83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 292: Last Tuesday In Cable

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad take a step back and look at all the craziness happening in the professional wrestling world. From the build up to the Tuesday Night War, to the social media posts from Tony Khan, Logan Paul calling out Rey Mysterio, Nick Aldis named the new GM of Smackdown and so much more. The guys cover it all in this over two hour edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/83WEEKS 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. MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at Manscaped.com.  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. 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 SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Three weeks with Eric Bischoff. Eric, what's going on, man? How are you? I am doing well. It's another beautiful fall day here in Cody, Wyoming. Mrs. B and I are going to jump in the truck with the dog and head up to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Enjoy the fall colors, maybe pack a little picnic bottle of wine, a little bit of cheese, and just enjoy the day. Oh, man, that's awesome.

This is a great time of year. I'm sure to see those leaves change and, man, you live in a postcard. So I'm sure you guys have a big day. And boy, it's been a big week in professional wrestling. And last week, we planned to talk about Eddie Guerrero, but you were returning from Europe. And so much had happened, we felt like we needed to talk about current events. And before we snapped the ball this morning to kick our plays off here on 83 weeks,

I said, you know, Eric, it's been a pretty crazy week again. And if we're going to address everything that happened, it would almost feel like we're maybe not doing Eddie justice, just sort of squeezing him in. So, unfortunately, we're going to kick the can again, and we've got like nearly 30 pages of notes on Eddie Guerrero. We want to pay respect to him and give as much time as we can. We're going to plan to do that next week. You're also, if you're watching over on YouTube, 83 weeks.com, you probably are familiar

with, we have a new look today. That's because when you sign up over at ad-freeshows.com and you're a part of our live studio audience, you'll be appearing on camera to ask questions to Eric. So if you're in our group chat and we appreciate everybody showing up like Donovius Mack and Mike Hoop and Coach Rosie and all the usual suspects, Bobby's here and Jack's here and everybody else. I just want to go ahead and let you guys know that we're going to be calling on you. So if you've got some questions for what's going on in modern wrestling

and what's happened over the last week or so, this will be your chance to be on camera and ask Eric Bischoff today. Eric, I guess we should talk about some very current events as you and I are recording this. Just yesterday, we saw one of the biggest spectacle pay-per-views in a while, certainly the biggest of the year at this point. Logan, Paul, and Dylan Dennis in the co-main event,

Tommy Fury and KSI in the main event, a rowdy crowd over in Manchester. This is not traditional boxing and certainly not traditional MMA, but a spectacle none the least, the celebrity boxing thing still gets clicks, especially when you have a perfect villain

like Dylan Danis. That dude got so much traction and sold so many pay-per-views for that event. I'm curious what you thought of the spectacle and the promotion and the hype and it felt like these guys figured out how to make some money over in the UK.

Did they know it? They did indeed. I didn't see the event, so I can't comment on the event. I'm a little familiar. with the outcome of it, because it was all over the news this morning when I woke up. But, you know, it's interesting, isn't it, how boxing was fading away in terms of the public consciousness, really after Mike Tyson, and not to suggest there weren't some great fights,

Floyd made weather, and there was a lot of great fights. But, you know, the era of going back to Joe Lewis and even the 60s and the 70s and the 80s with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and George Foreman, so many larger-than-life characters in boxing, but that began to just diminish after Mike Tyson. And boxing was there. It's certainly, particularly with the Latin audience, boxing has always been a very profitable business,

but just not in the public eye like it had been for so long. Part of that I think had to do with the success of MMA. MMA has really become the combat sport for people that are looking for real sport and combat. But there was a void, right? Boxing is still watching two guys stand there and slug it out is still going to be appealing. And it's amazing how, you know, Logan Paul has really kind of emerged as a, this is going to sound so strange. And I'm sure boxing affectionados are going to hate me for it.

but welcome to the party. He's really at the forefront of kind of reinvigorating, I think, interest in professional boxing. I'm sure when you say Logan Paul, you mean his brother Jake Paul as well. Jake Paul, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Jake Paul has obviously taken the boxing thing more seriously. But at this point, Logan Paul's probably got two of the highest, you know, of these sideshow pay-per-views, these spectacle paper views. I mean, he famously fought Floyd Mayweather

and what was very clearly an exhibition a handful of years ago. But now this thing with Dylan Dennis, like Dylan Dennis trolled Logan, but more specifically, Logan's fiance, in a way that bled over to become a legal issue.

And man, it just, it went really, really viral. And Dylan Dennis, the entire time, you know, for nearly every appearance, he was rocking wrestling t-shirts. He showed up in Manchester wearing a rock t-shirt, a vintage,

roll and shut your mouth t-shirt. He did a lie detector test, which is as old school wrestling as it gets, wearing an old original ECW Sandman Drunk 24-7 t-shirt. The dude knew how to play heel, and I would suspect they did very, very well. But what was most interesting is at the end of the fight and Dylan probably never trained at all for this boxing match, I'm sure he's in great physical condition, but I don't know that he ever had a boxing coach. He only threw a handful of punches.

But when it was all over, when the spectacle was finished, Logan Paul got on the mic and challenged Ray Mysterio for the WWE United States Championship. That to me further cements that Logan Paul really does see himself as a long-term WWE star. And I know that's going to upset some of the hardcore wrestling fans, but the reality is Logan Paul is a huge star with a ton of influence. and Ray Mysterio is obviously a special talent

who has his own diehard fan base now he's a part of the LWO and it really just feels like this is going to be a major event and it kind of has me wondering what are you going to do with Logan Paul at this year's WrestleMania like he's such a big star at this point it feels like it's pretty undeniable that he's got to have a high profile match at WrestleMania

and I know that will upset some hardcores, but how can you deny his success and his influence at this point, Eric? You can't. And my advice to hardcore wrestling audience who may take offense to what you just said is blow your head out of your ass. You know, Logan Paul is great for the wrestling industry. Logan Paul has brought in mainstream viewers

who might not otherwise bother to check out WWE or professional wrestling in general. And to not appreciate that or give Logan credit for what he's doing isn't a sign of your undying loyalty and devotion to professional wrestling. It's a manifestation of ignorance and not understanding how important it is that people like Logan Paul and bad, Bunny come to the world of professional wrestling and have a positive impact on it as opposed to some of the people who are in professional wrestling and have been for a long time who have a negative impact on it or the shit stains that write about professional wrestling and have a negative impact on it. So before people get up at arms and react emotionally, because they feel like they're in that class of professional wrestling loyal, loyalists,

all the nonsense that comes with it, just recognize that what's good for professional wrestling, in general, what's good for WWE, what's good for AEW's business is good for the wrestling business. And conversely, what's bad for business, the professional wrestling business, hurts everybody. So I applaud, I've never met Logan Paul, but I admire him, respect him, and I think his ability in the ring, beyond all of the additional eyeballs he brings to professional wrestling and helping it to not only maintain credibility in the mainstream media, but expand upon it. I just have nothing but respect for the man. And athletically, in terms of what he's capable of doing in the ring, given the short amount of time that he's probably been working at it, is nothing short of phenomenal, even if he didn't bring all those eyeballs in all that mainstream interest into what we all love professional wrestling. At this point, do you think that it would be smart?

I mean, listen, maybe you use celebrities better than most in the 90s. You know, with Dennis Rodman and Carl Malone and, well, maybe we'll debate Jay Leno another time. But still, you certainly learned how to leverage celebrity and wrestling and use it to your advantage. And then, of course, we know Mike Tyson proved to be maybe more of a game changer than we imagined for WWE at the time. But I'm curious from your perspective. knowing that Logan has all these other things that he's doing. But even in the middle of promoting this Prime card, because we should just remind everybody who maybe wasn't paying attention to this

pay-per-view over the weekend, it was co-main evented by the quote-unquote co-founders of the Prime Energy Drink. Prime, of course, is owned by Logan Paul, KSI, and then they have an actual business partner along with it. But they're sort of the promotional end, one here in America, one over in Europe. and the whole event was to push prime and sell some paper views and make a spectacle and it checked every box.

But I say all that to say, he's still, when it's all said and done, saying, oh yeah, and now that I'm finished with this guy, Ramis Terrium coming for United States Championship, would you consider actually making him more of a fixture on the main roster and giving him some of these bigger spotlights

and title runs and attention and sort of, I don't know, rubber stamping him, not positioning him as quote unquote just a celebrity influencer, but actually go with him for a bit. Or would you say, you know what? The safer bet is let's let him, quote unquote, get

some other guys over and just use him in that celebrity aspect. Would you consider actually doing something with Logan Paul beyond a one-off here there? That depends. so much on where Logan's head is at and what his goals are. Let me first say that I'm a big

fan of having talent that is special and unique and maintaining that uniqueness and keeping them as an attraction. The challenge with putting someone, anybody, no matter who it is, out there every single week. And yes, it's great for telling stories and it's probably good for rating to a degree. There's a lot of reasons why that makes sense on paper. But someone like Logan, I would probably lean into keeping him more like a Brock Lesner type of character, Hulk Hogan, when we brought Hulk Hogan into WCW, The Undertaker in WWE later on in his career, Keep him, keep keeping Logan a special attraction. There's a lot of value in that.

Yeah. And I would probably lean into that more than I would lean into putting him on the roster and making him a regular part of WDTown. I would think if you were going to do that, you'd want to do it somewhere between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. Would you agree with that? Like if you're going to. I agree with that because that's when you, that's the focus, right?

The world is built around WrestleMania. Everything that happens, the other 51 weeks of the year, are really building toward that one moment. So definitely, most definitely. You want the greatest amount of energy, the most interest, the most media support, the most social media buzz. You want it all year round, but you really want it to be a crescendo in that period of time between Rumble and Mania. I want to talk about what that might look like and what a money match for him might be. But before we do, I think we should remind everybody that we are proudly sponsored by our friends at Rocket Money. You see, this is something that can save us all some money, because we've all done this before.

We've signed up for subscriptions and then forgot about it. I mean, I don't mind saying I had to sign up for a subscription. I'll get it out. A subscription to DeZone this past weekend in order to watch that Logan. Paul fight. Well, when I first signed up for Rocket Money, I found out I'd been paying for that for nearly two years and not turned it on once. So Rocket Money helped me cancel it because I wasn't using it. I saved all that cash. I had to actually redownload the app in order to watch the fight. That's how I know Rocket Money really works. Rocket Money will help you find all the

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Rocketmoney.com slash 83 weeks. So Eric, another report that came out this past weekend, or I guess it was last week at this point, is that perhaps all the rumors and speculation that C and Punk is showing up imminently in W. were false and that the call was made, that he was not coming back. That's according to Dave Meltzer, that that's at least the call now, but of course, WWE land, you never say never.

You and I sort of suggested when we recorded last week's episode, if you had your pick, would you bring them out in Chicago for a Survivor Series, or would you wait and make it a surprise at the Royal Rumble? We both said, wait and make it a Royal Rumble surprise. I still think that's going to happen. I still think that's a real possibility. But I want to table that for a minute and say, let's say for whatever reason they decide not to pull the trigger on that right now. Doesn't mean it'll never happen.

It just means it won't happen by Royal Rumble. When people were talking about the hypothetical WrestleMania card and people started fantasy booking this several weeks ago, they sort of laid out CM Punk versus Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship, the new world title that they just debuted this past year. And I got to think, as crazy as this sounds, hypothetically, what if they don't go that direction with Seampunk and he's going to do something with Seth Rollins? They've still got to figure out exactly what they're doing with Cody and the Rock and Roman Raines, what all of that looks like.

I don't know that we need Cody to win back-to-back Royal Rumbles. I could see if we had L.A. Knight win the Royal Rumble, maybe. but what if what immediate event it would be if Logan Paul won the thing and he challenged Seth Rollins and that was one of the co-made events on like night one I could see that like that feels like a mainstream opportunity

I mean it gets a lot of buzz and even if he won the title briefly and then dropped it in Saudi Arabia or something soon after whatever the next big super show they could get a bunch of attention and eyeballs on would be but I wouldn't think you would entertain the idea of having Logan Paul be the guy to beat Roman rings. But Logan Paul winning the other belt from Seth Rollins, I could see that.

