83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 308: Is Cody The Guy?

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

On this episode of 83Weeks, Eric and Conrad explore the question, is Cody the guy? From his tremendous return to WWE,to his back to back Royal Rumble wins, why did WWE decide to allow the Rock to step in? What's the motivation? What happens next? Has this decision damaged the company's younger demographic? Is the company concerned about the backlash from fans? Eric and Conrad take a deep dive into the subject and bring to light some details you might have not seen. Plus, the guys discuss the latest in the Vince McMahon lawsuit, where will Okada go, and will Ric Flair turn on Sting one last time? This is a power packed edition of 83Weeks you don't want to miss. List of The Rock trademarks: assignment-tm-8330-0651.pdf PRIZE PICKS - Go to PrizePicks.com/83WEEKS and use code 83WEEKS for a first deposit match up to $100! FANATICS - An easy way to support your favorite podcasts! Shop official WWE gear and apparel by using our special URL: ShopWrestlingMerch.com 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 STARRCAST - Be part of the very first international STARRCAST in Australia! Get tickets and information at STARRCAST.com SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. Eric, what's going on, man? How are you? I'm good, big man. I know we tried this this morning and technical difficulties, all that aside. But, you know, there's even still things going on today that I'm glad we're going to be able to cover this evening so that we can drop this show ASAP. and light up the world with a double dose of entertainment and in light. Come on now.

It's 83 weeks. We should address right at the top of the show. We got a lot of feedback from last week's show. What was the feedback you saw about our events episode last week here on 83 weeks, Eric? I would say it was 98.5% supportive and very positive. of, you know, there was a couple people that took some shots. And I don't know. I wouldn't even say they pointed, they took shots as much as the line was,

it was along the lines of, hey, what happened to innocent until proven guilty? And I actually, reading a couple of those, I was, I was a little disappointed to myself that I didn't start out my portion of our podcast by saying, if all of what we've read is true, then continue with the rest of podcast, I don't know if I felt really good about it, but I think it is fair to acknowledge that we're hearing one side of the coin, you know, read a lot of things that none of us really wanted to read, but part of it all. But that's, you know, that's one side of the coin. So we'll, we'll see. But my reaction to it, if any of those things are true or even half of them are true,

still applies, man, disappointing and all of that. We don't need to repeat. Other than I would say the majority of the positive feedback that I got at least was along the lines of thank you for treating this situation with respect and not making fun of it or you know worse so and that made me feel good I mean like we did something that was valuable to to our audience totally agree man one thing we did not do last week was read Vince McMahon's response he issued a statement I guess we should share that now. He put out a statement that said, this lawsuit is replete with lies,

obscene, made up instances that never occurred in a vindictive distortion of the truth. He will vigorously defend himself. And, uh, yeah. So we know that Vince is, uh, obviously going to be battling here. And we understand that. But, um, it's been a lot to process, to say the least. And you can get down the rabbit hole and,

and certainly try to see both sides. I saw lots of tweets like that, but I think we can all agree. It's just, it's a black mark on WWE and Vince McMahon and his legacy. And it's been difficult for a lot of fans, myself included, to sort of reconcile their fandom.

But the story just continues to evolve. You know, the other person who was named in a pretty prominent way, and we know he was shown the door back in the summer of 2022, is John Laurenitis. And since we've recorded, he has had a statement issued to Vice, and the headline was,

co-defendant and Vince McMahon sex trafficking lawsuit says he was a victim too. The truth will come out, John Laurinitis's attorney, told Vice News. Mr. Laurenaitis denies the allegations and the misguided complaint and will be vigorously defending these charges in court, not the media.

Attorney is an attorney named Mr. Brennan, Mr. Edward Brennan, And he would say, like the plaintiff, Mr. Laurenaitis is a victim in this case, not a predator. The truth will come out. If you continue to read the statement, it reads, read the allegations, read the federal statute, power, control, employment, supervisory capacity, a dictatorial, sexual demands with repercussions if not met. Count how many times in the complaint, Vince excerpts control over both of them. So, wow, a new wrinkle in all of this.

I know there's a lot of people who have not been fond of Mr. Laurenitis, and we've seen guys like Teddy Long come out on YouTube and say that he knows a whole lot of other stories. And there's certainly been whispers about Mr. Laurenitis for a long, long time. But perhaps this gives a new shade to it. I mean, how do you respond or how did you receive that statement that John Tony Ace, as we like to call him, was a victim, too.

I was not surprised because what else is Johnny Laurenitis going to do? Try as best he can to salvage what's left of his reputation. And I think beyond even the reputational aspect of this to protect himself financially because he's at risk here. He's named in that lawsuit. So it didn't surprise me. I think my first reaction, though, because you and I think had a conversation the morning that this announcement came out. Because I've been thinking the night before about just how things tend to work, especially when the feds are involved, which they clearly are.

When I say the feds, the SEC Securities and Exchange Commission. And I've also read, and I don't know if it's true, the FBI is involved. But in a case like this, particularly if we're talking about potential crimes and, you know, trafficking has been part of this and about the interstate commerce, if there was any, and I would assume there probably was in some respects, in some cases. It changes the stakes dramatically. And the thing that I kind of thought about that evening when I went to bed, before I called you the next morning was I wonder if Johnny Laurenitis and Vince McMahon

have the same attorney. Are they represented by the same firm? Because that would suggest to be that, okay, they're going to be on the same page. They're coordinating their defense. That makes sense in many respects. But they're not. Johnny has clearly found an attorney outside of WWE's attorneys and outside of Vince McMahon's attorneys. He's he's got his, own attorney, which opens up the door, potentially, for the feds to make a deal with Johnny, to provide evidence. That complicates things dramatically changes the dynamic, very important. So then, you know, you and I had a conversation.

and, okay, well, we'll see where this falls. And then I got home that evening when I was done whatever I was doing that day. I went, I'm just going to look Johnny's attorney up to see what I can learn about the attorney in the firm that's representing Johnny. Wow, okay. See what kind of cases they had been involved. See, whatever, what the reputation was. And lo and behold, if, again, disclaimer here, folks, because I could be wrong about this. there may be other Edward Brennan's their attorneys in Tampa but the one that I found

is a family law attorney he's a divorce attorney and this is not anything remotely close to what family law attorney or a divorce attorney would have any experience dealing with it's it's like going to you know a chiropractor for heart surgery it's just wow that shocked me to be honest that was like it was shocking I didn't even think to do that but a quick Google search and I found some reviews for Mr. Edward Michael Brennan this is over on AVVO.com he's got a 2.6 score and it looks like three of the reviews that gave him one star the headlines of those reviews are over the top expensive and incompetent, frustrated, and worst lawyer.

So we've got, yeah, and they even describe him on AVVO.com as an alimony attorney. He may actually need an alimony attorney when this is over with, but I don't think for a matter like this, I didn't even think to do that, Eric, so kudos to you. I guess the big news, we should just jump right into it, is the idea that the Wall Street Journal has said that the federal investigation with Vince McMahon that started last year is still ongoing, and it's also been reported by the Wall Street Journal. There are four more women who've spoken to the FBI. Beyond that, we also saw that the victim's attorney last week came forward

and said that since her client came forward, her office has been overwhelmed with others who have information or want to share their story. this feels like we're just sort of scratching the surface. I mean, first of all, as you said, until we talked on the phone, you and I, I had not considered that Vince might not have the same attorney as Johnny Ace, and this may become Vince versus John Laurinitis now. That's not good. But in addition to that, we also see that I guess a lot of other folks,

victims or people who have stories or reaching out to the attorney who filed this original lawsuit that's gotten some. much attention. But the big question you and I had last week was, man, are the feds involved? Because we had heard and TCO actually acknowledged on their own website that the feds had quote unquote rated, if you will,

Mr. McMahon's home. And at the time, I think there were a few questions about that. Was this about the class action lawsuit from shareholders? Was this about the MLW antitrust lawsuit? Or are they investigating these original sexual abuse claims or whatever you want to call them that originated in 2022? I think now we know the answer since the Wall Street Journal says that's ongoing and the FBI has been speaking to four other women. This is bad for WWE.

It's bad for wrestling. Maybe it's the right thing to happen. But what sure does feel like this is going to get worse before it gets better. what are your thoughts on on all these new wrinkles that have come to light this week? It's you know, and I really, in a childlike way, I wish this would just be over with and whatever the ramifications are, those who are involved and end up on the bad side of that equation, just get what they deserve, get it over with and move on. I would just wish it would go away, but it's not.

It's not going to go away. And I'm not suggesting that I wish it would go away so people that were involved are able to get away from their responsibility. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying, though, is this because it is such a dark cloud. Yes. And it is going to affect the business of the wrestling business. I talk often about my disappointment in certain situations, you know, TNA, for example, not that they're remotely connected to this. And I'm talking about the former TNA, not the current TNA, right?

management. But, you know, I get, I get very frustrated and animated sometimes talking about missed opportunities and things that happen. I've been very critical, to example with regard to AEW, about the pizza cutter and the blood and the excessive violence and blood and reliance upon that. Because in my opinion, that has a negative impact on the business of the wrestling business because it turns advertisers and sponsors, you know, against the category or or validates their pre-existing bias against the property. Right. The genre.

This is the same thing, man. This has the ability, and maybe even more so than other examples that I gave you, because WWE is the 800-pound gorilla. It is the wrestling industry as far as the vast majority of country believes. You know, you've got a small percentage of the audience that are 80s. EW fans and they follow TNA and they follow NWA. But if you pulled 100 people out of a Walmart or out of a Macy's or Nordstroms,

take your pick and ask them, do you know anything about wrestling and who's the owner of the wrestling company you're familiar with? And it's going to be Vince McBan at WWE. Right. That just is what it is. It's not a criticism or a knock. It's just reality. And because of their success,

because of their high profile, because of the $5 billion deal that Netflix just did, because this company was acquired by Endeavor for $9 billion, they are not the eight, they're the only gorilla as far as the average wrestling fan or people on the business to business side recognize. And because of their success, they cast a much greater darker, in this case, shadow. And that concerns me because I want the business to be. healthy. I want my, I want Wayj, my grandson, Waylon, to watch wrestling in its current form in 18 years and maybe have a DVD or something. They say, oh, yeah, my grandpa used to do that

too. I want, not for an ego thing, but I just want the business to grow. And this is a, this is a complicated batter that could have a really negative impact on this. I hope that's not the case. Truly. a situation where you wonder these stories that are coming forward that they're learning about are they all about Vince are there other people who are going

to be named and involved you know I think a lot of people have been asking questions about Vince McMahon's inner circle and and lots of whispers that have happened over the years and the way certain people have recently retired

or stepped away or moved on and I mean I don't know where this ends because it does feel like, you know, we've seen a pattern like this before with high profile individuals and powerful men like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby and, but those felt like those were more on the individual. So far we know for sure that Rock Lesnar has not been named, but pretty much outed. And now John Laurinitis and Vince McMahon, it starts to feel like it's more of a culture thing. And specifically with the Brock

Lesnar stuff, I mean, we've learned that almost all of his merch has been removed from the website. And as I understand it, there's been changes made to some of the digital games. Like anything where they can remove his likeness or diminish it, even on the rumble. I missed it watching live. I wasn't paying attention.

But there was no mention of Brock Lesnar and his history with the match. You just wonder, like, as they continue to peel the layers of this onion, how much shrapnel is everyone going to keep? And by the way, I'm not suggesting that that those stories shouldn't come to light. I think everything that happens, you know, in the darkness eventually does

come to light and people will be, you know, vindicated. And I hope everybody gets the justice they're looking for. But I'm with you. It is a dark cloud over all of WWE right now. And because it's over WWE, it trickles down everywhere else because they're the brand. So do you suspect that, because I'll be honest, I thought the blueprint of this whole thing was going to be just like what we saw in November when P. Diddy was sued by the former singer Cassie, she just spilled all the tea, gave all the details in that lawsuit, and it was settled almost immediately. I mean, like within 48 hours, it was settled and that's over with. That's not been the case here, which makes me wonder either Vince doesn't want to play ball

or they're not interested in just a payout. They're trying to bring about change. What do you think about that? Well, that's what they say, meaning blatant's attorneys. And I need attorneys. We all need attorneys. If you're in business, you need attorneys.

And there's a lot of great attorneys out there. I don't want to cast this widened and disparage the profession. However, when it comes to this kind of, kind of thing. Everybody's motivated by money, man. Nobody's doing this stuff for free. And this is a serious pot of money that's at stake here. And I'm not, again, not suggesting that the complainant has any ulterior motives or

motives beyond just justice in her mind, whatever that means, hurt. But when you get attorneys involved, there is going to be a check at the end of this. dismal rainbow right there will be a check and the national would be to get as big a check as you possibly can well you do that probably the same way that woman that was involved in any situation is you shock and awe you put that complaint together make sure it's something that shocks and forces those who read it to drop their jaws in awe of whatever they read in the four corners of those documents. So let's just see what her motivation is.

