it in a very derisive way when referring to Hulk and Randy and making fun of them. You remember the skits, you know? I mean, all of that was designed to paint WCW at the time, which was, you know, Hulk and Randy and Rottie Piper and some of the other people we had, as older over-the-hill talents. That was a marketing strategy. a branding strategy, if you will.

And that carried over into the wrestling media. You know, that became kind of the differences between WCW and WWE. We were older. We were better. We delivered a bigger audience for a long time. We dominated the 18 to 49-year-old demo. None of that mattered to WWE's marketing and branding strategy

because they just kept beating on that, beating on that, beating on that, to the point where I think, you know, like I said, the wrestling media, you know, began to echo it and kind of took that position, and it just kind of filters down. I think the difference now is that people have seen guys like Chris Jericho and others that have been around the business for a long time, still going out there and performing. I think people are starting to see that it was just marketing and branding

and not real. Sting is, you know, now Sting's not out there doing it every single week. No. But he is still a powerful, viable,

successful character. And it's not about the age. It's about, it's about the magic, man. It's about the charisma. It's going out there and delivering.

And in some cases, perhaps with Sting, it's a little bit of nostalgia because people still remember that Crow character and that Sting character and like, to experience it again.

I think Chris Jericho is probably better today in some, not physically, he's probably lost a step or two, and he would probably admit that. But I think as a performer, as a well-rounded performer, he's better today than he was 15 years ago, 20 years. He's got more experience. He's learned more. He's grown and evolved his character as need be.

I think he's a better performer than he was 15 or 20 years ago. And I think the audience has started the record. recognize that too well what's recognized by Dave Meltzer here is uh well let's just read it the bad news like with Hogan's last wrestling match more than two years ago in Memphis it showed that even the biggest the draws can no longer sell out major arenas or even come close for his rare appearances even with great local publicity without the name WWE on the bill with him the old days of wrestling are gone and to draw a crowd it is the promotion and the package show that draws not really the individuals do you believe that

that these days it's hard to draw with just a name of the individual it's the whole show and the whole package as opposed to a single name being a draw i do i do i think that's i think that's true i and i don't think it's new i don't think that's a new phenomenon but i i do believe i agree with that statement you know i i do uh we uh we should note that melzer would say in 2002 w b ran a show at colonial stadium hogan was supposed to be the big draw but as we mentioned he pulls out before the actual show but it does more than three million dollars at the gate and draws a sell out here in australia 56 732 people it's still a big show the biggest since the demise of wcd um

in Australia, but there's only 8,000 people here. And that's a disappointment for the promoters, according to the observer, who paid huge money for Hogan and Rick Flair, who spent for production value similar to an old nitro. After night one, do you remember speaking with the condens or, I mean, were they upset, were they disappointed? No, well, were the upset and disappointed?

probably, I would be if I were them, but they didn't sell it. You know, we, we were just focusing on the next show. It wasn't till towards the end of the tour that I started having serious conversations with them. So after the first night, no, nobody reacted too much. I think there was, everybody was still hopeful that, you know, the walk-up for the rest of the tour would be significant. because of the amount of press that we got,

we did get a ton of press, a ton of press, in addition to what we booked ourselves, or the Condon's booked, I should say, just general media coverage. We got a ton of it. And I think everybody was kind of hopeful that tomorrow night's going to be better or the next night is going to be better.

But it wasn't until towards the end that the reality sunk in. And those were some serious, unfortunate conversations. You talked to us about Hulk, being really concerned about stepping in the ring and could he do this physically after night one do you have a conversation with him no no you know not not about that not about how he was obviously i'd ask him how he was feeling and you know i think emotionally he had so much fun in there

with rick um that he just put it out of his mind you know he knew going in he was going to hurt he knew going in he was going to be extremely limited he was fearful that the back might give out but as long as it didn't let's just get to the next time brother the old uh murphy's law says if something can't go wrong it will as i understand it there's also a rainstorm that's going to hurt your walk up the second show in perth western australia on the 24th so three days later does 2,500 fans. This is even with them doing two for one tickets the final week of the show. It's got to be a disaster.