I mean, that could get some attention. What say you? Absolutely. And the reason I would be really excited about that, again, goes back to the fact that Logan can deliver in the ring. Yes. We're not talking about just propping up a celebrity and putting them into an environment or putting give it to a match or storyline or whatever, just for the sake of the added value that comes with him in terms of social media presence, you're talking about a guy who can absolutely

deliver a stellar performance and bring emotion, create emotion, energize, absolutely. And any other situation, I think, where you're talking about a celebrity, I'd be really hesitant to have much of a conversation about that. But I think in Logan's case, he's proven he can deliver. He'll over deliver. I'd be very excited about it. Again, I'm not saying that's what I want to happen or that's not even a prediction here. I'm just thinking, how do you leverage all of his influence and you find a way to get him involved? And by the way, for what it's worth, I think it's great that they found a way to use Logan Paul. And, and and leverage that audience as much as they could.

You know, we don't spend a ton of time talking about it, but I mean, he started as a, before he was a social media influencer everywhere else, he was a vine guy and then became a YouTube guy. And over the weekend, quite a milestone was passed by Mr. Beast. He surpassed 200 million subscribers. I want to say that again. Mr. Beast has 200 million subscribers. So anytime there's an opportunity for WWB to,

brush up against any of those guys, I think that makes sense. I bring up Mr. Beast because when Roman Reins did wrestle Logan Paul over in Saudi Arabia, as Roman was beating on him, he, Roman sort of tongue in cheek says, after I get done with this YouTuber, I'm going after Mr. Beast next. I don't think that's really going to happen. But using social media that way makes a whole heck of a lot of sense. And I'd love to see them do something big with Logan that's going to get a lot of attention. Because he proved to be, even though the crowd was chanting for him by the end, as horrible as Dylan Dennis was to Logan and Logan's fiance in the build for this fight, Logan was still kind of positioned as the heel.

Like, people were cheering for the bad guy in Dylan Dennis. And I think that's what makes Logan such a compelling wrestling character because he is a natural heel, even though he might not want to be and he doesn't see himself as a heel. having a punchable face and being a hateable character, that's a very money quality in pro wrestling, is it not? Now, see, we're looking at him right now if you're watching with us on YouTube or on ad-free shows. Logan doesn't, that's not a punchable face. He's a very handsome.

He got a nice smile on his face. He looks like a guy you'd want to sit down and have a beer with. But he does have that innate healish quality about him, which is probably what's gotten to. to the point where he is today. Yeah. And I, look, if he doesn't enjoy being a heel,

I wish he'd give me a call because give me an hour with him over a beer and a sandwich and I'll have him embracing his heat. Heat is life. You have far more value as that guy that people want to see get beat than you do as the quote unquote hero du jour, right? That's harder to maintain. it's not as hard to maintain heel heat as it is baby. Well, there was a lot of heat over the weekend.

Of course, we spent a lot of time talking about Logan Paul and his pay-per-view on Saturday because of the show being over in the UK in Manchester, in fact, it wound up being sort of a matinee entertainment option here in America. But that evening, there was a couple of different wrestling shows. MLW had a big show we'll talk about in a moment, but AEW had their collision. show and there was a pretty controversial moment where it almost became a bit of a promo battle there for a minute with Ricky Starks and Adam Copeland, the former Edge.

And at one point, Ricky Starks said something about Adam Copeland being bug-eyed or something like that. And immediately, Copeland said you're a, you stole the Rock's style, but you're a vanilla midget who wants to be the rock or something like that. And boy, it got everybody on the internet fired up. The idea being that, hey, we like that, you know, and then of course, Ricky Starks was very quick to respond and say, boy, that really sent me over the edge.

So they're having a little fun. I like the promo battle. But Adam Copeland is under a little bit of criticism on social media saying that maybe that's not the right thing for a young talent like Ricky Starks, for you to use the phrase vanilla midget and compare him to the rock and perhaps that does more harm than good. And I just,

I'm curious your stance on that. I mean, I know that we both love a good promo battle, but I did see a lot of criticism saying that, hey, that type of thing could stifle Ricky Stark's growth. And that's kind of not the idea here. I think when most people think about using legends

and wrestling, they usually point to someone like Terry Funk and ECW where, you know, he helped elevate guys and maybe telling fans, hey, this guy's a vanilla midget ripping off the rock. That's probably not ideal. What do you, where do you land on that? Let's see what happens. Let's see where it goes. Now, if Copeland goes out and destroys Starks, during the. storyline or in the match and there's not an upside for Stark's as a character, then

yeah, it probably is unproductive. But let's wait to see. It's a little early. I don't, I don't mind. Look, you need heat. You need interests. You need to stir it up, especially right now in AEW and particularly on collision. You need to fire the audience up.

You need to get people who are criticizing that promo to get engaged and watch and care and invest so i i'll i'll postpone any kind of opinion on the quality or or or whether it was the right thing or wrong thing to do until we see how the story ends let's see if if adam ends up in his own way despite what he said and how he's characterizing starts in a scripted promo whether it's physically scripted or they just agreed to what that we're going to do beforehand um let's see where it goes. Jumping to the conclusion that Copeland is going to go out there and in a course of a promo

take any kind of shine away from Starks is a little bit premature until we see how the match ends up or how the story plays out. Well, one of my favorite follows on Twitter, Ian Drew the Giant, Ian Drew Dice Clay over on Twitter, says in 1999,

the Rock would say, the Rock knows, the Rock says, know your roll and shut your mouth. What if Currigan said You're wearing a two-stripe market Adidas Trachy Because your tits are all weird loser That's not how you get guys over The idea being you don't point out the flaws And there's an old story that has been told

On some of our other podcasts Or they talked about Jim Crockett promotions And there was a young up-and-coming talent Who was critical of Wahoo McDaniel Called him an old fat Indian And as soon as the promo was over in real life, Wahoo slapped the shit out of the guy and said, hey, if you beat me, you beat an old fat Indian.

And then if I beat you, you lost to an old fat Indian. That's not how this works. And so I think I'll get it. I love that. So I think that's where a lot of the backlash for this is coming from. But let me just say this in a loud and clear voice. Ricky Starks is going to be a huge star in professional wrestling. And one little comment in a promo from anyone is not.

going to deter his success. So I appreciate the Starks people being, Stark's super fans being so adamant here. But I am confident that that dude's going to be an absolute type guy. And if he wants to get in a promo battle with anybody, he can more than hold his own. He'll be just fine.

But I kind of like seeing Adam Copeland being able to be in this new environment and color outside the lines and not have everything so scripted. I mean, that's pretty cool. In fact, the grizzled young veterans posted a promo over the weekend that sort of made fun of that WWB system and the way all that happened. And I thought it was

excellent because it's different than. I don't think that there's anything to be necessarily upset about here. I'm with you. Let this play out. Let's see how it goes. We know Adam Copeland's a star and Ricky Starks is going to be a huge star and just sharing a ring with them. Cut them loose. Give them five minutes to do a promo battle next week. I'll tune in. Money for me. I love it. Let me ask you, Cameron, because I don't follow AEW, probably as closely as you do, which is to say I really don't follow up much at all. I drop in and check things out if I hear about something that's coming up that's interesting, but I don't dedicate any part of my day

just sitting down and studying and or watching it. But we had Copeland show up, and I'm calling him Copeland just, I respect Adam a lot. I don't want to suggest because I'm calling him by his last name, but Adam Copeland came out, was introduced to the AW audience as a part of AEW on pay-per-view. I thought that was really well done. I love the fact that while everybody anticipated, it was nonetheless a surprise in the sense that it was unadvertised. It wasn't promoted. I like that a lot. Put it over when it happened.

Then we saw Copeland come out and have, I think this was the sequence, come out and have that engagement with Christian. Yes. Right? Yes. Labor Day grilling is a tradition in my house. Steaks, burgers, the whole deal. That's why I stock up with Omaha Steaks. Their USDA certified tender steaks, juicy burgers, and meaty chicken wings

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And for an extra $35 off, use promo code flavor at checkout. That's 50% off at Omaha Steaks.com and an extra $35 off with promo code flavor at checkout. See site for details. How would you say... AEW was positioning Adam Copeland right now as a baby face or as a heel. Is it clear yet to you? Yeah, I think he's a baby face because he saved Sting and Darby. And, you know, when Sting and Darby were there to try to save Nick Wayne,

Nick Wayne turned on them and they were outnumbered and Edge made the save. and then this past week on TV when the baby faces were outnumbered. Adam Copeland was one of the last guys to run in and make the save. And he sort of poured his heart out about wanting to finish his career with Christian. And Christian cursed him. So, yeah, I would say that he's positioned as a baby face. But I also think that whenever something is a surprise and there's a new talent or there's a big return, fans are going to cheer that because they're cheering the celebrity. So you've got to kind of lean into that for a little bit.

But I would say they've certainly started with him as a baby face. And I think Adam even did an interview where he talked about how, you know, they tried to make the judgment day more of a heel faction. And WWE fans really wanted to cheer him because they haven't seen him in so long. And that was sort of swimming upstream, I think was the phrase he used. So that made sense to me. that that has much more influence on my opinion of that promo going back to how we started the show between Copeland and um sorry like it out here cold medicine Ricky Starks

Ricky Starks if if they're if Adam is being positioned as that veteran baby face which he should be because he is that makes me feel a little bit differently about the promo. That to me is not the promo that a baby face, a legend, a veteran, someone who's clearly much older, that's not the promo that I would cut. Going back to what the point that Wahoo was making, you know, if the audience is putting you on this pedestal, by looking at you. has that superstar, that celebrity, the guy who's been in, you know,

WrestleMania's and WWE championships and his rubbed elbows with Sina and the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin and everybody that's come through, WWE over the last, what is it, 20 years now, Copeland's been a part of WWE? If you're, if you've inherited that perception, you built that perception with the audience, and they recognize you as this legacy former, stooping to the vanilla midget, and I know I'm backtracking here a little bit, but stooping to that kind of vanilla midget, rock wannabe, that's not the promo.

There's the difference. It's not so much that I think Starks is going to suffer because of anything that Adam said. I think it took away from Adam. Copeland as that legacy baby face. If indeed, that's how they're positioning now. If they're looking for the gray area and we're going to see whether he's going to be a healer or baby face, then okay, you can wallow in the mud of a gray area. But if you're positioning this guy is his beloved, legendary former who's still out there

performing at a high level, but is clearly a seasoned veteran in a ring against a young superstar in the making, I don't think. think that that's the right problem. Well, and see, that's, it gives them a heel, just enough of a heel finish. Like if it was a glass of wine, you know, you have this glass of wine, you know, this is a wonderful glass of wine, but it doesn't finish quite right. That's what I think about that promo in that context. This is what the discussion I was hoping we would get to.

I'm glad we end around it and we got there because there's been a lot of criticism over the years. and I even mentioned it a few moments ago about the grizzled young veterans where they sort of talked about in the old system they were in and they're talking about WWE, they would show up and they would have these scripts written for them

and they were expected to memorize and perform those scripts and do these storylines that they said and their promo over the weekend went nowhere. And there's been a lot of criticism about scripting promos at this point for decades that people were sort of against it.

And from what we understand, boy, little to none of that happens in AEW. It's sort of old school in that, yes, we have bullet points. Here's the story we're trying to tell. Maybe here's the bullet points we're trying to get to. But nobody, as far as I know, is going over and saying, okay, here's four paragraphs of dialogue. You need to memorize this.

You're doing it on camera in six hours. I don't think that's the system there. Sorry, I'm wanting to know from your perspective I don't think there's necessarily a right or wrong. I don't think it's black or white. I think it's probably somewhere in the middle. But in a scripted environment, I don't know that that line would have been said. Certainly in a non-scripted environment, it did.

