83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 311: Elimination Chamber Reaction

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

On this episode of 83Weeks, Eric and Conrad discuss Elimination Chamber from Perth, Australia! The guys break down the good, bad and too some disappointing event and what it means for future PLE's in new parts of the world. Eric also shares his thoughts and viewpoints on all the latest news and happenings in the world of professional wrestling. BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code 83WEEKS at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com/ , promo code 83WEEKS to receive your first month FREE MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at https://www.manscaped.com/ .  FANATICS - When you - or someone you know - is shopping for the latest WWE gear, you can support 83 Weeks too simply by using our dedicated link! https://wwe-shop.sjv.io/c/5036600/1371040/16449 STARRCAST - Be part of the very first international STARRCAST in Australia! Get tickets and information at https://www.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 https://nationsgo.com/conrad/ 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 https://www.podcastheat.com/advertise 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 https://www.patreon.com/adfreeshows. 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, fish off, Eric. What's going on, man? How are you? Well, I'm good. I'm doing really good, but I just saw my truck blow by the window here. I'm in my house because we've got 60 to 80 mile an hour winds here in Wyoming, which is what screwed up our recording this morning, our attempt to record this morning.

So I'm in the house, hopefully the house will stay at its foundation, at least long enough to get this show done. Well, we appreciate you braving through. I know that you did a little bit of world traveling this past weekend, and I appreciate you waking up at the crack of dawn this morning, literally 3 a.m. to trek home and time to record. And then the weather had other plans. So take two, and we are back at it today. Sorry for the delay, but we wanted to be as fresh as we could. we didn't want to put one in the can ahead of elimination chamber.

Because I honestly felt like we're going to have more of an idea of what WrestleMania looks like on the other side of the elimination chamber. So before we talk about what's to come with Sting and everything else that's happening in wrestling, I do want to talk a little bit about elimination chamber. We know now for sure that we have a opponent for Seth Rowland's world title. It's going to be Drew McIntine. and Seth Rollins at WrestleMania or I guess

the WWE Big Gold Belt if you will and it certainly feels as if we've set up A.J. Stiles and L.A. Knight and we've set up Randy Orton Logan Paul. We also know now for sure that it's going to be Ria Ripley and Becky

Lynch. I got to tell you I was kind of half-ass expecting the rock to do something with Cody and Seth. It didn't happen. What did you think of Elimination Chamber and the way this WrestleMania card has started to take shape now. I love

the direction it's going in some of the matchups that we have here, particularly after watching Elimination Chamber. I watch it in Detroit in my hotel room at whatever time that was 6 o'clock in the morning or 4.30, whatever it was, I was up doing it. And I very much

enjoyed the show. I guess I expected a little bit more, maybe because there's been so much buzz and so much chatter. and rock showing up and finish the story, this, a drama. It just felt like there was something bigger that was going to happen at Elimination Chamber.

But I don't think the fact that I think the show was a great show. I thoroughly enjoyed it. There wasn't really probably only 15 minutes in total throughout the whole show where I got a little bored with what I was watching. It was an entertaining show, but it just didn't have that big moment

that I guess I was expecting for some people. I even wonder, do you think perhaps we didn't get that big moment because it was an international pay-per-view? I mean, that thing started here in Alabama at four in the morning. So I know it was an awfully early star, and there was a lot of talk online that, hey, the Rock's never going to wrestle over there because of the time difference.

And I understand there's always been a bias towards American time zones when it comes to presenting these products, Certainly going back to say SummerSlam 92, they did that show on a tape delay because they didn't feel like people would fork over their hard earned cash at an odd time of day. Do you think the time of day and the time difference between Australia and America perhaps affected that at all or no? I'm just guessing. I don't think it would be that. If I had to guess, I would guess if there was a conflict in scheduling. I mean, just going to, you know, you and I both are going to be heading through Australia.

pretty soon and that's by the time you get there and recover you're talking about a two and a half day trip maybe a little longer if you've got to get there or recuperate a little bit let your body catch up to the time zone and be ready to get into the ring or perform at whatever level so i i would imagine there just might have been a scheduling conflict that didn't make that possible rock's got a lot going on recently uh he's got a lot going on recently he was not at elimination chamber though, and we actually got some questions from some of our listeners, I want to go ahead to ask you here. Francis Reyes wants to know, what did you think of the look and feel of the venue? I mean, it was a stadium show in Australia. What did you think of that presentation, man?

Wow. I'll be honest, when it opened up, you know, with the women's tag, because it was still daylight, you know, big stadium shows just don't have the same vibe when it's light outside, right? I agree. And it's, I mean, you can see the people, you know, the size of it. You get a real sense of scale, you know, when it's light outside. And that's awesome. Look at that shot there. It's just fantastic.

If you're not watching along on YouTube with this or on every beautiful shot of the crowd all the way up to the rafters. But man, once it started getting dark and those lights came up, it was a completely different vibe. And it could have been just me. felt like the audience came to life once it get dark too. I've always sort of hated that about stadium shows. I mean, I love the spectacle of how big it is and the size and the enormity and all

that, but I'll never forget. And I'm sure we'll talk about this a little later. Like when Sting came out for his one and only WrestleMania match, it was daytime. And that's a dark character. And I just can't help but think how much cooler it would have looked had he been able to come out at night, but it wasn't to be. What was to be this weekend, though, Jim pointed this out.

There were NWO shirts everywhere in Australia. Does that still make you smile even a little bit, or does it make you say, damn it, I should have got some of that royalty. No, I've gotten over that a long time ago. It is what it is. Timing

is everything and sometimes it works out for you and sometimes it doesn't. And in this case, it didn't. But no, look, it puts a smile on my face. time I see it. You know, I have people that follow me on social media or maybe some that don't follow on social media, but they're kind of, you know, they'll post pictures of their children wearing an NWO shirt or their friends or wives or husbands or whatever. And I get a kick out of that. And it's still kind of relevant to this day. Kind of relevant. It's still in a top

10 of all WWE merchandise being sold. So I guess it's more than a little relevant. More than a little one that always cracks me up is I see it gets posted about once a year or maybe they're different ones every time I don't really know but there's like a glass cooktop that's black and they take this cooktop cleaner that sprays on white and they spray paint the cooktop cleaner NWO on there and they always put it to the theme song and every time I see it it makes me laugh like everything in life is wrestling it really is yeah we can we can we can do a we could do an entire six episode series on that subject. Let's talk about some of the matches.

We started off the actual show itself with a hot one. It was the elimination chamber match where the ladies tore it up. Becky Lynch is going to be our winner. She beats Tiffany Stratton, Naomi, Bianca Bel Air, Lyme, and Raquel Rodriguez, the man. I mean, she's had so many iconic WWE moments. Now it looks like she's got a collision course for a big opponent at WrestleMania. her and ria ripley is going to be fantastic last year we got ria rippley and charlotte it certainly feels

as if you know and i'm skipping ahead to the main event i suppose ria rippley got a superstar treatment and i can't wait to see what they do i mean we've got back to back sort of passing of the torch or so it feels right now of charlotte last year with ria and now this year with Becky with Ria. That's about as big time of match they could put Ria in, her and Becky Lynch. Would you agree? Yes, yes, and more yes.

And I'm looking forward to because I'm a Becky Lynch fan. I have been ever since, you know, probably about a year before I went back to WWE in 2019 because I talked about this before, but I just love the way she was shaping her character in social media. Not a lot of

wrestling talent really uses use social media as effectively as Becky was doing it. She doesn't do it as much anymore, which surprises me. But for a while there, in fact, I didn't even know who Becky Lynch was. You know, I wasn't watching WWE very often, occasionally drop in once in a while. On social media, I kept seeing these things that she was posting. And they intrigued me because they were character defining and interesting. And so I started following her.

And the more I followed her, the more impressed I was, the way she was marketing herself on social media. So then I sought her out on television. I made an appointment with myself to make sure I checked her out to see what it was all about and became a big fan of hers then. But Ria as well, oh my gosh, she is getting so over. What an inch. I'm going to be honest with you, Conrad, when I first was introduced to Ria, and it was a while

ago now, just I, you know, it's not that I said to myself, I don't think this woman's ever going to be a star, but I didn't think she would be either. You know, I was kind of neutral on it. I just didn't see the, I didn't see the character. And to see where she has come and how she's so she's so subtly powerful. And I'm not talking about her physique and what she does in the ring, because that speaks for itself. But her character, she just sneaks up on you. She's got such depth in her character. And every time there's a shot of her,

it kind of makes me think what's going on in her mind. You know, what's going on? You can see her wheels turning. And she's just such a great talent and getting better every time she gets out. And it was so fun too. I think part of the reason I enjoyed watching her so much. I know we're skipping around a little bit,

is I was trying to live vicariously through her. You know, you have a young woman who decides she wants to break into the professional wrestling business comes all the leaves Australia, comes to the United States. That's in and of itself a life-changing big move that not many people would have the confidence and the determination to do, especially to break into the wrestling business. But she did. And she's been grinding at it. You know, she didn't just show up.

up yesterday. This is not an overnight success story. But to see her get the kind of reaction that she got in Australia. And I was talking to one of our entry show members on Strictly Business, Barat. He covers cricket over in Australia. He lives in Adelaide. And he was talking about just how crazy Australia is over Ria. And to see her be able to come back home in such a magnificent stage in front of her family and I'm sure people that she grew up with I mean how do you not just feel that you know that it was I felt it felt really good for her like I said I was trying to live vicariously through her because what a magic moment she had there how about this Eric 27 years old that's freaky to be that good at 27 years old she in my opinion

is the future of the women's division and if that really is the way life is going to be and it certainly feels that way they going back to back with Charlotte last year and Becky this year is a big doggone deal it will certainly cement her standing amongst the all-time greats I mean I think her and Charlotte had one of the best women's matches in WW history last year at WrestleMania and that is going to be a high bar for them but I was thrilled it felt like a SummerSlam 92 violation to me for her to be in the main event. And I was really proud of Nia Jax, too.

