83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 286: The AEW Release Of CM Punk

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad take a deep dive into the release of CM Punk. Eric shares his views on the decision, how Tony Khan handled the situation with AEW fans, and what this could mean for the overall growth of All Elite Wrestling. The guys also touch on the possibility of EDGE going the AEW roster, Bryan Danielson potentially becoming the focal point of AEW Collision and so much more on this thought provoking edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. 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.  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 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. 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

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That's right, it's saved with conrad.com. NMLS number 65084, Equal Healthy Lenders. Woo! Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson. and you're listening to 83 weeks. And of course we couldn't do it. Without the Hall of Famer, your friend and mine, the one and only Eric Bischoff.

Eric, how are you kind, sir? I'm good, I'm good. Just enjoying a brisk fall day here in Cody, Wyoming. The geese were flying overhead this morning. Deer were out frolicking in front of my house. Antelope just down the road. It's starting to feel like fall. Man, I'm jealous.

I know you guys are enjoying, I don't know if you guys know this or not, but follow Eric on Instagram. Eric lives in a postcard. Like, you know, you go to those gift shops when you're on vacation and you're like, man, look at this. I'm hearing it never look like that. Eric's front and backyard actually looks like that all the time. So we're jealous of that. And boy, I'm sure this week you were happier than ever to not be involved in the wrestling business. Of course, quite a historic week in AEW. It's at an all time paid a tour. attendance record in Wembley and unbelievably just a handful of days later got a sparse crowd at the now arena no longer were they hanging from the rafters like they were at the first all

in and that was see and punk's hometown a lot of people were surprised that tickets weren't moving much faster than that and then we got the update that uh maybe people have been looking for waiting for hoping for or dreading count me in the dread camp see and punk is no longer a part of All-Elit wrestling. That announcement was made before the two shows at the United Center. And as you may recall, historically, AEW and before that all-in, always ran the now arena out in Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago. But when they had the punk debut on Locke, they made their United Center debut.

It was a magical moment in AEW in wrestling history. If you show that moment, seeing Punk's return I'm talking about, to even a non-fan. they would just love the energy of that crowd. I mean, it was a happening to get C and Punk back. But maybe it's one of those, be careful what you wish for deals for AEW because it feels like,

man, there's just been a roller coaster ever since. And I don't know how much of that was necessary, how much of that could have been avoided. I don't know what really happened. I wasn't there. But I hate to see that it seems like, at least for now,

it's come to an end. When you first heard the news, Eric, that C&Punk is no longer a part of AEW, what was your reaction? I was happy for AEW, I think is unfortunate as the situation is. And look, I've been very clear about my opinion of Sampunk from the day he showed up and predicted that it was going to be a financial flop. And we can debate that, I guess, but it was a flop.

It was a bad investment. It was a bad choice. And I think it would have been better in a long run. run had Tony made this same decision months ago, when punk had his meltdown in that press conference and made Tony look like a complete buffoon in the process. I would have pulled the trigger then had it been me, but it wasn't me and I wasn't familiar with all those circumstances, all of the issues. There's a lot of things I didn't know, still don't know, as you pointed out earlier.

So my first reaction is, man, I wish you would have done it sooner. But I was happy for Tony that he did it. I think Tony needed to draw a line in the sand. You know, at some point, you need to be a leader. And sometimes being a leader is really painful, really painful. Because there's no good decision. There's only a correct decision. And the correct decision was to let him go.

It's going to sting. It's going to be a little uncomfortable. probably in a lot of ways that aren't obvious to us. But it had to be done. It wasn't going to get better. It wasn't like punk was going to wake up one day and decide to be a team player. That clearly wasn't going to happen. So at what point do you just go, you know, I've had enough.

And clearly Tony had enough. And I think he made the right decision. Well, that's the thing. I think this decision will be debated for a long time. like what is ever the right decision you know like this could have went one of two ways uh you could keep him find a way to try to keep the band together or just cut your cut bait and cut your losses or whatever the cliche is and i don't know that there's ever really a right or wrong answer i think there's a greater good call and ultimately that's the one you have to make but i think

even that could still be up for debate and and we don't really know what's next you know as of now we've heard from tony con we haven't heard from seeing punk we don't know all the details of the release at the all out media scrum Tony did not want to share details of the release as far as whether or not there was a non-compete and things like that I assume this will become a legal issue usually when people you know use a phrase like for cause then then it becomes a legal issue one thing I do want to at least discuss because there is the old school rasselin approach and then there's a maybe more transparent business approach and I wanted your take on the timing of the announcement.

You know, all in, before there wasn't all out, was based in Chicago. And then Chicago's kind of been the spiritual home of AEW. Seeing Punk's return was in Chicago. They always go the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. That's become a tradition there for AEW. And of course, Labor Day weekend, these are all Chicago themed events. And even, you know, way back in 2019, before Punk was back in wrestling, we had him at Starcast 3 in Chicago.

So it's kind of his town. you know, a lot of people would even say the CM and CM Punk is Chicago made. I mean, his logo and gear and he's Mr. Chicago for better or worse. And Tony made the announcement just moments before collision in the United Center in Chicago. So they've got two, three actually shows that week in Chicago, but two back-to-back nights at the United Center in downtown Chicago. And Tony comes out and says, we've terminated C&Punk's contract.

I think a lot of old school wrestling promoters would have opted to make that announcement Sunday night after the pay-per-view as to avoid any sort of crowd backlash or fan backlash or sabotaging the performance of the guys in the ring. Tony got out in front of it and took his arrows.

And I bet you have an opinion about that. I'm curious to what you think. Well, I did. I covered it. I talked about that on Strictly Business on Thursday. when John Alba, you know, asked me what I thought of the situation. And I was abundantly clear that if I was Tony, I would make it before the event and not wait till after. Now, I admittedly, I did suggest if Tony wasn't able to make that decision for whatever reason, there may have been legal ones at that point.

If he wasn't able to make the decision and pull the trigger and fire punk, then And if there was a suspension in the air, then my point was if you have to compromise because you believe that people purchase tickets in anticipation of seeing punk and you didn't want to disappoint that part of the audience, then a compromise would have been to suspend them after the event. That wasn't my first choice. My first choice would have been to cut a blouse. In fact, I was very verbose when I heard that there was an investigation.

You know, it's like, oh, my God, what are you going to bring in the FBI, forensics, bringing in a team of CSI? What are you going to do to investigate? You were standing right there. You saw it. There's nothing to investigate. But I also realized that there are legal procedures. You have to cover your ass legally. Yeah.

I'm assuming that Punk's contract was worth a significant amount of money. And you have to consider those things. And perhaps that took a few days. But I was clear if I was Tony, I would do it before and take the bullet. Because even though, as I said, on Strictly Business last week, yes, the crowd is going to react negatively. Yes, there are going to be people that are disappointed. They'll get over it. And in the long run, I think people will respect Tony more for making a firm decision than they would have had he let Puck Russell and then fire him.

I mean, that would have looked really bad. So look, it's a no-in situation, but I want to back up just a second when, you know, you're talking about the no good answer, no good choice, and I agree with that. There's just a correct one, as I said. The other thing that you have to consider, and any, wrestling fans aren't going to go here because it's not, they haven't been faced with these types of situations before, but you're hearing a lot of terms, and it's not in common, unsafe work environment. That's a legal term, phrase. If you're an attorney, your ears perk up when you hear that phrase used in context. Let's assume Tony would not have made the decision he made. And eventually, whether after suspension or whatever brought punk back.

And whether it involved punk or not, what if there were a more serious situation that took place where there was bodily injury backstage. That becomes, in a lawsuit, a serious topic of unsafe work environment because that's what, if someone were to get hurt, that's what their attorney would allege and sue for. I'm convinced that Warner Brothers Discovery owns equity. Nobody's going to, until somebody from either organization

comes out and denies it, I believe I'm right. So do most people. A lot of people have heard that rumor, yeah. At some point, Tony is not only responsible for AEW. He's exposing Warner Discovery to litigation. That's right. Because they own part of the company. That's right.

