83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 276: Ask Eric Anything 06.26.23

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

On this episode of 83Weeks, Eric joins Conrad from the Huntsville studio for a very exciting #Ask Eric Anything! Eric and Conrad discuss the AEW Forbidden Door ppv, Eric losing his hair, and all the great stories from Ad Free Shows Top Guy weekend. Plus, Eric gives some great answers to YOUR questions! ZBIOTICS - Visit zbiotics.com/83WEEKS to get 15% off your first order when you use 83WEEKS at checkout. MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at Manscaped.com.  BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code 83WEEKS at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s BlueChew.com, promo code 83WEEKS to receive your first month FREE 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. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, this is Missy Hyatt, the Walking Riot, and I say that you need to save with Conrad. Jim Ross told me, you need to go with Conrad. He'll save you money. And he did. You guys helped me out great. When I refinanced it and paid off everything, I think my payment was only $8 in one month. I probably saved at least over $30,000. They make everything so easy for you. Go to save with Conrad if you want to refire your mortgage. or anything with your mortgage, just go to save with Conrad. Eric, we're here in the Foley's Pod Studios here in Huntsville, Alabama, one day removed from Top Guy Weekend,

and you have a tas towel over your head. Are you bashful? You shy? It's time to show that you don't... My goodness. Eric Bischoff is bald. He's back and better than ever. He's bald and better than ever.

Eric, you're such a good sport. How about the new haircut, man? I'm kind of digging it. I mean, it looks cool. I'm kind of digging it. Like, I'm experiencing sensations. I haven't experienced in a long time. Like, when I walk outside and there's a gentle breeze that just caresses the top of my head,

something I've never experienced before, or at least it's been a long time. And I'm kind of digging it, and besides Mrs. B. digs it. So it goes a long way to make this okay. Yeah, Mrs. B was in the house last night when you lost your hair, and I think I heard her say the comment, he looks like Sean Connery now. I mean, did that pay dividends real time? It did pay dividends. It was another reason why I never leave home without my blue chew.

Oh, there you go. There you go. I had to pay it off. Well, listen, you're a great sport. Of course, it was all about whether or not CM Punk was going to be at the first collision. We know he was, and we raised a whole heck of a lot of money for St. Jude's this weekend. Thanks again to Lucas, who donated $10,000. He shared his testimony with us yesterday.

He needed some help when he was a younger man, and there was technology developed at St. Jude's that saved his life. He paid it forward, donated $10,000 to St. Jude's. I want to shout out John and Jimmy. They donated thousands of dollars as well. All told, over $13,500 donated to St. Jude's, and we had a lot of fun at Top Guy Weekend, but something you might not even know, Eric, and I do want to talk about some of the silliness we did here at Top Guy Weekend. Then we'll talk about AEW, and of course, we're going to do. ask Eric anything. But Eric, we did like a fantasy wrestling show yesterday where the crowd,

our fans, our supporters, our family members at AFS, they got to book a whole show with Kevin Sullivan and yourself and Mr. Crockett and Mr. Morton and Mr. Jarrett. And we had a circumstance yesterday where we had five baby faces and five heels and one of our guys wasn't able to make it at the last minute. So we called in to the local promoter, Mr. Berry, who, who runs Rocket City Championship Wrestling and said, hey, can you get us somebody last minute? They sent the Tiger Kid. The Tiger Kid had been a part of our training festivities

the day before with Tom Pritchard. So when Tiger Kid woke up yesterday, he was not booked for the show. And yet he's a last minute replacement. And fans voted that he would tag with one half of the great Rock and Earl Express, Mr. Ricky Morton. And then the fans decided that we should make the main event a title match

and they decided that the person who should win the title oh my gosh is Tiger Kid here's something you may not know here's what a small world

it is and it's further confirmation that sometimes our ideas aren't really our ideas and things happen the way they're supposed to Tiger Kid who woke up yesterday not booked

and wound up tagging with Ricky Morton and wound up winning the whole thing and becoming our first ad free show champion he welcomed his son home two weeks ago from St. Jude's a while that wasn't our plan that wasn't our idea that's his son had brain cancer he's cancer free as of two weeks ago and it all happened at st jude's and as soon as he wins the belt

we clear the ring to shave your head and do the big check reveal for st jude's it's like man there's some big hands involved in this and i'm not talking about mine and yours my goodness that is just what an amazing story right what are the odds of that no that's There's no coincidence there. I only learned this because Tiger Kid was really emotional. And people had told me that he was like pretty, I'll just say emotional. You know what I mean. And I thought, man, I need to check on him.

Is he okay? He's physically fine. But I wasn't supposed to be here. And I just tagged with Ricky Morton. And I won the belt. And this was all for St. Jude's. And my son just came on from St. Jude's.

It was like, man, I don't know. It got me in my fields yesterday. I wanted to share with you. Right? It's just, that's overwhelming. It is. It's, that's bigger than us. And it was all born out of us just telling old wrestling stories and trying to get together and have some fun.

And we wound up actually doing some good for some people and making a difference. It was awesome, dude. It was. And I'm really, really grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it. Well, thank you for being a good sport. Everybody had a great time. And, man, we always talk about here on the show, the Eric Bischel philosophy, better than, less than, different than. And this top guy weekend was a little different than, I think people had a blast.

What was your impression? Well, first of all, just to be there as a fly on the wall, just watching people, it elevated me. It made me feel better because I was watching people have fun and feel like they're a part of something. And I'm watching these, I don't know how many people are there. It's hard to count because we were spread out all over the place. But so many of those people, three, four years ago, didn't know each other. Right. Right.

They were just spread out all over the country. And now they get together for a top guy weekend, but they do a lot of other things together as a group. They go to wrestling events. They go check out AEW. And they do it as a group. And, you know, you often hear, I often hear, the term community thrown around almost as a marketing kind of word. You know, it's usually applied to the building of a, a, a, a, a community. a social media network of sorts.

And it's not really a community in the sense that people are supporting each other and helping each other and having fun with each other. And I think what you and everybody on your team at every show's has done has created a genuine sense of community where people feel comfortable, they develop relationships, and they support each other. Yes.

And I, that just, I can't really think about it too much because I'll get all weepy and shit, but it's pretty cool. It was cool. You know, we went really interactive this year, so Friday night we had trivia, and then we had a promo contest, which was a blast. Oh, my gosh, that was so much fun. It exceeded all expectations. It was so much fun.

And then we did the fun, silly, rebel karaoke. She's doing the coyote ugly thing. That was a blast. Can I just say something about Rebel? Yes, please. She's awesome. Yes, she is. I have so much respect for her.

She gets up there and she is, she's one of the more entertaining people I've been around in a long time. Yeah. And she just has fun. Yes. She's not afraid to go out there and have, she's not afraid to go out there and make fun of herself. Ham it up. She's just a hoot. I dig her a lot.

I told her that the next morning. I saw her in a parking lot. I was out walking around about 6.30 in a morning. And I saw her getting in the car to go to the airport. it. I stopped her and said, man, much respect because you had fun, but you allowed other people to have fun with you, and that's fun. Well said. And then on Saturday, man, we got everything kicked off with a conversation. There were some names people haven't heard from in a long time. You pulled out the big guns. We had Doug Dillinger there. We had David Crockett there. And we

had Dick Cheatham there. Dirty Dick Cheat him. Right? I mean, what was the last time anybody even heard of Dick Cheatel making an appearance? Tell us about Dick. Dick is, uh, Dick was, he was, he was a controller, comptroller, I think is the way it said, finance guy. We just call him a finance guy. Dick didn't work for WCW, but Dick was probably the biggest supporter in Turner broadcasting of WCW, with the exception of probably Ted Turner himself. Dick loves, to this day, loves professional wrestling. He told me he goes to three or four indie shows a month to this day. And Dick's, you know, he's had some, you know, health issues and things. it's hard for him to get around, but he still goes.

He loves wrestling. But Dick is one of those people that knew, he really knew what was going on in Turner Broadcasting with regard to Turner management and trying to undermine WCW from day one. From the time I got there as a C-Squot announcer, that initiative, that effort to try to unplug WCW from the Turner Broadcasting Circuit, so to speak,

had been strong. And Dick was right in the middle of it. Dick's got some stories and he's also a really funny guy his sense of humor has got to be around him to really get his humor but he's a fun guy

I was so grateful to see him because I haven't seen him now I talked to Dick once on the phone about a year ago but I haven't seen Dick in person God since I left Turner so it's been 20-some odd years so really really happy to see him there

David Crockett was having a blast as always he's like a little kid He's the unofficial ad-free show's mascot, I think. I mean, what a cool guy. He has such a blast every time. When we announced him, he came through the curtain dancing, and then he almost took a header getting into the ring. That was fun, but he's just great.

It was fun. And Doug Dillinger, man, Doug's got some stories. He actually broke out a couple stories, and I was really shocked because the two people that you can't get to talk, you can waterboard him, and they're not going to talk, is Doug Dillinger and Janie Engel. Those are the two that have the best stories, by the way. They not only know where the bodies are buried. In Doug's case, I think he had a shovel in his hand once or twice. I think he participated.

But he actually broke out a couple Dusty Road stories that really warm my heart. After that, we got to do for Wrestling Fantasy Camp. Dr. Tom Pritchard came in, and all of our top guys had an opportunity to train with Dr. Tom. And just think about that. The guy who trained Vince McMahon, Kurt Engel, and the... Iraq, how to wrestle was now training you. That was such a cool experience, but we needed to let everybody just take a minute off from the physical abuse and pain of becoming a pro wrestler, and let's actually use

our brain for a bit and pick the mind of one of the greatest minds of all. Somebody who doesn't really make appearances all that often anymore. Mr. Kevin Sullivan, man, this was like a little miniature WCW reunion this weekend, was it known. It wasn't a whole idea on the interactive part of this. And again, hats off to everybody that was involved in that, because it, It came off better than I think any of us conceived it when we were conceiving the idea. Coming up with the idea, it was like, well, this could be fun. I think they're going to like it.