You know, I don't think Nia Jax gets her flowers. I know online there's a lot of haters and a lot of critics and a lot of people who were and a lot of mean and nasty things about Nia Jax. But boy, she had her working boots on. I thought she more than held her own. I think that's her first singles main event on pay-per-view. I couldn't be happier for both of those folks. And by the way, they had a viral moment or two.

I was at breakfast this morning with a friend of, of mine, who's not a wrestling fan, but he knows that I follow and keep up and do the pods and all that. And he said, hey man, who were those girls I kept seeing over and over and over on Twitter? It was, it was Ria Ripley and Nia Jacks. I mean, this thing had a lot of buzz. And I'm with you. I think, you know, we're gushing about Ria, because she deserves it and we're also happy

for her and we're watching her progress. But Naya did an amazing job. Ria looked as good as she did in a large part, or at least. At least half of it was because of what Naya did for her and with her. I thought Nail looked sharp. She looked like she absolutely belonged in that main event. I love the presentation of that match. These are two powerful women.

They're not out there, you know, flashing and dancing. They're out there just banging and getting it done and big power moves and dramatic impact. I loved it. And hats off to Nia, too. It's easy to talk about the winner sometimes, but I think Naya did a great job and probably put a lot of critics on notice that maybe they need to be a little careful. Even Brian Alvarez, who you and I rarely agree with, said, this is probably Naya's best match, which is why I disagree with Joe Hickman, 624, he actually had some feedback about this. He tweeted at us, the main event was a tough watch.

Naya just don't gel well with nobody. I totally disagree. I think she does the, you know, they used to do Dave and Goliath matches. Well, I guess that's what this is. Just the ladies version.

I really dug it. I thought it was good. You know, and it's like, you know, the woman's tag that I watched, the opener, who's the Kabuki Warriors.

Yes. I mean, that's fun. It was very fast pace. It was colorful. It was a spectacle in its own way. And if you, I don't particularly,

care for that presentation doesn't mean there's not a lot of other people to do probably especially the younger demo that are watching it because it is kind of like a human video game right and it's it's cool it's not my kind of cool but i can see that it's value that particular match but you then you get a contrast a contrasting match like ria and naya that's a different kind of a match but if you're expecting that flashy fast-paced match out of two big powerful women that have a more of a power presentation than an acrobatic presentation. That you might be disappointed. But I thought the timing was great.

I didn't see any timing issues. It was all believable. Some of are really believable. Whatever. I guess to each his own, right? To each his own. Well said. By the way,

I apologize. Brian Alvarez did not write a recap for the wrestling observer. That was Brian Rose. Let's talk about the women's elimination chamberman. match before we move on. I got to get your take on Becky Lynch's gear. It was clearly inspired by some iconic Scott Hall gear. Did you recognize that right away as soon as you saw it?

Not as soon as I saw it. It took me a few. It took me a few. But I did. Obviously, it put a smile on my face. How could you not pull for Becky Lynch? I mean, what a cool wrestling family that's become now. I mean, we don't talk about this sort of stuff all the time, but.

I mean, it's a mom and the dad who were both at the top of their field in the same company traveling around on a bus with their kid. And super wrestling fans to the point that we're wearing Scott Hall inspired gear. I mean, it endeared me to Becky Lynch even more. But the person who I thought stood out the most in that match. And I think everybody on our YouTube poll over at 83weeks.com, we had our folks over at our YouTube, say, hey, what was the favorite moment you had of the show? And it was Tiffany Stratton Swanton off the pod.

Yeah. It won with 37%. I saw her about a year ago, I think, maybe a little longer on NXT. And I don't know why, but my wife and I both saw it at the same time. And she said before I could, hey, she's going to be a big star. And I've talked to ladies who were on the main roster. And they all kind of think the same thing. it does feel like where once upon a time we had this crop of ladies go to the main roster

in Sasha and Bailey and Charlotte and Becky it feels like man I know they're coming in waves but Ria Ripley and Tiffany Stratton boy that might be the future of WWU women's wrestling what'd you think of Tiffany in her presentation very excited for her and I can see why everybody reacted the way they did to her because she really put on a hell of a show what is she like 20 24 born in 1999 Eric oh my gosh but she's one of your people prior lake Minnesota so she's a Minnesota girl done good here really I used to live in prior lake how about that that's where we live that's where mrs. B and the kids and I lived right before well we lived there then we moved to Atlanta well how about that I uh I love Tiffany's

presentation I think she it's clear she's going to be a big star as long as she can stay healthy, dude, the sky's the limit for her and Rio Ripley. Like, you got to assume in a couple of years, that's going to be a WrestleMania main event right there. Boy, that NXT is paying off, isn't it? You know, that's what's funny. I'm glad you say that because every now and again, I'll talk to somebody who says, boy, what a waste of money that was.

And I'm like, no. Really? I don't know if it's that true. I mean, I even saw some comments. I guess Dominic did an interview where he said, and I don't have this down Pat, but I think the gist of it is, he went back to the NXT, to the Performance Center to work on just getting more consistent. This is once he's already on the main roster.

So to have a place like that in your back pocket, whether it's somebody coming back like the rock who wants to work off some ring rust, somebody like John Sina who just lives up the road and wants to come hang out and pass it on and let people sit under his learning tree, so to speak, or just a guy like Dominic who says, hey, I'm, I got a lot of heat, but maybe I could be a little better once the bell rang. I think I'm going to go work down there at the PC. That thing's paying dividends. Huge dividends.

And if you think about it, I don't know what the financials are for NXT, but I mean, they're, you know, they've got a television show out of the deal. I'm sure from a financial perspective, it's making money for them. Yes. But I think the real value is in the talent they're turning out. You know, you just, you look at the talent that's come through NXT and made it to the main roster and the kind of money that they're generating on the main roster. I don't know how you keep building new and fresh talent, especially that are ready for prime time. Brom Breaker, you know, see on the big show here.

You know, I mean, it's, you get one or two superstars out of that NXT. initiative and it's paid for itself and they seem to be cranking out a lot of potentially really big stars how about this eric tiffany stratton went to one of those open tryouts in the summer of 2021 so here we are a couple of years later she's 21 years old when she did that yeah wow i mean it's so impressive to me what she's been able to do so quickly and i do think what you said it's proof positive that man it can help fast track some success uh i got a lot of mixed feedback about this online we saw over on youtube and things like that like a fellow named frank says hey eric the ending of the women's chamber i thought was weak is there another way you

would have looked at i did see some some criticism of that i mean i think we all didn't say we all i wanted to see becky progress but what did you think of the ending I was entertained by it. Okay. It was fast. The pace of the match, the finish came quickly. You know, usually it seems to me that, especially on big shows, you know, the PLEs,

the finishes almost have an arc their own. You know, it's almost like a three-act plate, just the finish. You can see it coming just when you think you know what's going to happen. Ah, it's not going that way. It's going a different way. WWE has always done a great job with finishes consistently. But I thought the finish fit the match, if that makes sense. Yes.

I like finishes that sometimes feel like they come from out of nowhere and develop quickly because it feels real, especially when you're used to seeing kind of a three-dimensional or three-act finish. Sometimes it's nice when they just come at you. fast like that fast and hard it's believable i i didn't overthink it you know when i watch these things um it's like am i entertained that's the first question was it fun to watch yes was i impressed with the physicality did it make sense was it telling a story yeah sure did does it lead us to something or is it just a match for the sake of a match right clearly

one is leading us somewhere. So for my criteria, I love the hell out of it. I guess if you wanted to analyze for the sake of analyzing and perhaps debate, you could probably argue it, but I wouldn't see any purpose in it.

Let's talk a little bit about the reaction here that Keep it Wolfson said. If that swan ton happened in AEW, talking about you, Eric, you'd be talking about how unsafe it was. I don't know about that. When was the last, who was that, who wrote that?

What was that guy's name? Keep it Wolfson. Keep it Wolfson. When was the last time you've ever heard me comment about safety issues in AEW or anywhere else? If you can find that, if you could find a recording and send it to me, I'll send you an apology, handwritten in a box of chocolates. however you will not be able to find that i do not have to go out and buy chocolates unlike the bets that i've made recently and lost air over i'm a hundred percent confident when i say to you you're not going to find it because i don't comment on things like that i very rarely comment on

in ringing action period because i don't feel like i'm an expert in that area i'm not a wrestler i've never trained anybody to be a wrestler i don't really have any experience as a performer in that regard. So I'm very, very reluctant, particularly when it comes to things that are safe and unsafe. I will point out things I like and don't like or believe or don't believe or allow me to appreciate what I'm watching. But safety will not be one of those issues. So you can apologize on the next episode, unless, of course, you find tape. And I'd love to hear it. Let's talk about the next match here. We had the undisputed tag team titles, Damien Priest and Finn Baller taking on the New Catch Republic, which is Pete Dunn and Tyler Bate.

New Catch Republic hit a burning hammer on Priest, but he kicks out. NCR goes for a double team move off the top rope, but Baller grabs Priest's foot, preventing him from falling to the ground. And then Priest chokeslams both men off the top rope, then tags in Baller, who hit the kudagra on Dunn for the win. It was a super fun match and a lot of big highlights. I think this checked all the boxes for a big stadium show. what did you think i thought it was great action out of everybody it was a really great combination

in there four guys really working their butts off and in a great at what they do um the one takeaway was just be really appreciating damien priest a little more than i have yeah uh because i was watching him more closely than i have in the past certainly was aware of him and and all that but watching him in this in this match made me really appreciate him more he's got a great sense of timing he doesn't rush he's he's very deliberate and uh he's got a great look stays in character well doesn't rush anything i i i i and he's very fluid and he's a powerful dude i enjoyed watching i um i enjoyed the match too and it makes me wonder what's next for judgment day You got to think it's, it's, uh, DIY.

I mean, we'll see, but I'd be game for that. Let's talk about the, uh, Grayson Waller effect. We had Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins out here, uh, you know, obviously had a big time feel because people know what's coming and boy Cody was, uh, beloved over there for sure. That's announcing that he's going to be cleared and good to go, just any day now. And then, of course, we got a little comeuppance. What did you think of the second? I only had one note.