And if someone were to get seriously hurt backstage and decide to sue, aside from the fact that everybody knows that the cons have a lot of money, So does Discovery Warner, Warner Discovery. And they're going to get entangled. And that's what I mean about you have to make a decision that in the long term serves your best interest. And that's what I think Tony did. I think it was the only smart decision to me, honestly. Anything else would have been pretty sketchy and pretty risky and would have exposed the company to potential litigation down the road.

simply because they didn't take corrective action, sufficient corrective action, and allowed these things to continue to happen. That's not good. That's great if you're a small little promoter and you don't have to worry about it because you don't have a pot to piss in and if somebody's going to see you good luck. But when you're a multi-billion dollar company and you own an NFL team and you own all a soccer team and, oh, and by the way, your equity partner is a company called Warner Discovery, damn there's a lot of exposure there a lot of exposure yeah listen i didn't take umbrage when you said

um oh they're doing an investigation what is there to investigate i kind of always thought that meant okay legally what can we do and just so everybody understands when this happens as i understand it allegedly tony con sitting in gorilla about to produce the biggest event in the history of his company and in professional wrestling and right before they go on the air with this all of this goes down i think it's fair and prudent to say hey let's allow him to table that and deal with that tomorrow like he's got to finish this show that can't be more important than this event so i kind of always interpreted it that way about all right legally what can we do and what should we do because on some level there is the um the legal precedent and i think that's sort of what you

were alluding to that, hey, if there is a proven track record that we have a problem and we knew on multiple occasions we were notified and we did nothing about it and now something worse has happened. Uh, or if someone else did this, did something like this, maybe it was much worse, whatever it may have been. Uh, and there was no action. Now, now you opened yourself up or if you punish that guy, but you didn't hear. So you've got a precedent. You have to, not saying you want to make an example of anyone. And I want to be clear. clear. We don't know what happened. We just don't. But I do have it on good authority. And I probably shouldn't say where, how, when or whatever. But there's been some inaccurate

reporting out there. And someone, imagine that. Someone really, really close to the situation said to me in very clear terms, I hope you'll let the world know that Dave Meltzer is a liar. I don't know where that I don't know exactly the context of that but I know that Meltzer has become a polarizing figure in the middle of all of this I think he's done a show recently with Brian Alvarez where he sort of said to Brian you know we were too soft on him we didn't we weren't hard enough on him and and so I guess now there's almost like this media beef if you will there's the Wrestling Observer group who says this is what happened and then there's the Nick

housepins of the world who say this is what happened and most of the folks have put two and two together and say Nick being a Chicago guy he's probably fairly friendly with the punk and well Dave being a California guy he's probably friendly with the guys who's finishing maneuver is called a Meltzer driver just say you think so there's a lot of he said she said but none of that really matters to me the people who really lose out are the fans because I can't help but think back to about two years ago when punk first came back. Dude, that was a magical moment of television. Like, even if you weren't a punk fan, you had to respect the relationship he had with the fans. And I hope that's not lost. I don't think it is. I don't think the business has

passed punk by. But I'm, I'm kind of sad that it seems like it's come to an end, at least for now. I'm going to spend a little time talking about that because you and I have been doing this podcast for over five years now, which is mind-boggling to me. And during that five-year, period of time, I have spent a lot of time shredding, exposing Dave Meltzer for what he is and the damage that I believe. And I've said on this show so many times that I'm sick of hearing myself say it. But Dave Meltzer is horrible, always has been for the wrestling business. and as outspoken as I've been about CM Punk, not because I believe what,

certainly not because I believe anything Meltzer. So quite frankly, I don't think Nick Hausman is the most stable human being I've ever come across either. I take nothing either one of them say really matters. Sometimes I find it entertaining and it makes me laugh. But neither one of them, I think, have any credibility in a situation like this.

But I do believe that Meltzer is, horrible for this industry. I think his behavior, his personality, the flaws in his character. We all have them. I've certainly had my own. But for whatever reason, Dave seems to thrive by spreading rumors in innuendo, lies. Call him what you want. And usually does so in favor of people that he either has a relationship with or wants to have a relationship with. I didn't believe any of the nonsense that I heard out of Dave Meltzer with regard to see him. I completely am open-minded to the fact that a lot of the tension that was created between

whatever parties were having difficulties working together backstage in EW, a lot of that was created by Dave Meltzer and the dipshitz that feed him information. They were adding fuel to the fire. I firmly believe that. I actually don't, I think, you know, I've certainly lost respect for the way punk handled it. There's a way to handle things like that. There's a way not to. And I have no respect.

I ripped punk a new one when he embarrassed Tony Khan in that press conference. I thought that was unforgivable, in my opinion. I can't imagine how anybody would hire someone who would do something like that, would hire them back. even if they were had a good cause, just the wrong thing to do. And certainly throwing a tantrum, as is alleged, I wasn't there like you. Right. And getting into a physical confrontation right in front of your boss, in front of everybody else. First match of the card, it's it.

There's no excuse for it. But I understand how it can happen when you've got a piece of just garbage like, Dave Meltzer, constantly stirring things up and presenting his side of what he thinks is going because he's not there either. Is that a toxic environment? Absolutely. But I experience the same thing. It's one of the very reasons I'm as negative about Dave Meltzer as I am and have been

for the last, actually, 25 years, but only five years with you. And often you've said, look, you know, you probably like Dave if you two and sit down and have dinner together and things like that. And I kind of doubt it. But, uh-uh, man, he's toxic. He's just toxic. He's not honest. He's the worst.

Well. And I don't know, man. I don't know how anybody that professes to love the business can spend whatever you have to spend the month to read this guy's garbage because you're feeding cancer. I shouldn't have said that. I don't like using that analogy, but you're feeding, you're feeding a disease. Hopefully people will start recognizing that. I don't believe that Dave Meltzer has ever intentionally lied.

I just don't find him to be that type of person. Do I believe it's possible he's been misled? Absolutely. One thing you can count on Eric and I not misleading you on is that fresh ball fall is upon us and you need to be in a festive spirit light a candle get some pumpkin spice and make sure your balls look nice with the sponsors of today's show manscaped nature may clear the leaves of their trees but you'll need manscapes help to get you ready for that sweater weather get your pants puppies prepared for cuffing season with a trim as refreshing as the fall breeze by going to

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an old nitrail and we're very much going to do that at some point in the future but I think today man we should just talk about the news because this feels like a pretty doggone major story and for better or worse there's been a lot of parallels drawn between AEW and and their look and feel and then being a challenger brand and then being on the Turner Networks. There's been a lot of comparisons to WCW. And I wanted to know from your perspective, was there a similar story? Like, can you, not necessarily the details of the story, but an exodus where, you know, we had this major circumstance and then we came to an impasse and then so and so was out.

Is there a comparable moment in the WCW timeline to what's happening right now with seeing punk in A.W. No. I didn't. No. I mean, they're too. No. Not a comparable one. Did I have issues with talent? Look, the most famous one is with your father-in-law. Yeah. With Rick Flair. Well, we got into a, you know, contractual dispute. And it got ugly and it went public. And it was in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. And it was, it was a mess. And I hated it. still do hate it. So does Rick.

Rick hates me as a result of it to this day. I get it. But that's as close as it ever came. And, you know, this whole idea about AEW being a challenger brand, I do take exception to that. I think AEW, if there's a parallel between WCW and AEW, aside from the fact that they're on a Turner network, obviously, is, you know, if you looked at.

WCW back in about 1993, I think that's where, in many respects, not in every respect. Certainly the Wembley numbers are big numbers, and WCW certainly never got anything close to that. But if you just set that off a side as a one-off and set that off to the side, AEW is right now about where WCW was back in about 1993 in terms of being a competitor, a real competitor. In fact, I think if you were to go back, and again, the only thing that we have records of really are ratings, but if you go back and you look at WCW long before Nitro, WCW probably had 60 or 70% of the television market share of WWE. Before we got Nitro, and all we had was WCW Saturday night and Sunday nights made event at 605 and then syndication.

And I think we had the power hour or WCW Pro or something like that on Saturday mornings on TBS. But if you looked at WCW's ratings back in 92, 93, they were probably still 60 or 70 percent, maybe more of what WWE had. AEW is not even close to that number yet. Right. So, you know, yes, in some ways AEW is certainly with Wembley and, you know, the stadium shows what's the one they did in new york uh arthur ash arthur ash that was a big event i was excited about that one and i was putting tony over and putting a e w over on that when they sold it out what the first 20 minutes they sold 20 000 seats that's pretty fast yeah did it i think

the second year they did pretty well where are they now i think they're going to be there at the end of this month and i don't think they've got 4,000 tickets sold so yeah you know everybody is coming out and they're excited about the new kid in town and they want to get a nose full of that new car smell and see what it's all about. But so far the pattern has been, they came, they saw, and only about half of them come back, maybe more. That's not good. You know, you look at the house show, I was looking at the AEW house show numbers. Brandon Thurston put out an interesting tweet that really broke down, you know, ticket sales, ratings, all kinds of information all in one one graphic and the live ticket sales are not impressive and they're getting less impressive

by the week. That to me is not competition for WWE. They're just in the same business. That's all. It would be like me opening up a hot dog stand down the street from a Ruth Chris steakhouse and saying I'm competing with Ruth Chris. Not really, but hey, if it makes you feel better, go ahead and say it. If it helps you sell a couple more hot dogs to the people that want to buy hot dogs that are going to go by stake, absolutely go for it. But it's not real. Well, listen, I think lots of, uh, I mean, we've seen it on on the football field. Two teams are competing. One can be kicking the other's ass, but it doesn't mean that they're not competing. They're competing for coaches. They're competing for players. They're competing for advertisers.

They are competing. One team's just clearly winning. And right now it certainly feels as if WWE has that momentum. But the idea that if you're not competing with Vince McMahon's WWE, then you're failing. I just don't subscribe to that. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. But a lot of folks do is what I'm getting at. My point is they're not competing. They're not even close to being competitive on any metric. Whatever you want to measure, gross revenues, ticket sales, international distribution, commercial advertisers, sponsorship dollars. There's just not, a business metric you can point to where you can honestly say with any credibility that they're even remotely competitive. But they are in the same business. And by the way, they don't have

to be competitive to be successful. I think that's your point. People should forget about whether or not they're really competitive because it's not real. It's not real. And just accept AEW for what it is, support it for what it is, and quit making the comparison. But that starts with Tony Kahn because one of the first things that Tony did after Wembley has come out and say, you know, we're competitive with the WWE. No, you're not, dude. You sold 81,000 tickets at Wembley and you should absolutely be thrilled and happy with yourself for doing that in your entire team, entire team, behind the cameras in front of the cameras in the office, wherever. But you'll be lucky if you do 50,000 next year based on your current track record. Oh, Eric, come on now.

