83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 312: Different Than

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

On this week's episode of 83Weeks, Eric and Conrad discuss The Rock's latest promos on Instagram and Friday Night Smackdown. Is this the beginning on a new era in the WWE? Find out what Eric has to say. The guys also share their thoughts on the 20M dollar lawsuit won by MLW over the WWE, TNA pondering whether to go LIVE weekly, and the untimely passing of some of professional wrestling's legends. ROCKET MONEY - Stop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses theeasy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/83weeks. PRIZE PICKS - Go to PrizePicks.com/83WEEKS and use code 83WEEKS for a first deposit match up to $100! FACTOR - Head to FACTORMEALS.com/83weeks50 and use code 83weeks50 to get 50% off. FANATICS - Fanatics is THE ultimate fan gear store - from the NFL, NBA, to college football and beyond. The next time you - or someone you know - gear up with Fanatics, you can support 83 Weeks too simply by using our dedicated link! https://fanatics.93n6tx.net/c/5036600/586570/9663 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? I'm doing great. Doing great. Happy to be here. Happy that everybody's joining us.

Grateful for Mr. Silva to be here steering the ship. And yeah, no, I'm having a great day. Looking forward to hanging out with Mrs. B this afternoon. I think we're going to see a movie this evening. and yeah, that's my life, man. Well, I'm loving it and I'm loving all that's going on in wrestling. We're going to break it down the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But before we do, I want to give you a heads up. As you're listening to this, Sting has already had his last match and we broke it down. We did a pre-show. We did a post-show. We have exhausted every detail of Sting's last match and the entire AEW Revolution pay-per-view. And you can get both the pre-show and the post-show fallout the reality. the action, the interactive comments right now at 83weeks.com.

That'll take you directly to our YouTube. We were live for the pre-show and the post-show and taking live questions. And if you missed it, you can still enjoy it right now. All of our archives are available at 83 weeks.com. That's our YouTube. It's totally free. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button and turn on the notifications bell. So you'll know the next time we're going live.

And I don't mind sharing that we don't. do plan to go live as we get closer to WrestleMania. We've got a big go home raw coming up. We've got a big go home smackdown coming up. And of course, not one but two nights of WrestleMania. 83 weeks.com and our YouTube will be the place to be to get Eric's take and interact live. Man, live YouTube is a whole new ballgame for us. And I had a blast with it, Eric. What about you? I mean, everything's better live, right? It's one of the reasons why when I had that gun to my head and Ted Turner said, oh, go. compete. The first thing I knew I had to do was be live. And that was before anybody else was

live every week in wrestling. And there's just something magic about live. As much as I'd love doing this show, I look forward to it every week, sitting down with you and Dave Silva and having some fun here in 83 weeks, but doing it live is just different. And then, of course, you get the interaction from people joining us in with their comments and their questions. And I just, I so much to enjoy doing, and I'm glad we're making this a priority in 2024. YouTube Live 83 weeks.com. If you're not doing it, oh, my God, know what you're missing. Let's talk a little bit about something that I saw on my timeline this week.

I was shocked. You know, you and I talked about it even just last week, the popularity of the NWO T-shirt and the idea that all these years later, I mean, goodness gracious, nearly 30 years later, it's still in the top 10 for current WWE merchandise sales which is just wild to me but I actually see this shirt out in the wild all the time but I saw it this past week on my timeline and thought let me see if Eric recognizes this photo

you recognize this NWO clad is that Oh, is that Brad Siegel's niece? That is not Brad Siegel's niece. No, then I don't recognize her. Who is it? That is mattress actress,

Sarah Jay. She is a legend to some of our listeners, some viewers here on YouTube. She was not, in fact, and sold out in Iowa, but she is an adult film star, Eric, a mattress actress. Still sport in the NW.S.

I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm glad I'm glad. I said I didn't recognize her for Crane out loud. Well, we wouldn't blame you if you did. This has been an interesting week to say the least. With Sting's last match, lots of reports out about the behind the scene stuff going on in AEW. We talked on some of that on our live feed over the weekend, 83 weeks.com. But man, everybody and their brother is talking about the rock.

It was an interesting week, I guess. I think it was Friday morning when the rock posted a 21-minute promo. At first, I only saw like a six-minute clip, so I thought it was a six-minute clip, and then it kind of got cut off at the end. And I wondered, hey, what was cut off? So I found the full thing. I think this was filmed outside of his house.

You can see, like, his makeshift gym there in Hawaii. But it's all tinted there. and I guess that's his Iron Paradise or whatever he calls it. But man, he was in full-blown classic rock mode. And if the legend is true back in the day, rock was always under the impression, hey, you can't go too long. It's live.

So occasionally, maybe he'd go along on TV. And occasionally maybe that would create some chaos backstage. Occasionally. But the great thing on social media is, well, you can take a lot of, as much time as you want. I don't remember seeing a 21-minute promo before on social media, but he's the rock and he made it happen.

And maybe, you know, it could have been tightened up a little bit if it was for TV. But my takeaway was, this is getting good. What did you think? So many things. I was thinking so many different things almost all at the same time. I actually watched the promo back again.

So I spent 42 minutes and change looking at that promo. And first of all, it was so much different than anything else we've seen. Yes. Which, you know how I feel about that. That's how you break new ground. You try things that are typically not done. Sometimes are radical, sometimes not so much. But for rock, especially, even the magnitude of,

of his stardom, to use social media in a way to really advance the story, but do it so much differently than he's either able to do on television or willing to do on television. I just, it, you know, the language that he used, it was a little, you know, had no problem squaring social media. I don't know how I feel about that exactly, but it did reinforce the fact that this is different than. Yes. This is a side of rock you're not going to see when you tune into Fox, right? This is a side of rock that feels more personal, therefore creating some emotion, right? So whether I like it or dislike, it really doesn't matter, it was effective. The way

they used the Dave LaGreca stuff. Yes. That was different than. Yes. So different. And by the way, hats off to Dave and Bullion Company. That was a huge shout-out for them and really good for the business. But the way that was utilized and kind of brought into the story, it was part of the larger context of that 21-minute, you know, where Rock is out there addressing the naysayers and using it to his advantage. That's some rock jujitsu going on there. promo jiu-jitsu.

I love that. You're using the audience. and their reaction to you and you're bringing them into the story, acknowledging them and then turning it around on them like a good heel should. I just, it was so good. And it told such an amazing story and it made me far more interested than I was already. And I was already interested. This is really, we could probably spend two hours talking about this

and everything else that's gone up, gone on up until this point. but I'll just give you my take on it since you didn't ask. Well, you did, kind of. That's what started this. Okay, I'm sorry. So I still believe that Rock came in with the plan. Prod reacted to that plan. That created the necessity to kind of, all right, here's where we're at.

let's make some sense out of this. Let's make the most sense out of this. Let's make it better than it already was, if we can. And the way they used all the clips from everything that's happened, backstage stuff at the press conference and all that, and then told us what some of that communication was between the two when we couldn't actually hear the dialogue, they're creating a cohesive story based on something that was unplanned. Yes.

I find that process and the thinking behind it so interesting because that's how I watch this stuff. I don't watch it. Who wins the match? It has a four-star match and does it. This is not my deal. My deal is how are they presenting the products? How are they presenting the story?

