83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 282: SummerSlam Fallout

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

On this episode of 83Weeks, Eric and Conrad discuss all the good and bad from SummerSlam 2023. Buckle up as a heated Eric Bischoff breaks down the matches and stories of the event. Eric shares his thoughts on what's next for Cody Rhodes, why this might be the right time for Rhonda Rousey to leave, and the overwhelming performance of Logan Paul. Plus, Eric discusses Darkside of the Ring and his disgust of Vince Russo! MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at Manscaped.com.  FACTOR - Head to FACTORMEALS.com/83weeks50 and use code 83weeks50 to get 50% off.  ZBIOTICS - Visit zbiotics.com/83WEEKS to get 15% off your first order when you use 83WEEKS at checkout. PROWRESTLING CRATE - ProWrestlingCrate.com is a monthly subscription box for the die-hard wrestling fans. Plans start at $9.95 and ship worldwide. Visit prowrestlingcrate.com.  STARRCAST VI - STARRCAST VI - Don't miss a moment of the fun and excitement planned for Starrcast VI! Starrcast VI is coming home to Chicago this Labor Day weekend September 1st through the 3rd. Grab your bracelets and bundles now at STARRCAST.com SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. 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 guys, Eric Bischoff here to talk to you about my friends over at save with conrad.com. Are you looking to get out of debt? Conrad and his team can make that happen faster than me, firing the hockey talk man. Wow. And you know that controversy creates cash, right? Do you know what doesn't create cash? Credit card debt. Save with Conrad can help you consolidate high-interest credit cards and all of your other debt into one low monthly payment.

They can even help you get the cash card. you need for home improvements or anything else. They've helped 83 weeks listeners say 500, 600, 700, even $800 a month. Seriously, your paper's going to go down faster than nitral ratings in 2000. Ouch. And how about this? No house payments for two months. That's right.

No house payments for two months. And unlike the dirt sheets, man, the reviews do not lie with over 1,000. five-star reviews. Find out for yourself how much Conrad and his team can save you by checking out Save WithConrad.com today. Be grateful you did. NMLS number 65084 Equal Healthy Lended. Woo! Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you are listening to 83 weeks with Eric Fish, Y'all, what's going on, man? funny you should ask we had lightning hit our house late yesterday afternoon it was funny because the day started out awesome we had some neighbors over uh we call them neighbors but live in the same area um over to the house

my nephew is in town along with his mom and dad my brother and sister-in-law and he's a chef He just graduated from the Culinary Institute of America down in San Antonio. So they're all staying at our house while they try to find a place to live here in Cody. And we invited some friends over, like I said, from the neighborhood, so to speak, and cooked up this great brunch and champagne. I mean, it was like something you'd expect at a four-star hotel, right? It was awesome. And then about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, once the festivities were over and everybody left,

It was about 2 o'clock. We had this, and it was beautiful all day long. I mean, the sun was shine, and it was a gorgeous day, and all of a sudden the storm rolls in, and there's lightning and thunder everywhere. Now, lightning and thunder's not unusual out here, but it's always off in a distance until yesterday, and then we had a lightning bolt strike our house,

which, you know, tripped all the circuits and did all kinds of weird stuff, had a, I guess, it was a portion of the lightning, strike that actually came through one of our walls, probably through the electrical system, and shot itself out a mirror in one of our guest bathrooms that left this big black mark on the mirror and a bunch of ash on the sink. And got all the power back on, you know, tripped a bunch of circuits, everything's fine. We had the fire department come out to check the walls and make sure there was no fire

inside of the walls because that can happen. You know, you get an electrical strike. and then it heats up the wiring, which heats up the wood, and eventually turns into a fire, right? So we had the fire department come out. We called the fire department. We thought maybe they'd send a truck or two, you know, or a van or something, somebody with some thermal energy.

But no, we have a volunteer fire department here. So I think, you know, they thought, okay, cool, let's just all go. So we had about eight fire trucks, 10 fire trucks out of forever house, big long ones with ladders and a whole nine yards. And, you know, no fire in the walls or anything, but it certainly fried most of the electronics, no Wi-Fi, no direct TV, but, you know, we have lights and, you know, refrigerators and freezers are still fired up. So yeah, it's been an interesting 24 hours. Well, we're glad you're okay. That's what's most important. You never expect to hear

that your buddy's house has been struck by lightning. Maybe it's because we're going to say nice things, I think, about current wrestling because we're reviewing today our topic, summer slam 2023 that's right normally this is your nostalgia podcast but i guess several weeks ago at this point now we sat down and we reviewed the very first collision and i thought hey man maybe we do that for wwe and of course this is one of their big tent pole events uh this is the first time you've probably sat and watched a summer slam start to finish in quite a while right i don't know like maybe forever yeah there you go before we talk about that i guess we should at least address the elephant in the room since you and I have recorded it's come out

that Vince McMahon not only has had spinal surgery but maybe has a little legal trouble falling in his lap have you been following this story Eric what do you make of it you know a little bit I guess it was July 17th when he was served with a subpoena it's kind of old news in a way but I just heard about it about a week ago like many people on the internet don't you know who knows you know, I don't know anything. I don't have any information. I don't have any insight. To me, it just seems like more of the same.

I mean, this kind of thing's been going on now for a while, right? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people assumed that maybe we had heard the last of that story. Maybe there's a little more, but it came out in the earnings call. So, of course, everybody was talking about it. We've seen Vince battle the federal government before and came out on top. and the timing of all this with the endeavor thing looming and him having surgery, it's just a lot of things at once that seemed like they couldn't be distressing for him. But one of those was not SummerSlam.

They announced attendance at 59,194. Russell ticks over on Twitter who keep up with this sort of thing says they actually distributed 51,477 tickets. No matter what you call it, over 50,000 tickets in Detroit's a big doggone, deal. We should address that right up front, don't you think? Yeah, I mean, Detroit's, you know, a decent wrestling market. It's not been a side, what is it, WrestleMania 3, whether it was 84,000 or 93,000 or whatever. But it's been a long time, I think, since Detroit's seen an event this big. And, you know, when I think of top wrestling

markets, at least what I was active in the industry, Detroit was not on the, was not high on my list. So, you know, I think, you know, $59,000, $51,000, whatever it was. I'm sure there's some comp configuration in there that we have to account for. No matter how you look at it, that's a big number. It is a big number. And speaking of big numbers, the other promotion, boy, they're doing a big number. You mentioned WrestleMania 3 is sort of the high watermark for WWE.

Back in the day, of course, they announced WrestleMania 3 at 93,173. but the experts over the years have said the real attendance was probably closer to like 78,000 as you and I are recording this. AEW has passed 78,000 tickets for Wembley Stadium. And as we're recording, I think there's only been one match announced, at least made official. Adam Cole and MJF,

this is just a few weeks away as we're recording now, less than three weeks away. And they've set a record with just one match announced. if you had to guess, and that's what it would be at this point, where do you think they wind up ticket-wise? They've got it set up for $84,000 right now. Do you think they can get clean, or is there somewhere in between? It'll be somewhere in between.

I mean, they still have tickets for sale, so that should tell you just about everything you need to know, although it could sell out before the end. It could go clean. But, you know, I'm going to take exception when you said, you know, the experts have come back and suggested that the number to WrestleMania was less. And they're not really experts.

They're just people that chime in. I don't know that we'll ever know. I know there's a lot of controversy over whatever the final ticket tally was, but it doesn't freaking matter. AEW is doing a great job. They're going to get a big number no matter what it is. And they should just be happy with that. And so should, you know, the supporters of AEW.

