83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 285: All In 2023 Fallout

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

On this week's edition of 83Weeks, Eric Bischoff is joined by guest host Jon Alba to cover all the ins and outs of AEW's debut in Wembley Stadium, ALL IN. Eric shares his thoughts on the match lineup, the over use of no stipulations, and what he calls a great main event match. All that plus so much more on this edition of 83Weeks with Eric Bischoff. 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. FACTOR - Head to FACTORMEALS.com/83weeks50 and use code 83weeks50 to get 50% off.  ZBIOTICS - Your first drink of the night for a better tomorrow - visit zbiotics.com/83WEEKS to get 15% off your first order of generically engineered probiotics when you use 83WEEKS at checkout. AG1 - Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/83WEEKS. That’s drinkAG1.com/83WEEKS. 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

Eric Bischoff here again, telling you about our friends over at savewithconrad.com. Now, Conrad's always talking about how they are helping homeowners save money, but did you know that Conrad and his team can also help you become a homeowner? They make the home buying process more enjoyable than, I don't know, making out with Stephanie and Linda. Oosh, but don't take my word for it. Hi, I'm Sarah Davis, and I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. So my husband has been a huge fan of Conrad's podcast for many, many years. And for years, we were on road trips, and he would have me listen to it.

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with Save with Conrad. And unlike the dirt sheets, we're not making this up. Check out all the five-star reviews. Go to save withconrad.com and do it today. Be grateful you did. NMLS number 65084 Equal Healthy Lended. Woo! This is 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. I'm John Ableton and for Conrad Thompson this week.

And we are talking all things, AW, all in the premier event held at Wembley Stadium in London this past weekend. Eric Bischoff had a chance to watch it. And we are going to talk about Eric Bischoff. How are you doing, man? I'm doing good. We got a lot to cover it. I know you've got a hard out today. First of all, apologies for everybody.

Although I love doing a show with you, John. I'm sure it'll be entertaining as all hail. Conrad had a sudden engagement, not able to be here. And I didn't get home until late yesterday. and I recorded the pay-per-view, or at least thought I did, on DirecTV. And lo and behold, I got up this morning at 4 o'clock in the morning to watch the show so Conrad and I could cut it. And guess what, it wasn't there? So after messing around for a couple hours, I finally got it on Bleacher Report, watched all four hours of it, nearly four hours.

And here I am, reached out to Conrad, said, hey, buddy, and he goes, man, can't do it. So John flew in, jumped out of a plane with his parachute, and Conrad's seat. And here we go. Let's do it. Yes, you can check out Eric and I every single week on strictly business right here on the ad-free shows and podcast heat network where we talk about the business of the business. And we'll talk about some of the stuff that was associated with this all in pay-per-view on that show. But today we are talking about the nuts and bolts of that card. Now, Eric, there were two pre-show matches on this event. You did not get a chance to see those live due to all the chaos of your recording. But the first one, as we've discussed in the past, had a pretty significant importance to the storytelling of the

main event. And that was MJF and Adam Cole defeating Aussie Open, Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis in seven minutes, 45 seconds to win the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship. So the biggest thing about that, Eric, was for weeks they had been building up this story beat that MJF was going to hit Aussie Open with something he was calling the kangaroo kick. which they kept teasing and teasing on TV for weeks, and eventually he hit it in this match. The crowd went absolutely nuts, and then they hit a double-closed line,

their finisher, as the crowd went crazy to see them win the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship. So as these two main eventors were getting ready to face each other later in the night, they were successful together, leading to an interesting development later on in the main event angle. What do you think about putting that on the pre-show and having that story beat before?

for the main event. You know, my initial reaction is anybody that listens to either 83 weeks or strictly businesses. I thought it was a stupid idea. I didn't get it. But, as I've often said, you know, you got to wait and see. And it doesn't bother. Look, do I think it really added value to the main event? I really don't. Do I think it hurt the main event? No, I don't. So I think it was on paper, probably a good idea in execution. I think it was a neutral move. It wasn't good. It wasn't bad. It was just there.

So no harm, no foul. I'm not taking any points away for it. When we get into the main event, I'll tell you why I think there was some equity in doing this after all, because they did utilize those belts as a vehicle to build a little character development. I thought you're going to wait for a man. You're giving me your finish. You're starting to get into that there.

After that, we got Hook defeating Jack Perry via submission to regain the M. FTVW Championship. This one went all around the stage area. There was a comment made about glass by Jack Perry that would lead to an eventual altercation with CM Punk. But Hook getting a chance to shine a little bit here on a big stage. Eric, he's so young. We know he's the son of Taz.

He's only been in the industry for a couple of years. What does exposure on a stage like this do for a talent at that level? Exposure, I don't think, really matters too much. the experience to go out there and perform and that big of a crowd with that big of a crowd I think can provide a tremendous amount of valuable experience and confidence invaluable in that respect

but in terms of the exposure and all that it's yeah maybe it doesn't hurt right don't take any points away for it but it's not going to make any real difference except for just the added value of the experience and the confidence that comes with it. Yeah, I guess I meant more even so exposure for him, exposing him to that crowd, to that audience, to a big stage where all lives are on you. And as we heard, more than 81,000 paid for this show,

making it the highest paid attendance for a pro wrestling event ever, which, if true, is a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself. That got us to the main card, Eric, and we started with a map that I'm not sure people thought would begin this show off. That was CM Punk defeating Samoa Joe via pinfall with the Pepsi Plunge. This was a singles match in which CM Punk retained his real world championship. They went 14 minutes here. Technically, Eric, I thought this was a really sound pro wrestling match that was a nice way to tie their story that spanned multiple decades together.

But an interesting, unique way to start a show where I think, a lot of people may have expected something a little more high energy. What was your impression on that? I was, look, it was a solid match. I'm not, no negatives, right? I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be as honest as I can possibly be because obviously I have some biases. And I have a certain perspective based on what I like.

And it's all subjective. It's just my opinion. So I'm going to try to keep. things as positive as I can. I thought the match was slow-paced. It didn't have a lot of energy. I thought punk started looking gassed after about two minutes in. And I don't think he was, by the way. I just think he was selling like he had run a marathon two hours before he decided to wrestle Joe. And it's just the pace of it, I thought, was surprisingly slow. Now, I will admit, Part of that is because I think my expectations were a little out of whack.

I've never really seen the punk Joe history. And I understand they've had some really, really good matches in the past. I'm a huge fan of Samoa Joe as a human being and as a character. So I was really, you know, I was excited. And I wanted to put it over. And I am. It was solid. It was good.

it just caught me a little bit um i just thought it was a little awkward to start a show with something this slow a pace i was also not surprised but disappointed to see that much blood early on in the show when i kind of expected this thing was going to be a you know hemoglobin fest and and it certainly was and i think starting off the show by with that much blood when you know that much more is coming. At some point, it doesn't matter anymore. And I think we're getting, you know, precariously close to that point. Yeah, you and I haven't talked about any of this show at all together.