You know, they were hoping for sellouts, they were hoping for 17,000 or so per show. 2,500 are here. After night two, this is less awesome. How awkward are in common? comfortable are you when you see man this thing's losing money and fast you're there in the middle of it what's the bond amongst the talent does it change when they go out and they see

i don't know i've never been there but in my head when you have in your head an expectation set and there's going to be all these folks and a huge crowd and we're going to feed off their energy and then you go out there and it's mostly empty and there's very few people there it has to affect your performance, right? Yes and no. I think a lot of the talent that was on that card were grateful to be there. A lot of the talent, with the exception

of Hulk and Rick, a lot of the talent that were on that card weren't, this was a big crowd for them. A lot of them weren't used to performing in front of thousands of people. Some of those talent on that card at that point in their careers were used to wrestling in front of hundreds. So even though, yes, the promoters were, I'm sure, depressed. Again, at this point on a second night, I don't think I'd had a conversation with them yet.

Again, keep in mind that our portion of this was guaranteed. So we were aware that tickets hadn't moved the way everybody had hoped they were, and we were concerned about that because it was a reflection on Hulk and Rick, mostly Hulk. So we were aware and concerned, but not necessarily depressed about it. That didn't happen until later towards the end of the tour. But I think as talent, from a talent's perspective, you walk through that curtain, you get that reaction, you're still experiencing a lot of the same emotion that you do, even if you're sold out. It's not as intense. It's not the same.

That's suggesting that it is. But when you walk through that curtain and you get a reaction from 2,500 people. Now, these are 2,500, very, very. loud, active, insane wrestling fans. And you don't really notice as much as you would think the empty seats. And again, Perth, Sydney was a big venue. I don't remember the name of the venue in Perth, but it wasn't like, you know, 2,500 people was probably half full, maybe.

It wasn't as big of a venue. So it's still, the energy was still there. And like I said, a lot of that talent that was on that car. at that point. Some of them like Kenny Anderson had worked in WWE and obviously worked in front of much, much bigger crowds. But at this point in his career, he was working in front of 300 or 400 people in some nights. So this was still kind of a big deal for him. And people like him. I don't just pick it out Ken, but people in that category. The arena in Perth, if it's set up for basketball, does 8500. If you're seating everybody, it's 13.6 total capacity

for any, I mean, the most you could fit in there without a wrestling ring is 21. thousand. Oh, they might have cut it off then. They might have cut off part of the arena. Yeah, they were definitely doing that. And the Melbourne show,

which is show number three, is going to be taped for TV in Australia. It's supposed to air in prime time on one HD. And Meltzer would write, I've been told it's the first showing of free to air television in prime time since the 1998 Survivor series. So it's a big deal. of course it doesn't air and and we know why now you mentioned that it was written at the time

it's going to be released as a DVD presumably in both Australia as well as the North American market all four shows are being taped but it's not clear if the shows will be released as a separate DVD or if all part all four will be a part of one DVD during the show at several points they asked the audience to chant Hogan which no doubt will be taped for the DVD and inserted where needed. Was Dave there? No. Well, no, he said at one point they were asking the crowd to chant Hogan.

How would he know that if he wasn't there? He got reports from fans who were there. Oh, he's full of shit, whatever. What do you think that footage would be worth today if you had to guess? I don't know, man. I've often thought about that. I don't know. You know, it'll probably be worth more 10 years from now than it is today.

But, um, I don't know. You know, I, I wish I had a copy of it. That's for sure. It was an experience. And the fact that it was Amaga's last match, you know, right before he passed, I think makes me wish I had a copy of it. I got, I liked working with him.

