83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 288: Ask Eric Anything 09.18.23

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

On this episode of 83 Weeks, we hand the reigns over to you for another edition of Ask Eric Anything!  NATIONWIDE COINS - If you’ve been thinking about exploring gold, head to AtCostGold.com/83WEEKS and use promo code 83WEEKS at checkout for your first one ounce gold coin without any dealer markup! 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. MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at Manscaped.com.  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. 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 SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Bischoff here again, telling you about our friends over at savewithconrad.com. Now, Conrad's always talking about how they are helping homeowners save money, but did you know that Conrad and his team can also help you become a homeowner? They make the home buying process more enjoyable than, I don't know, making out with Stephanie and Linda. Osh, but don't take my word for it. I'm Willie Proctor, and I'm from Mortonsburg, West Virginia. I came with State with Conrad to buy my first home. Once I, you know, listening to the podcast, I heard other testimonials and how easy it was.

And that was the whole process for me here was wanting for convenience. Oh, it was a pleasure. I mean, it was like working with family. It really was like, you know, being from West Virginia, you know, it's all about family here. And that's what it was like working with Conrad's team. You know, I worked with Larry, Holly, and Francis. And they were just, it was just like I thought I was talking to my aunt or, you know, talking to my dad you know it was it was a great experience yeah this is actually the house i grew up in

so that was kind of the whole thing that my mom was moving to south carolina and she was and she got stressed out about what to do with the house how she was going to sell it uh get rid of everything and i thought you know what i didn't want to see the house go by the same time i wanted to make the process easy for me and easy for my mom and working with larry and the team uh they made it easier for both outless. Hi, this is Willie Proctor, and I just bought my first house with Save WithConrad.com. And unlike the dirt sheets, we're not making this up. Check out all the five-star reviews.

Go to SavewithConrad.com and do it today. Be grateful you did. NMLS number 65084 Equal Healthy Lender. Woo! Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening. to 83 weeks with Eric fish off Eric what's going on man how are you and I'm so excited conrad fall is here fall is in the air the leaves are just beginning to turn it's about 40 degrees last night woke up this morning had that ball chill in the air I'm this is my favorite time of

year so excited I'm excited too man it's uh it's football season that didn't go my way a couple of weeks to go with Alabama. They got back on their winning ways this past weekend. And, you know, we don't usually talk about pro sports or college sports much on this program. But right at the top, I got to ask, did you keep up with the Aaron Rogers saga? And what did you think? I did.

You know, I'm not necessarily a fan, nor am I a non-fan of Aaron. I'm very neutral about Aaron Rogers. I don't have a feeling about him one way or the other. but man he's 39 years old he's making this big comeback he makes a move to the juts is about as high profile as you can NFL yeah so much exciting you know anticipation and i was excited for him and the team and i'm not a juts fan i'm just a sports fan and i thought man what a great story this could be and to go out after four plays that way and it's i don't want to say it's career ending because he could come back, but man, how disappointing is it?

And then on the other hand, what's his, the backup quarter name, backup quarterback's Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson steps up and has a fantasy game. Now, that's a, that's a situation one can only fantasize about. So that was excited for him, for the team to be able to pull out a win under the circumstances, but, man, I feel so bad for Aaron Rogers. What a way to go out. Indeed, that's what's going to happen.

He's out for the year. Now he'll be playing again this year. Other than that, he comes back as, I don't know, question mark. Wow, what a horrible thing. And, you know, you're listening to a lot of the NFL players commenting on it. It's, they don't like turf, man. Yeah. You want grabs.

Yeah, they do. And you got to, at some point, somebody's going to have to listen because you can't afford these guys like your Rodgers. In the NFL, you get about just the jets. the NFL losing a guy like Aaron Rogers is just it's bad for business well I for one can't wait to see what happens next I know that I didn't expect the Jets to come back and win that game and I also did not expect for them to set like a lokey Monday night football viewing record I thought for sure boy with Aaron Rogers going down everybody's tuning out of this and they didn't it actually crushed Monday night raw Monday night football

set a record. Monday Night Raw was down to 1.3. It was less than ideal. But it felt like a wrestling storyline, you know, just how he sort of called his shot and sort of played hokey pokey and is he in? Is he out in Green Bay? And then just puts it out into the, into the atmosphere. I want to play for the Jets next year. And they make it happen. And the biggest media market in the world and here he comes and big entrance onto the field. And 11. minutes later, it's all over. I mean, it was like the NFL version of Bash at the Beach 2000. It's crazy.

Can you imagine? And I can only try to imagine because I've never played team sports. But can you imagine the emotional roller coaster and just just the pure adrenaline and emotion that was going through the New York Jets team. Such a letdown. Yeah. Such a devastating letdown. emotionally. You're in the middle of the game. You can't just go crying your beer somewhere.

You've got to play. And then for Zach Wilson to come in and play as well as he did, talk about a roller coaster ride. No kidding. Wow. It's a movie. You know, it's almost a movie. Yeah, well said. You know, I was telling my, my wife sort of catching her up on the saga and explaining, you know, how crazy this was during the course of the game. And that's the exact phrase I use. I said, this kind of feels like a movie. And speaking of movies, the next day, it was the first public appearance of Vince McMahon, sort of post-spinal surgery. And he looked a little bit like a movie villain. Standing up there in New York, ringing the bell at the stock exchange and beforehand, doing the old Hulk Hogan down to the crowd, cup in the

year. But there you see, if you're watching along with us on YouTube, got Nick Conn, McMan and look in the back there over Vince's shoulder that is our pal Kevin Dunn and then on the right you see the one and only triple H I found this to be a pretty historic thing man you know I mean there's been lots of crazy reporting about all this oh wb sales well that's not really what happened it was a merger with another company but they did create more value I guess that means the wb's valuation is roughly nine billion of the billion for the new TKO stock price. What did you think, man?

It was sort of the end of the territories here, is it not? Like, that's the last one. WGB's no longer a family-owned business. Yeah, I'm a little conflicted. And people consider whatever they want about Vince McMahon. A lot of people have a lot of opinions, strong ones. I cannot help but admire the man. And to just step back and realize what Vince has accomplished for the decades,

purchasing the company from his father, breaking the paradigm, stepping outside of the territory structure and going national. So many big things that Vince did that has, you know, everybody talks about changing the business. people have really changed the business without question Vince did and to see it reached the level of success and value as well as the impact that WWE has had professional wrestling has had but because of WWE really WWE has led to charge for the growth and the change in the industry and to see it reach the point where There's a merger that's now worth $21 billion, and Vince is up there with Paul Levack.

And a picture of Kevin Dunn behind his shoulder, I was going to point out that anybody that has that picture should keep it and frame it because it may be one of the only times that you'll see a picture of Kevin Dunn smiling. Kevin doesn't smile a lot. And that's probably because I'm with him, you know, or I was with him in the heat of the battle in production. but this guy who's a very, very serious dude, right? To see him, like, he looked like an eight-year-old kid, you know, popping up over daddy's shoulder.

So I'm really happy for WWE. Amazed at the success they had, but part of me is like, oh, oh, it's like the last vestige of what we've grown up with, WWE being an independent company-owned business initially, and then a public company, And now the merger, which is no longer the largest shareholder and certainly still has a lot of power and control over a lot of things that people probably don't realize at this moment. But that handoff, seeing that company go from family business to a public company and now a part of another company, it was kind of bittersweet for me.

I'm happy for everybody involved. Everybody got a big payday. I think the company's probably going to be stronger now than it would. have been otherwise, WWE, a lot of leverage now, a lot of benefits, a lot of upside, a lot of growth potential. It was just a little bittersweet. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. Of course, almost immediately they announced that Frank Riddick was out.

The now former, I suppose, WWE president and CFO. I can't help but wonder if that was some of those, maybe step one, maybe the biggest possible step towards creating some of those efficiencies because well if it's one new company you probably don't need two CFOs but there's a lot of concern about what other you know departments will be combined and what do you expect and when would you expect and I know that you don't have any inside information you're just sort of guessing but what do you think what would you expect next just based on my limited experience, having been a part of a merger, two separate occasions, first time

more than AOL, I don't think you'll see the majority of the changes for another three, four, five, six months. It takes time. Obviously, you know, obviously Frank Riddick, as you pointed out, one company doesn't need two CFO. Right. But I think the real changes will probably probably be seen in administration, because that's where there's most likely duplication to entities. So I think at the administration level, your mid-level management team, yeah, you're probably going to see some over the next two or three, four, five, six months. But I don't think it's going to affect creative.

I'm almost certain of that. I don't think it's going to affect the things that people see on television. It's more about the way the business operates behind the scenes, stuff that none of us ever talk about or know about. That's where it's going to happen. But I think it's going to be slow. I don't think you're going to see wholesale changes within the next 30 days. I think you'll see changes that are going to occur consistently over the next six months.

Well, one of the changes we saw this past weekend, or this past week, rather, was the inclusion of Becky Lynch on the NXT program. Not only did she show up at NXT, she won the NXT ladies' belt, and the ratings came out, and they did like 850,000 viewers.

That is a lot stronger than collision on Saturday, and at least within spitting distance, as we say here in the South, with dynamite. Upon seeing the rating, I think Becky tweeted out, of ratings. I'm curious to hear what you think of a strategy like that.