Awkward. Yeah. It's just, eh. And no, there was nothing wrong with it. And I guess if I had to pick it apart and give examples of why I felt it was awkward and it was just a feeling. There was nothing wrong with it. It got business done.

There were boxes that needed to be checked. I get it. And it was entertaining. But I'm not sure I wanted to be entertained as much as I wanted information. And it may have just been me because, again, I got up really early to watch it. And now, you know how I am in the morning, Conrad, when we try to record super early. I'm a little foggy unless I'm caffeined up and had my jar of cratim. and to me, I almost felt at one point that Cody was going to give us an explanation

as to why he presumably, momentarily, I guess, gave up his spot to rock. He touched on it. It was my understanding, maybe just because I wanted him to, I was hoping that was going to happen, led me right up to it and then shifted gears and like it never happened. So that confused me more than anything. Confused me in the sense is why I even go there. If you're not going to address it, if you're not going to take it forward

so that it makes more sense and plays into the larger story, then don't bring it up. The rock impersonation, I thought, was funny. That was the entertaining part, right? Very entertaining. I don't know that that segment needed that. I kind of think Seth provided quite a bit of entertainment. I just don't know if that was necessary.

I'm not sure to add it anything. So between just feeling like it was, there was just too much stuff going on that wasn't necessary and the fact that I didn't really get any clear picture as to what's going on behind the scenes, I just thought it was awkward. I wonder if he stopped just short as a way to throw us off. make us continue to ask those questions because if you recall when the rock did come back

he whispered something in cody's ear and maybe that will be revealed later now what he actually said and what we're going to say he said of course are two different things but it does feel like you know when if you sort of did all your tinfoil hat piecing together of what we saw with the rock and the bloodline a few weeks ago it makes you think okay if that's still. But we stopped just short of that. We do know that Cody challenged the rock and said, hey, man, I'm available until WrestleMania. I'm open, ready for the fight anytime, anywhere. Of course, he does that responding to the slap. And then Seth and Cody hit all the finishes on poor Austin Theory. Let's talk about Austin Theory for a minute. Under Vince McMahon's regime, it felt like,

boy, they had the rocket ship strapped to him. I mean, that dude beat John Cena at WrestleMania last year. and then it felt like, as Arne Anderson might say, they cut his water off. He's super, super young. But what would you do with an Austin theory? I don't know. I don't have to get to know. You know, when I'm asked questions like that,

a big part of what works best or what possibly could work best for talent is really understanding them, their motivations, their strengths, their weaknesses, is what they're into, what motivates them, you know, the types of movies they watch, the types of characters they really look up to and their own abilities. And until I really get a sense for that, it's really hard to be just to look at talent that I don't know and say, well, if it was me, I would do this.

I think he's pushing it a little hard. And maybe that's a whole, that could probably go back to the very beginning because it did feel like they were, you know, strapping a rocket ship to him. and he was going to get pushed super hard. And sometimes that works against you. The wrestling audience, at least the audience that I remember, and I think it's probably still true, you have to earn their respect.

Yeah. And you can't shortcut that. All the pushes in the world won't overcome a lack of respect from the audience. And that respect just comes with time and consistency so I don't know what would I do with him I'd probably take him off the air

until I figured out what I really wanted to do with him even if it took a couple months of character work and exploration and trying different things and bring him back because I feel like he's still

the audience is still kind of resisting him just a little bit he's talented dude he's got a great look he's a great shape can't comment on his wrestling ability. I haven't seen him wrestle all that much, but he seems like a great character, but he's just not quite hitting on all eight cylinders. Just a reminder, 26 years

old. Got all the time in the world. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Company man punk says, love the show, but I got to ask how Eric justifies thinking that Cody's story is better than having the rock finish the bloodline story, which has been the best story in WWE over the last few years. storytelling goes I disagree wholeheartedly and think we've been robbed of a massive WrestleMania Matt well let's see what happens after WrestleMania to see if you feel the same way well I mean here's the thing the Rock's on the board this is not WWE and Duane Johnson from a year ago or even six months ago like he has a major financial interest in this thing growing and growing and growing and oh by the way the

guy who's running the place also reps him on his Hollywood business, so it feels like we're going to have us a lot more Rock in the future. I say that to say. Most people believe the Rock is still wrestling at WrestleMania, Eric, but probably in a tag match, Rock and Roman in a tag against Seth and Cody. And maybe we see something else from the Rock on night two. I don't know. But that certainly feels as if this is chapter one of a lot of more to come that rock and roman match is going to happen maybe just not in two months right yeah and i and it's it's not so much that i think one matt the cody uh roman match is bigger than rock versus roman not putting that kind of evaluation on it in my own mind i think the reason

that i'm resistant to the idea of just putting cody's storyline on whole hold because we rush rock to the scene and didn't really think through the process, it would have been too much too soon. If that bloodline storyline with the rock had been, if the foundation for that story or the beads in that story would have been happening for the last three, four, or five months, I'd be with you on that. Might have a different opinion altogether, but that wasn't the case. It was a rush to story.

It was an angle. It really was. It wasn't a storyline. It wasn't a typical act one. It was an angle to start a story. And I just think it would have been rushed. I think putting Cody's story off to the side, a story that's been told for a year now,

a little over a year. It's a timing issue. It's not a quantitative issue. It's a timing issue. Yeah, I agree with that. It's timing. It feels like that's coming for sure. The next match was the one that everybody who visited us over at 83 weeks.

dot com, our YouTube channel. They said this was the best match of the night, the one they were looking forward to the most. 52%. So it was the majority enjoyed. Drew McIntyre beating Logan Paul, Randy Orton, Bobby Lashley,

L.A. Knight, and Kevin Owens. Randy Orton was selling his back. He and McIntyre started exchanging some blows. Paul's going to recover. Orton's fighting back. McIntyre interrupts. and Orton fight Paul they go to the top of the pod launches himself off with a cross body here come the brass knuckles big teas and uh there you go RKO I to nowhere

putting him out of the match McIntyre and Orton are the final two but what do you know that damn Logan Paul gets up uses the brass knuckles McIntyre covers Orton for the win McIntyre steals it you and I called this McI feels like he's the one with the momentum right now. I'm excited to see McIntyre and Seth Rollins. If Seth is really hurt and he does wind up pulling double duty, he has earned a rest after WrestleMania. And I would be totally cool with Drew McIntyre carrying the load with the big gold belt.

Are you pumped to see Drew and Seth at WrestleMania? What do you think? I am. I am and I've gained a lot more respect for Seth over the last year or so. not like his character is just a little over the top for me you know I like things that are a little more believable for me personally I get that this is entertainment and we're selling merchandise and larger-than-life characters

I get all that but Seth's got some range I mean he's got range as a character he can be serious and then just be fucking ridiculous with those sunglasses he was wearing and I mean and his gimmick his attire is the stuff he wears to the ring goofy as hell but then he could be deadly serious and very effective I love his you know curb stomp is really visually it's very cool to watch it's fun to see it in this match but I'm with you man I dig I'm excited for Drew I was excited for him when he won on it during COVID, but it's not the same thing.

No, that's not. You're not the same thing at all, not even close. So I'm happy if he gets that opportunity, and he's earned it, man. He's worked hard for it. I love the little, at the end of Elimination Chamber, and they had that profile piece on Drew. I thought that was really, really well done. Way to get to know the character and all that a little differently.

but before we move on I know we will Randy Orton Randy Orton Randy Orton is amazing He is There is Hey and if you want to

Not you Conrad You never You never argue with me You just laugh at me But If anybody wants to argue As to whether or not if there is anybody better than Randy Orp at selling.

Now, I'm not talking about the back injury. That was obviously a work of art, right? He did that very, very well. But I'm talking about the way he sells throughout the entire match. Randy Orton puts on a master class of selling for your opponent every time he steps in a ring. This guy's amazing. he is as successful as he's been over what 20 some odd years he's been in ww ewee now yeah uh nine elimination chambers or something crazy like that i think i heard

somewhere um he's he's still getting better who sells better than randy orton who's got better timing in the ring than randy orton who can tell a story better Randy Orton can tell a story with a look better than most people could with a microphone in four minutes. He's so good. So good. I totally agree about all the high praise that Randy Orton gets. And of course,

they just did a fabulous thing on A&E for him on Sunday night. Go out of your way to check that out. JBL, Sina fan, too, says, Orton has won every title, been in all kinds of storylines and angles, heel and face. What do you do with some?

someone like him that hasn't been done over and over in the same company. Should he be in the mania main event discussion just based on his career? If it's all about money, because it is, I can't think of a better performer on the roster to bank on for a main event in many or any other pay-per-view. There are others who are equally as good, I guess. Some younger, some fresher. But holy smokes, if somebody said, look,

we've got to come up with a storyline for next WrestleMania, and we've got to we've got to cast it because that's what it is. It's casting. We need to create a story and cast it with talent that we think will move the needle financially. Let's make a list of all those people who we believe would be able to fill that role. And Randy's going to be there every conversation.

It really is. So, you know, but it isn't, you know, that is a challenge, right? What do you do and who do you do it with? It doesn't feel like, oh, my gosh, again. Randy's been off for a while. He's been out of sight, out of mind for a while. That makes it a little easier. But no doubt, it is a little bit.

tough when you've been around for 20-some-odd years and you're out there 52 weeks a year. If you had to bet, and I know you love making bets with me. Oh, yeah, I can't wait. I'm going to bet you. Yeah, great. If you had to bet, you think he and Logan Paul do some crazy RKO out of nowhere at WrestleMania if you had to get bet? I don't know.

I can't. Yeah, probably, because it looks like they're going to, you know, Logan Paul is, look, and I know there's a lot of people that aren't completely sold on Logan Paul. He's still the outsider. People, I think, generally respect, should respect if they don't, crazy. What he's been able to do, Logan Paul, since he's arrived in WWE, the fact that he's as good as he is is just ridiculous. It should be illegal for somebody just to walk into professional wrestling

and be able to perform at the level that he's performing. at it's not right it's not fair however he is and he's good and he's got a massive following so you're going to see him they're going to find a way to use him whether he's in a match that's being promoted or he's part of something else well see i hope though but how about that rk o i mean what a thing of beauty that was just shrew right by you like a plane like whoa that was so well done I love that. I did too. And you brought up Logan Paul.