Well, before we talk about SummerSlam, we would have mentioned that we're all big supporters of Steve Manga, McMichael, and we understand he's going through a rough patch he's been in a rough patch for a while but if he hasn't been at the top of your prayer list maybe throw him back in there he could use all the positive energy he could get these days he's in a bad way and needs all the help he can get

so please by all means keep Mongo and your thoughts and prayers listen I don't know how much time we want to spend on this because we are anxious to get into SummerSlam maybe this warrants a separate conversation for ad-free shows at another time but last Tuesday as a lot of folks are going to be listening to this on a Tuesday a week ago vice ran dark side of the ring

bash at the beach 2000 and that of course featured lots of comments from yourself jeff charrett and your former co-worker mr vince russo did you have a chance to see that is that something we should hold off for an ad-free show's piece of bonus content or what was your what was your knee-jerk reaction to that i'll tell you and you know this because you know we communicated about it prior to an airing and i had a hard time watching it you know i got up early in the morning and when i thought we were going to cover it um i started watching it i had to turn it off i couldn't stand it you know vince russo's voice and his staccato new york delivery and just trying to force people to understand what he's saying just drove me bat shit

crazy. And I watched about eight or ten minutes and listened to his bullshit and the way he delivers his bullshit. And I turned it off and walked away from it. And then I came back about an hour later and I forced myself to sit through it and it was painful. Partly because I can't stand the sound of Vince Russo's voice or his delivery. I find him to be one of the most obnoxious human beings I've ever listened to. really and I'm not exaggerating when I say that and you combine that with his delusion and his bullshit in it it was one of the most painful video experiences I've had to sit through but I'm quite prepared to break it down and expose Vince Russo by using his own words oh wow by the way whenever we're

ready and I think ad-free shows would be a good way to do that and to really break it down and point out the bullshit and the delusion. You know, I don't, I think Rousseau is, I mean, I'm not a doctor. I'm not a psychiatrist, psychologist, any of that. But from a layman's point of view, if there's anything that I would describe as a delusional, pathological liar, it would be Vince Rousseau. And he exposed himself right off the bat by coming out and saying, I told Hulk Hogan, there's no way he's coming out of here with the WCW.

championship. By the way, Vince Russo is the least confrontational pussy I've ever, that's a man I've ever met in my life. Vince Russo will not, cannot, is emotionally ill-equipped to deal with an actual confrontation. And I promise you, there is no way Vince Russo said anything of the sort to Hulk Hogan. He does not have the balls despite his New York, hardcore, bullshit. He is a pussy. End of conversation. He cries.

He goes home. He takes his ball. He quits. He walks away. He has no spine whatsoever. Second point in all that is he had no authority. Vince Russo wasn't the head of creative. He was a writer. He was

on the staff. The reason that Brad Siegel brought me back By the way, had to pay me close to a million dollars in cash, meaning he paid off the two and a half years that was left on my contract. He had to do that in order to bring me back to oversee Vince Rousseau because he no longer trusted Vince Rousseau's creative judgment. You don't write a check to somebody for a million dollars. And oh, by the way, have to write them a new contract. It wasn't that much, but it was significant. it. And by the way, guarantee me at least two movies, what they call a put commitment,

which is they're either going to take the movie that I'm pitching them or they're going to have to pay me for it either way. You don't do that if you have confidence or you're giving control and authority to someone like Vince Russo. Vince Russo had no more authority than Ed Ferrara or Terry Taylor or anybody else. He was a staff guy. So he didn't have the authority to make any changes. And we can go on and on and on. I don't want to ruin what's coming up. But I can point out probably half a dozen examples of how Vince Rousseau was lying to himself, probably,

because when you're pathological, you believe your own bullshit. And that's where I think Vince Rousseau is. He is a pathological liar that's got some serious issues, not the least of which is that he confronts anybody. because he doesn't have the balls to confront anybody. My wife would back him down and make him cry. And I've seen it. I've seen it face to face. I've watched him fall apart.

In the minute you put a guy like Vince Rousseau under any kind of pressure and question him, that's the part that he can't handle. He can't handle being questioned because it doesn't have answers. He just has emotion. No answers, no plan, no what's next, know where it's going, just his emotional commitment to whatever is going through his mind at the moment. He's one of the flakest people I've ever met. Do you think he manscapes at least?

I mean, is he running around here with a hairy? I don't think he has any balls. You know, why spend money on a man's? Why? Why do it? You got no balls. You don't need manscape. Well, if you do have balls, you do need manscaped.

And today, we're here with a sponsor for your bouncing bundle of joy. No, we're not talking about a baby. We're talking about your baby makers, Daddy. That's right, today's show and every show is brought to you by Manscaped. Just like babies, your delicate little guys have sensitive skin and deserve products that are not only skin safe, but made with safe ingredients. And that's where Manscape's platinum package comes in. From razors to shower care, this package goes above the gold standard for your body here.

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to it and I'll tell you what this platinum package 4.0 covers all the from head to toe to hair and ball fro everything in between get 20% off plus free shipping with the code 83 weeks at manscape.com that's 20% off plus free shipping with the promo code 83 weeks at manscape.com be sure to use the platinum package because the gold standard is no longer good enough so eric our topic today is summer slam and I was excited to see that you watch the show when I first I didn't get to watch it live I watched it the next morning I saw pieces of it but I was moving around and wasn't able to really dedicate all of my attention to it

so when I was watching it live I didn't see in the totality how long the show was when I actually got to sit down and watch it I realized this is over four hours and I don't know that there's such a thing as a sweet spot in a wrestling show but when I sat down to watch it it didn't feel like it dragged there were matches and moments maybe but overall I thought it was a really well-structured card, and there was some really high compliments to the story and the way this pay-per-view was built. It felt like every match had a story,

and I really dug that. But before we talk about the show itself, I want your opinion, do you think there is a sweet spot for how long the shows should be, these premium live events? I know that some people feel like, you know,

hey, we're trying to overwhelm them with value. Once upon a time, it felt like we had eight-hour WrestleMania's, but I know AEW not too long ago had a pretty long show and Forbidden Door. And now this one felt like it was pretty long too. What say you? It was four hours too long.

Did that four hours include the pregame show? No. Wow. Then it was the fastest four hours I've ever to live through on television or pay-per-view. It moved so fast. I came in about halfway or maybe two-thirds of the way through the pre-game show. Okay. And so impressed with that pregame show, because I, as I've talked about, you know, I'm not shy about it.

I don't watch, I don't sit down and watch, you know, an entire Monday Night Raw or Smackdown. I'll drop in, I'll check things out, usually after the fact, if I read about it and it sounds significant. But I just don't sit down and watch a complete episode of anything, wrestling related. But the pregame show with Booker and everybody that was on it was so well done because it brought someone like me who's not up to speed on the storylines, who's not up to speed on where we are because I don't watch it every week. And I had a pretty good idea of everything that it had been going on for the weeks leading up to SummerSlam. And that show, I know we're here to talk about the actual Prebium Live event. Forgive me if I continue to call them pay-per-views because I'm stuck in the mud on that. But it was so well done, so professional.

Everybody on that team that participated did such a great job. To me, it was as good. It was well-produced as anything that I've seen leading into any NFL game, Super Bowl, whatnot. I mean, it really did a fantastic job of setting up the scene for the, for the premium live event that was to follow. Great job by everybody. Well, the actual show gets kicked off with a video package narrated by Kid Rock, even if you're not necessarily a Kid Rock fan.

Boy, that came off as big time. I mean, it felt like a major deal seeing different superstars, whether it's Gunther or it's Logan Paul in the car, Cody in the car. you know, it's all about Detroit and the history of SummerSlam. I thought it was well done and once again proves that WWE is often on another level, not just in wrestling, but just any other presentation like this.

I mean, that's the night I saw Jake Paul, Logan's brother, fight Nate Diaz. The production on this, the packages on this, eons beyond what they're doing outside WW. Yeah, I've said it before. And while I want to make sure I tip my hat to everybody, involved in the pregame show, I've said it before, I'll say it again. Nobody does live action remotely as good as WWE. I mean, it was so well done. And you can say whatever you

want, you can have whatever opinions you want of Kevin Dunn. Almost everybody listening to this with the exception of a small handful of people even know Kevin Donne or have had a conversation with him, nobody produces live television like Kevin Dunn and his team. No one. It was fantastic. And I grew up in Detroit. I lived at 10 mile in Grashton, two miles away from 8 mile. I grew up there.

I know that market. I know that culture. I know that city. I grew up there. So have family there. Such a great job. such a great job you heard a lot of bob seger a lot of step and wolf a lot of a lot of detroit throughout that entire pay-per-view and if you're from detroit you

recognize that you notice it if you're not you didn't pay attention but man that show was everything was so well done it was an excellent start to the show too i mean after that great package we got right into action mentioned a moment ago that jake paul was fighting Nate Diaz. That fight was happening much later in the evening, but in Dallas, Texas, of course, Jake's brother, Logan Paul is wrestling Ricochet. They have him go on first. So Logan Paul appeared on two paper views that night. He's here in the opener at SummerSlam against Ricochet and then walking his brother to the ring for his main effort against Nate Diaz. This match, though, had a lot of story. And certainly Logan Paul brings in a whole new audience.

a absolute megastar when it comes to social media and YouTube. I mean, the very definition of an influencer. And he always brings it to the point that I can't believe this is real, but Wade Keller, who we're going to be using his report today. So if you haven't already, check out pwtorch.com.

They've got not only the current product stuff, but archives going back, I don't know, certainly into the early 90s. I started subscribing in 97. He gave this match four and a quarter stars. Wade would say it was dazzling and exciting. starting to finish. Logan's the real deal. Ricochet was a great opponent for him.