How are they engaging the audience and isn't working? And obviously, we saw what happened Friday night after this video in social media. It was like a continuation in a way. There was some great continuity there. It was just so, so, so good. We'll talk about SmackDown, I'm sure. But as far as that promo goes, I think that broke new ground. The last time I looked, it was last night when I looked at it,

it had like 3.8 million views, which by the way is probably double what they'd get on raw and another 40% more than they'd get on Smackdown. It's way more than that when you can figure. you count all of the aggregate stuff, too. You know, like you saw just that one feed, but by the time everybody else has copied, posted it, I mean, it could be, it could be 15, 20 million by now. It's just such a fascinating evolution,

just one little, another little step into the future, right? And I brought up before one of the reasons that I became a fan of Becky Lynch back in 2019 before I even, you know, went to work for WWE, for that brief step, I became a fan of Becky Lynch, not because I discovered her on television, but because I discovered her on social media. And she stood out to me because to me she was like, wow, this young lady is actually using social media to shape and advance her character as opposed to, you know, what most people

use social media for. She's using it like it's a tool for her, for her character, for her story. And as I'm following her and following her, I thought, okay, well, this is really getting interesting. I got to go, I made an appointment with myself to go check her out on television because I wanted to see what this character was all about. And that's when I really connected with my point in saying all this is this is another example in a massive one, again, given the rock is, hopefully we're going to see talent really beginning to use social media. in a much better way to advance their stories in here. I just thought it was cool as shit and so cool, bringing a reality into it,

but in a way that allows you to create the fiction that you're building on, I just thought it was so cool. And that's not the first time anybody's ever done it. Well, I've done it. AEW's done it, WW's done it, WWE's done it. Everybody's done it, right? but to do it at this level and this effectively as a means to kind of fill up a couple little that they're not gaping holes in the story and the setup to the story but there's some

there was some dense there that needed to be addressed and they addressed it and they're doing it in social media and brought the story together yeah can you tell them excited just a little bit i know you were excited when i saw you on twitter and you said better than less than or different than the rock just nuked different than i totally agree you know it was uh we could beat it up and be critical and nitpick it but it felt real and it was uh it felt organic and i loved that he little things in there where he made sure to mention all the big wigs at netflix he made sure to mention the real life circumstance

of him and Ari Emanuel I mean he's leaning into here's all the reasons you should hate me and I have all the power and he was pretty out front about the fact that he doesn't just own his name he owns all of his old catchphrases and all of the rock quote unquote IP

I thought that was all really well done and finding a way to include South Rollins but stopping just short of mentioning Triple H. And we saw a little bit of that on Friday night Smackdown as well. I think they're trying to add more and more depth. And I think it's pretty plain to me to see where this is headed.

And I'm for it. It's going to be an exciting time to this road to WrestleMania. But before we talk about the Smackdown promo, one of the things that surprised me in a good way, is when the rock looked right at the camera and said something along the lines of that 21-minute promo from his house in Hawaii, I believe. Cody Rhodes, man-to-man, from the bottom of my heart, fuck your story. That was so, I mean, I was shocked.

I was shocked for different reasons. But I can't go into all the reasons I was shocked. I just didn't think I would hear that out of rock. given his stature in the industry. And continue, still, the nature of the wrestling industry is still really sensitive when it comes to advertiser, sponsors, and that kind of thing. So even though it wasn't on television, to hear that delivery, A, it made it feel real and organic. It wasn't a contrived, you know, wrestling promo, which I expounded on so often, frequently on this show, for sure, how much I hate traditional wrestling promos and how dated they are. this brought that to 2024 this promo we're talking about could you do it on television no sorry

about that start using my moot button more often I've actually read some notes for people saying yeah clear your throat well you used to have the mute button down pat and then a week or two ago you did have more than normal but I'm like hey man he's on a roll he's feeling it I'm going to let it lay. Yeah, and yeah, it's embarrassing. And the reason I just don't do it more often is because my boot button is so much further away. I don't want to lean into it. Anyway, I can talk on and on and on about that promo.

Everything felt real. It felt organic. We were talking about the Sting Darby Allen promo the week before. And it was a great promo. I'm not cutting it down. I'm not hating on it. But I pointed out simply that one of the ways that promo could have been made better was to make it feel more organic. and not put it in front of a setting that looked like a setting.

Now, a set. I was told later that that's actually Sting's front door or Sting's house. Great. It still looked like a set because they lit it that way. Yes. Rock's shooting that out in front of his gem or whatever it was, wherever it was. It made it look real. It made it look spontaneous.

It made it look unproduced. And that's why it felt so organic. That, among other things, his ability to deliver it and drop in some f-bombs in there and all that stuff made it feel real. And that's what this is about, right? Getting people engaged in your story by making it feel real.

And contrast what we saw a lot of Darby Allen and Sting last week. Again, great promo, delivery was excellent, change in mood, breaking character, suck me in. I could put it over for a long time. The thing I can't, What I put over is the setting in which it took place.

If that same promo would have taken place in a setting, much like Rocks did, a natural environment, which is a little tougher because these guys are wearing makeup. I get it, but it can still be achieved. That promo would have been on the same level or had the same level of enthusiasm that this promo does for me. It was close. But rock promo, I hope sets a trend. I hope they do it more often by new and creative ways to do it. all why making it feel organic.

Otherwise, it's just like we see on TV and it won't be. Okay, I'm off that. Do you think I for one really like the idea as silly as this is of the rock cursing? I know that sounds dumb and it sounds simplistic, but one of the things I liked about ECW is the guys would just talk like real guys did. Like the idea that, you know, there was a storyline once where, you know, the Dudley boys broke Tommy Dreamer's girlfriend, Buella McGillacutty's neck with a 3D, the Dudley death drop through the table or whatever,

and now she's in a neck brace and blah, blah, blah. If Tommy Dreamers promo would have been, Bubba Ray Dudley, I'm going to kick your butt. I am so upset with you. Man, that's not how real people talk. But the rock in delivering. man to man from the bottom of my heart fuck your story

was like wow that's the way people talk in real life like the real Dwayne Johnson and that's the way people talk and it felt real and we know it's wrestling we know it's entertainment we want to suspend or disbelief but I'm curious

since we're headed towards Netflix and it's no longer going to be on broadcast television for Monday Night Raw. I know that SmackDown is still going to be on USA. But the old regime thought we need to be more advertiser friendly. We need to be more PG. I get all that.

But it does feel like the Rock can pretty much do what he wants. And I for one and four, the adult language. And then on Smackdown, there was a reference. And I think this might be the first reference in WWTV, where we say the words cocaine. and meth. That was crazy.

I just don't. These are things we've never seen before in WWE F bombs, references to cocaine and meth. And part of me is like, is this the rock just doing whatever the hell he wants because he can? Or do you think the WWE is like, I'm not saying going full blown attitude era. But if we're going to Netflix anyway, I can turn the volume up a little bit. What do you think? It sure looks that way, right?

The interesting thing will be if that's the case, and I agree with you, it looks like that's going to happen, really. Just being me, and this is the part of, you know, having spent time in the pressure cooker of being an executive, I'll be curious to see how that affects potential sponsorship and advertisers for SmackDown. Does it? Because media buyers aren't going to say, oh, well, that's raw. Netflix because their media buyers work for the company that's buying the average media buyers with their agents right so if you're a car company you're going to go to your ad agency and within that age ad agency there is a media buying group and that media buying group buys the best media

that they can find most efficiently the cost per thousand basis to deliver the impact advertiser is looking for against the audience that is the target audience. And that's just basically how it works. But the people that are on the buying side that do the buying, these are not wrestling fans. These are not people that listen to wrestling podcasts, read dirt sheets, go online, find out what's going on. They have zero knowledge of the industry, generally speaking,

not 100% of the time, but generally speaking. If you put 100 of these people in the room, because they're New York and L.A. based people, right? They're in the ad industry. They're Fifth Avenue kind of people, right? If you put 100 of them in a room and ask them to tell you the difference between Ron Smackdown, couldn't do it. No.

Most of them don't even know what Ron Smackdown is. They're buying numbers all day. Professional wrestling as a whole. If you ask them about, you know, what wrestling companies are in the professional wrestling business that currently have television shows? Out of 100 people, if five of them, 10 of them could answer, I'd be surprised. Right. I'd be pleasantly surprised, if 10 of them answered.