So I thought that was really interesting that you shared the same sentiment that I did that, while it was a very good match, and I really did think it was a very good match, the pacing out of the gate for a show that is typically, when you think of A.A.W., right, you think of high energy. You think of the acrobatics. You think of the trios matches. is bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And in front of 81,000 people,

you've got a chance to create a pretty instant memorable impression. And having a match that was much more your traditional pro wrestling, wrestling match, it almost seemed not quite as linear with AW's brand message that they've established over the past few years. Yeah, and again, you know, some of my notes is, you know, obviously I just said slow pace that, you know, the blood I've already covered.

the match seemed to have one gear there was like one speed from the minute the bell went off to the minute the match was over there was like one gear and I guess that's the part that left me a little bit surprised and slightly disappointed

but again that's perhaps because my expectations were so high but yeah those are my notes for that match yeah CM Punk's first stadium show in more than 10 years and the last one was WrestleMania 29 off the top of my head.

I'm pretty sure where he faced the Undertaker. By the way, I kind of rated these each match. Are we getting Eric Bischoff's star ratings? No, no, no. I rate everything from 1 to 10 based on a completely 100% ridiculous, subjective opinion. It's just what I like.

It doesn't mean it matters, but just in terms of what I enjoy and what I appreciate respect out of a presentation, I kind of went from one to ten and I give this you know I gave this one a six I wasn't good wasn't bad it was just solid okay yeah I mean listen I think it was very much solid and pacing was just the weird disconnect for me as a star match I think if this was in a different position I might have felt a little differently about it but instead it was the starter which then got us to the more traditional AEW match bullet club gold

which was Juice Robinson, J. White, and Konoske, Tekechita, with Don Callis and the guns in their corner, defeated the Golden Elite, Kenny Omega, Kota Abushi, and Hangman, Adam Page, and Eric, the big story beat here, was that Takeshita, who has aligned with Don Callis and has been feuding with Kenny Omega here, got a clean pin on Kenny Omega. He rolled him up from behind after Kenny Omega was running wild,

and that sets up a one-on-one bout for them next week in Chicago, the biggest match of Kenosuke Takeda's career. I would imagine you probably haven't seen a whole bunch of Tikeshita to this point, but I would love to hear your thoughts on Bullet Club Gold and what those guys brought to the table in this match. You know, obviously, Kenny Omega is so impressive to watch as an athlete and as a performer. So that was fun. The match I thought was decent.

I gave it a 6.5. What kept me from giving it more than that, The elbow fest just takes me out of it. I get it. I understand it. The history connection, especially with Japanese, you know, hardcore wrestling and strong style wrestling. I get it. It's not like I don't understand it.

It's just that I don't dig it. You know, a couple times here and there, yeah, but this, I got if I saw it once, it saw 500 times on this pay-per-view. And I just, it just took me out of it. They weren't done that well, you know, to see guys. standing there, you know, no selling elbows to the face. You can do that. And I'm sure there's a percentage of the audience that goes, wow, do you believe those guys are working so hard, they're so tough. But it also takes me out of anything else that I want to believe in. The ability

to suspend my disbelief and just get sucked into the drama of what I'm seeing is mitigated substantially when I see guys just do a stupid shit for so long. Again, coupled here and there or for a spot in the match, but this was just, it was like an elbow marathon. And I, dang, had it not been for that, I probably would have been more excited about. I think obviously Kenny Omega stood out. Don't have much more. Let me see if I have any more. Oh, this is a surprise finish.

I like the finish. It was a finish that kind of caught me. And there weren't many good finishes. I'm going to talk a lot about that throughout this. The show had WCW disease, meaning, you know, A lot of, you know, solid action, and in some cases, great action. And with the exception of one or two matches, the finishes and just about everything I saw felt like a means to an end instead of a journey and a great finish to a great movie.

It was just kind of, okay, we've got to end this thing somehow. What do you want to do? What do you want to do? Hey, what do you want to do? Let's do that. Very little thought giving to the finish with the exception of one match in particular. and we'll talk about that. Something about hearing you say WCW disease, pop.

No, listen, I'm honest about this shit. I criticize myself as much as anybody else criticized me, really. And some of my mistakes and some of the things I've done in the past. And that's probably why sometimes I get overly passionate when I see things that are so obvious to me, which people should have been able to learn from some of the mistakes that I did make in WCW or I allowed to happen in WCW, yet they're being repeated. and it's like, dude, you know, Tony, and I'm not being negative on Tony on this show. He, you know, congratulations to Tony Kahn.

Actually, apologize. I want to apologize publicly to Tony. I was a little hard on them when we did strictly business when it came to, you know, how he's handling certain things in AEW. And I think I was a little too hard. It's just my emotion because of passion. I really want to see it work. But, you know, Tony came out and said a while back,

and it's probably one of the things that started setting this thing off. was between he and I was, you know, I don't want to make the same mistakes WCW made. Well, dude, you are. And not only are you making the same mistakes that Eric Bischoff made and WCW made, but you're, they're on steroids. And they're actually worse than some of the mistakes I've made, or the same mistakes, but with greater impact. So I apologize for being as verbose and as rough as I was on Tony,

but it's really only because of passion. I want to see him succeed. I think Tony is a wonderful human being. I think he's a very smart guy. I just think in certain aspects, he's in over his head. Regarding this match, was there anyone outside of Kenny Omega that caught your attention? I mean, everybody in the match was good. There was nobody.

Look, I'm just, I'm not overly enamored with Takashida or whatever his name is. It was okay. I didn't feel like, oh, my gosh, I got to see more of this guy. I was just like, okay, yeah, you're one of many Japanese wrestlers that look really good in the right. Were you surprised that Kenny Omega did not have a singles match on this mega card? I really am, and that's kind of an overall, you know, feeling. And I didn't make any overall notes. But, you know, what was there, 10 matches?

I mean, I actually wrote them down each one of them. There were nine matches. and all but two or three of them were like some kind of trios or tag team or six bands or whatever the fuck. Yeah, I think that hurt as well. You know, when you don't have story, you put on a spectacle. And this was a spectacle. You had 81,000 plus fans.

It was a beautiful venue. There were some great production shots. Not as many as I thought I'd see. I didn't think they put the event over quite as much as I think they could have or should have, but that's probably being slightly overcritical or maybe too overcritical. But the lack of individual matches and the drama that usually comes with it because there's a story, there's psychology in a match, even if there isn't a backstory leading

into the match, the match itself can have story, which is fine. You know, I was pretty supportive of Tony and AEW going into not having a lot of buildup going into the match or the event. And I still am. But I think the takeaway would have been better had there been more singles matches that had great psychology in the ring. We didn't see that. What we saw was a lot of gimmick matches and a lot of giving. every match was almost like everything but the main event i think was a gimmick match of some kind and maybe this match um just too much just too too too too indie it's too indyrific

even though it was in front of 80 000 people's people it was just too indie rific for me but isn't that what a w has built a lot of its brand on like people when they buy this show they buy a ticket to the show they know what they're getting with the a w product well they know what they know what they're getting with it every week on TV, which is why the audience isn't growing. They're catering to a small internet-based audience. Now, the obvious response to that is, yeah, but it was 81,000 people that was the most attended to have had a baby, yes, all that is true. But I don't think that that was necessarily because of anything other than there was

a major curiosity factor. AEW had never been there before. There were a lot of former WWE talent on that card that people hadn't seen in a long time. and people wanted to be a part of this big event and this moment in history. And I said in the weeks leading up to this, I've said it many times on strictly business. The star of this show will be the 80,000 people in attendance. And that was absolutely the fact. That was the star of the show with one or two exceptions.