We're going to take one of our biggest stars, one of our biggest draws, and we're going to put it on our developmental show. That seems like a very smart move that inside the bubble, wrestling fans are going to say, oh, they're doing this to mess with AEW, and everyone will make the comparison I just did. Certainly it's healthy from an advertiser perspective, But more importantly, if all of a sudden there is a renewed focus on these television rights now that we've got this merger out of the way, you're probably looking to set up as many

ringers like this as you can right now, right? Absolutely. And it's, I mean, television rights and negotiations aside, I'm surprised they haven't done it sooner because it's great for that developmental talent to be on a show with someone like Becky Lynch, get the eyeballs on it. to feel the energy, you know, and to have something big happening on a show where otherwise, you know,

this is a developmental company, NXT, division, I guess. It doesn't get a lot of attention. And it certainly got a lot of attention this week. And I think you're absolutely right, Conrad. And I think the timing is pretty obvious. We're in the middle and increase our value. What better way to do it than to set a record or two or three. or four by integrating some of that top talent.

And I love the way they did it. I watched most of the match itself. And it, yes, Becky won, but it didn't hurt anybody. It elevated everybody. It was a really smart move. I'd be shocked if we don't see more of it. And I welcome it because it's great for that development talent to have that kind of energy and that kind of focus and attention.

Where are you at on Tiffany Stratton? I dig her. I mean, it seems to me like she's can't miss. I got to think she's going to crush it on the main roster. I mean, I could even see, you know, one of the WrestleMania night main events. I'm not saying this coming year, but at some point, her versus Ria. I mean, you're talking to super young, phenomenal athletes, great looks. I mean, this could be a mainstream attraction that feels like a crossover.

type match. And I just love that both of those ladies are so doggone young and so good, so doggone young. Like the future is really bright for the WWE women's division. Is it not? It is. A future is bright for WWE in general. You know, Ron Breaker in NXT.

I mean, this guy could be upper third of the roster or better anytime somebody decides they want him to be and pick up the phone and call him up. And he's such a great talent. It has so much potential. it's almost like they're building demand for him. You know, they want the audience to want him on the main roster. That's a great position. So excited for Braun and Tiffany and the whole roster at NXT

because it proves to them that they actually have a shot. This can happen. It's real for them. And I wish I could just be a fly on the wall just to kind of experience some of the energy and excitement. they just have such a wealth of talent, you know. We talked about this several weeks ago, but I guess it was around SummerSlam, maybe.

But there's so much talent right now with, uh, with WWV. I mean, this might be the most loaded roster that I've ever seen them have. And then you take a look at developmental and there's like Tiffany Stratton and you're like, well, she's going to be in the main events. They just have a wealth of talent. And if you're looking for the secret to wealth preservation,

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We'll be glad you did. It's nationwide coins.com slash 83 weeks. So, Eric, we've talked a little bit about NXT and their move towards Becky Lynch being the lady's champ. We talked about the new merger and maybe what to expect with TKO. I talked about Aaron Rogers. Well, is there anything else worth talking about? I guess there is.

Boy, we wouldn't be the wrestling business if there wasn't a controversy once a week. So it seems. Well, the latest controversy is about the number of folks who were in Wembley. I can't believe we're still talking about this, but A.W. has put it loud and proud, and I think Will Osprey actually even got a tattoo bragging about the fact that they're the largest paid attendance in the history of a wrestling show,

81,035 tickets sold. That's what was put out into the universe that was the largest paid attendance. Now, I'm sure a lot of people flew in on the word paid and wondered, why would he say that? And I know, for sure, because whenever I was with you out in Denver

and we're talking to some different ad agencies and I'm bragging on the fact that Jeff Jarrett is about to wrestle in front of the largest crowd in wrestling history. You can't help yourself and you go North Korea, which made me laugh. But yes, that is the difference.

I don't think that's a big deal. I mean, admittedly, no, I joke about it, but it's a big difference. It's really not fair to compare, you know, 350,000 North Koreans in attendance for a two-day event to a, a real event where people actually deciding to spend their own money. North Koreans were there because, well, the North Korean government told them to be there.

Yes. It's a little different. It's a lot different. Well, so are the numbers that have come out that, hey, there may have been 81,000 35 tickets sold. I don't think anybody would misrepresent that. But there are a lot of naysayers during the show who would say, well, I see a section of empty seats. And if you go back and you look at WrestleMania 3, you can see empty. sections of empty seats.

That doesn't necessarily mean those tickets weren't sold. Certainly an event this big, you're going to have, and an event that's been on sale as long as that was, you're going to have a certain percentage of folks that just don't show up. You know, there's just no shows. I don't know what that percentage is, but that exists. And we also know that sometimes scalpers go out and they'll buy blocks of tickets and then sort of misjudge the appetite for those tickets

and some assumptions are made. and they wind up taking a nail. I mean, they just speculated on a business, and it wasn't a huge win for them, perhaps. But I don't really know how to explain this. I'm curious. 10,000 tickets. Come on now.

Yeah, so it comes out from the Freedom of Information Public Records requests that, and Russellnomics was the first to report this. Of course, those cats are tight with Chris Harrington and AEW. But they say that the Brent Council, which is the local authorities for the Bureau located in the greater London area responded to the request for the turnstile numbers and the number of folks through the turnstile that night 72,265. Now, to be clear, turnstile just means how many people came through the entrance.

That doesn't necessarily mean how many tickets they sold. and I don't think there was ever any formal announcement of what the actual attendance was. They just talked about the paid attendance. So, boy, that's got the conspiracy theory people really going. I don't know why this is as important as people are making it out to be, but certainly it is the latest controversy. As a reminder, the big number that AEW was trying to beat that they were pretty proud about was what happened at

WrestleMania 32 in Dallas and that was announced way back when as being 101,763 for attendance but in reality 80,709 fans came through the turnstile

according to the Dallas police force as I understand it. So it's a big doggone difference between 80,000 and 101,000 but that's the number that AEW was sort of puffing their chest out. We beat 80,709.

We had 81,035. Like 300 tickets more. Yeah. And a lot of folks now are wondering, as our friend Hurricane would say, what's up at that? So I ask you, because I know you're not necessarily a conspiracy theorist, but you've promoted a thing or two. How do you think this happens, Eric? Let's go back and look at history. You know,

WWE has, over the decades, inflated attendance figures. Of course. For marketing purposes or headlines, for PowerPoint presentations, there's value in being able to point to record numbers of anything. It's internally, it has a lot of value. Externally, it helps create a perception. That's why WWE has done it for decades. And they get caught.

Everybody busts their chops and points it out, makes a big deal out of it, questions it. And now we've got AEW. I don't want to say overinflating anything. I'm not accusing them, by the way. But I'm just looking at the reality and the facts. Connecting a couple of dots here that are a little bit off. obvious to me. And I'm not not criticizing. I'm not condemning. I'm not even saying I'm sure I'm

right. But I have a pretty strong suspicion that that 10,000 seat discrepancy isn't represented by someone going, you know, I'm going to spend $300 for this ticket and I'm not going to go. I'm going to stay home and watch it on TV instead. You're going to have some some situations where someone gets sick or there's an illness in the family or whatever. There's going to be situations where a percentage, a small, small percentage of people who actually bought a ticket with the intention of going, decided, for whatever reason, not to go. It's human, right? Shit happens.

But I can also see a situation where a promoter would say, I really need this record. We're a new company, we're growing. I want to be able to say, outperform WWW. I have to be able to save them, want to be able to say that. And by the way, I get more money than I can count. I get more money than I can spend in a couple lifetimes. And I did sell 72,000 tickets. And by the way, let's not look at our nose at that.

That in itself is a massive number and is cause for success in celebration. But the fact that Tony came out so quickly after the event. and pointed out the fact that WWE is no longer number one in the market and he earned and now whatever it is he said, something to the effect of you, proven that we're real competition. Yeah.

I just feel that my sense is that need for hype and spin and in Tony's case, constant comparison to WWE, given the fact that he's got more money than he could spend in his lifetime, I know what I would do. I'd buy those tickets. Oh, goodness.

I didn't say thing. I would do it. If I was in Tony's shoes and I really wanted that record and I had all the money in the world and I'm not financially accountable for anything, am I going to buy $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, $6,000, $8,000, $10,000, $10,000. So that I can have bragging rights. When you're that close to the finish line and all you've got to do is stroke a check that doesn't matter to you, Wow. Would I do it?

I'm here to tell you I would. And I'm not blaming Tony for doing it if, in fact, he did. It's business, it's marketing, it's promotion. It's the wrestling business, folks. We see it in government, see it at every level in politics. You see it in movie marketing. There's always an angle. There's always a spin.

And if I were to have done it, Again, if I was in Tony's shoes, I absolutely would. And somebody called me out on it, I wouldn't deny it. I wouldn't try to hide it because then you lose credibility and no one's going to believe anything you say. But I'd also say, it's marketing, folks. It's a wrestling business we're in. Yeah, I mean, listen, I think you're exactly right.

Like I've heard of concert promoters before who would be a few tickets. shy of a sellout they just have somebody buy them to get it there and i've even heard in the book industry that way back in way back in the day in order to get on the new york times best seller list you had to sell x number of books i heard of some authors who really just wanted to be able to call them they're independently wealthy folks uh who just happened to have written a book now and it's just a strategy that they want to when they get out on a speaking tour or whatever they can say, oh, New York Times best-selling author, so-and-so, they just go buy that many books.