So when something negative is printed in variety, if you will, or any of the publications that advertisers, media buyers, people in the industry, the business of the entertainment business, not wrestling fans, not 83 weeks listeners, right, talking about people that are just in the business of the media business who aren't wrestling fans, when they hear something, see something adverse, negative, about professional wrestling, whether it's AEW, WW, SmackDown Rock, Raw, it doesn't matter. It all has the same impact.

It makes them, I just don't know if I want to pitch wrestling to my client. I don't want to go back to my client and say, hey, I've got a really good media buy. I want to place here, but I need to let you know because we're into programming that's, you know, it's different. It's really popular. People love it. The rocks there, but it is wrestling. Now, if that, if that client doesn't necessarily love the wrestling business,

you could be, you could be, you could be advocating for a product that your, your client is going to look at your cross side for. And that's when I say, it's not that I don't like it. I mean, you've been around me long enough. I got a horrible foul mouth, especially when I'm having fun and getting excited, you know. Fuck, yeah, you do. Yes, I do. But I wonder and I'm a little concern that it will have a negative impact on the ad buying community.

Even though it's on Netflix, it's still wrestling, it's still WWE, it's still the rock. And I'm just curious. That's all. I'm not saying it will or it won't, but I am very curious because historically, that's been an issue in professional wrestling. I think they're going to get a pass because, it's the rock doing it. And I think if I was an advertiser and I had, I don't mean for this to sound dismissive of the pro wrestling biz, clearly I'm a huge fan and a big supporter given all that I do in the space. But a nameless, faceless, a guy that's not known to the mainstream,

like a very talented young performer, I'm sure, but someone who doesn't necessarily have the name recognition and value of Dwayne Johnson. I think. if Dwayne Johnson does it, it's a little different than if we just have every Tom Dick and Harry on the show doing it. Because if I'm an advertiser who's not very familiar with wrestling and I see Joe Schmo, but wrestler number A, I don't know who that is, but he's talking about cocaine and meth. I could see how maybe I would be nervous about that. But I think the headline, anytime the Rock is there is, hey, your commercial is going to air during

Duane Johnson's show. Oh, okay. And so now just because his name is associated to it, it feels like it's going to get a bigger pass. At least that's... It mitigates it. It does soften it up just a little bit. You know, the other thing I was thinking about as you were talking and

realizing, too, is perhaps things have changed in the ad world, in the ad buying world, and even on the client's side. Hold on. I'm reaching for my moot. you're all welcome is by the way is it moot or mute it's it's mute but um what i'd like to do is mute some of these unnecessary charges i see on my credit cards every month and i have to admit i thought i had that figured out until i found out about rocket money that's right rocket money

is one of our advertisers here on the program and we are delighted to tell you about their service because it really really works i just recently turned my parents onto this i've been using Rocket Money for almost two years now, but I turned my parents onto this and I said, Mom, Dad, you got to try this. And my mom is pretty meticulous. She counts herself as like an old school bookkeeper. So she has all these records and keeps track of everything. They're old school, man. They're still balancing a checkbook. They're not using online banking like everybody else. Man, they're writing it down. So she's going through it all and she thought she had a handle on it. Rocket Money is saving them a whole bunch of cash. Let me explain how.

do you have any subscriptions you forgot about or maybe you paid twice and didn't realize it i did my parents did too rocket money can cancel a subscription for you and that is otherwise pretty time consuming and i want you to know like 75% of people have subscriptions they forgot about we could not believe the number of subscriptions that showed up that we had forgotten about my wife had signed up for a bunch of fitness apps and of course whatever the latest and greatest one is she'd sign up for that one. But that meant she used the older ones less and less. And until the card expires, man, you may not ever even know.

But between the different streaming services and all the different delivery services and all the fitness apps, it feels like it's never ending. But thanks to Rocket Money, you're no longer going to waste money on all the things you don't use anymore. And maybe you've been, you know, trying to save money for a while. And it feels like you can't get any traction. Well, you probably got some seepage, my man. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that will find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions,

monitor your spending, and help you lower your bill so you can grow your savings. With Rocket Money, you have full control over all of your subscriptions and a clear view of your expenses. You can quickly see all the subscriptions you have in one place, and man, if you see something you don't want, Rocket Money can help you cancel it in just a few taps. It really is that easy. They even give you a dashboard that shows you this month's spending compared to last month, month. So you can even track your spending habits. All right. My wife doesn't like

that part, but everything else she's on board with. They'll even help you create a custom budget, keep that trending on, keep that spending on track. And they can even help you negotiate to lower your bills. I can't believe this is real. But they can lower your bills by up to 20%.

All you got to do is take a picture of your bill and rocket money will take care of the rest. Their customer service will handle it with their customer service for whatever service. you're talking about. Rocket money now has more than 5 million users. We're talking savings of over $500 million in canceled subscriptions, and most folks are saving up to $740 a year. Think about that. Rocket money subscribers are saving $740 a year when they use all the app's features. How much can you

save? Find out right now when you stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash 83 weeks. That's rocketmoney.com slash 83 weeks, rocketmoney.com slash 83 weeks. So, Eric, you were saying, you think perhaps maybe the ad buying process, the buyers and the relationships have maybe changed a little bit. Well, I think maybe culture's changed. And as a result, you know, things are not the same in the ad buying environment as they were, even two or three years ago.

And an example of that is, have you ever watched the show Gutfield? I have. I saw, what's the, Tyrus on there once? Yeah, I watch it regularly. It is a funny show. It's current events, current topics, but it's just, it's comedy. And it's one of the highest rated late night comedy shows for us the board, so Jimmy Kimmel and everybody else and outperform.

So it's a funny, funny show. And I've noticed in the last six months or so that I've been watching it, progressively, it started out slowly, but progressively, they're just dropping F bombs and everything else on that show. Now they're bleeped out, right? But it doesn't matter, you know they're there. In the past, even if you were able to bleep something out, it wasn't as bad as us hearing it, but advertisers and the ad agencies that we worked with got very sensitive about

that. Either way, once or twice is, hey, sorry, it was an accident. It's the only way we could cover it up. Seven-second rule, live TV. But if it happened consistently, you could lose advertisers as a result. They just didn't want to be in that environment. And I think perhaps because things have changed so dramatically in entertainment with streaming and the competitive nature of it, it started out with the internet. You know, clients were spending more and more money advertising on the internet, which means they were spending less and less money advertising on television. This is going back to the 90s now, late 90s. happen progressively even more and more through the 2000s.

But I think now, and the fight to get eyeballs is so competitive, more so than it's ever been, that perhaps some of those barriers are coming down. And advertising agencies and their clients are just going, you know, this is the way things are going. And if we want to reach our customers, if we want to reach our target audience, we're just going to have to live in that environment. Maybe that's part of it too. what did you think of the uh the promo from smackdown let's talk about that for a minute because we saw the show start with the bloodline roman rains and the rest of the crew were

out first uh he cuts a promo hands the paul to my to to paul haman hands the paul hands the mic to paul you know what i'm saying and then they say you're going to see the people's champ after this commercial break pa through to a commercial from inside the ring i just love that we're And by the way, I know that we as viewers of the show may not enjoy that. I get that. But let me just tell you the value that an ad agency or an advertiser sees in that as part of no longer being a necessary evil, but really becoming almost a part of the show as silly as it may be

and frustrating as it may be if you're in the arena and everybody's just going to stand there for a few minutes. For the television audience standpoint, that's huge. here comes the rock he cuts a really long promo he's healing on the crowd sort of putting a button on his social media promo and that's when he lays out what the plan is no cody roads i will not wrestle you one on one we're going to do a tag match on night one and i know you'll love this part eric with steaks eric is big on steaks not just filets and ribbis but stakes in a match.