I like that they just aimed for having a really good match rather than wedging in needlessly dangerous viral high spots. But he loved the match. I dug it too. I'm a Logan Paul fan. I know some people are maybe not because oh, he's an outsider or this and that. Fuck them. Fuck them. That's such a juvenile ignorant perspective to have. He's an outsider. Are you freaking kidding me? Logan Paul. is, in my opinion, one of the most impressive sports entertainers, professional wrestlers, whatever you want to call them, to come down the pike in the last 20 years. This guy, in a matter, what has he been in the wrestling business for what, three years,

maybe, four? No, less than that. Topps. And he puts on a clinic for probably 90% of the roster in any company in the, you know, in the country, 100% of the roster in most cases, probably 90% of the roster, even in WWE, he puts on a clinic, his timing, his psychology, his execution, his feel for the audience, this guy, and by the way, not to, you know, we're not, I'm not talking about ricochet right now, ricochet deserves at least 50% of the credit. I mean, it's a dance, right? There's two

parts to the equation. So I'm not dismissing ricochet by any stretch of the imagination. Marcus for a minute. Loga Paul's been in the business for seconds. And to be able to have a match that was that high of quality, psychology, athleticism, timing, the timing in this match is what blew me away more than anything. Nothing was rushed. Everything mattered. They gave the audience a time to absorb what they were seeing. And that's the thing that I think is missing in a lot of matches, including one of them that we saw later on in this show or in this premium live event.

Okay, that's the last time I'm going to make the effort to call it a premium live event. For this point forward, it's a fucking pay-per-view. If you don't like it, don't listen. That's what it is. In my mind, that's what it is. I live in my world, not yours. Not yours, Conrad, but not yours to who's ever listened. So the timing and the execution was, I've never seen it better from anybody that hasn't been in the business for 10 or 20 years.

The timing was flawless. I'm not a big fan of the finish, the brass knox, you know, but even that was done to perfection. it was shot perfectly. It didn't look clumsy when we saw Paul get the breast knocks. We saw just a glimpse of it, but it was done so discreetly that if you're watching at home, you know the audience didn't see what you just saw, which is kind of the magic of this kind of an event and magic of television production. There you go. It was subtle. It was discreet. There was no way anybody in the ring or the referee could have seen it. And then the the punch that Paul threw with those brass knucks was as real looking as almost anything I've seen on television. It was flawless. So anybody that's, you know, a Logan Paul criticizer, whatever you want to call it, a hater, go find something else to do with your life because you just don't get it you don't have a freaking clue you have no insight as to what actually makes good wrestling you're just there to be a hater because you need that attention

that i thought it was so good hats off to both logan paul and rickshay and by the way i didn't see uh logan walk his brother down i didn't buy the pay-per-view because i was you know committed to this but i did see an interview with jake paul after the fight and logan Paul was standing behind him and Jake Paul didn't have a mark on him and Logan Paul had a black eye. So there you go. Yes. By the way, to your point, Logan Paul's first match was last year at WrestleMania. Oh my God. We started wrestling in April of 2022. He's had seven matches, including a couple of WrestleMania's, a Royal Rumble, a couple of summer slams, a crown jewel, and a money in the bank. And he's better than 98% of the people on most rosters that we know of.

he's fucking awesome well now let's also say this i don't mean to take away anything from him but i do want to say uh he's had a lot of time to plan and practice for these matches and as i understand that he's under the watchful eye and and and training regimen of mr sean michaels so if you got sean michaels helping you lay out your matches and you're wrestling the guy like ricochet you're going to have a good show yeah so if you work for a ewe maybe you should spend some time with arna anderson or jake roberts or any of those other people that have the abilities to teach, much like Sean Michaels does. But you got to put in the time.

You got to make the commitment. You actually have to work at it, not just show up and, yeah, I'm on TV. Don't be a bitch. Work at your craft. And Logan Paul has illustrated what can happen. How about when he hit the split-style leg drop, Michael Cole says he calls it the Hogan Paul. How fun is that?

I thought it was awesome. You know, and, you know, there was a couple little, you know, references or nods to Hulk Hogan, but it was done in such a classy fun and entertaining way. You know, it was done in some smarmy, you know, dirt sheet mentality. I want to be a professional wrestler way. It was, it was a classy, fun, entertaining thing. I just, I can't say enough about that match. And I knew, you know, what the situation was.

I had read that Logan wanted to go on first so he could walk his brother out and, and hats off to, you know, WW. for making those accommodations. But as I'm watching that match, I'm thinking, well, good for him and good for WWE because actually they started that pay-per-view. Thank you for tolerating me. They started that event off in absolutely the best way possible. I mean, that was the equivalent of Nitro or, you know,

Nitro era pay-per-views when we would start off with the Cruzeweights to just blow everybody away. and let them settle down and then build up to another spectacular moment. That's the roller coaster that you need to create. That's the psychology of creating emotion for a two or three, in this case, four hour live event. It was so good. I just can't say enough about it.

Let's also mention that the match itself is certainly it's a win for Logan Paul, but he had to cheat to win. And because he was in there with a guy who does have such a social media following, I got to think that this is going to be a net positive for ricochet. He's a guy a lot of people have felt like have been on the cusp for a long, long time. I was first introduced to him way back when with the whole Lucha show that maybe was ahead of its time, Lucha Underground, but Rickishay, man, what a dynamic performer.

Do you think he'll be a bigger star on the other side of this one? Absolutely. And again, I apologize right now to Rookishay. I hope he hears this or at least reads it. I'm apologizing to him for no other reason, and I'm probably not giving RICOA enough credit because it takes a superstar to make somebody else look like a superstar.

RICOchet did that. I'm not sure that Logan Paul could have had that grade of a match with somebody that didn't have the skill and the ability of a RICOchet, but absolutely this is going to catapult RICOchet's career. Absolutely it will. no doubt well let's also say this those guys are in phenomenal shape i mean ricochet looks like he's off the cover of a fitness magazine and he got to think a lot of that is because the dude knows how to

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a year now she absolutely loves it she knows exactly what's in there and you know i love it because it tastes great it's ready in just two minutes there's no prep there's no mess it's fresh it's never frozen you can't beat it they're america's number one meal kit for a reason head right now So factormeals.com slash 83 weeks 50 and use the code 83 weeks 50, you'll get 50% off. That's code 83 weeks 50 at factor meals.com slash 83 weeks 50 and you'll get 50% off. Let's talk about our next match. Before we do, though, we should mention the fabulous video that I actually got several tweets about, building up the backstory for Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesner.

Now, folks on social have been critical. say well there was no real story well the real people don't know what a story is they are little bitches that like to get attention there are trolls on the internet and social media that wouldn't know a story if one walked up and kicked him in the freaking mouth i hope that lightning hits your house every week from now on this fired up pissed off eric bischoff in the afternoon i'm just tired of these social media trolls it just have to be negative for the sake of being negative look if you don't have any fucking insight if you don't know what you're talking about if you've never done anything in your life other than troll other people and criticize other people just shut the fuck up just shut the fuck up and sit back and watch because you're useless to humanity you're useless to social media nobody believes or cares about anything you have to say all right let's move on i love it i'm gonna i'm gonna get with the weather guy we're gonna make it happen uh listen the match itself was phenomenal this is the match. We saw it backlash. Well, I guess we should start all the way at the beginning.

The story here is they were supposed to team up one night after Cody Rhodes was screwed at WrestleMania, the Monday night raw afterwards. It's a huge beat down on Cody Rhodes, but now we're down the story, the rabbit hole telling this story. They go to backlash in Puerto Rico, super hot crowd. Cody steals a victory. Cody was getting his ass kicked. He was in a Camura, but he used his wrestling knowledge to make sure, hey, Brock's shoulders are pinned, very reminiscent of what we saw with Daniel Puter and Kurt Engel a generation ago. Cody steals the victory. But Cody's arm's hurt and it gets hurt even further in the storyline.

We go to the paper review, the next paper review, and what do you know? He comes up short again at Night of the Champions. This time he passes out from the pain. So Cody stole the victory in the first one. And the second one, he passes out. He doesn't tap out. And now we're tied at one apiece. So we're here at the main event.

Along the way, we've beat Cody. Cody up in front of his whole family. His mom is there in the front row, freaking out. She's seated there in the front row again for this one, the rubber match. And it's on the heels of Cody having a pretty phenomenal piece of PR with that new documentary. I highly recommended on Peacock. But this match was unlike a lot of matches we've ever seen before.

The storytelling of Cody's getting his ass kicked, but he won't get counted out. F5 on the floor. Another F5. now through the table, but he always slides in. You know, we had Kevin Sullivan at Top Guy Weekend here in Huntsville several weeks ago, and he said he didn't think that Cody should have won at WrestleMania. He hasn't slayed the dragon.

He's got to overcome. Boy, he did that in this match alone. Cody, I think, has come out and said that this is a career highlight for his entire life. What did you think of this performance? Unbelievable. And by the way, that whole package setting this thing up. And you just summarized the story verbally, but the package did it visually.