And to-da. It's just marketing. Yeah. And I know that people will not hear what you're saying there, and they'll think that you're taking a shot. But, I mean, I never even considered that. But the real quick math says, that's like 326 tickets different. So like, let's say hypothetically, I'm saying what we went with on the turnstile number

for WrestleMania 32 compared to this all-in number. I think I'm with you, dude, if I'm a thousand tickets away, I mean, I'm not even, I'm not a billionaire. And I'd be like, shit, I'm doing that. Are you kidding? I can claim that record forever. I mean, by the way, it just means I owe myself money. You know, it's an accounting thing.

Like, it's not like you're actually spending them. You're, you're spending it from your account and putting it in your other account. There's no difference. So I'll be honest, that never really can. Because everybody just immediately jumped on the whole, oh, they've got to be lying about the number. And I thought, I don't think they're lying about the number. But what you just said makes a lot of sense.

Shit, yeah, why not? Write a little check and claim that record. And by the way, whatever the real number is, as you said, it should be celebrated. This is incredible. Like if the number 81,035 was never on the table, and it was always just 72, whatever it is, just 72? Are you serious? Like, when that show was first announced, I had so many conversations

with people who said, man, if they could get to 40 and other people would say, oh, can you imagine a world where they got to 50? They got to 72? Like on some level, it's still an incredible record. It's an incredible opportunity. And I don't mean bigger record and wrestling. I just mean for AW. Like, you know, here in the States, they've done TV shows where there's 3,000 pokes there. And to now go international and it'd be your first, you know, stab at the market and do 70 something thousand. High five's all around.

But you're right, Eric, if you're close, it's marketing. Why not? Yeah. And unfortunately, you know, wrestling internet universe being what it is, everybody, not everybody, but a lot of people are going to, as you said,

the conspiracy theorists and maysayers are all going to come out and start ripping this to shreds, especially because the information came via a Freedom of Information Act, not some Jagoff sitting behind a computer trying to convince the world he knows something about the wrestling industry. This is, it's as legit as you can get. And unfortunately, that's what the chatter is going to be about. And it's going to, to a certain degree,

cast kind of a negative shadow over what should otherwise be nothing but cause for celebration. Yeah, I totally agree. It's unfortunate, but it comes, hey, and again, I point out Tony coming out so quickly taking credit for that 81,000 number, I don't know, it's just, it's too bad because that's what people are reacting to. If AEW would have not spent so much time promoting it, and again, I would have done the same thing, okay? This is hindsight being 2020.

This isn't being smarter than anybody else. This is just common sense. But to come out so quickly and to pound that down everybody's throat and to make sure the world knew, and in fact, remember isn't really that, that's where the negativity is going to come from. And I would have done the same thing, so I'm not calling it a mistake. I think in retrospect, it will end up being one to a certain degree. Look, Tony's still going to be able to go into a negotiation with a big arena somewhere or another building and point to this fact. Whether it's 72,000 or 81,000, it won't matter. And by the six months from now,

when he's sitting in a meeting and he's pitching AEW to somebody, some entity, some venue, whatever it is, no one's going to dissect the $81,000. We're going to take it at face value. But it's just unfortunate. I hate to see, it sounds funny coming for me, right? Because everybody thinks I hate Tony or hate AEW and I actually don't. It's the opposite. But I just approach things a little differently, your average wrestling fan.

But hopefully in another week or two, all this chatter will die down here. Well, it's something to be celebrated, but it is going to give us something to talk about. And so is ad-free shows. I saw some chatter the other night on social, Eric. If you responding to something Larry Zabisco may have said of one of our recent Q&As over at ad-freeshows.com. You see over there, we've got tons of bonus content from our current podcast hosts that you see. We've got a bunch of special series. We have something called False Finish.

I just recently sat down with Zach Gowan. and got his full story and professional wrestling. And we've done that a few times with guys like Chris Harris and Glacier. We just did an insider. It's not too long ago with the artist who drew some of the more iconic WWF pay-per-view posters and helped in the art department and the costume department. He created the costumes for like Razor Ramon and Papashango. Stay tuned for my conversation with Tom Fleming.

We've also just recently put a couple of different episodes of the book in the can where we talk about when the Jim Crockett Promotions outfit went to the NWA meeting and said, hey, moving forward, you can't just have the champ anymore. If you book the champ, you're going to book half of our roster and we're going to be 50-50 partners.

And then they tried that experiment with the Fullers and with Don Owen and with Vern Gagne and with the Jarrett's. And we talk about how it all happened and what shook out in the big controversy between Vern and the Crockett at that unbelievable super show they did, Super Clash in Chicago at Comiskey Park, and how the very next day they did the hottest angle in JCP history where they put hard times on dusty roads.

And we really had almost like a creation of the four horsemen there. All of that is available at ad-freeshows.com. But this clip I wanted to share with the audience. We had Larry Zabisco on, and we were talking about who the real creator of the NWO was. And I want to play that clip for you right now, Eric. Dude, I'm the one that programmed the whole line move. I mean, I was doing some, when I first, yeah, they had a meeting in the back one day

and I found out what was going on with Scott Hall coming in and they had some idea. And then Eric looked around and said, anybody got anything to say? And I raised my hand. And he went, oh, God, what? And I laid out a different idea. I programmed the whole beginning how Scott Hall came in. And then NAS and sick back. And Eric goes, oh, God, this pisses me off.

Your idea is so good. And I thought about mine for months. But he listened to me. And I'm the one that programmed the whole beginning of the, the NWO. And even in promos, right before it happened, right when it came out, I went, oh my God, there's going to be

a new world order in wrestling. And Eric heard that and it stuck in his head. And that's the perfect name for this. You know, inadvertently, I named the NWO, and I programmed the whole beginning of that scenario that got

to be the hottest, biggest thing in wrestling. Well, there you go, Eric. Eric, we've got the full interview with Larry Zabisco, plus thousands of other hours of bonus content. You can check it all out right now with this special offer, courtesy of 83 weeks. New subscribers can save 20% off their first month by going to Eric save20.com. That's 20% off one month right now at Eric save20.com. Eric, ad-free shows, man.

There's something for everybody over there just earlier this week as you and I are recording. we had a JR on with all of our top guys and answering their questions and a good time was had by all there's something for everybody at AFS no there is there is but um I I truly truly I have a strong affection I like Larry a lot I have great memories working with Larry and hanging around with Larry, flying airplanes with Larry. I like Larry a lot.

However, that is the most ridiculous thing. I've heard it. I mean, Larry and Greg Ghani are now competing for the absurdity award. This is just insanely

silly to me. Larry was never involved in creative. Now, Larry would have an idea here and there. Most of the time, it would involve Larry, by the way, because anytime Larry would corner me or ask for a meeting, and again, we were friends. So it's not like, you know,

I stiff-armed him or anything like that. It was the opposite. But anytime Larry came to me was something that was always involved him getting back into the ring. That's what Larry was focused on. Larry never came to a creative meeting. I don't think he had been in the CNN Center more than three or four times brought his entire tenure there.

And probably then it was to produce something in post-production down in the studio. It's just silly. And I hope Larry was high as fuck. He did it because that's at least understanding. But it didn't sound high to me. And he just sounded like a lot like a lot of, other people take credit for other people's work. And I think in Larry's mind, you know, part of what Larry said was true.

You know, Larry did refer to the new, not the new world order as we came to know it. But Larry did make a comment in commentary at one point about the new world order. And it did stick in my head. And it came out in my, my preparation with Hulk Hogan, right before Hulk went out to cut the promo, You know, the phrase is New World Order professional wrestling just kind of rolled off my tongue. I went, whoa, that's pretty freaking cool. That part is absolutely true, by the life. But as far as programming anything, Larry didn't know anything about what was going on.

I kept all of it to see. I didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell my wife. I didn't tell anybody because I didn't want the word to get out. I certainly wouldn't have consulted with Larry and the idea that there was a big meeting in the back and I was asking for ideas. Come on now, Larry, there's a lot of people that worked in that environment all at the same time that know that that's just silly.

So whatever, you know, this is interesting because I, there are people that I really am close to that I've heard tell stories and I'm. They can, wait a minute, that never happened. Right. It certainly didn't happen the way you're laying it out. And these are people that are really good friends of mine. In some cases, some of my best friends that are still some of my best friends. And I hear them and I'm going, but I'm not going to call them out on it because I think to some degree they've started to believe it.

They've had enough interviews and they've talked to enough people and they're asked enough questions that they're They start repeating variations of the truth and build upon, as Larry did here, by the fact that, you know, he did come out and use the term New World Order and a weak layer or whatever it was. I used it. That part is true. But to take that kernel of truth and then build a castle on it, I think people do that just because it makes them feel good about themselves.

And I don't want to take that away from anybody. but I can't sit here and listen to it and not respond about it's just Larry Larry is in Larry land Larry land is a real thing those of you that watch Larry Zabisco in the AWA will know that Larry Land is a real thing as a Biscoe heard an example of it but I love you Larry I'll always we'll always laugh and joke and talk about the great times we see each other, you know, I may even hit your bong once in a while, but come on now. Unrelated question completely, but are you a Metallica fan? No.