I kind of assumed that this, that WrestleMania would be the coronation of L.A. Knight as a U.S. champ. I mean, you go back 20 years ago and John Cena beat the big show at WrestleMania to become U.S. champ.

And then a year later, he was winning the Rumble and winning the world title at WrestleMania. And a lot of people were ready for that for L.A. night. And I thought, okay, if we're not going with him and Seth right now, man, him and Logan Paul could really work.

We're going another way. It's going to be Logan Paul and Randy Orton, which makes me think, and again, I know that just, I guess I shouldn't say a handful of years ago, but after Roman had been in the world title picture, he was the U.S. champ, but it's just hard. And Nikki agrees with me. And Nikki agrees. Nicky's throwing the flag on that.

It's hard for me to imagine that L.A. night. or not L.A. 9, but Randy Orton is going to be the U.S. champ. I don't know. I just, I struggle with the idea that that Randy is going to win that match. It feels like a match that by nature, it's here to sort of make L.A. night.

It would be interesting to know how much longer Randy wants to wrestle. Do you think this is, maybe he's, maybe he's on his way up over an extended period of time, the next 12 or 18 months. Maybe he's in that role now. and comfortable with it where he's on board to get some other talent over. Who knows?

He can go as long as he wants to. That's for sure. We didn't touch on Kevin Owen though. Kevin Owen is fun to watch, isn't he? Dude, fantastic. Can't wait to see you. How much fun is he? By the way, he's a good dude.

I don't if you've ever met him. Super, super humble guy, family guy. Family guy. Really, really cool dude. But he's so much fun to watch. watch he's unbelievable to me you know he doesn't look like he was carved out of granite he looks like you know a real old school wrestler old school wrestler the guy to beat your ass in the bar yes you know just nothing pretty about it he's not going to do any deadlifts you're going to do a set

of benches before he beat your ass he's good about you know throw you through a wall he's fun to watch man i dig it when you started watching wrestling as a kid the a w a that is the the look, Kevin Owens is the look of a wrestler from the time. But then when the bell rings and Kevin Owen starts doing all of his crazy stuff, you're like, well, he don't look like Jake the Milkman or whatever the shit that guy's no, no, because he can fly his, his arsenal is really impressive for a big guy. And he's been doing it for a long time. At a high level.

At a high level. I don't know what his injury track record has been, but I don't recall. all him getting too injured too often. But he's so believable. He just, he gets into it so much that it's easy to just, as they say,

suspend your disbelief and just get into the match and into the story. Let's talk about some fan reaction. James Brown says, Drew winning was my favorite of the night. He helped carry the company in 2020 and then fell out of favor when things picked back up. With the last six months or so,

he's gotten interesting again. So let Drew have a real WrestleMania moment in front of a packed house. Hard to argue, I think he's saying the same thing we are. I'm a big fan of Drew and I'm excited to see him have his WrestleMania moment, so I'm hoping for it. We got a bunch of different questions about the show overall. Brendan Crabb says AEW now has TV in Australia and

WW's Perth show seems to have been a success. So should AEW look to capitalize on the local hype from elimination chamber and wrestling overall and booked their first Australian tour. That feels inevitable to me, Eric. You know, they waited so long before they did the UK and they did it in a big way. I think it would be pretty cool to see to see what they could do in Australia. Yeah, when Elbe and I were talking to Barat, who covers cricket over there in Australia. And, you know, Barack kind of explained that in Australia, because they shut down essentially for like three years,

because of COVID. I mean, there was nothing coming in, nothing coming out. Entertainment was shut down. Venues were shut down. And now, at least the impression I got in talking to Barat, the country is really kind of trying to restimulate interest in bringing, you know, tours over to Australia. Taylor Swift was just there, obviously.

The Perth, the state of wherever state Perth is, I can remember the name of the state. In Western Australia, that's being obviously subsidized to a, large degree by the government. So it seems like the government is really trying hard to attract entertainment. And I would imagine that this would be an ideal time, particularly with what AEW was able to accomplish over in the UK and that track record that gives you a hell of a hell of a talking point in a meeting, right? I would imagine that if I was AEW, I'd be looking at that pretty closely, pretty quickly, because the time is right.

we got a kick at two collectibles who says what are your thoughts on there being two chamber matches and two rumble matches every year does it take away from the specialness of each event i suggest they alternate a men's rumble in a women's chamber one year and then a women's rumble in a men's chamber the next year do you like there being a men's version and a women's version of the same thing or should they switch it up I don't like it. I don't know if switching it up as the answer necessarily, but I do feel like it overexposes the idea of the chamber. I agree. And the chamber loses its personality. The chamber is a character in the show. It just is.

It's just like the audience is a character. In this case, the gimmick is a character, the cage is a character. that was another thing I noticed too is that elimination chamber used to be now again I'm not a wrestler but what I was told by people who had to go in there and work is that it was brutal physically yes yes this the chamber when I watched the other day it just didn't have that sense of danger to it and there's something about that you know pale blue ring apron and the white ring ropes that just makes it feel awful sanitized to me. I don't know.

It just didn't feel dangerous. I know that it is. I'm not suggesting it's none. It didn't feel dangerous. It didn't feel like a character to me. So I think that's part of it. You know, they used to make a big deal out of the chamber.

You know, it's like the way they used to build up, you know, cage matches back in the day, taking a head of cabbage, back and forth, you kind of communicate, you know, how dangerous it is. is and what the stakes were.

I didn't get the feeling that the elimination chipper provided any stakes. It was just an unusual match. Some of it I really liked. I like the pods. You know, it was kind of goofy in a way to see, you know, Logan Pollinator drawing little pictures, you know, that's just goofy, but entertaining, and that's what this is. This is entertainment, folks. It's not a sporting event.

It is entertainment, and there's different ways of entertaining different people. so I get it. I love the lighting it. I love the fact that they had lights inside those pods so you could get a good look at the talent that was in there. Do you remember the movie Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger? That's what it reminds me. I don't remember the details of it.

I saw it, but I don't remember much. It was a game show, and they had all these sort of cartoon villains, like over the top. Here's a guy with a chainsaw. And I mean, there was all these sort of specialized villains.

And these contestants would have to get through their layer. And if you lose, you know, you die. But if you win, then you get your freedom because they only played the game with prisoners. But the concept of the elimination chamber has always sort of felt like, oh, this is like right out of the running man line of thinking. But I'll tell you, I didn't like the suggestion. The idea that there's not going to be a men's Royal Rumble at the Royal Rumble,

I don't think I'd get down with. No, that wouldn't work. But I would say this. I think if you remove the name of the event and you don't call an elimination chamber, and I understand why you would want to, but that sort of pigeonhols you, sort of like Money in the Bank ladder match, instead of there being a Money in the Bank ladder match

at WrestleMania, which we used to have, and now we have a pay-per-view called Money in the Bank, where everybody, so now we have a show where we know we have to have a ladder, as opposed to a story that needs a ladder. I say change the name of the elimination chamber, do it once a year for the guys when there is a circumstance,

and maybe that could even be, hey, the last six guys from the Rumble, they go to the elimination chamber the next month or whatever. But I would like to see the Women's Royal Rumble on night one of WrestleMania. And maybe that's how you win a title shot the next night at WrestleMania. Something like that. Like, because I agree with you, the sameness of two Royal Rumble matches on the same show, it's like, okay, we get it.

Enough of this. But I would be excited for it all over again if I saw it at WrestleMania, knowing that, Hey, she won, but can she be ready to take on the challenger tomorrow night? That could be really cool. Yeah, that's a story, right? Yeah. That's a story. I mean, I've said before in the show, on Sundays, I typically, and sometimes Saturdays, but I'll drive her, I'll take my dog out for a ride up in the mountains and look at stuff.

And I'll listen to CBS Sports Radio because I'm learning about it, and listening to guys talk about sports that I'm actually really not that interested in. But the way they talk about it makes me interested. it. And I feel like I'm learning something. And I love good radio. And there's some really good sportscasters, the guys that cover sports over there. Anyway, it's all about the story in any sport, baseball, and football, college, pro, it doesn't matter. It's the story behind the athlete that is driving most everything. And I think putting the Women's Royal Rumble on the first night of WrestleMania, and yeah, you worked your ass off. You used to

survived at all you got there and now the bad news is you got to wrestle tomorrow i mean that's a hell of a story that's an uphill battle right that puts whoever wins it at a disadvantage or the underdog going in no matter what it's awesome let's um let's do another question here from apparently privileged this was a youtube comment that says the whole show had predictability all over it i think everyone knew the outcome to the matches before the show went live. If I had a criticism of the show, that would be it, Eric. I think we could have probably drawn up what was going to happen. It was rather predictable.

You sort of set it at the top of the show. You were waiting on something big to happen that just never really came. Did you think we strayed a little too far from our Sarsa format, perhaps? No. In fact, look, there was no surprise. So when I've talked about Sarsa, when you hit five out of five, you're literally printing money for years. When you hit four out of five, it's still very, very, very good, just not as good as five out of five. Three out of five, you've got something that's interesting for maybe a month.

Anything less than three of those elements out of the five and you're going to be wishing you didn't do it. So look, they got four out of five. They knocked it out of the park with four out of the five. no big surprises, but I think the action, the action was so solid, it was so good, the stories that needed to be advanced were advanced, was a predictable, yes, but that's okay sometimes. It's okay because we're on our way to WrestleMania, and that's where you're hopefully going to see surprises.

So we'll see. We've had a lot of surprises lately, haven't we? Sometimes it's good just to let things settle down a little bit so that the surprises actually matter. Yeah, I mean, I appreciate you saying that because it wasn't that long ago that we debuted like Minoro Suzuki, Ruby Soho, Adam Cole and Brian Danielson on the same AEW pay-per-view. And when you condition the audience that every segment or every week or every month

or every paper review, there's going to be a surprise, there's no surprise. So I understood that. Something I am sort of scratching my head about. I brought it up earlier. I want your take. I'm thrilled that AJ Stiles is back. He looks like he's in bigger and better shape than ever. I mean, he looks like he WWE wrestler now.