50,000 would just just at a percentage basis. I'm not arguing that, but 50,000 would be high fives all around. Are you kidding? No, and again, true, but it, it's not competitive with WWE is my point. I think you're being, I think you're being argumentative for the second being argumentative. When I'm saying they're being competitive, I mean, hypothetically, I have no inside track.

I don't know what's going on, but the internet tends to believe and seems to believe there's a theory that Edge might be in play for AEW. We know that Edge was offered a contract extension. We know that Edge has options. We know, well, we've heard that Edge got down the road with AEW before before WW made a big offer and he went quote unquote home. They are competing for talent. They are competing for contracts.

They are competing for television deal. I mean, all of that is competitive. Now, I get what you're saying. Let's take a look at the scoreboard and see who's selling more and generating more in the business. There's no doubt WWE's running up the score right now. But that doesn't mean that they're not trying to compete with WWE and all the other facets of the business.

That's what I was getting to, trying to, trying to, yes. Are they competitive? No. Just what was the college football game on Saturday that ended up with a score of 73 and nothing? Probably Oklahoma or Ole Miss or something like that. Was it LSU? I think somebody,

somebody lost bad. It wasn't LSU. LSU was tight with FSU. Whoever it was. I was listening to CBS Sports Radio on Saturday afternoon. And they covered that. They mentioned the score and that came with 73 to nothing. Are you going to try to convince me that the team that was that lost by 73 points was

competitive with the team that they were in the field with? Ole Miss beat Mercer 73 to 0. Oregon beat Portland, 81 to 7. there was a lot of those were those teams that got humiliated oh oklahoma's right 730 yeah uh no but but here's my thing i don't think oklahoma is competing for recruits with arkansas state there are a lot of guys who make more money in a w than what their w offer is they're offering more than competitive pay that's true yes that's true you're Yes, Tony Con is taking the ATM title from ATM Eric.

Oh, wow. Okay. They are spending a lot of money for talent. But I just, look, I just, the whole, they're competitive, just not buying it. And it's a, it's a PowerPoint slide that sounds good in a pitch, but it's not real. Who's the number two promotion in the world behind WW, in your opinion, globally? Well, it would have to be AEW, just like WCW was number two to WWE long before Nitro. But the distance between number one and number two, we might as well have been number 222 by any metric that you really wanted to measure.

And as I pointed out earlier, our television ratings of WCW back in 91, 92, 93, before I even took over management or got to into management, we're way ahead of where W, or excuse me, where AEW is right now in terms of television market share. But you didn't hear any of us going on. We're competitive. I used to be embarrassed when we said we were number two. For the same reason I just said, we might as well have been number 222. The distance was so great in so many other regards, licensing, merchandising, international, pay-per-view. It's silliness. It's childish. It's childish. well i think this whole thing sadly has has gotten to be a little childish i hate that you know we're talking about things that in the scheme of things shouldn't matter and i hated that this

situation whatever it was represented almost like a dark cloud over what was going on for the company where it's the time where it should have been high fives all around and i don't know if there are teachable moments on either side for this but but i hope that wrestling is is better as a result um i guess we should just address the elephant in the room you know we we i wasn't able to record with you last week but certainly there were there was talk out there that that jack perry and seeing punk had an incident a few weeks prior at tv uh there's lots of he said she said about how all that went down but the gist was as i understand it mr perry wanted to do a uh spot in a pre tape backstage that involved glass and and using a rental car and i think that was shot down

and eventually punk found himself involved in that while he has no official role in management he certainly was assuming a bit of a leadership role in collision maybe different parties took that interaction personally but on the pre-show for the biggest show of all time jack perry got right up in the camera and said real glass go crime me a river something like that and that led to a backstage incident and people would say it was unwarranted and this shouldn't happen and he said she said about what did happen. I don't know. I didn't see the tape. I wasn't there. But I do wonder from your standpoint, did you see anything wrong with what Jack did? Or is this just a healthy competitive environment? Because it feels like I think the whole, I think it falls right

into that. It's so juvenile and so childish. But let's back it up. Let's do a little bit of forensic. investigation. Number one, Punk should have kept his nose out of it. Unless he has an authority role and everybody knows it and it's been well communicated so that everybody can fall in line and operate, at least attempt to operate in an organized orderly fashion, punk had no business expression in his freaking opinion,

at least not in a way that would give people the impression that he has a voice, unless he does. Which fault is that? That's Tony Kahn's fault. That's the, that's the, that's losing control of, of, of the process. When you've got a talent, telling another talent what he or she can or cannot do, and it is not clear that you have any voice in the matter. It's none of your business.

Number one. Number two, I think the decision to use real glass and for, for, Perry to kind of make an issue out of that? That's another bad choice and bad decision. Using real glass in a stunt like that? Why? What is it going to get you? Just weigh it. What are the potential risks? What are the potential rewards? The potential reward is zero. It's not going, no one's going to go, whoa, I can't believe it, Jack Perry. They use real glass. nobody cares and honestly people probably wouldn't have believed it anyway because it's too stupid for someone to actually go through and do it's a stunt what are you Alex Baldwin let's use

real bullets because it'll be it'll be a better movie not saying that's what happened obviously it's a stupid exaggeration but it makes my point why would you do it in the first place. So the first mistake is allowing punk to have a voice unless it's been communicated, in which case he should have said something. And he would have been right to say something. But unless he's in a managerial role or it's been made clear to talent that on this particular show or shows, he gets to vote. Shut the fuck up. Mind your own business, dude. Worry about your own stuff. Huge mistake for Perry to even want to use. glass, but then what did he gain by coming out with the Crimea River statement?

Yeah. What do you? And again, allegedly, I don't know. His response was, I was just trying to get heal heat. Well, there's your second. Here's your third mistake. The motherfucker didn't know heel heat if it came up and bit him in the face. That's not heat.

This doesn't anything resembling heat. It's just stupid. So we've got three successively. stupid decisions or situations that are all occurring, and it led to a confrontation. And for punk to react to it, again, I'm just going to do one more allegedly, because none of us were standing there and none of us know. We're all just reacting on things that we've heard or had, in your case, had conversations with certain people that were there, whatever.

But for, for punk to then, let's just, okay. First of all, punk hasn't a voice. He doesn't get a vote unless he does. Perry wants to use real glass in a stunt. Dumb as shit. You can tell he's been in the business for about four minutes. It's just stupid. He thinks it's going to get him heat by cutting a promo that he could probably figure out

is going to piss off punk. If he didn't figure it out, he should have figured it out. But again, he's a kid. He doesn't know any better. Ignace is not an excuse, however. in this case, he makes a stupid statement. And then, okay, now we're up to three stupid situations. Now we're going to get to the fourth when punk confronts him and gets physical.

Look, if you really wanted to confront him, do it outside of the venue. If you want to be real and you want to settle this between you and whoever you've got a situation with, do it away from everybody. Not where you know you're going to get pulled apart. It's a safe place. You know, show everybody that you've got a backbone and you're not going to take it. That's bullshit. If you really want to clear up a situation, do it, do it in the hotel.

Do it outside the parking lot. Do it somewhere else. Don't do it while you're producing a live show for crying out loud, especially one of the significance. So now you've got four dumb things that happen in a row. I don't know. It's crazy. How did Tony,

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you just can't beat it it's factor meals.com slash 83 weeks 50 use our promo code 83 weeks 50 and you'll get 50% off so listen you said I wonder what Tony's reaction was well it comes out in the media scrum

after all out that Jack Perry has been suspended indefinitely so there's no timetable or plans as of now for what to do but man I just I couldn't help but imagine a different time a different place how strong this most recent string of pay-per-views this back-to-back opportunity that they had could have been and I recognize this wasn't tentable it wasn't possible we couldn't have done this. However, as I understand it, the pay-per-view buys for All-N are not going to be the most bought pay-per-view in A-W history. However, imagine for a minute, if we could, if we had FTR and C and Punk and A-Steel on one side, and Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page and the Young Bucks on the other side. And that's our main event for All-N. We all know what happened

at quote-unquote brawl-in a year prior, and we pay it off a year later. with this. I think it would have set paper review records. Unless imagine that this skirmish with Jack Perry still happens backstage. But instead of it leading to a, a firing or a release or whatever we want to call it and a suspension and a definite suspension, that just leads to an immediate follow-up payper view here. Like when we turn something that was real into something the fans can believe in on screen, man, we just can't get enough of it. That's what, that's what happened with your father-in-law and I. Yes.

You know, it is horrible as that situation was. Once it was over, we figured out a way to make money with it. Why not? And work together. And it was up until the time I wrestled Steve Austin at No Way Out, that was my most favorite moment in professional wrestling. Because it worked. And it can work if you're dealing with people that want to make it work.

But I think it with regard to punk and, I mean, why it's just cut the guy loose. First of all, you're talking about a thimble full of talent to begin with. He's really only there because his dad was a soap opera. Oh, come on now. That's not fair. That's it.