But when I say her, I mean the attorney. Ultimately, it's the plaintiff's going to make the decision, right? But she highly influenced by her representation if she's like the average person. But here's the other wrinkle in this. It's not just up to the plaintiffant or her attorney. The feds are involved here. That's right. So even if, for example, Vince McMahon and WWE, because they're both going to have to, they're both, they're both being sued.

Even if Vince McMahon wants to settle in order to keep this quiet and make it go away, you still have the SEC and the FBI. I'm not going to settle with them, well, you may, but only at the end of a very, very tortuous process. that's going to get ugly. And that informational leak, the FBA, you know, the feds talk to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and anybody else that becomes a tool, a valuable tool in their efforts to achieve their goals. If they've got their crosshairs on Vince McMahon, then they're going to continue regardless of what civil lawsuit ends up being. it's uh you know i hate to use this term but it is going to be fascinating to see

how this evolves uh you know i know this is a bit of a stretch but deshaun watson if you're a football fan just the same i think in the same month that vince was accused of all of this originally when all this trouble started back in june of 2022. Deshaun settled with like two dozen women. Two dozen women had complaints. And I guess he wrote two dozen checks. And he played the NFL this year.

And for whatever reason, it doesn't feel like that is going to be the circumstance for Vince McMahon. And I know there's been a lot of people who were saying, oh, we knew for years. It was an open secret. And you could even go see things like his old Playboy interview. That's worth of Google. There's interview on Howard Stern and start connecting dots.

But, man, just reading the pages, it's, you see it from her perspective for the very first time. And it doesn't read very good at all. And my takeaway this past week on the Johnny Ace thing is, how many people inside the wrestling business do you think you're going to consider him a victim? I mean, it feels like an excuse. And I wonder, is that what, if this does trickle down to other people? So they all just wind up turning on Vince and saying, he did it. I mean, this is in a word, ugly, no? Well, and here, just to add to that a little bit, as an example,

and again, this is something I read. I don't know if it's true. I always preface things I say in situations. like this, you're clear that I'm not taking a position, and we certainly can't rely upon what we read in social media or even traditional media, like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal or news outlets, can't take everything they say at face value. You're smart, you'll really think long and hard about taking any of it at face value and do further research if it's a subject you're really interested in and look for other sources of information. That being said,

those disclaimers aside, one of the other things I read, I think it was yesterday, is that WWE corporate is taking current management, is taking the position that the former WWE under, before the sale and the transition, the legal department, general counsel, was unaware initially of those NDAs. Oh, yeah. If I read this properly, that Vince McMahon and his attorney worked together to create those NDAs outside of the normal process. And Vince McMahon signed on behalf of the company, which he would clearly be able to do. That's the fact that WWE corporate, if indeed it's true, took the position of, we didn't have anything to do that.

Corporate didn't have it. That's not on us. That's on him. wow that's kind of a big damn deal too that further complicates things and it also suggest that WW corporate strategy is going to be distant to be to distance themselves as much as they can convince McMahon so we'll see vice is reporting and I guess they interviewed Kerry Goldberg who represented the victims of Harvey Weinstein here's the quote. Goldberg noted other issues with the NDA, among them, that the copy that the victim

filed in federal court in Connecticut wasn't actually signed by McMahon in either his personal capacity or role as then chair of WWE. Normally, all parties would receive an executed copy of the contract. And it's interesting because he continues, or law professor Jody Short was interviewed by Vice and said, it is my considered opinion that it ended. such as the one you sent me are unenforceable under common law contract doctrine. There is very little case law squarely on point and litigating such a case would expose an individual to enormous cost and litigation risk. The idea of being, quote unquote, they're not worth the paper they're written on.

It's not just the paper. It's paper backed by an extreme asymmetry and resources between the two parties. So it continues to get ugly. The idea that Vince McMahon signed to these on behalf of WWE, allegedly, we don't know, we haven't seen them, and didn't disclose it anywhere. So I think they say in the wrestling business, maybe Vince went into business for himself here. And like I say, that just makes everything far more complicated and the stakes get even higher. Because I would imagine, again, I'm not an attorney.

I don't want to try to sound like I know shit, I don't. but kind of just applying street smart common sense to the situation suggests that that is that is fraud isn't it yes fraud you're you're again it's a public company 25 30 years ago before it was a public company you could get away with stuff like that when you're a public public company the rules change and to commit financially commit contractually commit and do it outside of the course of normal business and doing it secretly

not involving your general counsel whoa that's that's another level of fuck that's crazy yeah man it's it's bad every direction you look and it's one of those deals where the more

you uncover the worse it gets and unfortunately I feel like it's probably going to be the end of a lot of careers and maybe Brock less I want to ask you about that because, you know, he wasn't really mentioned in the Rumble. We've learned through the observer that essentially they've just slid Braun into his spot. So when Braun was eliminated by Dominic Mysterio, that was supposed to be Brock Lesnar.

So I guess, as the story goes, according to Dave Meltzer, it was supposed to be Dominic Mysterio and Brock Lesnar at Elimination Chamber and Gunther and Brock at WrestleMania, which has been a dream match that wrestling fans have wanted to see for a long time. but I don't know if we'll ever see it at this point. You know, you think they're doing everything they can to scrub them from the minds and memories of anybody associated with WWE. No, that's not going to happen. I sincerely doubt we'll see him in the UFC anytime again. It's the same company.

That's right. So that's not going to happen. No, I'm, you know, Brock is barring something, you know, earth shattering, which I don't even think is possible. I don't even have an imagination vivid enough. to try to create a fictional scenario where this outcome is going to result in people saying, sorry, Brock, we jump the gun. Come on back.

That's not going to happen. It's weird because you've seen Brock sort of leverage both sides for so long with both WWE and UFC, and now they're all the same company. So it makes me wonder, is Brock just going to be a private person? Will we ever see Brock Lesnar in a professional wrestling ring again, Eric, anywhere? I can't imagine it. I mean, maybe in Japan. Yeah.

Because they're not, first of all, I don't care. The culture over there is so much different. They're not paying close attention. You don't have the political correctness. And I don't mean that in a divisive way. You don't have the kind of awareness and focus that the media puts on things that we consume. every day over there that they do here. So do I see a scenario where somebody could offer, you know,

Brock a big chunk of cash to go over and perform in Japan where the audience isn't going to be, you know, turned off by it? Maybe. But look at Brock. I mean, it, and you pointed it out in our first attempt to do this show this morning. Brock's never been a public person. he's come out publicly and said he just doesn't like people right first to be alone he when i when i joke around say i live in the middle of nowhere wyoming

where and i'm familiar with where brock lives he used to hunt up in that area and travel through the years he's remote he really is in the middle of nowhere and i prefers that so i don't think he's motivated to to be a public person or is going to try to reclaim his fame, if you will, like of a better term. And he's got enough money. He doesn't need it. Obviously, he was going to get back involved in the business again. But if you can put five or seven or eight million dollars in your bank account after putting in a couple days work, who's not going to do that if you're physically capable of doing it, whether you love the business or not? If you're smart, you'll do it. Stack that cash. Go buy another farm. Go buy another

one of those $700,000 John Deere tractors or whatever they are. Plant more potatoes or soybeans or alfalfo, whatever it is you do on your farm. That's what I would think Brock's going to do. I don't think there's any motivation as part to try to resurrect his career. A, doesn't need to and B doesn't like it anymore. Well, I know we talked about it a lot last week, but I want to say again, I think a lot of times we fans, not you, but me, Eric, and everybody on my side of the fence as a fan who's commenting on this and has an opinion on social media, just want to remind everybody

that we're not just talking about the television characters that we've grown up with and that we enjoy watching on television or pay-per-view or buying a ticket to see. These quote-unquote superstars go home to real families, real wives, real kids, real grandkids, real people they see at the local hardware store or church or wherever they're going. And they're all sort of affected by this. And I think that is the message that we all need to consider when there's lots of silliness happening about these conversations and the people and the things that's been alleged that kids are going to jump on an iPad and Google their dad or their uncle, their grandfather. And man, it's not good for any of them. Because as you said last week, they got to go to school.

And they're going to apply for jobs. And they're going to have to make a resume with a certain last name. And there's a lot of victims on this. And it's not just the people who are going to be named in legal documents. It's the households with these parties. It's just, it's bad from every angle there. And it's, you know, and I said this last week, and I want to reiterate it. Because, yeah, you're right. I mean, it's the kids. You know, as adults, you go through things in life. You know, consciously or subconsciously at least that no matter how bad things are going to get, you know or you believe that eventually this two shall pass. That comes with experience.

A 16-year-old kid doesn't have that experience. That's right. A 12-year-old kid doesn't have that experience. A 25-year-old young man or woman doesn't have that experience. So even though they're not involved, they're not named, but they're related either by friendship or by blood, in a way not to equate victims here, but they're victims too, different kind of victim, but they're victims too. and this is the part I immediately thought about even before we started recording last week

there are people that I know in WWE that I know are good people yes I believe you're good people that have been there for so long and it's it's affecting them as well yes now they can resign they can leave

if it's so bad but again they shouldn't have to that's right it's And I'm not going to name names because that's unfair to them. But every one of them is probably walking around on eggshells hoping that when that phone rings and that number comes up that they don't recognize, that it's not the FBI wanting to have a conversation. People that have been around there a long time are probably going to be questioned one way or the other by somebody. And nobody's going to want to do that.

And they're living in sort of democulies or demaculies. That's to have that sword hanging over your neck, being careful of that and getting sucked into something you had really nothing to do with. Right. Shitty as hell. Shitty as hell. Well, listen, I, I don't know what to expect. I know that you and I are not experts in talking about things like this.

So we wanted to get it out of the way right up top today. I knew there were new wrinkles. I fear there will continue to be new wrinkles. I, like you, want this to be put to bed. Again, not in an effort to hush anyone or silence anyone, but just to give some peace to all parties involved. And I'm talking about the defendants. I'm saying their families and more importantly the victims and their families.

You and I took a little bit of criticism last week when you said, you know, you just want this to hurry up and be done with. The idea being, you know, I hope we can settle and move on. The idea being we're not trying to minimize what happened, but I think everyone agrees that nobody wants these victims to have to be deposed and go on the stand and be cross-examined and have to relive all this stuff. it's uh it'd be a lot better if they could find a way to find whatever resolution that is whether they're looking to put somebody behind bars or get a check or both or whatever whether

it's civil or criminal or whatever i'm like you man i wish we could just fast forward the ugliness but it doesn't feel like that's possible anytime you know what i don't think it is no it's it's not we're going to be we're going to be talking about this for the next six months minimum minimum but i was thinking about this this morning too the i've i've been through a merger two of them actually technically two of them but i've been through that process i've told a story before and when i we first i was at i was at a christmas party and ted turner was there joe levin was there Steve Case wasn't there that night.

And I was, it was a small, it was at somebody's house, president of Turner Broadcasting was at his house, very small group of people. And I remember being so excited at the prospect of the merger between Time Warner and Turner. And Gerald Levin got up in front of everybody and talked about entrepreneurial spirit and culture of Turner Broadcasting and Ted Turner himself. merging with the long-time media chip powerhouse time Warner. And it's the combination of those two cultures and the strength of those two cultures that are going to catapult this company to the next level,

some bullshit like that. But I didn't know it was bullshit. At the time, I was standing there with my cocktail with my wife at my side. I can't even believe I'm in this room. I'm six feet away from Ted Turner and Joe Lubin. And I'm a part of this. And I was so excited because I believed every word.

I believed it. I believe that Ted Turner and his entrepreneurial spirit, which was part of Turner Broadcasting, it's why I loved working there so much at the time. You know, the combination and the strength of time Warner's like, oh, my gosh, it's going to be wonderful. And I remember a couple days later, I'm in my office, and I'm talking about it with somebody, older executive,

had been around longer than me. And he said, Eric, don't get too calm. it's not going to happen fast, but you're going to find that probably within about a year that that's when you're going to know what this merger is all about. And what he meant was Time Warner acquired Turner. And there are two distinct cultures, very distinct cultures, business one. And the little culture doesn't influence the bigger culture. Right.

It's the other way around. And I remember this, I'm going to go, man, that's kind of negative. Why would you say that? I'm thinking that. Why would you say that? Why do you, why would you approach an opportunity like this already jaded and biased towards its failure? And sure enough, about a year later, I started really noticing that that entrepreneurial spirit that created Turner Brown, that created CNN. and that created so many opportunities that changed the world in so many ways because of the

entrepreneurial spirit of Ted. He was fearless. Ted, Ted was fearless. All of a sudden, those people who I knew and worked with directly were higher up the corporate food chain than me, all of a sudden they're wearing blue suits, white shirts, red ties, and winked tipped shoes to work. Like, dude, what happened to the guy that showed up wearing jeans and a nice sport coat? All of a sudden, instead of emulating or modeling their professional existence after the entrepreneur, Ted Turner, right. Now they want to look like they're banker. And things change so dramatically.

And it's tough. Cultural change and adaptation in any merger is always. always painful. You know, when we talk about, you know, it starts off, laid off and eliminating redundancies and all that, the human capital that, that is dropped off at the curb during the process. But it's also such a big adjustment. And you have fear and concern, paranoia, chatter. What's going to happen? I think your department's going to get cut. Are they going to cut our budgets? All of that fear-based kind of conversation. is all part of a big merger and a transition.