My goodness. He's got muscles and places. Other people don't have places. And he's taken on L.A. night. And L.A. night has been one of the most overcats on the whole roster for over a year now. And we're not getting him in any sort of title match. It's not for the Intercontinental, not for the U.S.

it is AJ Styles and boy working with AJ Styles is not a bad thing at WrestleMania my goodness but I just I didn't expect that what did you think of the placement for both AJ and LA night very functional very good very much looking forward to it I love watching them and something tells me that those two are going to have great chemistry together um but it's not not a big move forward for either one of them. But, you know, not everybody can move forward all at the same time. There's a lot going on.

And not everybody can be in the spot they wish they were in all at the same time. So it's a great way to keep L.A. night hot because he is, having him go out there and have a great story and an excellent match because they will. with AJ, undoubtedly, it's going to be a great match that will tell a story and showcase both of them. It's not a bad thing. It's just not the big moment that I guess some of us thought that perhaps L.A. Knight was ready for. But he will be. He's not going anywhere. If we've learned

anything about L.A. Knight over the last 20 years that he's been in the business is that he ain't going anywhere. That's right. Until he gets to where he wants to go. Overall, Eric, when it's also, done about elimination chamber. Thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle. Definitely thumbs up on a scale of one to ten because that's the way I like to do it. I'd give it about an eight, eight and a half.

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We've still got a lot to talk about. But I just want to tell you right now, right smack dab in the middle of the show, that we want to hear from you. Do you want to hear about Hulk Hogan's championship celebrity wrestling? Or do you want to break down Eric's first book? Controversy creates cash as we read Eric Dave Meltzer's review of the book. yeah you want to see eric squirm or do you want to see eric make fun of celebrities that's what we're talking about vote right now 83 weeks dot com that's 83 weeks dot com yes it's our

youtube you'll see the poll right there that's we're going to be putting all of our future polls over at 83 weeks dot com eric this is all about sting as you and i are recording this we are 48 hours away from his last television appearance before his last match which is just six days away. And this dude is a true icon of professional wrestling. And there are generations of wrestling fans who grew up with Sting. And I have to admit, I drove to the beach after work last Wednesday. And by the time we got in, Dynamite was wrapping up. Fast forwarded around, found exactly what I was looking for. I was hoping we would hear from Sting. You and I were pretty critical. Didn't exactly love what they were doing with Darby Allen. I'm glad that he told

the story and why he had heat with the bucks. I wish it would have happened a couple of weeks prior. He didn't feel like it was enough about Sting. That was our criticism last week. But we found out why. Sting Cut what I thought was one of the best promos, if not the best promo, of his entire career. And I was moved to tweet about it. And boy, did I catch a shit. ton of flack about it. Let me read you the tweet. We'll share it with you if you're watching along with us on 83 weeks. I wrote,

That Sting segment was one of the all-time great segments in the history of television wrestling. Now, I didn't say it was the greatest segment in the history of wrestling on TV. I said it was one of the all-time great segment. And I don't think it can be debated that Sting is one of the all-time greats. But when you think about a lot of other iconic talent,

whether it's the Rock or Rick Flair or Hulk Hogan or Dusty Roads or Stone Cold, you can usually associate a very famous promo with them. For me, I'll always remember that promo for Sting. And I felt like the dude saved his best for last. What did you think of the promo? I liked it. Let me first say that. I liked it a lot.

I liked it for different reasons. reasons, or varied reasons, actually, not different than yours, but just varied reasons. Look, Sting, I'm going to set aside the fact that it came across as an afterthought. Whatever. I'm going to try to be constructively critical and not just critical. I thought the narrative, the verbiage, everything Sting said was so on the money and real, obviously, believable, delivered in a way that absolutely allowed you to buy in and believe it and relate to it.

Here's what I would have done differently. I wouldn't have put them on that set. That style, that backstage on the set, poorly produced lighting, no offense, it is what it is. It's serving no purpose. We know who Sting is. That kind of eerie backdrop, mood lighting and the music that may or may not go with it, all of that is designed to reinforce a character.

We know who Sting is and we know who Darby is. And by putting it in that environment where the environment is also a character, now because they've made the environment a character. It took away the believability. It wasn't necessary. That's, you could have achieved as great as it was, and it was great. I don't know if I was quite as excited about it as you are, but it was great. It would have been even better if it would have felt a little more real.

And so much in what he said, because what he said felt very real. But he said it in an artificial environment. Well, should he have done it in front of the crowd? And no, no, because that would have been inappropriate. Yes. I would have loved to have seen that shot in a grittier, but not super well lit and produced backdrop. so that it felt like kind of an on-the-fly. Like you caught Sting and Darby as an example.

This is a bad example, but it's an example. You know, the shot that we've seen a million times, catch them coming into the arena. Inner gear, that's fine, inner character, I get it. But stopping them and getting a comment from them somewhere other than that pre-produced environment that they were in. Because then it just feels like every other wrestle. promo, or it looks like, I should say, every other wrestling promo.

It didn't feel that way because of the content. But it could have been so much better. It could have felt even more real than it already did. And it's not really a criticism because it was great. It just could have been so much better. And it made me think, again, for 100,000th time, if you look at professional wrestling at WWAEW anywhere, really, the product has evolved so much over the last five or ten years, 15 years.

I'm sorry, I'm banging on the table. That's okay. You're excited. You're animated. Yeah. I'll just do this. The business of, you know, the in ring work has evolved, you know, in so many different ways. But it has evolved, you know, athletes are bigger, faster, stronger.

They're doing more complicated. things, their offense is more aerial, more visually dynamic, whatever. Everything about the professional wrestling industry, the production, the production values and techniques and equipment, all of it has evolved so much. The two things that haven't evolved are backstage interviews and color and play-by-play. I'm not saying it's bad. I love color and play by play. They're doing a great job.

I love Michael Cole. Pat McAfee's awesome. a big fan of Corey Graves. There's nothing wrong with it. But it hasn't improved at the same rate or to the same level that so many other aspects of the business have. And those are the two things that as much as anything support the narrative that tells the story, which just amazes me as to why somebody hasn't figured out a better way to do it. And it's not brain surgery.

It's not. It takes a little more work and a little more planning. but it's not hard to do to do those reaction-style interviews that we used to do at the end of TNA Impact. It was so believable and it was so good for the talent because they went out there pointing

and you don't have that freaking stick, man, that's another thing. Oh, my God. The minute I see somebody holding a microphone, it's like, okay, I don't need to listen to this. I'm not going to hear anything that matters. You usually don't. but that on the fly kind of capture people in the moment,

particularly when it's a story or a narrative that is in the vein that what Sting and Darby delivered, it just could have been so much better. I really enjoyed it. I don't know how we can be critical of the lighting and say it didn't look professional, but also say we wanted it to be gritty. I hear what you're saying about.

Maybe we caught up with them they were in something corny like a skate park which would fit Darby or some other scene. I get that. Maybe if he sent in a tape. But I did think it was different enough. If you take a look at that background and I'll have Dave throw that picture back up there. It's not like they're standing in front of the dynamite monitor where Lexi Nair or Alex Marvez or Renee Paquette.

Like they're not like on a traditional AEW set. But the way he brought his voice down and he talked about his. real life and he shared his real life. I mean, the idea that we got to see his sons and Darby held up the photo, but then for him to talk about his dad and, you know, where you and I were like, man, they didn't follow up with this storyline at all last week. Well, now we know why. So almost feel bad of us being critical of that because.

No, no, no, no. I'll be honest to that they still should have covered it. They still could have and should have done something to plug that hole as opposed of just ignoring it. I get it, life happens and serious things in life happen, which creates a change of plans. But there could have been something. It could have been Darby without Sting. It could have been something to at least not ignore it.

Well, hang on, no, hang on, hang on. Let me just say this. Don't you think that's up to Sting? I would say if I were in that spot, if I were in Tony Con seat, and I don't know what the original plan was. I don't know if there was an original plan. But if the story's true that his dad was passing away around the same time, he's not going to be there.

I think I would, I mean, as low on the totem pole as it would be, Sting will do whatever you want us to do. What do you, I mean, when we're talking about literal life and death, it's like, who gives a shit about wrestling? Do whatever you want. If that's what he said, cool. But I almost feel like it would be, hey, deferential to Sting to say, that's what you want us to do.

It's your story. story that's not nearly as important as what's going on but what do you want i would just be deferential i think stings should should get to have a say and and in his last angle and last match and last story you're assuming that he didn't i don't know i i mean i'm not there i don't know i don't have any information from anybody but i can't imagine under any circumstance would i want to leave a hole that you could fly a plane through in the middle of the story leading up to the end of it. What I'm saying, though, is that doesn't matter when your dad's done.

It doesn't matter to Steve, but it matters to the audience. I get that, but I'm just saying my guess would be, and again, I haven't spoken to anybody, I don't know, but my guess would be when this news came out and the real life Steve Borden conveyed that message to the real life Tony Kahn, I'm sure Tony said, dude, take as much time as you need. We'll keep everything right where it is for now. that's my point I want to beat this to death they could have you could have Tony could have had that same conversation with Steve and you could have had Darby

Allen there you could have created something to fill that hole temporarily until the following week Darby was there last week here did you cover it yeah explain anything he didn't say anything about the sting beat down no he went with a completely different story but I think that explains why though like you would want Sting to have the next word on that, not Darwin. Well, then that's the mistake I think that was made under the circumstances. But that, hey, that's me. Who cares? Maybe it doesn't matter what I think. I'm just...