The idea being if the Rock and Roman Raines win, then it's bloodline rules on night two for Cody's world title shot. But if Cody and Seth win, the bloodline is banned. They're not even allowed to be at night two of WrestleMania. It's just Roman Reigns. And you could see Paul Heyman's eyes twitching a little bit as he's saying all of this, but as if we needed another. little I don't know piece of popcorn to track back our steps it seems like we know

kind of what's going to happen now on night one would you think of the execution of the promo and the laying out of the response and then the the stakes for the new match again I loved it for a lot of different reasons we were 10 minutes into that promo before anybody said a word yes 10 minutes and changed I think 10 30 before any before we heard our first syllable how awesome is that that's awesome that's how you hold an audience if you have the talent in the story behind it right that kind of matters i love the way it was laid out i'm not surprised at the way this is set up the stakes tag match first night, kind of saw that coming way early on.

I wasn't sure how they were going to get into it, but given Seth's involvement at the press conference and Cody and the kind of things that have happened between Cody and Seth between, you know, beginning of the story with Rock and now it didn't surprise me and all that we were going to see a tag with Cody and Seth. Right. Or Rock and Roman. Saw that coming. Just didn't know how it was going to be set up.

But now it's clear, or is it? This is why I love this so much. Did you, if you go back and watch that promo, or perhaps you noticed the same thing I did. Maybe everybody did. And I'm kidding myself thinking that maybe I saw something unique. But from early on in that promo, just looking at facial expressions or lack thereof, really, they're building the heat between Roman and Rock. No doubt.

Roman doesn't like being overshad now. And now it was so obvious in that promo, the storyline perspective, acknowledge me. Yes. And then the hug after, that's like a mafia hug. Oh, I'm going to hug you right before I kill you because that's how that works. Right. So there's more than one story or possible elements of one story that are evolving right before our eyes. That is a promo that tells a story, not just in the narrative of the promo, but in the subtle physical reactions of the talent in the ring.

And I want to back up one second. When you pointed out that Paul Heyman threw to a commercial break, that was really significant because for decades now, decades and decades and decades, whenever there was a throw to a commercial break, where did it come from? It came from the announcers. Michael called the announced desk, yeah. Yeah. And guess what?

People tune announcers out. Yes, they do. They're just background noise for the most part. No offense to announcers. I was one. It was one of my favorite jobs in professional wrestling, but it is what it is, right? Yes.

But when you've got a talent in the ring throwing to a commercial break, that's as close as you could get to an in-ring sponsorship is that you can without actually having a product in your hand. That was really, really significant. And I bring that up because people will go back and listen to what you said. You know, people, they throw to the break all the time.

Yeah, announcers do. Right. Not talent's in the ring. That's a first in my book that I can ever recall. Probably am right. Very, very. I love that. That's the kind of thing that gets me.

I'm excited. All right. Where did we leave off? Let's talk about, you know, we mentioned the drug use reference and the Rock was about to close the promo, lean down if you smell, here comes Roman's hand. He wants one thing, acknowledge me, he acknowledges him as his tribal chief, fans start booing, they're chanting you sold out, he reminds everybody, Rock being he, this is family. Look at Hammond's face right there.

And I'm going to tell you, The Rock had one of the funniest lines. They call it a callback and stand-up comedy, but the way he closed the promo where he goes, now go home and smoke some more crack. I laughed out loud. I rewound it. I watched it again.

This morning over breakfast, I made Megan watch it because it just tickled me. now go home and smoke some more crack this is rock at his best it was hilarious it was well done but the story wasn't finished because then they do their big bloodline pose and just like they did last week the rock joins in but he's not just doing the regular old point up he's got the thumb out for the yell and silver throw that back up this time paul haman notices You see him taking a look like, wait a minute. Dude, that is, I didn't even notice that during the promo, but that is so cool.

Look at, look at Uso, look at Solo, look at Roman, and now look at the Rock's finger compared to everyone else's and then look at Paul Heyman, the wise man, observing and seeing what the hell's going on. And even when the Rock was running through the stakes, man, it looked like Hayman was having an epileptic seizure or something. I mean, he was, the facials were off the charts. So you know, I mean, listen, the clues

lead you to believe we're still going to get our Rock Roman match, but maybe it's going to be SummerSlam. But if you recall, when Cody said in that first promo in Birmingham when he was sort of tagging in the rock for his spot, I don't just want to take the title from you. I want to take

everything from you. Well, here we go. The Rock's going to try to destroy the bloodline. and he's going to be a double agent for Cody. Cody's going to win the belt on night too. Ra, rah, rah.

But boy, now we've got something that we can count on and build towards for a really long time. Maybe once upon a time the plan was to hot shot rock and Roman, but now it feels like if they want to, they could pay that off at SummerSlam or they could stretch it out a whole other year at next year's WrestleMania for the first Netflix WrestleMania,

Rock and Roman. But now we've got. a real story. I'm a fan of it. I really thought they've, Brian and Dwayne and Heyman and Bruce and Paul and whoever's got their fingerprints on this. This was really well done.

I was a big fan of them. So well done. And this is a reason we can, look, we all love wrestling. We watch it. There are periods of time when we're more excited about it than others.

But this is one of those times. And I think the writing, the storytelling, the progressive nature of the story, every week it's getting more and more interesting, it's episodic, it's everything that I at least need a drum about in terms of the way wrestling works best. It's not just an exhibition of people that can fly around and do crazy shit and cut their heads open with pliers and scissors and screwdrivers and bullshit. There is great storytelling. There is great performance in professional

wrestling and we're seeing it right now vis-a-vis the writing and the creative that's going into this going back to what I suggested her at the beginning of the show. I think they came into this WrestleMania situation with Rock. They had one idea. Rob reacted in a way that nobody expected and they had to pivot. And their pivoting effort that they put into that pivot is making the original story so much better. Yes. But it's good writing. It's little detail. It's nuance, and it's making sure that the story progresses every single time. That's a well, how many times have you heard me talk about a disciplined arc? This is an example of a well-disciplined arc.

You know what's cool too, Eric? They've really shown some patience. You know, like it would have been really easy. And it felt like they were going to have to go very quickly just based on the timeline. but like, you know, Cody threw down the challenge last weekend, an elimination chamber. He wanted a match one-on-one. Since then, we've had a Raw. We've had an Nxte, and it took until Smackdown for the Rock to respond.

And Cody was at the Smackdown show. He wrestled in a dark match after the show, I believe. But we didn't have Cody in that segment. We didn't have Seth in that segment. We've really taken our time. And Rock even said, next week in Dallas, we're going to get your answer. They're really taking their time.

They're not just trying to throw it all out there this week. I thought that was another thing they've done really, really well. And when you talk about discipline, that's what I think about. Because sometimes we've seen people trying to put, as we say in the South, 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag. That's not what we're doing here. Last night or Friday night was all about the rock and the bloodline. We'll get the answer from Cody and Seth next week on the show.

I think they're going to do great ratings on the build for this. And this is about as good of execution as we could have expected, I think. I agree. A thousand percent. It's just, I don't know if it's perfect, but it's probably as close as we're going to see in live professional wrestling. It was so good. It just hats off to everybody involved in a creative side.

I'm sure Brian is leading that charge with regard to Rock. Always had a lot of respect for Brian, but even more. show now. Awesome. Kudos to all involved. Let's talk about something that your boy, your great close personal friend, Dave Meltzer, has reported. In the most recent observer, he says that John Sina is now tentative for WrestleMania. And if he does appear, the idea is for him to do something fun, short, and memorable. Of course, W.W.E. is just full of talent right now. They've got a ton of stars. And they don't just have one WrestleMania show. They've got two

whole days worth. So they've got plenty of opportunity to do something with John. I want to mention that he has a new movie coming out later this week. Ricky Stenickey, it also stars Zach Efron, who was the lead star from the Iron Claw. And the trailer looks absolutely phenomenal. It feels like he's got a lot of momentum outside of wrestling right now and popping back in for a huge WrestleMania.