I think that, you know, I think it'll get over. And it was so, it was so much fun to watch because we started out with, you know, a booking committee. Yes. You know, myself and Kevin Sullivan and Jeff Jarrett was on there. Yep, David Crockett. We all. Ricky Morton. And Ricky Morton.

And Ricky Morton. What a blast Ricky Morton is. Oh, my goodness, what a blast he is. He had me crack it up all day. But we sat there and, you know, we're laying out, you know, we had four matches, four segments to film, we laid it out. But I found myself about halfway through it forgetting, in a way, that we're just doing a little demonstration.

I mean, we all really got into it. Yes. Kevin would throw out an idea and Jeff would throw out an idea in, and I'd come in with an idea and the ideas were just coming back and forth and moving around and boom, we came up with something that was actually really good. It was pretty good. It was fun to watch. And we had ring announce, some of the after shows family members.

You know, they put their name in a hat, so we picked random names out to be a ring announcer, to be a manager, you know, be a timekeeper, whatever. And everybody got to be involved in watching people who probably had only fantasized about what would it be like, to actually get in the ring and participate. Because I think one of the reasons wrestling works and has works that's a beginning of television time, really,

is because if you're into the characters and the story to a degree, you're kind of living vicariously through what they're doing in the ring, right? And we gave people a chance to get in there and be a part of the show. And they loved it. This whole fantasy wrestling thing was, it was we created it out of necessity right yes because you know things changed at the last minute

or not the last minute but when you were planning top guy weekend and we were going to do one thing we had to do another and okay let's do it in huntsville and everybody voted for that and it's like okay now what do we do right okay everybody's coming to hansville you know you can only eat and drink so much what are we going to do yes and that's where the idea of the fantasy wrestling thing came about and it it was ten times better than i hoped it would be let's put it that way well shout out to everybody who participated. I want to recognize some of the wrestlers. And then we want to talk about a little special moment.

But, man, we put together quite an independent wrestling card. I want to give a shout out to some of these folks. Chip Day, I thought was fantastic. How great was Ray Fury, man? You want to talk about a guy who's got a bright future. Ray was tremendous. Cabana Man, Dan. He was my favorite.

What a great gimmick, right? He was my favorite. And he can go. Yes. I mean, he's good. He can go. We didn't have anybody on this roster who, couldn't. Ricky Morton, of course, what else can you say? It's so cool to see him in the ring.

How about Krul? That's a big dude right there, right? He was a monster. Super good guy, too. I talked to him a little bit after the matches, and he would have walked on broken glass on his hands and knees to get there to be a part of that event. He was so excited to be a part of that event. I want to mention you can see Krul and MLW and lots of other Georgia shows. Cabanaman, Dan, here is based in Alabama. I know he roars with New South and some other folks. Chip Day and Ray Fury, of course, you can catch with Dylan over at Southern Honor in Atlanta, so be sure to watch them in that market. Ricky Morton's got a school, the school of Morton, so be sure to check him out.

We got Corey Hollis, who dusted off the trunks from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Adam Priest, who I thought a lot of and have really sung his praises before. He's here at North Alabama as well. We had the Tiger Kid, who we know is a big part of Rocket City Championship wrestling. Bryce Cannon, the frat daddy over at Southern Honor wrestling. Great attitude. He's got a great attitude. His head is on his shoulders. He knows exactly what his character is supposed to be doing and why. And he did a great job? He did a great job.

Adam Jacobs, too, man. That dude just looks like a pro wrestler. Another one of Dylan's great performers over at Southern Honor over in Atlanta. Man, a heck of a crew want to give a shout out to Pondwater Dave and Brandon for being our referees. And we even had a ref bump and a special guest referee. and, hey, Jeff Jarrett was just going to be sitting in the back. I said, we got to do something in the main event. So even Jeff Jarrett got in there and mixed it up a little bit. It was a good little show for an hour show.

We hit our times. Can you believe it? Yeah, that was. It might have been the first time I've ever hit a time. I mean, and it was a fan-run show, and we did it. It was amazing. Just really want to thank those guys again. I want you to support independent wrestling.

You know, what a cool opportunity it was for Rocket City Championship wrestling to open their doors and fans be able to get in the ring and just see how the sausage is made and be a part of it. And I know everybody listening to this probably watches WW and AW. But buy a ticket and go see these independent shows. Like your favorite television wrestlers are only there because they hone their craft somewhere like Rocket City Championship Wrestling, right? Yeah, that's where it all starts.

And I agree, man. It supports your local independent wrestling. These are some people just go out there because they just want to have fun. They're just out there having fun. There are other wrestlers out there that actually have a shot. Yes. And are working towards a career. Yes.

And giving them your support early in their careers is a cool opportunity. It's a chance to see some futures, potentially, megastar, and to be there when they're first breaking in and be able to say, yeah, remember when he used to wrestle him, you know, my local community. That's a cool thing. It's very, very cool. I dig it. I dug it and I think I might have the bug I think we're going to have to do more like this

Yeah I looked over at you about halfway through you and I chatted just a little bit Next thing I know we're talking about what we're going to do next year and maybe we're going to do this And maybe we're going to do that and all sounded a lot bigger than what we did this time so but we knew that would happen We knew that would happen and we knew that people would have a lot of fun with a game the game event was brought to us by effron And last year in Nashville when we did family feud I thought it was one of the of the best things we did last year, and a lot of that was because of the effort that Effron and Josh Odom put into that game last year. Of course, sadly, we lost Josh Odom. I can't believe

that's even a real sentence still. So we wanted to honor his family. So we had Everett present the championship belt, Josh's son, to the Tiger Kid. He was up there making the selections for who's going to be the ring announcer and all that jazz. Just tried to integrate that as much as we could. And of course, Effron made sure that he came threw in the clutch, made sure Everett had an identical jacket to him for the price is right. Can't thank Ephron and the Odom family enough, did our best to try to pay tribute to a great friend.

Yeah, we did, and it was meaningful. I talked to Carlisle's wife, Josh's wife. I talked to her, and yeah, it mattered. We can't thank you guys enough. We really appreciate all that you do for us with ad-free shows, and I'm excited for next year's top guy weekend. like I'm making a bunch of notes while it's fresh in all of our minds. And, you know, our model has been to just piggyback a giant AEW show.

So for the past few years, we've done in Chicago. We put it on a poll this year, Eric, and said, hey, do you guys want to do it in Chicago or Nashville or Huntsville? And actually, we took suggestions. The top three were Chicago, Nashville, Huntsville, and then Huntsville won. And to your point, I said, hey, man, what are we going to piggyback? Really appreciative of Brett Lauderdale and Game Changer Wrestling coming to town and giving our folks something to do on Saturday night. They had a heck of a show, and I can't believe this is real, but

Action Jackson, Action Mike Jackson, still working. He was on that GCW show, so it was a fun event, but I came away this year, kind of like I did last year, thinking, how are we going to top this? You will. We'll find away. We'll find a way. But I think they were

trying to play that game last night. So normally you guys know, 83 weeks comes out on Monday morning. We're recording on Monday morning. We wanted to do this to show you Eric's new Lex Luthor look. He's got some beef with Superman. But I wanted to see what you thought of AEW and the forbidden door pay-per-view. So real quick, just to you know from a business perspective, it's the biggest gate in

AEW history. I think they topped $1.2 million. I believe it's the third largest gate in Canadian wrestling history. Obviously, those other two are probably WWE, I would imagine. So I thought it was, in that regard, a success. Yes, I know the show maybe went a little long, but I understood what they were trying to do. If you were looking for great matches, boy, they had that in abundance. I can't wait to get your feedback and what you thought of the show.

I came in a little bit late. I got to the location, Dave and Busters, where we were all gathering to watch it. I didn't get there until after the show started. I think I came in right before the Jungle Boy match. So that was the first full match that I watched. And less than impressed, I just, I don't get it, you know, I don't want to be critical, but Jungle Boys work just, I tweeted it out last night, he couldn't crack an egg with a hammer. He just didn't look believable to me.

He's so much so that it actually, I don't want to say it made me embarrassed to be a wrestling fan, but it was just, he was out of place. He should not have been on that show. And I can't put my finger on. He just looked, he looked non-interested, is the way I felt about it. I don't know how else to describe it. You think that, you think maybe he,

I didn't pick up on that, but I appreciate your feedback, but you think that was to set up the turn at the end? The forearms and some of the things that he was laying in there looked like he was trying not to, to make contact. And it just looked like he was. You thought it had an off night.

Yeah, I hope it was just an off night. Because if that's an example of some of his best work and him getting up for a major show in front of a huge audience, I don't know, man. Doesn't make sense to me. The crowd was kind of flat for that one. I don't think the crowd did him any favors. I don't know if people were really behind Sonata yet.

And I know that, at least the folks that I know who keep up with that stuff or that stuff, meaning New Japan on a full-time regular basis. They really love his stuff, but I think a lot of American fans, myself included, or maybe a few years behind, like we're big fans of Okada and we're big fans of Suzuki

and we're big fans of Tanahashi and sort of the quote-unquote old guard. Sonata feels like maybe the next big thing. And I just don't think maybe fans are as invested in him just yet. And maybe that affected the match. You're being very kind. Well, I'll tell you this. I would love to hear what you thought of the Kenny Omega Will Osprey match.