Okay. I was just wondering who do you think could have been the best base player, Metallica ever had, but you're not really a big fan. So, Michael. Okay, I see. You know, and I think it's inherent in wrestling personality. especially ones that have been around for a long time out there cutting promos back in the 70s or the 80s probably in the 90s and you're in your character and you're trying to create

excitement you're trying to sell tickets and you're trying to sell out pay-per-views you're constantly in the selling mode yes and then you leave the industry and you know 20 years later 30 years later you're still in that selling mode and making something that didn't happen seem like it did because you're selling you're that's just the way. way you're wired. And I get them. I've caught myself sometimes going, wait a minute,

did it really happen the way I think it happened or do I want to think it happened? It didn't happen. You know, it's, it happens. I don't hold it against Larry or anybody else. Me neither.

I'm entertained by it. I think it's fun. Michael wants to know, Eric, what are some of the nicknames you've had over your life? Like, we know EZE on TV, but what else?

All through high school, in college, it was just Bish. Oh, okay. And occasionally on the high school wrestling team, it was Bish the Fish. On a good day, I was pretty average wrestler. And on a bad day, it was a bad day. So, yeah, Bish is the one that probably stuck with the largest part of my life. I've never really had a lot of other dickhead, motherfucker, shit like that. I've heard those before, yeah.

Hey, Jim and Buffalo wants to know. On a recent AFS special, Larry Zubisco said he never saw Goldberg-Pen-Hogan at the Georgia Dome because by the time the match happened, he was halfway home to Alpharetta. Was it common for Larry to leave Nitro ever the first hour? And his EP, what did you think about that? Well, Larry had to hurry up and get home because he had to come up with the next really big idea. that would change the wrestling industry. So, you know, it was no problem for me, you know, having Larry leave early

because I knew he was concentrating on that next really big idea because he was such a creative genius. But it didn't bother me, you know. I wasn't one of those that expected people to stick around and watch the last match. You hope they want to? And in a case of someone like Larry, who was in commentary, I think it would be important for him to know what really happened.

But here's the reality. He could watch a tape of it. He could get the information from somebody else that was there. He's going to get direction from a producer when he's doing a stand-up or what he's doing voiceovers that'll keep him in the loo. So it, you know, is it disappointing? Yeah, kind of it is because it says a lot about what someone. someone like Larry really thought about the product, more importantly, how invested he was

in the product. That was a big event. I mean, that was, you know, 141,000 people, I think. Oh, listen to you. Will you stop it? Well, no, I mean, here's the thing, though, I was going to say, and I know people are going to be critical of this, but I'll just say it. I'll tell you, when, I mean, I've been a season ticket holder for Alabama for a long,

long time. Well, there's over 100,000 folks that can cram in that stadium. So if it's like start of the fourth quarter and Alabama's up 21 points, I look over at dad and I'm like, you want to beat the traffic? Because I know if I don't leave right then and I hang around, it's going to add an extra three hours to my journey. I don't know if I go right now, I can do it. And we're not just talking about a special show at center stage.

You're talking 40-something thousand people who are all going to be trying to leave the parking garage at the exact same time and you live right now ferretta so hey man let's beat the traffic i can watch the nitro replay tonight and maybe hit said bong you referenced earlier and be just fine as opposed to watching it on a tiny monitor backstage so and that's that is so that is right on the money ian rad i didn't even think about that aspect of it but that is so true and back then you know georgia dome was kind of it was relatively new and i was just in atlantic a couple of weeks ago, it amazes me how massive that city has become. But what's interesting about Atlanta, you know, I lived there for eight or nine years,

is the infrastructure of that city, the highways, the streets, the traffic patterns, all of that, even the sewage system, because when you get a half an inch of rain or an inch of rain in Atlanta, and you've got standing water up and down the highway all the way into town, downtown Atlanta. it was hard to get in and out of the Georgia Dome back then. So that is a legitimate reason for wanting to leave room. And I wouldn't hold it against somebody. And as you pointed out, I didn't think about that.

We'll watch it on a replay. So I get it. It didn't bother me. It wouldn't bother me. I used to do it even in WWE. Yeah. I mean, allegedly they had to call you back for something once, right?

Well, no, I don't think they called me back. What happened was I had, left early because I had to drive to the next. Oh, you know what? This was the rumble where Vince Tour is shit, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, that wasn't it either.

It was a different event. So, no, because I saw it when Vince Torr's quads, I was there. I watched them. Okay, okay. Bring them out on a stretcher. It was another event. Something happened in the ring. Vince called an audible, wanted me to come in as a general manager and make a statement

that kind of would tie everything together, at least a little bit. And I had already left because I was, I had another building to go to. I had about a four hour drive and it was midnight. And I had to get up early the next morning, go to wherever else I was going. Anyway, I left early. And I got back to my hotel room and I'm just getting settled in and a bottle of water. I just turned on TV and then my cell phone rings and it's Vince. And I don't remember exactly what the conversation was, but I remember how I felt.

I felt like shit. I felt like I let my dad down. I really did. And from that point forward, till the day I left in whatever year it was, 2006 or 2007, 2006, I think it was. Every time that main event started, I would go up into guerrilla, I would stand in a corner out of the way near the entrance, and I would wait for the bell to ring, signifying the match was over. I did not leave Guerrilla until after the show was over. Not only did I stay in the building and be available backstage, I stood in the corner and guerrilla every single Monday night

from that call forward because I felt so horrible. Well, if you want to feel a little better every morning, can I recommend one delicious scoop of AG1? It's a dabble do you, folks. We've all grown up here in that, but it's really true here. Think about all the benefits you're going to get with just one scoop of AG1 and a cup of water.

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wants to know who is the w v's top guy right now is it cody is it roman is it l a night yeah or is it someone else yeah there's probably there's multiple answers to that no wrong answer right no there's no wrong answer i think for the future la night i think l.a night's going to end up being a massive star he's not yet he's a big star he's a huge star but he's not as big as he's going to be the future so he he is a massive star in the waiting room right roman reigns certainly is the man right now That's where the focus is. Cody's got to be the guy.

As of right now, Cody is the future of WWE over the next 24 to 36 months, for sure. What happens after that, who knows, injuries, other opportunities, other stars that come out of the woodwork, kind of like L.A. Knight has. Who knows what the future is? but I think plans, I would imagine, again, I don't talk to anybody in WWE about creative stuff, but I would imagine most of the planning and the conversations are all around Cody and what's going to happen. And by that metric alone, I would say Cody.

It's going to be interesting to see what they do with the main event next year because on the one hand, you know, we know that Roman's going to be in one of those. There's still some hope, I suppose, that they could pull something off with the rock. I'm not super optimistic about that. But you've also got Cody, who I think most people believe, is going to be there. But it's a two-night WrestleMania. So what's LA Knight going to do?

And how does that affect the ladies? I mean, normally, ladies are going to help close one of the nights or at least be a co-main event. I know this past year we had the tag match with Kevin and Sammy against the Bloodline and the Usos. And then the next nine, of course, we had Roman and Cody. But it's a great problem to have, but it is one that makes you scratch your head like, hey, of all these top guys, what is going to be the main event? And it almost makes me think of like peak WCW, where you had Flair and you had Hogan and you had Savage and you had Goldberg and you had Sting and you had DDP and Dan, Dan, Dan,

and Dan, it's like, dude, is there such a thing as too much talent? Like, that's a great problem to have when we can't really call like what will be night one and what will be night two wasn't that long ago that was a little easier to forecast i don't know if that's the case right now yeah and it's it kind of trills down into the audience as well that's one of the great things about professional wrestling and i think why it is endured as much as it has is because wrestling fans are so invested in the product and they all have their different opinions and each one of the people that we're talking about are valid options like great options you know, to put at the very top of either night.

And as you said, man, what a great problem to have. How'd you like to wake up and bang your head on your desk trying to figure that one out every day? Awesome. It's going to be interesting to see, you know, what they do with L.A. night next, too. There's been lots of rumor in innuendo out there that maybe he's looking for a new contract

and maybe the two sides are far apart on money. I don't know what's real or not real. It's been reported he's got time left on his deal either through next year or the following year. But certainly, you know, those downside guarantees, people can still exceed those. I mean, the last I've heard, that's the way the contracts are written.

It doesn't mean that's the most you'll make. That's the minimum you'll make. And you've got to think he's a needle mover for them right now. I'm really hopeful and optimistic that that momentum can sustain. We know what momentum Cody had and then he got derailed with the big peck tear. And we just started the show today talking about Aaron Rogers.

It almost becomes like a war of attrition. Who will be healthy, you know, at this time or at WrestleMania time? So I'm pulling for all those guys because this is one of the most dynamic rosters in history. And I know that, you know, people who grew up in the attitude era, they would argue that and say, oh, no, 98 or 02 or whatever. was stronger. But I don't think sometimes we know that

until we're out of that and look back. I think with the benefit of hindsight one day, people will say, dude, look how loaded this roster was. You couldn't get all those stars on the same card no matter how hard you tried. Yeah, over two nights. Yeah.

It's crazy. Here's another one. This is from Michael Eldridge. Hypothetically, had WCW won the Monday Night War, and W.W.E. went out of business. Would the AOL Time Warner merger still have the same effect? on the eventual demise of WCW.