That's it. Otherwise, he's making $200 a night on the indie circuit somewhere. This guy is not a star. He'll never be a star. Oh, by virtue of the fact that he thinks using real glass is going to get in heat, should tell you everything you know about his potential.

He doesn't understand the very fundamentals of the business. Just get some fresh air. Just quit messing around. Cut the guy loose. Now you've made a real statement and you can move on. And I, this is really an opportunity. Tony probably, maybe he does feel this way. I don't know him.

You do. If I'm Tony right now, I am convincing myself. if I'm not already convinced that this is an opportunity to start off with an entirely clean slate. And yes, it's going to be a little uncomfortable, but damn, it's also a great opportunity. Because the last six months or 12 months of AEW has not been great. It has in terms of Wembley and maybe one or two other things, but their television ratings are not great. They've been very flat, if not deteriorating. Their house show business, as I talked about earlier, is trailing off.

Anytime they repeat a market, it's getting a little ugly. These are things that can all be addressed and be fixed, but not if you're constantly inhaling bad air. Just, man, wipe this thing clean, chalk it up as a, and it is a learning experience. I've said this before. It's one of the reasons I have empathy for Tony is because he's learning on the job. Yes. Just like I did. And that is not fun.

Parts of it are fun. but a lot of parts of it are not fun. But it's part of the process. But this is an opportunity to just clear the air, wipe the slate clean, sit down with your roster and say, look, moving forward, this is the vision I have for this company. This is the vision I have for the relationship between talent, between producers, between the creative team.

This is how I want it to work. I want every one of you to be here and to prosper, but we cannot continue with the kind of childish juvenile behavior that we have been experiencing. Certainly not across the boards. There's a lot of great talent there that we don't hear from, right? They've kept out of this mess and they're smart for doing so. But it's also a great opportunity. It is an opportunity.

And I think they took a great step one with a really strong pay-per-view over the weekend. I want to briefly run through that in a few moments. But first, I do feel like we should let another voice weigh in. I want to play what Tony Kahn had to say in his press conference. But before we do, I want to mention a tweet from, well, friend of the show. I think he's a friend of mine. I don't know if he's a friend of yours. But Jim Valley, who I have a lot of respect for, I tweeted out on August 28th.

I respect punk. I neither like nor dislike him. I see what he's done and means in wrestling. What is Jack Perry done in wrestling to earn the right to go into business for himself at Wembley of all places? Jack Perry was disrespectful of his boss, his company, and pro wrestling. And I do tend to agree with Jim. Issues with punk aside, the show that day should have been about the fans and the company and celebrating what's possible, not settling old stuff, whatever that may have been. But I also know, as you said, he's a very young man.

He's learning things. He's growing. He's going to get better. He's going to mature. We all do. So I do think that it's not a circumstance where I would throw the baby at with the bathwater to coin a phrase that has been used here in the South before. But I hate that it happened because it does feel very unnecessary.

And now it all sort of came to a head. And I know we don't have all the information and we don't have all the facts. But I hope this isn't the end of seeing punk and wrestling. and I hope it's not the end of Jack Perry in AEW. But unfortunately, seeing Punk's time in AEW has come to an end. The show, the collision show started with a statement from Tony Con. So I think we should play that now and then have you react to it, Eric. I think Dave Silva, our crack producer, has it teed up here for us in three, two, one, play.

Top of his decisions of my professional career. Today I terminated Phil Brooks, C.M. Punk for cause. This stems from a backstage incident at AEW All In last Sunday. The incident was regrettable, and it endangered people backstage. That includes the production staff, the people who helped put the show on every week, innocent people who had nothing to do with it. I've been going to wrestling shows for over 30 years. I've been producing them on this network for nearly four years.

never in all that time have I ever felt until last Sunday that my security, my safety, my life was in danger at a wrestling show. I don't think anybody should feel that way at work. I don't think the people I work with should feel that way and I had to make a very difficult choice today. It came at the recommendation of a discipline committee here in AEW as well as outside legal Council who delivered a unanimous recommendation. And I have followed up on that recommendation. I'm sorry to any fans who are upset by this. I'm sorry to anyone who's upset by this. Despite that, we're going to have a great show tonight on Collision, and we're going to have a great AEW All-Out pay-per-view tomorrow here in Chicago. Last weekend was the greatest weekend in

AEW history. This is the greatest week in AEW history. We're going to continue the great momentum here tonight on collision and tomorrow night on all-out pay-per-view. Let's take a day I had to make. So what do you think? There's the official statement, Punk, no longer a part of the AEW roster. You saw it when everybody else did over the weekend. What do you think? I think somebody on Tony's legal team wrote that statement for him.

And I say that again, because of the, The for cause, pointing out that he was terminated for cause, that's legal terminology. Yes. Saying that he was fearful for people backstage and in fear of his life. Have you not seen punk fight in UFC? Oh, come on now. Anybody that has is not going to be afraid for their life. That's ridiculous.

It's a ridiculous statement to make. But it's a good legal statement to make, isn't it? Well, there's that. It's like the professional wrestling version of the Castle Doctrine Law in Florida. It's like, I was in fear for my life. Shot the guy. Not guilty. Cool.

It's, uh, whatever. Look, he probably had to do that. Right. He was probably instructed by, the legal team to do that, I would be surprised if they didn't actually write it for him

and therefore some of that silliness about being in fear of his life and all that, that's probably where that came from. Now, that's not to say that, again, I agree with the fact that you had to terminate him because if something like that can happen again and as we covered the beginning of the show, you know, now it's a pattern. You know, now a jury is going to look at, well, wait a minute. this happens with you guys all the time and nothing really happens. So you're kind of condoning it.

Now, Tony had, AEW had to make this decision. But I don't know if I would have, if I was Tony, I would have had an attorney read that. A legal representative, it would have been more appropriate and probably a little more effective, to be honest. But look, it is, it's water under the bridge now. Um, I just clean slate, fresh air, let's move forward. Let's start knocking them down and having some great shows and building some honest momentum. Just get those numbers up.

Get some real traction. Well, I know they're trying to get some traction. I mean, it feels like they're, uh, they're swinging for the fences with the big Wembley show and they're coming behind it with Arthur Ash, as you said, I know that ticket sales were softer than they would have liked to be in, uh, Chicago and now man the real work starts you know this this past weekend collision was was faced with AEW or a W collision was faced with college football and this is sort of a week zero not a lot of major games handful of big games like we saw on Sunday night LSU play Florida State

and that sort of thing but this next week man Alabama's going to play Texas at seven Eastern 6 Central on ESPN. That is stiff competition. And that's going to exist on every Saturday night for a while. Um, this is going to be a challenge. And also this past week, not to come to collisions defense necessarily, but facts are facts. They were also up against WWE pay-per-view, weren't they? Yes, they were. So now you're up against college. football and a WWE pay-per-view. And as we saw last time that happened, at WWE pay-per-view took a chunk out of the collision number. And this week, they had college football and WWE up against them. So I think this was a brutal week. But to your point, Alabama and Texas, while it may not be

college football and the WWE pay-per-view, it's going to, it's going to leave a mark. I predicted the other day that I think you're going to see a three to five percent decrease in collision next Saturday from this Saturday. I think there was a curiosity factor that I think probably, you know, Tony didn't make his announcement until right before collision. So I think there was, it's hard to measure, it's just an estimate, but I think there was a small percentage of people tuning in just to see if they could catch up on the news live. well we we know the next big thing on collision from that all out media scrum is whereas that was mostly the quote unquote see and punk show it feels like now it's going to be the brian danielson show that was made pretty clear that his schedule with his family it's it's a little easier for him to work on saturdays than on wednesdays which if he's trying to take kids to school and be involved and all that stuff that makes total sense

And good for him and good for Tony for that even being an option. So I'm excited to see more of Brian Danielson on collision. He recently even was named by Tony Kahn as saying, hey, if I get hit by a bus, Brian could run things. I want to talk about that in a minute. But before we do, I wanted to ask, did you happen to hear that we had Brian Danielson at Starcast? He did like a little surprise appearance on Powerhouse Hobbs, Power,

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shipping. That's bluechew.com. The promo code is 83 weeks and then receive your first month free visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. We want to thank blue chew for sponsoring today's podcast. So Eric, you know, the idea that collision might be a Brian Danielson show. That's encouraging. What do you mean by that though, Connor? What show a Brian Danielson show? Is he going to write it, produce it or is the show going to be centered around him as a talent? Well, whereas collision was sort of centered around seeing punk, I think it's going to be centered around Brian Daniels. and my understanding is that Brian has become like one of Tony's right-hand guys to bounce

ideas off of and things like that and I mean listen I think this is out there a lot of talent and I've heard that a lot of talent would reach out to punk about hey can we do this on collision can we do that on collision punk had a little bit of I'm not going to say he had an official role or capacity but he was certainly trying to put together the best Saturday night collision shows they could. And it feels like punk is now out of that spot and now Danielson is in that spot. And I wanted to know from your perspective, what do you think? You think that could work? Are you excited about that? I am excited about the potential for sure. And I say that now, I don't know Brian Danielson at all. We've probably had brief conversations occasionally

over the course of the years, especially when I was back there for a minute in 2019. But here's what I do know. I've watched his work, watched him in the ring, I'm very impressed with him, but what I'm most excited about, not so much as a performer. I think Brian DeYoungson is knocking on the door of the end of his career, just age, injuries, all of the above. But I don't think that's where it is real value is either. When I was working in WWE back in two, 2019, I hope I'm not speaking out of school here. I don't think I am because I'm doing it as respectfully as possible. But I know that Vince McMahon was very impressed with Brian Danielson, his creative, his psychology. And I know that there was some conversation. I don't

know how serious it was at the time. Vince mentioned to me that he was possibly interested in bringing in Brian Danielson to be very involved in the creative side of things. Vince is a pretty bright guy and you can, you know, you can say whatever you want about him. But I think that that suggests that there is a lot of great potential there. And I think there's anything that's truly missing that can move the needle in the right direction over the course of the next six or 12 months, it's going to be creative. It's not going to be anything else.