It was the audience in the venue. I don't know if it's sustainable. And I could be wrong. just because I like certain styles of matches. There were certain matches on this card that I really, really enjoyed a lot. We haven't gotten to them yet. They were all good matches so far. I mean, in fact, I didn't see a match,

and I thought, well, that was a lousy match. They were all good. They were all solid, with the exception of one or two that weren't beyond that. But I don't know that the ECW homage and the super hardcore bloodbath spectacle matches, it's sustainable. Maybe it is. And that's something that we'll see over time. I'm not one of those guys that, you know, believe that, you've got to go back to doing it the way it was in the 60s or the 70s or the 80s or the 90s or 2000s. I understand audiences evolve, tastes evolve. It's true at music. It's true in movies. It's true in every aspect of entertainment

and culture. And I'm not hanging on to the past, but there has to be. be certain fundamentals when it comes to entertainment and and and I think wrestling too that while you can add a lot of athleticism do a lot of things that never used to be done before there's still some kind of fundamentals that you got to stick with I saw glimpses of it actually we'll talk about the main event when the main event comes but you know that was an example of an amazing it was a great story great match and and I'll talk about the rest of it in a minute, but I just don't know that it's sustainable. I think once you've seen it, you've seen it. Interesting. Well, I'm excited to talk about the main event with you in a little bit here.

I do want to ask you about the production of the show, because that was something we did talk at length about on Strictly Business and what we could be expecting from that. Did you approve of the general production of it and the stage set up? Whether I approve of it or not. What did it fit Eric Bischoff's taste? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, the shots, look, there were no mistakes. First and foremost, you know, it's kind of like practicing medicine. First of all, do no harm, you know. Hippocratic oath, I think that's what that's called.

Yeah. Do no harm. So there was no harm done. I think there could have been more in the way of really great packages because packages add so much. it just, it just changes the complexion of an event and it can make it feel so much more significant than it already is. And clearly with 81,000 plus people, it was significant. No question about that. I'm not trying to take anything away from it. But I think there could have been things done from a

production perspective to make it even bigger than it really was. I didn't see that. I thought the this is production only but I thought the packages were okay what I would expect to see in a weekly TV show but I didn't get any of that really dramatic supportive kind of added value packages they were more maintenance opportunities you know check that box we need a promo before let's hear from these two guys okay good we've done that let's move on to the next one nothing really moved me the way it should for an event this big. Yeah, they produced a lot of really good ones and they were all aired on like online and the pre-show. I think you got to save a few of those for TV to. Well, I think John, not to interrupt you, but I know you're in a hurry too. And I think

part of that is because they were trying to cram, you know, 10 pounds of matches into an 8-pound bag. And, you know, the talent wants time. You know, that's historically, that's always been an issue when it comes to talent and timing a show is every one of these performers are pros that want to be able to go out there and do the best job they can and they don't want to rush through anything and they want to try to tell their story in the best way possible and as such you know as a producer you're going to give them as much time as you can but I think it can be a mistake to add minutes to matches and and then not have room for the packages that can add so much overall to

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this was full of callbacks to those two matches, very much a Young Buck style match in that sense. In a vacuum, I'm not sure it met the same drama as their other two, but I still thought it was very, very good. What were your thoughts on this match? First of all, my opinion rematches aren't stories. You know, when I hear people say, yeah, but these guys have history. together that's just because they've had matches together that's not a story it's just not i don't know if there was a story leading into this i think the story was who's the greatest tag team of all time is it fdr the answer that's a question there you go that's part of my issue with a lot of the

a w audience is yeah they've got such a great story actually no they fucking don't the story is it's got a beginning it's got a middle and it's got an end it escalates along the way it gets more dramatic. There are plot points or plot twists in, in the middle of that arc that really suck you in and elevate the stakes if there are any. This is a question. Who's the best tag team? I get it. But that's not a story. In my opinion, that's just an excuse to have a match. And there's a big difference. Look, to match itself, my, I was entertained. You know, I like FTR. I enjoy watching them. They have a style of wrestling presentation that I subjectively i i enjoy more than some of the more um acrobatic gymnastic floor exercise type matches

not some people love that a lot of people that maybe 81 000 people love that shit so my opinion isn't really worth a nickel at this point but it's mine and i own it um i thought the match was solid my only note and this is kind of a shitty note but i'm watching and i'm seeing guys going in and out of the ring and I'm seeing a referee that's just standing there watching all this traffic going by. It's like he's a traffic cup that doesn't know how to direct traffic. Why do they call it a tag team match? Why not just call it a

four-way match with no DQs? Because there's no one, you know, sometimes there was tags. A lot of times there weren't. Referee sitting there, not counting, just looking. It's like, I don't know. There's got to be, in my opinion, for whatever it's worth, there's got

to be some structure that allows people to follow along and understand when you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing. And I just saw a lot of great action and I'm looking at the ref going, do we, why is this called a tag team match? Because there's hardly any tags. Sometimes there are. A lot of times there aren't.

It's weird. Whatever. But they, I was entertained. And I thought, Bucks did a great job. The finish at the end, when they're both going for their finish and they bang both their knees or whatever the hell that was, I get it. It kind of let the air out of my tires a little bit going into the finish. It just didn't visually, it didn't make me go, whoa, wow, that must have hurt. It was just, I don't know, awkward, I guess.

Each of these teams hit each other's finishers in this. Again, there was a lot of callbacks to their. other two matches so if you've been following their history you might have picked up on those that's that's kind of one of the fibers of a lot of the young bucks matches they do a lot of callbacks to other things that have happened in canon uh but if you watched it in a vacuum i did think this was still pretty good all things considered i did have higher expectations for it though eric i think both of these teams have had better tag team matches this year than this one uh you mentioned Rick Knox, a referee, kind of allowing a lot of things to happen.

That's, he is the Young Bucks referee. That's almost the gimmick at this point of what happens in their bouts. So how many Eric Bischoff stars out of ten are you given this one? That one, I gave it a 6.5. You know, I thought the action was really, it was better than solid. It was better than good. It was, I, and again, it's my kind of match, you know, with FDR. But again, I think the Bucks did a great job.

It all jelled together until the end. I thought it was a little clunky. So I gave that one a 6.5. You're a big music guy. There were a lot of homages to Freddie Mercury on this show. The Young Bucks came out in the Freddie Mercury jackets. Soraya came out to We Will Rock you. Chris Jericho did the live aid stuff.

The homage to Freddie Mercury that we saw from him. Any thoughts on the presentation in that sense? Ombages to the British music history, perhaps? no i think it was a classy smart thing to do it gave the event its identity it was a it was a tip of the cap to the uk in the music industry there in the uk that's had so much influence all over the world especially here in the u.s so i thought it was cool i'll talk more about jericho's thing in a minute when we get to that match but yeah i thought it was pretty cool i got a feeling i got you're going to give us some mixed opinions on this next one this was the stadium stampede match

AW's third ever stadium stampede match. But this one very different, this one much more similar to the anarchy in the arena matches they've done in the past. Eddie Kingston, Penta, best friends, and Orange Cassidy defeated the Blackpool Combat Club, Santana and Ortiz here. They told a big story at the end with Orange Cassidy with the glass and the hand, and they're setting up for a potential bout with him and John Moxley to come at AW All Out next week. he's got a match with Penta first, a number one contenders match essentially to face John Moxley. This was all over the place, man, literally. It took place all over Wembley Stadium.