I got along with him really well. He was a good dude. I don't know what it's worth. I have no idea. Meltzer would talk about the first match here saying in the ring, the match was by virtually all accounts of success. given limited expectations. Hogan was moving slowly, took no bumps, and had admitted that with his physical issues, he can no longer even do his leg drop. He favored his left knee a lot after

throwing his brace into the crowd after it came off. In a sense, Flair was his perfect opponent as he still bumped all over the place and both men bled heavily. Flair a sick amount and took plenty of shortcuts, including the involvement of Jimmy Hart, as well as having Lacey von Eric at ringside play into the finish. Flair was basically Hogan's bumping dummy and several remarked that they can't see Hogan being able to work like this in the U.S. The fans will overlook a lot if they think people are big stars, whether it's the U.S. or anywhere. Hogan and Flair, for that matter, were both concerned for being able to get Hogan

through four matches and the condition he's in. I have little doubt that Hogan can work the crowd, but can his body hold up and can he still draw the kind of business that will justify paying him and Flair what they want at this stage of the game. Did you watch these matches at all? What did you think of how they pulled it off? Yeah, I was there, ringside. For what, for the conditions that we had to work with you, knowing where Hulk was at

physically, I was ecstatic to just get through the match and see him be able to get to the locker room. Right. So my expectations were already pretty low because I knew what, we were up against. So my take on the match was probably different than the average fans take on the match. Again, I was ecstatic just to get through it

and be able to get to the next night. So I didn't react to the matches the way, you know, a fan probably would. The only merch at the show is Hulk Hogan merch, and there's a slogan or a catchphrase on the new t-shirts. What's you going to do when the F.U runs wild on you? what do you think of that well as a reference to the foo manchu yeah yeah um i you know we didn't come up with that that was local that was the condens we approved it obviously

hulk approved it i should say uh didn't really have much of an opinion but it's kind of cool when you think about it you know might sell here should put it on box of gimmicks now wait a man Hulk will sue us. No, never mind. I don't know. It's also written here that the only match that gets better ratings

as far as from the fans as they're reviewing the matches was Matt Cross and Shannon Moore. Matt Cross here is Spartan 3000. But they said everything else was just kind of, eh. And Meltzer wonders, maybe they should have just loaded up the undercard

with a lot of younger talent and not done so much, you know, legend talent. and just left the legends for Hogan and Flair. If you had it to do over again, and I'm not saying you made these matches, this was on somebody else,

but do you think that would have been more attractive? But all the other stars of today, like the future stars, like guys who are really in the prime of their career, and then when all that's done, then we'll trot out Hogan and Flair for the main event. Like, that's what everybody's here to see. Let's just give them the best matches we can underneath.

Or do you like the idea of, let's load it up a legends? I don't think so much about, legends or not legends i think is people that have been on television right that's what the audience these were stars that they in australia these are stars that they watched on television from wwe or wcw as the case may be um that's that's why they were there and i i don't think that having younger talent that could physically do more but the audience didn't know I don't think that that would have had any measurable difference.

I don't think it would have made any difference. Not would the show technically have been from a perspective like Meltzer's who's it's all about the technical performance. Yeah, maybe Dave Meltzer would have liked it better, but I don't think the average fan who's buying a ticket would have. They were there to see people they'd seen on television. That's why they were there. It's sort of insinuated that perhaps Hogan's hip case,

out of place in the first match do you remember hearing that uh no um i mean he had a lot of other issues and but i i don't think that was one of them uh a friend of the show or referee uh anthony writes in it was hard watching hulk he was barely able to move around backstage or before shows he was clearly in a lot of pain but as soon as he walked through the curtain it was like nothing bothered him it was unreal he couldn't do the leg drop but the crowd knew and didn't care man hulks a performer he can turn it on can he it was who wrote that a referee named anthony he's right he was right you see in hulk backstage it almost it brought a tear to my eye and i felt so bad for him but again that's what i was kind of trying to explain earlier

guys like Rick Flair, guys like Hulk Hogan that's part of who they are and walking through that curtain you're getting a part of your life back I know it doesn't sound like it should make any sense to people like you or I

but because we're not Rick and we're not Hulk but I've been around it enough and close enough proximity that I see it and you see people who it's almost like they're getting a part of their life

back or part of their youth back. They're getting out there and experiencing something that they've experienced for the majority of their lives. Deep down inside, they're afraid they're not going to have anymore. It's just not going to be able to do it anymore. So to be able to go out through that curtain and get that feedback from that audience, whether it's a sellout or a half sellout or a third sellout, whatever, you're still getting that validation in a way.