No, I'm just saying, I think they'll probably be a deferential mistake. I, cool. I'll sign off on that. Well, we know that he's going to have his last television appearance in just a couple of days here in Huntsville, Alabama, of all places. They're going to be doing a double header, both dynamite and collision. Tickets are on sale now, a ew t ix.com if you're wondering why i'm mentioning that it's because i'm going to be there so if you're there come say hello let's chat it up about sting's last match man 36 years of being a professional

wrestling you know people we're talking about that might be it with sting 23 years ago when wcw went down and here we are almost 23 years later from march of 2001 to march of 24, it's finally a career for Sting. And now there's a new wrinkle of Rick Flair seemingly mating with the Young Bucks that was thrown in last week on TV. What else can we say about Sting that we haven't said in depth on this show? Such an iconic character. When you think about all the different iterations of Surfer Sting and Crow Sting and then the Wolfpack, sting and the joker sting and now this modern era sting i guess we'll call it yeah go back even

further than that you know his very beginning when he uh when he was working with the ultimate warrior yeah what was there what was their tag team called i don't remember well the freedom fighters at first and then the blade runners yeah blade runners and you go back and look at some of those photographs of those two together it's like wow it looks like it was a hundred years ago. But, you know, he's covered so much ground. Sting one of those guys, I mean, he's seeing so much. And it'll be interesting to catch up with him someday. And in hear from him what was really going through his mind as he's closing this chapter, because it's got to be hard. You know, it's just any time you wake up in the morning, you go, wow, this is the last time I'm ever going

to do this. You know, that's a, you're kind of knocking on the door. immortality in a way and uh it's it's a moment i'd love to hear what's going through his mind what uh i mean if you had to pick your favorite look for sting do you like surfer sting or crow sting better honestly i like surfer sting better you know i mean it's it timed out it it really did but the energy that sting you know he'd come to the ring and he was just on fire he was electric and the crowd reacted to that and it was the energy was fun to watch it was fun to be around that was my favorite obviously for business purposes i love crow sting but that wasn't really that original was it you know um i'd like the surfers sting i like the energy

that it brought well i uh i think everybody could appreciate a new look and uh 2024 is here in full swing which means it's time for a little new year's resolution check in with our friends at Manscaped. Newsflash, boys and girls, it's never too late to level up your grooming game and keep your bush tamed. Manscape's new lawnmore 5.0 Ultra is every man's cheat code to look good, feel

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We're going to be doing a pre-show for Sting's last match, and we're doing a post show. Watch the zero hour along with us. That's right. It's a two-screen experience at 83 weeks.com. We're going to watch the preview show together. We'll lay out when something important is happening. We'll react to it in the final closing moments as we get ready to start. What's going to be probably AEW's second biggest show of the year behind All In over at Wembley,

but this might actually wind up being more memorable because of what we're talking about. Sting's last match. Join us. Go right now to 83 Weeks.com, hit the subscribe button, and turn on the notifications bell. We're going live on YouTube. That means you, yes, you can interact and ask questions or talk shit, whatever you want. want to do to Eric Bischoff at 83 weeks.com. We're going to do a pre-show and a post-show.

So right before the pay-per-view, come join us. Enjoy the pay-per-view. Keep chatting with your friends if you'd like. And then immediately following the pay-per-view, get Eric's reaction from Revolution at 83weeks.com. It'll be live. If you've got questions, we've got answers. 83 weeks.com is where you can find it.

Here's what the card looks like. Orange Cassidy will be defending the. AEW international title against Roderick Strong. Samoa Joe is probably defending the AEW title in a three-way. I say probably because a lot of people are asking questions about Hangman Adam Page, but it's supposed to be Hangman Adam Page and Swerf Strickland, challenging Samoa Joe. Timeless Tony Storm is going to be defending against Deanna. We've also got Eddie Kingston defending his Continental Crown Championship against Brian

Danielson, who's on a farewell tour of his own. Will Osprey is going to make his full-time AEW pay-per-view debut as he takes on Takesha. Christian Cage will be defending the T&T title against Daniel Garcia. And I can't believe this is a real thing. They're promoting something called the Meat Madness Match with Lance Archer, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Wardlow. We've also got FTR and John Moxley and Claudio Castignoli

hooking it up. They couldn't be separated this past week on Wednesday, So they're going to do it live on pay-per-view this Sunday. But the main event is what everybody's going to be talking about. Sting and Darby Allen, taking on the Young Box. I got to tell you, Eric,

I know you're going to be critical because I just know you. But this is the AEW pay-review. I've been looking forward to the most. I think more than any other I can remember, at least in recent memory. I'm more pumped for this show than I was even last year's all in. I mean, I just wasn't as invested in the MJF Devil,

Adam Cole story as maybe I should have been but I'm all in this thing. No, you shouldn't have been. Okay. You're fine. What about you? Are you looking forward to this pay-per-view,

at least the main event? Well, I'm certainly looking forward to the main event. You know, if it was a little bit easier, I'd probably fly down and get a ticket and put on a wig and glasses and show up in the back and sit and watch just to be a part of it. So, no, I'm looking forward to it.

You know, it hurts me just a little bit when you say, I know you're going to be critical. I'm not going to be critical if I don't have anything to be critical about. I want to be supportive, and I'm going to try to be supportive, much like I was in this last pay-per-view we just covered today. There's always ways to make things better. And if there's something that I see, then I'll probably point it out. But I'm not like chomping at the bit to be negative. I want to walk away being very excited for my friend Steve Borden and feel like he closed that last

chapter exactly the way he wanted to and was able to bask in the glow of such a long successful career in those last few moments in front of 16,000 plus people. I think it'll be amazing experience. I'm pumped. I hope you'll make plans to join us. That's 83 weeks.com. We're doing a pre-show during the 8EW0 hour. Come watch with us, a two-screen experience, 83 weeks.com. you can ask Eric questions we'll be reacting live to what we're seeing we'll be given some previews make some predictions all that and more and then immediately following the pay-per-view the very first place to hear reactions and feedback about the show is right here at 83 weeks.com and I know the press conference will start while we're going if there's anything of interest there we'll cover that as well 8 that's what I'm going to let loose oh goodness here we go. Oh, the little speediest scrubs press conference, my ass. That'll be fun covering in that. Do you think Sting attends the press conference?

I don't think so. I don't either. That's not him. Do you think we ever see him on AEW TV and paint ever again? I hope not. I hope not. because it'll make the memory of seeing him and experiencing that pay-per-view for years to come.

People will remember, you know, Sting's name will come up. So we know wrestling fans have long memories, right? And it's generational. There'll be seven-and-eight-year-old kids running around in a couple of years that will be watching Sting's last match with their dads or their older brothers, their cousins or whatever. And I'd like that to be the last time that we see Sting. in character just think it has more value that way

let me ask you this I know that we're we're just guessing here we don't have any inside information but you want to guess on the number of paper views that they're going to do number of paper views they'll sell oh for this what are the average about 150,000

Yeah, I mean, one of their biggest ones was like all out from 2021. That did $215,000. They'll do around $200, give or take. Stings, look, it's sting. You know, and it's the same, you know, we talked about this. They didn't sell 16,000 tickets to this event because of the storyline and the angle going into it. They sold it because it Sting's last match. there'll probably be a significant number of people

who might not otherwise typically buy an AEW pay-per-view that will because it stinks less match. I think this breaks the record for AEW. I think this becomes... We need to be right. I hope it does. I think that what a great way to want a great way to go out, right? I hope it does.

I hope it does. And I think there's a good chance it could. I think I wound up being excited about the all-in pay-per-view because I wanted to see the stadium. I'm excited about this pay-per-view because I want to see the main event. That's a good point. And I think this will sell, I think this will be the highest grossing pay-per-view.

As far as pay-per-view goes, obviously tickets, we can't compete 90,000 or whatever the hell they did. It's going to be 16,000. It's going to be sold out. By the way, if you're within driving distance, let me just give you a little heads up.

It ain't over. Like, cruise on over to EWTIX. they will have some production kills and they will open up a few more seats i'd be willing to bet money on it on saturday if they don't they've had a long time sponsor here on the program they're not even advertising today but let me give you the heads up game time use our promo code 83 weeks that shit still might work but you can buy that as of the day of the pay-per-view so you wake up on sunday and get a wild hair and want to be there game time can make

it happen just be sure to use our promo code 83 weeks they'll probably save you some more money. I wanted to ask you about wrestling politics here for a minute. Because our friend Kevin Nash has said on his podcast, click this, even though the real life sting wanted

Kevin Nash in attendance for his last match, he had the decline. And he basically said, all of X1 of my very best friends. I can't have them put some sort of graphic up or put me up on the screen that says Kevin Nash

is all elite. I just can't do it. I'm paraphrasing, but that's roughly what he said. The idea being he supports Sting, he's going to watch the last match, they're going to talk about it on the show, but he just can't attend. He's a WWE guy,

and out of loyalty to Paul, he's not going to be there. What do you think of that? I think there's more to it. than what we just heard or read. I can understand the way, I mean, I said to you, if I could, if I hadn't just gotten off a week's travel, I'd want to go and be a part of it.

Now, I would, I would go in disguise for no other reason that I wouldn't want to be a distraction. And I bet you that's part of it for Kevin. know Kevin pretty well. And Kevin is a good friend. It'd be a real stubborn, grumpy, moody, tough individual to do business with sometimes. But he's a good friend. He's a loyal friend.

I don't know that it's so much. You know, I don't know. I'm not Kevin. I didn't hear his comments. I'm just reacting to what I've read and heard you just say. I think there's more to it, and I think the fact that Kevin doesn't really want to go there and be a distraction on Sting's night, he may not have said it, but I would imagine that's part of it as well. And I understand that part, especially when you're Kevin Nash. It's not like he's

going to be able to sneak in. Right. You're going to put on a wig, try to hide. I don't think so. Well, I could get away with it. He did wear a sting mask once. So maybe he could just wear a sting mask. I would imagine that's part of it. You know, sometimes, having, you know, depending on the mood he's in, he'll say something. And it's like, wow, that's, that's kind of crazy. But I would imagine a big part of it just doesn't want to be a distraction. I recently sat down with our friend Lex Lugar. We do a monthly piece of business over on ad-free shows.com that we call Lex Express.