I've seen feedback where people are saying it's their new favorite match all time. I've seen a lot of people being critical of saying, hey, they took too many risks. I think Brian Danielson at the post-media scrum yesterday even said, you know, I worry about spots like that. And I'm not sure if it makes the match better. So he took a more veteran approach. But man, those guys pulled out all the stops. Did you see that match? What did you think?

I did see it. I will also admit that I have not seen much of Will Osprey's work or Omega, for that matter. I was blown away. Like, I said on the way over here, I was riding with Stephen. I hate to make comparisons because everybody's unique and different in their own way. But Osprey reminds me of a tougher Sean Michaels. Okay. He just, he's got the look.

He's obviously wrestling, in terms of his in-ring capabilities are just otherworldly at this point. Yes. But it just, it was, it was like the new school, the very athletic, physical, dynamic, incredibly difficult and high-risk type of offense. It had all of that, but it also had Nick Bachwinkle, Vergaunya-esque psychology. Yes. So the story was there, the psychology was there, the dynamic presentation, the athleticism, the things that people really digger. nowadays. That was there, you know, in spades. There was more than enough of that for anybody who loves that style and that presentation, but it still had great psychology. And in the

pacing, in the story, it was so good. I mean, I don't know that I've seen anything better in terms of a match. Now, you know, they don't have a rock-like popularity with the audience. That audience, they did. Certainly with that audience, they did. And that's why I don't like comparing, but in terms of the story and the action and the believability, all the things that make me excited to watch a wrestling match, I got overdosed on it. Yeah. And I was there for it. It was awesome. It really was incredible. I think you should go out of your way to see it, even if you don't classify yourself as an AEW fan or maybe you're a lapsed fan. I would highly recommend that match. I would not be surprised if, you know, I know Meltzer gives ratings on a five-star scale,

but he's exceeded that. This might be a nine-star match. I mean, it was silly, awesome, really, really good. Coming out of the main event, I don't think you had a chance to see that one. Brian Danielson has a broken forearm. He busted it just 10 minutes into the match, but still continued the match. But I can't imagine anyone trying to follow Omega and Osprey. Like, what a nearly impossible task to even try to tackle.

yeah that would be kind of a downer right and and brian dionnison has the ability to you know be the best match on any card on any continent yes you know in the right situation but even a guy like brian danison probably had to go damn how about that like that damn i got to follow that and now my arm's broken here we go like my goodness yeah uh really an incredible showing really happy EW setting a record. It's just awesome to hear. And it feels like WWE is setting at records every single live event they go to. Wrestling seems to be on a big uptick right now, Eric.

And I'm curious, you know, you've seen collision now and you were really heaping praise on. Now you've seen, you know, what this new Japan thing looks like. The next big event everyone's going to be talking about is Wembley Stadium. And at the post-match press conference, they talk to Sting. Are you going to be at Wembley Stadium? He said he is going to be there. There was some whispers, hey, could this be Sting's last match? He said he didn't think it would be at Wimbly.

He thought that would be cool, but he thought Tony was bending his ear and maybe stick around a little longer, do a few more things. Do you think we're going to see Sting's last match this year if you had to bet? No, I don't think we will because I think Tony will convince Sting to stick around a little longer if that's what Tony wants. And I understand that. Um, I personally, I'd like to see Sting retire because, first of all, he's going to be in a 65, 70,000 people. Yeah.

If you're going to put a period at the end of the last sentence in the last chapter of your career, go out big. Hard to be that. Go out big. And I don't know that, I don't know that he'll get an opportunity, maybe, but I don't know he'll get another opportunity to go out. front of a crowd that big. That would be special. So for, I guess, if I was Sting, that's what I would want for my career. Yes.

But then again, Sting's doing it because Sting loves to perform. He loves to get out there. And it's hard to give that up. It is hard to give that up. It's also hard to give up a smooth sack. If you haven't already heard, it's smooth sack summer. And when you're playing in the summer sun, make sure you're escaped from pubs to bum. That's right.

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Yeah, I was going to say. This is kind of appropriate, and I'm, I'm digging it. Now, I can't walk around when my ball swinging in the fresh air, but, you know, this bar's working. Well, Wyoming, I could. No, I can be out of my deck. Nobody would see. How often do you get naked on your deck? It's happened.

Really? It's happened. Like this calendar year? Yeah. Last summer, late last summer. Man, that's exciting. I don't want to ask what you're doing. Let's do some questions.

Let's jump right into it. You're the keys to you guys. I wasn't alone. Let's put it that way. I didn't want to ask, but I kind of had a feeling. I hope Nikki wasn't injured. You asshole. You were such an asshole.

Instagram, a wrestling historian. I wants to know, what was Vince Rousseau's best idea in WCW and TNA? Thanks in advance. Listen, I appreciate that question because, you know, we get a lot of folks who want to dunk on Vince Rousseau, and I don't think that's always fair all the time. That dude had some good ideas. Let's give him his flowers every now and again. What was a good idea you saw in WCW and a good idea you saw in TNA?

You know, I couldn't pinpoint, you know, a Vince Rousseau specific idea, mostly, because like any idea, it's very seldom one person's idea 100%. I will say that, and I've been very outspoken about Vince Rousseau for a lot of reasons, but that is not to say that he didn't have good ideas. Vince did have good, Rousseau did have good ideas occasionally. It's just, you know, I think we tend to remember and talk about

and make fun of the bad ideas. Yes. You know, much more frequently than we acknowledge the good ideas. And that's just part of being in the business. But I'm sure there were several in there, and I'm sure other people could tell you that worked more closely with Rousseau than I did,

ideas that he originated and were mostly his ideas. I just couldn't do that. Here's one from Michael. Eric EW's been around for four years now. Can you honestly name one storyline off the top of your head that has caught fire? I think they've amassed great talent, but I think the creative has lacked. I think this is a major point of difference with WWE. What do you think? So listen, I think everybody can sort of, or at least I do, I reconcile that maybe the better stories are in WWE and maybe the better matches are in in AEW. At least that's the way the internet likes to talk about it. And I wonder how much of that is just based on the bloodline. Would we still be talking about, it just feels as if, from my

perspective, the internet wrestling community at large really likes to talk about matches. And I think maybe Tony's approach has been less super serve that. Like, Forbidden Doors are a great example. Like, you know, there was, there was a story for Omega and Osprey, but not a story to the level of the bloodline. But then the bell rings and you're like, well, they're creating a whole new story bell to bell here. This is unbelievable. It's a different approach from WWE. Would you agree with that? I would agree with that. I don't know that it's necessarily a strategy. I think it's a coincidence. I think there are some dream matches out there and there's some fantastic performers out there that Tony is obviously bringing in. But I would not say that

the better matches are in AEW. I think occasionally we do see some great matches in AEW that stand out, but I also see a lot of slop and a lot of just not ready for primetime action in an AEW ring. So I'm not one of those people that go, oh, there's better wrestling in AEW. I think occasionally there are some fantastic matches in AEW because there's some great talent in there. But for the most part, I'm not impressed with a lot of what I see in the ring. I think it's very sloppy.

Again, I don't want to be negative and pick things apart, so I'm not going to name names on this episode, but there was a lot of stuff last night than I saw that left me thinking to myself, you would never see that in a WW ring. Do you think that's because they've just had less repetition? I mean, the AEW schedule, all wrestling schedules a lot lighter than it used to be,

certainly even WWB, but AEW, I mean, a lot of those performers are working at best once a week, and oftentimes because of the roster, are so big, less than that. And so do you think that's just a lack of repetition, maybe? Could be, especially for some of the younger talent, but there's some of the older talent, veteran talent, that've been around for a while that just don't look like they should be in that ring,

quite honestly, in a pay-per-view. I think when I was referencing, quote-unquote, better matches, I want to clarify, I'm not suggesting that AEW has better in-ring performers. I just feel like WWE maybe has more Gaga and more skits and more story. It's just a function of a two-hour show. it's like there's more backstage and more in-ring promos and all of that in a WWE show whereas maybe we focus on longer matches so you might have the same match count a WWE match maybe goes three four five six minutes

maybe AEW has multiple matches that go through a break or two if you were formatting a show today in 2023 is there a ratio of Gaga to in ring that would be a home run for you Like, you do too much of one or the other is what I'm trying to get at. Yeah, no, look, I remember as far back as the early 90s, you know, that was the big discussion, you know, amongst hardcore wrestling fans is match time. The number of minutes in ring. Yeah, the number of minutes in ring. And it's like, what the hell are you keeping track of here?

Because it's a number of valuable entertaining minutes that matter. Yes. And I think, you know, one of my criticisms of WWE, because I am critical of WWE, when I feel there's something to be critical of, and I try to be constructive in that criticism. Sometimes my delivery makes it sound like I'm taking personal shots, and I try to catch myself when I do that. But I think the backstage interviews that I see in WWE suck. I think it takes the product down.