Very hard to follow. But if you're into brutality, they definitely gave it to you here. How'd you feel about it? These guys probably sit at home and pull wings off flies in their spare time. You know, I just, eck. Again, not my taste, not my style. I don't get it.

I just, I don't want to be negative any more negative than I, I guess I'm already coming off, but I have to be honest. It's just, it's just another example of, you know, indie rific on steroids. I just absolutely does nothing for me, nothing for me, zero. Actually, it does do something for me. It turns me completely off. It's not artistic. It's not creative.

it's not athletic it's just gore for the sake of gore and hey i don't go to horror movies either and a lot of people do so that's your thing then you're really really excited about this match and this pay-per-view because there's a lot of it and and like i said that's your thing you you left home you were glad you spent that 50 bucks or you're glad you bought that ticket and showed up live because you got your nut if this is your thing. The other thing I really, again, production, and I've, again, I've made this mistake. Sometimes I think I invented it, although not really.

But you're in Wembley. First of all, Claudio, one of the best performers in the card, without question, most capable, with exception to maybe one or two people. We'll talk about in a few minutes. But to have him out there brawling is a complete waste of talent. But I get it. You know, you've got a lot of people involved. You can only put so many people in the ring.

It's kind of like painting yourself in the corner. You book this match. And I'm going to know, how do we actually execute it? Let's have these guys wrestle off in, you know, a different part of the arena. You're taking them out, you know, the people at home see it. I guess if you're watching it, there's a monitor, you know, a tron or some sort. You can possibly catch up to it. But it's just not great.

It very rarely, if ever works, it looks good on paper, but the execution is sloppy. And it's just hard to create emotion. Again, great spectacle. No emotion. Just a spectacle for the sake of a spectacle. So I was pretty disappointed. I gave it a 5.5. Everybody worked their asses off.

Yeah. I'm not taking anything away from effort. but I think I just think it was too much too much John Moxley was one of those guys that I felt like really carried AW last year

and he was very much in the same boat as Kenny Omega for me where I would have expected him to be in a singles match on this card and not to say that a match like this isn't his forte certainly falls in line with what he likes to do sometimes but he very much he strikes me as kind of that Mick Foley hybrid

where McFoly loved a good hardcore match but he could go out there and he could really tell a great story and a standard singles match too and I feel like John Moxley is very much cut from that same cloth do you have any thoughts on him in that regard? No I agree with you when Moxley stepped up when was it when Punk had this initial big issue

and Moxley stepped it I was like I turned into a huge Moxley fan because that, you know, that, that's a pro. That's somebody who's invested in who cares and who's a pro and has the balls to step up and fill a spot that wasn't his initially. Really respected him for that. Still do. But I think he sells himself short with his tendency to want to do this kind of extreme blood fest.

It's not as impressive to the audience as it is to perhaps John himself or that segment of the audience it really gets off on that stuff. I mean, a little bit of that goes a long way. And I've just seen too much of it, especially on this car. There's so much of it. Personally, I think instead of shaving your head the next bet you lose, we should bet whether or not you have skewers placed into your scalp. Yeah, that'll never have it.

I did get acupuncture a couple times. I'm a big fan of acupuncture. Okay. But yeah, I mean, just even the visual of that. Yeah. Perhaps a fork to the face. Does that appeal to? Oh, how many, it looked like we're at a Bonanza Steakhouse. There were somebody in four. Blood everywhere, guys getting forked up all over the place.

It was just so much. I just, that's the part of the AEW presentation, I think, is becoming so self-limiting. The domestic audience is, is flat. than flat. In fact, it's not even flat. If you look at it, it's deteriorating, you know, incrementally, but deteriorating each and every week. Go to Brandon Thurston's any of his reports when he posts ratings. So you can just look at it. It's right there in black and white and red and yellow and blue and orange and pink and purple, whatever, because he tracks them much stuff. But it's easy to track. I make light of it. But it's just not working in terms of growing the audience. And I know the comeback says, yeah, but David

Deshoff's happy and he told my dad that we're doing great, blah, blah, blah, and we're getting this, we're getting that. So there's, I get it. But the numbers don't lie. The audience isn't growing. And you can say if you're Dave Meltzer and you're trying to make an excuse for your buddies who are executive vice presidents, yeah, but the cable audience is deteriorating. True. WWs audience aren't deteriorating. They're growing. AEWs aren't. Got to be a reason why. You've got to be analytical about this stuff beyond just being a great numbers cruncher. You've got to look at those numbers

and interpret what they mean. And what I'm seeing is a dependence upon a gratuitous amount of blood and excessive violence without any real story or character development, in my opinion, and a deterioration of ratings. Whereas you look at WWE and you look at the emphasis on story and athleticism and all the other things

and their numbers are incrementally increasing, where AEWs are incrementally decreasing. I would at least ask myself why, if I was in charge in AEW or worked there, I would want to have a pretty good idea why. And I think the over-dependence on this kind of gratuit is, you know, blood and just gore and forks to the forehead

and skewers to the forehead. When you're only going to come up in the neck. At some point, you're going to have to cut so at some point you're going to have to bite the head off of a chicken in order to get anybody's attention. Maybe. Maybe so. Let's keep rolling here. As the Osborne did it. Work for him, man. Took a bat's head and took a nice bite out of it.

We got Soraya defeating Tony Storm Akadushita and Dr. Britt Baker DMD via pinfall in a four-way for the AW women's world championship. Sheeta entered this one as the champion. Short title rain for her just a couple weeks. Saraya gets the home country win here, her family, part of the presentation. She comes out to We Will Rock You, some dissension amongst the ranks within the outcast, Tony Storm, Ruby Soho, and Soraya. And Saraya is the one here, Eric, just a couple years now after getting cleared from her neck injury

and missing so many years of action of her prime in WWE, here she is picking up pinfall and winning the AW women's championship. What are your thoughts on this one? A couple notes. I'll just get to my notes. It'll refresh my memory because I'm literally walking in my sleep. I got up at 3.30 this morning to watch a pay-per-view. I couldn't watch until about nine.

What did I think of this? Where to go? Women's match. I thought Brett Baker looked believable and exceptionally vicious. a lot of her stuff was tight and it was vicious i liked it i like a vicious i like a vicious dentist next time i'm in pittsburg i'm going to get my teeth cleaned whether i need it or not brit um i enjoyed the match i really was impressed with tony storm yeah that's my takeaway and largely because i just don't watch enough a ewe to be familiar

I probably should be with a lot of their talent. But the minute she came out, I went, ooh, she gets it. She actually believes she's her character. And I liked her a lot. I know it's like probably not the most important thing on anybody else's mind, but that was she's one of the things that really stood out to me in the show. Yeah. She's got that, you know, people talk about that it factor.

What is it about some characters at the minute they walk through the curtain, you go, uh-huh, that's a real one. That one there, that one right there. I like that one. She's got that. Yeah. Regardless of, you know, her role in the match and the outcome of the match, I was impressed with her. I was impressed with Brett.