I want to come back to edge just a little bit, but there are no more big names, very few, maybe Edge is it, that you're going to be able to bring in that could potentially move the needle. But as we've seen in AEW, even when you bring those people in, it doesn't really move the needle because the creative isn't coming with them. The brand value is, the equity is, the audience familiarity is, but they get to AEW and they go flat and they're in the witness protection program before you know it. It doesn't matter.

But I think if Brian Danielson or anybody else, but let's talk about Brian, if Vince's instincts were accurate. I don't know why it didn't work out. I really don't. Vince never shared that with me. But I know there was interest there because I had the conversation with Vince myself.

And that suggests to me that Vince saw a lot in Brian creatively. Yes. And I think if that potential exists, Brian Downison is three or four or five or ten times more valuable to Tony writing overseeing the creative of AEW whether it's just for collision or ultimately all of the shows because that's not Tony's strength Tony wants it to be a strength he wants to convince people at strength it's not his creative his booking has not been in the history of AEW would say I ever see the history company's 48 months old

barely but it's still the history like it's been around for 50 years in the amount of time that AEW has been with us the 48 months or 46 months whatever it is creative is not their structure have they had some great matches but that's not the same thing as great creative is it it's just a great match that's where that is where the potential upside is long term for AEW that's the breath of fresh air frankly that AEW needs and if I were Tony I'd give that collision show to Brian. Not just be my right-hand man and bounce ideas off. Give it to him.

Say, here you go. Here's your notepad. Here's your computer. Here's a pen. There's an office. Call me when you got a show ready. And then go over it and go through it and learn and understand and get an idea of a different kind of creative process or creative perspective than Tony

currently has either because he's doing it all himself or because of the people he currently has around him, whatever the case is. But give that thing to Brian. Let's see what he can do. And if he does what we all would hope he could do, certainly me and prove that there is a better way to approach creative, then bring him into dynamite and let him have a voice there as well. Maybe not the voice, but a voice.

Because it's the creative that is the opportunity for Tony right now. It's not bringing in edge. It's not bringing in. anybody because that doesn't matter and that's been proven over and over and over again it's going to be interesting to see what happens because this company as you said I mean they debuted on television I think it was October of 2019 so I mean almost four year anniversary of the first dynamite but it's still such a young company and they have so much talent and we just saw a lot of that talent really have an opportunity to do something

like I've been a big fan of swerf Strickland for a long time. I think he has potential to be one of the top tier guys in the entire business. He got a pay-per-view match with Sting and it was a coffin match. That's a big time opportunity. We saw Miro finally get an opportunity and hook finally get an opportunity with, with Jack Perry on the big stage and man, what else could we say about powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks? I mean,

Starks went out there. It stole the show with Danielson and the post-match media scrum. Danielson gave all the credit to Stark's so as bad as punk leaving is and and I hope that we have not heard the last of punk and the wrestling business I'm a big fan and had nothing but great experience with him at Starcast back in 2019 in the NFL and college football in traditional sports there's a depth chart and when you're one of your starters goes down that creates opportunity for other folks on the roster this could this shakeup could lead to a big opportunity for a lot of folks,

could it not? It could. And that's where leadership comes in. And that's where, you know, a lot of it is the responsibility to tell it as well. They're all independent contractors, to my knowledge,

though it's holding them back, but them. Now, it's hard to get attention. I'm sure there's some people that I, in fact, one in particular, I know that's been sitting on the sidelines for a while that we just love to

get an opportunity. Yes. But it's hard to get attention, right? It's, you've got to be there. You've got to be out in front. You've got to be knocking on somebody's door.

You've got to be making a phone call every other day or every three days. You've got to be coming up with your own ideas. You've got to press forward. But that's the opportunity. That's a breath of fresh air that exists right now in AEW because it's not all centered around one guy. And you don't have the ripple effect of the dissension, however much of it there was or wasn't on the roster. It's a brand new day. And every one of those people on that roster have an opportunity as a result of it.

Now, what they do with that opportunity is really up to them. And with Brian, look, that's why I'm a big proponent of the idea of giving him the book, letting him call those shots, letting him pick the talent for the show. Let's see, because that will provide new opportunities for people and give people the real sense that there is a real opportunity to kind of break through the clutter. There's a lot of clutter. And by clutter, I don't mean to be disrespectful. there's a lot of talent in AEW, and it's hard to kind of break through and get attention.

But with a new creative approach that creates a new opportunity. Well, I'm excited to see what's next for AEW. I do think that they will do well next year in Wembley. I hear you. I don't know that anybody expects them to sell more. I think it's always down a little bit when you come back. I'm not going to say it's going to go so far as half. But I know when they first announced all in,

Man, I had a lot of conversations with folks who said, hey, 40,000 is high fives all around. 50,000 is a grand slant. So the idea that all of a sudden, drawing more fans than WCW ever did is a bad thing. It's crazy. I'm not saying that's a shit on you. I'm just saying we all look back with WCW. I never said that. I know I'm not.

I'm saying, I'm not saying that you did. I'm just saying I know that becomes a pissing contest and competition of highest grossing most, blah, blah, blah. I'm just saying their first. time in the market, duh, of course it's going to do well. Running a giant stadium like that, creating a spectacle, yes, of course it's going to do well. All I heard from people who were at the show was that it was truly amazing. And I started to think like, I wonder how many people were at that WrestleMania 3 and now sort of the AEW equivalent of WrestleMania 3. Because

I've made that comparison on our podcast a few times that for all intents and purposes, this is going to become a legendary show in the history of AEW. However long, long, that AEW story is, whether it lasts another five months, five years, or five decades, when we look back, we'll think, well, that was the first major stadium show. And the big watershed moment in WWE for them to be viewed that way wasn't necessarily WrestleMania. Yes, that was a big deal. But WrestleMania 3 was the first mega show.

And it was sort of the standard bearer for a long time after that. And I started to think, I wonder how many people were actually at both of those shows. Mike Weber, maybe? I know he was there as a fight representative and he was working with the WWF and WrestleMania 3 maybe Greenberg and maybe there are some people who were fans who were now working in the business

but do you think that all in with a little bit of time and history the benefit of hindsight we'll look back at like it was the first major show for AEW sort of like WrestleMania 3 was for WW? It depends on what they do right forward if

if they you know if they lose ground if I mean it can be I don't want to be negative I think it absolutely can be that opportunity certainly exists but WrestleMania 3 became that moment because of what WrestleMania became afterwards yes so the real challenge now how many times have you heard me say creating momentum is the easy part maintaining it is the hard part perfect example right here they creating the moment I don't want to say it was easy creating the momentum for Wembley was one thing maintaining it and building upon it is an entirely different thing and the jury's out we'll see I hope so I'm excited to see what they do next I mean it is going to be an interesting time lots of guys are you know looking to make a mark but we're right around I mean this is not just the only shake-up we're going to get, I guess we'll call it this fall season, because there's been a lot of reports

that by the end of September, this endeavor deal could be finalized. And it certainly feels like there will be a lot of efficiencies created. Let me explain what we mean there. And let me first address, I guess maybe the elephant in the room. There is no creative department of the UFC. So I don't imagine creative for WWE changes at all. No. However, WWE and UFC both have legal departments we might be able to create some efficiency by just having one legal team we might not need two separate legal teams the same could be said about perhaps production or marketing or travel or all the other departments that exist and these for a lot of folks are going to be sort of behind the scenes folks who maybe have been with the company for years and years or perhaps

decades and decades and now someone else is going to be making those decisions based on we're trying to hit these numbers. We're trying to fit this budget. It's now a world of very measurable and specific goals. And I think as a result, there could be potentially a mass exodus from WWE, from folks who would normally on their own, not leave a job that they've been at for years or decades.

But if their hand is forced and they leave, that could become a net gain, for AEW. And I think a lot of folks have heard that maybe AEW, because they are a new company, only four or five years old now, they do need some more infrastructure support. And so hires like Raphael Murphy,

he used to help at WWE with tickets, and certainly Mike Mansoury, who used to help run WWE production, those are big positives on that side of things for AW. Do you expect more of that with this endeavor shakeup? blooming? You know, I don't see it being as the shake-up, the layoffs as being as ominous as a lot of people think. Because they are two separate businesses, you know pointed out, rightfully, that there is no creative department in UFC. So creative is fine. But

if you think about the legal department, for example, WWE contracts are probably a lot. Now, I've never seen a UFC contract. I've certainly seen a couple of mine, WWE contracts. I'm guessing they're quite a bit different than UFC contracts. I would imagine the attorneys that are familiar with WWE contracts have a much different level of experience than UFC attorneys who are dealing with fighter contracts. Just because you're an attorney in one company doesn't mean you're going to be a great attorney in another.