That's an interesting question, Eric, because that probably means the end of big-time professional wrestling in America, too, if that's real. Yeah, I'm not sure I followed the question exactly, but had WCW won the Monday Night Wars AOL time order merger going through, absolutely 100% WCW would have been off the books. Oh, my. It is a, no, it was a little bit. I mean, Jamie Kellner, the people in charge, the people running Turner under AOL time Warner,

in time Warner, they did not want professional wrestling on their schedule. They just didn't. And the Fusion Media acquisition of WCW contemplated, it was in the contract, that we would have two hours on Monday night, two hours on Thursday. That's four hours of prime time, which is like beachfront property.

Yeah. For a television network, cable or studio, cable or otherwise. And AOL, Time Warner, did not see professional wrestling in their prime time lineup. It wouldn't have mattered how successful or unsuccessful if WCW was. You know, I'll go off the deep end here again. I don't want to go too far off track down this rabbit hole. But it is my firm opinion, especially after reading Guy Evans' book, Nitro book, the financial collapse in many respects was premeditated.

Talked before about how in the middle of a year, while I'm overperforming on projections in my budget, in the middle of the year, I'm overperforming, what do they do? they gut my budget, even though I had commitments and plans in place, and some of those were contractual, they gutted my budget. And, oh, by the way, dumped another show on that I had to produce out of our budget, not the Turner AOL-Time Warner budget. Is that planning for long-term success or is that planning for demise? I think the AOL-L-time Warner merger was a death nail for WCW.

20 minutes after first meeting. There was just no way. We were going to be a part of the primetime schedule. Not going to happen. Rob Page wants to know, if not the Mall of America, where would the first Nitro have taken place? Well, that's a great question.

And it's one that we struggled with. I just happened to be familiar with Mall of America because my family was from Minnesota. I grew up in Minnesota or lived there for a long time, at least. And the Mall of America was like new at that point in time. It's getting a lot of press. Had it not been for all of America, I don't know where it would have been because here's, again, see, honest truth.

We couldn't fill, we couldn't put 1,500 paid fans or 2,000 paid fans in a building for a television show in September of 95. we couldn't and there's no way I wanted to launch a shell as much heat on it as nitro no pun intended um as many eyes that were on it including Ted Turner's I felt a lot of pressure to be able to deliver a product visually that would camouflage the fact that we couldn't couldn't sell tickets we couldn't give tickets I don't know where it would have I really don't We struggled with that. That's why we ended up on Mall of America.

It was not an easy shoot. It was not a fun show to shoot for the production perspective. Think about it. You got all your satellite trucks, all your TV trucks. Everything's out outside in the parking lot. And you're running cable through the largest mall in America. Yeah, that's less than ideal. Is.

And oh, by the way, the general public is all moving around in your workspace. Yeah. It was not easy. But it was the only option. Jim and Buffalo has a great question about a story we've never talked about. DDP once said on his pod that a road trip to a TV taping to Doth in Alabama, you two hit a storm that was so bad it was actually raining frogs. He said you could recall the story better.

Eric, do you remember and what can you tell us about it? I do remember that. You know, DDP and I, whenever we would do TV, this is back before Nitro, but whenever we were just announcers working together most of the time. And we would ride together because we lived right down the street from each other. And typically you'd, you know, you get to whether it was Dothan or anywhere within a 250 mile, 300 mile radius, 250 miles, I think was the radius we drove to. And Paige and I would ride together and sometimes in the middle of nowhere, you know, small towns, Dothan certainly being a small town at that point at least. and we were coming back it must have been it was after the TV taping so it's probably 10 o'clock at night

we started heading back to Atlanta and it is pouring and we're we're going down just a two-lane country road it wasn't even really it was paved but it was not a highway is about highways and it's pouring I mean the windshield wipers are slamming back and forth we got them turned up at full speed and we still couldn't see anything. And we got into this depressed area, I mean, geographically depressed. I mean, it was low-lying area that was kind of flooded. And we're driving a little slow because the road was as flooded as it was. And all of a sudden, there are frogs jumping over the hood of the car landing on the windshield.

It was like a freaking movie. I'd never seen enemies running over frogs. were killing thousands of frogs along the way, just splattering them. You could almost feel them. It was horrible. And it actually looked like it was raining frogs because they'd end up on a windshield.

You get frogs, got his little leg hooked on the windshield. Flap, lap, lap, lap, lap. Frog's probably screaming in a frog, frog voice. Give me off of here, bah. Torturing frogs all along the way. It was, really, it was like the, maybe had a little CSI Alabama moment in your bathroom. You know, you're trying to trim yourself up, get ready for an anniversary,

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said that if you're not in the wrestling business to be the world champion, you have no business being in it. Do you agree or disagree with this sentiment? I think the first person I heard say that, Eric, was Dusty Road. And I didn't actually hear him say it, but I heard him referenced with that quote when he was talking to DDP. DDP has said often that that's the way Dusty felt. I don't know that I necessarily agree with that, though.

Where do you land on it? Torn, because I understand the motivation behind it. And if you're not motivated to be the very best of what you do, then maybe you're not in the right position. And that applies to everything, profession, right? But there are a lot of really, really, really super successful people that had an amazing time in the professional wrestling business for decades or more that were never world champion. So it's not like your career is meaningless if you've never become world champion because you're contributing a lot, in many cases. Contribution is incredibly valuable. And I don't know. I, I tend to

disagree. I tend to disagree. I think a healthy perspective would be, I want to do everything I can to become the world champion. I want to improve my game. I want to work on whatever weaknesses I have. it's my interview skills or my physique or I work in the ring or even the way I conduct myself backstage. I want to check every box I can to get that opportunity. But I'm not going to allow myself to be disappointed in myself or my career choice if that never happens. I don't think Dolf Ziegler right now is sitting at home lamenting the fact he's not the world champion right because he probably has millions and millions of reasons sitting in a bank account someone to suggest otherwise and i think he truly enjoys what he does

i get that impression i don't talk to him but i get the impression that he really enjoys what he does so i i understand it i can relate to it to a certain extent but i i would be careful to instruct people like if you can't be world heavyweight champion or if you don't have that desire, you shouldn't be this business. I don't necessarily. I understand it. Let's see what you think about ratings here. Mark Ashworth wants to know.

It confuses me how certain talent gets praise or blamed for a quarter hour rating. When it's surely the segment or matched before it that's responsible, strong lead-in would give a positive rating next quarter. So why do we still attribute it to the talent performing in the current quarter? You used to be Mr. Ratings. What's your stance on this, Eric? I never really look I quarter hours minute by minute ratings can give you an indication they can they can they can give you a little bit of insight but they're not the end all be all and I think what happens so often is again people that have never been in the not the wrestling business per se although that too but the television business if you've never really produced television at a high level in the competitive environment,

whether it's wrestling or anything else, the idea of quarter hour ratings are going to say something to you that they don't say to people that are actually in the industry. And as the question pointed out, you know, any variation, you know, your lead in, the match before you, what was going on on a competitive channel, there's so many variables that when I'm not. looked at to commercial positioning and things like that, quarter hour ratings, I would look at, but I would look at them over an extended period of time.

So in other words, if I wanted to evaluate a storyline or talent, and I wanted to get some insight as to what the audience was thinking, not what I was thinking, not what the creative team was thinking necessarily that what the guys in a locker room or the girls in a locker room what their opinion was i wanted to know what the audience was feeling much like doing research as i've talked about at nauseam here and i would look a quarter hour ratings but i looked at i would look at a talent's quarter hour ratings over the over the course of 90 days to see if there was a pattern there sometimes the pattern would be yeah he didn't get the highest or she didn't get the quarter hour rating, but because of the competition and the other variables, even

though it wasn't the highest quarter hour on a show necessarily, it did better than expected. So I think if you look at things like minute by minute ratings and quarter hour ratings and you really understand what they represent in big picture, a macro perspective, and you look at quarter hour ratings over, as I said, in my case, it was two, three months. I would look at them and you start to see a bit of a pattern, then it had some value. But to look at any one show and spend any more than a fleeting millisecond on trying to evaluate minute-by-minute ratings or quarter-hour ratings usually is an indication of someone's lack of knowledge and experience or ignorance. J.C. Gostilly has a great question for you. In relation to the punk A.W situation, Eric said that someone needs to, quote, unquote, want to work with another person.

Curious why that is. If both parties are under contract and the promoter says a direction is the way to go, aren't the performers responsible for carrying that out? Absolutely. Absolutely 100%. However, there's this thing called chemistry. Yeah. And chemistry changes every good chemistry. changes everything. So does bad chemistry.

And to the extent that from a contractual point of view, certainly, and from just a straight up professional perspective, absolutely. And I'm sure there were guys who have worked together that didn't really like each other, but went out as professionals, got the job done, had the match, may have had a great match,

but it might have been a classic had the chemistry been right. Chemistry is really important. It's, you know, it's for human beings. This is not science. This is not math. These are human beings out there creating emotion. And the stronger the chemistry is between participants, that effort, the better the end result. Good question here from, what a fun name this is, too.