And I understand why. Because if I'm Adam Copeland and I'm thinking, hey, we're trying to do a promo battle back and forth here. I don't want the other guy to quote-unquote get over at my expense. I want to show that I can do this too. and I've had to use a script forever and, hey, I want to get out and stretch a little bit. But at the same time, is that really what's best for the overall story?

So I want to bring it back to you, Eric, scripted promos. If that was scripted, probably wouldn't have been scripted. Does that change your opinion about scripting or unscripting promos? I'm not a big fan of scripting promos or talent who has the experience, the charisma, and the ability to deliver an authentic, organic promo that serves their character and serves their story. I think having the freedom and the flexibility of a stone cold Steve Austin

or a Mick Foley, to me, is such a valuable asset and the character. But not everybody has that. And I'm not suggesting that Adam Copeland doesn't, any stretch of the imagination. But here's where the experience of a stone cold Steve Austin or Rick Flair, John Sina, the Rock, McFoley,

those are just a handful of people that I've never really worked with the Rock, so I'll take him out of the equation, although we all kind of recognize his ability with a promo, right? But the aforementioned talent, excluding the rock that I mentioned, were all seasoned veterans who understood psychology and understood like Wahoo McDaniel did the value and the opportunity that a great promo

can provide to a story or a match. What happens, I think, sometimes is when you allow talent who haven't yet developed that experience, haven't gained that experience, or developed their understanding of psychology and what works and doesn't work in the scheme of the big picture, where we're going in the future, not tonight, not standing here in this ring, worrying about whether or not this guy is going to get a, you know, cut a better promo than me

or make me look like I can't keep up in a live promo. That's a, that's a, that's a battle for this evening in that moment, in that three or four, five or ten minutes, whatever it is on live television, that's your story, right? But if that story, doesn't serve the bigger story or serve the larger goal in terms of character. Is Adam a heel or is he a baby face? Is he kind of a whiny old veteran that's bitter because the young guys are coming up behind him? Or is he confident in himself and insecure in his position as a character. I'm talking about as a character now.

He's secure and willing to face the challenge of the young guys coming up underneath them that want to take him out. That's the kind of overall premise, I would believe, in someone like Adam Copeland as a baby-faced character in AEW right now. But to go out there and just cut the best promo you can cut because you can. You're not scripted. That's the mistake. And that's where vision, understanding of long-term direction, a plan. That's where a plan is critical. And if that plan doesn't exist, even to the extent of sitting down as whoever the producer was for that segment, sitting down and saying, okay, guys, we're going to turn you loose.

No script. But just keep in mind, here's where we're going. And remember, you're in here. No guardrails. You're going to be able to go out there and do what you want to do. But remember where we're going. Remember what the mission is here in this segment. And Ricky, you're out there.

Remember who your character is. Maybe use the Wahoo-McDaniel analogy, because that's a great one. You're a heel going up against this legendary character, legend of a character. Whatever you do, keep that in mind as you're freelancing out there and improving. Otherwise, you run the risk of putting two guys out there who just want to outperform. each other, regardless of where the story's going or where the characters need to go. That's the risk. I love, trust me, if I got a call from Bruce Pritcher and says, hey, we want you to come in

and do a segment on Raw or Smackdown. And oh, by the way, here's a couple of bullet points. Here's what we want to keep, want you to keep in mind. But no script. Just go out there and do it. I would do it for free. I'd pay my own way just for the sheer joy. of performing in front of a live audience with the ability to go out there and do what I know

I'm still capable of doing. That would be awesome. But I also understand that in certain situations, because of where things are going, you need to kind of put some guardrails on it. I love improvving. I think I'm pretty freaking good at it, always have been. But very few people are. You know, again, Mick Foley, Rick Flair, Sina, Stone Cold Steve Austin was the best, in my opinion, followed very closely by McFaulner.

And Rick Flair, Rick had the, because it's just, the psychology is embedded in their souls. They understand what to do and what not to do. You don't have to script them. But younger talent, or perhaps in Edges case, I'm sorry, Adam Copeland's case, tell up that hasn't had that freedom in a while, maybe forever, need to be a little more careful. IVP videos, a friend of the show, over on Twitter, says more wrestlers need to read Mick Foley's book about a good wrestling promo

and stop turning it into a roasting session where you point out all the flaws of the other guy. Why would someone pay to see a guy who was bland like tofu or who is a vanilla rock ripoff? Listen, I think there's some wisdom in that. in Oahu sort of set that example we talked about earlier, but here's what I know. I know that in real life, these guys are professionals, and I'm sure they're all sharing a beer afterwards, and I hope that they start with Zbiotics, because after a big show and you've got

all that adrenaline pumping, you probably are going to start enjoying some drinks, but, man, you've got to get up early and get that flight the next morning, and, well, we're all getting a little older, and that's getting harder and harder as we get a little older. Zbiotics is here to help you make sure you. bounce back just like you used to. You don't have to choose between having a great night or a great next day. You can do both thanks to Zibiotics. 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. But here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted

into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration. That's to blame for your rough next day. Zibiotics produces an enzyme to break this byproducts. down. It's designed to work like your liver, but in your gut, where you need it most. So drink Zibiotics before drinking, drink responsibly, and enjoy the night with confidence. And Eric and I have told this story many times. We first tried this together before a podcast movement convention. We knew we had to be on stage presenting the next morning. But man, we had just had a great day meeting with a bunch of agencies hanging out with some of our friends, telling some stories, having some laughs, and we knew we were going to be having some cocktails. So Eric had the Zibiotics

handy. We both popped one and bam. We bounced right out of bed the next morning. We were on stage doing what we do. I am 100% convinced this actually works. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical at first, but dude, it's the real deal. So why not? Savor the moment. Let Zbiotics do the rest. Go to Zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks and get 15% off your first order when you use 83 weeks at checkout. The Zbiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee, so you're if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember, head to zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks and use the code 83 weeks at checkout for 15% off. We thank Zbiotics for sponsoring this episode and our Halloween parties.

Little pro tip, if you're throwing a Halloween party, stock up for your friends. Everybody's going to be thankful. They had some Zbiotics, and you can get a hookup at Zbiotics.com slash 83 weeks with the code 83 weeks. So, Eric, we talked about collision, and one of the things that we should at least mention is, in the main event, we had Christian pinning Brian Danielson. And Christian has really set himself apart as becoming, I mean, I think this is some of the best work he's done in his career. Everybody online seems to agree with that. He's a compelling character. He's a great character.

He's hitting an absolute home run. I love that they let him start the show on Tuesday. and then he pins Brian Danielson at the end of the Saturday night show and Brian Danielson man returning from the arm injury looks like he hasn't lost a step these guys are really enjoying the renaissance in their career that maybe once upon a time didn't seem possible it wasn't all that long ago

we never thought we would see Adam Copeland or Christian or Brian Danielson ever wrestle again and now they're all back and Christian and Danielson closing the show go out of your way to see that one Eric it was an all-time great television wrestling yeah I will make uh I will watch it today I will go back and watch that because I do love watching seasoned performers who understand psychology who can deliver in the ring care how old they are by the way I read a post from shit stain day melts are talking

about one of AEW's problems they have too many old guys well I got news for you those guys are performing at a level that is far and above some of the younger talents on that show. And that's not a knock on the younger talent. They're going to get there. You don't really get to perform at the level of a Brian Danielson or Christian or Adam Copeland or Chris Jericho until you've been in that ring for a while. It takes time, folks. It's not just about going out there and being able to do athletically, which with a lot of

younger AEW talent do because that shit ain't working to be honest it's the story it's the psychology it's the characters and I think Christian and Brian Deiongson without even having seen the match yet probably put out a clinic that I hope a lot of people are paying attention to well listen I do want to talk about something else from collision involving our pal tony chivani we'll come back to that first since you brought up Dave melzer I want to bring up that he got into a little bit of a back and forth over the weekend with Billy Corgan. I guess Billy did an interview where he was talking about the type of wrestling that the NWA is putting on and that they don't do quote unquote Meltzer Jerkoff matches.

And he was quick to say we're not doing throwback style or old school style matches or just doing tried and true storytelling with guys like Tyrus and EC3. who've known each other going back to their WWE developmental era and Meltzer couldn't help but respond to this. So when Greg Oliver's or posted a recap on Twitter of what was said

in the context of the interview, Dave Meltzer quote tweeted it and said, poor Billy doesn't like Omega versus Osprey, Uso's versus Owen Zane, Gunther versus Drew versus Seamus and Seamus, Danielson versus Zack, MJF versus Danielson, FTR versus Juice and Jay,

not only that, dislikes the talent in those matches. Pretty sure he'd die and go to heaven if he could get one of them on his shows. And the NWA's official account, quote tweeted that yesterday, Eric, with some official words from the president and CEO, William Patrick Corrigan of the National Wrestling Alliance. Quote, Dave Meltzer has certainly built his brand off the efforts of others, but unlike the great wrestlers, he mentions, all of whom I respect and haven't said a despair, word against, although he implies I have, Dave positions himself as the expert on what is and isn't worthy of a fan's attention, as opposed to those who actually wrestle, or, for

example, perhaps run a professional wrestling company 365 days a year. The NWA has a paper view coming up on October 28th called Sam Hane. That's what matters. Fans arguing over worthy or unworthy champions, that's what matters and is the lifeblood of the business. Restoring the legacy and drawing ability of a company that's 75 years old, well, that matters a lot. Yet all must bow to the opinion of one. No thank you, sir. Wrestling fans all over the world deserve better than that.

I got to admit, I didn't have this in my forecast. A Billy Corgan slash NWA, Dave Meltzer feud. What do you make of this? Well, you know, I don't know Billy real well. with Billy. We've talked a couple times years ago. I don't watch his product, but I have to agree 100%. I think Billy's perspective on Dave Meltzer was right on the money. And I think one of the obvious challenges that Tony Khan has, EW has, and I'm not being critical, it's just pointing out what I think from my perspective is a fact is the whole, you know, you know, I've referred

to it derisively at times as, you know, dirt sheet booking. But I think if your vision for your company is satisfying the likes of Dave Meltzer and his readers, the internet wrestling fan in general, you're going to appeal to the smallest common denominator of the overall wrestling audience. I think that's what Billy's saying. Dave Meltzer doesn't have a clue what works television, what works for building a company, what works for building an audience. Dave Meltzer is clueless.

Dave Meltzer has a particular style of wrestling that he, enjoys and professes to those who will believe him or read him or support him, that that's what everybody else wants to see. And it's the exact opposite. So whether it's WWE or AEW, WCW when it was around, or anybody else who listens to the perspective of Dave Mouser and thinks, fortunately, that the other 90% of the wrestling audience thinks like that is going to find themselves at a dead end road. Dave is clueless. Dave is just one guy.

Social misfit, more than likely, who doesn't really have his finger on the pulse of anything other than his own. Something really fucking. I'm glad you didn't. I'm not catching myself here. Editing myself as I go. I think Dave's got his finger on his own pulse. And unfortunately for the people who think like him or produce their shows because they think that perhaps he's right, they're making a huge mistake.

I agree 100% with Billy in that regard. I just Dave is bad for business talked about it I'll continue to talk about it while we're talking here I'm looking for some video that I shot while I was on tour over in the UK

so I could send it to Dave Silva and we could see exactly what Oh no I saw that the fans in the UK think of Dave Meltzer that's your audience folks it's not the Dave Meltzer dirt sheet universe

that is not how you build business it's not how you build a brand in fact it's the exact opposite well let's let's continue to work our way backwards here the other big announcement or a big revelation on collision was that tony shivani is now going to be doing play by play on that show as well um you once upon a time said that when you started nitro you didn't want to necessarily overexpose tony maybe he had been too closely associated with the old regional promotion and you took that seat for a bit of course we know eventually that became tony's seat um but they've tried at least at times to have you know we have

a rampage crew and we have a dynamite crew and we have a collision crew tony shivani sort of is all over the place on all of these shows now i like it i think tony is um the glue for a lot of those teams where maybe he's not the guy who's supposed to be driving but he just sort of holds it all together and while Tony doesn't like when I say this I think he's almost like remember Mike Seaver from the sitcom back in the day he's like our wrestling TV dad I really like him in that role were you surprised to see that Tony Chivani is now on the Saturday show as well not surprised but I'm a little concerned because it's just but to Tony's one of the best.