And it takes a long time for it to finally settle down. People realize, okay, this is the new world we're going to live in. It doesn't happen overnight. So now you've got the Endeavor, WWE, TKO, whatever the acronyms are that we're talking about here. You've got this brand new company, this absolutely diverse cultures, wrestling culture, and the WWE culture now having to adapt to the Ari Emanuel culture, very different. Ari Emanuel is as much of a powerhouse, probably more so than Vince McMahon was. No doubt.

Now, on top of what you can expect anyway in a corporate merger, the cultural challenge, now you've got this on top of that. oh my god i can't imagine what it's like i cannot imagine the stress not just on people that were close to vince but everybody everybody is wondering oh gosh am i going to end up getting canned because of this anything i've read or heard and i've talked to a few people that know are emmanuel pretty well and i've worked with him he's an animal too he's a beast shit he is a beast much like Vince McMahon was a beast in the way he approached business so is Ari Emanuel maybe more so so that's just going to create even more

stress and tension for everybody well of course the next question I mean this is what's been swirling is who knew what when and a lot of people are putting their tinfoil hats on and saying follow the money. They announced the rock comes on the board, announced the big new deal with Netflix, and then bam, a couple of days later, here's this lawsuit. And, of course, the very next day, Vince resigned. And we know that they had an investigation back in 2022. And we know that Vince McMahon came back

in January of 2023. And immediately Stephanie went home. And it feels like all of those timelines of events are going to be litigated perhaps by the feds and this is probably not what anybody signed up for so it's going to be it's going to be interesting

to see how this news changes we're not there we're not on the inside we don't know what we do know is we're here to talk about wrestling today and we're going to talk about

the hot topic most wrestling fans are talking about right now is Cody the guy or is it the rock but before we do that we need to at least touch on a few news

and notes from EW. First out of the shoot is Okada. Okada has been at the center of controversy, or not controversy, but conversation now for several weeks because this is the end of his era in New Japan. His contract expired on January 31st, and now he is officially a free agent. Or so we think. The rumor in innuendo is that he had told Triple H once upon a time during a conversation that he really wanted to perform at a WrestleMania. Interestingly enough, I actually first met

Okada backstage at SummerSlam like 10 years ago. So he's certainly been around the business. What was he like 12? He's friends with Nakamura and obviously we've seen you know, guys like AJ Styles and Finn Baller and lots of other

talent who were New Japan regulars, even you know, Gales and Anderson and a bunch of other folks that he knows on the WWE side of things, but the talk is Tony Kahn is probably willing to spend more money. I think Dave Meltzer has laid it out pretty clear that if Akata wants to be a bigger global worldwide star, he should probably go to WWE. It's if he wants an easier schedule and more money and maybe more freedom in his

type of matches and maybe a lighter schedule, he should consider AEW. It's interesting though, because right now, it felt like WWE once upon a time would have been a no-brainer like man they've got all the momentum but then you take a look over at a w and they don't have this controversy and they do have some of his friends like the young box like will osprey like j white and lots of other familiar names where do you expect okada to go and what do you expect his impact to be in america one way or another i have no idea because i don't know the man and certainly don't know what his motivations are and his goals are I agree with Dave Meltzer on this point.

Oh, my God, just hear myself say that. If he wants, if Ocada's goal is to become the biggest star, then there's not even a conversation to be had with EW. But it's a tough call. And I don't even think it's because of the controversy. I really don't. While this isn't going to blow over and it's not going to go away, WWE will be around for a long time.

This is not something that could crater the company. No. It's, I don't want to say they're too big to fail, but they are so big and so entrenched. They've got a $5 billion deal with Netflix. They're good for the next five years. They're not going anywhere. AEW, on the other hand, may or may not be around a year from now, two years from now. And if they are around, I suspect they'll be around.

Yes. But they may not have television. or if they do, it may be a significantly less of a platform than one they currently have. So it's not like, yeah, Tony Khan has whatever, he's got access to a billion dollars or whatever. But that doesn't necessarily mean that everybody that's got a contract now can be sure that, you know, if AEW doesn't get a renewal, a Turner or isn't able to land another deal, it doesn't necessarily mean your contracts are good as gold unless you've got some. kind of guarantee from another entity other than AEW that insurers.

And I believe I heard, I'm not going to mention a name here, but I've heard that at least one person that I know fairly well, as do you, has that guarantee so that if anything happens to AEW, he's going to get paid anyway. That's right. Now, if talent does have that kind of language, a number of the top talents have that, then good for them. They're smart. But that's not sure.

That's not a sure. AEW is not a sure bet at all, given where they are. And given where Warner Brothers discovery is, they're just talking about a merger with Paramount. All of those variables could put a significant damper on any enthusiasm that people have for AEW this minute. All change.

Maybe Tony's big announcement is that they've signed and renewed with Warner Discovery or somebody else. And then everything I just said doesn't matter. But if not, it matters, and you'd have to consider it. I think AEW would be more, that issue aside, let's just set that off in the corner, pretend it doesn't exist. That issue aside, AEW is going to be way more comfortable, way more comfortable for any new talent coming in.

Easier schedule, less pressure, less competitive backstage. You don't have as many talents that you're top-level talents you're trying to break through compete with for time and attention, all of those things make AEW a much more comfortable decision. And add to that, that Tony at least initially is willing to spend more money to get him, that's a comfortable decision. And it reminds me of something my wife said to me back in November that had a significant change in my life. Comfort is a thief. Just because the situation is comfortable doesn't mean it's going to result in the best. opportunity or the best decision. Sometimes you have to put yourself in a very uncomfortable

situation order to reach your maximum potential. So again, not knowing Okada, I don't know if he's going to lean into the comfort and familiarity of it all or be willing to risk a lifestyle and an opportunity to play on the biggest stage and emerge as a much bigger. starred than he possibly could in AEW. I want to talk about that because I for one don't think AEW is in any danger of ceasing to exist. But you mentioned, you know, risk and play. Well, that makes me think about this weekend because the Super Bowl is here and so is

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It's that easy. More than less than. That sounds like something you would say, Eric. And here's a different than, different than your normal betting advice because I'm such a prolific gambler. Whenever I make a bet, you know, I think it through, right? But like if you're betting and you know, now I'm not into this. right i'm not i'm not like to i like to make bets every now and then just because it makes them

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It should be. Let's go ahead and take the over on that. So listen, I wanted to mention you said, if AEW is even around a year from now, just a quick Google search, it looks like Paramount has a market cap of $9.7 billion. Not saying he would, but hypothetically, you know, you could just buy the thing.

I mean, that's the level of wealth we're talking about. I think AEW is going to be around as long as Tony and his father want it to be around. It'll be around, but there's no guarantee. It doesn't matter how much money you have. If your business is dependent on television and you can't get television, yeah, it'll still be around because money's not an issue. It doesn't matter to Tony Kahn, presumably.

But it doesn't mean that you're going to be able to continue to pay talent at the level you're continuing currently paying talent. If you don't have television to support it, if you don't have that revenue coming in and you're producing a show for YouTube, Yeah, you're still around, but it doesn't mean you're playing at the same level or being able to pay at the same level. Well, we know for sure that Mr. Kahn has shelled out some Monet

for Mercedes Monet, the former Sasha Banks allegedly is AEW bound. She's going to be making a big splash according to the rumor and innuendo in the month of March. There's been lots of speculation that they've been eyeing a date in Boston and what a place to make a big debut. And it made me wonder, made me think about the good old days

of the Monday Night Wars whenever you would see someone jump from one promotion to another John Waltman comes to mind when he debuted on Monday Night Raw or returned to the WWF on Monday Night Raw I should say he cut a quote unquote shoot promo on you and Hulk Hogan and WCW

and got everybody talking and I wonder given the way she left WWE and what's going on recently in WWE Do you expect her to channel her inner MJF and cut a promo that gets quite a bit of buzz for AEW? I hope not

because it will hurt her. It will continue to hurt AEW because that formula is obviously not working. It's not the first time we've heard people cutting promos on WWE and talking about the other company. it was so prevalent early on. It's one of the reasons I came out a couple of years ago and said, Tony, shut up and wrestle.

Just do your own shit. Quit trying to make it sound like you're in a battle with the WWE because you're not, you're on the sidelines. You're like that obnoxious little fuck on the side of the road, you know, trying to pick a fight with cars that are passing by. Well, you know, you're not going to, you're never going to really be in a fight so you can mouth off all you want. And it didn't work.

It got everybody's attention initially. And everybody got on board because it was so much goodwill. Everybody was looking for that Monday night war's kind of vibe. Everybody was hoping that we're going to revisit that vibe in the late 90s. But you can't because AEW and Tony Khan didn't go head to head. It's like me sitting in my living room, you know, talking about how I could, you know, kick Brock Lesnar's ass. Well, I can talk all that shit I want when I'm sitting in my living room. but if I was face to face with them, it wouldn't work out so well for me.

So that kind of shooting on the competition only works if you're really in competition, not on the sidelines where it's warm and fuzzy and safe. It actually hurt AEW, just like I predicted it would. Well, hang on now here. You used to do that. I was head to hand for God's sake. There's a little bit of a difference. Can you not fucking see the difference between being a little dwarf punk on the sidelines calling people out,

tell everybody you're kicking her ass and you're in competition when you're really not. Now, I was actually competing head to head. I started my show three minutes before WWE did because I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. I used my resource. I had the resources to do that. At the time, WWE didn't. So I took advantage of that resource. Why? Because I was head-to-head.

When I called Vince McMahon out to a fight as a result of that shoot promo, by the way that Sean Walman caught, I did it because I was head-to-head. It was a real competition, not a cosplay competition, which is a perfect word for it. And it's been the perfect word. What Tony Khan's strategy about calling out the competition is, it's fucking cosplay. And it worked early on when there was all of this. goodwill. But Tony Khan has shit the bed so many times in so many different ways over the last four years that nobody has any faith in them anymore. Or calling people out doesn't have

the impact that it could have and would have if they were actually a head to head. I hope she doesn't do it. Mercedes. I hope she doesn't because it will hurt her. One of the criticisms I had early on, see him punk when the first thing he did was came up. to try to get himself over, starts taking shots on Hulk Hogan. That's what you're going to do to get over on your first night out. You're going to cut a dirt sheet Dave Meltzer, fucking geek promo on a guy you've never met or work with

because you want to endear yourself to the internet wrestling community in the Dave Meltzer universe. That was such a cheap, low-hanging fruit bullshit move that in my opinion at that time it exposed Pump for what he really is on his own with a mic. That was weak as fuck. And if she comes out and does the same thing,

I'm going to have the same opinion. And the difference is punk is actually pretty decent at cutting promos. Actually, it could be very, very good if he's got the right material in him and a little bit of guidance. You've seen that. I don't recall ever hearing

Mercedes Monet Cutter Pro She has No I'm not saying that derisively I just don't remember ever hearing one Now maybe you have you watch more closely than I do I don't watch wrestling like I'm not saying it like that I'm just saying listen man you know in WWE You don't get to go out there and just shoot from the hip

I mean I guess if you're the rocky can or still in cold or whatever But most of the time in WWE A producer comes over and hands you three sheets of dialogue and says, hey, you've got three hours, memorize the shit, seeing a little while. And in A.W, we're actually going to see the real person with a mic in her hand for the first time. And I know you're saying, oh, they shouldn't be taking shots and blah, blah, blah. But they're doing it to super serve that audience. You know, AEW has positioned itself as an alternative.

People who are watching WWB and are trying to watch something different than. So why not, you know, validate those people's opinions and get that cheat pop, if you will. and now let's get to the business at hand. I assume we're going to see something like that and then she'll challenge somebody and then she'll show what she, we all know she's great at, which is being a damn good wrestler when the bell rang.

Yeah. And just like everything else that we've seen out of AEW, a week later it won't matter because it's not going to grow the audience and all of this hype and all the anticipation and the big super surprise or whatever it is. When it's all said and done, all three of Tony's shows combined

won't equal one Monday night raw rating. So in your opinion, Okada nor Mercedes Monet or needle movers for AW? There's nothing going to be a needle mover. Until there's a drastic creative change, until there's a drastic strategic creative change in approach, nothing is going to change. How many times do we have to see it? Do we go, eh, it's not going to work?

So wait, are you saying that? somebody comes over from WWE, that's a big star. Oh, my gosh, it's going to be a needle mover. You can move the needle just a little further to the dead side of the equation. So in your opinion, you think the biggest acquisition, rather, that WW or AEW rather, could make. Let me start that sentence again. In your opinion, you think the biggest acquisition AEW could make

someone like an Ed Kosky or something like that? That would be a huge move. Yeah. That would be a massive move in the right direction. My opinion would change at that point, provided Tony has the personal makeup to let Ed do what if it was Ed, to let Ed or somebody like him do what they're capable of doing. And Tony, go do something else. Don't get involved unless you just want to sit and listen and learn.