That's good for him. It's good for WWE, but it doesn't. make you wonder what will they do with him if you were going to bring in john sina we saw last year he wrestled austin theory and austin theory beat him there wasn't really sufficient follow through for that for me what would you do with john sina this year is there anybody on the roster that stands out to you that you think could do really could be really served well by having that john sina rub or is there a scenario that you think just makes sense to plug him in right away?

You know, I don't know what I would do with John. So much of that, you know, the answer to that would depend upon, you know, is John going to be billed on a semi-regular basis or is just a one-off? If it's a one-off, I'd probably involve him in an angle somehow, making an example, bad example, typical example, but, you know, making a save, integrating John at some point when you least expect him for a baby face needs some support and let him have that moment, let him share that reaction to the crowd, let him get somebody over and, you know, let him go about his movie making business. If he's going to be back on a regular basis or even a semi-regular basis, once a month, once every two months, that's different than maybe you can create some kind of an ongoing relationship with the talent.

But I would imagine this is a one-off. I just put them in the best possible light I could, let somebody else benefit from that. it's a part of an angle so to speak and just let it be at that as opposed to forcing him in necessarily but there's so many things you know john's that's a talented guy he's a funny guy there's probably a million other ways to use john but it's off the top of my head that's how i would i hope that he gets a uh a good spot on not one but both nights i think john sina is on the verge of becoming a much bigger hollywood star and i don't know how often we're going get to see him do this sort of thing again so let's uh let's enjoy it while we got it

by the way speaking of enjoying it while we got it can we talk about basketball here for a minute prize picks has made basketball so fun for me prize picks is now the largest daily fantasy sports platform in all of north america we think it's the easiest and most exciting way to play because it's just you against the numbers so instead of battling thousands of other players like the pros and the sharks, all you're doing is picking more than or less than on two to six different player stat projections and you just watch the winnings roll in. You see, football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up, whether it's tournament season or the fight for playoff home court. There's just no shortage of high stakes basketball moments this

time of year. But we want you to get in on the excitement with prize picks, America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. You can now win 100 X your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. That's right. You can turn 10 bucks into $1,000 with the NBA, NHL, and college basketball entries all on prize picks, America's number one daily fantasy sports app. By the way, those conference tournaments are here, and that means the biggest moments in college basketball are getting closer, be part of it.

the action for both men and women's college basketball. I want to mention price picks has injury insurance. Let me explain. Your entries stay in play even if one of your players gets injured. So for basketball games, if you have a player who exits in the first half and does not return in the second half, that player projection won't count against you and the rest of your entries stay live. I don't know if anybody else who's doing that. I think you're going to love it. Prize picks is really simple to play. You make your picks and get submitted with your entries. in less than 60 seconds. They've got quick withdrawals.

They've got easy gameplay. They've got an enormous selection of players and stat types. That's why we think prize picks is the number one daily fantasy sports app. They've even just added Apple Pay. So it's easy to get going all in time for basketball season. Check it out. Here's how easy it could be. I think Steph Curry is going to get more than 29 points.

I think Joe Kik is going to get less than 10 rebounds. That's it. Boom. You're live, pal. Download the app today and use our code 83 weeks for a first deposit match of up to $100. We're talking about prize picks, y'all. Download the app and use our code 83 weeks for a first deposit match of up to $100 prize picks. Pick more, pick less. It's that easy. So we're excited to see John Sina doing whatever he might do at WrestleMania. I do want to ask you about a little bit of a controversy over the weekend. Maxine Dupree was booed at a house show. And man, it became a hot button issue.

Dave Meltzer would say this led to Ripley and Vega making social media post. Ripley wrote, I really wish that some of you got booed and ridiculed in the public eye while being new at your job. Learning and getting better is all part of being human. Be better as humans. Vega wrote This is absolutely horrible She doesn't deserve that

She's such a kind soul And really works hard I would love if the bad parts of the biz Don't harden her heart They probably just mad Because they can't drink your bathwater, Maxine And of course a lot of fans Have been

Drawing a line in the sand About If this is out of bounds or not Dave Meltzer was saying pretty clearly he doesn't think that booing someone because they're not very good is rude. Now if you're saying something that's sexist or if you're saying something that's homophobic

or some sort of awful slur then hell yeah, we need to kick your ass out of there. But the idea that fans shouldn't be allowed to boo, whether you're cheering or you're booing, whatever you're cheering or you're booing, that's part of the game. They bought a ticket. They've earned that right.

But I appreciate the ladies on the roster coming to support Maxine what do you think of this I don't like the fact that yeah

and and sorry what's her Vega keep forgetting her current name I don't like them that's to me that's exactly how you don't use

social media right i don't want to know what you're really like i want to buy into your character i don't want to know your feels or your virtues i want to believe in your character especially when you're promoting your social media under your character name with your character images I just, I don't want that. I want social media. As a fan, I appreciate and enjoy talent, use their social media and stay within character. That's just me. And the other reason I don't like it is because it's all it's going to do is encourage more bad behavior.

You're acknowledging bad behavior. What happens when you acknowledge bad behavior in social media? You get more of it. it just doesn't make any sense to me to try to use social media to mitigate or soften a situation like we're talking about. As far as the talent is concerned, suck it up, babe, you're in the entertainment business. Conrad, Cassio and Cody Forcer and some of the other people that you hang with and friends that you've met that are seeing, Shulie, how many of those people that you know that have

that make a living as professional stand-up comics have never been booed. It's part of the process. You have to learn. And you certainly have to learn how to tough it up and not be emotionally affected by it. If you're that sensitive and you're going to be affected so badly by somebody booing you because you had a bad night, then you're in the wrong business. Suck it up. Use it.

Turn it around. Do some jiu-jitsu on that shit and make it work for you as opposed to working against you. And ask your friends not to feel sorry for you publicly because all that's going to do is encourage people to do it even more. I think it was a mistake. As far as should fans or shouldn't they, is it a rule? Did they step over the line? I fucking hate the fact that I'm going to agree with. shit-stained Dave Meltzer.

But even he gets it right once in a while. You're coming to an event so people can express extreme emotion, cheering, booing. If you're lucky, throwing stuff and getting so emotional that they lose control. That's your job. So if you have a job where you know you're soliciting and trying to create. extreme emotion amongst an audience of spending good money to go there and just let that shit loose and you happen to have a bad night and get booed suck it up any questions anybody know anybody have any idea how i really feel about this let me ask you a question here like i

know that people were saying well she's only had like 10 matches it was a house show guys where is she supposed to wrestle like it's not like they carded her out on TV this happened at a house show that's what you're supposed to work the kinks out of shit I mean yeah and that's where you're supposed to when things go bad

learn how to deal with it yes okay what went wrong go back behind the curtain instead of crying and moping and rushing to your fucking Instagram or whatever it is you're doing well then she didn't do any of that friends I know she didn't do it I'm not putting the heat on her but I'm just saying instead of going back and being

mopey about it. Maybe she wasn't. Maybe she's doing exactly what I'm going to suggest. Maybe what she was doing was she walked back through that curtain. She went, okay, that sucked. Crowd hated that. What did I do wrong? Can we talk about that match? Tell me how I could have improved. What should I have done? What should I have not have done to get the reaction I got? Learn from it and then go have a pizza or whatever it is you're going to do when the show's over. But don't, you know, it's just It's a mopey, whiny, herts you signaling, just bullshit. Tired of it, tired of it. I love her a real Ripley as a character.

I don't know her as a person. Had a little bit of a conversation with her a couple months ago. Did a very nice thing for a good friend of mine. And classy, classy, classy, classy, but keep feels to yourself unless your feels are consistent with your character. Let's talk about a character who we both think a lot of, Drew McIntyre. I was speculating that he was going to be a big part of WrestleMania a few weeks ago, and I think you said, isn't this contract about up?