Yes. You're going to tell me there's no story there? What kind of a moron would suggest that there was no story in that package? You mean, you summarize it verbally, but that package illustrated it in such a powerful way. That was next. It's exactly what I tweeted while I was watching it. It is next level. There is nothing I've ever seen done.

as well as that particular package take that trolls and the match itself was phenomenal the improv ending if it was indeed an improv ending i've been led to believe that it was with with with brock finally you know raising cody's hand and endorsing cody even after that battle after cody beat brock i just can't believe anybody would have watched that thing and walked away going yeah but you do me there oh god it was phenomenal it's phenomenal hats off to brock first of all first and foremost brock did a magnificent job of believably putting cody over believably yes because if if you if you just dropped out of one of the UFOs that everybody's talking about now that evidently are landing every place and been around for a Well, if you just came down from wherever you came from and your UFO and you watch that, you watch the interest of that match, you would assume that Brock Lesnar was going to eat Cody Rhodes alive.

Yes. And Cody was the underdog as he should have been. As he was storyline wise, you troll sons of bitches, he came up from underneath. He overcame the odds, the obvious physical odds, the reputation of Brock Lesnar, the talent. of credentials of Brock Lesnar. Cody overcame those to come out on top. That was one of the best stories I've seen in a long time play out on a pay-per-view. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Hats off to Brock. So I want to say I'm proud of Cody, but I didn't have anything to do it. So there's nothing for me to be proud of, but there's a lot for me to be proud for for Cody Rose. I'm so proud for him. I don't want to give some flowers to Michael Cole too. My goodness, he did such a great job with this. There's a point where Lesnar's really just abusing Cody and he yells something like

he being brought. Cody, this is only going to get worse. Yep. I remember that. And it keeps going to a point where you almost hear under his breath Michael Cole say something like, it's time to worry here. And eventually, after. the big F5 through the announced desk.

Michael Cole starts flipping out at Cody. Damn it, Cody just stay down. I mean, he's doing such a great job of showing that this guy just won't quit. He didn't quit at the last pay-per-view. He didn't submit. He passed out. But as long as he's awake, as long as he's breathing, he'll continue. He gets the win after not one, not two, but three crossroads.

Huge pop from the crowd. And then it's something that Hunter Hurst-Helsley, Triple H, has now, Paul Levec, has come out and said in the post. match presser that whole moment that was shared with brock and cody after the match was brock calling an audible not planned not scripted but he shook his hand and michael cole knew what that meant and he said that's an endorsement from the most dynamic and dominant sports entertainer in history and michael cole even says cody roads has arrived i mean you want to talk about making a guy whatever quote unquote damage people thought was done to Cody when he didn't win at

WrestleMania this felt like retribution and plus more what say you I'm glad you reminded me of the great job that Michael Cole and the announced team did that was one of the things I wanted to do right off the bat was in addition to putting over the pregame show and we talked about how great the production was but the announced team for this event was nothing short of spectacular. They kept the energy at about a seven and a half or an eight throughout the entire event, but when necessary and when appropriate, brought it up to a 10. And then brought it back down to a seven or eight.

You know how hard that is as an announcer for three or four hours? and to be coherent and advanced story and just, it was phenomenal from an announcer's perspective. I don't think there's anybody in the industry that can come close to doing it as well. Forget about doing it better. With all due respect to friends of ours who are in that spot, take a listen, learn, go to school. They did a phenomenal job.

Michael Cole crushed it. So did Cody and Brock. Wayne Keller gave it four and a half stars. And he says that he took the beating and made a comeback with the fans on his side the whole way and won in a satisfying finish that popped the crowd. That was another chapter in Cody's post-Resslementia loss story that shows it's worth waiting before coming down too hard on some close-call decisions and big matches. They had given Cody a major feud and a huge win in that feud after.

WrestleMania that's made him stronger and he could still continue on his yet to be fulfilled journey. I know a lot of people have been second guessing things that are happening in the main event. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but this felt like a huge moment for Cody. And let's just address the elephant in the room. They're following a crazy, I mean, you want to talk about the athleticism in that first match. It's not going to be the same type of match with Logan Paul and Ricochet.

It is definitely going to be a heavyweight fight. But the storytelling here, I guess what I'm trying to get at is, I wouldn't have wanted to follow the first match, but they did it in spades. I really enjoyed this one. They did it in a way that allowed the audience to forget about the first match. They were so into this match. It wasn't like they were following anybody. Listen, we're taping this before Monday Night Raw.

I'm sure we'll find out a little more tonight, as folks are listening to this on Tuesday morning, most of them, I'm sure. What would you do next for Cody? Like, what would you like to see? If you were telling this Cody Road story that seemingly, we assume we'll end with him winning the world title, or at least that's the next major milestone, would you try to hold that off for WrestleMania? Would you jump right to it? Or what would you do in the meantime?

I'd hold off to it. I'd build it up. You know, it seems like a long time, right? Oh, my God, WrestleMania. By the way, tickets go on sale shortly, I think I saw during one of the spots, which is really weird, too. Watching commercials during the pay-per-view was fresh to me. It was weird. But, yeah, WrestleMania tickets are going on sale soon.

It'll be here before we know it. Time flies, folks. It'll be here. And WWE has proven they have the discipline and the talent to extend the storyline. I'd keep him away from Roman rains, keep the belt on Roman rains, put as much heat on Romans as raised as you could possibly keep on him. And then let's see what happens at WrestleMania. But that's the story.

And that's going to be fascinating for someone like me who, appreciate story and by the way who could fucking recognize it what a story actually is versus what you want to say a story is um keep it alive keep them apart let it happen keep the heat on roman you've gone this far don't give up now keep it going well let's talk about what they did keep going and that's the la night show yeah it was the somerslam battle royal and man there's a lot of stars in there. Austin Theory's the U.S. champ. He's in there. Matt Riddles in there, carrying cross, Shinskay Nakamura,

the Miz is in there. Lots of talent are returning almost, and the big entrance that we got were A.J. Stiles and LA Knight, and then we're just right into it. This is, of course, a sponsored match, if you will. Slim Jim rolling out the red carpet for this one. It's fun to see Slim Jim associated

with wrestling all these years later. Also fun to see Randy Savage included in that. Included in that spot, man. That was awesome. Yes, it was. Super fun to see Randy Savage back on WWE quote unquote pay-per-view. The story here, I mean, I guess it is what it is. It's only 12 minutes, not nearly as long as the first two, two and a half stars according to Wade Keller. But the big story is about how it took the entire group to eliminate the big man and how it was LA Knight's night. And man, they were with him. We haven't spent a lot of time talking about

LA Knight. Of course, I think you probably saw some of him in T&A back in the day is Eli Drake. he's getting his time now and what a moment it was what a big pop it was what did you think of this match and using it as a vehicle for uh la night i think using it as a vehicle for la night was absolutely uh done to perfection as far as the match itself goes you know how i feel about this kind of thing it's just until the last four men weren't in i had a hard time watching it because it's just clunky awkward no story the action sucks just get me to the finish, you know, get me to the last two minutes because that's all that matters to me. So I sat, you know, painfully through the majority of it, but to get 12 minutes.

I sat painfully through 10 and I got interested in the last two. And thought it was a great job, great job getting L.A. night over. Let's take your opinion. Like if this was if this was WCW and you had the fans, organically getting behind L.A. night. It wasn't something we drew up in a boardroom. I bring that up because that's sort of what happened with Goldberg.

I'm not comparing the two, but I am saying Goldberg wasn't necessarily in your long-term plans. Oh, we're going to make this guy. The fans get behind him, and then you're like, well, shit, it's hot. Let's go with it. There's been some hesitancy over the years on the W.D.E. side of things, or so it feels at times.

And this guy's getting over, but we're not going with it. Whether that was Rusef or before him, it was Daniel Bryan, or before him, it was Matt Cardona at the time, of course, Zach Ryder. It felt like this could be that next guy, but I'm curious, do you think it will be? This is a slightly different, WWE, according to the rumor and innuendo. Vince McMahon is not in the nitty-gritty day-to-day of the booking. So maybe, maybe, maybe not.

What do you think? I think without having any insight from anybody in WWE, I've never had this type of discussion with anybody in WWE, but having competed against them and worked with them for a number of years, both as a talent and being around backstage and a part of the process, as well as being an executive for a cup of coffee, I think there's a feeling or a theology in WWE that you don't rush it. Don't go too fast because going too fast can ruin it. You want to make sure the audience is actually buying in. I think they've bought in.