I thought Brid did a great job. Yeah. You know, happy for Saraya, you know, how do you not feel good about that moment, you know? Family's there. She's in the UK, where she's from. a lot of local fans, a lot of history, backstory. How do you not feel good about that? What did I give that match?

What did I give that match? Oh, I forgot to rate that match. Oh, no, I gave it a seven. Okay. I gave it a seven because it felt good at the end, you know? And again, what I, I give these opinions from the perspective of a producer, not necessarily the perspective of a wrestling fan, which is probably why I just connect a lot with the, you know,

internet wrestling geeks because they're just looking at it from their fanboy perspective i i like this match even though technically there were better matches and there's some things that were just whatever but it's all about creating emotion and this match created emotion not just for me but for the audience and a lot of it had to do with it sarah and bringing out her family and all that so it it had a feel good vibe to me and i i dug it yeah on the tony storm front i think she's probably one of the most complete women's performers that AW has on its roster and definitely one that got away from WWE. And I think she elevates and brings a lot of equity to that women's division. This was the shortest match on the main card that we saw, the only

female representation on this card that we saw, even though they do have a women's midcard title in the TBS championship that was not to be seen on this show. The surrender, the To rea win, Eric, it almost reminded me that this was like kind of the equivalent of a WrestleMania moment on a big show. Do you see the parallels there? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I understand it.

I understand why someone would take that position. This did not have a WrestleMania feel to me at all. Okay. WrestleMania feels like WrestleMania. Just like I'm not going to make a comparison because it'll piss people up. WrestleMania, you know you're watching a WrestleMania. From the moment that show opens to the moment it closes, you know you're watching

something special. The show was unique in the sense that it was in front of 80,000 people on Wembley and, you know, stadium and all that. But what took place inside of that ring and what didn't take place in terms of the packages and the support and the drama that goes along with it, the entrances, I thought, were pretty good, but not what you'd expect for a stadium show. It just felt like a really, really good indie show on steroids.

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for 15% off. Thanks, Zbiotics, for sponsoring this episode. Let's go to our next match here, which I'd imagine in some capacity had to make you smile. Darby Allen and Sting defeated Swerve Strickland and Christian Cage in a coffin match in 16 minutes. There was a pretty amazing entrance for this match, and that was Sting getting the Seek and Destroy treatment by Metallica, a nice little throwback there. Brutal match, just some vicious bumps. Sting, I felt Eric has had a few underwhelming performances in the past calendar year in A.W, but he was at his best tier, at 64 years old.

He crushed it in this match. I thought swerve Strickland really was someone who stood out to me. He gave so much to Sting. He gave so much to Darby. There's natural history between Christian and Sting. And Sting is the one that ends up shun the coffin here on Swerve Strickland. What did you think of this match, the presentation of Sting and everything that unfolded? Oh.

I thought it was pretty cool, obviously. And this is where my bias comes in because I admit that I'm biased. unlike some people who pretend they're not or don't care if they are. I just didn't fucking admit it because I don't care. I am so impressed with Sting. Like, he's only four years younger than I am. And to go out there and do the things that he's doing, is he the sting from 1992 or three or 19,

whatever early 2000 no he's not none of us are but he's out there he's still doing it the audience loves him so my bias and the fact that i think so much of steve bored and respect him so much probably weighs in here number one number two i thought the derby allen stuff when he had his hands tape behind his back. I'm now I'm going what the fuck how does he do that that's impressive that's the most physically not the most one of the most physically athletically impressive things that I saw throughout this pay-per-view not because it was that dynamic but because it's so freaking difficult how do you do that?

I'm not even sure I could walk down the stairs backwards with my hands tied behind my back. More or less do some of the things that Darby Allen was doing. I don't know that was crazy fun to watch that. I never seen anything like that. That got my attention pretty good. But I think the whole presentation was staying. And I was just maybe because I'm kind of, and I think this was true for me for everybody that was on that cart, no matter how I felt about their matches or not.

I, I, I've never been in front of 80,000 people in the ring. So I can't say I know what that feels like, but I can imagine what that feels like. Because I've been in front of 40,000 people, maybe more. I've been in front of 20,000 people. I know what that feels like. I wrestle stone cold Steve Austin and no way out in Montreal. I know what that felt like. So at least I think I have a basis.

from which I can kind of imagine accurately what that must feel like. And I was living vicariously through every one of those people that came out through guerrilla. And I was so happy for them, genuinely happy for them, to be able to have that experience. And to see Sting have those moments, awesome, just awesome. for me personally because I'm biased but I don't care because I can be it doesn't matter it's your podcast man I don't think this was the best match of the night but I think it might have been the most fun match of the night and they they went out there and through everything at the wall I thought

swerf strickland was so freaking great in this match everybody in everybody in the match did a great yeah I thought they really were I saw derby do that behind the back stuff on the indies I want to say six, seven years ago, and to see him do it on that stage in front of 80,000 people blew my mind that he had the confidence to go out there and do it in that fashion. Oh, and by the way, do it flawlessly. Mm-hmm. Like, flawlessly. I was, I'm still, I'm still in shock.

Do you think Sting has lent some equity to Darby? Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? That's a beautiful thing. That's another thing that I, this is something that was almost so conscious, but you're bringing it up. That's what I love about Darby and Sting is Sting is lending. He's given Darby the rub.

It just is. But Darby's giving it right back. It's a mutually beneficial relationship where both talents are better because of each other. And I love that. That's magic when it happens. It is. The Metallica entrance, Tony, once again, this happened a few times on this show. doing licensed music for the entrances,

it really elevates it so much to that next level. And did you get the feels a little bit, see Instinct come out with that presentation? You know, it didn't register for me. Yeah. And maybe because I'm not really a Metallica fan and all that. But I thought it was great. Don't get me wrong.

I'm not crapping on it. I just, it didn't hit me maybe the same way that it hit others. That's more fair. What did you give this one in terms of your rating? Oh, what did I give this one? I give this one a seven. Again, it felt good. It was a great story in the ring. You know, it made sense to me. Again, another gimmick match, which took it down a notch for me because it just won in a long line of overly done gimmick matches, which everybody knows how I feel about gimmick matches.

They're just an excuse for not having a good story. But as far as gimmick matches go, I thought it was pretty well done. sure this next match i have no doubt that you loved and i knew going into it they'd overperform as to what many expectations were for this match and i thought they delivered a hell of a match will osprey defeated chris jericho in a straight-up singles match chris jericho sang his own entrance theme judas with his band fossey and will osprey had a major superstar presentation in this will gets the win over chris jericho and there's some tease of dissension between chris and and McIvara after the match.

I thought Chris just threw everything at the wall that he could hear, Eric, and looked awesome, keeping up with maybe the most physically gifted performer in all of wrestling today. What did you think of this match? Blown away. You know, I'll disagree with you. I don't think Chris was able to keep up, but he did a fucking valiant effort trying to, and he was not that far behind.