And I thought, and I kind of said, I don't think that's an issue. And I got blown up in my DMs saying, oh, that's all wrong. His contract's not signed. He's going to be leaving, blah, blah, blah. Well, now the talk is through has officially resigned with WWV. surprise surprise he's in the main he's not in the main event but he's challenging set Rollins for the world title at WrestleMania yeah he's sticking around and by the way no disrespect but if you're Drew McIntyre why would you go anywhere else I know there's a lot

of people who were fighting for television time on on both channels whether it's AEW or it's WWE but Seth's getting a lot of television time seth is getting good storylines that is in a featured match at WrestleMania. Now ain't the time to say I'm frustrated and I'm leaving. I think if anything. You said Seth you meant Drew. I meant Drew. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And again, this is

going to be a bishop who hates Tony Gun. I don't hate Tony Gun. I don't hate AEW. But just think about it. Be very, very honest with yourself, you people. Even you Kool-Aid drink and muckerel fathers that think that AEW is the best thing since sliced bread. Guess what? It ain't. Take a look at the people

that have left WWE to go to AEW and see where they're at in their careers. Why would anybody go there? You're a star of Drew's magnitude so that you can end up in the AEW witness protection program or wrestling in front of 2,500 people for a dynamite? Why would you do that? Silly. He's going to go where the money is.

And right now the money's in WWE and he's in a great position. and I'm sure that everybody knew that this contract was going to get closed if it hadn't already been closed months before this. Yes. Perhaps it wasn't finalized. Perhaps my attorney is going to send it to your attorney and, oh, we've got to change a few things here, non-material items, just want to clean it up a little bit. Not sure I understand this.

The process of attorneys going back and forth with agreements, as you know, contract, Conrad, can take an excruciating amount of time. but I'm sure everybody had a meeting of the mind a long time. I, I for one, am really excited to see what they do with Drew. I think I like his character more now than I have his entire run.

I think WWE has just got the hot hand in a lot of ways right now. But one of the things they may not have the hot hand in is legal battles with old court power. It was officially made public on the TKO investor car. all, that that was a $20 million settlement with MLW.

And Dave Meltzer would note this. An interesting note is that since this was settled in December and the money was paid in 2023, MLW had a bigger profit for the year than any pro wrestling company other than WWE, not only for this year, but for any company other than WWE, except for WCW in 1997 and 1998. Now, of course, he's having some fun with that,

because by the time it's all divvied up, he's got to pay attorneys. And I know his wife's an attorney and his family's attorneys, but still, he just feels like maybe that's a little part before the horse to say they're the most profitable, yada, yada. But 20. I don't think it is.

You know? I think it's probably accurate. I would be, first of all, I don't think it's actually 20 million is the profit. That's what I'm saying is after costs and expenses and all that jazz. I don't know if that's necessary. Well, typically,

If, now, I didn't know that his wife's in a certain, did his wife handle this case? I'm not sure. But I do know that I shouldn't say I know. I believe that whatever happened in this MLW case is probably related to why one of the reasons maybe Stephanie stepped aside originally. And I also believe, again, I have nothing, just a gut feeling. But I have a feeling that when all of a sudden, out of the blue seemingly, McDivitt steps down and retires. That's the that's the point out of that they had something somewhere that was cod locked because we've heard forever that WWE has the best attorneys in the game

and when this lawsuit hits somewhere in the middle of it the guy who's been the face of all those victories he just he's out of here and now they cut a 20 million dollar check they had something pretty damn concrete I don't want to speculate as to what that is I think we've all heard different rumors and innuendo, but the idea was that they were trying to, if you recall the genesis of this lawsuit, they were trying to accuse WV of basically having a monopoly and unfair business practices and tampering with their television deal and I guess MLW had a television deal and now they don't. They could actually show damages for that.

$20 million here. Goodness gracious. Yeah, let's back that up a little. So it's a $20 million lawsuit. Let's assume, big assumption here, but let's assume a law firm took that on a contingency. Yes. That means that law firm would have, would probably take a third, 33%. Yeah.

So you're taking about $7 million right off the top. Yes. Now you're down to $13 million. I'm pretty sure I could be wrong. I'm sure there's an attorney out there that will correct me. but unlike personal injury damages to come vis-a-vis a lawsuit. Right. So in other words, if you rear-end me and I break my back and blah, blah, blah, blah,

and I spent two months in a hospital and surgeries and all that, that, and I sue you and I get a check for $100 for that lawsuit, that's not taxable as a personal injury. A business dispute, I don't know. It could very well be considered taxable income. So let's say you got $13 million and, oh, okay, well, about 50% of that's going to go to taxes. So now you're down to about $7 million, down to about $7 million. But that's a far cry from $20 million, isn't it?

But I think your point about Jerry McDivitt that Jerry loved to fight. That's why Jerry and Ms. McMahon, I have been so tight since going back to the steroid trial. Jerry McIvitt is a fighter. He would rather fight than fuck. He is that kind of a fighter, and he's good at it. For whatever reason, whether it was McDivitt's retirement, whether it was something that was part of this lawsuit, forced a change of attorney, whatever it was, where Jerry, McDivit is no longer the charge, that was probably a sea change in the way WWE is going to

conduct business in the future from a legal perspective. And clearly, there was something. Here's another point that I want to make. Again, a good attorney or any attorney, probably fresh out of attorney school, what they call that? Oh, yeah, law school could probably correct me on this. But in a situation where there's contract tampering, tortuous interference, is the legal term. Yeah. It is considered a tort claim, which has attached what they call treble damages. So if I say, well, Conrad fucked around with my contract and you see, I could show you that I would have made $100 if Conrad wouldn't have fucked around on my contract. And the judge goes, yep, Conrad's a bad dude.

Now, judgment for the plaintiff, here's your, oh, no, it's not $100 because it's a torsious interference claim. it's $300 or $500. I'm not sure with the hole. What is it, 3X? Three, yeah. Yeah, so there's trouble damages in there. So conceivably, conceivably,

MLW court was able to show damages in around $7 million. Yeah. Interesting. Here's what I would say to court. Take that money, invest it. buy a nice little house on the beach and consider your excursion into the professional wrestling business a huge success and hold on to you well i i think he's already got the house on the beach and i agree with you i think it would be time to cash out i don't know if the rumor in innuendo

is true maybe he has some some investors maybe this uh keeps them going a little longer i hope if he wants to keep going he does keep going i mean i i know they're still promoting shows I don't know if those were buildings that were booked in advance, but I think he sees the big vision. I think he, for better or worse, is a wrestling lifer. And I think it's probably not a bad thing to have, you know, maybe a little war chest there for MLW if they are trying to level up. Anything that gives guys more reps on TV, I'm a fan of.

And they got some entertaining acts over there like our palmanz Horner. And, man, you would love Microwman if you haven't seen him before. lots of fun stuff with MLW and high five man a 20 million dollars not a lot of people get a 20 million dollar check from WWE so kudos to them I just read a report that America is now in more credit card debt than ever before more than 1.1 trillion dollars you know my grandfather used to say there's no stress like money stress son well are you feeling that right now let me help you've got a friend of the mortgage business and me and I've helped families just like yours save hundreds of dollars a month.

Seriously, we've helped listeners to this podcast save up to $800 a month. At savewithconrad.com, we routinely help our podcast listeners consolidate all of their high interest rate credit cards into just one much lower monthly payment. Would you like to lower your monthly payments? Wouldn't it be nice to skip your next two house payments? Are you finally ready for some breathing room and peace of mind? start saving money today with your friend of the mortgage business, me at savewithconrad.com. You don't need perfect credit, you don't need money out of your pocket, and if we can't help you save some cash, we won't waste your time.