Don't even go near the process. Tony is horrible at creative, exacerbated only by the fact that he thinks he's good at it because he's been a fan since he was 14. That makes him even more dangerous. But if someone like an Ed Koski were able to come in, that's that gigantic, strategic, creative change that I'm talking about. My feelings vastly different than they are currently.

Well, we know you have a great feeling about our personal friends, Sting, one of the all-time greats, the absolute legend. They put a few more tickets on sale. They sold out. Put a few more tickets on sale. They sold out. The show continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Sting's last match, Revolution.

Coming to you at the very beginning of March, we're about a month away. It's going to be in Greensboro. The go home television, both dynamite and collision, will be filmed right down the hill from my house here in Huntsville. I'll be there. and I encourage you to be there too. It's going to be television wrestling history, man. Sting's last appearance on TV as an active wrestler.

But this week, we're seeing Sting and do something he hasn't done before. He's challenging for the AEW tag team titles. It'll be himself and Darby Allen taking on Big Bill and Ricky Starks in a tornado tag team match. And boy, a lot of people who are old school fans are wondering, Is this perhaps where the tag team street comes to an end? There's Rick Flair turn on Sting and join the Young Bucks, who seemed to be his opponent for his last match in Greensboro.

What do you expect to happen this week? Will Sting finally win AEW Gold? Or will we get a little turn in the Rick Flair Sting story? I mean, if we had to count on our fingers and toes, how many times Rick Flaher's turned on Sting, we'd run out. What do you think happens this week on TV with Sting? I don't know. I've watched AEW in the hopes of trying to gain some insight as to what might be going on in Tony's mind creatively.

To try to, you know, to see if there's actually a hot button or a pattern of any kind. And I can't find it. I mean, it's, I can't. And so I can't even begin to imagine what's going to happen. Here's what I hope doesn't happen. with regard to Flair and Sting, I hope we don't see a Rick Flair turn. I really hope.

I don't think that's what the audience wants to see. They don't want it. Rick Flair is he could, I said this to Rick at night. Maybe I didn't say it directly to Rick. I might have said to somebody else on a creative team. But I use kind of a grotesque analogy, which I happen to do frequently time to time,

quickly from time to time, whatever. I said, Rick Flair, and this was like a 95 and 96, Rick Flair could come out to the ring with a pack of puppies, little furry puppies, poor gasoline on him, set him on fire, stomped them out on his way to the ring, and people would still cheer him. I don't know about that. Well, I don't know about that either. That's an exaggeration. But I was trying to make a point. Sometimes you have to exaggerate it in order to make a point. that cuts through the clutter that exists in most people's mind.

Sure. So in order to cut through the clutter, I use that exaggeration. But the point is this. Rick Flair's been around for so long. Nobody wants to hate Rick Flair. That's true. You just don't want to. And Rick Flair turning now on Sting at this match or any other time.

Eh, I just hope we don't see it. Here's what I want to see. I want to see Sting in his last match when it's all over and done. And he gets the win. I want to see Rick Flair holding Sting's arm up in the air because that's an image.

If they take that shot, if that happens, and somebody gets that shot, that's an image that people will be collecting decades to come because of Sting's legacy because of Rick Flair's legacy and because that's what the audience will want audience is not going to want to see some bullshit flea market turn

just for the sake of a turn. I hope it doesn't have really. I hope it does happen. I think Rick Flair wants to be a heel. What the hell is wrong with you? Rick Flair wants to be a heel. He's better at being a heel. He is a natural heel.

He wakes up trying to think about how to be a heel and the promo he could cut it would be a lot of fun and there is a contingent of AEW fans and wrestling fans who've decided they don't like Rick Flair and they don't want Rick on TV so lean into that and let Rick be a heel I don't know I'm looking forward to this weekend or this this week's tag match um I couldn't tell the last time I was really pumped about a title match on TV wants to be a heel so badly why wasn't he heel for his own last match he wanted to be but we were like you can't be the people are going to cheer you no matter what the damn name of the event is rick flair's last match now if you watch the story he was a

heel the whole way through because he was doing i mean he was smack talking jared when jerry i mean and then the way he traded jay lethal and all that but it didn't matter because as you said that terrible bag of puppies example but i do think in the moment if he costing some big opportunity it's, I don't know. We'll see what happens. This is why we watch. And we're going to be watching because I guess this Wednesday, as folks are listening to this, two days from now, it's been teased yet again, Tony Kahn is going to make another

big announcement. And it makes me wonder, is it going to be about the Young Bucks being the opponent for Sting and Darby Allen? Is it going to be about Mercedes-Money? Is it going to be about Okada? Is it a new pay-per-review? Are we going to get another event? I would think we're looking at.

out another event announcement. I have zero insight. I haven't asked anyone, but usually when we get some sort of special announcement like this, or at least the last few times, at least I think, it's we're announcing that tickets are on sale for Wembley or we've got this anokey tribute show or or or. So maybe there's another pay per view coming down the pike. Maybe it'll be in the most of what the world is waiting for. Oh, come on now. I'm sorry. I just can't take anything AEW serious right now. Unless there's a big change, like we were talking about. about earlier and creative, I just, eh, is what it is. Nothing's going to change. The audience is continuing to deteriorate. Their live event gates are continuing to deteriorate. They're having a

hard time putting 3,000 people in a dynamite, live dynamite. They're having a hard time finding 3,000 people willing to go on a two for one basis. Come on. It is what it is. And I know you have a different relationship there and you're a kinder, gentler person than I am. Just by nature. I'm just calling it on the middle like I see it. It's, I can't take anything they do or say seriously, including the big announcement. God. Well, I'd like to make a big announcement.

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That's Bluotu.com. The promo code is 83 weeks and you'll perceive your first month free. Visit Blu.com for more details and important safety information. And we want to thank Blue Choo for sponsoring today's podcast. All right. Now the part of the episode that a lot of my Twitter followers have been waiting for, I was pretty vocal on Friday. night and I tweeted

when I saw the introduction of the rock fucking lame very disappointed to see the way the story unfolded but let's start at the beginning because it all started in motion on Monday Night Raw it felt like that was a change in creative for two years we've been told the story

about Cody Rhodes finishing the story the story being he was trying to win the belt his father never did and as the legend goes he made it very clear when he first met with Vince McMahon Vince was recruiting him to come back to WWE Vince actually flew to Atlanta to meet with him to get him to do this and as I understand it Cody took that same championship

that his dad held up and thought he won in Madison Square Garden all those years ago where that photo of Dusty holding the WWWF world title was on Dusty's mantle in his bedroom. Cody never forgot that. And Ringue's belt collector, Dan Lambert, gifted it to Cody. Cody brought that belt, laid it in front of Vince McMahon, laid out that this is what I'm coming. That's the story that's been told.

That's the motivation to come back, to finish the story. And they have drilled that in our head so long and so well and so effectively that one of their biggest licensees, the 2K video game, put Cody on the cover not just on the cover the entire campaign was based around finishing the story to the point where the commercials

that they shot with other female superstars like Bianca Bel Air and Ria Ripley and oh Roman Reins they're all talking about finishing the story including AI Hulk Hogan and AI Steve Austin all talking about finishing

their stories so it felt like after Cody came back sort of called his shot like Babe Ruth all those years ago and tears his peck gets back on the comeback trail wins the rumble comes up short has to get through Brock Lesner etc etc wins the rumble a second time gets on the turnbuckle starts pointing at Roman rains claiming it's you I'm coming for you but the next time we saw Cody he was interrupted by Seth Rollins on Monday Night Raw. And Seth Rollins will cut a promo

saying, you don't want the part-timer belt. You don't want the Bruno belt. You want the workhorse belt. You want the belt for the people who are actually here. You want the belt that I'm wearing. This is the belt that represents Dusty's legacy. This is the Dusty belt. This is the belt you should be after.

It felt weird. It felt out of left field. And it didn't make any sense. Why would a guy who was champion? who's 0 and 3 because Cody has beaten Seth three times at pay-per-view, including with one arm inside a hell of a cell, why would the guy who knows he's 0 and 3 and has one leg say, hey, this is the belt you want? Make it make sense for me, Eric. Cody finished the segment by saying, I'll think about it. I know you saw that segment from Seth. And by the

way, great promo from Seth. My man sold his ass all. But I can't help but think this was just bad creative. And they had to power through. But it felt weird. And even the crowd response live was like, what? This isn't what we've heard for two years? You saw the promo on Monday. What'd you think? I mean, there's nothing you said I can disagree with. It was so awkward. And again, you know, hats off to Seth. Because Seth, did his best. Yes. I mean, he was, he poured himself into that promo emotionally as best he could,

given the fact that it didn't make any sense. That's right. At the end of the day, if it doesn't make any sense, no matter how passionate you are about it, it's just hard to hit the right note. It just is. And Seth tried. And I think Cody did the best he could do,

which is just basically stand there and, and let Seth lay out the narrative that will be presumably the premise of Cody's decisions going forward. It was awkward. It confused the audience. Yes. To your point. Their reaction was damn near non-existent. Awkward is the only word that I can come up.

And it made at this point saying this a lot as we talk about. about where we're going. And at this point, this past Monday, or in my case this morning at 540 a.m. when I first saw it because I had to go back and watch it on YouTube, it made no sense. It was a disconnect from everything, from the current story, from the characters. Point, 0 and 3, bad leg, you know, all that, it just made no sense. Yeah, I mean, why would a guy? who knows he's 0 and 3 and knows he's injured.

But he's going to power through say, hey, you don't want that belt. Come wrestle me for mine while I'm in a diminished capacity in 0 and 3. That makes no sense. Yeah, especially for a heel, right? And by the way, I want to be clear. You said it, I said it, I want to say it again. We are not being critical of Seth Rollins' performance.

I think you and I both agree. He's been one of the damn workhorses carrying the load for WWE for a long, long time and there's an argument to be made that he is one of if not the top five best wrestlers in the world at any given moment even with a bad wheel the dude is incredibly talented our buddy kevin nash even made the comparison last year and said he's like a modern randy savage he can work with anybody he's got a good promo he's got an over-the-top look and he's going to deliver in the ring set ralins is an MVP no doubt about it but that creative sucked And then on Smackdown, we see Roman Raines come out.

And he has to respond to the promo that Seth Rollins did, saying that Roman's belt doesn't matter. And Roman cut a promo that shit all over that title. He basically called the raw title, the loser title, because he's beaten everyone who's challenging for it. So it's the loser bracket title. And he would point out that Seth Rawlins says he works 10 times as hard, and 10 times as many shows and 10 times as many matches as Roman reigns.

And Roman said, and I make 10 times more money. It totally neutered not only the title, but anyone who wanted the title. And then here comes Cody Road. And Cody Rhodes announced his WrestleMania decision. He says, I'm still coming for you. I'm still coming for that belt, but not at WrestleMania. He sought counsel from someone who knows Rome. very well and Birmingham lost their mind. The Rock's music hit. It was an incredible

pop. A friend of mine was there and said it's the loudest live reaction he's ever seen at a wrestling show in Alabama. Hard to argue that. The Rock himself got goosebumps and showed it to the camera. But boy, you want to talk about awkward. When he was in the ring with Cody, it looked like it was all over Cody's face. Rock approached Cody, shook his hand. They had a private moment when they whispered in one another's ear. And then Cody exits. And it felt a little bit like when Hulk Hogan handed the Ultimate Warrior the

World Title after WrestleMania 6, we see Cody taking that sad walk back up the aisle. I thought Cody did as good as he could with this. But clearly that struck a nerve to the point where if you watch that clip back right now, they've cut out Cody's conversation with Rock. they've cut out Cody walking out of the ring. And why did they do that? Because that video that they posted to YouTube has the most dislikes,

the most thumbs down on YouTube in the history of any video they've ever posted to YouTube. So much so, they took it down. You can't even see thumbs up and thumbs down anymore. But there's your ratio. Yes, it got millions of views. But I got 97,000 thumbs up and 500,000 thumbs up.

thumbs down. And for more than 24 hours, the number one trending topic was hashtag we want Cody. Can't believe, WW didn't immediately put that out as merch, but we know why. Let me just mention, if you're looking for a hashtag, we want Cody shirt, I know where you can get one. Box of gimmicks.com or 83 weeks merch.com. We've got the woe movement shirt and we've got hashtag we want Cody, yeah, I'm not ashamed to admit. I want Cody to finish the story. I'm biased. I'm friends with Cody, but I'm also invested in the story. This is the first time they've made titles matter in a long, long time in WWE. And I'm getting a little tired of people saying, well, they're trying to end Hulk Hogan's number. So Roman can be the third longest reigning champion

in history? Because Hogan's not the record holder. They don't talk about stats like this in baseball or basketball or football. Yes, it's important who's third and who's fourth. But the real run, like think about baseball in 98, Eric. People were talking about Roger Maris's record when they talked about Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire. We're not talking about Bruno's record. Talking about Hogan's record. None of that makes sense to me. I couldn't understand the promo. I don't understand why there's an about face. Cody was just at the rumb. He just won the Rumble. like if you're going to do this with the rock why not just have the rock come out as a surprise

and he wins the rumble he earned his shot but I felt like they undermined the big gold belt they undermined the idea of the Royal Rumble match and they completely pivoted from a story that we were all invested in to the point that one of their largest licensees built their entire campaign around it as I understand it 2K is actively changing

the campaign for that game right now this is a major pivot and I want to talk about it but first I want to see what did you think of the promo with Cody and Roman and the introduction to the Rock in Birmingham on SmackDown

now. I mean clearly it you know Rock's entrance rock is the rock is the biggest star on the planet probably in a number of different ways and argued if you're in the mood I don't care. He is a massive, massive, massive star.