And regardless of what's going on internally or not going on internally in WWE, I do believe that Polovac has the experience and has seen what happens when you don't listen to the audience and don't let the audience dictate what they really want. He's also seen what happens when you rush somebody too quick. yeah and they're not ready for that spot and i think l a night has found himself number one he individually as a pro has found his sweet spot and i think the timing is such in wwee that he'll move along quicker than perhaps he would have a couple years ago i wanted to ask your opinion too about what you would do with him next i mean i think it's easy for people to say

oh put the world title on him and i know that's what a lot of his fans are saying on social media do you think the right move would be to maybe go the u.s title route or something like that yeah yeah i mean again i sound like i'm beating up on social media wrestling fans and and that's because i am and i choose to because most of them fucking deserve it okay um okay put the belt on him right away make him a world champion and then what bitches then what where does he go from there downhill. That's where he goes from there. Let him grow into that role, much like they're doing with Cody. Yes. They're forcing the audience to demand it. That's called getting

someone over. You morons. That's how it's done. And man, why not just sit back and enjoy the ride for however long the ride lasts instead of getting to the destination and not knowing where to go next. I mean, that's that's internet booking. That's why internet booking doesn't work because you're reacting to what the internet wants and what the internet says. Tony Kahn, are you listening? That's why you don't listen to the internet and you go with what works and you discipline

yourself and you have a plan and you stick to that plan. Even though, as we've seen with Roman Reins in years past, the plan may not seem to be working, find a way to make it work and stick with it. L.A. Knight, I think, has got an amazingly bright future ahead of him. Stay healthy, stay positive, take whatever role they give you and make it work better than anybody else could have anticipated, and enjoy the ride. And if you're a fan of L.A. night, enjoy the ride. Because once it's over, it's over. And there's, you know, hopefully there'll be something you like as much. but don't rush it. One of the things I wanted to bring up that I don't think people are talking about,

but we often look back at like the WWE roster and say O2, and we think to ourselves, was there ever a bigger or better roster than that one? But you take a look at this card and man, it just sticks out like a sore thumb. I mean, AJ Styles is without question, one of the greatest professional wrestlers going today.

He's in a battle royal here, along with their U.S. champ, Austin Theory, and Matt Riddle and Shinskay Nakamura and Seamus and Seamus and L.A. Knight and Miz. And oh, by the way, Sammy and Kevin Owens, not on the show. Neither is Becky Lynch.

This is such a loaded-ass roster. This has got to be one of the greatest rosters ever assembled. Without question. Especially when you, you know, when you consider Cody, L.A. Knight, Seth Rollins,

I mean, so many of their talents are at the apex of their careers. Yes. They're not on the downward side of their careers. They're at the top or maybe not even quite at the top of their careers yet. They're still ascending professionally. And when you've got a roster that's not only that deep with amazingly talented people, but amazingly talented people that are still in the ascending phases of their careers, my God, the future looks bright, doesn't it? It does. And it always looks, right when you remember zbiotics i got to tell you this has been a game changer for me and eric whenever we know we're going to be having a little fun we get a little worried or we used

to because we used to think boy if we're going to have fun tonight tomorrow it's going to suck and you don't want to wind up being the only person in the group not drinking or skipping out on plans because you dread that next day you need a little pro tip let's see biotics zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic is the world's first genetically engineered probiotics. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, that alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. And it's this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for your rough next day. Zibiotics produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. You see, it's designed to work just like your liver, but in your

gut, where you really need it most. So just remember to drink zibiotics before drinking alcohol, drink responsibly and get a good night's sleep to feel your best tomorrow i first tried this a few years ago at podcast movement and man i was sold i knew that me and eric and dave green we were going to have a good time so i said let me do this and the next morning man we were on stage at nine o'clock like nothing happened it was fantastic gives a zbiotics a try for yourself head right now to zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks you'll get 15% off when you use the code 83 weeks at checkout. That's Z-Biotics. It's backed with a 100% money-back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. How do you beat that?

Remember, head to Zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks and use the code 83 weeks at checkout for 15% off. We want to thank Zbiotics for sponsoring today's episode and tonight's good time. It's zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks. Let's talk about the next match, Eric. This was maybe the least favorite match I had of the night. Rhonda Rousey and Shana Bazelor, it's an MMA rules match. That could be a little bit confusing, maybe, because it is an MMA rules match,

but in a WVE ring. This, I suppose, is Rhonda Rousey's swan song with the WVE, at least for now. I think she was even quoted in an interview saying she has no reason to come back. I agree, by the way. I agree. Nothing against Rhonda.

I don't know her personally, but, it's been eh ever since she got there in my opinion a lot of buildup a lot of hype i mean she's obviously a big personality and very very credentialed and done a lot of great things but i've never felt like ronda really wanted to be there i felt like it was a great opportunity for ronda and i think ronda wanted that opportunity but to me from day one i never felt like she wanted to be there. Well, I hope she's done. I don't think she grew up a big wrestling fan. I think she's learned to appreciate it. And I think it's athletic and she had fun. But I was really pumped when she first came in. I thought this was a huge opportunity for WWB. I mean, my parents who wouldn't

necessarily identify themselves as MMA fans, they want to come over and watch whenever she would have an MMA fight. Hey, when's Rhonda fighting? Can we come over? I mean, she was that level of a star. I mean, that's the sort of conversations that people were having about Mike Tyson a generation before because we'd ever seen anything like this. I mean, this lady was just destroying people, but then, yeah, it doesn't feel like she necessarily took to it like a fish to the water, and fans just were not into it. I mean, hashtag boring was trending during this, which is. And part of it is, well, I'll just talk about for me, my perspective, once I watch Holly

home absolutely destroy Rhonda. you saw the fear in the weakness in the you saw it in her eyes when ronda got kicked in the head and got pounded she she went from being this incredibly cool badass woman you saw you could smell the fear in her eyes that's how intense it was she lost her mystique for me in that moment now maybe to a lot of w w fans that wasn't that big a deal and she was coming over with that UFC persona. But once you've been exposed as badly as Holly Holm exposed Rhonda, that mystique stayed. That mystique left her in UFC. And she wasn't able to bring that over. And that's not the end of the world. If you can find your, if you can find yourself in WWE, if you could find

the new character. If you could almost allow the audience to forget that you got your ass it to you in an embarrassing way in your last fight, you can get over that if you embrace what you're doing. But to me, Rhonda kept trying to continue a character that no longer existed because it was exposed. And she didn't appear to me to be somebody that was actually having fun doing what she was doing. She was going through the motions and doing it's what she needed to do contractually to

make as much money as she did. And she was very professional. Don't get me wrong. I'm not taking anything away from her effort, but there was something missing for me from when Rhonda came over to WWE, and to me it was a lack of commitment. Maybe it was.

I think it was bad booking, Eric. I mean, I think you may be right. You may be right. You could see her meltdown where she was one of the coaches on the ultimate fighter. She's a natural heel.

And we'd try to position her as a baby face. We tried to make her something she wasn't and fans weren't having it. like i could absolutely agree with you on that point if we just lean into her being somebody that you don't like like that's the idea and i understand people would say oh then she'd have jeff jericho oh you mean they're responding and booing that's what we're looking for here's what i was happy about the real life person not the character ronda rousie but the real life person did business and took care of her longtime friend shana basler on the way out uh certainly it wasn't the match that maybe people hoped for once upon a time but it was a big win for

shana the biggest of her career a big platform uh shana's going to be a much bigger star having this notch on her belt that not only did i beat ronda i ran her out of wb and if i'm her i'm using that and as many promos as i can you know and you know what though kind of right the whole idea of submissions and trying to merge you know mma and professional wrestling i get it i understand it i put my toe in the water with tank abbott i get it but it doesn't work it doesn't make for good television for for a professional wrestling audience the action is slow it's just not what the audience is there for if you want to watch m m a you'll go watch m m a if you want to watch sports entertainment you'll watch a ewe or wwee and to try to merge those styles and make them

believable it man it's oil and water it can work it can work a little bit with some people but you have to really be careful how much of that MMA style you're trying to include in a match because the audience is still conditioned and have expectations to see something spectacular. And some of the best stuff in MMA isn't spectacular until it's over. You know, watching someone get choked out isn't spectacular. As much as it is in, for example, some of the things you saw in the Logan Paul, ricochet match that's dynamic it's visual it's spectacular that's what you came for folks yes but when you're watching that you know mma style being integrated into professional wrestling more

often than not the audience kind of disconnects from it you know what's interesting to me is um the way you first of all i agree with what you're saying about being careful but i also know it can be done i mean you're a guy who showed up to starcade in in kickboxing stuff Now, I know that's striking versus the mission, but I'm saying it can be done. But I also, you know, you made reference to the fact that you felt like perhaps Rhonda Rousey's mystique was over once Holly Helm beat her. But I think you could bounce back from that. I shouldn't say, I think I know. And there's a great example in Brock Lesnar.