You see, at savewithconrad.com, we don't say no. We say not yet, but here's how. We want to be your mortgage advisor for life. So find out how easy it is to finally get rid of your credit card debt once and for all, get a much lower monthly payment, and even skip your next two house payments. let's find out how much money you can save for free at save with conrad.com and my list number 32416 equal housing lender

save with conrad.com let's talk a little bit about TNA it was reported in the observer that there's been some discussion that they might actually look at taking up residency in a sound stage not just any old sound stage full sale university

that's right the same place where T&A used to I'm sorry, NXT used to do their shows back in the day. The Observer says Ed Nordham, Scott DeMore, and Lou DeAngeli had made a connection with Full Sail University in Orlando as a location. It recently toured the camps after DeMore was let go and Nordholm was removed from the picture. Leonard Asper and other execs were also said to be interested in toured full sale. The original plan for a test weekend taped shows at the new location, whether full sale or somewhere else, in May or June. June with the idea of starting up going live each week late in 24 or early in 2025.

Now, I found that interesting for variety reasons. First of all, full sale to me will always be associated with NXT. So I like the idea of it's no longer just the T&A soundstage that we've used in Orlando forever. Full sale, we know looks cool. It's familiar to wrestling fans, et cetera, et cetera. But the idea that they're looking to go live. man, that could be very, very costly, as TNA found out once upon a time when you were there.

But if it's done right, it could be very, very effective. We saw how effective it was for Nitro. What do you think about this new discussion of should they go live every week? And could it work at full sale as opposed to a touring live show? Will it work? To be able to answer, will it work or not, would require both? of us, either of us, having a better understanding of what their goals are. Right.

And the expenses, costs, talent, all that. Here's, it won't make any difference to their bottom line. It was, as you pointed out, T&A found out it was expensive. That's only if you tour, you know, going to different arenas and having to fill up arenas and traveling all over the country and not having a set location. That's where the actual shooting a show, especially in today's environment, shooting a show live versus shooting it and producing it, it's not the cost of production that is such a hurdle.

It's the travel and the setup that goes along with it. So if they've got a home base and they're not traveling per se on a weekly basis, then live aspect isn't going to be that dramatic. Not going to be that big of a hit. But it's also not going to, you know, you mentioned, well, work for Nitro. Nitro toured. The touring live is what worked for Nitro, which is one of the reasons WWE followed suit and started doing what we were doing and presenting live every week.

It's one of the reasons AEW is live every week because we proved the model that live television is more interesting, but only if it tours and you've got a crowd that becomes a part of the show. Being live in a sound stage is just the difference between being live in the sound stage and being taped in a sound stage from a net net perspective as far as the audience is not going to make it. The audience won't care. It's not the same as touring.

It's not the same as being an arena. You don't get the same energy in a sound stage that you get in the arena in front of a I've a real audience. Not that this audience won't be a real. They're live human beings, real people, I know. But these are probably much like T&A was when T&A was in Orlando, is you're going to get the same core of people there each and every week and you're not going to get the same vibe, the same reaction,

the same energy out of that audience that you would if you were touring. So at the end of the day, I just don't think it's really going to be significant one way or the other. It'll be neutral. we should mention that they have had a lot of success recently. Meltzer would say, to say hard to kill, which is their most recent pay-per-view from Las Vegas,

was an overwhelming success would be an understatement. It ended up doing 19,700 buys on television pay-per-view. Let me take a time out right there. That means not through fight or some of the streaming services, not a digital buy on a website or a laptop or a computer. But if you're ordering through cable or direct TV or dish or whatever, and you have the remote and you hit the button, 19,700 buys there. Beltzer would continue.

That's more than double the prior pay-per-view bound for Glory, which did under 6,900 on TV, and that was considered a huge success. The show ended up doing far more than even the Kenny Omega Rich Swan Champion versus Champion Show. If you factor in streaming buys, this should end up at around $60,000, which would be the same as the Samoa Joe. Kurt Angle record that was set at TNA Genesis in 06. The idea they did this off access is absolutely mind-blowing.

Obviously, the curiosity about the return to the T&A name was a key part of the draw, but the fact is this hasn't led to a follow-up ticket sales picking up and ratings for the show have been out of top 150 most weeks of late. This was actually one system that caters, or there was actually one system that caters to rural areas where they actually beat A.E.W. Worlds in, which makes no sense at all. So let's just time out right there. I know you sort of chuckled when I said 19,700 buys, but when you factor in streaming, 60,000 buys means it's at least in the conversation to be the most watched T&A pay-per-view in history. And they did this without 2 million people watching on

Spike or whatever they used to do. They did it on AXS, a station most people struggle to even find. But they had some buzz. They had some momentum. And then they fired Scott DeMore. I just can't wrap my head around it, man. Like you've got the high watermark for pay-per-view at an incredible disadvantage television-wise.

I get out of here. Hit the bricks. It's crazy to me. I had to be something more to it. It would be something personal. I don't know. Scott or seems a little bit I've heard about him you conversations I've had with people that have worked with him he's amiable guy he doesn't have an abrasive

personality smart passionate about the business something I don't know I don't want to get in the room or margarine or or cultivate those who do it but it's got to be something else going on, you still know. I mean, listen, there was rumor in any window that he was actually trying to buy the thing. Yeah, but you don't fire a guy for coming to you and saying, hey, I'll give you a couple bucks if you want to sell it. I think perhaps what it came down to was, and I don't know that everybody knows this, but Scott DeMore is a wildly successful businessman.

He's got his family business that has been very lucrative for generations and said differently, he doesn't need wrestling. This is his fun thing that he does. And he's great at it and has a lot of great relationships with the people who were on that team over on T&A. And the rumor and indewendo that I heard is that perhaps there were some disagreements about the way the show should be ran with respect to expenses. I think you and I as business guys, we understand that.

Totally makes sense. But perhaps he happens every day. maybe he wanted to run it his way and he felt like that's what was best for the brand. But it's just, man, it's disheartening to think, man, with this leadership and this decision making, they just had their biggest, most successful pay-per-view of all. And the guy who did it is now on the outside looking in. That's just weird to me. Yeah, it is weird.

It'll be interesting to see what happens going forward because if, you know, all the success that you were just talking about, the pay-per-view and the records and all. that indicates that there's a growth going on there, boom, let's get rid of Scott DeMore, the guy that arguably is responsible, not solely, but partially in large part, to that success. Let's cut him loose because we have a disagreement about how the show should be budgeting. Let's see what happens over the next six months. If they lose that momentum, Scott may be getting a call. It sounds a little bit like my experience in WCW when I first went to Brad Siegel.

Hey, Brad, you might want to think about selling this company while it's still worth something. And of course, Brad looked at me and chuckled. It's not Eric, you know, this company never sells anything. We only buy things. Okay, Brad, cool. Six months later. So, Eric, are you kind of serious about finding somebody to buy it? Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it?

It does. Who knows? Scott, keep your phone turned on. Well, I mean, if you recall, you may be getting that phone call. When this news first happened. when we first discussed it here on 83 weeks. I said I thought it winds up with his hands. And I hope it does.

And something else I hope is that you guys will check out Factor. Eating better is easy with Factor's delicious, ready to eat meals. These are fresh, never frozen meals that have been chef crafted, dietitian approved, and man, they're ready to go in just two minutes. You've got over 35 different options to choose from every single. a week. Things like calorie smart, protein plus, and even keto. There's more than 60 add-ons to help you stay fueled up and feeling good all day long. What are you waiting for? Get started today and get after your goals. There's two-minute meals. That means you can fuel up fast with factors

restaurant quality meals. They're ready to heat and eat wherever and whenever. They've also got your other stuff covered like pancakes and smoothies and more. They can handle all your midday bites, your snacks, and even breakfast. There's no prep, there's no mess. All you do is heat and eat. No more prepping, no more cooking, no more cleanup. And it really is as flexible as your schedule. Think about that.