Vince's creepy stash, he wants to know, have you seen anything since leaving the business where you thought, man, I would have loved to have been a part of that. I think the cinematic things that we saw during COVID, the producer and me, wishes I would have been a part of that. Because that was really cool. And it was groundbreaking. It was born out of necessity as sometimes many great things are. That's probably it, to be honest.

not Dave once that's a fantasy booking time 1998 and you're at the turning point in the Monday Night Wars you have the ability to bring in one person from the WWF to turn the tide

who do you bring in and what do you do with them you go for the hype of the rock or the ultimate heel triple eight I'd go for Paterson oh what there we go

absolutely Paterson you didn't need the talent in front of the camera. We had, as you put it out, a little while ago, we were so deep in talent that, yeah, there was no need for another star. There was a need for someone who really could lay out great matches and great finishes.

And I would have hired Pat Patterson in a heartbeat. Freaking great question here from Santino. At Tino Bug on Twitter wants to know, if you weren't a fan of WCD. I know you weren't a fan of WCW. go into three hours and not a fan of adding thunder via the option of one happening and the other never occurring what do you choose not producing thunder three hours is hard but it's manageable you're going to get audience fatigue you're going to get audience drop off but you know that going

in you know as a producer there's no way you're going to be able to hold peak audience attention, three hours every Monday night, 52 weeks a year. It's a grind and it's very difficult. But it's manageable as long as you manage your expectations along with it. Thunder was, that was the straw that helped break the camel's bat. It wasn't the big part of it. Fun question here from Paul Benedict. At Ben underscore E underscore D.

When the bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange for the TKO listing, what did you think of Vince McMahon doing the Hulk Hogan behind the ear move? I kind of dug it. That's fine, isn't it? I kind of dug it. It put a smile on my face. The biggest thing I noticed is Vince wasn't wearing a tie. Did you notice that?

You know, I kind of wondered about that too. I wondered, was that a spinal thing? Was he just trying to be the cool guys? he's trying to look younger. I mean, he's trying new things like with that skinny mustache. Yeah, I mean, he's dyed his hair and he's dying his mustache. And now he looks great. You know, I talked to someone recently who said he's down in the gym working out.

No. The fact of the comment was, if you didn't know, he had just gone through back surgery, you would never have imagined it. That's, that's Vince McMahon. But, yeah, I know, look at how many guys were, you know, Vince is not wearing a tie, R is not wearing a tie. R is not wearing a tie Dana White's not wearing a tie

Nick Conn's not wearing a tie I see I see smiling Kevin Dunvector he's wearing a tie I don't think I've ever seen Nick Con Triple H doesn't look very happy but he's wearing a tie so yeah I don't know you know Vince once again he looked dapper as fuck

didn't he in his lavender port coat sporting that Arrow Flynn mustache A lot of people pointing that out that they don't think Paul sorry Hunter looked very happy. I don't know.

Do you call him Paul now or do you call him on her? Well, this is no longer a TV character. I guess right there he's Paul, right? In that photo, he's Paul. Well, he'll always be Paul from this point. I got wrestling. Well, neither does Hulk, but. Yeah, I guess it would depend, right?

Yeah. Because I do believe it is usually, like I have to think about referring him, referring to Paul as Paul Leveck. It's a conscious effort on my part. Yes. In a way, it's my way of respecting him for the position he's in now. That's correct. Yes.

As opposed to the character he was then. But I think in public, you know, I'm going to be over in the UK here in Ireland and Scotland or so. And when it comes up, I'll probably, unless it's in the context of Paul Lebeck's current role, I'll always. Hunter. I, we haven't, this is Conrad from Huntsville asking a question. question now. We haven't talked about this, but there's lots of debate about, hey, what's going to happen with Edge? As we're recording this, they removed him from the WWU roster on the website. And then a few hours later, I guess he returned under miscellaneous. But there's

been lots of speculation, lots of rumor and innuendo to the point that Edge actually had to go correct the narrative and say, no, some of the things that have been reported are not true. I'm okay if what happened last night in Toronto was my last match or so I thought I was but I do have a contract extension in my inbox right now from WWE but I haven't signed it

I'm not sure what to do and when that news came out that he was no longer listed on the website and maybe there were a lot of folks inside of WWE who allegedly believe he's at EW bound. The former Sasha Banks, Mercedes,

she actually tweeted out the opening lyrics for his theme song on this day i can see clearly um what do you think you think we're going to see edge over in a ewe and and what effect if any do you think that'll have on business you know i don't know i don't know edge well enough on a personal level to try to predict what he may or may not do i know he has options right he could certainly go back to w we if that's that's his choice he could pursue his acting career which he's very good at the way like really good I think he's got potential coming in a pretty major player when it comes to television and certainly AEW is an option I would assume it is I

I don't know I'm well enough to try to put myself in his shoes I think if AEW is the direction he's going to go it's probably because he wants to finish off his career with his buddy Christian. And perhaps they see a great story in an angle there. I can't imagine any other reason he'd want to go there because it is a step down. It just is, you know, in terms of the stage and the presence and penetration into the markets and all the real metrics other than the ones that exist in Tony Kahn's head, I'm not sure I would want to end my career that way. But again, I'm not him. And here's what I'm really lacking is knowing how strong his desire to perform in front of the live audiences. As a performer, as an actor, I do really think he has chops. I really, really do. And has options there.

But sometimes people just get addicted to that live performance. Freaking Rolling Stones just dropped a new album last week. You know, I mean, some people just love performing in front of a live crowd. And if Edge is driven perhaps more by that desire than he is about necessarily how people will remember his career and how going to AEW may affect that, because let's just be, you know, balls and strikes here, the trajectory of people's career when they go from WWE to AEW has not been great. It's been disappointing for the way.

And is that how Edge wants to end his career? I don't know. I wish I did. But here's the good news. Whatever choice he makes will be the, will be a good one. You can't, can't make a wrong decision there.

Scott Norris has a question that we recently touched on, not too long ago. I guess it was last week when we were talking about everything that happened with Lambros. Scott Norris writes, what was Eric's first reaction when he saw the exploding vagina nitro set in person for the first time

in 1999? I think you've referred to it as the cat's ass. I think exploding vagina is a Tony Chirvani ism, if you will. But yeah, first reaction. Probably run down to the bar and make some drinks. No, I was just disappointed.

Yeah. You know, but I was, I remember looking at it and I was surrounded by probably 20 other people that were in the marketing department and pay-per-view department, whatever, probably 15, 20 people in the room as presentation was being made. And I was really hoping for something great and it wasn't great. And I was just disappointed. And I knew, because I have been told by Harvey Schiller, as I think we may have touched on, talked about it, is that I had to learn how to delegate and not try to control everything under the WCW. And part of that was letting people succeed and letting people fail. And I was disappointed, but I was very measured and how I reacted because I knew people were watching me. And I was pretty, I mean, I wasn't hard to read.

Not hard to read now either, but maybe even more so back then. That was pretty easy. And, okay, everybody's watching me. How am I going to react to this? How does this play into this new evolution of my professional management career here? So I reacted as best I could of the circumstances, but I was really responsible. Well, I would think you would say, you know what? let's head on down to jocks and jills let's tip a few cold ones back and my only advice to you

be hey eric before you do that i don't you have one of these zbiotics because otherwise you're going to feel miserable the next day but luckily there's a game-changing product called zibiotics here to help you eric you see let's face it a night out with drinks maybe a late night we just don't bounce back like we used to the next day and we have to make a choice we can either have a great night or a great next day, but Zbiotics can change all that. You see, Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic is 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, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration,

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we want to thank Zibiotics for sponsoring today's episode and my fun weekend Eric, a real fun question here about a current topic I'm not sure if you've seen it yet but boy the internet was a buzz last week Robbie Rogers wants to know what are your thoughts on the wrestlers on Netflix what are your overall thoughts on AEW

I'm sorry OVW I haven't seen the project, I've seen clips of it and certainly promotions of it for it on social media, but I have not seen it yet. And I think OVW in general, look, they've been around a long time. They've produced some great talent. There's a legacy there, a legitimate legacy, and a well-deserved one. I didn't work with OVW in any official capacity at all.

Very good friends with Al Snow, very integrated into OVW. you. Nothing but respect and affection for Al. He's, he is a great guy and a very talented guy. You have you heard me say this before. You know, some people are great at doing something, but they're not great teachers. Other people are great teachers, but they're not so good at achieving something. Al is one of those guys who's great at both. Al is a great teacher. He really, really understand psychology. So I think Al's impact on OVW is one that people

go back and look at yours to comment and recognize how valuable as it was. But beyond that, I really I don't have any first-hand knowledge, but they've certainly created a legacy for themselves, haven't they? No doubt.

Here's a fun one from Dave McLeigh. Were you disappointed that you did not do your Hall of Fame speech in front of a live crowd? Thank you, Eric Chance, would have been awesome. I never really considered that, but that's a good question. Would you like to have done it in front of a live crowd, Eric? No doubt.

No doubt. And I was still, you know, it still meant a lot to me, you know, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame just because of the people that are already in there. Being recognized by your peers and things like that. It meant a lot to me, but, come on, getting out in front of, I've crowd and getting that reaction live, there's nothing like that. There's nothing like it. A live crowd is as addicting as probably any chemical out there for some people.