It was obvious. This was not Chris Cherico from, you know, the late 90s. relatively speaking i mean you know this wasn't chris jericho wwe right sure how old is chris 54 chris is mid fifties i'm pretty certain i can confirm that momentary doesn't matter somewhere around there 52 52 years old to be able to go out there and have that level of quality of match especially with somebody like will osprey

freaking mind boggling to me so much respect for Chris so much respect um but i think what got you know what did get into my fields a bit was Chris being able to go out there and perform his music in front of 80,000 people that Chris got to live two dreams yeah in one segment right he's out there living his rock and roll fantasy and he's in the ring with one of the best performers probably that has stepped into the ring in forever and is able to go out there and have a fantastic match. How do you not think that that's just freaking awesome? It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And the finish here, I mean, Chris really put Will Osprey over big. We'll hit everything on him. And I thought that if you're trying

to endorse Will Osprey as a player, even though he's not someone who's signed to your company, you know you're going to use him in the future in mega matches. And he, man, I think Will Osprey showed the world appropriately in his home territory that he is truly one of the most gifted wrestlers of this generation. Do you have any thoughts on Will? I've already expressed him. I just think he's an amazing, an amazing performer. And the other thing I liked about this is I like, you know, again, it's not a storyline. It's an angle. And there's a difference, folks. There's a freaking difference between a storyline and an angle. Figure it out. But while it wasn't a storyline, the fact that Jericho showed up at an independent event confronted Osprey to kind

of shoot an angle to lead into this, I thought that was smart, you know. And I've often thought that even when I was producing pay-per-views, too much emphasis was on getting the matches out early, promoting the individual matches early because generally pay-per-views are a last-minute decision. Number one, because there's no rush. It's not like a ticket. You're not going to run out of, you can buy a pay-per-view anytime, two minutes before the pay-per-view. There's no urgency, there's no fear of loss associated with buying a pay-per-view, right? So most of the time, people are making those decisions to buy a pay-per-view. I would venture to guess. This is a guess not done the research but pretty much last minute but you got to give them a reason

something at that last minute if you can do something at that last minute to really compel them and motivate them and i thought this was an excellent strategic decision to have jericho show up and shoot an angle and leads to the paper view that was smart which got my interest in the match even before i saw it but after seeing it was like oh man that got a nine for me just again i'm a bit of a Jericho fan, partly because I've worked with him, partly because he's been around for so long, and he's done such amazing stuff. But at this stage of his career, to be able to go out there and perform at that level with one of the best in the world, says all you need to know about Chris Jericho. Yeah. And again, when I say he's keeping out, I mean, relatively speaking here,

best athlete in pro wrestling and Chris Jericho at 52, I thought it was really, really impressive. Osprey's timing Yeah His precision His offense Very much of a combination offense You know You watch a good boxer

It's all about combinations Nobody's going to look at there to land Even Mike Tyson You know As powerful of a puncher as he was It was about combinations And you know You'd work over your body

And get you to drop your hands And take your head off And Osprey has this His It's almost like a chain offense He's got such and he does it with such amazingly incredible precision and also go back and watch that um i'm going to back up just a little bit for a second you go back and watch osprey when that match was over

that mucker father yep i said it i'm wearing a t-shirt you can order it online um that mucker father wasn't even breathing hard i'm i got winded watching it yeah he wasn't even breathing hard he does man i was so impressed with that what he does that's just when you're an elite performer like that it's just another day at the office and i i interviewed swerf strickland earlier in the week and he told me with ospre that he's the most explosive performer he's ever been in the ring with and i think explosive is a perfect way to sum up how he processes each sequence in the ring he's really fantastic you know you were talking about buys at the last second and stuff like that they did something on the pre-show here and i know you didn't see the pre-show but when i saw it i was

like oh that would be such an eric bischoff move if he had the same luxury to do something like this they showed mercedes mona the former sasha banks in the crowd just taking in the event and even though she wasn't booked on this show we know that she's injured right now i thought that was an interesting little way to build some intrigue hey you know buy this pay-per-view right now and you never know maybe Mercedes Monet could show up any thoughts on utilizing a promotion like that i would have done that back in the day would have been considered false advertising by dame melzer right there there you go you see mercedes mona oh yeah no i mean i i i did see her they cut to her a couple times or at least one time during the course of the pay-per-view and i thought

okay that's cool i get it planting a seed all for it not criticizing it see where it goes but i Obviously, I was thinking, if I'm Mercedes-Bund A, and I'm looking at what's going on, do I really want to be a part of that? We will see. We got a- For the money, of course she will, because it's all about business. Yeah, man. It's all about business. Absolutely.

And I think, I don't know her at all. I don't know if I've ever even exchanged words with her, even though I worked in WWE briefly while she was there, but I never worked with her directly. But I get the sense that she's really. really smart yeah when it comes to business so it's all business billy gunn and the acclaimed defeated the house of black to win the a w world trios championship the house rules made this a no holds bard shocking oh no holds bard as if everything else that we've seen leading up to this was you know by the book it's like this is an example john of what i mean about just you know Okay, he's like the day bouncer book of the year, whatever.

But if people think this is good booking, then God bless you. Now, I saw no reason for this match to be a no-holds-barred match when you had. It didn't fucking matter. Yeah, it really did. My God's all mighty guys are digging each other's eyeballs out with forks and glass. It was only utilized in one spot in this match when Julia Hart dragged Aubrey Edwards, the referee out of the ring as she was about to count three. and she didn't get ejected for it or anything like that because it was legal and no holds bar

and that was really the only time that stipulation to my recollection here was even utilized in that match so I didn't understand why it needed to be presented as such but still feel good moment for Billy Gunn in the acclaim to pick up the win here Billy Gunn getting that moment at this stage in his life and his career that's pretty significant in my opinion

one of the most talented guys in that car he looks amazing doesn't he? He looks amazing he works amazing he looks believable he's credible there's nothing there's no there are no holes in his game he is he is he is he's a solid practitioner he's he's amazing and i think he has added a lot to the acclaimed package and presentation agree as well and that has helped them get to the degree of response that they are getting every single week in and out on television i thought this was a good match for what it was but again didn't need the stipulation really house of black maybe teasing a little bit of a baby face turn there at the end where they showed that the acclaimed

to earn their respect and handed them the championship so maybe that's that was less and i also think the uh the the house of black their presentation when they came out again it was a homage to bray white and i and i respected that but it was also really well done it was it looked it looked up to standard. It's what you would expect to see on a high quality pay-per-view or a prestigious pay-per-view. So I, yeah, I had no issues. What did I give with that? It was 7.5 because I just thought overall it was the presentation, the execution, I wish it wouldn't have been a no-holds-barred match, but whatever. Still, my mind, it was really fun to watch. Yeah, Eric, they say everybody loves the acclaims, so I got to ask you, does Eric Bischoff love the acclaimed?

I love the bars, man. I mean, they came out. Who else came out spitting bars? And they actually sucked earlier, earlier in the night. Oh, it was in, oh, God, whose entrance was it? It was in someone's entrance. It was. Yeah, it was so horseshit.

It was just like, why would you do that? Unless you're trying to get heat because you don't know how to do it. Now, if that was the purpose of it, then it was really effective. but acclaim came out and it's like damn they're good at this stuff oh it was it was it was a it was it was swerve's entrance for swerf strickland i believe yeah that that that that sucked but this one was great i love their right you're max caster guy i dig that i dig that for sure i have really improved so much in a year's time and i think billy gunn's been a big part of their improvement.