And it does change them emotionally. I've seen it a bunch of times, especially with a guy like Hulk. I remember being backstage because his ex-wife, Jennifer, was with us on that trip. And to see him in the amount of pain that he was in, to see him, anybody, forget about the fact that I was, I am close to Hulk, but to see another human being sitting in a chair and knowing how much pain they're in. And in my own mind, wondering, are they going to be able to get through the curtain? what's going to happen when he gets into the ring you're worried about that but then you see them go through that curtain and it's like a different person comes through the curtain it's like they

walks taller their eyes are brighter it's just it's it's a different energy and it's created by the people on the other side of the curtain it's created by the people in the in the audience and it was it was an interesting thing to watch night two match two it's an ODQ matched with Hogan and Flair, Meltzer would say he heard it wasn't nearly as good as the first night, but we're going to do a lot of run-ins here. Lacey Von Erick's going to come out with Flair. That was not the plan on the first one. There's going to be some blood, as you might imagine. Orlando Jordan, Haydnreich, the nasty boys, lots of run-ins here. Jimmy Hart's involved, but of course it ends with Hogan doing the obligatory posing routine. Were you privy to the

fact that they were going to, I mean, clearly it's a more modern age. They can't do the same match over and over. But it feels like they're cutting some timeout to here and bringing in some supporting roles. Is this just to add garnish around Hulk's limitations maybe? Yeah, definitely. It was to camouflage the obvious as best, as best we could. Again, I didn't lay those matches out. There was probably Rick and a Hulk, you know, deciding what they needed to do, uh, to get through it. But, um, clearly it was to camouflage the obvious. Well, I'm sure you guys weren't losing any sleep over it. And we're not losing any sleep at all these days. Thanks to Sleep Me, these folks make customizable, climate-controlled sleep solutions that help you improve

your entire well-being. And that's been the case for me. Are you someone who needs extra recovery from that last workout? Or maybe you're just someone who sleeps hot in general. You don't need to suffer, wake up tired, or wake up sore with Sleep Me's award-winning sleep systems. It's a mattress topper that fits over your current mattress. You don't need to buy a new mattress. But what Sleep Me does is use water's amazing thermal powers to cool your bed as low as 55 degrees. That means no matter how hot you get, you can sleep at your ideal sleep temperature. And this works on all types of beds, even the adjustable ones. And you don't just have to have your whole bed one temperature. Let me explain. My wife wants to climb into a warm bed, but she doesn't

want to get all hot and sweaty, so she'll have it cooler off. But then she wants to be warmed up to wake her up. She sits it and forgets it. with the Sleep Me app. That's right. You can schedule what time you want your bed to be cold, the time you want it to warm. It's amazing. And that doesn't affect what's going on on my side of the bed.

I like to sleep a lot cooler than she does. This is just a game changer for me in my life. Last line, I slept nine hours, nine hours, like when you and I were first hanging out, I was sleeping five and six hours. I'm sleeping better than ever.

I know I'm productive. I don't need a nap in the afternoon. There's no crash. I'm just way more productive this way. I have a better quality of life, and I think you should check it out, man. Currently, Sleep Me has two water-based sleep systems, the Doc Pro and the cube.

Both sleep systems will get your mattress down to just 55 degrees, dude. The Doc Pro, though, it's the new latest and greatest, the most powerful system for the perfect sleep climate, no matter what your body's heat load is or the room temperature. If you need better athletic recovery, or you're suffering from hot, uncomfortable sleep, you got to check out Sleep Me. at sleep.me slash 83 weeks.

That's sleep. dot me slash 83 weeks. Plus, as a listener of this podcast, you can save up to 20% on the sleep system if you use promo code 83 weeks. This really is a game changer. You need to check it out at sleep. dot me slash 83 weeks, save up to 20%

using promo code 83 weeks. Eric, I love my sleep me. I know you guys do yours as well. Absolutely. And I didn't realize, you know, before I got sleep meat, how much better I sleep when it's cooler. I've never noticed it as much, but I noticed when I started really turning it down because I like it cold too, I'd get up in the morning and it's like the blankets are all