So many of those backstage interviews, first of all, the talent is trying to memorize something that somebody else wrote for them. It's not even really in their own voice, and the talent isn't really that good. more often than not in those backstage promos so they just don't have any they don't benefit the show I would do less of that and more of the things that actually do work the entire presentation of the person holding a stick and oh joining me now and doing that stand-up interview it's so dated and so ineffective I'd love to see a different presentation of that that I think could be much better with less time involved

Yes. In terms of, you know, a ratio of terms of action to backstage, probably 8020, 75, 25, would probably be a great percentage in terms of action versus backstage, or Gaga, as you said. Here's one from Mark Nelson. He says, with the revelation that Mick Foley buys and wears clothes from women's clothing stores, what is something that you do or have done that would surprise? us so let me explain the Foley thing just so you know he talked about when he was wrestling back in the day as Cactus Jack certainly in WCW that he would often get his tights from Lane Bryant

in the mall this is a store for bigger ladies we'll say and plus size ladies and so he would go in there as looking like he did with that wild man hair and they got his gear So is there something that maybe you've done for a long time that's been a regular part of your life that fans don't know, they might be shocked to hear? I can't think of it, really. I certainly have about any clothing in women's clothing stores, at least not for me. Just getting bucknacket on the porch, that's right? Yeah, well, that's nothing wrong with that.

Adam Leeson wants to know. In Eric's opinion, what's the most difficult part of being? in the wrestling industry. That's a great question, and I don't think that there's one good answer. It's different for everybody. For me, the travel and the lifestyle, and again, I got off easy

because I wasn't on the road 300 days a year, like a lot of guys that performed in a ring. I was an executive or an announcer. So you were doing house shows. I wasn't doing house shows. I didn't have to give up that much of my life the way wrestlers do. And I respect the hell out of every one of them that's done it or continues to do it

because it's, I think, singularly the most difficult aspect of the industry because it's not only physically hard, it's mentally and emotionally hard, and it has such an adverse impact on your personal life. It's hard to have a relationship. It's hard to be close to your kids. It's hard to do a lot of things when you're on the road that much, and then to make it even more complicated and treacherous from time to time is you have all of the things that people do are tempted to do to kind of numb yourself to the fact that you're not with your family,

you're away from your home, you're sleeping in a hotel. It's tough. It's a great life for somebody that's 25 years old that doesn't have a wife for kids or doesn't aspire to have a wife for kids. And to do that for a couple of years, it's that rock and roll lifestyle, right? And it is fun for a while. And then it starts to gradually eat away at you. And I think that's one of the reasons we've seen so many people that have passed on that were so young is the toll that being away from home and away from your family eventually takes on you and how it manifests. A lot of heartbreaking wrestling. You can get disappointed about injuries or politics. or your successes or lack thereof,

and then the travel and time away from the family, that's a tough road to hoe. You've got to really love it, man. You've got to really love it, and you've got to be mature, and you've got to recognize when things are starting to fall apart on you internally. It's got to be aware.

Here's one from OPW Chris. Without announcing a single match, AEW, sold over 60,000 tickets for their UK debut, in your opinion, especially with Tony's involvement with the Jags, Is AEW ready for a U.S. stadium show? If not, what do you think they need to do to reach that zenith? That's a great question. Do you think they could have done that here in America?

No. No. Not yet. Not yet. It's such a unique situation, right? For AEW who on average probably delivers 50 to 75,000 viewers a week, in the UK are the numbers that I've heard. That means that just about every single person in the UK

that watches AEW bought a ticket to go watch AEW. Not a percentage of the total audience. Like the entire freaking audience bought a ticket to go see AEW. That's very unique. Well, we know that's not realistic. So what it probably is, I mean, I think it's got to be this. It's got to be a lot of WWE fans or lapsed fans who were like,

hey, this is a big wrestling event and I want to go check it out. Like, that stadium matters. Like, if they were running Wembley Arena, maybe they wouldn't go. But, oh, this is where they ran Somerslam 902. It's a bit, oh, I want to go. It's a big deal.

I mean, I can think of myself in other genres, not wrestling or move wrestling from the equation where it's like, I don't know if I want to go see that concert. Oh, it's in a special venue. Like, if you see Andrew Dice Clay back in the day running Madison Square Garden. If he was running at a regular comedy club, okay, I may or may not.

Wow, MSG, well, that feels like a big deal. Yep. And I think that a lot of fans who were just lapsed wrestling fans or maybe WWE fans who don't consume the product, they had to say, I just want to be a part of this. Because I don't think mathematically it would make sense for us to assume literally everyone who watches the show. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I agree with you on that point.

And to take that a step further, I think, and again, this is, going to come off as a negative, and I don't mean it to be. It's just an observation. People, settle down. But I think the new car smell aspect of AEW, the fact that people, to your point, ah, you know, I heard about this. I don't watch it on television, but I'm going to go check it out. It's an event. And there are some names in AEW that WW fans or LAPS fans will be excited about going to see. So I get that. But to answer the question, the reason I don't think that AEW can have that kind of success here in the United States is looking at their track record.

Over the last four years, you know, they go into a market and it's huge, sell it out, do a great job. The next time, not so much. The next time, not so much. I think once you go and experience it and you check it out, I think that satisfies a lot of the audience that are buying tickets in places like Wembley, the first time that they come to that market. I, I want to track them and see how they're doing the second time they're in a market, the third time in their market. And if those numbers start to come up and they start improving upon the last time they were in any given market, then I think you're building towards that point where sometime you could go into a big market, but I don't think they're there yet. Here's one from Jason.

He wants to know, what are Eric's thoughts on Kevin Kelly, aka Nails, returning to the wrestling scene, for the first time in 22 years during SummerSlam weekend and was he really supposed to have a small role in the NWO back in the day, 97 to 99. So let's talk about nails. I know he had a cup of coffee with WCW.

I think he was the prisoner for that one match with Sting, but he just popped up and they announced he's going to be a part of Russell Khan over SummerSlam weekend. People haven't seen or heard from him in a long time. I think Mike Johnson just recently sat down with him

for high spots. Are you surprised to see him, making his way back into wrestling. And is the rumor true that was maybe an idea that would do something with him in the late 90s? I was surprised. You know, I haven't heard Kevin Kelly's name in a long, long time. He's a Minnesota guy.

Yeah. Yeah. He was a bail bondsman in Minnesota before he got into wrestling, I believe. A legitimate badass. Worked with Kevin a little bit in the AWA. Kevin was in the AWA when I first arrived in 1980. As a matter of fact, I've told the story before. I was sitting in an office about the size of Dave Silvas, really, that I had built myself.

I had put this two-by-four studs up and sheet rocked it and painted it, did all this stuff myself. And I was really excited about it. The paint still had the new paint smell. You know, my office still smelled new. And it was right adjacent to the television studio where the guys would cut their promos, right? And I heard a big commode. I've been in AW-W-W-A-4. I don't know, 45 minutes, maybe or so.

I was a short period of time. And I'm sitting in my freshly painted new office that I built myself, and I get a big deerhead hanging on the wall, big beautiful white tail I got a couple years earlier. And all of a sudden I hear this giant commotion, and right underneath the deerhead that was mounted on the wall, in comes Chic Edna on LKC's head. All I see is the top of his head coming through my freshly painted new walls.

Kevin Kelly ran him right through the wall because fortunately he didn't hit a stud because there were, I think, 18 inches apart. It went right in between the stud, otherwise he would have caved his head in. But yeah, there was like, welcome to professional wrestling, Eric. My goodness. That's my first memory of Kevin Kelly. Surprised to see him, yeah, because we haven't heard his name in a long, long time, and he just popped up out of nowhere.

As far as NWO, I think it was, Hulk actually suggested that at one point. And we talked about it. But for whatever reason, we didn't go with it. Yeah, you've got to think the next morning, Sheik Adnan, woke up with a headache. And I know that you and I probably would have every weekend, or every day this past weekend. If it weren't for Zbiotics,

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gloss over this, but when you have weekends like we did, man, it doesn't feel, we don't always feel like we used to. We need a little bit of help, right? Need a lot of help. Need a lot of help. And I love the approach that Zibiotics takes in the biomes and the digestion. I've talked about it before with other products. It's such an important part of your overall health, but when you overdo it, as we all did this week, or I'll speak for myself. I did. I surely did. It's a great, but, like, I feel great this morning. I'm ready to go. You know, no, no issues at all. And Zbiotics is a way to go back. And a lot of people get confused, Eric, and they think that it's dehydration. I just need to wake up and chug a lot of water. That's not the reason you

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they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to Zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks and use the code 83 weeks at checkout for 15% off. And we thank you Zbiotics for sponsoring today's episode. Let's do another question here. This one's from Colby. Were there any cool random perks that came for working with Turner. Now, of course, Colby's making some examples here, like snacks or nap rooms. But I wonder, does that mean you got Braves tickets? That'd be a cool perk, right? I did have access to Braves tickets. Yeah, that was fine. I did have it, and Hawks tickets as well. I didn't really take advantage of it much. Didn't have a lot of time. My kids were young, didn't want to. Garrett didn't love the Braves. He had to love the Braves. No, he never really

grew up around baseball because i didn't watch baseball i got you really a baseball so you weren't passing it on yeah i wasn't passing it on but yeah some of that stuff was available any other cool perks off the top of your head like seeing jane flound in an elevator was hot that's cool she looked she was smoking all righty butt naked on a porch uh jason wants to know will your beer be available in the east coast uh you know let's talk about that we haven't talked about it in a while but i saw uh some stuff on social not too long ago what is What's going on with Buffalo Bill? Yeah, Buffalo Bill Cody Beer.

We quit brewing and distributing. I learned the hard way. I got a master's degree in the alcohol business and distribution of alcohol. And it's a very complicated business because every state has their own laws and sometimes counties within certain states have unique laws. If you're going to distribute beer or any kind of an alcohol, you have to have somebody who's, you have to have an attorney that's very well versed in all those different laws. And we just got to, and I learned that the hard way, of course. Learned that, you know, having one skew, one product of beer instead of like six or eight different labels under one brand,

it's very, very difficult. So we folded our tent and quit brewing beer. It was really a passion project. Never really intended to make any money doing it. As long as it broke even, I was happy. Right. So we put it on the shelf and quit brewing. And then about a year ago, in Cody, Wyoming, a couple, young couple, opened up a place called Cody Craft Brewing.