It's not a question of whether or not he has the ability or the credibility or whether or not he's that TV dad because I agree with you. He's the voice. Other than Jim Ross, you know, there's nobody out there that has as recognizable of a personality than Tony Chavonne when it comes to doing color and play by play. But the man's only got so much energy. And spreading him that. thin. Just from a personal point of view, I don't think is a good idea. Long term and a short term it's going to work great. Tony is a pro. Tony is a pro's pro. Tony will do what he has to do to deliver. But no matter how good someone is, it's a little bit like our discussion with Logan

Paul. And how good somebody is, you want to be careful that you keep them special, that you help them maintain that Mike Seaver of television fame. You need to be aware that you can over expose great talent. Then after a period of time, don't feel quite as great to the audience because there's just, there's audience fatigue is a real thing, matter how good somebody is. Audience fatigue is a real thing. That's my only concern. It's not whether or not he can do the job or should do the job.

or anything like that. Let's see where it is four months from now, six months from now when the noonness of it wears off and Tony has been exposed a lot and on a personal level, what is it going to do to his energy level? It's not an easy job. Play-by-play in color is a, if it's done well, is a really difficult job that takes a lot out of you mentally and physically if you're doing it right. If you're just showing up like some people do, and I'm not suggesting Tony it by any stretch.

In fact, Tony's the opposite. But unless you're just showing up and just calling it improvving, not really putting the research into it, not putting the time into it, not thinking about what you're trying to get over and how you're going to get it over and when you're going to get it over and how you're going to get it over and how you tie it all together so that it seems like it's a seamless arc that's taking it to the end of the show and building just like everything else should. That's a lot of work. And I'm just a little concerned that Tony's going to get physically and mentally fatigued. And the combination of that and the overexposure is going to create audience fatigue. At some point, those two things meet and it's not good. Well, let's talk about something that was good that maybe was a little under the radar over the weekend.

I want to shine a light on what I thought was a pretty fun event. MLW Slaughterhouse happened on Saturday night. You could have watched it on fight. available now. We're big fight fans over here. And MLW did their big show. And it almost had a Halloween-type theme, maybe the MLW equivalent of Halloween Havoc.

A lot of stars over there. I know we're both personal friends with Mance Warner, super fun guy. Rocky Romero, who we all know from New Japan was on the show. Ricky Shane Page and Manders had a crazy battle. They had lots of gimmicks on this show as well. But the main event had Tom Lollah. who has a legit badass background

and Matt Cardona made a little surprise appearance, but the thing I was maybe most excited about was when they announced Jacob Fatu, who Kevin Sullivan has said pretty clearly he thinks is the best wrestlers, one of the best wrestlers in the world

who's not with WWB or AEW. I would agree with that. Adam at Rick Flair's last match, just an incredible talent, a great guy, and really special in the ring. But his opponent was a, a fellow who I believe they nicknamed Murder Grandpa, Manoro Suzuki.

I mean, just an absolute badass. And when they announced that, I said, well, what? So in between me trying to navigate AW and Alabama and Logan Paul and a big time, prime time, number seven versus number eight on ABC college football game, I'm like, okay, I got to watch Fatu and Suzuki. And I'm glad I did.

But one of the things that stood out to me, by the way, go out of your way to watch the show, but especially that match. If you know who Suzuki is and you know who Fatu is, you know it's great. If you don't know who either are, go watch it. You'll be glad you did. But when they opened the show, they had a set, Eric, that was sort of reminiscent of the way you guys used to do Halloween Havoc. Like one of my favorite things about, especially as an adult fan now, looking back,

is I can go back and see the set design for those old Halloween Havoc shows. and I would see those tombstones and they would have some funny, interesting names on there. Like one year it said Crockett, which I thought was just hilarious that here we are at a WCW pay-per-view and there's a tomb and it says Crockett.

When they opened the pay-per-view, they zoom in and there's a lot of smoke and a lot of effect there. But you could make it out and we were actually able to secure an actual photo of the tombstone. R.I.P. Jerry McDivitt. And of course, if you're paying attention to the, you know, the news, if you will,

you know that MLW is embroiled in a lawsuit with WW and somehow in the middle of all that. Jerry wound up retiring. R.P. Jerry McDivitt. That made me laugh. But then I kept watching the show. And I'll be damned that was another tombstone, Eric. I think Silva has that one ready for us. Check this one out.

Conrad Thompson. is with God forever known for his pod. I had a tombstone on a paper review set. How fun is that, Eric? I love that. I love that. A little homage to the pod father himself. I love that.

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with the code 83 weeks at Manscape.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at Manscape.com. Use the code 83 weeks or look as sweet as candy. Get yourself the handyman from Manscaped. So, Eric, let's talk about Friday night. We had a big Smackdown. They called it the Smackdown premiere,

the season premiere of Smackdown. if you will. They announced that Roman Reigns was going to be back. They announced that John Sina would be on the show. And they announced that Triple H would be there with a special announcement. And sure enough, that was the case. Triple H was there in the ring with the general manager, Adam Pierce, scrap daddy.

And then here he comes. Dominic out to protest and maybe stir up a little bit of trouble and push up against the man. Dirty Dom, who's still over is one of the biggest. heels in wrestling, and maybe we need more of that in wrestling, but that's a conversation for another day. When he starts complaining to Adam Pierce, Triple H reminds him, wait, did you not hear the announcement? Adam Pierce is now the GM of Monday Night Raw.

He's not even the Smackdown GM. And everybody's like, okay, here's the new Smackdown GM, Mr. Nick Aldous. So our friend, who we both think a lot of in real life, has officially signed a WWE contract. and he is not just working behind the scenes where he's been helping put together matches and work in an agent or producer capacity or so we've read online. Now he is an on-screen character, and we know that he's a dapper Dan there, always plugging his suit guy on social, follow him if you want to look as slick as Nick. But yeah, I'm excited to see him there.

And one of the things I was really excited about later in the show, it's a little thing. But there's this stare down with Roman and Cody. We'll talk about that in just a minute. But you see him in the middle breaking it up and just to see Cody on screen with Nick, even for just a minute. Man, that was pretty cool. That was pretty special. I was so happy to see Nick on camera for WWE.

I don't know where this leads to or where it goes or if he's going to do any in-ring action or if he's, quote, unquote, just a television character. I know once upon a time when Rick first came to WWE, they said, you'll never wrestle. You're just a GM. That was in November. And by the Royal Rumble, he was wrestling Vince McMahon. So we'll see. But I like the idea that, man, Nick is no longer with Impact and no longer doing the NWA thing. And he's with the WWE. It's cool to see guys get these opportunities just on a new platform. So I'm pulling for Nick. What'd you think? Same. And then more. You know, I first met Nick when Dixie Carter brought Nick into Impact.

over from the UK because I think he had Nick had some television exposure over there I don't know memory serves me correctly it was like a UK version of Big Brother or something

and Dixie saw him and got goo goo-eyed and brought him in and Nick was you know really green very young came over to the U.S. Went to work for

for Dixie and TNA and a little bit of a chip on his shoulder it was hard to really warm up to Nick initially. But over time, as I got to know Nick, and in particular, the kind of light bulb moment changed everything for me, at least, can't speak for Nick, was when I was working with He and Sting, I had to produce them. And I think we had a little bit of a breakthrough there,

because I think Nick probably felt the same way about me, because I'm not the easiest person to warm up to. sometimes and I can come off a little stiff but we started working together and I just saw so much potential in him and he kind of took the chip off his shoulder and he opened up and I really really enjoyed working with Nick because I saw just an amazing amount of potential in him never really got the opportunity to to follow through and work with him for an extended period of time. I ended up being TNA and Nick went on.

But Nick has got so much talent. And we often talk about that it factor and how you can't teach it, you can't put it in a bottle of sell it. Yeah. Usually you're either born with it or you're not. It's the gift. It's like having a great voice and improve upon a great voice if you were given that gift at birth, but if you don't have one, no matter how much effort you put into it,

you're just never going to be able to be a great-sayer. And charisma in that intangible quality that separates superstars from those who are just really good at what they do is something, you can't teach it. It's either there or not. And I saw Nick early on that it was there. And for whatever reason, Nick has, you know, the path that he's taken has been a little circacious. He's gone around the block a few times and weaved his way around. And it's finally ended up in a role where I think you're going to see an amazing character emerge. And one of the things I love about Nick in this role, I mean, he's perfect casting. And he looks like he was carved out of granite.

You know, he's got the looks of a, like a movie star, like he came out of central casting. He's articulate as hell. And he can go. And that's one of the great things. One of the tough things about being in that general manager authority role. And I'm not talking about as a performer, but as a writer who has to write those scenes and create, you know, emotion and drama. You know, Adam Pierce is an exception. Adam could go if asked needed to and has the credibility, but they don't use him in that respect.

Nick, because he's so imposing physically, is going to be able to creatively now. stand up to characters in a way that adds a dimension to that authority figure. When I was doing it on Raw, you know, presumably I had the power to make or break people's careers because I was calling the shots in terms of who got to Russell Who and who put his titles up and all that, you know, typical general manager authority figure stuff. But Nick Aldous has the ability to back that shit up if he's pressed into a corner, Whereas a character like mine or Teddy Longs didn't really have that. Nick is going to add a dimension, or is capable, I should say, of adding a dimension to the creative aspect of being a general manager that very few people have been able to bring to the table.

So I think it's going to, it has a potential really big fun to watch. I'm therefore, I am so happy for Nick because this is the opportunity that I think Nick, has been waiting for. And I think he's going to make absolutely the, in fact, I'm 100% sure he is going to put everything into it. And he's going to do his best to make it really work. I'm there for it. I'm excited for it.

And as a reminder, he just happens to be married to one of the best female wrestlers of all time, a Hall of Fame or in her own right, Mickey James. Yeah. So speaking of Hall of Fame ladies, we saw one of the first actions of Nick be to announce that Charlotte Flair is going to get a title shot

this coming week on Smackdown and as soon as she turned around what do you know she bumped into the new and debuting superstar Jade Cargill and immediately Triple H pops in between them goes to make the introduction

and Charlotte says she's aware of who Jade Cargill is Jade says it's my pleasure. Charlotte says it will be. And of course we know behind the scenes, Jade has done a lot of press talking about that she's going to basically live at the performance center. She wants to really perform at a high level and be the absolute best.

And she seems really, really committed to leveling up her in-ring game. But as far as a presentation, boy, she just drips charisma and oozes star power. And it felt like right there, wow, that's a Royal, Rumble main event. That's a Summer Slam main event. That's a WrestleMania main event. That's the present main event versus maybe the next main event. That was a cool little shot. What did you think? I blew me away. I mean, Jade looks like a superstar.

I'm anxious to see how she progresses in the rain because obviously, I mean, she looks. She's otherworldly in terms of just to her presence, right? This is absolutely beautiful, but a physical specimen. Yes. And I shouldn't sound like I'm hesitating or I'm cautious about this. I don't think Triple H or anybody else in WWE would allow her to get into the ring

and perform in any of the events that you just mentioned unless they were confident that she's 100% ready because what you have right now is platinum in a bottle. It's pure platinum. And when the time is right... If you're watching on YouTube, Eric, I mean, look at that photo that Silva just put up. She looks like she's out of a Marvel movie right there. Is there a more beautiful woman in wrestling?