Be it is. That's the one thing I do miss about being in the business is that opportunity to get out there. There may be a couple other little smaller things, but that ability to get out there in front of five, six, eight, ten, twenty thousand And having the ability to create emotion and reaction, it's an empowering feeling. At least I miss. Sure, I would have been much cooler. Billy Gun fact on Twitter, always bringing the good questions, wants to know, if Eric was

able to get Billy Gunn to be the third man at Bash at the Beach in 1996, how would he book the invasion storyline when WCW bought the WWF in 1997? Oh, I don't even know, man. I'd have to sit down with a six-pack and a pizza to figure that one out. I just, I can answer that one on the fly.

I love that question so much. Like, clearly, if you would have went with Billy Gunn instead of Hulk Hogan, you just would have bought the WWF and brought them over a year later. Just so fun. I don't know why I love that question so much, but I do. So thank you, Billy Gunn fact.

Robert Peacock wants to know. In late 97, early 98, you often state that you wouldn't listen to executives at AOL Time Warner because before any time an issue went to Ted Turner, it would always just go your way. Was there a specific event or issue that made you realize he no longer had the power over his former company and you might be in trouble? Did you try to reach out to Ted during that time? I didn't try to reach out to Ted. And I don't think it would have mattered at that point because Ted was so immersed in the AOL time-winter merger that Ted Turner, no, this is Ted saying it, not me. Ted didn't even realize that the rug was being pulled out for money. At that point in time, Ted Turner was eight and had very little control of his company.

But guess what? I didn't even know that until long after I was gone. And people started breaking down the merger, you know, describing it as the worst corporate merger in the head. history of corporate mergers and things like that. That's when all of that information, you know, became available to me. And during the time, there was no, there was no one moment. There was no one event, no one circumstance that made me think that Ted was losing control. So no.

I mean, I guess the answer to the question is no. It was because it wasn't too long after. that I found out. And, you know, I guess if I think about it really hard, I would have expected had things gone the way they normally went, 95, 96, 97, early 98, my resistance to corporate would have ultimately ended up by default in a meeting with Ted.

The fact that that never happened should have been an indicator to me that something was going on, but it wasn't. It didn't. This is an interesting one from Paul. Jones, what is the most unique thing you've autographed for a fan? Nothing really stands out in my mind. I always kind of cocked my head and wonder why when people come up to me with baseballs and want me to autograph baseball.

Get that one. And it's hard to write on. You got to write really small and it's curved. It's supposed to charge extra for the sweet spot. Yeah, but I can't think of anything else that was really weird. You ever have to sign any boobies? I don't think so. I mean, I think, you know, there's been occasions where email will come up and ask

me to sign her chest, but it was always, you know, up high. He was never like, okay, baby, pop that thing out. Let's get a look. my goodness David Holmes wants to know what's the biggest hiring regret that you have talent-wise was there one talent that you should have hired wish you you had a chance to and didn't or is there one that you did that maybe you wish you didn't no reflection on him but Brett Hart okay just nothing good came out of it not for him not for him not for For us, not for the fans, everybody lost.

That's interesting. What would he have done? Just wrestled Japan a little bit? I don't think I could. Part for me to imagine him doing anything with ECW. I guess that would have been the only other option in America, right? Yeah. No, I either that or he would have gone back and work for Vince for significantly less amount of money than he had been promised.

But, yeah, that was. And I'm sure Brett would say. the same thing, you know. Maybe the one time we'll agree on something. But, yeah, that was just a bad situation. You know, I strive for an embrace and I'm grateful for opportunities where everybody wins. Now, if there's three parties involved and it's a win, win in a situation, and that's optimal, right? You hope for those types of opportunities throughout your career or your life.

Sure. With Brett, it was a lose, lose, lose. For that reason alone, I wish I wouldn't. Luke Robinson has an interesting question. Was it ever discussed when you guys did the April 2000 reboot of WCW to perhaps move Nitro to another day of the week, so you were no longer competing against Raw? And if you had successfully gotten your hands on WCW in 2001,

would you have still kept the show on Monday night against Raw? Absolutely. What I kept Monday night would not have given that up. would not have thrown in the towel, I would much prefer to fight. Even if I'm not winning, I prefer to fight than to hide. So no, I would have, absolutely, I would have fought hard to keep it on Monday night. Had someone suggested to me that we should possibly move it, I would have been adamant. we had another question about rousseau this one comes to us from golden serenity

he wants to know and eric i know what your knee-jerk reaction is going to be really think about this before you just slam dunk it what are your best moments working with rousseau it had to be something good dude come on no it It's not when you say the best moment. I think that period of time when Vince and I first started working together when I came back to WCW, when we, for better or worse, agreed to do the New Blood Millionaire's Club thing, there was a period of a couple weeks where that felt pretty good.

the chemistry hadn't gone bad yet you know Vince didn't reveal himself to be what ultimately he was or is or was whatever so there was a honeymoon period there of maybe a couple weeks or a month

that I went wow this could work out this could work that would have to be it here's the one from kc he wants to know do you think that social media has created a paradigm shift in the creative process when long-term layered storytelling isn't utilized because this new generation of fans demand instant gratification they can voice opinions immediately i mean that's that's fair do you think wrestling booking has changed because of social media no no i think maybe it did For a while, but as evidenced by WWE, their commitment to long-term storytelling, real storytelling, not cosplay storytelling, or using an angle or the fact that people have wrestled before five over the course of five years and saying they've got history

together, relying on that kind of terminology to justify or sell what you want people to think as an actual story. That drives me a little bad shit. Story has elements. The elements are consistent. They have been since the beginning of time since cavemen were drawing pictures of the hunt with burnt sticks on walls.

Storytelling is, if you really analyze storytelling and you look at the classics, you know, Tom DeShane has been on at free shows a couple times with me and he's a he's a scholar he graduated at harvard english literature wrote a book about shakespeare's propelactic characters if you can believe i even remember how to say that word it's funny not prophylactic um skulls propelactic different um and tom and i have had long discussions about the elements of story and And Tom, because he's such a wrestling historian, really, and he's got a great mind for storytelling, obviously.

But we'll go back and look at storylines, you know, macho man and Hulk Hogan. We've taken a look at that story and because of Tom's experience and what he's so gifted at, been able to break down successful stories and draw direct analogies in comparisons to classic literature. stories at their essence are very much the same. And I think what we've seen on WWE over the last year or two, maybe more, suggests to me that there's a commitment to the kind of elements and discipline that goes into real storytelling

as opposed to independent wrestling storytelling. Two different things. So I think storytelling and wrestling is going to be healthy. It's going to grow. It's going to become more successful. I think eventually AEW will realize that and kind of adopt the formula and recognize what they're not doing well and combine that with what they are doing well. There are things that they do do well. But I don't think social media today is going to impact that.

You said do-do. Nathan once. You said do-do. Do-do. I said do-do? Yeah, you did. You said do-do. It made me happy.

Was I supposed to say shit? No, I just like when you're on here talking your shit. Hey, speaking on here talking our shit, we need to give a shout out. We got so many folks hanging out with us in our live studio audience. You know, we talk about that all the time. And when you join up with AFS, you not only get all these shows early and ad-free, you can be a part of the studio audience. So I'm going to give a shout out to Lucas and Eric and Coach Rosie and George and Bobby. Man, there's a lot of folks here.

Lindsay, Jay was here. Maybe he still is. I can't keep up. Adams here. Greatly appreciate all you guys coming to hang out with us early morning here before Eric has to jump on a plane. Shout out to Kelly and DeNovius and the whole cast of characters that are here. We do have some good questions over here. Coach Rosie's got one.

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Have you heard Nash Troll L.A. Knight? And I guess have you heard L.A. Knight respond on TV. Did you see that the other week, Eric? Yeah, I did. I did. And it made me chuckle. Of course. No, it's a call back to one of the first promos that I think Kevin did.

He might have been the one where he came in for the very first night. He surprised me on stage at the announced desk. Look at the adjective. Yeah, yeah, I get it. I thought it was funny, loudly funny. So, yeah, I'm aware of it. I think it's comical. I mean, when I say comic, I think it's worth a choice.

chuckle, but it's worth anybody getting to. I doubt Kevin Nash is sweating it. And I doubt L.A. night is either. Let me assure you, Kevin Nash, don't give a shit. Could not care less. Kevin is very secure with Kevin. Yes, he is. He'll be just fine. Adam Arpin wants to know,

how did it end up where Jerry Lawler, who ran Memphis, ended up with the WVF and not WCW, which was essentially a neighbor seeing the successful program Jerry had with Brett. Do you think Lawler and Hogan could have been a large financial draw in 1994? I have to admit, I never even considered the idea of Lawler in WCW, but I could totally see him as a guy that Hulk would have been really, really comfortable with.

Was there ever any consideration given to maybe doing something with Jerry Lawler in WCW? The only time there was any conversation at all about Jerry Lawler was a conversation that I had with Jerry Lawler about the potential of bringing him in as a color commentator. That did happen. And that happened as a result of Jerry calling me. And we talked about it. I don't remember exactly why it never happened. It's not because I wasn't interested.

I think Jerry was really trying to, and this is just me guessing now because we didn't talk about it. But I think Jerry was ready to make a move and leave WWE. I think his heart was still in WWE, but I think he was angry at the time, frustrated at the time, and reached out to me to see if there was even the potential of a landing spot. There was. I assured him there was and that I was interested in. And then Jerry made whatever decision he made afterwards and stuck with it. That was the only time that Jerry's name ever.