I mean, Brock Lesnar didn't get knocked out in the first round once, but twice. I mean, he tapped to punches and then the second time of kick. You could just see like he was not prepared and got dominated. I mean, two first round losses, but then came back, did big business against Mark Hunt, bailed the drug test, but whatever, he's still the king of the mountain here in WWE. That mystique can still exist. Maybe they'll try another bite at the apple one day with Rhonda at a WrestleMania or something like that. And I think they got to stick to a heel.

I think that's what I would prefer to see her ass. I agree with you a thousand percent on, and that's, I wish I would have pointed that earlier, my critique of the way Rhonda's been used in WWE, because I think, to your point, that's the most important factor something totally different uh this summer slam if nothing else gave us different styles and man we got a big one in gunther and drew mackintyre and i was excited when i knew you would be watching this because honestly i didn't know how many gunther matches you would actually sat down and watch zero the former walter has been a badass for a long long time he's now got the big stage he's seemingly going to become the longest reigning intercontinental

champion in history he took on the former world champ who won the big stage he's now got the big stage he's seemingly going to become the who won the big belt at a WrestleMania and Drew McIntyre as we understand it perhaps allegedly Drew just got a big payday so good for him this match goes 14 minutes Wade liked it gave it three and a quarter stars

called it hard hitting start to finish you've seen chops before but what did you think of Gunther's chops dude I'm still a fan of good professional wrestling when I forget that I'm watching professional wrestling and those moments are you and far between.

Gunther delivered. He made me believe. Like, if I was walking down the street and I saw Gunther walking towards me, I'd probably cross the street just in case I bumped into him by accident. I mean, this guy looks, he's just right out of central casting. And his work is believable. Man, this guy's, I don't know. We'll see where he goes, but if he doesn't end up being a huge star

in five or 10, yeah, three to five years, I'll be shocked. I mean, he's already a big star. By the way, he's already a big star. Yes, but I mean, you remain eventing, like WrestleMania, SummerSlam, winning the Rumble. I mean, a dream match for a lot of people is to see Gunther and Brock Lesnar. I know I want to see it. I hope that's what you get.

Oh, I'll buy a ticket right now. We got a great question from Chad Epic. He said, what would Eric think of Gunther versus William Regal in this prime can you imagine that'd have been awesome i think from a technical perspective it would have been awesome i don't think it would it would be that super main event you know i just mean in terms of believability you couldn't believeability oh by oh my god yeah but stephen wriggle and and gunther could have an amazing match technically i don't think it would get over with the masses but those of us who love really, really good,

especially with the British influence, the European influence. It would have been a phenomenal match. The next match is something a little different. Before we go on, let me ask you, what do you think of the way Drew's been presented? Like,

I know that we just talked about how this is arguably the best roster in history. And another shining example of this is Drew and Gunther. I mean, I, for one, would have been happy no matter what happened. But I did like the idea that, hey, since Scunther's so close to becoming the longest reigning

Intercontinental Champion, why not just let him hang on to it? But in doing that, that means somebody has to lose. That's somebody, unfortunately, is Drew McIntyre. But my goodness,

what a main event, top star in a losing effort and the intercontinental title match. And I know that people are going to say, oh, wins and losses don't matter. And I'm not comparing him to Hulk Hogan, but I am saying Bruce Pritchard once said on something

to wrestle when they were trying to figure out how do we market brett as the top guy and people were seemingly confused about what to do the edict in the office just became what would we do if it were Hulk do for bret what you did for Hulk and i can't even if i try real hard and close my eyes and think about it i can't convince myself that holkogan would have ever been wrestling for the u.s title somewhere in the middle of the card on a wcdb pay-per-view can't imagine it and so i'm saying all that to say what do you do with drew now how do we get drew back at the the top of the card. What's that need to look like, in your opinion? Haven't thought about it until this question, but the first thing I would do if I was challenged

by that. If I didn't already have a plan for Drew, I'd give him a rest. I'd separate him for a little while, let the absence space of the confonder factor kick in just a little bit, bringing him back in a couple months, because by that time, the audience will have completely forgotten all about this loss. And it really won't matter because it's so much it will have happened between the loss last night or whenever it was Saturday night and three months from now or four months from now. Bring him back because he has all the ingredients. It's right there. He's got the look, the ability, the charisma, the uniqueness.

He's a unique character. And you could probably repackage him and reinsert him in anything that you wanted to and not skip a beat. I hope that's what's next for him because dude, he's, uh, what a guy. You would think you would want him near the top of your card no matter what. Uh, next up, we've got a rematch from a summer slam a few years ago. When they first introduced the new, uh, the red strap, the universal title, a lot of people felt like, eh, this is an a belt. I don't know about this.

People in Barclays were eating this belt alive. And then something bad happened. We had the big power bomb against the guardrail. Finn throws his arm back to catch himself. He's on the shelf. So he wins the belt, but can't defend it. He's got to forfeit it immediately. And it felt like Finn has been looking to recapture that momentum until

judgment day. And they finally gave him a real story, something to work with. And what a great opponent he had here is he challenges Seth Rollins again. This time it's not for the universal title is for the brand new world heavyweight title. Arguably two of the best wrestlers in the world. I love the little reminder that Seth is wearing the same ring gear when he injured Baller before and then Baller comes out he's got seven on his shoulder little callback great reminder Wade gave it three and a half stars they get 18 minutes and Wade would say a bit of

a disappointment of a match it was really good but below the top tier of matches earlier in the show I got to think if this was the first match on the show people would have loved it but when you're following just banger after bangor after banger there is a real thing in audience fatigue here What did you think of this match? I mean, and then the story at the end, my goodness, we've got Damian Priest with the case and was it intentional. Did he mean to help? Did it backfire?

We got a great story. We got great athleticism, two of the greatest stars. And it's smack dab in the middle of the show. What a loaded show. What did you think of this match? You know, without, you know, I certainly wasn't as familiar as you obviously are with their backstory in the history of Seth Rollins. Let me just say this.

In 2019, when I spent a moment in WWE, heard a lot of conversation about Seth Rollins. Even before I got there, Seth Rollins was on, you know, the fans' radar, the Internet Wrestling Universe's radar. Heard a lot about them. I didn't see it, you know? And when I say that, I mean, just in very little interaction professionally,

I didn't produce anything that he was involved in or anything like that. So I didn't really work with him one-on-one to get to know him. But just being around him and getting the vibe and seeing him backstage, I just never saw him as a big-time player. Clearly, I was wrong. He is a big-time player, and he's amazingly talented. He's got a lot of depth. He's got that willingness as a performer to let go of his own ego

and to experiment and to work outside his comfort zone. That's what makes good actors and actresses and wrestlers and any kind of performer is letting go of who you really are and becoming something else and doing it in a believable way. And I don't think anybody does it as well as Seth Rallis. He's so good at what he does. And in a way, he's more diverse as a character than just about anybody that I can think of

in the last 20 or 30 years. In some respects, you see a little bit of Sean Michaels or a lot of Sean Michaels and Seth Rollins because physically he's very gifted. He's very talented. But he's confident enough in himself to go so far outside his real self to be a character that I think

that just he's got a bright future i mean i can't say enough of it as far as the match goes i guess i just maybe because i don't know the backstory as well as you do and the audience did i wasn't as critical of the match i thought it was a phenomenal match i i can't pick it apart i the finish was interesting to me i liked it had be guessing which means guess what for all you haters out there you know who you are you know if you're guessing if you're wondering if you're questioning you're engaged which means they got you they own you so i thought they did a great job i thought they did a great job too i love this match uh i love these two guys and i loved who's standing around the ring we talked about how loaded this roster is damien priest a guy

who was just in a prime time spot a couple of months ago with bad bunny he's not wrestling on this show. Neither's Ria Ripley, who maybe is on a run like nobody else in WWV right now. And Dominic Mysterio, my God, what a performer and how fast he's gotten over. He's not on the card, but they're all involved in this match, such a loaded roster. And I just sort of lost that until we got ready to review this and realized there's all this great talent who's not actually wrestling. We did see three women step between the ropes, though, Aska, who is the WWW women's champion. We've also got Charlotte who's going to be defending. she was looking for number 15 I suppose and Bianca Belair who a lot of people say is the best athlete

in the entire company what a finish to this one uh Wade was not kind to it he gave it one star but it was a really phenomenal finish we'll talk about but Wade had this to say that match had to look better on paper than an execution there were some good spots that if they edited the match before showing it to the masses it could have been good but man it was really slow early and really, really bad in execution several times, mostly involving Charlotte, that it was easily the worst match of the night. Now,

saying the worst match of the night with a roster and a card like this isn't that big of a slight, a lot of star power, but respectfully, and I don't know this, I'm not a wrestler, but I've heard a lot of wrestlers say, these three ways and four ways,

boy, if you're not careful, to use the wrestling term, it becomes a cluster fuck. I wouldn't go so far as to say this was one, but Wade didn't, like it. I got 21 minutes. He gave it one star. Do you think it was too long? Or what did you think of the actual match itself? I thought the finish, and just to recap for everybody, it looks like Oscar is out of the ring. Charlotte has the figure eight on Bianca Bel Air. She's bridged up.