And we sit down and ask questions to Lex Lugar once a month. You can actually appear on camera and be a part of the live studio audience and ask Lex your question. but we also solicit questions through the rest of the month. And then just organically in the conversation, I asked him about Sting's last match. And also the idea that his name is being bandied about a lot this year for the WW Hall of Fame, which is you and our recording.

They've yet to announce a single entrant. But a lot of people think maybe this is his year. And they take a look at the amount of documentaries that have been done on him. He's been on the bump and a handful of other things. and he still technically is on the payroll there. So maybe this would be Lex's year. But would that affect him, perhaps, attending Sting's last match? And here's what Lex had to say.

Would this be a crazy year if Sting has his last match in March and he wind up going in the Hall of Fame in April? Would that be like, that feels like a storybook ending right there? Wow, that would be a nice storyline. Right. For sure. I mean, I get a little buzz every year lately. as time has passed

and a lot of people we've talked about this a little bit before are people of, well, Lex isn't in I thought he was already in. Right. Wait, he's not in? I get that all the time. You're not in. I go, no, not yet. Hopefully someday, because it would be

such an honor. So I always tell me it's such an honor. There's definitely more buzz around it maybe this year and I don't know if they're including more on the bump and some of the stuff, more so last couple years, I'm not sure there's a direct correlation there or not. Right. Or if they even give it that much thought before this prior to a selection,

obviously I'm flattered and honored to so many people of brought up Eric Bischoff. Man, that guy is, man, he's, we have a like a kind of, we don't talk a lot or anything, but like a special relationship. Now, the kind words he had for me, I love Eric Bischoff. I never thought they would come out of my mouth based on some history. And he gave me a huge compliment on that. He thinks they should put. So, yeah, I'm definitely complimented, flattered, honored when people say it.

And obviously, what a huge honor if and when it happens for sure. If it's this year, man, that would be, like you said, like storybook fairy tale. If not, down the line sometime, I'm just always hopeful for sure. And how about that from Lex? What a guy. Good human being, man. So much, I mean, literally, I got tears by us right now. Yeah.

Only because so much joy. I mean, you could just feel the joy in this man. Yes. He's at a place in his life that very, few of us get to. And I aspire to it. He's inspirational to me in a lot of ways. But you can just feel it, man.

He's just, it's just joy. It's the only word I can come up with. When I see Lex or I hear him speak, especially is Joy. Join us over on ad-free shows.com. You'll catch an all-new Lex Express and tons of other exclusive series that only exist at ad-free shows.com like Tuesdays with the taskmaster,

The Book with David Crockett, Monday Mailbag with Mike Keota and Nick Patrick, plus a brand new series we're calling Beyond Nitro with the Nitro book author Guy Evans. And how about the latest new show? Enter Sandman with the hardcore legend itself, the Sandman. It's all exclusive to ad-free shows.com. So if you haven't checked it out, what are you waiting for? Let's do some live questions. We've got a live studio audience to a whole bunch of folks who are hanging out today.

shout out to Carl Hayes and Josh Hennie and Mick Mack and everybody who showed up and is hanging out with us today. I see you hanging in there, Cam, and a bunch of the old names I hadn't seen in a bit are in there today. What's up, Coach Rosie? Let's do a few questions. Mike Whitaker wants to know, are we seeing WWE doing more PLEs overseas than they have in the past with the big time difference?

You see WWE doing one of the big four PLEs elsewhere. That's a great question. I mean, this was debated last year when John Cena came out in London and said, I want to see a WrestleMania in London. And, of course, everybody went bananas. I don't know if we're going to see a WrestleMania in London. But I could see a Royal Rumble or a SummerSlam happening internationally. What say you, Eric?

Yeah, especially a SummerSlam. You know, I don't know what the buy rates are or how they track viewership and where the PLEs rank anymore. It's been a long time since I tracked any of that, but I'm just guessing SummerSlam is probably one of the softer of the PLEs, and that would be a great one, right? You're going to do it, do it then. I expect we, I just had to take my hands off the tables. I'm sorry. I would expect we're going to see more because there's money in it. There's money in those overseas PLEs, and anywhere there's money you can be sure the business will follow.

I can't imagine that we're not going to see more of them. Josh Annie wants to know, how did the PLE feel as far as time? Did you feel it went too long with a few matches or was it just right? Did they need more matches? I didn't. I wasn't like looking at the clock. I wasn't, like I said, at the beginning of the show, I think there may have been a total of 15 minutes in aggregate over the course of three

and a half hours or four hours, whatever it was. I think it was like three hours in 45 or 55 minutes. I never once went, oh, my gosh, this is getting long. Oh, my gosh, why are they having this mansion here? Do they really need, you know, I didn't get that. It moved quickly for me, you know, I'm sitting by myself in a hotel room and it's easy to get distracted and bored, you know, and I was into it. So I think the timing was right. I think some of the segments could have been a little shorter.

Again, going back to the Cody Rhodes, Grace of Waller Effect segment, I would have liked to see that. cut down by about three minutes just to move it along because there was some just downtime there which made it feel even more awkward so yeah i think other than trimming up a few segments um that one in particular i i i have no no problem with the pacing of the show i thought it was well paced i know some people feel you know oh we need more wrestling oh we need more wrestling counting the minutes of how many you know how much wrestling time is such a stupid stupid conversation to have it's been going on forever people this is not new it's not a new observation but here's what happens it's very cyclical this whole conversation about how much wrestling time is in a show

the more wrestling time you put in a show historically their ratings go down because that's what people are tuning in for small segment of the audience does they're getting all they're getting all they're they're getting all they want over to ewe but the broader audience the millions of people that watch wrestling are watching for the characters in a story and you need narrative to support it anytime because you know oh my gosh the wrestling fan james milters says we're counting the minutes in each match it's like are you kidding me are you really kidding me like that's what's going to determine whether a show is successful or not. It's insane. But hey, if you know, you like having that conversation, jump in. It keeps coming around once every four or five years. Just hit replay. It's in

conversation. I, um, I enjoyed the show. I didn't think it was too long. I thought it was just the right time. Uh, and I'm really excited to see where we go from here because we're on the march to WrestleMania. And there's been some buzz that Sylvester Stallone, who portrayed one of the more iconic movie roles of all time in Rocky Balboa is apparently at least in discussion with WWE about appearing at WrestleMania considering the Philadelphia component which is where Rocky was from man I know it's silly I know it's corny I know it's cheesy but I would love for them to recreate that

scene of him running down the street with a bunch of kids and he's in the gray sweats and running up the steps except it's not Rocky it's Cody because it is sort of, hey, here's the guy who beat him the first time, and he's this unbeatable guy who hadn't lost in forever. It kind of is the rocky story. If they could pull that off, that's the type of mainstream crossover support you want and hope for as a wrestling organization,

Sylvester Stallone in Philadelphia, right? And maybe just doing the narrative, narrating over that video, telling Cody's story and putting over Dusty and the, you know, the injury. and all the challenges, drama, and here he is. I mean, just can you hear Sylvester Stallone

telling narrating that story over the video that you were just talking about? Oh, that'd be awesome. It would be awesome. And if I were a betting man, I'd bet we see Jason Kelsey there too. I mean, that dude has had a blast that every playoff came and every Super Bowl and every celebration. He's Mr. Philadelphia. You want to get over with the home crowd.

You let Jason Kelsey dust off the miss. or something like that, people are going to go bananas. Right? Ms. will be happy to hear that. He would love it. Doing a job for another celebrity, which, by the way, he don't mind. No, are you kidding? I mean, one of my favorite things we saw WrestleMania a few years ago.

As far as it being fun and entertaining, well, Sammy Zane and Johnny Knoxville. Like, nobody thought that would be, everybody was like, oh, God, here we go. But it was actually really fun and entertaining. And I think if anybody can pull that off, whatever it is it's miss i don't remember miss ever missing uh now he's the best he's the he's such a great character we saw last week on tv on monday night raw after we recorded of course we saw a ufc fighter named michael chandler sitting front row at monday night raw

and they came over gave him a mic and made sure they shot him in a way where the russomani logo was framed right behind him and he challenged connor mcgregor now of course These are UFC fighters, and they're all owned by the same organization, and I think they were pretty clear in saying, oh, we're not going to cross lanes, but then we kind of did. What did you think of the Michael Chandler segment, and do you think there's any chance we see Connor McGregor in any capacity at WrestleMania? I don't know. Maybe.

This surprised me, to be honest. I thought they would kind of keep church and state separate. but they didn't it'll be interesting to see if there's a positive effect i guess if you're thinking look they maybe the thinking is just talking out loud thinking out loud they may feel like they've got a hundred percent of the ufc audience aware and and and following what's going on in ufc and perhaps to grow the audience maybe the thinking was by indigo integrating into WWE,

perhaps they'll get some buy-in from WWE fans that might not they might not otherwise get. I know for a long time,

everybody thought, oh, there's so much crossover, there's not. No. There's just not. People swore up and down for years.

There was. It never has been. Two different things. But the WWE audience is so massive and get so much mainstream attention that this is just

another way to cross-promote like they may if they could in NASCAR just a different audience and that's how you grow your audience you expose your product to an audience that otherwise isn't already engaged

hoping to get a percentage of that those fresh eyes to come on over sample the product and stick around let's uh let's talk about the uncomfortableness we do need to address something we haven't addressed in a few weeks so if you've heard all you needed to hear about Vince McMahon stuff

so long. everybody. We'll see you live on Sunday from Greensboro here at 83 weeks.com. But if you're sticking around, man, a couple things I just want to touch on. Paul Roma was on national news, I believe. News Nation is the program, as I understand it. And we haven't heard from Paul Roma in a long, long time publicly like this. He was basically saying male wrestlers were propositioned when he was in WWE. And it makes me, wonder or realize maybe boy there's a lot of layers to this onion it's going to be a a PR circumstance perhaps for WWE to try to because now they're fighting things that are true

and things that are untrue and everything in between and it feels like people are kind of coming out of the woodwork with some of these stories it's going to be hard for people to navigate all of this it sort of feels like a little bit of a black cloud over all the positive momentum W.W.E. has right now. Even if it's all in the past and it's old bad actors and they're not here anymore in a new regime and rah-rah, it just freaking sucks that this sort of hangs around and now all this other stuff comes to light. Because part of me would say, well, I'm glad because let's get the bad actors out of there. But seemingly, they're all gone. This is all old stuff. Again, you and I don't know. But goodness gracious,

I just, I didn't expect to see Paul Roma on TV last week. What did you think? So hard to comment on this stuff because you said you don't know what's true and what's not true. Yes. I would never, first of all, I try not to judge anybody anyway in that way. When it comes to morality and things, I think, oh, judge not, lest you be judged. I keep reminding myself of that all the time. But it just seems like all of a sudden now people are coming out of the woodwork

because there's a camera with a red light on it and everybody wants to tell their story. And I look, if there is a story there to be told and it's real and it's honest, then by all means, if that's cathartic for you and you feel like you need to come out and address it to get closure or whatever, by all means. But I can't, you know, I'm a cynical guy sometimes, and I know human nature. I've seen too much of it, especially in a wrestling business. Seems like a lot of people just getting some attention.