Nathan wants to know, if you were running a promotion again, who would you choose to be your top star that can be from any promotion? So you get to pick one guy in the whole landscape today, Eric. Who are you picking? Cody? Yeah. Cody. And I say that, and it's not because I like Cody personally, which I do, not because I have nothing but the ultimate respect for Cody's dad, Dusty, which I do, Dusty's wife, Michelle, very friendly with her. It's not any of that. But if you take, just look at what Cody

represents, see what he's doing in public. He is handling being the face of that company because he's not really technically yet, but he might as well be. Cody is 100% on top of his game at every element of the industry that matters the And if I had to put all of my eggs in one basket, I'd have a basket of Cody Roads eggs. That's, that sounded weird. Yeah, let's move on from that. Jeffrey wants to know, why do you think there's no Saturday morning wrestling shows?

It was a staple when I was young. That's a great question. It is a great question. And it was a staple when you were young primarily because of history. Saturday mornings used to be one of the most, other than midnight to 6 a.m. Saturday mornings was that those time slots that were available for independent wrestling companies to either barter their show, which means you're Vergania, you take your one-hour wrestling show, you take it to WTCN or KMSP Channel 9.

I think that's what it was at the time. Maybe it was KSP Channel 5, whatever. you take it to your local television station and say, look, I'll give you the hour. You don't have to pay me anything for it. I just want two or three minutes worth of advertising time so I can promote my live shows. And you can keep the rest to sell, use cars or cleaning services or whatever you do locally. That was the barter. And that worked when 80% of the revenue that those independent wrestling territories created was from their

ticket sales and their live events. That was the only thing that they had, right? And then as time went on, the television industry changed. Vince McMahon came along. All of a sudden, syndication, that independent teleorder opportunity became less and less and less and less. Now, at the same time, cable television is now expanding. And as cable television expanding,

his programming starts to become a thing. Saturday mornings was the kids block. And that's where the money was, which made that time slot more expensive and less available for a barter. WWE did some stuff on Saturday morning. WCW did Saturday morning. The first show that I hosted or co-hosted with DDP

was, oh, I can't remember what I was called anymore. Oh my God, I can't come up with it before we leave here. that show that we did was primarily syndicated in Saturday morning blocks, occasionally Sunday morning. Pro main event, something like that? WCW Pro. WCW Pro was the prime syndication show or the major syndication show. WCW main event was a secondary syndicated show.

And sometimes we'd get both shows in the same market. It's at 9 o'clock in the morning. The other's at 11 o'clock in a month. That happened. But as that real estate became more and more valuable because of the growth of cable and the division of time blocks and the fact that Saturday morning was now the kids' block, that changed everything. And that was one of the first things that went away was Saturday morning syndication for both WWE and WCD. let's uh let's do one here this is a great question from big extra hey easy e on the nitro after gorilla monsoon passed away wcw honored him with a tin bell salute gorilla never worked for wcd

it was a classic classy move you did that night was that your idea or did bobby heenan make that request and did you ever have a chance to meet gorilla i don't think i ever met Gorilla. I did meet Lord Alfred Hayes. I may have met Gorilla the same morning when I had my audition, VW.E back in 90 or 91, whatever that was. But I can't honestly say it. I think maybe he was in the room, something along those, but I never really had a conversation. I never shook his hand. As far as whose idea was, I don't know his idea. It may have been Bobby's likely, but it was, you know, probably because collectively there was a lot of people that were working for WCW at the time that had worked with Corrilla Monsu

and thought of him very highly and had a long, long relationship with him. Out of respect for them as well as real as family, and it was the right thing to do, but I can't tell you who's that you. We got another really good question here about Atlanta back in the day. This is from Cody Avant. One thing you liked about 90s Atlanta and one thing you hated. Absolute number one thing I loved about Atlanta is I was dead freaking broke when I got the job and got an opportunity to work there.

The first time I went to Atlanta from my audition, the idea of staying at the Omni Hotel in the CNN Center that was attached to or at the CNN Tower, which was attached to CNN Center, was mind-boggling to me. And the first night I got there, I remember I got there on a Sunday night, it was fairly early. And I just went walking around down on the atrium.

I look up and I see CNN headquarters right there. You know, it was a glass wall on the inside, so you could see everybody working in there. CNN was a new thing, relative to the thing at the time. It was the world's leader in 24-hour, international news and to think that I had an opportunity to work in the same company that was making all of these major media moves was so exhilarating to me. I almost couldn't sleep that night. I remember walking around down atrium and there was a store, it was a Turner store

right down on the center of the atrium. And it was closed that Sunday night when I was there, but I was looking in the window and I saw, you know, Turner broadcasting hats and swag and kinds of stuff. And I've been, no matter how this audition goes, I'm coming down here to buy some souvenirs tomorrow. When loser draw, I'm going home with some Turner swag just because I had the opportunity to work at a company that was so on the cutting edge of media and entertainment as Turner Broadcasting. So there was a huge honeymoon period there. Of course, when we first moved there, I'm going to be honest, it was a tough transition for me. Moving from Minnesota to Atlanta because a lot of the things that just personally I enjoy doing were a little harder

to do Atlanta. Like what? Well, for example, I used to German short hair pointers are hunting dogs. They're very high power, tough to train and manage because they have such a high drive. But I had got into breeding and training and competing in a pretty serious level in these pheasant hunting tournaments with dogs that I bred and trained. I loved that. For a period of several years, I was obsessed with it.

And I moved to Minnesota and, or excuse me, I moved to Atlanta and it's like, well, that's not available. That's just because of geography. So there was a big part of my life that I left behind in Minnesota and that caused me a little bit. Not much. It wasn't like a horrible thing, but it was like, I don't know how this is going to work. I do not like humidity. Right. I just don't function well in a very humid environment. And Minnesota was fairly humid during the summer. People don't realize that, but there's mosquitoes there that are big enough to take for a ride. And it's very hot and humid in the summertime. But by September, October, it blows out and it's beautiful, whereas in Atlanta,

say it was so human for such a long period of time that it was really aggravating to me. I'd get up in a morning and take a shower and I'd walk out to the driveway to get my car. And by the time I got out of my air-conditioned house and into the front seat of my car, I was soaking wet and sweat again. Yep, there you go. Welcome to the South. I had a hard time with that. Little thing, you know, it was the first world problem, right?

But it sucks, though. I never, I never felt completely at home in Atlanta just because of the environment, because the weather, because I didn't have access to things I like to do and all that. But beyond that, there's a lot of things I loved about Atlanta. I love the people. I was just there recently. And one thing is still true, people are really friendly in the South. It's noticeable.

There's a difference to South. I found myself sitting down and having conversations with the people I never met before in a restaurant. and just like I've known them for 10 years. It's a different. There's a lot of great things about the South. I just think that for me, at that time of my life, it was a little harder to adjust. I want to do two more,

we'll do three more questions and we'll put a bow on it. First, Conrad from Huntsville wants to know. What do you think of this Lawrence Epstein quote about one of Endeavor's goals being to make every UFC fan, a WWE fan and every WWE fan to be a UFC fan, he thinks that this is, there's some similarities and, but that's an achievable goal.

And then as I understand it, he said it's an achievable goal to make every UFC fan a WWE fan and every WWE fan at UFC. What does this guy do? What's his job? He works with the UFC. And Dana White came out and said, that's one of the dumbest things he's ever heard.

Well, there you go. Dana stole my thunder. Well, listen, I think I'm going to get you some of your thunder back because I got a big finish. But before I do, Jeffrey wants to know, was there ever any thoughts of turning Bobby Hean and Heel and having him join the NWO? I mean, I could see that. I mean, he was my job for crying out loud. Okay.

All right. So last one. I got to ask. I have been tickled by this. It's a lot of fun. And I know you and I both watched all in. We both hold Swerf Strickland in high regard. I am convinced he's going to be a top guy. I think he's going to be a future world champ. I think it just, he's got it all over him. And his manager is one of the most entertaining characters on television. Prince Nana. Are you familiar with this act? Swerf Strickland and Prince Nana. Have you seen Prince, Nana do his thing? Oh, I have done. So Swerve, as I understand it, wraps his own theme song. And, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, okay. And Prince Nana comes out and has a pretty interesting dance. And I just want to show it to you here. I'm going to show you a brief clip of Prince Nana doing his thing.

Silva's got that ready for us. So that's the Prince Nana dance for. for swerve-strickland because the lyrics are about swerve and swerving while you drive and all that. Well, this has created almost like a Prince Nana

challenge. And folks like Jerry Lynn are in on this now. Folks like the human tornado out on the West Coast, they're in on this now. Can we get an Eric Bischoff Prince Nana Challenge response here?

This morning? Yeah. Or do you need time to practice? Oh, here we go. Here we go. Eric is a gamer. Hey, hey, hey, hey. See you everybody.

Look forward to seeing it right here in 83 weeks next week. We can't beat that. Tune in next week, boys and girls. Thanks for checking out 83 weeks. Next week we're talking about Eric becoming an EVP. And we're going to make sure that we have that uploaded to Swarfs theme song. Thank you so much for being a good support. thanks for all the help and yeah we'll see what happens next week right here on 83 weeks

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