So, hey, we'll see what happens with them here as the TRIOS champions. All right, Eric, so excited to talk about this main event with you. MJF defeated Adam Cole by PINFal to retain the AEW World Championship. I personally felt that this was some of the most fun I've had watching a main event in a long time. They hit so many different story beats and callbacks to this feud that if you've been paying attention

for the last three months that these two have been together, you were rewarded for paying attention. I thought they tore it up and it proved that MJF is once again one of the greatest talents of his generation, and I don't think that's hyperbole. What were your thoughts on this main event here, Eric, as AEW when all in and keeping the title on MJF? So impressed.

so impressed I think MJF we're still not seeing the best of MJF yet that's still to come he's still a child as far as his career he's got so much more to give and to grow

and to learn and to experience along the way that's only going to make him better every time he comes through the curtain he's already, in my opinion, the most valuable guy on that roster. Without even a, without a hesitation, he's the most valuable piece of talent on that. I don't know to say a piece of talent. He's the most valuable person in that company, in my opinion.

And it's only going to get more valuable. And I'm cold did a great job. I want to know who, I want to know who laid this match out. More importantly, or specifically, I want to know who came up with this finish. I suspect I know. I'm not going to drop a name, but I'm really curious if this conversation on this podcast creates more conversation in social media because the finish to this match was so well layered. When I talked earlier about WCW disease, this is an example of the cure for WCWCW disease.

I've often talked about the one thing WCW, even at the height of our success, the one thing we did not do a good job at was coming up with great finishes that provided almost a story within a story. This finish and the drama that ensued and the execution of it made this match stand out so far and above anything else. else in terms of structure again osprey jericho different kind of match right but as a story both backstory leading into the match as you pointed out even even using the the preliminary show is a foundation or a platform to continue it but the execution of this everything about it

the conceit of it like who created this who laid this out i want to know i really freaking want to know because that person is one of the more valuable people in this company yeah in my opinion yeah every other finish i saw was kind of a means to an end let's just figure it out we're going to lay out this match you're going to do this and i'm going to do you're going to hit your high spot and i'm going to hit my high spot and i'm going to get a fork and you're going to get a meat cleaver and you're going to get a can opener and you're going to go out of the table and you're going to fucking, I don't know, maybe a kitchen sink. And then we're going to end the match, whereas this almost felt like somebody figured out

the finish and laid everything else out to fit it. It was so good. It was so well done. I think MJF, I was thinking about this a little bit after watching it. and I know this is not the right parallel to make, but Kurt Angle is one of my favorite performers of all time as a producer, simply because you could say, okay,

on Monday, you could say, Kurt, I need you be a comedy wrestler. You need to go out there and make fun of yourself and have fun and go out and have a great match. And then on Tuesday, you can say, okay,

Kurt, I know we sent you out there and you're like a stand-up comic in your match, and we wanted you to be funny, but now I want you to be the most deadly person on the planet. Okay, I'll go do that. And he could go do both equally as well. MJF has that depth. MJF has the ability and the depth of character to, he was vulnerable here, right? This was a guy that four, five, six months ago did shit about anybody. It was all about me. It was all about the money. I don't

care about you. I don't care about Tony Con. I don't care about the fans. I don't care about my mom and dad. Literally, can they say that in social media. He didn't care about anybody. It was all me. me, me, me, me, me. Now, in this storyline, he's vulnerable for the first time in his life, he's got a true friend. And it hurt him. This whole thing was hurting him. And Adam Kuald did a great job as well. I think he overacted a little bit, to be honest. But, and that's just constructive criticism. I think if he would have dialed his facial expressions and his emotion back about 15%, which is unusual, because usually I would encourage people to turn it up. But in Adam's case, I think, especially because the role that he played here, I think he overacted about

10 or 15 percent. Minor, minor, minor, minor, minor thing. Just to note, but I just thought this whole thing was so good, the finish, the after the finish, the emotion that it created, the execution. Damn, gave it a nine, knowing 10's impossible. Nothing's a 10. Gave it a 9. really, really enjoyed it. I think one of the things that made the bloodline story so successful in its peak was that within matches, you were getting substantial progression of character. Characters were developing in real time right before your eyes. And you were using story beats and callbacks to help leverage those

and propel the characters forward. I think we saw that serviced tremendously in this main event where MJF, the whole vulnerability thing that you referred to, Eric, has been kind of the backbone of this. Being friends with Adam Cole has made him more vulnerable as a person because Adam Cole's encouraging him to be more vulnerable and open. And in the closing moments of all this whole sequence here where Adam Cole looks like he's about to turn on MJF, MJF is so angry at himself for being vulnerable. He gives him the tag titles. He's like, hey, man, we still have these. Don't worry. And Adam Cole

throws it aside in his frustration. And he's like, I knew it. You were just using me to get to the championship. It wasn't there. Shame on me for being vulnerable. Shame on me for having human emotions and trying to better myself. And then Adam Cole proves, no, we are friends. And it is a way to be. And that's

the twists and the turns and the curves and the valleys and the hills that a good story, in this case a great finish tells. That's the journey. And I was so happy to see that. This is the only match that I saw that in, really, is finish-wise.

It's just, it was so good. It was so well done. I can't say enough good things about it. Yeah, obviously the caliber of the action was there. You knew that was going to be the case between these two. Adam Cole really is a special in-ring talent and very well-rounded. sense. I thought using Roderick Strong here was a really good character bit. And my favorite thing, the double pin, you pay off the double clothes line, which has been built for months with

these two, they double pin each other, you think it's ending in a draw, and then they call back to the first championship match between them, where Adam Cole asked for five more minutes out of MJF and MJF said no, but that's when MJF was a jerk. And now because he's progressed because of Adam Cole, they decide we're going Broadway. We're going all the way here. I just thought that was amazing, Eric, and it really spoke to the attention to detail in the storytelling. And I know that's something that you have harped on so much about AEW. It really paid off here. Somebody's paying attention. I don't know who. I want to know who. But somebody laid this match out. And whoever that person is should get, should their their salary should be.

be doubled. They should have their finger on the trigger at all times because whoever put this together did an amazing job. And I'm sure, I'm not sure. I don't know. I know nothing, but I would guess it's a collaboration, but keep those people together, listen to those people, give them more opportunity because that, that kind of finish, that kind of storytelling, that attention to detail will grow the audience. beyond just did you see that guy cut him open with a can opener that's not going to grow your audience that's good it's just not but anyway i don't want to be negative this at this i guess i was glad i watched it um i think tony and everybody that wrestled should be proud of themselves i think

again i live vicariously through every one of them you know every single one of them to be able to walk out to that kind of energy. The one thing I did notice, though, which is weird. I made a different note. Oh, before I forget, Star of the night to me was Nigel McGuinness. Nigel is a breath of freaking fresh air. It's a great commentator. He actually does what a color commentator should do. And he does it really, really well. Hats off to Nigel. Um, the, the one thing I did notice, though, is, you know, because of the timing, you know, roof was open when, when it was light in the arena, the crowd was like into it, right? Because they're there.

Once it started getting dark, they became less involved and less animated and noticeably less vocal. I think part of that is, is because that crowd, those 80,000 people showed up ready to freaking party. They came locked and loaded and ready to have fun. And it was so easy in the beginning. And they saw all this crazy, gory stupid shit, in my opinion, stupid shit. They probably loved it.