No doubt. He got the reaction he got because everything he's achieved, contributed, and been a part of professional wrestling for so long. So you're going to get that reaction. So let's forget about the reaction and get into the meat of the promo. It's interesting to a couple things were interesting to me. And Cody basically said, how about, Rowland, just you and me? Heyman stuck around.

Not sure why. That immediately kind of, I know it sounds like a really little thing, but they didn't give Cody that. Cody, they should have given him that. Heyman could have stuck around for a minute, and Cody could have said, should have said, I mean everybody. I would have liked to see that. I cannot rent my head around premise,

meaning I'm going to give somebody else a shot at something that meant so much to me. I cannot wrap my head around. As much as I'm very supportive of WWE creative, particularly in the last 12 months. I've been critical of it previously, but the last 12 months, the bloodline story, 18 months, really, it's just everything has been so good that when I saw it,

I just, I was so confused by it. None of that made sense on the one hand. But I've had time to think about it. And I've read a lot of the online chatter, motion, 500,000 dislikes. I get all of that. But I'm optimistic. I choose. I'm choosing. I'm not subconsciously optimistic. I'm not optimistic by default. Anybody that knows me knows that. But here's the analogy I thought of today.

You go to a movie. Sit down with your popcorn date and whatever. Go by yourself. Sit there with that popcorn. You've been looking forward to seeing this movie for a long time. You've seen the trailers. I've done a great job promoting the movie. You are prepared to love that movie when you sit in that chair. You order two popcorn. That's how excited you are. OD on buttered popcorn.

It's not even real butter, but whatever. You got your popcorn. You sit in. You've seen the previews of coming attractions. You've seen a little vignette that talks about turning your phone off so you don't piss off people around. you then the music starts boom you open up in the opening scene of act one and that movie grabs you man you've you're you are so glad you went to that you came to this movie validated everything you were hoping it would be you get into that second act and now you're

at the edge of your seat oh my gosh where's it's going to go your hero protagonist your baby face if you will whatever you want to call it everything is going the way you hope it would go and your hero is overcoming the obstacles one by one by one whatever that is whether it's a big green monster or a flamethrower some mean little person whatever it is man your hero is overcoming everything they throw in his or her way and now you're getting warmed up you're into the third act you know this is a two-hour movie and there's 20 minutes left and you're so excited because you're finally going to get what you've been waiting for because there's been great story massive and anticipation the acting the action is so good you believe what's happening you've allowed yourself to

get sucked into the journey of your hero and you're only halfway through your popcorn you're so memorized by everything that you see you can't even eat the popcorn that's how excited you are you've got 20 minutes to go and then all of a sudden there's a plot twist change something didn't expect. Oh my God, my hero's not going to this is not what I wanted to happen. Son of a bitch and you throw that popcorn that bounces off the head of the old man sitting in front of you.

He turns around and gets pissed off, realizes he'll get his ass kick so he shuts up. You throw another bowl of popcorn box of popcorn. You are hot and you get up and you walk out of that movie. You leave your date. Your date sitting there, go, what in the hell? I don't even want to get in the car with this idiot. He's overreacting.

It's a movie. And you get home. Date calls you the next day. Friend, whatever. He says, man, you should have stuck around. That movie was awesome. What do you mean? It was awesome.

How could it be? And then you proceed to hear how the movie ended. Right. And lo and behold, you were the victim of a finely crafted plot twist because just when you think you know the answer, as Roddy Piper would say, they change the game, change the question, they change the ending. It's a plot twist. That's what they're supposed to do. Now, I know I'm being overly optimistic, perhaps in the minds of some, but I have confidence in the people involved. They have earned my confidence,

not that they give a shit, whether I have confidence in them or not, clearly not. But I have confidence in them. I believe that the same people that crafted some of the best storylines I've ever seen in wrestling, particularly the bloodline, those same people still work there. Triple H. Paul Levick, the guy that everybody's been talking about in such high regard over the last 12 months, he's still there. He hasn't changed. What's changed is the situation. The situation has changed. Nobody voted for this. Nobody raised their hand in a meeting a couple of couple months ago and said, hey, I got an idea. Why don't we just have this whole thing blow up in our face and all this negative press and FBI and SEC and horrible allegations? Nobody wanted

this to happen, but it happened. And now we're in a situation where you've got probably crisis management teams working eight-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, trying to figure out how to manage this insanely unprecedented situation, which is very, very serious. But you've also got a creative crisis going on in creative, excuse me, a crisis management issue in creative, just like you have a crisis management issue in public relations. And now these two, now you're going to have a nexus of PR crisis management and creative crisis management. What do you do? This is like the most uncertain, I think, WWE's been in.

and maybe in forever in such a short window time. This is massive uncertainty. Nobody knows what's going to happen next. What do people do in times of adversity? Financially, what do you do? You diversify. You don't want all your money sitting in one place. You want to spread your risk around.

You want as many options financially as you can get in the face of adversity. So what is WWE done? They brought in the rock. They're giving themselves as many options as they possibly can in the face of the adversity that none of them wanted or voted for. And oh, by the way, how many weeks do we have between now and WrestleMania? Eight, seven? Yeah, it's like two months.

Yeah. All right. So you got eight weeks of television. And a pay-per-view in Australia. and a pay-per-view in Australia. So folks, don't throw your fucking popcorn. Well, hang on now, Eric, hang on, hang on. Let me just say in a loud and clear voice.

This ain't a plot twist. Now, might it become one? Yes. That's my point. But I want to remind everybody that 10 years ago, and I mean 10 years ago, everybody talked about seeing Punk walking out 10 years ago, why did he walk out?

Because of the way the WrestleMania any card was explained to him the day after the rumble. Does that sound familiar? They're doing it again 10 years later. And at the time, people blamed Vince McMahon. He's not there now. But the result was the fans revolted. And it changed.

And Daniel Bryan got his moment. But the original plan was Batista and Triple H for the world title at the end. And it wound up turning into a three-way. And Daniel Bryan walked out with both titles. He got the yes movement and the moment that the fan base wanted. I believe, I don't know this, but I believe this was the plan when the Rock came back to WWE. And I don't mean on television.

I mean when he joined the board. I mean when they locked down the Netflix deal. All of that makes sense to me that this would have been decided at that point. Because to be clear, you and I have said multiple times on this podcast, the bloodline is the best story in the history of WWB. But I want you to answer honestly, Eric, do you think the bloodline story was hotter now or a year ago with the Sammy Zane story?

It was hotter. Absolutely. It cooled down and this is the big payoff for the bloodline story. If that's what it is, I love it. Sincerely, I do. Because you've said on this show that that was one of the biggest missteps with the NWO. You didn't have the proper way,

to blow it off. You didn't provide real closure to the NWO angle. I am all about that, but I can't help but wonder if this is a PR move by the WWE. Now, we made this analogy

last week on the program that when Papa John's got in trouble because the owner did some things he wasn't supposed to do and said some things he wasn't supposed to, nobody's supposed to, on tape, they went out and they hired Shaq. One of the most lovable spokespersons

are spokespeople in all of America. And now Papa Johns is enjoying great success. It feels like this was a great PR move for the Rock who needed a win and can go back and always pull with that WWE audience back in. And WWE needed him with knowing what was coming. I'm not saying they knew when, but they were privy. They did an investigation in June of 2020. This is going to come out eventually.

They were waiting on the other shooter drop. Who knew when it was going to? That'll all come out in court one day, but it felt like a mutual PR move and, hey, we'll just do this. And I suspect, I don't know this, but I suspect that the Rock has not been watching WWE television. I don't think he probably even knew about Cody finishing the story, et cetera, et cetera. I just don't. And I'm not saying that the Rock's not a WWE fan.

My goodness, he dedicated a large portion of his life, the money, the miles, the bruises, the bumps. I'm a huge fan of the rock and I acknowledge he is the biggest star in the world. But I don't think he sits down and watches three hours of Monday Night Raw every week. I'm just being honest. And I think he inserted himself into this story

because every other time he's done it, man, people are, I mean, it's a huge pop. And it was a huge pop in Birmingham. But in fairness, there's always going to be a huge pop if it's a returning legend as a surprise. That's Pavlovian. That's built into us. That's what we love about wrestling.

And I don't know that we love it inserted into the story. So I'm hoping the idea that hashtag we want Cody, which is a shirt available now over at 83 weeks, merch.com, I'm hoping between that and it trending on Twitter and the 500,000 dislikes. And this story about the backlash being covered on TMZ, being covered on barstool sports. Like they're getting some more mainstream coverage about the backlash. It was all over Fox News. It was in USA Today. I mean, it's it's getting massive. massive mainstream coverage. I think they got a pivot, just like they did 10 years ago with Daniel Bryan.

So to your point, it might. They have to pivot. What's that? How do you know this? How do you know they, see, this is where I differ. And this is where right now, my Mason jar, my trusty Mason jar that's almost empty, that's still half full to me. Okay.

As long as there's water in it, it's half full for me. I, I'm just not as convinced. I'm going to, I'm just going to go out. out on a limb here. And I know I'm making an ass of myself for doing it. I know there's a lot of people that are going to make fun of me for it. And guess what? It's like everything else that comes out of my mouth, I just do not give a fuck.

Because I choose to be optimistic. Yes, good for you. The situation. I believe there will be a scenario and there's a lot of different options of options. Tell my kids all the time in life, always make sure you have choices and options. Put yourself in a situation where you're painted into a corner and there's no way out. Always have options. And they have so many options.

I see an option where Cody walks out much like Daniel Brown. I do too. I see that. I do too. And irregardless. That's not a word, but okay. There ends up being that. And here's, let me tell you, let me tell you why, other than the fact that I.

my mason jars have full, even though you all can see it. It isn't. I believe it is. I choose to believe in a way. But here's another thing I believe. A year from now, it won't matter much. Cody's going to be a huge star. No doubt.

He's already a huge star. He's going to be a bigger star. Because if it goes the other way and if I'm completely wrong and I'm just full of shit because I choose to be in this case. Cody Rhodes is still going to be successful in this industry. And here's what Cody is going to realize at some way off in the future. He's my age. 40 years now, whatever.

He's going to look back at this situation. He's going to smile because he will know at that point that regardless of how many, roadblocks anybody puts in front of him, no matter what circumstances prevail that are out of his control, he'll continue to be successful and he will overcome. He'll learn that because of the strength of his character, his natural talent, and the talent he's developed to not let obstacles, challenges, or circumstances out of his control detour him, impede him from where he's destined to. And when he realizes that he's developed the power to overcome those challenges, the obstacles, no matter who throws him in front of him, what throws them in front

of him, has the ability to overcome it. And that's the gift, man. That's a gift. This situation is a gift to Cody Rhodes because whether I'm right and he comes out like Daniel Brian did and he's got a both, which by the way, we'll get Cody Rhodes over. Yes. times more than if he just goes out and none of this stuff ever happened. Rock never shows up. Vince McMahon doesn't get into the situation he's in. We're just going about our business. And Cody has a match with Roman Raines and Cody wins and he finished the story.

That'll be awesome if that were to happen. That would be awesome if that would have happened. But guess what? In the face of this adversity with all of the emotion, including yours, Big Man, including yours, because you were riled up last night with all of this emotion and Cody done dirty and we want Cody blah blah blah finish the story all of that pent up anger and emotion if it pays itself off with with Roman rains finally getting into the excuse me with Rock finally getting into the match with Roman Raines imagine everybody's been wanting for about four

years yes yes now they finally get that but guess what else they get they get Cody the next night walking out with not just one but two titles guess what that could happen so let's just hold on to her pop. Listen, more TV to come. I'm with you. I hope that's what they do. It is going to require a pivot. That was not the original plan.

But thankfully, unlike at WrestleMania 30, WrestleMania, I want to remind you, is two nights. So there is a possibility. Cody versus Rock, Roman versus Rock, Cody versus Roman, a three-way dance.

And oh yeah, there's that little pay-per-view in Australia. where the rumor and innuendo is that Australia requested the Rock based on the deal they cut with WWE maybe at the time his asking price was too much,

but now he's a member of the board and he just got $30 million worth of stock and allegedly Buddy Brian is going to be in Australia too he handles the Rock's business a lot of times it seems to me like we're in for a fun ride the road to WrestleMania just got a lot

That's what I like to hear. That's my Conrad. We're in for a fun ride. I like it. I'm positive that they're going to pivot. I shouldn't say I'm positive. I think they have to pivot because what you don't want is what happened this past Saturday night in Knoxville.