Has there been? I don't think so. And again, just the... She doesn't look... The outfit we're looking at there, Eric, if she started throwing lightning with her hands or eyes in a movie, you'd be like, well, that checks out. She's a superhero, right?

I mean, she just has that, whatever it is, that girl's been eat up with it. She's drenched in it. Yes. And, you know, I read a little bit about her decision to go to WWE and how it all went out. And I'm sure Tony offered her a significant amount of money. There's no question about that, in my mind at least.

I think this is a woman, don't know her, never had a conversation with it. But if this is a woman, woman who's even remotely self-aware of what she brings to the table and where she could go in the future, I don't think it had anything to do with money. Oh, there's no chance. I think it had everything to do with what a relationship with WWE and Endeavor in R.A. Manuel can do for her five years from now, three years from now, whatever, because she could

go, she could be the female rock if she has that talent and she develops that that talent in the ring and she can bring that the charisma that we see that she embodies just walking out. But if she can develop the skill and the confidence to be able to deliver on the mic and in her narrative as well as her physical performance, off she goes. She could be a huge star. business and well beyond. I don't know that you maybe know this, but maybe you do. Did you know her husband was a high-level pro baseball player, right? I did not know that.

Yeah, he was second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds. He made tens and tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars. She ain't there because she needs the payday. She wants to be a star and she looks every bit of the star. And I'm so excited for that female division on the WW side. Tiffany Stratton, my wife, as you might imagine, And you know this, Eric, behind the scenes. The last thing she wants to do is sit down and watch wrestling.

If her sister's on TV, she's in. But otherwise, if Tony's doing something fun, she wants to see it. When you're on, she wants to see it. But if it's not somebody who's like in our friend universe or her sister, she don't care. But she saw Tiffany Stratton and said, hey, who's this on some social media account or something? And so I showed her the match with Becky Lynch at the pay-per-view a few weeks ago. and she said, I don't know who that is, but she's a big deal. She's going to be a big deal.

And it's interesting to me to see what that next generation, that women's revolution started, I guess at this point we'd call it eight years ago with Bailey and Sasha and, of course, Charlotte and Becky. But now it feels like the new crop is here, whether it's Bianca Bel Air or it's Tiffany Stratton or it's Rear Ripley or it's Jay Cargill. Like, women's wrestling in WWV has never looked stronger than it does right now, in my opinion. It is amazing. The evolution of women's wrestling in WWE is nothing short of amazing. And it's only going to get better because as the Becky Lynch's and the Charlotte Flares and the Bianca Bellairs and all the aforementioned names and now Jay Cargill, as they emerge and become these superstars, what do you think it's going to do? or create in the future because now young women who are athletic and who aspire and want to be great

performers have these examples of this. Actually, it can happen. It's possible. These women are doing it. They're aspirational in so many different ways, not only in terms of their performances in the ring, but professionally aspirational. And I think they're going to motivate a lot of young, great, talented women to go, you know what, this professional wrestling thing isn't just for 300 pound guys.

Right. I'm not just going to go out there and be freaking eye candy, now, the way it used to be. Right. Nobody's going to put a leash on me and a dog collar and make me walk out on my hands and he's barking like a dog. This is now where I can go out and perform physically and showcase what I'm capable of doing as an entertainer. it's going to be a lot of great women that are going to come along 10, 15 years from now

because of what we're seeing right now in WWE. Well, let's keep going backwards. We know that this past Tuesday was a big day. It was title Tuesday. And that's the way they had to brand it to make the AEW preemption feel special. Of course, the Braves were sadly, my Braves were sadly eliminated by the Phillies. So that's it. But that took precedent, and I understand that.

So on Tuesday night, instead of Wednesday night, we got the AEW show, which meant for the first time they were going to be head-to-head with NXT. And we talked about this last week. Lots of big teases. We saw The Undertaker gone go off at the end of the commercial. We would actually see him show up and do some stuff with Rick Steiner's son. We'll talk about that. I'm sure in a few moments.

We also saw that Paul Heyman was going to be in the corner for one of the title fights against Carmello Hayes, where John Cena was going to be in his corner. L.A. Knight was there. I mean, it was a star-studded cast. We saw even another appearance there from Jade Cargill. They loaded it up. And then they announced the first half hour would be commercial free. And when they did that, Tony Kahn made a tweet.

This happened on October 9th at 842. And it was a meme, if you will, a GIF, I think, is what you're supposed to call it of curb your enthusiasm with our pal larry david and he wrote hashtag a ew dynamite tomorrow on tbs okay you want to be a dick that's what the scene from curb your enthusiasm was and so tony essentially guaranteed at that point not only is nxte going to be commercial free for the first 30 minutes now a ew will as well i thought it was a really slick way to introduce that when they started with Christian in the in the truck if you will just announcing that's what it was going to be and then saying okay now you can open the show before we got there though

triple h and sean michaels had done some uh well they made some headlines house of wrestling wrote a little note our friend nick houseman says triple h and shon michael's look to send Tony Kahn a message exclusive. Tony Kahn then quote tweeted it. I have a message for them. See you tonight at a special Tuesday night. Hashtag a EW. Dynamite title fight Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central on the TBS network.

At least the first 30 minutes are commercial free, plus a big overrun tonight. And there's a photo there again from Kirby Enthusiasm where someone spray painted in green spray paint. Or maybe it's yellow. I'm colorblind. stop showing off on Larry David's front door bald asshole now you could argue is that a shot at triple H most people probably think that's a shot at Sean Michaels but either way Tony Kine a lot of people felt like was gotten to with these two tweets and that's before the shows ever even started Eric I'm sure you were seeing this happen and Meltzer would even

come out after the fact when he did a little wrap-up that evening and say the tweets were reminiscent of when you went out and challenged Vince McMahon to a fight at Slambury in 1998. And he says when things started to get really tough in WCW, maybe the wheels started to come off, you sort of exhibited this same type of behavior and that was bad for WCW. We saw what Tony did. He laid out what or laid out what day. Dave Meltzer compared it to.

What did you think? But Dave, shit stay, Meltzer has a tendency to forget in the people that follow him and just don't know any better because they're ignorant in the literal sense. Lack of information or knowledge and experience. as I started out doing that I was in Vince McMahon and WWE's face from the get-go with Nitro starting with signing Lex Lugar when everybody in WWE still thought he was under contract

sleeping at the wheel and I brought Lex in as a surprise as my first in-your-face moment people that don't know any better because they're literally ignorant forget that I was the first one to ever start my show early when we were actually head to head every week we were head to head with Nitro and by the way if you go back and you look at the

ratings starting in 95 when Nitro debuted now the first night obviously they they were preempted WWB's preempted so you can't count that but go back and look at the ratings between WWE and Monday Night Raw, excuse me, Monday Night Raw and Nitro from the very beginning when we were head to head. We were not only competitive, there were weeks when we pulled ahead early before the NWO. It was one week them, one week us, two weeks them, one week us, two weeks us, one week them. We went back and forth immediately because we were legitimately competitive from the beginning. We weren't on the sidelines on another day or another night taking shots. In fact, if you really want to educate yourself and not rely upon the shit-stained Dave Meltzer or your

information and your knowledge, go back and this has nothing to do with, yeah, but because of streaming and people watch TV differently, put all your excuses to the side, go back and find the audience, the ratings, look at the audience for WCW Saturday night. Before I ever took over WCW, go back and look at the audience composition numbers for WCW Saturday night on TBS at 605 Eastern 305 Pacific and compare that to Monday Night Raw's primetime ratings and you will find that WCWCWCWs, and you will find that WCD on a percentage basis was not that far behind. Think about that.

WCW before Nitro, before Eric Bischoff took over, was competitive with Monday Night Raw. Even though Monday Night Raw was in primetime and WCW was at Saturday night, 605 Eastern 305 Pacific. Now fast forward to 1995 and look at the comparison. Percentage, just on a percentage basis.

Don't give me your, people watch TV different. Now, that's an excuse, fans, friends, frenemies. It's an excuse. It's a diversion. If you look at the market and what percentage of the television market we had, Monday Night Raw had at that time, and the percentage that WCW had before Nitro and after Nitro, WCW was competitive from the beginning. Now, when we went head-to-head, the competitor in me, the person in me that wanted to be number one, I got in Vince McMahon's face

from the very beginning, and it was a strategy that worked from the very beginning. Starting early, overruns. Where did that come from? Whoever did that before Nitro? Oh yeah, you're right, nobody. The channel, you know,

the snarky shit that I did is what created the competition. It's what created the Monday Night Wars before Vince McMahon woke up out of his stupor in his teen and preteen

business model went fuck the only way I can compete with Eric Bischoff is to do what Eric is doing on Nitro. Hence the attitude era which was really modeled after the NWO and what we were doing by

producing our shows to appeal to an 18 to 49 demo instead of a kid's 8 to 11 or preteen audience. That's what shifted everything. But the difference is I was going head to head and I was competitive. Yes, at the end, you know, giving away the finish or giving, you know, announcing the rock McFolly. Did that backfire? Fuck. Yes, it backfired.

One out of probably a hundred times that I had done it previously. when the other 99 worked effectively enough to make WCW Nitro the number one most-watched television professional wrestling television program in America and around the world. That strategy that Dave Beltzer tried to use as a shot at WCW or me personally, he forgets that the other 99 times when it worked and points to the one time towards the end when, yeah, we were getting our ass kicked. And yeah, because of the promo that Sean Waltman did when he came out and took a shot at me first. In this case, Tony took the shot first. But in my case, Sean and Waltman came out and by name, called me, and he should have. I would have if I were Sam. I was a character on the show.

And probably, by some people's estimation, one of the bare heels on the show is a character. So I don't blame Sean for what he did. But I reacted to it in a way that I thought was entertaining. go back and look at some of those workout videos that I did and the promos that I kind of Vince that was that was wrestling stuff that wasn't just me sitting in and tweeting out silly childish bullshit that was me doing entertaining childish bullshit on television that worked most of the time I found it entered and again it's typical Dave it's it's how Dave frames things because he's a weak pathetic

make basically twisted up little individual that's got his little cult of wrestling fans that follow him and think that he knows what he's talking about. And it makes me laugh. When I read what Dave said, it just made me laugh because it's so typical. Well, I'll tell you what else is typical, that you start your day every day with one delicious scoop of AG1, and it doesn't work most of the time. It works every time. You and I are such a big fan of this because, man, it's just a micro habit with macro benefits.

My wife does it every morning on her way to the gym and she can tell when we're out of town or she forgets to pack or she wakes up late. If she misses a day of AG1, she tells me she's less productive. She can tell a difference in her workout. I can tell a difference in the afternoon. I have like an afternoon crash. I don't know. Somewhere in that 3 o'clock hour, it feels like my brain is just mush. Well, with AG1, I'm going to stay sure.

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bucks a day. But right now, we've got a special offer. If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkag1.com slash 83 weeks. That's drinkag1.com slash 83 weeks. Check it out. Drinkag1.com slash 83 weeks. So Eric, this, uh, the series of tweets would continue.

And I feel bad discussing it, but, um, everybody in wrestling was talking about it this week. We should at least talk about. Some of the good stuff that Tony tweeted. He tweeted out, this is during the course of the show that night. So Tuesday night, during Title Tuesday, during Dynamite. This Christmas, coming to Wednesday night, AEW Dynamite, the biggest toy giveaway in pro wrestling history.

Over 50,000 AEW toys donated to Toys for Tots, over a million dollars in toys, thanks to our partners at JazzWs, TBS, and all you fans who made this possible. I know we both think a lot of the folks at JazzWare. And listen, say what you will about Tony Kahn and AEW. But this is a really cool thing. And I thought this was a high five announcement all around. Anytime we can do something for kids around the holidays, sign me up, dude.

I agree. 100%. I think the world of Jeremy Petowar is a good friend. And everybody over at JazzWares, Tony's doing a great thing. TBS is doing a great thing. There's nothing but love, man. Love that they're doing it. It's good for business.