So I don't know that, now, maybe on the administrative end, legal assistance, paralegals, that type of thing. Sure. I could see some of that. But I think the key player kind of level people that you're talking about, I just don't see that many of it, many of them leaving or being let go. The companies are so unique to each other. Travel, sure, but guess what? I would be more concerned if I worked for the UFC in the travel department than I would be if I worked in WWE into travel.

That's right. Because I guarantee that the WWE travel department is far more robust, sophisticated, and on top of their game than a UFC, is simply by virtue of the volume of travel that they handle. Right. And the quality of the people that have evolved over the last 30 or 40 years there. Some of them, you know, Sue Atches and she's still there. You know, whenever WWE flies me and I always, she was the one that handles my stuff. You have people there that have been there for a long time that really understand.

understand the talent, the product, the needs. No, I just don't see it. I don't see there's going to be any real key people that are going to be let go. Administrative staff,

yes, perhaps. But I think, like I said, I'd be a lot more afraid if I was on the UFC side of that equation than on the WWE side. Well, I hope that if any of those layoffs do find long-time WV employees

that maybe there is an opportunity for them with AEW. I don't want to see anybody lose their job or, you know, have to figure out something new to do. So I'm pulling for a happy ending on all of that. I guess the next big question is, you know, if you were Tony Kahn, um, is this it? Is this the end of the purge? You know, there's lots of rumor and innuendo that they're unhappy talent. You know, this guy's not happy. That guy's not talent. Not happy. I don't know, but those are the things you hear. and that's where I was getting to is it's like now feels like a really bad time for a talent to sort of draw a line in the sand like that I mean I don't think it's ever been said officially but it's sort of understood in moments like these where you're waiting on a merger and you're waiting so we've got a deal in principle sort of the unwritten rule and unspoken rule of that is hey don't make any new waves don't rock the boat don't let any of this stuff change too much no major changes we need

pretty much what we agreed on to still look like that by the time we take possession, a.k.a. Don't go out and sign a whole bunch of new talent to huge jumbo contracts. I mean, nobody's told me that's the case, but that's normally how these things work. Like, if you were to sell your house and you're under contract to sell your house, you probably shouldn't start remodeling right before you close. They want the house that they signed up for, that they saw pictures of, that they had appraised, that they had inspected. not go changing things so that makes sense to me but i wonder if you know would you take this

as an opportunity for tony con hey if you're not happy let's make a deal would you do that i've done it yeah not only would i but have i yeah i have and look tony's at a position Now, you know, I admittedly, my approach really wasn't that solid because while I was willing to let people go, I wasn't going to let them go to WWE. I was going to make them sit out for four or five, six months just to protect the company. But I didn't want anybody working for me that didn't want to be there. And especially for Tony, and again, I want to be really careful because a lot of times I'm not. And sometimes I wish I would have been when I read back some of the things I've said, you know, gets covered, picked up in. in the news or whatever.

But there are some talents in AEW that are very important talents, right? Not going to name them, but you know who they are. They know who they are. But there's a lot of talent there that doesn't matter. They just don't. It is what it is. And if those people that are there that don't matter are also the malcontents, why would you keep them around?

because those malcontents are going to make other people malcontents. That's how that works. Cut them loose. Let them go, apply their trade wherever else they can. If you have to give them a 90-day non-compete or 180-day non-compete or whatever it is you think you can get away with, fine, do that. It's business.

That's how the world works. But, man, I would. That goes back to the breath of fresh air. That's the opportunity right now that Tony has in front of. of them is to learn from the experience with punk and Perry. I don't know why he's getting get out of jail free card here. I know he's suspended indefinitely, but whatever. Cut them both loose. Cut anybody else loose that is a malcontent that doesn't want to be there and then work with the people that do because that's where the passion is. That's where the ideas

are going to come from. That's where the morale is going to come from. That's where the morale is going to come from. That's where momentum is going to come from. Not from the people that are bitching backstage. They're dragging you down. They're holding you back, whether it's obvious to Tony or not, if those people exist, kind of working on that basis. But if you've got people that are malcontents and are bitching and moaning and talking about how bad the company is, trust me, I wish I would have done it more aggressively and I wish I would have done it sooner. do it now this is your window it'd be interesting to see what happens um we do know that tony recently made at least a short term roster acquisition what did you think of the news over

the weekend dennis rodman is going to be on collision in the united center and oh by the way on the pre show for all out they got not one but two appearances out of dennis rodman a guy that you went back to in 1998 and set the second highest pay-per-view record of all time with when he tagged up with Hulk Hogan against Dennis Rodman and DDP. And now here we go, 25 years later in the United Center for the first time in 13 years, there's Dennis Rodman. What do you think? Yeah, I've always liked Dennis.

I mean, anybody that's listened to the show knows how I feel about Dennis. He's a good guy. I think he's, he's a smart guy. he can bring a lot to the table. I didn't see it. I don't know how it came off. I would imagine some people that had to work with Dennis backstage were kind of wondering about how to make this all work.

But Dennis is a good guy. He'll deliver when the lights on. He's smart. I think a lot of Dennis. I was happy for him. That's how I felt. That was my reaction as it made me smile. He was fantastic.

And boy, there was a lot of rumor and innuendo about him that weekend. But I found him to be just a breeze to deal with, super nice guy, uh, did his business, handled his work and, and had a good time. And you could tell if you saw the clips on Chicago Bull social media, just how emotional he was to be back in the United Center after 13 years and to be loved by Chicago like he was, it was really, really special. The only thing I wish, and I know it's not possible, but man, how cool would it have been

if he would have came out in front of the United Center fans to the old school NWO theme song. How great would that have been? Oh, that would have been crazy good. It would have been crazy good. I would have bought the I would have bought the pay-per-view just to see that moment. I mean, so fun to think about. But the story goes here, Eric, here's a fun story for you. I was told that by the time he got to the Starcast Hotel, it was late Friday night. and unfortunately the bar had already closed. So Dennis Rodman was not too happy that the bar was already closed. He's not used to hotel bars being closed early, but in Schaumburg, they closed

kind of early relative to what he's probably used to as a party animal, allegedly. So the rumor in innuendo is that he said, screw this, jumped over the bar, got a bottle of liquor, yelled to the hotel desk, put it on my table. tab and went to his room. I heard this. I asked the hotel. I said, Hey, Melissa. Rumor in innuendo is Dennis Rodman came in last night, jumped over the bar,

got a bottle of vodka or whatever, and took it to his room. Is that going to be a problem? She replied, no. It's Dennis Rodman. We're in Chicago. Tell me what other bottles he needs delivered to his room. And all I can think to myself was self. I hope Dennis Rodman.

has some zbiotics up there because we're going to need him down here first thing in the morning taking pictures and autographs at starcast listen boys and girls if you're going to be partying like the worm and you need to get to work tomorrow on time and be effective and be bright eye and bushy tail number one have a zbiotics for best results make zbiotics the first drink of the night number two drink responsibly pace yourself hydrate and get a good night's sleep and number enjoy tomorrow it really is that easy don't you hate feeling miserable the day after drinks luckily a game-changing product called zbiotics is here to help let me explain zbiotics is a pre-alcohol probiotic that's actually the world's first genetically engineered

probiotic it was invented by phd scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking and here's how it works when you drink the alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut and it's this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for your next rough day. Zibiotics produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. It's designed to work like your liver, but in your gut where you need it most. Drink zbiotics before drinking, drink responsibly, and enjoy the night with confidence. I have to admit, Eric and I first tried this a few years ago at podcast movement. After a long day, we like to sip a few cold ones.

And man, we were both ready to go. First thing the next morning, I give all the credit to Zbiotics. And this Halloween, I want you to pair your candy and cocktails with Zbiotics to avoid a spooky next morning. Savor the moment. Let Zbiotics do the rest. Go to Zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks to get 15% off your first order when you use 83 weeks at checkout. Zviotics is backed with 100% money-back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember, head to zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks and use the code 83 weeks at checkout for 15% off.

Thank you Zbiotics for sponsoring today's episode. So listen, we saw Dennis Rodman doing his thing. Once again, wouldn't you imagine it? Wouldn't you guess it? Wouldn't you know it? Jeff Jarrett was right in the middle of that. And I just want to point out, hypothetically, I'm not picking a fight. love and appreciate and respect him but in last week's observer

Dave Meltzer said that Jeff Jarrett tried to work a deal out to get Dennis Rodman in but the talks had fallen through the side's could never come to an agreement I can say pretty clearly here that was not true they never even spoke and you can guess how I know that if you figure out who was booked where first but it did happen and I'm glad it happened and they needed a little something something for that Chicago hometown especially knowing that we didn't have seeing punk there do you think that there is a celebrity in the sidelines somewhere out there who could have the effect in wrestling that Dennis Rodman did once upon a time like is it or Connor McGregor someone out who is out

there in the the pop culture world the sports world that could move the needle like Dennis Rodman did for you guys to create the second highest pay-per-view of all time for WCW. There aren't already, you know, WWE, I mean, you know, Bad Bunny and, and was it Logan Paul? I always get Jake and Logan mixed up. Clearly, those are three great examples of celebrities that can move the needle because of the social media following. They brought with them. Remember, Dennis Rodman and back in 1998, and success we had with Dennis, Dennis was at the peak of his career. And is, you know, mainstream recognizability, I guess that's a word.