And we sat down one day, and I wanted to keep the beer alive. I wanted to keep it in the marketplace because you have to protect the trademark. I see. And I spent about just under a quarter of a million dollars of my own money. Oh, wow. Yeah, and legally, because I had to fight for it. I had to fight really hard to get that trademark. And did, and, you know, obviously it didn't work out, and I lost a lot of money doing it.

But I still have the trademark, and I think the trademark at some point is going to become very valuable, but you have to keep it in the marketplace to keep the trademark alive. So when this young couple came to me, I said, look, I'm going to charge you $10 a year as a fee to distribute my beer. And they are, they're doing it. It's available in Cody, Wyoming, a Cody Craft Brewing. So if you're driving through town on your way to Yellowstone, and you decide you want to have to, have a Buffalo Bill Cody beer, just go to Cody Craft Brewing. And it's a great beer. It's one of their more popular beers now. And they've got about 15 different craft beers that they

brew themselves. But Buffalo Bill Cody's number one. I'm glad to know that. We can still get it. Michael wants to know. With the Rider Strike going on in Hollywood right now, I was wondering what Eric's experience was during the last Rider Strike in 2008 when dealing with networks as a producer of non-scripted television. That's a great question. a great question. It was a beautiful time because a lot of networks, they still had to fill those holes on their schedule and they weren't doing it with new product. So we got to produce a lot of non-scripted reality television as a result. It was a big, not just for Jason Hervey and I, but for a lot of producers, independent producers of reality programming, did,

made a lot of money, a lot of money. Some of them are living on islands now that they purchase with the money they made during that period of time. So some of that's probably going on again right now. I don't think it's going on quite yet. You know, my daughter is in television development, and up until recently work for Warner Television, a company called Shed Media. I don't think we're seeing much impact yet,

but if the strike goes on for another couple months, I think you're going to start seeing a lot more reality programming that you don't really want to see. Hypothetically, I don't know what we can or can't say. We can edit it whatever out here. Did she do any work in the wrestling space when she was working with Turner? My daughter actually is responsible for Cody's first reality show. Roads to the top.

She hired the show runner. She knew him and she knew that he'd be great because she knew he was a wrestling fan. She really, before anybody else got involved, she got that show on the board at Turner. Now, a lot of people came in and took credit for it afterwards, which is usually the case. But that was her passion project. Wow.

Man, what are the odds, you know, after you spent all that time working with Dusty and then your daughter accidentally winds up in the TV business and accidentally winds up helping create a show with Dusty's son? Eric's daughter is working on a show with Dusty's son. That's crazy. Full circle, man. Dan wants to know, talking Kay Fabe and his. vast knowledge of wrestling out of consideration. When it comes to his honest critique of creative,

as well as his disdain for certain ex-co workers, is Jim Cornett all talk? Well, if he is, he's damn good at it. I love listening to him. He's super entertaining. And he's smart as hell. I may not agree with some of the things he says or the way he says some of the thing he says. But guess what? A lot of people feel that way about me, too. So whatever. You know, don't throw stones. But I find Jim to be highly, highly entertaining. But he's also got, look, I'll be honest with you, I agree with Jim Cornett's take in general more often than I don't.

Right. I mean, listen, the dude's been around wrestling forever and ever. You know, he's entitled to his opinion. He's seen what works and what doesn't work. Our friend Jeff Chirrett, man, he's just beat it into my brain now for a couple of years doing a podcast with him. Creative is subjective. And I think just as an exercise yesterday, when we built this little fantasy card, I mean, fans got to see, like, there's a million different ways to get there.

And eventually it comes down to, we'll just take a vote, you know, and then ultimately, in a lot of these decisions, a singular person just makes the choice. But 52 weeks of television, I mean, it's unlike any other form of entertainment, right? Like, you know, normally if there was a scripted series, Eric, of, say, 10 or 13 episodes, and we're going to do a quote-unquote traditional season of producing television, how much time would go into producing 10 or 13 episodes? Oh, my God, the pre-production alone, you're going to, if it's non, if it's scripted, scripted, oh, my gosh, you've got six months with a pre-production, the writing and rewriting and drafts and redrafts and notes and all that stuff.

You've got a room full, literally a room full of writing. sitting around a table all contributing, collaborating, drafting. But you've got six months. So you got six months to create 10 to 13 hours of TV? Yeah. Yeah, the easiest part, the quickest part of shooting it. It's all the work that goes into it prior to that. I mean, I'm still working on a project that is now three years old.

Yeah. I'm not involved in the creative on that necessarily. I do get involved from time to time. I think it's like four years old. It may be four years old, and it's still being developed. Now, right now, because of the writer's strike, it's a whole. But hopefully in another couple months, they're going to be able to get back to work on it. But now, that's a feature film, and that's a different animal altogether.

But for television, yeah, you've got four to six months of pre-production before you. For ten hours. Before anybody picks up a camera. And think about that. AEW and WW create 10 hours of content in two weeks. Yeah, and we saw it, you know, in our fantasy wrestling, our fantasy booking session, and that's why when I get questions like, and we've had them a million times, whose idea was that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, who booked this shit? It's not ever one person. I mean, what we saw in our fantasy booking session with the five of us sitting at that table, and you kind of directing traffic off stage is kind of how it really happens. It's, what if we do this? No, what if we do this?

I like that, but hey, what if we add this to that? That's how it happens so that at the end, like if you asked me at the end of the day yesterday, whose idea was it to do this? Whose idea was it to make it a 10-minute? I couldn't tell you, because it's all happening in real time, and it's all happening very fast, and it's an idea that was born out of two or three other ideas. So it's hard to pin it down to one person.

It rarely is one person who comes up with an idea. It's almost always a collaboration. Whether people want to admit that or not, some people like to take credit for a lot of things, that they might have been in the room, but they didn't originate the idea. They were part of the discussion. Creative is subjective.

The 10-man tag was Jeff Sherritt's idea, and I hated it. But creative is subjective. I wouldn't have wanted to do a rumble. I don't think it made sense to do a 10-man tag, but it was his suggestion. the fans got with it, they voted. Well, that's the thing. We did it in 10 men tags?

That's the thing. We, the head of the booking committee was the 100 people sitting around the inside. That's what they wanted. That's what we did. We just went with it. You know, and I was with you. I, you know, I don't like 10 man tags anyway because there's too much going on. It's hard to get invested in any one thing that's happening when there's that many people.

So I agree with you on that. And that was a relatively small ring. And I thought, oh, that's just going to be a lot. It's going to be like 10 people fighting in a bathroom, you know. It's going to be tough. But it's what the audience wanted. So we gave it to them. We gave them what they wanted and everybody went home happy.

I think I've gotten to that point, though, where that finally clicks for me. Like, when I was a kid, my dad used to, because my dad's been in sales his whole life too, or not really, but he's been in sales my whole life. And so he taught me when I was a kid, Eric, some will, some won't, so what? The idea being, you know, when you're at sales, you get told no a lot. Like, that's your job, but you get told no for a living. So you got to, you know, as Eric or as Vince used to say, you got to learn to eat shit and like the taste of it. You got to get comfortable with no and rejection and it can't just destroy you. You got to keep going.

Like it's just part of the deal. So I kind of got callous to know. And so I don't really worry about it anymore. And maybe that's why I do like to freestyle with guys like you and say, hey, what if? Because I'm, okay, let's try it. What's the worst that's going to happen? We fail. Well, I don't care.

I mean, I do that for a living, no big deal. I say all that to say though I think the same approach has to apply occasionally to wrestling like hey man we don't have six months to produce 10 hours of television here we've got to put on a show tonight for two hours and then another one for Friday for an hour and then another one on Saturday for two hours like we just got to do it and some of this is going to be good

and some of it won't so what we got to do it again tomorrow and really getting in tune with that I think has changed to the way I look at wrestling. I don't know that I would have really embraced that without, because my dad's saying some will, some won't, so what, with regard to sales, I think is the wrestling equivalent of Jeff saying creative is subjective. We got to do a show today, Connie.

We're going to do one, and then we'll do one tomorrow, and then we'll do one. But they can't be perfect every time. We don't have the six months. And even if you did it wouldn't be perfect. Something would happen. Someone would be injured or something. Or the idea that you thought was such a great idea,

during that six-month period of time that everybody worked on and everybody bought into. And then when you see it, you go, ooh, it wasn't really as good as I thought it would be. Right. It happens. Super fun. Now, let's talk about Frank. He says, you think cutting the cord and streaming services have affected the ratings? Personally, due to work, I have to DVR or record the shows and watch later.

Is this a factor in the numbers or is it minimal? I don't know, you know, for me to try to take a strong position on that. I think it's obvious that it has the streaming and cord costs. has clearly had an impact on viewership. To what extent, I'm not qualified to answer that. You know, I do know that there are, in terms of DVRing and things like that, there's ways that Nielsen accounts for that and credit some of that viewership. But statistically, or on a percentage basis, I'm not qualified to say.

The Rosencoaster says, Who is the most valuable person behind the scenes in WCW that you couldn't afford to lose in the WWF's Monday Night Wars. Janie Engel. Wow. And I almost lost her. I remember you told us to. And I fought hard to keep her, like really hard to keep her.

Part of it was because I had so much affection for her. She was a part of our family. My kids called her empty Janie. You know, when Lori and I were travel or go out of town or just needed a night off or whatever, Janie would come over and take care of our kids. And she really was a part of our family. She came on vacations with us.