We should also mention that maybe what's good for business is stirring up some controversy. I have a friend of mine that I talk to at least once a week. And he has a saying, I think he even wrote a book about it once. Controversy creates cash. And boy, Tony Kahn leaned into that and did a quote tweet. and he did this on October 11th at 918 at night and just that quote tweet got 2.8 million impressions process that folks

600 and some odd thousand people watch the show we'll talk about that in a minute 2.8 million people saw this tweet now of course that's domestic versus global but still the statement was from Dr. Randy and he says the difference is that Vince has the power and influence to take them cheap shots he's earned the right to make them.

Tony Kahn is Vince if you order him from Team U. I don't even know what that is. He can shop like a billionaire, but you'll get the cheapest tat doing so. And Tony, quote tweeted it and says, yes, Vince has allegedly used his power and influence to shoot a lot of shots. Wow.

That felt like out of left field, but I do appreciate that occasionally when a man has had all he can stands and he can't stance no more. I mean, this is a guy who grew up on the DVD or message boards. This is a guy who grew up in the era of clapping back and chat rooms and message boards. But a lot of people would say Tony was gotten to. I kind of feel like that was a little, that had a little bit of Eric Bischoff in it, though.

That had a little bit of a cowboy feel back when you were battling with Vince. What did you think about that quote tweet? It wasn't impressed. Look, again, it all goes back to cheap shots from the sidelines. If you're not really competing, your mouth shut. Look, controversy does create cash, but with that comes some context. Controversity could also come back and bite you an ass.

It's not. a formula that I would suggest everybody just engages in blindly. There's times when it really works for you and there are times when it works against you. And I think given the nature of what's been going on for the last six or eight months in AW, I think, I'm not being critical here. I'm being constructively honest. Timing is everything. And I think the nature of some of the things that were tweeted out and particularly the timing of it was bad.

Just I understand the instinct. Trust me, I understand the instinct. I'm fighting it right now. I'm fighting my own instinct to prevent myself from saying things that I know will be interpreted incorrect. really, really, really trying hard today because I want to be constructive and not just jump on the bandwagon because I can and I'm fucking good at it.

But to be constructive, and I think it's okay to be a little wild wild west. It's okay to be that guy that's just not going to take it anymore. But, man, timing is everything. And the timing was really bad for a lot of these tweets. It just made the brand look worse. It didn't help. Nobody's rallying around those tweets.

Those 2.1 million impressions were not good impressions. Nobody, very few. If you look at some of the responses to some of those tweets, Tony's own timeline. not good those are 2.1 generally bad impressions not 2.1 good impressions well let's talk about the ratings

because this was you know we all knew going in that w.W.E was stacking the deck bringing all these legends and we knew that you know they certainly stacked it again when they did the first half hour commercial free and maybe stacked it again when there was an overrun

I mean, they were running a no huddle offense trying to run up the score with as many stars as they could get. And I really enjoyed it. I got to tell you, just seeing the enthusiasm of that crowd. I mean, I got to admit, I'm not a regular consumer of the NXT program. I have seen some NXT stuff, but do I sit down and watch it every week? No, I do not. I think the world of Jeremy Borash and so many people who work behind the scenes there. and I know it's a special place,

but I've just not made it a priority. But I watched this week, and to see Cody Rhodes come out there, and to see John Cena come out there, and L.A. night come out there, and the fans were with them in such a strong way. It kind of made me feel like it was an old ECW crowd because the star of the show to me was the crowd.

And I sort of missed, I mean, it did make me think of that ECW-type enthusiasm them. And I know that some people would say, well, this is more of a studio-style show. Okay, well, sign me up for that too. I will wind up watching more NXT because of that show because I was so in love with the crowd. And I know that, you know, they tried that for a long time with impact, but it never felt like that to me. Why do you think that is? Why is that, though? Why did impact in a similar environment, the same dog on town? It's a studio. It feels like it should be apples to apples, but it just didn't feel that way watching the show. Yeah, in fairness, you know, like you, I think this was the first time ever that I watched

an entire NXT show from beginning to end. Previously, I would drop in. If I read about something that was really cool or significant happening, I would drop in and check it out, but I've never sat down and watch it. I don't know what that crowd will be like three weeks from now when you don't have all those stars there. Right. Everybody in that arena or in that. studio knew why this was a special show and knew they were going to get a special opportunity

to see some talent that they would normally never see on NXT. So they came preconditioned before they even left their homes in anticipation of what was going to happen. And certainly when they got there, that anticipation was only built upon more and more and more as time went on. And then you see your star. So it didn't surprise me that that energy level, which is one of the first things I noticed was where it was at. But what's it going to look like three weeks from now? Because a studio audience is never going to have the energy. And one of the first things that I did, you know, now I watched NXT Live and I DVRed Dynamite. So I, you know, I decided not, because typically when I do this kind of thing, I'll sit down, make notes, segment by segment

notes. And I didn't want to do that this time. I wanted to watch both shows. without taking my head out of it to make my notes and thinking about my notes. I just wanted to watch and feel the show. Just feel it, not analyze it. And try to capture my feelings about the show as opposed to my opinions about the show, technically. And the first thing I noticed when I watched, and I see, I mean immediately, and throughout the entire episode, crowd was on fire to your point. But the next morning, when I got up early to watch,

Dynamite because Alba and I were going to cover it on Strictly Business, I liked the AEW feel more. Yes, the NXC crowd was, without question, they were on fire, much more so than the AEW audience was. But I like the feel of the AEW show more when it came to just the way it was presented because it felt credible. And it felt like a live event as opposed to a really, really, really exceptionally good game show. I don't mean that derisively, not cutting anything down took place on the show. I love the show, but it is an artificial environment to me. And I think the problem to your question is TNA every single week. And a lot of the people that were in that audience were the same audience every single week.

And you just don't get that authentic big show vibe at the wrestler presentation, that big event vibe. You just don't get that in a studio show. And to me, you said it. The NXT audience was the star of the show. That's the way it should always be. Elvis Presley said it. You've ever been talking about this before. Allegedly, Elvis Presley said to someone who was doing an interview about a show he was doing

and about him becoming a star. He said, the biggest star in this show is out there in the audience, not up here on the stage. The same is true in professional wrestling. I used to give the analogy all the time. It doesn't matter who Dixie Carter brought in to TNA. Just didn't matter because after the initial, oh my gosh, he's here, whether it was staying or Hall Cogan or Eric Bisch. not to put myself in that same category,

but along that same time, or Kurt Engel or Booker T, or Scott Hall and Kevin Nash before we brought them in, or they were brought in while I was there to be accurate. Yeah, you get that big pop and reaction. Three weeks later, it's same old, same all. This is awesome. This is a...

That's not real, folks. Especially in the studio setting. Because it just feels like, wow, you're, you just walked into somebody's living room while they're having a really good time as opposed to I'm at a major event. And there's three or four or five or 10,000 other people here validating the fact that I should love what I'm about to enjoy as opposed to two or three hundred. So I, yeah, the NXC audience was fire. Yes, that added so much to that show. And yes, I'm going to check it out. used to come, but I'm pretty certain that you're going to lose that sense of fire in that audience

when they don't have as much to anticipate and be excited about. I agree with you. I do prefer the style of presentation of the AEW show, and I was more familiar with their characters and storylines and things like that. But that audience, man, I think every now and again, like, for instance, if I, if I, and I don't, But if I was on the AW team and I had any sort of influence, I would try to push one of my three weekly shows to be in a smaller, more intimate, like let's focus on that crowd.

I don't know how we could get there and how you could manipulate that. But, you know, I know that that's something that WWE at times has struggled with. How do we make Raw feel different than Smackdown besides the color blue versus the color red? but if one of those shows was a studio show and WWB does have that now. They've got red raw, they've got blue SmackDown, and they've got that more intimate NXT, maybe if one of those AEW shows had that feel,

that could be fun. But I think you're probably going to see that. I mean, look, if you look at the ticket sales, you look at what AEW is able to accomplish in terms of drawing an audience to their dynamite shows, it's getting to be more and more of a challenge

and having multiple shows, whether it be collision, rampage, and you're putting even more pressure on that live audience. And look, it's not hot right now. If you go back

to some of the shows, I think you and I did, yeah, it would have been you and I. When the discussion about AEWP, before it ever became a thing on TBS. And we got into, shortly afterwards, we got into a discussion, I think, early on about,

what do you think about adding a second show and a third show? And they were doing their YouTube stuff. And I was like, man, don't do it. Right. Not yet. Make sure your core product, your number one, your flagship show, make sure you're on absolutely solid footing.

And you've got the infrastructure and talent. You've worked out the bugs and you've got a creative vision and you're growing. Once that audience starts growing and has sustained that growth for a significant period of time, then they had another show. But what AEW did was it just created so much content before they had a strong foundation. In my opinion, not a criticism. I'm not criticizing anybody. This is my opinion, someone that actually did it.

and had some success along the way and had some failures along the way as a result. And it's the totality of that experience that lends itself to my perception and some of the things that I discuss here, or my opinion, I should say. Opinion, having been there and done that, is to absolutely make sure that you've got your infrastructure in place, your talent, create a vision in place, your roster under control, building and in success you add more content as opposed to adding more content right out of the shoot and in suffering overall and your core product suffering as a direct result.

Well, we should mention that when the numbers came down, it was clear. WWE's attack or their effort had won, maybe switching to another night, had cost eight. a little bit. Total viewership of the AEW show head to head 609,000 0.26 in that 1849 demo. Meanwhile, over on USA,

NXT hit 921,000 total viewers and they won the demo 1849 as well with 0.3. So, very quickly people started to celebrate or discuss WWB's quote-unquote win,

even though it's not the home night for NXT, it is the home night, or not the home night for AW. It is the home night for NXT. And they did stack the deck with other stars. But this was real competition. And you've been pretty clear about saying up front, when they were battling NXT before,

it was their third developmental brand. It wasn't really against one of their main rosters. This felt like more of a main roster, even if it wasn't. WW1, but then Tony Kahn, boy, it's like he's reading some of your old plays, Man. Controversy creates cash. He posted a tweet on October 12th, 1046 a.m. 5.9 million impressions on this tweet, as we're covering it now. This week, two active decades-long rating streaks from two great legends were ended. With all due respect, until this week's head to head AEW on TBS versus WW on USA, neither John Cena nor Undertaker had ever been on a WWE show with under one million total. total viewers, plus under 400K in the demo.

That is not something that Eric Bischoff would have said. No circumstances. Let's be really freaking clear. Had I had my ass handed to me as decidedly as only had his handed to him, the last thing I would have done was to come out and try to spin that ass kickin as any kind of a victim. That is absolutely something I would never have contemplated. Never. And again, those are five point, however many million really bad impressions.

And by the way, Conrad and everybody in the chat, if you could, we're closing in on two hours and as you can probably tell, I need to take a quick break. Oh, it's time for some coffee. I know what you're really doing. You're going to get some blue chew. Today's episode, sponsored by Blue Chew. Let's talk about sex. And the time that Eric is filling up his coffee, he can also get his ding-dong real, real hard.

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And also want to mention we've got a lot of folks hanging out in the group chat. and when you sign up over at ad-freeshows.com, you can be a part of our live studio audience. Not just that. You get all of our shows early and ad-free, but there's a ton of other great bonus content. And maybe my new favorite thing we've done recently is a brand-new series with Lex Lugar.

We're calling it Lex Express. This is not going to appear anywhere you enjoy podcasts unless you sign up at ad-freeshows.com. You see, it's ad-freeshows.com exclusive. That's not to say you have to watch it on a web browser. Of course you can. You can watch it on your phone or on your desktop. Or you can just listen to the audio because we're going to get you a link.