You think that's going to be it. And then here comes Oscar spray in the mist right into Charlotte's face. And then she comes around to Bianca Bel Air. Bianca rolls her up. Bianca wins the world title. Of course, Osco was the champ, but she wins it. And here comes your surprise. E.O. Sky comes in with the money in the bank case, cashes in, and wins almost immediately. This was heavy on story.

And they got plenty of time, 21 minutes. What did you think, Eric? Love the finish because I just did not expect anything like that. It caught me by surprise so much. The match itself I didn't enjoy. You know, I don't know if best match, worst match, definitely wasn't the best match. But, you know, my criticism of the match would be more from a technical perspective or a producer's point of view.

Way too many spots for the sake of spots. Okay, we get it. These are great athletes. But you don't need to keep trying to press that and force that down our throats. it was a spot fest for the sake of spots for so much of the match that it I unplugged from it I disconnected from it until the finish I didn't like it but let me say this that's my point of view there's a certain style of wrestling that I enjoy there's a certain style of wrestling that a lot of other people enjoy that I just

don't in nobody's right nobody's wrong here it's just it is what it is so someone asked me to me that was like okay let's go out and show everybody how great we are technically and athletically without really creating the emotion that supports that it was just it was just too much maybe it was too long maybe it was laid out with too much emphasis on let's show everybody what a great athlete i am i i don't know but an emotion I had zero connection to this thing, like zero connection, until the finish. And the finish I like, first of all, Bianca Bel Air is awesome. And I've just started watching her in the last few months, watching her closely.

She's really, really, really awesome. But I just, it was too heavy, too spot heavy and too light on emotion. pro wrestling crate.com is our sponsor today monthly mystery crates for diehard wrestling fans if you're looking for exclusive wrestling collectibles every month sign up at pro wrestling crate com boxes ship worldwide and include brand new merchandise from a w wrestlers and wb legends every premium box includes two t-shirts one micro brawler figure one autograph date by 10 one lapel pen and more plan start at 995 under the perfect gift for any wrestling fan Visit pro wrestling craik.com today.

Let's talk about our main event. This is the reason we're all here, I suppose. Everybody's been talking about the bloodline story. And seemingly, we had our biggest challenge yet. It's Jay Uso, the guy who's been out front, loud and proud. It's finally going to happen. Roman Raines defending against his cousin Jay. And boy, they get plenty of time.

They went over 35 minutes. Wade gave it three stars and man there was a lot and I mean a lot of criticism of this match online people felt like it's become formulaic it was too long Roman wrestles the same style match interference from solo and crawling all over the place and the big story is Jimmy shrouded in a hoodie and all black turns on his brother Jay Roman retain wade says quite the story told and the second half was definitely better than the first half it just went too long due to some laborous early minutes that wasn't necessary to tell the same story the jimmy interference against jay gives jay something to do next and the solo

range tension has been further advanced as a subplot here i guess eric a lot of people are assuming that must mean with the next pay-per-view it's jimmy versus jay maybe eventually solo sides with Jay and Roman with Jimmy and that's a tag match maybe somewhere maybe somewhere it's Roman and solo but a lot of people thought hey this could be it this could be the guy to beat Roman Raines it could be Jay and at the postmatch presser when Paul Heyman was asked by Bill Pritchard what inning are we in of this bloodline story he said bottom of the third which our old pal Jim Valley jumped online and said this is starting to feel like 1999, 2000 era NWO.

I don't know why they soured so quickly on it, but man, there was a lot of criticism of this. What did you think of the main event? Would you have done something differently? I like this match less than I like the previous match, the woman's match. I just, I was disappointed because I,

my expect, and part of it may have been, and maybe that's kind of the reaction that the audience, you know, the expectations have been so high for anything bloodline related because it's been so awesome for so long, this wasn't. This was maintenance. This didn't advance anything, in my opinion.

Technically it did. On paper, it did. Okay, you can argue that if you want online. If you've got nothing else to do with your life, you can debate that. But for me, just in terms of emotion and interest and reaction, my visceral response. Since I was bored, I did not enjoy this match at all. Nothing about it made me look forward to Monday night rock tonight or Smack John on Friday night.

It was just, I mean, I get why people are saying, oh, it feels like it could be 1999, 2000, NWO, because it didn't, it didn't move the needle. It checked a couple boxes, but it did not move an emotional needle whatsoever. for me now in a month I could be looking back and go God that was a dumb thing to say because look what they're doing now and it'll make sense but as it stands right this moment I was like are you kidding me I've been talking this bloodline story up for months I told everybody that and I mean it and it still is true the the bloodline storyline is by far and away the best story that's been crafted for professional wrestling in any of our lifetimes that's it you can

debate it if you want you can troll if you want i don't really give a fuck but this one let me down it was slow it was just you know the chairs under the ring and the tables and oh my god can we find any other cheaper easier way out of trying to actually create emotion it just i was so disappointed it really was i wish this match would have been in the middle of the show instead of the end of the show because then we would have forgotten about it well it's not without criticism either um shamus had a quote did you see this quote about roman rains no quote yeah i mean he has the luxury of wrestling five times a year you know what i mean that makes a big star let's be honest before he went away with covid people didn't give a shit about

him he was the big baby face who was wrestling goldberg and nobody really cared that's not someone who writes a newsletter saying that that's not someone who works for another company that's shame us saying that i'm sure that's some real life frustration there maybe it's him shooting for a match i don't know but it gets people talking and i know that that's what we like here on 83 weeks controversy creates cash but a lot of fans are wondering what's next for this story and do we still care because this thing was at an all-time hike just a couple of months ago and now it feels like we're on the downhill slope and it's coming faster than we thought yeah and within a very very short period of time we've reached the downhill slope feeling let's just hope

And I'm optimistic because WWE has proven, and the writing team has proven to me that they know what the hell they're doing. Let's hope they go back to the drawing board. And if they need to include Roman in that conversation to get him re-engaged, because now is not the time you want to take your foot off the gas, Roman. If your career is coming to an end, if you want to make that big move to Hollywood, if you want to take that next step in your journey professionally,

now is not the time that you, been built up to this fever pitch after years and years and years of effort and success on your part, Roman. Yes, I'm talking to you, Roman. We've never had a real conversation, but I'm talking to you now, brother. Now is not the time to take your foot off the gas. If your goal is to end your career in the next 12 or 18 months and move on to Hollywood and join Iraq, commit now more than ever. And if that means working more often to keep yourself fresh and to keep the audience engage, do whatever you have to do. But if less, or if Saturday night was an example, I hope it's not. I hope it was just a blip on the radar.

It's an unbelievable run that they've been on. I can't help but wonder, what would you do next? I mean, it seems like it's certainly Jay and Jimmy. They moved away from the story being about the titles. Now it's about this red necklace and being head of the table and the And I'm tired of Jay being a little puppy. I'm tired of him being the whipping boy. Jay's got to get some balls and not just sporadically, you know, sporadically through sporadically. Yeah, there you go.

Spuratically. What the hell? Spiratically. Periodically had a baby. Through their confrontation. Let's, let's see that spine stiffing up and stay stiff. Get yourself some blue chew if you need to, brother, Jay. Do what you need to do.

but let's let's not see any more of j being the you know the scolded puppy i don't want to see that anymore on him you know what's interesting is kevin sullivan uh during our top guy weekend he talked about how the bloodline is the greatest story of all time because while the n w o got over a bunch of heels they didn't make any baby faces meanwhile i know you took a exception to that and you said well sting and lex lugar and dd p goldberg just that just that just that uh but what he listed was Cody who lost and is now triumphant over Brock so we could argue he's back on track. Sammy and Kevin Owens who certainly main event of not one of WrestleMania but they're not even on SummerSlam. So it's hard to argue that wasn't that positive. And Jay now has had a couple

of paper review main events against Roman come up short each time. I don't know that anybody is really a bigger star on the other side having worked with Roman just yet. Like I understand they are when they're in the story. I saw a lot of people chirping online saying boy, Now that we're a few months removed of Sammy being in the bloodline, we realize how he may have been the glue that held that thing together. What say you? Do we need to introduce new characters to keep this thing going like we did with Sammy? Or would you stay the cool?