They played a clip at a house show, a live event, as fans were filling in, of what happened last night, as it was airing, on Smackdown. And when the rock came out, the entire crowd booed. Process what we're saying. This is the biggest star in the world, arguably the most beloved star in WW history. People are thrilled that the rock is there. They just didn't want him in this story.

I think it was a misstep. I think they'll fix it. I think they'll recover. I think everyone will get what they want at WrestleMania. And I know what I want. I want what a lot of folks want. We want Cody. Available now at 83 weeks merch.

dot com. Buy the shirt. Support the man. Buy the shirt. I do want to ask. You tweeted out that some of this made you think

of the Sting NWO storyline. You're uniquely qualified to make that comparison. Talk to us about that. How many times have you heard me say that I value my mistakes more than my success.

Well. Because you learn more. And that's a perfect example. I compromised. I was faced much, I like, situation that WW is in right now is nothing like the situation that I faced. And the night of the event, Sting showed up in my office along with Holcogne. And we had to kind of way out the finish, so to speak. Everything kind of got turned upside down in that moment.

That was about 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock. to bed two o'clock in the afternoon day of the event so i had about six hours to try to solve that problem wwee's got eight weeks yes i compromised because i was faced in a situation i made it i was able to develop a compromise finish and it left everybody disappointed immediate reaction go back and watch it you and i have covered that show you go back and watch people in the arena venue in the moment they all cheered they didn't even know fast count slow count red heart no breadhart whatever all they reacted to is the title change or the count but afterwards when all the information came in and everybody realized what really happened and

really didn't happen because it was so different than what they wanted to happen we told that story for i don't know what it was 12 months 18 months really if you look at sting showing up and having been doubted by the people formerly as peers and supporters and friends and all that that entire story however long it lasted 16 18 months whatever it was didn't matter we built towards a finish there was a decision that we made early on this is what we want to have happen we want saying to come in and finally win clean no disputes no controversy just let out win finally wcd gets its payback And we muddied it up. But what I learned is you don't disappoint your audience.

Just don't. Gary Considine, quote Gary once again, the audience votes with their remote. And I think it's a testimony to the creative team in WWE. It's a testimony to Cody Rhodes and everybody that he's worked with up until last week. You're so invested in the story and Cody finishing the story that you got negative reaction that you got to 500,000 dislikes or whatever. And all the chatter in the audience and where were they, where they got that negative reaction for a live event? Knoxville, Tennessee.

Knoxville, Tennessee. All that says to me is creative team that worked so hard and did such a. a great job eating up to this point. We're all still there. They're smart enough to recognize what I learned the hard way. I had six hours to fix my problem. They've got eight weeks to fix theirs. They're more talented and smarter and there are more talented and smarter than I was at the time. I just don't have the fear that this is going to end up bad. I think it's going to end up fucking better than it was originally. Well, the idea is we're trying to, to establish Cody as this underdog who's overcome so much, whether it was Brock

Lesner or getting screwed last year at the, at the, uh, Ressomania main event or having to win back to back rumbles or wrestling with one arm. I mean, with that torn peck and a hell in a cell. So they're telling the story, but speaking of the story, I asked you about the sting comparison. And of course, you and I had a pretty famous or maybe now infamous discussion about Starcade 97 and someone tweeted out something pretty funny over the weekend that was relative to that not tanned enough pal I was hoping someone he was going to bring that up but you do you know I saw Cody in that promo for Monday night with South and again on Friday and 10 game is a little soft so work on that bro it's it's going to be a fun ride they're doing the

big press conference in Las Vegas this Thursday. I don't know that we'll get all the answers, but let's remind everybody that, quote, unquote, in storyline, the Rock has to earn his shot to face Roman. You don't just show up and get a title shot. So maybe they'll do something at Elimination Chamber. Maybe we'll find out more at the press conference this Thursday. But I, like you, have faith that they're going to pivot because I still suspect this is a PR move. And the reason I say that is, because I know there's a lot of people online who say,

oh no this happened because punk got injured no I mean maybe maybe maybe him wrestling Seth Rollins but let's just say if punk hadn't been injured it was clear they were working towards him and Seth Rollins and maybe that would have I don't know what was going to happen but maybe at the time maybe Punk won the elimination chamber for the right to face

Seth but they started that Seth CM Punk storyline before punk even worked in the freaking company I just, I don't, I don't buy that. And I think I would have been okay with the pivot to rock, had Rock won the Rumble. But to do it this way, it almost makes the Royal Rumble meaningless to me.

Like either the winner challenges for the title or they don't. And I know you could say, well, he could pick. But that's not the story that we've been referencing. So I'm going to be optimistic. I'm going to go glass half full. And we're going to see how it plays out. I love to hear that I do want to talk about

some other things that have happened you know the moving and shaking behind the scene Rock has not only taken center stage on TV but also in the board room he's now a board member for WWE or TKO

more specifically and there's not a single McMahon family who's on the TKO board now Linda's not on it Stephanie's not on it certainly Vincent isn't on it, and not even Triple H is on it. A Triple H was on the board of WWE.

He is not on the board of TKL. And there's a theory put out by Mike Johnson that perhaps Brian Goertz is here, or Gwitz, easy for me to say. Great guy, by the way, is in the mix. Mike Johnson wrote, Brian will be in the mix as the voice representing the rock and the WWE creative process going forward.

There are some who believe Brian will be around physically, at least for major shows going forward, and could even be there as plan B if Endeavor ever needs to pivot WWE's direction and go with a Dwayne Johnson-backed creative team down the line. And I'm going to tell you, that got my attention. First of all, let me say this. You couldn't have a better brand ambassador than the rock. I know he had a little controversy with Oprah. I know the Black Adam thing didn't work out.

and maybe he had a spat with that director and maybe it lost some money. I know the XFL is restructuring and lost some money last year, but that dude has so many more wins than losses. If you take a look at the scoreboard, everything he touches turns to gold, whether it's his tequila or anything else.

So I'm confident that the rock is going to be successful on camera and behind the scenes with WWE. And you couldn't ask for, I mean, this is a guy who not too long ago was being whispered about as being a potential presidential candidate. How could you not pull for that guy? How could you not want that guy to represent your brand?

And if you were a WWE fan for the last 20 years, how could you not be excited about Brian being back and creative? Brian was responsible for some of our absolute favorite WWE moments. You worked with Brian a little bit. That dude is incredible at his job. Is he not? Absolutely. the most exciting, rewarding, fulfilling,

whatever other adjective you can come up with moment I've ever had on camera in any company was created by Brian. That was the reveal. The reveal, the old man gimmick with the mask. That was all Brian. The Billy and Chuck wedding. Billy and Chuck Wedding.

Brian is so good. So good. He's so level-headed. He would be a massive asset to, to the creative team, whether he's leading it or a part of it. I don't know where that's going to go. This is kind of the first time hearing about that aspect of it. I did read, I think, that he was going to be representing Rock.

And I think that makes sense. I don't think Rock's going to be sitting in creative meetings all week long. But so, I mean, it makes sense to me. But he's so gifted that it would, that's a big plus for WWW. that that's a that's a bonus of getting rock on your board is to getting is getting Brian on your creative team absolutely uh well let's also talk about the way this board changed because I'll be honest it sort of made me sit up and pay a little more attention when I saw that Brian might be a plan B I say that because we know who plan

a is and that's triple H and I know that there are a lot of wrestling fans who think everything's wrestling and just believe everything from back in the day. But I've had more than a few people show me clips of Brett Hart talking about the relationship between the Rock and Sean Michaels and Triple H when the Rock was a young superstar in WW. Let's roll that. And dressing down poor Dwayne, he was just, he was the Intercontinental Champion. He was the young guy with getting this big first break in the business and stuff. And the nicest guy in the world.

And Sean came in and just dressed him down and chewed him out. And I believe it was he told him to never do a drop kick off the top rope ever again because that was his move. That was what he was mad about. And then he slammed the door and walked out. Every rock was just, you know, because Sean was had a lot of weight. He was a pretty important guy for the company and a veteran kind of guy dressing him down like that. he was apologizing and said they didn't know it was you know like he thought it would be okay and

i remember the door closed after sean left and i said that's bullshit that is total bullshit i said nobody owns the drop kick off the top yeah like you can do that i could owen does it all the time why can't why is he never got a promo on owen yeah i said they're just busting your chops yeah and they're trying to work on you and triple h was the same he was always out to get rock sean was out to get him and they just worked on him and worked on him and worked on him. And the guy left by, they was still in the doghouse with those guys. They were, they wanted him as bad as they wanted me out. Like they were after him.

And for me, like a year later, he became a, starting to get his break and started to take off in WWE. And that's, I'm so glad he overcame their petty bullshit that they were trying to do all the time to him. Just jealousy? Just jealousy. So listen, I know that's a little silly, and maybe it's a little tinfoil hat. But there's a whole lot of people who say that in real life, they had more than just a professional rivalry. I mean, J.R.'s talked about it on his podcast, back when they were both trying to jockey for position as to who was going to be the next guy as Intercontinental Champion in 1998. And I just find it interesting that, well, Hunter lost his board seat in September.

rock got that spot in january rock's agent endeavor or did nick con used to work endeavor who put together the smackdown deal for wwe nick con of endeavor well nick con was c a wasn't he it's all the same thing no go ahead well here's what i mean nick con's sister is the showrunner for young was the showrunner for young rock there's a relationship with nick con and the rock i don't think that's the secret

and are you emmanuel when the rock went to visit dion sanders at college game day Nick Kahn's there Just find it interesting Hunter lost his seat He's no longer on the board He's head of creative Creative, creative director Not a board member

But the Rock is there Who was the rock Who was Nick Kahn's old boss Ari Emanuel They did so many deals to him They have a long standing history Ari and Nick And now

Hunter answers to Nick Nick Nick answers to Ari And the Rock's the biggest star in the world and in the agency game not on the org chart but talent hires an agent. So in a weird

way, all right works for the rock. The rock has all the leverage. This is the Rock's WWE and for Hunter to lose his seat and now they're being a rumor hey Brian might be plan B it's like wow, yikes.

And from an endeavor standpoint that Netflix deal is huge because if the Rock's on the board gee do you think the rock's going to wind up making some movies for netflix doing some programs for Netflix are people wearing their tinfoil hat eric what do you think about all this uh i think a bit yeah okay i think a bit and look i i don't know to what degree but i guess human nature allows me to believe that there may be some long held of resentment there.

I mean, it's happened in the past. That's why. There are certain people. Yeah, I mean, it exists. There are certain situations where if I was thrust into it with somebody that I don't trust, not to name names, it would be an uncomfortable situation for me. And if I had leverage, I would do what I could to mitigate that. So, yeah, I guess it could be true that perceived heat back and hunter based on something that happened

25 years ago. I guess it could be true. It's human nature. Never bet against it. The rest of it, the politics, the relationship between Nikon and Ari Emanuel, I think it's a little muddy, to be honest with you. Suffice to say right now everybody's working for Ari Emanuel, but indeed, Rocky is probably Ari Emanuel's biggest client. So there's that dynamic. And it is a fact. The degree to which it has influence over decisions, none of us know, can only guess from the sidelines, but it is an interesting situation. And when you told me about Brian and somebody else's court, I think it was Mike Johnson.

Yes. He's been on the money, by the way. Yes. To those to Mike Johnson. Kudos to Mike Johnson, PW Insider. been on the money with this stuff. I think it's a necessary plan B. And as much as I don't want to venture back into this territory,

it has, we have to, I have to at this point. Because the fact that Polovec was on the board during a time there was a vote against Vince coming back to bring him back. The fact that Polovic was married, is married to Stephanie McMahon, the fact that that Lovic spent as much time as he did, in terms of proximity to Vince McMahon, he is a likely candidate for a conversation in terms of everything that went down. And it would be absolutely a breach of corporate fiduciary responsibility for them not to have a plan B.

because you don't know what you don't know at this point. That's very fair. So I choose to kind of acknowledge but not put much stock into any of the tinfoil hat political espionage nonsense. I understand why people do, and it's not that it's not interesting, I just don't buy into it. I look at the more logical, practical moves that they have to make. And having Brian there, again, you're faced with an uncertain situation. The only way to combat uncertain situation is to have as many options and assets at your disposal as possible. That's the way I look at it.

It's going to be really interesting to see how all of this shaking. out because we don't know, you know, what's yet to come with this investigation from the federal government and this civil lawsuit and all the fallout. But at the same time, we've got everybody talking about what happens on camera. And maybe that was the idea behind bringing back the Rock. I don't think they brought, think, or anyone could have imagined there'd be this amount of backlash. Because I think people are genuinely excited to see the Rock. They want Rock versus Roman. They want at that match at WrestleMania. But they also want Cody to finish the story.

WrestleMania is two nights. We'll see what happens. Rock, by the way, got $30 million worth of stock for this move, but he also managed to get a whole boatload of trademarks. We've heard the rumors over the years that he was, you see there, if you're watching along with us,

we have the full, and we'll throw the link up here, but you're talking about an absolute ton of not just domestic trademarks, but international trademarks. I think people just sort of really quick. quickly thought, oh, he got the name of the Rock. Now, he got a lot more than that.