You know, the other one that came up the other day, and again, I don't know, I don't have any insight. But Ashley Massaro's story came back to life, and this woman who claimed that she was one, of Ashley's closest friends is out there. I think probably to Ashley Banfield again, whoever it was, talking about all

these things that were going on with Ashley. And Ashley's daughter came out and said the lady was no friend of my mother's. And I don't know what's true and what's not true. I'm not here to pass judgment or I wouldn't even begin to

think about doing that. But I'm personally to a point where I'm just not interested in hearing these stories that are coming out of the woodwork from 25, 35, 45, 40 years ago. I'm sorry. You know, it's Nick Knessy's out there now. And I saw bits and pieces of one this afternoon while I was waiting to do this. It's like, everybody's coming out and has this story to tell. Well, why didn't you tell it 30 years ago?

Why are you telling it now? You know? And maybe there's a reason for that. Maybe if some of these stories are with Kineski, maybe it was true and maybe it was just too embarrassed. I don't know. But it just seems odd that all of these stories are kind of coming out now because there are news media out there.

I know I'm getting phone calls. I've had opportunities to do network news. I'm just not doing it. I don't have anything to say. It feels like the Crispin Wah thing. If you remember when the Crispin Wah thing first happened, felt like every time I turned on the station, there was somebody else commenting about it, whether it was Debra McMichael or Chris Jericho or, I mean, anybody, I mean, Mark Merritt,

there were so many people who were on national television talking about this. And again, that's their prerogative, if they have a story to tell. But some of these things like, I saw the Ashtamizarro thing, I did not know that there has now been a claim that, well, this lady isn't really her best friend. Like, I think we can all agree. The story that Ashley Mazaro has had to tell is horrific. But it just feels like, man, we're just down in the muck and the mire now of, you know, because that was, that pertained to Vince, man.

And I know the argument is, well, this is a bigger culture that's been around for decades. Okay, I'm with it. But if he's out, I don't know where this is going. And it's very, I don't know, I, uh, I just didn't expect to see Paul Roma of all people on TV talking about it. I mean, again, not picking on Paul, but I just didn't, I kind of thought, man, we're going to move forward with this lawsuit and, and the chips will fall where they may. But it turns out, we still got some more stories to tell. Unfortunately. And you know, what's weird, too, is I feel bad for all the talent.

I found myself in the car last week doing a road trip and I was listening intently to the John Sina interview with Howard Stern. I did too. I don't know that I would go out of my way to hear that interview, but I knew Howard had to ask about Vince and I felt like John Sina

was sort of damned if he does, damned if he don't. He probably had no freaking idea what was going on. This is deepest dark. his private stuff you would be led to believe. It's just hard for me to imagine that he knew any of this. But now it's like if you talk about the guy and say, man, he meant so much to me and my life and my career,

you looked at like an asshole. But if you just throw him under the bus, now it feels disingenuous because that's probably not the way he really feels because he is, to use your word, grateful for what Vince did for him. And then I saw Randy Orton. He was asked the same thing,

I think, by Sports Illustrated. And, I mean, they both had their own stance, but Randy, I think, summed it up best when he said, as far as commenting on that, it fucking hurts my heart. It hurts my heart. Like, nobody wants to think about this or process any of this. Wrestling in this podcast is supposed to be an escape from real life. You're supposed to not have to think about, you know, oh, I might get laid off at my job and my kid's got a D and my dog has a her and it's.

I mean, you don't want to think about any of that stuff. You just want to veg and watch the Ms. get his ass kicked by Jason Kelsey or something. And that's what this is supposed to be. And now we're asking these entertainers, hey, we need you to take a stand here. I mean, it's unenviable for everyone involved because you just want to be like, dude, rearview mirror. Let's move forward.

But how do you do that with respect to the victims? It's, it's just an ugly spot for everybody to be in right now. It is indeed. And hopefully it will die down. I mean, until there's news on the lawsuit, and I would imagine it'll get settled. That's my, I don't say it's a guess, but these things typically get settled. It's a civil suit. This is as far as the alleged victim in that lawsuit. chances are we'll never hear the gory details i hope that that's the case actually i don't want to hear about it i really don't um and unless some of these other stories end up involving legal action which i doubt they will um once everybody gets their fill of the salaciousness of this and has found a way to climb a board and get your two minutes of interview fame,

there'll be nothing more to talk about and it'll go away. But it's going to be a while for sure. Man, it's just, uh, it's a black cloud over all of our wrestling fun right now. And I hope that all the bad actors are held to account and that, uh, we find a way to move forward. in a more positive way. I know that sounds silly and really simplistic, but man, there's so much good stuff to talk about right now.

It's just a fucking drain to have to think about stuff. And I, for one, I'm hoping that, you know, everybody is able to move forward positively and put this behind them. And whatever those folks want to have happen happens. I don't think that's up for us to say.

But you said you listened to the Howard Stern interview with John Cena. What'd you think? How do you think John came off on that? Sincere. Yeah. Very, very sincere. I mean, and I fell for John. I mean, I had a lot of empathy for John.

And listening to that interview. Because there's so many, I mean, I don't even want to get into trying to understand it all because I can't. But just listening to John, I don't think. Like, John's a good actor. He's making a great living at it, but he's not that good of an actor. Yeah, I just, I just, I thought it was good. You know, I thought, you know, Howard, and I'm not a big Howard Stern fan. I'm just not.

I was tired of Howard Stern 15 years ago. But I think Howard even handled it pretty well. I was expecting, I was expecting Howard to be a bigger dick. Well, I see, here's the difference. Howard was friends with some guys who've been in trouble. And so that's the reason he was, I think he even led into the conversation by saying, I've had friends who are in hot water.

And it's a double-edged sword because on the one hand, you love the guy, but on the other hand, you hate the things that people are saying he did. And man, I think that really summed it up. But it's, I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better.

But I'm ready to just hit fast forward. and let's just get to the good stuff and our regular scheduled programming and if some guys did some bad stuff hey let's hold them to account and let's move on and let's get back to this being our fun distraction and that's what we're hoping we can do next week

when you tell us do you want to hear about Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling or do you want us to just really get up Eric's ass sideways about what Dave Meltzer wrote about his book Controversy creates cash go vote in our poll right now at 83 weeks.com and of course if you're looking to target men 25 to 54 for your business

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Sunday for the zero hour. We're going live on YouTube at 83 weeks.com. Hit the subscribe button, turn the notifications bell on. This will not air on the RSS feed. So if you're listening to us on your podcast app right now, you won't hear us talk about. revolution there you'll only hear it on YouTube it's 83 weeks.com we'll talk about you will do a pre-show we'll do a post show and it's all happening at 83 weeks.com to the zero hour right before the show starts and then right after our reaction 83 weeks.com by the way I want to mention in my real life I'm helping people save money here we are at the end of February and you're probably looking to eliminate some credit

card debt well hit the chamber called save with conrad.com. or shoot me an email Conrad at save withconrad.com or give me a call toll free. 888425.0105. I don't know if you've seen recently, but credit card debt is at an all-time high. We're in the trillions now. We've never had this much credit card debt in the history of America. But now we can get rid of all that. It only takes a few minutes with us.

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You're done until May 1st. And come May 1st, guess what? You're going to have a cheaper monthly payment. We're routinely helping all of our podcast listeners take their 30-year loan and pay it off in half the time. And I know what you're thinking. Hey, man, I looked at a 15-year loan before. I can't afford it.

But what if, two of Eric's favorite words in the world, what if we could get rid of all your credit card debt, just like that? That's right. We're routinely helping our listeners do that. They're saving five, six, seven, even 800 bucks a month. And I'm talking to you. If you feel stuck making that minimum payment, I don't care what's happened in the past. Maybe you had a bankruptcy two years ago. Maybe you were late on your credit cards last month.

Find out how easy it is to get a plan and start saving money right now at save with Conrad. There is hope. You're not stuck. You just need a plan. I want to remind you you have a friend in the mortgage business. That's me. Hook it up right now at save withconrad.com. That's save with Conrad.com.

And if you'd like to buy a house this year, the first place should be to talk to us. We're going to ask you questions like, what do you want your down payment to be? What do you want your monthly payment to be? We can even hook you up with a real estate agent in your market who's going to be a master a negotiator to get you the best deal on the best house for you and your family. And if you picked your down payment and you picked your monthly payment, man, how can

you beat that? We can make it happen for you and your family with my family at save with conrad.com. Eric, I can't lie, man. I'm pumped. I'm going to see Sting in two days for his last TV show, live and in person here in Huntsville. And this weekend, Sting's last match.

And I can't wait to get your reaction to it because by God, it's going to be the biggest AW pay-per-view of all time. That's my bold prediction. All right. Well, I hope you're right. I look forward to doing it too. We had a lot of fun on YouTube with the press conference and the pregame and post game

and we're doing the same thing here with this event. So I'm really looking forward to. We got a great turnout last time. I'm looking forward to a good turnout this time. Come bust Eric's balls. Talk shit. Whatever you're looking for. It's all yours. At 83 weeks.com. We'll see you guys on Sunday on YouTube. 83 weeks.com.

Thank you.