in the same place, the pillows are all in the same place because previously I'd toss and turn and get up and down and trying to get comfortable so much. But what's, and Lori's the one, Ms. B's the one, she likes it. really cold and it cranks it all the way down and all of a sudden i realize i get up in the morning and it's like i didn't tear shit up last night this is awesome and it's because i've been i'm just in a deeper sleep don't toss and turn nearly as much check it out you're going to love it i know we love ours man it's a game changer sleep dot me slash 83 weeks uh so let's talk about the uh the third show you're only going to have 2300 fans here in brisman belser would write

even though we're doing two for one tickets it's uh it's just not a bonanza and fans aren't nearly as nice as they have been in other cities there's lots of heckling here the main event only goes 10 minutes melzer would say hogan bleeds right away and doesn't take any bumps flare bleeds a little later eventually fatu jordan and jimmy heart are all involved um and hogan's going to use the jimmy heart megaphone on rick flare to get the pen and melzer would say quote said to be sad watching both because they looked old, we're limited, and we're working in an empty arena. At this

point, it feels like the wheels are coming off. Night three, is this one that starts to get a little, the air gets a little thick, Eric? Yeah, that's a night that afterwards, uh, Michael Condon came to me and pretty much laid out the

situation. Um, let us know. He didn't go into a lot of detail because we We weren't privy to the contracts for the agreements that he had with his investors. But let us know that a group of his investors were very, very disappointed and that we might have an issue. He was going to try to try to work with his investors to try to make sure that we got paid. Because there was a question in my mind going into the fourth night, do we even, do we play? You know, do we perform?

if we're not going to get paid we need to retain some leverage because once we performed that last show we have no leverage we have zero leverage and there was some conversation I had with with Hulk about that do we perform do we not perform

do we need some kind of guarantee that we're going to get paid per the contract and we decided to go ahead and perform no matter what because if we didn't it would all be a bad reflection on Hulk and Rick nobody's going to blame publicly they're not going to put it on a promoter because people wouldn't understand they don't know they don't know it

would all come it would all come down on hulk and rick and we wanted to avoid that the final night of the tour is actually the most successful one you have 11000 folks here in sydney uh they're doing two for once here at the end but still um that's what it is it's a no dq match uh as we said this is umaga's last match as well he's going to pass away less than a week later uh Anthony our old pal had this to say this tour had umaga's last match which was the best match of the tour with mr kennedy it was a pay-per-view quality match i remember at the false finish eke saying we got him umaga was awesome on the tour he took care of the boys when we went out you could see he was a leader and how everyone respected him how did you hear about umaga's passing

you know oh somebody called me i was in there laurie and i were living in uh arizona at the time and i remember somebody calling me it was in the morning i don't remember who called me but somebody did and let me know and i was shocked you know still hard to imagine in a way um but yeah i i was i was shocked we uh we're trying to put a bow on this you wrote in your book grateful that the promoter's biggest mistake was their expectations but they did take care of the talent they got good hotel rooms and all that and I guess most of the fans had fun did any good come out of this tour do you think oh I mean nothing aside from the fact that we didn't get paid

what we were supposed to get paid and yours surely didn't get paid at all. Nothing bad happened, you know, but nothing really great happened either. Nothing really good happened either. I'm sure, you know, a lot of the talent, the undercard, they had a great time. You know, they had fun.

Australia is a fun place to go, by the way. The people were great. The weather in November was great in Australia. there was nothing bad about it other than the fact that we didn't get paid and we didn't get the turnout that we were hoping for but I can't point to anything that really good happened either you think Hulk or Rick regretted doing it I don't know about Rick I think probably Hulk did I think had it sold out had it reached its expectations and it been a feather in his career cap so to speak towards the end of his career

I think he would have, he would have had a much different feeling about it. But, you know, the fact that everything, you know, it's not like they, it's not like the condens did anything wrong. They promoted the hell out of it. It's sometimes when something like this happens, you can go, yeah, the promoters, you know, cut corners or didn't do this or should have done that. It's very easy to kind of pick it apart, right? Because there's always something that you could have done better. But in this case, they checked every box. and it really came down to Hulk and Rick just didn't draw the way everybody

expected them to, including Hulk and Rick. And I think that probably would have led to regret it, certainly on Hulk's party. And I can't speak for Rick. I don't know. We never talked about it. Rick got paid and he had a blast. So, but Rick has a blast pretty much. Everywhere he goes.