Rock put together a great deal. He's got a ton of leverage with WWE, and he got a great deal. So he got it all back. The rumor allegedly was that whenever the Rock would use that name in a movie, Vince would get an executive producer credit and then, of course, he'd have to pick in some cash for Vince McMahon. Pay tribute, I think they used to call it in the mafia. What do I know?

But I find it interesting that the timing of all of this happening and Lee Fitting, who, as I understand it, was reped by Nick Cohen, and he was the sort of brains behind college game day for like, I don't know, a couple decades. All of a sudden, just a few days before football season in 2022, he's out. Nobody's really said why, but it was an abrupt ending. And now he's in the Kevin Dunn spot. Because after all these years, Kevin Dunn is leaving.

it feels like in more than one way, the winds of change are here for WWE. And we fans, we don't think about who's on the board. We just think about, hey, who's running creative. And right now that's Hunter.

But if it's Brian, I don't think that's a bad thing. Like I'm not anti-Hunter. I think what he's done is fantastic. I don't want to see Hunter squeezed out. I want to be clear about that. But Brian, man, my goodness,

nothing other than a positive. Let's run down some of the board members. We mentioned, you know, that this time, not too long ago, you had a bunch of McMahon's on the board. We've got like a before and after graphic we can show you of who was on the board before and who's on the board now. And I briefly want to run through some of their experiences. As you said, Nick Conn was at CAA for like eight years.

He's ahead of CAA sports. He was the co-head of the television department. apartment. So, I mean, he did a bunch of stuff there. And, and of course, now, you know, he's the CEO of WWE. He was the co-CEO CEO before. But if you take a look before, you had some names that you would recognize like Michelle Wilson and George Barrios and, of course, Steve Coonan, who you've mentioned before, Paul Veck, Nick Conn, Stephanie McMahon, Vince McMahon. But now take a look at the new board. No, McMahon's. The only two, the only quote unquote, wrestling person there is Dwayne Johnson.

That's not to say that there's not a whole bunch of other really talented folks. Steve Coonan was there then, now, forever. He's the CEO of the Atlanta Hawks. Jonathan Kraft is there, though. He served as president of the Kraft Group since July of 95. Sonia Medina is there as well.

And she's been the president and CEO of Reach Resilience. Before that, she was the co-founder of Greenlight Growth Capital. But notice, there's a lady there. Sonia. I think that matters with all the news we've heard about WW recently. Nancy is on the board as well. Nancy Tell them. I think I'm saying that right. She's the executive chairperson and chief media officer of E.K.O. or Interlude U.S.

It's a media company. Carrie Wheeler, another lady, who's the chief executive officer of open-door technologies. And those are some big-time players that are on the board. In addition to Brad Keywell, who's the founder of uptech technologies, which is an AI software company. You think that's going to come in handy in the future with that. That's cool. How about Egon Durbin? He's the co-chief executive officer of Silver Lake, which is a global tech investment firm. Peter Bino, I screwed that up.

CB or his initials right in the middle. He's had a bunch of different roles, senior advisor and equity partner at DLA Piper, LLP, which is a global law firm. Probably going to come in handy right now. Mark Shapiro is the president and chief operating officer. One of the big cheeses here has been the president of Endeavor since December of 2018. And then Ari Emanuel, the head cheese, CEO. He's ran Endeavor since October of 2017.

This is a really, really strong board. I don't think that can be debated. But it is a different WWE. And it's weird. To see that board list, no McMan's. Paul's not on it either, but The Rock is. Fun, huh? You love that point, don't you?

Well, I just think it's great because here's the thing. I wonder, would they have gotten this deal with Netflix if The Rock wasn't on it? Like, you know for sure now. Because, I mean, listen, The Rock's the biggest star in the world. If your endeavor, guess what you don't want him to leave and go be rep by another agency, right? Yeah, that's. So if you give that dude a bunch of stock and you put him on the board,

you've sort of sent a message, he's here to stay. And that's great for WWE, but it's also great for Endeavor. It's great for TKO. And more specifically, it probably afforded the opportunity for Netflix. Because if you've got TKO with a $500 million deal from Netflix, you might get a month,

and maybe a better a brother brother rate out of the rock because that's going to be good he's got he's a major shareholder now and he's on the board I just think this is a fantastic move for WWE and high five and kudos to nick con I mean I don't think he's got enough credit for this deal and the way you can sort of make the rock sticky to endeavor and secure the Netflix deal for w to at the same time it's really yeah I mean if you look at I just had a commission basis. It's $30 million really that much of a commission on a $5 billion deal. No.

Imagine how much that. Now, I know there was some bad news a few days later. But look at what that stock did in just the first few hours after that announcement. Like that $30 million is going to continue to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. But it is a brand new era in, in WWE. We got a few questions.

to hit. We've got some from our live chat. I want to jump over there right fast. We've got Josh Hennie. Real quick, could you grab a couple of those questions? I absolutely have to use the rest of the quick. I'll be right back. While you do that, let me tell everybody about Starcast coming down under. It's coming down under on April 11th through April 14th. I'm going to be there and you should too. We're talking to you Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It's our first ever international starcast. You heard from Brett Hart earlier? Well, guess what? Brett Hart's coming. And it's going to be the first time he and I have ever been on stage together. We're going to talk about the 30th anniversary of his WrestleMania 10 match with Owen Hart, and as you might

imagine from hanging out with Eric, I can't wait to pick his brain. Not only that, there's going to be a Q&A opportunity. If you ever wanted to ask Brett Hart a question, well, now's your chance. We're going to have that and more than half a dozen other stage shows, but I'm so pumped to be on the stage for Brett with something we're calling Hitman, an evening with Brett heart. That's what you can expect at Starcast. Meet and greets galore, meeting all your favorites, seeing the matches and watching the shows. Wait, matches? What matches?

We got not one but two shows. Mickey James is going to present H-E-R, which will be an all-women show, and Bredhart is bringing the Australian Stampede, a super card of wrestlers from all over the world. You don't want to miss it. I encourage you to pick up a platinum or a gold bracelet. There's something for everybody across the 11th, the 12th, the 13th,

and the 14th, and you don't want to miss any of it. If you've got a bracelet, you get access to all the panels and guess what? The wrestling shows too. Check it out Starcast.com for more information that's S-T-R-R-C-A-S-T-com that's Starcast.com.

You'll see some of your favorites like Brett Hart, Mickey James, Shelton Benjamin, Chris Masters, and so many more. We're announcing folks all the time over on Twitter at Starcast events or you can just pick up your tickets now at Starcast.com and stay tuned. We've still got a few more tricks up our sleeve. Speaking of Up Our Sleeve, I want to mention that Fanatics has entered into a partnership

with us here on 83 weeks, and it's an easy way to support your favorite podcast. Now you can shop for official WW Year and Apparel by using our special URL that's Shop Wrestlingmerch.com. Shop wrestlingmerch.com. Or if you're watching along with us on YouTube, hit that QR code that's up on the screen now or check out the description below for the link. We'll also have it up on all of our socials. Shop with confidence for your favorite WW Superstar T's, Hoodies, Houties,

caps, belts, and more with W.W.E. Shop, Wrestlingmerch.com to support the show. That's shopwrestlingmerch.com. I think you're going to dig it. We got some questions from our live group chat. And by the way, when you join up over at ad-free shows.com, you not only get the shows early and ad-free,

you get to part, be a part of the live studio audience. Josh, any wants to know, do you feel the rock coming in as a work to turn him heel, taking Cody's spot? A lot of potential storytelling, in my opinion. I want to see this play out. I can't imagine the rock wanting to be a heel, right? As a performer, I could see him wanting to do it because it's much more fun being a heel than it is a baby face.

But isn't Roman a heel? Yeah, kind of. It just feels like heel versus heel will be weird. Yeah, it would be weird. But at the end of the business-wise, it would make no sense. My opinion. not in the Hollywood industry anymore and I don't know anything about the movie business and all that

but it just doesn't seem like it makes sense for Rock to portray a heel at this point. Dion Sutton, boy, he's been thinking, he's got a question, he says, what if Cody wins the world title, and then Damien Priest finally cashes in and beats Cody and then Cody challenges the winner of Rock and Roman on night two?

One of those options. I've seen some, I've seen some interesting, hey, what ifs on social media. And there were, they were the kind of ideas that if I was, you know, somebody brought up earlier today, oh, I can't remember his name. Oh, I wanted to remember it because it was such a good idea, but it was just thrown out there. Hey, what if Undertaker shows up and faces Ron Breaker? Wow, that'd be fun. That'd be cool. Undertaker coming in would certainly add another level of interest and kind of be a band-aid temporarily on this whole situation.

I don't know that it changes the lineup or the dynamic, but it's just another thing that could happen. Good for Brownbreaker. Great way for him to make him break his way in to the main roster permanent. But there's a lot. There's so many options available right now. We talked last week or the week before about, you know, the depth of talent and how sometimes that can be a real burden, keeping everybody happy and satisfied and all that. But man, this is a perfect example of why, yeah, you're paying a lot of money

to have a lot of that top talent. You're not necessarily utilizing them all at the same time, but man, it sure is great to have them there. Here's an interesting question that everybody's been talking about on social media from our buddy, DeNovius Mac. He says, hashtag Ask Eric, have you heard the rumors about WWE possibly unifying the titles again? Now, I don't know if that's an actual rumor or if fans have just booked it.

But the idea being if Roman is going to work less and less and maybe take some time off, perhaps at some point they could unify the titles. The idea I think DeNovius is pitching is if Cody wins the big gold belt from Seth, at some point he could still face Roman, still finish the story and unify the titles. What do you think about that? Should they unify the titles? I love that. Okay. I have no idea.

I don't pay attention to rumors. I actually, I haven't heard that one to ignore, but it's just another example of what could happen. And what a great way to check all of the boxes. It's like, you know, you got four million people responding to what,

I don't know what number two is. What's the second most popular YouTube clip out there? I don't know. But if Rock from SmackDown is a number, one at four plus million right now, even those 500,000 people that disliked it all. What a way to make everybody happy. Everybody wins. The possibility is there.

The options are there right now. And the options and the time. I wish I had the time to go to Vegas. Oh, man. Can you imagine? I would love, I mean, if I had the time, I would go. I wouldn't even tell anybody I'm going. I would just go.

I want to be incognito. put on a wig. Do it fit down because I don't have any hair? I could put a wig on. I could show up looking like a dancing girl. Nobody would know. Well, let me mention you can go. It's just $2,000.

They're selling tickets to this. Can you believe that? How cool is that? I think it's very cool. I don't know that I want to go bad enough to spend $2,000 to go. But I would really love to be there and be a fly on the wall to see the reaction. Oh, yeah. that you're going to get there and and to see because I mean we could have a pivot as you pointed pointed out you can have that as early as the press conference we can have that as early as tonight as folks are listening to this on raw there could be seeds planted tonight and we see something else happening at the press conference on Thursday and you don't think on Friday they're going to reference it like these are going to be highly rated shows that's got everybody buzzing this is how you create buzz and

there was a question that was submitted to us uh from uh comics villain over on twitter he says do you think the roadie uh easy for me to say the rock cody issue is actually intentional to drum up more support for cody to bring attention away from vince and to get more eyes on rustlemania 40 i don't know if it was intentional but it's damn sure working out that way isn't i i see that's i i i'm i'm i'm leaning that way I don't think this is as surprising to some people in WWE as it is to all of us, including probably Cody.

I'm not so sure that this wasn't a version of this. By the way, I've seen a lot of people saying, oh, the Rock is too old. That's malarkey. The Rock is a world-class athlete. He's in phenomenal shape. I want to remind everybody. Stings more than a decade older than him and having his last match in March. I don't think there's an issue with the Rock not being able to get his working boots on.

I think we're going to be fine there. Amanda has a great question I wanted to ask you about, because this is something that a lot of people are discussing. Cody has talked about finishing the story, and I know that he's on the cover of the game that's about 40 years of WrestleMania, but Amanda wants to know if you were in charge and saw fans rejecting the Rock like they are online currently, where would you go from here? Would you still want Cody to finish his story?

against Roman or a different PLE other than WrestleMania. I guess that's my question, Eric. Does it have to be WrestleMania in your opinion for Cody to finish the story? Could it be SummerSlam? Could it be payback? Could it be money in the bank. Could it be Survivor Series. Could be all of the above. Could be next year, WrestleMania 41. Could be a million different things. If it was me and my decision, it was the only one in the room and I had a gun to the back of my head and I had to make a choice, I would

find a way to do it this WrestleMania take advantage of the fact that I've got two nights and a lot of options, some great talent. I would also recognize that Rock doesn't need a title. Oh. Absolutely doesn't need it. So do I see Rock beating Roe? First of all, do I see Rock losing to Rowan? Plays the long game.