And there was a point. Point in time, and I don't remember when, it must have been in 98, I think, or 99, early 99, when things were tough at WCW. Again, talked about it at length. I'm not going to go into it again here. For a lot of reasons, it didn't have anything to do with what was going on inside, on television. And it got very stressful for a lot of people, and I think because I was really under a ton of pressure, that put pressure on, I'm sure I wasn't the most pleasant person to be around. positive of that. But I think it got to Janie as well.

And Jim Ross offered her a job. And Janie came to me and she said, Eric, I got to go. The amount of money that they're offering me, I've got to take it. And I went to Harvey Schiller and I said, Harvey, I don't care how much I'm not supposed to give raises. Because at that point in time, Turner was forcing us to cut budgets. We weren't allowed to hire anybody outside of Turner Broadcast. There was a lot of things I was no longer allowed to do from a financial perspective.

And I said, Harvey, you got to back me on this one. We can't let Janie go. And I was able to keep her, but I fought hard. I fought hard to keep her. Here's a great question here. Sweeney wants to know, with hindsight being 2020, what paper of you would have benefited from being held at MSG if you could have been doing that during the WCW days? So let's think about that. You and I've talked a little bit about sort of the big shows.

I sort of assumed that Starcade was the biggest show because it was for Crockett. You said, no, in your opinion, it was Halloween Havoc. Would one of those shows or maybe a summer show, could that have made sense at MSG? Like, if you could fantasy book a show and that's no longer in the arena it was held in, and it's dropped right in Vince's backyard, the most famous arena in the world, what would it be? Halloween Havoc. Yeah. Can you imagine Halloween in New York City?

I was just where I need have people come and dress and costumes and all kinds of crazy nonsense and that would have been just awesome. Yeah. 96, 97, 98, one of those? Yeah, any one of them. Yeah. What have been something else?

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when you get home, you can go, get the Dawkins look. Start buffing and polishing. Like, you can keep this as Mrs. I don't know. If she digs it, I may do it. I'm not going to commit to anything right now. I realize what happens when I make it commit. Next thing I know, I'm sitting in the ring getting my head shaved by three people.

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this new age tech that allows the razor to be 0.0013 inches. But this is the same style of razor that every wrestler's familiar with, and it's the same type of handle that your dad and your grandfather used to use, except your parents never had a razor this thin. 0.0013 inches. Now, Eric, when you run down to the drug store or the grocery store, man, they keep all of their dogs. They keep all of their doggone razors under lock and key because they're so expensive. That is not the case with Henson here. It's only like $3 to $5 a year to replace the blades. So it's time to say no to subscriptions and say yes to a razor that will last you a lifetime. Visit Hensonshaving.com slash 83 weeks to pick the razor for you and use the code 83 weeks and you'll get two years

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how long did you plan to stay with WCW? So, of course, if you would have gotten your hands on it, would this be something you held forever or would this be build it and flip it? What do you think? There's two answers to that. The first answer is it would have been build it and flip it because that's the business that Fusion Media was in. They were in that business.

So that's probably what would have happened. Which is why, by the way, when WWE did the DVD came out to my home in Wyoming several years ago now, and at the very end of it, I said things turned out exactly the way they should have with WCW. Because I realized then that had Fusion Media been successful, it would have been a trend, there would have been an exit strategy. right? And it would have gotten sold to someone else. And I think one of the reasons that WWE has been so successful is because it's been in the McMahon family for as long as it has. It was a family business. A big family business, ultimately. But it was a family business.

At Fusion Media, it would have been a transaction. Likely we would have held on to it. Fusion would have held on to it for probably three to five years. And after they turned the corner, their goal would have been to flip it. I would have wanted to keep it in the family. That's what I would have won it, but I wouldn't have won that discussion. Two Count Kyle says, Eric, what's the funniest thing

you ever saw in your time in wrestling? And was there anything ever more fun than firing hockey talk man? Kyle, come on, why aren't you starting it up? What's the funniest thing you saw in wrestling? I don't remember. Was it a rib, baby? I never saw ribs.

I was never around. I was the boss. I got you. Yeah, it wasn't really appropriate. And I wasn't on the road where a lot of that stuff happened, you know, it usually didn't happen too often at television. It did, but not around me.

I'd hear about it afterwards. Was there no laughter when Sheik Adnan's head came through the wall? There was no laughter there. There was like, whoa, I had no idea what was happening. You know, I don't know. I can't really tell you. I think the hardest I laughed probably was listening to Bobby Heenan tell stories

or listening to Gene O'Glan and Bobby Heenan tell stories. If you got Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlin together, and there was a cocktail or seven or eight or nine involved, it was like stepping into, it's like being in Las Vegas and stepping into a great comedy act. And you just sit there and relax and listen. And those guys would tell stories all night long, and they were so good in it that I laughed my ass off. That's probably it for me. Curtis Snyder wants to know, how did scheduling WCW pay-per-views against WVPAPE, review's work. Did they have first dibs over a certain date and you waited until their pay-per-view schedule was released to schedule WCWs? What was that process?

It was, yeah, I'm from what I recall, and I wasn't involved in that process at all, that was Sharon Sadello, probably Mike Weber, to a degree, but we worked with DirecTV, we worked with the pay-per-view providers and essentially negotiated those those dates. And WWE did have a lot of advantage because they were making more money for DirecTV than WCW was, so they would get the choice real estate. Hazard F5 has a great question here. We might need to tweak it a little bit, though. He says, you've mentioned that Spike at one point was interested in owning shares in TNA. If a network owns a significant or majority share of a promotion, would that have a detrimental impact on the

ad revenue slash income for the promotion? And if the network were to close down or sell off their shares to a third party, what kind of issues could the company potentially be facing? So let me ask it differently. I think the gist of the question is, is there a downside to a promotion, or a network having an interest in a promotion? I can't think of one. I can only see the upside to it.

Again, it's the reason why Bicom, Spike, ended up buying Bellator. is because they wanted to have a vested interest in the product. And by the way, the product is still on television, isn't it? Yes. I think T&A, the original version of it, the Dixie Carter version of it. Yes. Would still be viable today and still be alive today had Viacom invested, even a small percentage in the brand.

But I can't think of a downside. I really can't. You know, when you have a minority investment in something, There are bylaws that you anticipate issues like, well, what if this investor decides? They want to sell it to somebody that you're not really comfortable with. If it's a minority interest, it really doesn't have too big of an impact. And you can anticipate a lot of that in the agreement, in a buy-sell agreement. So I can't think of a downside, really.

Let me ask you this. Not talking about what T&A could have done, not talking about what AEW might one day, do or what have you let's talk about WCW had WCW not been owned by Turner and it was a more traditional setup like a WWB and we didn't have these inner company allocations and we were getting television rights and we could get sweeter deals when when the network asked for a new show they didn't just say figure out how to pay for it we there was some return on that investment And we didn't really get any of that in the existing setup in WCW. Had WCW been separate and had a WWB-type setup, would they have survived?

I think if it would not, if WCW had not been a part of Turner Broadcasting, and didn't have Ted Turner there to save it, I think if it was a privately run business, it would have never seen 1993 or 1994. Right. So we know the Crockett things. done. I'm just wondering, let's say, let's say with the creation of Nitro, let's start there. So in the fall of 1995, we're going to start this new company, WCW, because we know it was a dark period from 89 to 95. It's the ashes of Crockett, business was down, blah, blah, blah.

But there was a new found investment in the product with the launch of Nitro. And for the first time, creative profit. And I'm curious if at that point, okay, Eric, you're on your own, you're going to provide the programming to us, and we're going to do a deal like WW does, you get your pay per view money, you get your merch, you get your licensing, we're going to pay you some television rights, we're going to become, you know, a rev share on some sponsors, blah, blah, blah. Does that change anything? Sure. Yeah. Sure it does. You know, again, in a, you know, what if kind of scenario, fantasy booking scenario, so to speak, Turner would have elected to sell WCW to a third party in, say, 95 or 96 or 97 or 98, I think WCW would still be alive and still be viable

and still kicking ass to this day. But because, again, I get tired of talking about it, and I know people get tired of hearing it, but because of the merger and the intention of those who were the architects of that merger and their desire not to have WCW as a part of their programming that didn't happen but had it been sold in 95, 96, 96, 97, 98

to a third party be a whole different ballgame. I mean, at the end of the day, I know we've talked about it a lot but I still don't think some of our listeners maybe it's clicked with because I have to admit it didn't click with me right away either but the idea is

you have to report to Wall Street, hey, we had a problem, but we fixed it. These areas were losing money, so we cut them. So what they did is they shoved all their bad shit on the WCW books to show, hey, we had a problem, but we found it, we addressed it, we've cut it out. It's no longer an issue. So this is going to be trending up from here. So why not just throw all of your trash out right then, slide it all over. Oh, no, it's no more. That was all part of wrestling. Yeah, we lost money on that, but we cut it out. We're out of that business now. You had to have a story to sell to Wall Street, and you had to have a place to

take out the trash, and that became WCD. Yeah, and a lot of that trash was from divisions of Turner. Not wrestling. Not wrestling. That had nothing to do with really WCW. They had, you know, a distant, Turner Home Video, for example. Yes. Okay. Turner Home Video was still a business unit that Turner wanted to keep alive, so to speak, but it was incurring a substantial amount of losses. Well, if they know that WCW is going to go away, because they're going to make it go away, shove it over there. Shove it over to WCW.