Yeah, it's not like that's a big deal, right? But I think for Hulk it was disappointing and he probably did regret it. And they have to go through physically what he went through. even more so i regretted it i regretted putting the deal together i'll never one of the things i regret the most is being on a plane with brutus the barber beefcake i got up on it this is funny it's not a funny story it's a sick story but i was we're all sitting in first class and on this particular plane i don't remember what model it was but there was actually there was first class and there was a galley where you know you could in a bar actually there was a bar

where you could get up and go pour yourself a drink mid flight and of course that got a lot of use but i was sitting in the second first class section the one behind on the other side of the bar and i remember it was like i don't know what time it was we're on our way home and it's nighttime it's dark i get up to go use the restroom and as i get up to go use the restroom i had to walk through the bar section, the galley to get to the restroom. And there's Brutus the barber beefcake taking a leak all over the bar. And it was such a bizarre thing to see that it took a second for me to register. What the hell is he doing? It disgusted me so much and he disgusted me so much. And I was so embarrassed that I was even on the plane with this cat.

it was a flight attendant saw it it turned into a big deal um well he was that broke and didn't know what he was doing yeah he yeah amongst other things i'm sure but it's just on that was like the last thing you know those are the last straw for me i mean emotionally having you know realized that we probably weren't going to get paid or if we were it was going to cost a lot of money in a lawsuit to get our money out of australia and all that it just And then the last thing, just, you know, wake up and look at Brutis and Barbara Beefcake taking a leak all over the inside of a plane with a stupid grin on his face laughing like a, like a village idiot that he is. Really just capped it off for me.

Let's, uh, let's do a few questions here. Carl Hayes has a great one. I feel like I know the answer now, though. If you could have left one talent there, it would it have been. Yeah. Yeah. It would have been Brutus. Francis Leigh says, what do you enjoy most about doing this tour?

I think, I know this will sound, you know, boring to most people, but just walking around Sydney. And it's a beautiful city. And there's a lot of history and I love history. And I just walking around meeting the people, I enjoyed that a lot. You know, I think I had one day to myself, one afternoon to myself, and I just got up early. and just walked around. You know, Mrs. B was with me.

So Lori got a chance to go over to Australia. She had to leave before I did. She wasn't there for the whole tour, but she got to spend, you know, a part of it there with me and we get to explore Australia together. So that was fun. I enjoyed that.

Matthew wants to know. If Imaga didn't pass away, was Umaga ever discussed to be a part of TNA? Not that I was involved in. Okay. Brad wants to know, what was the food like in Australia? Are there any other differences that jumped off the page? We ate well.

I got to tell you, sushi was great in Australia, but we ate really, really well. And the food was fantastic. Nothing out of the ordinary. It sounded like we went to any, you know, ethnic restaurants or anything like that. But we ate really well and the food was delicious. I did eat a lot of sushi. So I can attest to the sushi. The quality of the sushi in Australia is excellent.

Lenny Bocken has a great question. Eric has mentioned that once you start making money, you get used to it and you don't focus on it or enjoy it as much as you do it first. If he had to pinpoint a year, which year would he say was the first year he felt financially comfortable? Oh, Lenny Bocken, by the way, great investment guy.

If you're looking for somebody to handle your money, Edward Jones and Lenny Bocken is your guy. Shout out to him, big listener of the show. first year you felt financially comfortable, Eric. I don't know that I've ever felt financially comfortable. Isn't that weird? I mean, I have been, obviously, and sometimes more than others. But I've never, I've never woken up and gone, you know what?