What does that mean? It means you're there to get other people. Well, that's the thing. like once upon a time when when rock was not a board member and not a major stockholder and he was just you know he's in between shows and he's got some availability between shooting his blockbuster movies okay he can come through but he's going to get paid pretty handsomely to do that now he's building value in a company that he's on the board for and he's got a bunch of shares with and it totally changes the dynamic and it's going

to be a huge net positive but allegedly then pivoting has upset the locker room. Do you think any of that matters, you know, if you lose some, because I've heard that there was so much faith and confidence in this company backstage and that it was the most harmonious

and family-like locker room. Like we heard that from CM Punk, who would know the difference, I suppose. Do you think all of this, is it a one-two punch, the Vince information, the Johnny,

Laurenitis information, and now Cody potentially being out of the main event? I think if that's a morale issue, that God, that's another reason to pivot, I think. I don't think you'd pivot for morale. You're going to pivot for business. Oh, always. And yes, morale is, I guess, important to business in a long run. But I don't think anybody should or is reacting.

Some people are going to be affected emotionally. I'm sure Cody is very emotional about this situation. unless he's aware of something that none of us are. But if talent, I can see talent being frustrated and frustrated leading to a dis-ease, not a disease, like in sickness, but leading talent to be ill at ease and uncomfortable and disappointed. People don't, look, human nature,

I've been talking a lot about human nature. nature doesn't like change right like if you get up every day of your life and out of habit because you're right handed you put your left sock on first and you put your right sock on you've been doing that since you were old enough to put on a sock and then all of a sudden government comes in because government likes to control everything right and say from now on you cannot put your left sock on first it is mandatory that you put your right sock on before your left side people would revolt they'd be upset right it impeach whoever came up with that nonsense because people don't like change and all of this going on the man stuff the hacks

publicity the fact that everybody's walking around and would rather not talk about the fact that they work for wwe when they sit down on a plane because you know right now is not something you really want to talk about or you're not really that proud of it for right now for this moment I'm not saying everybody but that would be human nature too all that's going to change WrestleMania is over things finally at least for a moment start to settle down a little bit you know how things played themselves out at WrestleMania the night before two nights people, whatever, once it's all over, that those people who are ill at ease and I'm comfortable with the change and or disappointed and frustrated, all that'll go.

It's temporary. I want to mention, too, I think this is important. I mean, as long as I can remember watching wrestling, Eric, whenever you bring in a big star, a legend, a hall of famer, essentially a part-timer, someone who's not going to be here in the future, even back in the territory days, you always make sure. you put over the guy who's going to be here, who's going to be carrying the tour. So it almost feels like if Rock's going to give the rub to anybody,

it should be Cody who's working in live events and such. And it's been pointed out that, you know, Rock didn't talk at SmackDown. Not like he said, I'm coming for the title. Yeah, that's the kind of thinking I like. Here's what I wanted to ask you, because I made this point on social media over the weekend. The bloodline story is about the head of the family.

The bloodline story is about that family. It's about the tribal chief. It's about the head of the table. Like even a month ago, when Rock just popped by and beat up Gender Mahal and cut that promo and said the Rock's going to go get some dinner, should he sit at the bar, should he sit in a booth,

or should he sit at the head of the table? He didn't say anything about the title. Cody's stories about the title, not the bloodline. Do you think, hypothetically, that... The title is important to the Rock Roman story at all? Nope.

I don't either. Not a bit. Which makes me think. This is another reason. My glass, even though my jar is almost empty, the eyes of most people, this mucker father's still half full to me for reasons like that. I can't wait to see what happens. I want to remind everybody they already have announced the May pay-per-view.

It's an international PLE. it's in France and it's going down on May 4th meanwhile money in the bank another international pay per view this time in Toronto a huge market that one's going down in July

we don't exactly know where SummerSlam is but we know it's going to be a big event and it makes me wonder if you take a look at Rocks IMDB he's got a lot of stuff in pre-production and post-production but he might have some time and now new motivation since he's on the board and this new found

because let's be clear when you allocate $500 million to TKO it's up to TKO how and where they spend that for Netflix it'll be interesting to see how much more we get of the rock I'm not convinced

he's just there at WrestleMania nor am I nor am I especially since he has $30 million worth of stock right what would you do do, Conrad? What would I do? If I had the ability by Brock, I had the ability to have a

positive impact on revenues and stock. Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah. Well, let's mention, we said it earlier, you know, we saw this backlash about the Cody Rock circumstance be covered by Barstool and even made TMZ. And as a reminder, WrestleMania coming up is in Philadelphia. Rock has been in the ring with Roman reigns once before in Philadelphia after a Royal Rumble. It did not go well. I just don't think they want to recreate that. Like the idea that you could, I mean, the crowd was booing so hard that night because

they wanted, imagine this, Daniel Bryan. It feels like history is repeating itself here, but this time without Vince McMahon with a guy who gets wrestling and Hunter and another guy who gets wrestling. wrestling and Brian and a guy who gets business and Nick Kine and the Rock, I think they got a pivot. I think they'll figure it out. But it makes me want to ask you, because you were the guy who's famous for the Starcade moment.

John Wheeler had a great question. He says, was there ever a decision that was influenced by outside people where no matter how hard you fought it, it didn't matter? No. Okay. Ever. We want to do something a little. different here to close the show. We have requested video questions. And if you would

like to ask Eric a question for next week's show, you can do it over on Twitter. It's at 83 weeks. We've got a question coming to you right now, though. This one is from our man, Coach Rosie. Good afternoon, Eric and Conrad. This is Josh from beautiful Phoenix, Arizona. With the recent fan uprising about Cody losing the opportunity to finish his story, how might this possibly impact business from WWE and do you think possibly fans might revolt

and we might have another Daniel Bryant movement like we had a couple years ago so I think affecting the moment the business is important because from a live event standpoint like I think the numbers have been released Cody sold the most merch last year

in 2023 of anyone in wrestling he led 2023 and I know punk absolutely obliterated December. But the other 11 months, Cody was the top dog on the year. And he's making all the house shows and all the appearances and and and. And it does feel like if he cut off at the knees here, that might not be what's best for business. What do you think of Coach Rosie's question there? I think it's a great question. And we've kind of covered the answer here at a couple different times throughout this episode. But I do I think if, look, if they cut Cody off

completely at the knees, put them off till some other premium live event, I do think you're going to get some, you're going to disappoint the fans. And that was my point when talking about the relationship or the connection between what I went through at Starcate, Sting, and Hogan, and what we see today. Circumstances completely different in many respects. But at the core of it, the thing that's similar is you don't want to piss off your fans. Now, I will also add, unfortunately because I'm contradicting myself here. But if you go back and look at the data for all of you data geeks out there or want to be data geeks, even after the disappointing finish between Hogan and Sting and Sarka,

what happened to our television revenues? Or what, when I say television, what happened to our ratings? What happened to our television buy rates for pay-per-views? They remained high, continued to create records. So the effect of disappointing the audience was not felt immediately. In fact, we continued to grow early in 98 post that event. But it was something that tipped the fans, tilted the fans a little bit into that disappointment category, which made you vulnerable.

And unless you do everything right, which I didn't afterwards, then you can start hemorrhaging fans and hemorrhaging revenue. So I think it is important. I think it could affect business if they make the wrong choices and decisions, but I don't think that's going to be. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. I know there's lots of theories out there. We got one from our live chat, one of our fans over on ad-free shows I want to hit here. Michael wants to know, what do you think of the angle using this snub of Cody, where Cody accuses Triple H of taking away his opportunity at mania,

because Triple H is pissed about the AEW Throne incident. I just don't see them referencing AEW on WTV at all. Do you? There's no chance. That is such not to be critical of the question. I appreciate every single question. That is a, I'm trying to think of the best way to say this.

It's a very small. It's unrealistic. yeah yeah very small thinking let's do one more video question then we'll wrap it up by the way if you want to ask eric a video question you can appear on the show it's easy just tweet us at 83 make you famous absolutely let's do it hey eric alex here from spain i have a question for you so i have this idea or or i read this on twitter or in facebook some fans said that they have they have an idea for Roman versus Cody to happen. So that idea was like Roman and the Rack had a contract signing and Roman Rains signs the contract and Rack was going to sign the contract and it says,

Roman, the Rack says, do you, didn't you read the contract? Did you? And the Rack shows the paper that says Cody versus Roman Rains and Rassumania 40 with the Rack as the specialist referee without no bloodline interference and et cetera. And that will be the ultimate swerve of all swerps. What do you think about that, Eric? Thank you and God bless you. Wow. Thank you for the question.

Look, I think it's another option. And that's what we were talking about earlier. There's so many ways that everybody can go home happy. Everybody that wanted Cody to come out. on top and finish the story can be happy. Everybody that wanted to see Rock and Roman, there is a way to make them happy. There is so many different options available and on the table right now

and enough time to execute them. Look, if this would have been two weeks before, WrestleMania, I would be much less optimistic because there's just not time to reconfigure or rebuild a story, retool a story. too much, but Kail, eight weeks? Are you kidding me? There's a lot of time, a lot of options. So I, that's one option of many. Well, it's always an option to join us over at ad-free shows.com. We're having a lot of fun.

You get to be a part of our live studio audience. You get the shows early in ad-free, not just this show, but all of my podcasts. And in addition to that, a bunch of other bonus content. You can't get anywhere else. I bought Monday Mailback where you get to pick the brain of the third guy in the ring whether it's Nick Patrick in WCW or Mike Keota

they both have shows that are exclusive to ad-free shows.com not just them but Kevin Sullivan Tuesdays with the taskmaster you could pick his brain each and every week he was the genius behind some of the heat that we saw on the Nitro era and you can pick his brain right now

at ad-free shows.com What about Lex Express? Lex will be sitting down with me right after Elimination Chamber the very same day we're going to be talking about the fallout from that and everything else. And how about one of my favorite series? You want to talk about nostalgia? What about the book?

Yeah, that's right, The Book. We go through Jim Crockett's Red Books, episodically day by day, week by week, show by show, breaking down matches and gates, and what was going on behind the scenes. And we do it with a member of wrestling royalty, David Crockett, from the genius booking mind of Dusty Roads and the excellent penmanship of J.J. Dillon,

you don't want to miss it. We also have all of our starcast panels and tons of other great products and series that we've cranked out over the years like making the town and so many others. Not just that, but you get interactive bonus episodes. You want to come on the show and ask Eric or question or J.R. or Tony Chivani or any of our hosts,

they're all on ad-free shows.com. And we've got at this point, believe it or not, four years of archives, it's more than you can possibly consume at ad-free shows.com. By the way, if your business targets me in 25 to 54 years old, there's no better place to advertise than right here on 83 weeks. You've heard us do some of the same ads for the same companies week after week, year after year.

Why is that? Because it really works. Find out how affordable it is at advertise witheric.com. And I want to mention in my real life I'm helping people save money and I would love to help save you some money. Let's throw a couple of house payments over the top rope at save with conrad.com. I'm talking to you if you've got credit card debt. If you've got a second mortgage, if you've got a car loan, what do you do?

all of a sudden interest rates are better than they've been in a long time. They've dropped by more than a point since November. This could be the second chance you've been looking for. And if you take a look at your credit card, man, what are you paying? 28, 31%. Don't feel stuck making your minimum payment. Not only is the rate much higher, it's also not tax deductible. Meanwhile, you can get a lower payment and a greater tax deduction.

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Give us a shout. Let us pick your brain. Call us toll free at 888425-0105. send me an email directly at Conrad at savewithconrad.com. Or better yet, just get a quick quote, even talk to a live person at savewithconrad.com. It's also important that you check out all of our new merch, including the brand new we want Cody shirt. I'm an Eric Bischoff guy, Cody is the guy, and so much more.

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If you'd like to ask Eric a question and your video appear here on the show, Just tweeted to him. It's at 83 weeks. You can find us that way on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Eric, I never know what to expect when we sit down and click record. We went all around the horn today. We talked about AEW. We talked about the big announcements.

We talked about free agency. We talked about WWE creative. We talked about the board. We talked about the Vince McMahon lawsuit. We talked about Johnny Ace. We talked about the feds. Goodness gracious, this was an action-packed episode today. It was indeed.

I love what you're talking about as far as going live on YouTube. if there's breaking news. I love that kind of thing. So I am here for it 24-7. So if you haven't already, check it out. 83 weeks on YouTube.com, hit the subscribe button and turn on the notifications bell. About half of you who watch our YouTube videos actually subscribe. If you'll hit subscribe, it really helps us out.

It costs you absolutely nothing. And if you hit that notification bell, who knows? You could ask Eric a question live here on this. the show. Erica, I have a feeling that next week we're going to be talking about Tony Con's announcement. We're going to talk about Monday Night Raw. We're going to be talking about smack now. We're going to be talking about that press conference coming up. And if I had to guess, there might be even more Vince McMahon news. I mean, it just feels like we can't escape it. So don't you dare go anywhere. We'll see you next week right here on 83 weeks unless something

crazy happens. And then you can find us live at 83 weeks on YouTube.com. And we'll see you next week right here. Same bat time, same bat channel. 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, here to tell you a little more about what ad-free shows.com is all about. Get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts every single week, starting at just nine bucks.

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