So it's a little different today with Dennis. But if to try to recreate that success with a celebrity today who's not already affiliated with WWE, yeah, I'm sure there are, you know, but you have to find them. You have to train them and finding him is going to be the hard part because both, you know, with bad bunny and in logan paul these are guys that put the time in that's that's what makes it harder you not only have to find a celebrity that's really good to move the needle but today's world you'd probably look at their social media see how many followers they have how many people they can actually influence to possibly check out their appearance on your show so you're going to find

somebody that with that kind of gravity uh with social media that is also willing and able to put in time and to really, really be passionate about putting on a great performance, not to show up and wave at the crowd. I mean, I'm sure they're out there. I don't know who they are. I'm not a pop culture guy, but I never even heard a bad bunny until WWE brought him in, you know, so yeah, they're out there. You're just going to find them and convince them to make a commitment and then train them.

That's the other part. Are you going to, are you going to get them ready? Are you going to, you know, it's a team effort. It's going to take a lot of people to make that happen. Well, I wanted to talk about edge because you said you wanted to circle back to that. And so when we're talking about potential needle movers and it certainly looks like A.W is going to be doing a bit of a shakeup here. We don't know how deep it's going to go or what all that looks like.

But with punk leaving with with Perry suspended and I felt like there was a house divided. If he does any more cleaning house and the potential layoffs on the WWE side, There could be a lot of things shuffled. One of those that everybody seems to be very curious on is the possibility of Edge coming over to AEW, which I, for one, would be really excited about if only I know the real life story of Adam Copeland and the real life Christian Cage, who,

I don't know what we're going to call Adam in AEW if he comes over. But Edge and Christian as a tag team man, one more match against the Hardee's, first ever against the Young Buck. first ever against FTR, like that is fun. And then you've got all the individual matches along the way. I mean, an edge and a Kenny Omega seems fun. And I'm sure there's a thousand others.

But what do you think and what would you expect about edge in AEW? I want to take two different approaches. I'm going to take a glass half full approach. And I'll do that first. And then I'll follow it up with a glass half empty approach. On a glass half full approach, if I'm thinking about edge, if I was Edge's manager and I wanted him to make that move, I would point out the opportunity similarly to what you just did, but I would also want to have a couple of conversations with Tony and Brian Danielson because this is the part of the edge possibility that gets to be excited. And this is admittedly a glass half full because this would require that Tony relinquish

some creative control and let somebody else do it, at least with regard to either edge individually in his story or on collision and use edge there. You know, I would have to believe it. I don't know. I don't know what the personal relationship between Brian DeYoungson is and the edge, but I would assume it's good and I would assume there's a lot of mutual respect. And if I was Edg's man, Adam Coppola's manager, I would say, look, Tony, here's the deal. My client wants to come over, but let's be honest, track record for WWE talent coming in has not been all that great.

I know it's going to sound a little tough in a meeting, but it's true. So get over it. But you've got this guy, Brian Danielison there, who you've expressed, Tony, that you have a lot of confidence in. Why not we give this relationship a try? it a little differently, and let Brian and Edge work together on Edge's creative. That's exciting to me. And if I'm Adam's manager, I'm going to take a little bit of comfort in that because now I'm putting my client's career in the hands of someone that he has confidence in.

And therefore, so do I, as a manager. That's going to give me a sense of comfort. I'd be excited about that. glass half empty Tony doesn't want to do that because Tony wants to be he wants to be Vince McMahon he wants to be Eric Bischoff back in the 90s he wants to be that guy that reinvented wrestling and until he's ready to delegate and recognize what he's good at and what he's not it's never going to happen and I wouldn't want my client to end up in an environment much like just about everybody else that's come over from WWE they've got a huge splash and a big entrance and a

oh, they're here. It's going to change everything. And then three weeks later, they're gone. Now, I don't know what Adam's plans are. You know, Adam also has other options like movies. Yeah. He's a good actor. Maybe he's deciding whether or not he wants to go back into wrestling at all. But if I'm Adam Copeland's manager, my job is to protect my client and look out for the best interest of my client, interests of my client, I'm not going to be, regardless of how much commission. I made my 10% I'm not going to be really enthusiastic about moving my client into an environment where historically and by the existing track record doesn't look like it's going to be a good move in any other way but financial I just wouldn't do it so it all depends on what it comes down to Tony I think if I'm Adam why would I want to make that move unless I really needed the money

that could be a factor who knows I doubt it yeah I highly doubt that I think it's more I know, it's, but I'm saying it just to check the box, but unless he's willing to do it for the money, if you just look at the last four years, is that how you want your career to end? Because keep in mind, that's another factor. And again, I don't know Adam well enough to know how much, how important this is to him. But when you, when you're coming to the end of your career, you want to go out on a high note. or at least you should and Adam's a very smart guy he's got a solid head on his shoulders do would you if you didn't need the money put your legacy at least the last part of it um in the hands of someone who's demonstrated they don't really have the ability to make it work i wouldn't i'd want to go somewhere where i could feel like you know what as long as i do my job

and I stay healthy and I contribute, there's a good chance I could end this thing up on a really high note. Now, especially because Christians there, that's another dynamic that's a little different. You know, so that could be very appealing to Adam to have one more run with his buddy. And I can see that as having, you know, being a factor in his decision. I just don't think it would be the only one. But who knows? On this one, I'm glass half full. I hope it happens, but I hope it happens along with several other things that will help

ensure that it really matters. Otherwise, it's just another jump for the sake of a jump. I, uh, I kind of go the other way. And I wonder, is you really happy with what's happened in WWV? I mean, I realize he's had a couple of, you know, the injury bug here. there. But, I mean, they stacked him and Brian up like firewood for Roman to pin him a couple WrestleMania's ago. It wasn't even on SummerSlam or the big Saudi show or or or. So I'm just saying it's not as if this return has probably been as fruitful as maybe he would have originally hoped.

And I think everybody deserves the opportunity to get to finish their career on their terms, whatever that means. For some people, they don't care about the creative. They just want to make as much money as they can. And good for them. They're big on the business part. of that whole wrestling business and for other folks it's like hey man i kind of got the money squared away i'd like to have some fun and and their idea of fun could be tag matches with their best friend it could also be world title matches headlining pay per views or quote unquote one last run brother which if we're honest they never even really gave an opportunity to edge to do that here in wwe like i don't see them taking the belt off roman and putting in want edge no disrespect to

edge, I just don't think that's in the cards. And if he realizes that, hey, that's kind of what I want to do. I want to have a couple more high up profile matches and, you know, main event and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, a wrestle kingdom in New Japan at the Tokyo Dome and man hell yeah go check all those boxes this is your career this is your moment and I hate that he missed the big all in show with the arm injury and now we saw him wrestle just a week later so I wonder shit was that even necessary if he could do this a week later couldn't he have done it a week earlier i just don't want these guys to look back with regret but edge just got a big decision to make

here and it's one that you know it's going to make a difference i think to both companies I agree, and I agree with you. Ending your career under your own terms is like the ultimate. You know, that's the success story. That's writing the last chapter of your own book and putting the period on the last sentence and doing it yourself. And that should be everybody's ultimate goal. Again, but I'll go back to the glass half empty. If I'm edged, do I think I'm really going to get that opportunity in a company that so far hasn't proven to be able to create it for anybody else?

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and five free AG1 travel packs with your first. purchase. All you got to do is go to drinkag1.com slash 83 weeks. That's drinkag1.com slash 83 weeks. Check it out. You'll be glad you did. So listen, man, I feel like if there was a comparable moment in your WCW career to all that we've seen happen with, uh, with C and punk, it's probably Rick Flair and or Hulk Hogan. Of course, we know you got a pissing match with Rick Flair sent him home and that became a big dirt sheet thing. Oh, I didn't send him home. I didn't send him home. Okay. Apologies. He didn't show up. Two different things. Uh, yeah, you just held a meeting and said you were going to sue his ass into bankruptcy. That's my bad. That I did do.