Done. This little division looks a lot better on the books now, post-acquisition or post-merger. This little division that we want to save looks a lot healthier now than it would have otherwise. And in the meantime, we know WCW is. We're going to pull the plug on this anyway. So just dump it all over there. That's what happened. That's the look at the perspective that a guy.

like Dick Cheatham and Guy Evans, who wrote the Nitrum book, brought to life some of those decisions and transactions, if you will. Well, let me give a little spoiler. I sat down with Dick Cheatham recently, and we talked for hours, and we break down a lot of the WCW Financials and exactly what happened, and that's going to be an ad-free shows exclusive. So if you haven't already, go check out ad-freeshows.com and try the first week for free on me. Jack Diles wants to know. Eric, if by December 1998 you had a choice of three hours of nitro, no thunder, or two hours of nitro and two hours of thunder every week, what would you choose?

Three hours of nitro. Really? Yeah. Just from a production standpoint, it saves a lot, right? It saves a lot. The biggest, it saves human resources. Yes. The creative in producing a second primetime show broke the bank.

The travel, the additional talent required. There were so many reasons why that was a bad decision. But yeah, three hours a night show. But hey, you're already there. You're writing one show. What's another hour, right? It's harder to hold an audience for three hours, whether a television audience or a live audience, right?

That's a long time to be sitting in a seat watching wrestling, especially when it's televised wrestling. you've got commercial break, so there's a lot of downtime and things like that. But, man, I would have chose three hours of Nitro over two hours of Thunder all day long, every day. Chris Morris wants to know, with the way the world has changed, do you think controversy can still create cash in 2023? Hell, it still is. What do you mean? Can it?

Look around you. It's creating a lot of cash for a lot of people in business, outside of business, in business, in politics, you name it. Controversy is king at printing cash. Is it just me or does it feel like since the Monday Night Wars to now, yes, I'm talking about wrestling, but more than just wrestling, just like society. Does it just feel like the herd mentality continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger? It does. It's amplified by a multiple of 20. Social media is probably reason. Yeah, social media is part of it. No doubt. Let's do this. This is a super fun exercise. I got excited just reading the question.

Great question from Adam here. Hey, Eric, if the end was flip-plopped at WCW bought WWE in 2001, would you have done an invasion-type angle? And if so, how would it have played out? Gosh, that's fantasy booking. I don't know. I'd have to think about that for a couple hours with an ice-cold beer. Would you have liked the idea, though, of trying to do that?

Probably, knowing me and just what was working at the time and my attitude about things. probably would have figured out some cool way of doing an invasion. Would you have kept, at that point, let's pretend Thunder's still rolling, would you have renamed Thunder Raw or something like that, like keep the Raw brand alive? Probably, because a lot of equity of that brand even back then, right? Yeah. So do you think you would have kept Raw, I mean, moved Raw to the Thunder Spot

and kept Nitrale on Monday? That would have been an option, and it would have been a good one. Yeah. It would have been a great one, actually. It's fun to think about. It's fun to think about. It is. I don't think about it too long because then I get angry.

Oh, what could have been. Man, that was a great question. I really want to talk about that one day. Mike Mackler wants to know. What was your relationship like with Nick Bokwinkle in WCW? That is a great question. I think Nick, I think he, in a way, Nick resented me just a little bit.

bit. And I understand it. I didn't take it too personally. I was disappointed, obviously. But, I mean, I hired, I brought Nick in, you know, to make him the commissioner, because I had so much respect for him. And he, I mean, for all the right reasons, I brought him in. But I think Nick was at that point in his life where he really felt that he could do more than what I brought him in to do. Yes. And the fact that I didn't tag in with Nick for a little bit more consultation and bring Nick in a little bit more. Just listen to him. At that time, I didn't.

And I didn't need a lot of advice at that particular time. Not that I couldn't have used it, certainly, in retrospect. But the fact that I didn't tap into him, I think that, and I understand that. I kind of, I can relate to that a little bit. You know, it's like, I'm here. Why would you not? Just pick up the phone, you know, say, what do you think? And I think because I didn't do that with Nick, I think.

he resented the situation. I see. Great question here from Big Extra. With the 25th anniversary of mankind's Hell in a Cell from 1998, do you recall when you first saw or heard about what happened and what was your reaction? So, of course, King of the Ring, 1998, it's late June, Pittsburgh, the main event is Kane versus Stone Cold in a first blood match, but that's not what anybody's talking about or anybody remembers, the hell in a cell, only the second ever hell in a cell,

they start the match on top in just a few minutes in, there he goes. Were you watching the pay-per-view? Did someone call you? I mean, this is an incredible moment in wrestling history. Yeah, no, I didn't watch the WWE pay-per-views. I never tuned into one of them. And I, you know, not for any reason, other than I was busy. Busy, man.

I was just jamming all the time. and when I was away from business, the last thing I wanted to do was watch wrestling. So, no, I didn't see it. And I probably saw clips of it the next day, you know, two days later. Yeah, you know, with Mick, and, you know, I don't know what Mick's opinion of me is at this point, but I did know that he kind of resented me a little bit

because I didn't want Mick doing some of the things that Mick wanted to do. I was fearful for him. I was fearful for some of the people in the audience, you know, jumping off balconies and doing all the crazy stuff that, you know, Mick became famous for where things that in Turner broadcasting were no longer doable.

And that's one of the reasons that I think Nick ended up leaving WCW. Do you think you think Mick has a hard on for you? I don't know. Maybe. Do you have a hard on for him? No, not at all. Do you want one?

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The promo code 83 weeks will receive your first month free. visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. We want to thank Blue Chew for sponsoring the podcast. Robert Barlow wants to know, Eric, you always defend the Hogan Goldberg match by saying WCW was a TV company. Well, if that's the case, why wasn't Hogan sting on Nitro instead of a pay-per-view? Because in 1997, we were kicking WWF's ass and we needed a shot in the arm by July of 98, and that did it. Yeah, I don't know.

It's a hard one for me to answer. You know, I mean, it's not like two things can't be true at the same time. Right, right. I can't defend that. It's just, it's kind of a smart-ass question. It's a gotcha. Well, you didn't get me, bitch. There it is.

Come on now. Colby wants to know, what non-wrestling entertainment project are you most proud of to have been a part of? That's a great question. Nine wrestling entertainment project. What are you most proud of? You know, I know this is going to sound so crazy, but Jason and I were pretty well known in Hollywood for a period of time for producing reality television. That was our go-to because of my experience, you know, professional wrestling being in professional wrestling taught me how to deal with non-professional actors and actresses in terms of directing them and coaching them and things like that. storytelling.

I think when, and this was really, Jason Hervey had a lot more to do with this than I did, but when Bischoff Hervey Entertainment broke into scripted programming with Scott Bale, that I was pretty proud of because that's a tough transition for a production company to make. Here's a great question from Mike. Are you still getting checks in the mail for appearing on Arlis?

I don't think I've seen an Arlis residual check in four, five, six years, and the last one I saw was like for 87 cents. Oh, wow. I think it got to the point when they realized that the postage was more expensive than the distribution, that they just quit. Were they ever of any significance? No. Yeah.

No. Joey wants to know, you've mentioned before you were instrumental in the creation of the movie Ready to Rumble, with this being a Hollywood production, and at that point, you had the biggest crossover stars. from wrestling to Hollywood on your roster. Why weren't Hollywood Hogan and Roddy Piper in the movie? The director, the guy that was really steering the ship for that project, was an executive producer by the name of Lorenzo de Bonaventura,

who went on to become a pretty successful director. He called those shots. I didn't get to cast. And keep in mind, I was initially involved in setting the movie up and setting the project up with Warner Bros. I was let go in September of 99, probably a third of the way through the pre-production. So a lot of the choices that were made and decisions were made were made after I initially set the project up at Warner Brothers, and I wasn't involved. I think from a practical point of view, it would have been difficult for Lorenzo or Warner

Brothers to afford Hulk and or Roddy. Could have done it, particularly with Roddy. I don't know if Hulk was really even interested at the point, at that point in time. But in either case, I wasn't involved in that part of the process. Joe Miner says, who is your Mount Rushmore of WCW Heels and Mount Rushmore of WCW baby faces? That's a fun exercise. So let's do baby faces first. Stings got to be on there. Stings number one, yeah.

So who else would you put on that list, baby faces? Is it a baby face? Wow. I mean, Rick Flair was kind of universally loved. Would he be a baby face? Yeah, but he worked as a heel for the most part in WCW. So that's what makes it hard. Now that was always the hardest thing for me creatively with Rick.

Right. Is the audience loved him, but Rick liked being a heel. Being in a heel allowed him to be in control. And he felt more comfortable as a heel. That's where he did his best work. But deep down inside, I used to say to Rick, I said, Rick, unless you walk out to the ring, put kerosene on puppies, set them on fire and stomp the fires out on the way to the ring, people are going to love you.

There's nothing you can do about it. Yes. But he still loved working as a heel. So Goldberg. Goldberg definitely is a baby phase. So Sting, Goldberg, DDP? You got to put DDP up there because of the, just the rapid transformation and evolution of his character. You got to put that up there.

Is Lex Lugar a baby face? Would you consider him more of a heel? Who else would take the fourth spot? So we got Sting, we got Goldberg, and we got DDP. Man. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery? Would Booker T be on there? I think Booker T would have been there.

I also think Chris Benoit would have been on that list. Well, Benoit's out. Booker's in. Let's do heels. We've got to do four heels. We've got to put Hogan up there. Absolutely. Got to put Flair up there.