The extreme violence and the blood and the sticks in the head and the forks and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, fucking blah. And they all pop for all that stuff. And then they got fatigued. By Sting and Derby, that audience started getting gassed. And that's what I, when I talked to you last week on Strictly Business, I talked about crowd management. It's an example of crowd management.

Did you think the match was ordered, or the show was ordered well matchwise? No, because there was too many gimmick matches in there. There were too many matches that were so similar. Yeah. You can only have so many gimmick matches. Yeah. And it's funny you say that about the crowd because I felt as the night, got darker, the quality of the action and the quality of the show improved. I thought it really

started to feel this is a big deal this show. As it got darker and the presentation just lit up more, you had that full LED stage. I was like, this really feels like a big show now that the lights have kind of centered in here. But I do agree with you with the crowd. And I think with that open air roof to a lot of the sound kind of shoots up right through it. So it just, it was, it was interesting in that sense. But from people that I spoke to who were there, everyone seemed to really have a great time. Do you have an overall rating for the event out of 10 what you'd give it? Yeah, you know, I didn't average just sit through my calculator and average out the individual ratings that I gave the matches because the crowd and the vibe and the ambiance and all that factors in

to the overall feeling of the show, right? And it's hard to give that a score. But I think for me personally, look, I spent 50 bucks to watch it. I got up at 3 o'clock this morning, took me four hours to finally get my hands on it. I sat and watched it for four hours. And I'm glad I did. I think it, for me, it's about a seven, maybe a seven point five because of the venue and the scope and vibe and the ambiance of it all. I think it could have easily been an eight, eight point five, even a nine if there would have been more thought and going into the matches, better finishes, less gore, blood, violence just for the sake of doing it, because it's easy to do. It's not hard booking. It's easy. any 16-year-old could book that kind of show.

But all that said, and I know that sounds negative, but I'd say seven, seven and a half, which I think is pretty damn good. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. Knowing that a 10 is unattainable. And they're going to be going back to London next year for AW all in London.

So it seems like this is going to be a yearly tradition here. You know, a lot of folks are feeling really good about the fact that they ordered all in. But if you want to feel good every single day, then do what I do. And Mrs. Beas, start your day out with AG1. One scoop. Tell it takes, one scoop. Ice cold water, mix it, drink it, taste delicious, goes down easy. I take mine before I even have my first cup of coffee.

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We got John B from Tennessee, Jeb, saying, surprised at AW didn't bring in a major free agent signing like Edge, Goldberg, Uso's. I'm kind of glad they didn't because it gave the talent on the card a chance to deliver. I thought by bringing in a free agent signing, it would diminish their current lineup. Do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah, I absolutely agree.

I absolutely 100% guarantee if there's been anything we've seen enough of over the last year or two, it's the big surprise announcement. And I don't think this show needed it. This show is the crowd showed up hot and ready to party. I think it would have been a missed opportunity to actually introduce a surprise new signing on the show. So I agree 100%. Tommy wants to know. There's a question that would fit in with strictly business as well,

given the amount of licensed music AW uses or is used, what's the process of acquiring the rights? What determines the price? Is it only for a certain period of time before you have to redo it or is indefinite? Every deal is different. I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all answer to that question. I doubt there's any rights in perpetuity that don't come along with a eight-figure check. But I don't know.

I haven't licensed music in forever. So my opinion means squat. we got lee con he says i agreed with eric that having mjf and adam cole on the pre-show is a bit daft but having been in the stadium i have to admit i was wrong and they pulled it off really well do you agree i do as i said to you during the show i was kind of i thought it was stupid when i heard it i couldn't understand why um hey when you're wrong you're wrong again i don't think it added any value but it didn't hurt either and maybe helped incrementally for for those who were really into that story, which I imagine a lot of people are

because it's a well-done story. So maybe there was added value there that I didn't recognize, but certainly didn't do any harm. Ryback's only fan. What would have been your main event for all in? The one we saw. I agree. Absolutely. There's no question

about it. Yeah, I'm total agreement with you there on this one. Andrew Osweak, he's got a point here, and I'm curious if you agree with it. He says, we'd like to see a full circle story with the guns with Billy rejoining up with his son's Colin and Austin for a sustained tag heel run. What do you think about that, Eric?

On the surface, I like the idea because there's, there's believability and reality and backstory, a lot of it behind it. So you've got a platform. You've got enough clay there automatically to shape whatever you want to shape. And I think that's a great opportunity. Got two more, and then we'll wrap things up here on 83 weeks. Brad Stan from AdFran. free shows asked, did the back-to-back all-in and all-out pay-per-views provide an opportunity for some

type of buy-one get-one promotion? Maybe, I don't know, I'm not following that kind of business strategy too closely. Could, might, possible. That show is coming up this coming weekend from Chicago. Does anybody hear about this show, by the way? Is there any buzz on that? Well, most of the card wasn't even announced until yesterday, and still it's only about half-announced. and it's this weekend, so.

And I'm sure they've already sold up most of the tickets. Yep. And that's at the United Center. So it's going to be a big show for them. And we'll wrap with this one, Adam. Now that all in two has been announced for next year, does Eric believe WWE will run a stadium in the UK in the near future? Does Eric believe the stadium stampede works better on TV for those at home than it does

their live because there's so much going on? So two questions there. Stadium Stampede and do you believe WWE will run a stadium in the UK? Um, well, a stadium stampede part of that question is, is kind of obvious branding. So, yeah, do I think WWE is going to change their strategy based on what just went down this past weekend in Wembley? No, I think WWE has probably have their plans in place, at least in terms of venues and all that, 12 to 24 months in advance and I doubt that they're going to do

any reconstructive surgery to their strategy based on this event and WWE has been very successful with its PLE lineup in the past couple of years needless to say they did I mean they ran the clash at the castle show just last year and that was a tremendous success for them in that sense but I suspect Eric we'll be seeing a lot more stadium shows

at a WWE in general here now that well look what they're doing I mean they're selling out everything over you know what it was at $21.6 million plus in less than 24 hours for an event that's six months away so yeah they're going to do more

yeah absolutely Eric I really enjoyed getting a chance to hop on with you here on this edition of 83 weeks if you enjoyed it I encourage you to check out strictly business with Eric and I that drops every single week right here on the 83 weeks feed yeah because we're going to talk about all the bulls shit backstage we're gonna have we didn't even get into any of that my brother but get ready because that's coming this week and strap in strictly business put in your mouthpiece put on some head

gear and get ready to go for a ride 83 weeks dot com ad free shows dot com is where you're going to get early access to that and of course if you'd like to join our team here on 83 weeks and strictly business head on over to advertise with eric dot com get your business out in front of thousands and thousands of listeners and viewers every single week. That's advertised with Eric.com. Eric, is there anything else you'd like to add here on this edition of 83 weeks? No, brother, but thank you for stepping in for Mr. Thompson. I know he has got his hands full today and is rock and rolling as always, but we'll be back

next week, I'm sure. But again, John, it was last minute. Man, I texted you and you texted me back in three minutes and we were on two minutes after that. So I appreciate you being able to step in like that. I appreciate the opportunity. I appreciate everyone listening to this edition of 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. We'll see you next week.

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