I don't know. Maybe bring Sammy back. Maybe Sammy is a catalyst that Jay needs to find his spirit, his spine, his fire. because if you could get a fired up, Jay, a confident Jay Uso, hungry Jay Uso that's not willing to back down, I'm trying to think of a parallel in another character that's easy for people to see and I can't find it right now, but I'm not saying a Stone Cold Steve Austin type character,

but give me somebody that says, fuck it, I'm not taking it anymore and I'll do whatever I have to do to beat you. and let's watch that story and maybe that's maybe that's me because he's been going out of the storyline now he's kind of forgotten about let jay bring him back in and and be a part of it that would be my go-to if i was sitting in a meeting right now in stanford going okay now what do we do to try to bring this thing back to life or or bring more life into it i'd want to have a conversation about bringing sammy back into it you think maybe they do a six-man where it's Sammy and Kevin and Jay teaming up against Jimmy and Solo and Roman?

I know, that's matchmaking. I would start with a story first. I'd start with why. Where are we? What do we need to do? And what's the motivation? That's where I'd start. Now, if it ends up in a match and you're making matches as a result of the backbone of

that story, great, do that. But the first thing I would focus on is the why and the how. Lady H says, what would you have done? if anything, differently with the bloodline, than what happened at SummerSlam? I would have not made it a basically a hardcore match. I've said this before. I know people are going to disagree with me. I'm sure some of the people that are actually in the industry and not assholes like

B&U who are sitting on the outside talking about it. But that was an easy way out of that match. That was a, that match was an afterthought. That was not a well-constructed. well-thought-out, well-conceived match. Anytime you go to gimmicks and hardcore shit and tables and chairs and lions and elephants and whatever other gimmick you could possibly come up with, basically what you're saying is you don't have any good ideas.

So we're going to do this instead because hopefully people will just like ladders and tables and chairs. That's just my opinion, folks. I'm welcome to it. To me, it was a lazy effort, in my opinion. I would have created more emotion. That's what I would have done. I would have fired J.U.S.O.

up. I would have had to be a closer finish. I don't know that I would have inserted Jimmy into it. I thought that was just so predictable and kind of hokey. It didn't make me believe anything. It was just there. Boy, my shit all over that, man. would you hopefully i'm not going to hopefully i'm not going to get invited backstage to the

events for roman i don't think you have to worry about that i don't think i have to either uh derek wants to know who was the big winner moving forward at summer slam or do you think came out best from this paper logan paul and ricochet wow i think they both have further to go i think cody did i think i'd go with cah but cody's obvious yes cody Cody, we know, is on his way to something very, very special. What we don't know is when it's going to happen. We think we do now.

We thought it was going to be WrestleMania last year or this year, but it will likely be WrestleMania next year. And they're doing everything right with Cody. This is like son of the father, 2.0, almost in perfection. Dusty was the underdog. Dusty was the guy that always trying to achieve that dream. And he didn't get there for a lot of reasons or a couple reasons. Cody's going to get there.

We believe Cody's going to get there. And we know that's going to happen. We're convinced that's going to happen. But the reason I picked Logan and Rickache is because they've emerged in such a way that no one saw coming a year ago or 18 months ago. And to me, that's fucking exciting. Great question here from Francis Reyes. Then we'll wind this one down. Is there anything you would say to AEW about their upcoming show all in that they can take away from SummerSlam?

No. I mean, look, they're going to have, they're going to have one of the most important characters on the show. That's the audience. Yes. Keep that audience engaged. Just keep them engaged. Pace the show so that you're not. paste the show so that you're building throughout the entire event and you're building to a crescendo

or climax if you will thank you folks at manscape for supporting 83 weeks keep keep the audience building keep the anticipation growing build that energy throughout the entire event don't overdo the blood and the guts because that's not what does it It may, that may be what the roster thinks gets over, but I get news for you. The roster doesn't really understand as well as perhaps the producers of the show do or the director of the show does because they know what creates the emotion. Talent sometimes has a tendency to do what talent thinks gets over. And sometimes they're absolutely right.

Some of the great, you know, a Brett Hart, a Rick Flair, a Hulk Hogan, a Roddy Piper. those guys had a feel because of the thousands of matches they had in front of hundreds of thousands of people. They learned. The audience, the talent on the E.W. Russia right now are still, some of them, obviously very experienced. You know, Chris Jericho, for example, and many others, they know, but pace it. Be careful about going too far in some. You know, the violence. That's the thing that I think turns me off about AEW more than anything is that, you know,

not to throw out names, but, you know, the blood, the John Moxley bleeding every match. It may get you off, but it doesn't get the audience over. It doesn't get over with the audience, I should say. Pace yourself and realize that the audience is actually the star of the show. if you can get the audience to react and keep them reacting and as close to a fever pitch as you could get them throughout that three-hour event or whatever it's going to be now you've won but if you lose that audience you won't you won't have fulfilled the opportunity or met the opportunity as well as you could have well we're hoping to meet the opportunity

of having you to join us over at ad-free shows you get all these shows early and ad free when you sign up at ad free shows and board we have a lot of great content like the book with david crockett where we break down week by week day by day month by month jim crockett promotions we've also got the insiders with uh myself talking to some of the behind the scenes folks you've never heard from before including a brand new one coming your way from dan bynum we've also got asked conrad monday mailbag with both mike keota and nick patrick and our brand newest endeavor, if you will, Tuesday with the taskmaster Kevin Sullivan. You get all of these extra bonus pieces of content, plus a bonus content from every single

show that we do here on the network, along with live Q&As and watchalongs and all that over at ad-freeshows.com. And it sounds like, if I'm guessing correctly, we're going to sit down and talk about Bash on the Beach 2000. I feel like Eric has more to say about Vince Russo. That will be over at ad-freeshows.com. by the way it starts at just $9 a month that's like 20 cents an episode not bad at all uh plus all that extra bonus content and i think we've even got a free trial so go try the first

week on us want to mention too if your business targets men 25 to 50 4 years old no better place to advertise than right here on 83 weeks you hear some of the same advertisers week after week for years why is that well because it really works if you're looking for dudes man we got them with our super targeted audience there's very little waste find out how affordable it is that advertise with eric.com. Eric's book is available now on Amazon or Bischoffbook.com. It's grateful. Just look at that

in your Amazon. Just type in Grateful Eric Bischoff. Bam, there it is. Love to have your social interactions on Twitter. Eric is looking forward to blocking many, many of you at E. Bischoff. So be sure to hit them up there. And also the show is on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at 83 weeks. The

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or stickers. Oh my. It's all there. And in the coming weeks, man, we're going to talk about the highest rated episode of Nitro in history. We'll also be talking about Dennis Rodman. And who could forget the time that you were on a Summer Slam? We'll go back 20 years to talk about your match against

Shane McMahon in the coming weeks. Eric, I never know what to expect when we sit down and click record. We covered a lot of ground today. Did we cover it all on SummerSlam? Any final words about SummerSlam? No, final words, man. Just as a fan, just as a fan,

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and hats off to everybody that participated in the ring, outside the ring, behind the scenes. Casama, you know who you are. Everybody on the production staff did a phenomenal job. Nobody does it better than WWE, and this was a perfect example of it. I want to also give a shout out to everybody who showed up and showed out for our live watch

along. We are our live discussion or live taping here. We have tried to do this a few different times over the last few days, but whether it was travel or lightning or Wi-Fi, we finally got it done. I want to give a shout out to everybody who showed up. Adam Arpin was here. Kelly Cox was here. John Hickson was here. Mick Mack was here. Frank Bruno was here. Coach Rosie, mouthpiece Murphy just appreciate everybody showing up i probably missed several names in here little jimmy sorenson was here by god i greatly appreciate you guys support thank you so much for showing up for us adam jefferson was here uh we're looking forward to bringing this again to you next week we will be back here on the weekend for another live recording like we normally are

but appreciate you guys sticking with us today and we're going to cross our fingers eric maybe you'll get some damn internet out there get some some life at the cabin again i don't know i'm kind of digging it. You know, I got to, I had the drive into town and used my sister-in-law's office. Um, her, her husband, my brother-in-law are staying with us for a while because they're looking for home here and Cody. But fortunately, she set up an office and their, uh, internet wasn't affected. So I don't, I don't mind being untethered from social media for a while. It's all right. Well, good for you, man. Enjoy the downtime. And I can't wait to bust your balls next week. Right here on 83 weeks with Eric Bischel.

Hey guys, Double J. Jeff Jarrett. Need to call a timeout real quick here. I wanted to tell your listeners what I've been telling my world listeners for a while now. It's about all the incredible things happening over on atfreyshows.com. On the debut episode of Making the Town, Lou Meaney takes us through the memorable matches and moments of the famed ECW arena, including one that was never seen. Something very special happened after the power went off.

Paul Heyman went out into the ring and spoke to the crowd without a microphone and the crowd just stayed quiet and listened and he gave the most heartfelt thank you to that crowd that night and the biggest shame of it is there's no footage of it because the power went out on an all new Tuesday with the taskmaster Kevin Sullivan talks about what some of the greatest factions of all time have in common four horsemen four guys when they're just strong NWO, four guys when they're at the strongest. And then bloodline, four guys.

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