And however you normally consume your podcast, you can listen to it there. What we're doing differently with Lex Express, though, is it's an interactive format that I'm really excited about that folks are going to have a chance to not only check out, but actually be a part of. You'll appear on camera and ask Lex questions and get to have a real conversation. It's really, really fun. And we had a lot of fun talking about Vince McMahon. We've talked a lot today on 83 weeks about the first episode of Monday Nitro or when he was starting Nitro and trying to compete with Vince McMahon. But one of the first shots over the bow in the Monday Night Wars was not just the declaration of war that Nitro existed, but Lex Lugar showing up unannounced. And we're going to go ahead and play a clip for you now where you can hear how he heard the McMahon's responded to him appearing on the very first Monday Nitro from the Mall of America way back when.

Let's play that clip right now. So when I walked out, because of my closest play show I always had with Vince, I guess Vince was very hurt, which if I could do it over. Nowadays, I probably wouldn't have done it that way. Right. I would think. But I heard that Linda talked to him and said, if you ever bring him back in here. Hmm.

Because she loves her husband. It was like a protective moment. Like, don't you ever bring that man back in here? Because Vince, I guess it was jaw-dropping. So get the whole conversation. It is really a fascinating conversation. It's exclusive to ad-free shows.com. We've also got other bonus series there,

like Tuesdays with the Taskmaster, Monday Mailbag with Mike Keota, Monday Mailbag with Nick Patrick, The Book with David Crockett, Making the Town with the Blue Manny. So much really fun stuff. How about Rebels? happy hour. Yeah, you get to get on camera

and drink with Rebel. Who didn't want to do that? It all happens. By the way, is there a more fun personality No, no, the best than wrestling. She is so awesome. I can't wait just to be in a room with her again because she brings a lot of great energy to her room.

Well, we want your great energy to join us over at ad-freeshows.com and listen, we've talked a lot about Tony's tweets. Tony sort of pulled the curtain back a little bit and was a little vulnerable and shared the way he really felt on October 13th at 820 in the morning as we're recording now this tweet has 1.7 million impressions it was actually two tweets one he says this weekend marks one year since Mayo Clinic saved my mom's life

during her ordeal many AW talent came to me alleging WWE tampering including them to break their contracts or inducing them to break their contracts I'll never forget these phone calls at her side in the hospital, it's when business became personal for me. And he quote tweets that and says, not that I should be surprised, but the same WWB avatar accounts that spam me every day, no matter what I say

or what it's about, now turning their wrath to my mom recovering from a near-death experience is why I straight hate these people to the bottom of my heart with all of my soul. So you can tell that Tony is trying to you know, share his real personal family circumstance and situation and how he felt like perhaps WWE was playing dirty ball and did not respond kindly when fans were sort of attacking

that on social media. When this was happening last week, there was a lot of people. There was a lot of discussion about Tony Kahn's Twitter and the do's and don'ts of Twitter and what he should or shouldn't do. And I've always thought that was kind of the fun of social. social media? Like, you get to be, I mean, a lot of people get on social media and they just pretend to be whoever they want to be. But you can really share as much or as little as you want on social media. We both know people who post every single thing they do. Here's my breakfast.

Here's my lunch. Here's my dog. Here's the shoes I wore today. Check out my outfit today. This is me working out at the gym. This is me driving a car. This is, I mean, and other people just use it as a promotional vehicle. But there was a lot of debate this week about what Tony should be or shouldn't be doing on Twitter. You're a little older, a little wiser. Drop some knowledge on us. Be our podcast wise man, if you will, without the pinstripe suit.

What did you think Tony should or shouldn't have shared on social media with regard to his personal life like this? I think he went way too far. I think if I had a relationship with Tony where he would listen to anything that I had to say, it would be to not sell. This is not the time to pull your pants down and show the world your ass.

This is not the time to overreact. This is not the time to get over-emotional. This is not the time to bring up something as personal as he did with regard to his mother or health and then tie it into the evil WWE. This is not the time. And he may feel that way. I'm sure Tony has family and friends that he can talk to.

But talking about how much you hate a certain amount of the audience with your heart and soul, it was not the time. Even if he believes it, it's not the time. it's just Tony the individual did not do himself any favors and Tony con president of AEW did not do the brand any favors and he did not do the network that he's in partnership with any favors you have to have a level of judgment and there are things there are things I want to say right now on this podcast

that I'm not going to say for because it's not the right time. It's just not. And that's where judgment comes in. You've got to have the ability and the discipline to not say the things or do the things sometimes

that we all want to say and do in certain situations because you know vis-a-vis better judgment that in the long run, it will work against you and not for you. And I think, unfortunately, that judgment was ignored or perhaps it's not there. I don't know. But the tweets and the things that we saw absolutely accomplished nothing other than damaging the brand.

the product overall and its potential. It's just have to learn judgment. And you're not just the individual anymore. When you're the president of a company and you're representing your product and you're representing your network, quite honestly, your emotions don't fucking matter at the end of the day. Not in that role. You know, one of the things used to drive me crazy. About Vince is I couldn't get him to sell.

Couldn't get him to sell. Now, eventually he did. Yeah. In a big way. When he abandoned his previous business model to replicate what we had been doing to him for over a year by that time, that was the biggest sell ever for me. But as the leader, You can't sell like that.

Just can't. It's bad for your business. It's bad for the morale of the talent that's on your roster. It's not good. It's not good. Well, let's talk about something else that people thought was not good on the AW channels this week. There was a, well, there was a controversial angle. And we're going to be criticized for either.

and bringing it up, I'm sure. But this is what happened. They have the Bang Bang Club, which you and I both think a lot of Juice Robinson, and of course we both know how talented Jay White is, and they've got the gun club there, who certainly are heat magnets and know how to get fans to hate them. It's a cool faction.

I like the faction. They're in the middle of a feud with MJF, I guess Jay White and MJF are headed towards a big pay-per-view main event. Jay White is now in possession of AEW's World Championship that rightfully belongs to MJF. And MJF, I guess it was last November, peeled back the curtain and told a real life story that he had told me before in real life like the day AEW launched in that parking lot in Jacksonville about his Jewish faith and about how he had been ridiculed and bullied. And they threw quarters at him as a young man.

And the day before, so last Monday, a week ago was people listening to this, MJF, quote, tweeted an image of him praying backstage before an AEW show. It was a candid shot behind the scenes. And he shared his Jewish faith and how important that was to him. He had done that before last November, but he certainly did it the day before this angle happened. And we saw that candid shot of him with his AEW tagged. team titles and him in his full gear on his knees praying. And then the next day at the television show, Juce Robinson, who I still don't think participates in social media, he's the only smart one amongst us, did something that

was people were pretty critical of. He pulled out a roll of quarters that literally had Max's name on. I said, Friedman. And people were pretty upset about this. It was heavily debated. lots of people who felt a close personal connection to AEW and they were pulling for them. They were turned off by this and people were saying they weren't going to watch

and MJF wrote a really long response sort of defending it saying that, quote, I look forward to the hard conversations this starts and creates. I look forward to people being further educated. My life's work is to stand up to any and all injustice is done to people due to something as stupid as being different. To anyone that thinks that can't be done through the avenue of professional wrestling, then that's an indictment on things that have happened in the sports past.

I look forward to bringing this sport into the present. I also look forward to knocking Juice Robinson's teeth down his throat. And most of all, I look forward to getting back the Triple B. And of course, the next day, or a couple of days later, he was at a stop-the-hate-type event. at Robert Crafts Jolette Stadium. And he's certainly, you know, doing a lot in the Jewish community. And a lot of people just think, hey, man, this is one of those no-fly zones in wrestling.

I don't think it belongs in wrestling. But I have a friend who says heat is life. Where do you land on this? Or should we let it play out? What say you? Very few people that I have more respect for. for professionally as talent than MJF. I don't know him really well personally.

I get to spend a little time around him. A couple occasions. And occasionally, we text back and forth or DM back and forth. I think we've, as I've said before, I'll say again because it's worth it. I think we've just seen the tip of the talent iceberg as it relates to MJF. I think there's so much more to come, and I can't wait to see it. And I admire his intent tremendously, tremendously admire his intent. These are unique times, and I know there's the what about isms that are sure to follow this podcast.

I get it. but we are on the brink of World War III. There are horrific, unbelievable images being live streamed as we speak, things that none of us are even comfortable even saying out loud, but they're being streamed into our homes, women, elderly, children on both sides of the equation. And it's only going to get worse.

It will be worse by the time this podcast actually gets posted than it is while I'm recording it. I know I've said before timing is everything. And yes, heat is life. But there's a time and a place and appropriateness. And the judgment, however honorable, the intentions, I do believe they're honest. I don't believe this is like a cover-your-ass tweet. I agree.

I absolutely believe in his heart is as sincere as he can be. That doesn't mean that the judgment was correct and that the timing associated with it, right? I don't know what's going on in the EW. I don't know what may be going on or not going on in TBS. All I know is professional wrestling is a form of entertainment. It's over-the-top entertainment. It sometimes makes fun of its own lack of credibility. It is not a documentary.

It's not in my, opinion format to engage in something as serious and unprecedented as we're seeing right now and to use that as the premise for professional wrestling storyline and that's not an indictment on anything that's happened in the past and people can take their what about isms and stick them straight up their ass because i don't care they're not appropriate. I just, as much as I like and respect MJF, he's a young man who's on the verge of becoming a major star. And perhaps that's what's plowed at his judgment. Or perhaps he's considered it all and said, fuck it, I don't care. I don't know. Either way, I was disappointed. And I

I hope that it comes and goes without a whole lot more negative reaction to it. I hope that it plays out and serves MJF's intent without just getting blistered because of what's going on. I just question the judgment. Yeah, I'm going to let it go with that. I just question the judgment. let's uh we want to do a few more things then we're going to wrap up today's episode we've went extra long apologies for the length of today's show i know some people love the longer the better but there was so much that happened this past week i want to close not on a controversial note

or a sad note but on a business note are you manual who make no mistake is now as where does this sounds Vince McMahon's boss uh of course this new tko company is all under the endeavor Banner, and he is the main man at Endeavor. And there's been a lot of discussion about how the TKO stock has tumbled a little bit and why it's down. Brandon Thurston covered this and included a clip from a Bloomberg interview, and he says, there's the R. He says that the reason this happened, the TKO, which is UFC and WWE stock tumbling a little bit, was three reasons. number one

the new raw deal came in in a 1.4 increase from the current deal and Brandon points out the market had been speculating it would be 1.5 to 1.8 so we felt a little short of projections

there number two the Saudis investing in the pfl the professional fighting league which the market viewed is perhaps a risk of competition to the UFC and three quote probably Vince and our deal wanted to be able to put at any

point in time his stock you know he's 78 years old he's been working at this for decades and decades Brandon writes as already said put up his stock he seemed like he was about to say for sale but interrupted himself this probably refers to Vince McMahon's rights to sell his stock which was detailed in August and of course he points out that that a lot of people are saying that just a clickbait headline, number three is Vince McMahon. That's the reason the stock is down. But that's not the full story. It's the idea that he could at his disposal anytime he wants sell a huge chunk of this stock,

which would bring some questions about, hey, what does that mean for the future of WWE if he's really out? and create a whole lot of market volatility in the market, certainly in that particular stock, if that many shares moved so quickly. Because people would obviously jump to the conclusion there. What does he know? Like when a quote-unquote insider starts selling a lot of stock, a lot of people from the outside looking in,

yes, it could mean, respectfully, oh, it's an older guy cashing out. Or it could mean, hey, he knows something bad's fixing to happen. Maybe I need to move my money, too. before that happens. I wanted to get your two cents on Ari's quotes about why the stock is down if there's anything more to this should people read into it.

What do you think is the long-term future of the TKO stock? And then I guess, you know, the other narrative here is Vince McMahon is no longer quote-unquote running creative. It's now more Triple H than ever before.