I've got enough money. That's just not me. I don't know that I'd ever, I'd ever be that way. To me, it's not about the money as much as it's about the mission. you know i love i love trying to figure out a way to make a lot of money yeah i love the process but having a lot or not doesn't necessarily give me comfort if that makes sense i can't can't really explain it well i know you're going to be able to explain next week slambury 2000 we're getting out of spring stampede 2000 it's the bischoff russo reset we got whole code competing

with Billy Kidman, Red Hart's going to become involved. The Triple Cage, David Arquette winning the title, Sting, Vampiro, Shane Douglass and Rick Flair, who! Next week's going to be a barn burner for us. Get all these shows early and ad-free over at ad-freeshows.com, starting at just $9. And right now you can enjoy the first week on us, completely free. It's a free trial at ad-freeshows.com. We've also got a ton of great conversation over there that I

really recommend you go out of your way to check out. We just released a conversation with David Sahati, who made so many of those fantastic videos over the years that we all just love so much. And even with the benefit of hindsight, they stand up to this day. They're just fantastic. And so do the theme

songs with Jim Johnston. We have conversations with both of those guys and the guy who fired Bruce Pritchard to run WWTV and eventually hired David Sahati, John Philipelli. All of those exclusive conversations are supposed right now at ad-freeshows.com.

You don't want to miss it. We're having weekly live experiences as well. You can get on there with Kevin Nash or Eric Bischoffer, Mick Foley, or whoever. You never know what's going to happen at ad-free shows. I think it's the best value around. Love to have your interaction. Maybe you got a question about next week's show. Ask us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at 83 weeks.

I also want you to check out our brand-new YouTube channel, 83 weeks on YouTube.com. Lots of fun new merch over at 83 weeksmerch.com. the brand new endeavor to persevere tea personal favorite of eric bischoff the lw o inspired for life tea see it all right now at 83 weeks merch dot com and of course if your business targets me in 25 to 54 years old no better place to advertise than right here on 83 weeks you hear some of the same sponsors year after year after year why is that well because it really works and with our super targeted audience there's very little waste go right now to advertise with eric.com to find out more about advertising with 83 weeks Eric i don't know what i expected today but boy today's episode was fun any last words about this

hulkomania tour no live and learn i guess that's the only thing i can say when i think about this tour it's like okay check check that box did that now i know what an escrow means in australia live and learn live and learn indeed and that's what we try to do every week here and we'll be back next week trying to live and learn a little more talking about WCW and 2000

right here on 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff Fight Plus is the ultimate digital platform for live sports and entertainment and they're now offering a free seven day trial at tryfight.com Fight Plus is packed with a premium

live event schedule over a thousand hours of live action every year and a library of more than 4,000 hours on demand, plus exclusive content you can't get anywhere else. Fight is a great partner of ours. They support us, so let's support them. Give that free seven-day trial a shot, and you'll be a member for life. That's tryfight.com. T-R-Y-F-I-T-E dot com. Hey guys, it's the hardcore legend Mick Foley here, and I need to call timeout, a brief timeout, is I wanted to tell your listeners what I have been telling Foley is pod listeners for a while now about all the cool things happening over on ad-free

shows.com. An all-new edition of The Insiders is here, as Conrad welcomes David Zoddy, the man behind so many iconic video packages as WWF fans grew up on, including one to let Vince and tears. You guy, and Conrad, I swear, I walked outside the studio, and Vince was sitting down on the concrete floor, crying hysterically. Just saying thank you. Thank you. Wow. Thank you. I went up to talk, but he says a good job.

Can I want to see it. 15 minutes later on the stairwell, Vince is still sitting down in a different spot now. Crying saying thank you. Thank you. Special guest host Raven sat in for Jake the Snake Roberts on the Snake Pit, looking back 25 years on his rivalry with DDP and an interesting new member of the flock. Jimmy Hart comes up to me one day and goes, hey, Hope would like a favor. I go, what is it?

He goes, he'd like you to put Horace in the flock. I'm like, sure. I'm not going to say no. But it became a running gag like Jericho and Conan. We used to, three of us used to hang out together and call ourselves the triumvirate of useless information. And so they were like, you know, wait, did you put Horace Hogan in the flock because he's Hogan's nephew? I'm like, what? He's Hogan's nephew?

I had no idea. That's just a small taste, a sampling, if you will, of what we have. for you. With four levels to choose from four, see for yourself why ad-free shows is the best value in wrestling today. Sign up now, right now at ad-freeshows.com. Yeah.