Yeah. That I did do. Uh, so the same time. Uh, anyway, we've also got the, the, the, the Hulk Hogan walking out situation. What? And what about the batch at the beach? I'm just saying that was the end of Paul Cogan in the WCW and that's hard for that was creative. That wasn't that was that ended up being real because of because of Rousseau and the fact that he went into business for himself after we left the building. But that wasn't a that wasn't him walking out. That was part of the creative story. Eric, I know I'm talking fast. Keep up with me here, buddy. We had creative. A guy got out of character, took it too far and one guy never came back. Sounds a lot like Jack Perry and see him punk and one guy never came back totally different circumstances i'm not arguing it's

not different i'm just saying it's way different it's way different okay well punk's out and so was holt kogan i don't think anybody would have ever imagined that either one of those would have been the circumstances i wish that this thing could be put back together like you and flare as we said the match everybody wanted to see is the one we never will see now and i even think about that from the Cody Rhodes standpoint, like a lot of people never imagined Cody Rhodes would leave A.E.W. I think Cody even himself never imagined he would leave A.W. But then he did. And along the way, they had to practice a little patience because they were thinking about the long term. And in an effort to be patient and, and always leave future business and something we can always come back to,

et cetera, et cetera. A lot of those matches never happened for Cody. in AEW. And I look back now with CM Punk's run and I think the same thing. We should have got that big tag match against the elite. That would have been gangbuster business. I would have loved to have seen him and Kenny Omega and so many other options and opportunities and matches that just never happened. And now I don't know that they will. Was there one single money match you think that CM Punk and AEW collectively dropped the ball on? And if we could go back in time and do it all over again, if we hit this. That could have been the high watermark. No, but again, because I don't follow

AEW that closely, but I think you summarize it pretty well. There was a lot of options that could have happened with punk had you had a mature, professional, willing, collaborative group of people that wanted to work together, but you don't have that. And without it, there's no fantasy booking that's going to make any sense. It will never happen. It comes down to chemistry. You know, you need to have the right people that are willing to dance together and pull in the same direction. And that clearly wasn't the situation. So I don't think that there's any one match that would have changed anything. I think there's, as you put it out, there's a lot of matchups that in creative that could have meant a lot.

Not with people that don't want to work together. It's such a shame, man. I hope that, uh, I hope that punk's not doing with wrestling. I hope he doesn't really believe the wrestling business is passed him by or that his relationship with the fans is severed or damaged or, you know, I mean, I think if he showed up on WWE tonight, people would lose their freaking mind. I think if he would have showed up at payback when people were expecting him in Chicago and instead he's at Pittsburgh, people would have lost their mind.

Like wrestling fans have a short memory. Like, and so does WWE, by the way. I know there's been reports out there. The WWE says, oh, they're not interested. Yeah, well, they said that about Brett Hart and Hulk Hogan and Bruno and Ultimate Warrior, blah, blah, blah. Whoever thought Eric Bischoff would work for WWE, but he did. So I'm just saying eventually, you know, business prevails on that side of the fence. I got to think it's going to happen.

What's the money? I mean, I guess we should just mention it. Survivor Series is in Chicago this year. That's in November. Oh, that's intriguing. Can you imagine the creative that would lead Paul Heyman to do verbal jousting with C. Munk? I mean, Roman Raines versus C.

Munk, Paul playing monkey in the middle. That could be fantastic. Yeah, it could be good. And look, again, this is really, this falls into the category of fantasy booking. But let's just entertain ourselves for a minute. What if? WWE for whatever reason Paul Leveck decided

you know what I'm going to bring it in and give it a shot historically WWE's done that type of thing you just covered it but also punk is not going to bully his way around at WWE locker room he'll find himself stuffed in a garbage can

that won't be tolerated and he knows that It's one thing to get physical and call a jungle Jack Perry. It's quite another thing to try to throw your weight around in a WWE locker room. It's not the same thing. And I think punk, I don't know him at all. I've never had a direct conversation with him. I've never had a syllable of conversation with him face to face.

But punk would also know that this is like a big opportunity and probably my last shot. Right. in with a much different attitude that he had in AEW. And who knows? Maybe when he got to AEW, he may have had a good attitude. And maybe it's Meltzer and Alvarez and all the drama that they helped create and pour fuel on that soured the thing at AEW for punk. I believe it very well could have been.

That isn't going to happen to the same extent in WWE. So there's a lot of reasons why, if punk were to make that move over Poloveck were to think that move and punk agreed that you wouldn't see a repeat performance of what we saw in the EW. There are two different worlds, two different situations. So it could be really, really good. The question is whether it's worth it to WWE, what's the benefit? What's the risk?

Benefit is if you could manage him and control, and I say control, but manage him properly. And he was willing to be a pro. There's some financial upside there. There's some great story there. Yeah. Him and Heyman, oh my gosh. I mean, there's some great story that could be cultivated there. The backstory already exists.

You just have to dig it up and dust it off and shine it up a little bit. And you're off and running. And that would be appealing. The question is whether or not they need it. And it's worth the risk to them. And I don't have the answer to that. I've not had one conversation with anybody there currently that expressed an opinion about it, nor would I, but we'll see.

It's a possibility, right? Never. Well, never say never. I love you find yourself laughing as you say that because there's been so many times where we just think, well, that'll never happen. And then I'll be damn like 10 days later. There it is. There you go.

Well, listen, I don't know what to expect anytime we sit down and click record. who could have ever anticipated what happened this past week. What I know for sure is that you get all these shows early and ad free over at adfreeshows.com. Love to have you check out some of our bonus content. Like the book with David Crockett, The Insiders, Monday Mailbag with Mike Keota and Nick Patrick, Tuesdays with the taskmaster, and so much more. It's all available now over at adfreeshows.com.

By the way, if your business targets to me in 25 to 54 years old, 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 is that? Well, because it really works. And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go right now to advertise witheric.com to find out more about advertising here on 83 weeks. Also want to mention our YouTube channel.

Man, it's the fastest, easiest, cheapest way to support us. It's 83 weeks on YouTube.com. Got some great new swag and merch over at box of gimmicks.com. Something for everybody. got some fun big gold stickers and hoodies and tank tops and t-shirts and all you can shake a stick at also love to hear what you think about what's next with c and punk tweet us it's at e bischoff on twitter or at hey hey it's conrad over on instagram we're at the real eric bischoff and at hey hey it's conrad thompson of course you could always hit the show up ask questions for next week or any week

at 83 weeks across all platforms twitter facebook instagram and eric we'll be back to our regularly programming talking about the good old days of WCW and what have you and of course we'll cover whatever changes between now and then right here on 83 weeks hey wait wait wait wait wait before we go isn't today the anniversary of nitro in Minneapolis September 4th 1995 how about that look at you thought about that I just I saw somebody posted it this morning and it just occurred to me so hey amazing show that we created however many years ago that was and uh 28. And by the way, this weekend, I'm going to be in Atlanta.

That's right. In Atlanta with Nick Patrick. What? Deep South wrestling. I'm going to be the Grand Marshal. You're going to fuck staying around? Saturday at, uh, oh, I can't remember the name of the barbecue joint. I think it's called Das Barbecue.

But anyway, I'm going to be there. Hey, we're going to be there. My, my, my, uh, my nemesis in WWE when he was a Smackdown general manager and I was a raw general manager he's going to be there so I'll be tangling with teddy long again so it's going to be fun I look forward to it we'll have all the details at ebischoff on Twitter and of course at 83 weeks dude I don't know you were coming to Atlanta you need to pop over and say what's up cassio's headlining uh stand up live here in huntsville and he's got some new stuff you know you know whenever you hang out with my crew

we always hit you with the would you rather's the silly outrageous over the top would you rather's yeah well we've got one that is going to be uh one for the record books he's going to try out with the crowd for the first time so if you're in huntsville go see cassio at stand up live but if you're in Atlanta go hang out with eric bischoff and nick patrick and figure out why they wanted to screw over sting so bad 26 years ago uh we'll have all the details at 83 weeks on twitter and of course at e bischoff and we'll be back next week talking all things wcw and all the news that's fit to print right here On 83 weeks with Eric Pischoff.

We had a blast at Starcast 6. A huge thank you to everyone who attended. And if you want to relive our state show experience, you can with Premier Streaming Network. Over 20 state shows took place Starcast weekend. From comedy shows, design panels, musical performances, talk shows, and more. Including a live edition of AEW Unrestricted

with CEO Tony Kong. Sign up for Premiere Streaming Network today and check out the shows available now on-demand and in HD. And if you sign up today, you'll get two months free of Premier Plus. Enjoy the amazing lineup of content that Premier Streaming Network offers, including all five previous Starcast stage show lineups, hundreds of hours of fantastic wrestling content at your fingertips. Visit Starcast on Premiere.com. Hey guys, need to call a quick time out here.

I wanted to tell your listeners what I've been telling my listeners over at OU didn't know for a while now about all the cool things happening over at ads-free shows.com. On the latest edition of the false finish, Zach Gowan talks about reaching the top of the pro wrestling world against incredible physical odds before issues with immaturity got in his way. It's not a talent issue. It's a maturity issue. We want to see you continue to wrestle, try new characters, become a heel, try new things. things, find a groove, the doors open, just mature a little bit. But it was almost fatherly the way he sat me down and explained to me exactly why I was being released. And I'll always remember that. And I'll always thank Jim Ross every time I see him for that. As Dog and Casio finished up their latest Ask Dog Anything, they kept the party going for ad-free shows members, answering more questions on a bonus overrun.

We were the main event. Me and Brian Christopher were the main event. Doug was in a up there match. Jamie Dundee was in a tag title match, I'm sure. And we just stopped and started playing pool and drinking. Like that was what we did. We pulled through the median and turned around and just called from a payphone and said, yeah, our car can't make it. That's just a small taste of what we got waiting for you.

With four levels to choose from, see for yourself why ads-free shows is the best value in wrestling today. Sign up now at adsfreeshows.com. Thank you.