Yeah, right next to him. Now there's two others that we can put on the heel, WCW, Mount Rushmore. Scott Steiner up there? Is it somebody else? Is Vader on there? Yeah, you got to put Vader on there because he was, in his day, he was such a huge man that could do so many amazing. amazing things. And he was believable. Yeah. He was a believable, credible heel.

So Hogan, Flair, Vader, we got one last spot. We got one less spot. All time heels. All in that? You know, we didn't even mention the macho man on the other side. We put Booker T there. Which is great. Which is great. Booker deserves it. Yeah, Booker deserves it. I'd stick with Booker. So who's the fourth heel? God, it's hard. I'd have to sit down and look at a list. I mean, I don't want to say Kevin Sullivan, but that Dungeon of Doom stuff went forever.

I mean, my goodness. I'd throw Kevin up there because he had so much to do with a lot of the things that worked when it worked. He booked a lot of the heat. He booked a lot of that. So you've got to give him that nod. They're worst places to be. Let's do one here from Uncle Jay.

If you could have gotten The Undertaker in 96, wouldn't if he have been the perfect guy to lead the NWO with his past history in WCW? Now, that is interesting to think about. What if, and I know it would have looked a lot different, but instead of Hulk Hogan coming down that ramp, that iconic set at Bash at the beach, it's an all-dressed-in-black Mark Calloway. So it's like The Undertaker dresses in real life coming down. People would have lost their mind.

Is the Undertaker in WCW? and he did have the same backstory as Hall and Natch being there before with Mark Harris. God, I never thought about that. Isn't that a great idea? I've always dismissed any conversation about that because I just knew that there's no way that Undertaker was ever going to. He was too loyal to Vince, and I knew that.

It wasn't even a thought. So I tend to even now dismiss it. But if you think about it and allow yourself to just completely fantasize instead of what reality dictated, oh, it would have been awesome. I mean, I've heard people say, what if it was Brett? Undertakers, it makes even more sense. Yeah, Brett wouldn't have made any sense.

I mean, it would have made sense, but it wouldn't have had the impact. Had the same connective tissue as Hall & Nash in the backstory that we were here, we left, got over, and now we're back to takeover. And I think that when I say Brett wouldn't have worked as well, it's because the reason that Hogan worked so well is because, for the most part, nobody had ever seen him do anything heelish. Yeah. He was the ultimate multi-decade baby-face, face of professional wrestling, arguably, for such a long time.

The reason the WWF became the WWF, in large part, was because of Hulk Hogan. And I think that shocking, the shocking nature of Hogan turning was something that I don't think Brett would have been able to achieve. It just wasn't that established, iconic, multi-decade baby face like Hogan was. taker kind of already was yeah i mean i get excited just thinking about the visual we're going to have to have silver work up a photoshop where we got undertaker there with his black hair not the hat on just the black shades and the black hair just like what hogan did but an n w-o shirt by hall of nash man what could have been that would have been a shocker now it's like the new generation of the w f they're taking over here and i think the advantage

an Undertaker move like that would have had was because people had seen Hogan and WCW before. They assumed he was coming in to save the day right when Randy was in the people hadn't seen Undertaker well for the most part people hadn't seen Undertaker so it would have been a double shock not only was Undertaker now in WCW

he's here to save the day no he's not he's here oh gosh that would have been awesome man great idea excellent job these people when I needed them Uncle Jay shout out to you man. Last one, James wants to know. You've stated on some past podcast you weren't aware of some of the lawsuits that were going on in WCW. Would Nick Lambrose or Diana Myers say to you, hey, Eric, I took care of this case for you, or would they let you know what was going on beforehand?

When I say I wasn't aware of them, I don't think I said I wasn't aware of them as much as I wasn't involved with them. Certainly I'd be aware of lawsuits if they were related to WCW because in many cases I had to either give information or take a deposition or get a deposition, things like that. But I wasn't involved with them on a day-to-day basis. And they would update me if it was necessary. If there was a development in a lawsuit that somehow impacted WCW financially or any other way, I'd have to be aware of that and made aware of that. But if it was just something that was settled and went away, then no, it wasn't on my list of things to think about.

Well, I said one more, but here's our real last question. the best one for last. Dylan Leahy wants to know, does Eric finally see the value at CM Punk? Of course he asked this, as you have a smooth head. Look, I get it. A lot of people enjoy

CM Punk. He's moved the needle some. Don't question about that. I'm not denying that. I just don't think, and we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks. I predict he's going to lose a lot of steam.

Him coming back, especially with the backstory and all the crazy drama. You think the news is going to wear off? I think that new, you know, he, yeah, I think it's going to wear off. I think it's going to settle back down. And I think we're going to see the same pattern in ticket sales and ratings that we saw when Pump first arrived. Yo, he's here. He's an AW.

I don't care so much anymore. Let's see what happens over the next couple of weeks. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong. I got no ax to grind against it when I do a couple. But for the most part, there's nothing personal. It's just what I see and what I read and what I hear. I just don't think that there's as much value in CM Punk as CM Punk's,

seeing punk thinks there is, or Tony Kahn. Some of your quote-unquote ax to grind with punk is about comments he's made about Hulk Hogan. Look, and it's not because Hulk Hogan is a friend of mine. That would be obvious to many people. That should be obvious, I guess. but that's not it. I think when a guy like C.M. Punk relies on cheap heat to get himself over,

to me, he's showing his ass. He doesn't really have the game when it comes to promos that people think he has because he's got to rely on the cheap heat to get the response. He's got to appeal to the dirt sheet Dave Meltzer audience in order to get that cult-like following that he has. And he's over as hell with that audience. But I don't think the general audience really gives two shits as much as that hardcore audience does. So we'll see if I'm right.

Well, we will see if you're right. And you talked about what we'll see happening in the next few weeks. Well, what you'll see happening in the next few weeks is going to be us talking about Bash at the Beach 95, the invasion of WCW into the WWF after the close, the downfall of the NWO, the transformation of Hulk to Hollywood, taping at Disney, the 20-year anniversary of your match with Shane and SummerSlam, WCW in Canada, you becoming an EVP and so much more. But next week, as we watch your hair grow back,

we're going to be talking about Johnny B. Bad. His time in WCW, your thoughts on the gimmick and the man, maybe whether or not Rina Mero was ever considered to be a part of WCW, and, of course, we'll talk about what he's doing now. And you can keep up with everything we're doing over at ad-freeshows.com. You're hearing all the great stories at the start of today's show about Top Guy Weekend, Why not make plans to join us next year? I think it's the best value in wrestling,

and I think you could ask any of our members. Just see what they're saying using the hashtag TGW 2023. And I think you'll say, you know what, I need to be there next year. By the way, if your business targets me in 25 to 54 years old, no better place to advertise than right here with us. You've heard us do some of the same companies 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 witheric.com and find out more about advertising here on 83 weeks. You heard Eric say he was grateful for the weekend. Find out about his new approach to life at his new book. It's on Amazon called Grateful by Eric Bischoff. Be sure to follow us on social media as well. That's easy to do. It's at 83 weeks on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

The easiest way to support the show is to go hit the like button, subscribe, and turn that notifications bill on. And listen, leave us a comment, a good comment. A bad comment. We want your feedback. We want those comments at 83 weeks on YouTube.com. And we've got a bunch of new swag. Maybe we need a new Lex Luthor inspired shirt for Eric over at Box of Gimmicks.com.

Eric, we had a great time with you in Huntsville this week. This is a little different. I was recording in the folias pod studio. But I appreciate you coming down. I had a blast the type guy weekend. Yeah, I did too. I'm actually looking for it. So, you know, Mrs. B came along.

We were talking about it this morning. She had an absolute blast, you know. And I wasn't sure. You know, it's a wrestling kind of thing, you know. But she had, she, like I am, very grateful that she got to be a part of it. We are too. We're grateful for you guys. Greatly appreciate everybody who showed up and showed out.

Thoughts and prayers still with the Odom family. It was a fun time to memorialize them and remember them and just keep them in our thoughts and prayers. And, one again, thank John and thank Jimmy and most of all. Thank Lucas. What an incredible donation. You know, over $13,000 donated to St. Jude's. And they open their wallet, but, man, you're going to be wearing baseball caps for the summer here. I don't know, man.

I think I'm going to dig. I'm just going to embrace it. I'm going to embrace the bald. Who's going to be most shocked to see you in Cody with no hair? My dog? Yeah. I was thinking about this morning. She might not bite me in the ass.

Well, probably for what you're doing on the porch. We'll see you guys next week right here on 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. Hey, guys. It's the hardcore legend Mick Foley here, and I need to call a quick timeout, a brief timeout, because 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-freeshows.com. David Crockett and Conrad go day by day through June of 1985 and Jim Crockett promotions on the latest episode of The Book, the month that the grandson of a plumber are, arrive. June 30th, Cody Rhodes is going to be born. I mean, his dad is wrestling with Tully Blanchard in Los Angeles. And Dusty's got to hurry home and rush out of there and get home to Charlotte to see his wife Michelle give birth to the American nightmare. It's a special day in Jim

Crockett promotions history. Jake the Snake Roberts chatted live with ad-free shows members about his Hall of Fame career and the story about Ron Garvin you won't soon forget. You know, everybody's got to tell, you know, so you know if they do that, then here comes his comeback. You know what Ronnie Garvin's tail was?

His f***ing nipples would get harder. Swear to God, man. His nipples would get rock hard. When his nipples got rock hard, man, he was coming to his feet and he's going to beat your ass. Just a small taste, a sample. if you will of what we have waiting for you with four levels to choose from four see for yourself why ad three shows is the best value in wrestling today sign up now right now at ad free shows

com yeah