You and I aren't there, and even though we could probably make some phone calls and ask, we don't because that's just not what friends do in this circumstance. What do you make of all this news coming out of this Bloomberg interview with Mr. Emmanuel? I'll just kind of breaking it down in the pieces. Let's start out with Triple H being in charge of creative, which I think is absolutely fantastic news. I can tell you from first-hand experience with all due respect to Vince, because I probably respect

Vince McMahon more now than I ever have. At just the stage of my life and having the advantage of having seen the industry and been a part of the industry for over 30 years and how it's evolved and all of the things that Vince McMahon personally and as a company has overcome and achieved, I have more respect for Vince McMahon today than I ever have. That being said, I was also there in 2019 and I was brought in to quote unquote oversee the Smackdown brand. and I from day one didn't know who was on my writing writing team it changed daily we weren't allowed to really have any conversations relating to going forward because the decisions to break up the writing team

one with Paul Heyman one with Eric Bischoff that was in a state of flux from the time that I got there to the day that I left so you never really knew who was on I never really knew who was on my team And more importantly, the writing staff had no idea who their leader was. They didn't know if I was their boss, if Paul Heyman was going to be their boss, or Vince McMahon was going to be their boss. They had no idea.

So you've got a writing team that's walking on eggshells, and especially back that because there was a lot of things going on. So I had a team that I supposedly, and I use the term carefully, supposedly was overseeing that I didn't know if they were on my team or not on my team, and they didn't know if I was their boss or somebody else was their boss. Wow. And while that was going on, of course, everybody still had to write television because Vince McMahon had to approve literally everything that was on that television show.

And you never knew if what he said was going to be approved on Saturday was still going to be approved by Monday morning or at 5 o'clock Monday afternoon. So there was a state of confusion that existed there. And it may have been Inspected Man genius and kind of creating a controlled chaos hoping that the best rise to the top I kind of think that that's part of it but I can tell you from my

first-hand experience and from observing the people that I theoretically oversaw it made it horribly difficult for everybody. And if Ari Emanuel made the decision, which apparently he asked,

to make sure that everybody on that creative staff knows who their boss is and what the expectations are, most importantly, and that they can move forward with confidence in that knowledge, I think it was a fantastic move

that was far overdue. Again, nothing but respect to Vince, if you think about where professional wrestling has come since Vince McMahon decided one day to buy the company from his father and put the territories out of business and focus on a national television show and be the first and a leader in pay-per-view with professional wrestling and all of the other first

and the fact that WCW would have never been a thing and I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you if it were not for Vince McMahon. individually Vince McMahon. Yes, the team around him, but without the vision of Vince McMahon, none of it would have ever happened. You wouldn't be sitting here talking to me. I wouldn't be living in a beautiful home that I wanted all my life in a part of the country that is one of the most beautiful in the world. This is, I'm living my dream literally in many respects because of Vince McMahon. So is Tony Conn. So is Jade Cargill. So is so many great talents that are emerging

and talents that have had phenomenal careers and made millions and millions of dollars. And yes, there's been those that have tried and didn't succeed. Guess what? None of it would not have happened without Vince McMahon. But all of that being said, there is a time when one has to transition. In order for WWE to continue growth and continue momentum, that creative team, those people that live every single day, 365 days a year to be the very best that they can be, need to know who their boss is. And that person needs to know that they're not going to be undermined at the last minute. So I think it's a great thing. And I hope that anybody who that hears this understands that this is not a criticism of Vince. Vince built WWE to become what

it has become. And yeah, did he add some quirks? Absolutely. Where there's some things that drove me crazy while I was there for a very brief period of time because I wasn't cut out for that. I just wasn't. And probably a lot of people fell into that category over the decades. But you know what? I respect him a ton, but it was time. And I'm glad to see it. And I'm glad that Triple H and Bruce Pritchard and Ed Kosky and probably a lot of other people that are there now doing it that I just have not met yet. Some I have, some I know. But, man, I'm happy for them.

I'm happy for the wrestling fans. It's good for business. It's about time. As far as, you know, the stock analyst point of view and what do I think it means for TK. man, I'm the last person of the world to talk to. Do I think future is bright for WWE and for TKO? Absolutely. Absolutely. It's a powerhouse. It is in a weird category all of its own. TKO. TKO Holdings is a powerhouse among brands that exist in the live entertainment space 52 freaking weeks a year. Amazingly powerful. And it's only going to become more.

more powerful as time goes on. But as far as, you know, the fact of, you know, Vince McMahon having the ability to share his stocks at any time, I'm not the right guy to ask about that. I don't have an opinion. I don't know enough to have an opinion. One thing I do want to say before we button up those, hats off to Brandon Thurston. One of the reasons I follow them, one of the reasons I was so excited to have him on on strictly business with John Albin, myself, is because of his credibility.

And I think the way he covered this and put it in context as opposed to relying on a headline for clickbait makes me respect him even more. And I encourage anybody listening to this show to follow Brandon Thurson because he's one of the, he's one of the what I consider legitimate analysts who cover and follow professional wrestling along with others. Sean Rasep, Mike Johnson, Dave Shear, there are others. But much respect for Brandon Thurston. Check him out on Resslenomics.

He's on Twitter. They've got a podcast. They've got a Patreon. Wrestleomics and Brandon Thurston. The real deal. And so is Charlotte Flair. I can't believe this is real, but podcast T is proudly teaming up with the 14 times world's women champion

Charlotte Flair. All to help raise money. for SmileTrain and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autograph photo and more importantly how about this a 15-minute private video chat with the Queen herself by becoming the highest donor now with your donation smile train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care for children in need 100% free a donation of just $21 which is probably less than your weekly Starbucks spend can provide one cleft repair surgery Now, without treatment, children with clefts may struggle to breathe properly, often becoming severely malnourished due to trouble eating, and many even face long-term psychological trauma as a result of relentless bullying.

No child deserves to feel like an outcast, so join Smile Train Global Ambassador Charlotte Flair in becoming a champion of smiles. Your donation will provide the gift of cleft treatment. Donate today at Championofsmiles.com. highest owner will receive a personalized autograph photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Donations must be made by October 18th. Together, we can change the world one smile at a time, smiletrain.org forward slash Charlotte. Smiletrain.org forward slash Charlotte or champion of smiles.com. We don't care how you get there. We are glad to be near the end of the show. But Eric, we promised we were going to try something. We're sort of test piloting this. You know, you and I, once upon a time, experimented with doing a terrestrial radio show.

It was like our summer vacation, and we would recap everything that had happened on an AEW dynamite. And I thought, you know what, maybe we could make this feel a little more interactive. So as we move forward as we are going throughout the show, we're going to start taking, if this were a radio show, what we might callers. But this is 2023. We're going to do video conferencing now. so we're going to go to the live studio audience right now and welcome in Mr. DeNovius Mack who I understand has a question for you, EZE.

Welcome to the show, Mr. Mack. How are you, sir? Hey, Conrad. Hey, Eric. How's going, guys? How are you today? Oh, man, I'm doing well. How's that beautiful daughter of yours? I don't care how you are. How's your beautiful daughter? She's doing good. She's in the room playing a Roblox.

My best of years, her name probably coming. So you'll run out here in the minute. Well, we're excited to have you on the show. Welcome to a live edition of 83 weeks. We talked to all things modern wrestling today. What's your question for the Hall of Famer, Mr. Bischoff, today? All right. Hey, Eric.

Okay, so I'm starting to look at it from an analytical aspect of the WWE. And I remember back in the Monday Night Wars when you were bringing the talent from WWE that was like free agents. So let's say the older talents. Now, if you're looking at it from fast forward 25 years later, L.A. night, they're giving him a push like no other. The last person I seen WWE pushed that was this old

was probably what aged out. He was by non-WTWPW promotion. He came from, what, TNA, Impact and Overseas. So if you're looking at it from LA night aspect, he came from Impact as well, but I think if I believe correctly. So do you see that they are reusing your formula to get stars over now, older stars over?

I don't think so at all. I don't, no, I just think it's just L.A. Knight has come into his own. You know, I use the, I use the analogy of Steve Austin a while back in discussing this. You know, Steve Austin, when I fired him, went, ended up in ECW where there was no reins. He could do whatever he wanted to do. He could improv. He could, whatever. It was just going out there and he was being Steve Austin, right?

And this is something that Steve told me while I was doing his podcast. So you could actually go back and find this conversation if you were really that interested in it. And I'm paraphrasing all of this. I don't remember exactly what the words were. But Steve basically said that, you know, the character, what became Stone Cold Steve Austin, really started during that transition time when Steve went from WCW to ECW. And he got to play around and just have fun and find his character. Steve went from ECW then to WWE

where, hey, pal, you're going to be the ringmaster. And the ringmaster shit the bet and didn't work, which opened the door for Steve to become Stone Cold Steve Austin and WWE. And I think, and I don't know, I'm obviously not there, but I think perhaps some of the same thing is happening with L.A. Night, where you've got a guy that's been in the business for 20 years and he's been bouncing around and he's learned and he's tried different things and perhaps somebody from WWE came to him with that character or perhaps it's a kind of a collaboration in the result of a guy just learning over the course of what is probably close to 20 years now of what works for him and what's most comfortable for him in a similar way that Steve Austin did. Steve Austin found the elements of what became so-called Steve Austin that were really elements of who he really was. He turned the volume up on some, maybe adapted some others, but it was born almost organically.

And I like to believe, because I'm not there, and I don't know for sure, but I like to believe that that's what's happening with L.A. And it's not following anybody's pattern. It's just a natural kind of progression of a very talented guy that's finally found his footing. please leave your message well thanks for the time mr mac we appreciate you jumping on the show with us and that's going to wrap us up here for this week's edition of 83 weeks we're going to try to be more interactive on the shows moving forward so if you've got a question you've always been dying to ask eric and next week we do plan to cover eddie grero so if you've got an eddie grero question join us for our live studio audience over at adfreeshows.com

in the meantime if you've got a question you want to ask on social media there's still time to get it in there. It's at 83 weeks on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The best way to enjoy the show and the cheapest way to support the show is to go hit the like button, hit the subscribe button. It's 83 weeks on YouTube.com. That's 83 weeks on YouTube.com. And we've got a ton of fun merch over at Box of Gimmicks.com. And you can still pick up Eric's book, Grateful by Eric Bischoff, over on Amazon.

Eric, I never really know exactly what to expect when we click record. We were just straight shooting from the hill. hip today. But I think we covered everything that happened in wrestling in the last week as thoroughly as we could have. Did we miss anything? No, we do. But one thing I would like to say is I made a decision over the last 24 or so hours that, you know, not going to pile on with negative stuff about Tony or AEW. I had to respond to questions today because I'm not going to stick my head in the sand to pretend that life doesn't happen around me. But I encourage people to get off the bandwagon. It's easy to kick somebody when they're down. Sometimes, and I've caught

myself being part of that problem over the weekend is there's a time and a place for everything. And I encourage people to give Tony a shot, give AEW a shot. We all learn from our mistakes. We all move on. We all get better. That that doesn't kill us makes it stronger. So, you know, sit back and take a breather and let's see what happens next week on TV. You feeling okay? I feel fucking awesome. Well, I'm glad to hear it. I like that little adjustment.

Me and you talked several weeks ago and I said, maybe it's a two millimeter adjustment. Well, it sounds like Mrs. B helped you find that two millimeters over the weekend. And I think you need to get off of here, go grab that bottle of wine, and go enjoy Yellowstone. and we hope you guys enjoy Monday night or all tonight. Later this week, tune in. I'm sure Eric is going to be hanging out with John Alba covering the business of the business on Strictly Business, right here on the 83 Weeks feed, and we'll be back recording live next weekend.

There's still time for you to be a part of our live studio audience. You can jump on and ask Eric a question right here on 83 weeks. The only way to do it, though, is to join us at ad-freeshows.com, and we'll see you next week, talking to all things Eddie Guerrero right here on 83 weeks. with Eric Bischoff. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, here to tell you a little more about what ad-free shows.com

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