It's in the fridge, two minutes in the microwave, and bam, you're ready to go. You can also pause or reschedule your deliveries anytime. So maybe if you think, hey man, the wife's out of town this week, I'm going to be fending for myself. Let me get a few extra. Or, you know what, we're going to run out of town. I don't need as many. That's easy to do.

I know because I've done it. I'm a big believer in factor. I have to be honest. We've had a bunch of these type sponsors on the program. Factor is the one that my wife and I continue to order even when they're not sponsoring our program because it tastes freaking great. I mean it. When they say restaurant quality, a lot of people say that and it's not really true.

It is here. If you plated this thing, you would be giving high fives all around and say, who the hell cooked that? But thankfully, we don't do that in my. my house. We just eat it right in the container it comes in. It's that easy. You want to talk about fast, easy, delicious, and oh yeah, affordable. Factor really is perfect if you're looking for fast premium options with no cooking required and you can sign up and save. We've done the math. And Factor is less expensive than takeout. And remember, every meal is dietitian approved

to be nutritious and delicious. Head on over to FactorMeals.com slash 83 weeks 50 and use our code 83 weeks 50 and you'll get 50% off that's code 83 weeks 50 at factor meals.com slash 83 weeks 50 and you'll get 50% off so listen we've got to talk a little bit about Tony Kahn's media call this week I know that we talked about revolution and Sting's last match and all that that's available in the archives we did a live pre-show and a live post show and the best and easiest way to get that is to just go check us out on YouTube if you haven't already go right now to 83 weeks.com hit the subscribe button and be sure to turn on the notifications bell so you won't miss it the next time we're

live you'll actually get to ask Eric questions live he's on camera bring what you got he's ready for it 83 weeks dot com but I bring this media call up to you because Tony Kahn was asked about the profitability of the company and he said that when the new media rights deal goes into effect in 2025 there will be a big bump and from that point

forward the company will be profitable he believes for decades and this deal will put them over the top he said all three shows rampage on Friday night dynamite on Wednesday night collision on Saturday night

exact quote will get huge increases for sure end quote he says 2025 will be the year they go from startup company to a profitable established challenger brand and they will be successful from that point on for decades con is still at this time under an exclusive in that all things at ew can only be negotiated with warner brothers discovery that's a note from dave melzer but man not only is he predicting that they're going to get a bump but he thinks this is going to be a bump that serves as like the foundation of AEW for decades to come,

what say you? Sounds to me like the deal's already been negotiated. Certainly seems like they've had conversations, right? And if that's the case, I'm sure we'll be seeing AEW and have a real high profile visibility during the cable upfronts. Deal's already done. And Tony Conn is convinced and is absolutely sure that all three shows are going to get a significant bump.

He knows something that we all don't know, and we'll be seeing them at the cable up fronts. Or Tony's delusional and is out there hyping something that he shouldn't be hyping, making comments in public about a negotiation that should be, I guess, proprietary, usually is. But we'll find out, you know, he may be right. Tony may absolutely know something. None of us know. and as a result has enough confidence to go out in publicly state that all three shows are going to be paid significantly more than they have been previously.

If that's a case, congratulations. Find out. We will find out. I am, I for one, am excited to see what happens. Obviously, that's great for wrestling. I know that there's a lot of tribalism in wrestling. but if you're somebody who is rooting for AEW to fail and to not get a huge increase in television rights

said differently you're basically saying you don't like professional wrestling or professional wrestlers it's good for the industry and the people within it and the people trying to consume it at home for there to be an alternative even if you don't like it even if you don't watch it it's just good that it's there so I for one am hoping that

a lot of people feel safe and comfortable in their jobs and their place in the business and the industry and I hope it happens you know it would be hard for me to imagine that they're wildly profitable right now but depending on what these rights fees look like I guess they could be do you think that the numbers will be disclosed Eric I mean when do you think we'll learn those or will we learn those because it's not a publicly traded company? We'll only know those numbers if Turner, Warner Brothers, Discovery, wants the public to know them. And I can't imagine that there would be an upside to that.

Why would they? They're tipping their hat to other producers of programming, to agents. Why would you do that? So, I don't know, unless there's a reason for it, I doubt that we're going to hear it. I don't think that Tony Kahn or anybody in AEW would be out there publicizing it if it wasn't, if there wasn't some provisions within their agreement that they only do so if they're permitted to do so by Porter Brothers discovery, which would normally be the case. Having had quite a bit of experience selling programs as a producer to various networks, including discovery.

including discovery. Every one of those agreements had significant language in them that prevented either Jason or I for disclosing any details of our agreement that wasn't authorized by the network. So I'm sure that's probably, or some version of that is probably true with AEW. So we'll only know if Warner Brothers Discovery wants us to know. Let's talk on some sad news here.

I want to remind everybody if you're looking for Sting Talk or Revolution Talk. It's available now. 83 weeks.com over on YouTube. But Eric, we, man, we had a bad run this past week. It's been said that death's often come in threes.

And in our little wrestling community, man, we got all three this past week. We'll start with our most recent loss, Eric. Paul Vashon, butcher Vashon, the brother of Mad Dog Vashon, the adopted father of Luna Vashon, the former father-in-law of Gangrel. Sadly, passed away on Leap Year Day, February 29th,

2024 at 86 years old. My man had been wrestling since 1957. He lived a full life. Goodness gracious. He spent some time in the AWA. He was a territory guy. He had some runs in New York and the NWA and down in Georgia. Did you ever run across Paul Vashon in the AWA? I did not. I did not. Mad Dog Vashan, yes. Paul Vashan, no.

Mad Dog Vashan before I ever broke into the professional wrestling business is one of my favorite characters in the AWA. He had some of the craziest promos. One in particular I remember. I don't remember who his opponents. But Mad Dog was, he had like a carpenter's apron on and tools, and he was on a set, and he was building a casket, scratch for his opponent, cut his promo while he was building this casket. I just, I don't know why that stands out

on my mind. It was so absurd. And then I met, again, not Paul, but Mad Dog at Slambery 93, I think, perhaps. And by that time, Mad Dog, Paul's brother, had been hit by a car. lost his lower leg as a result so he had a fake leg and I was backstage everybody was around all the old guys were around talking and that dog took off his leg and passed it around so everybody could play with it hopping around on one leg in the locker

in character completely in character but I did not meet Paul if he was anything like his brother he had to be an amazingly fun scary character to be around you imagine that family reunion of Sean's right Luma, Gangrel, Mad Dog, Butcher. That's a group of folks who don't want to mess with.

Can you imagine that one? Can you imagine them just? Yeah, they get together. They're barbecue and a ham or something or turkey up back at the summertime. Everybody's passing around beers or cocktails or whatever. And then things escalate. You know how they do with family get-togethers. You know, all that hidden resentment and anger over stupid shit.

All of a sudden comes to the top when everybody gets drinking and then they start cutting promos on each other. What a hell of a party that would have been, bro. Can you imagine if that group made a, if that family was doing like a road trip and they pulled into some sort of dive bar or restaurant? Maybe it's just like a family restaurant. Even just a cracker barrel. Can you imagine if a Sean's pulling into a cracker barrel? No.

That'd be fun. What a visual. Well, man, what if what a legendary wrestling family. 86 years old, though. man, he got all he could out of this life. And that's not the case for the guy who we all know and love who passed away the day before. I was first introduced to him on WWF programming as Virgil.

When he came over to work with you in WCW, he decided to, hey, let's sort of tongue in cheek. They named him Virgil, which was Dusty Rhodes real name. We'll call him Vincent for Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the real life Mike Jones. who no longer with us just 61 years old god he was so young it's just crazy to even think about um i mean that was the the age that was reported it's it's pretty amazing when you think about the controversy around his death because there's been a little bit of discussion is he 61 or is he 72

he i guess through the years gave different ages maybe in an effort to stay in the game no matter if he was 61 or 72 man he just had a rough run of health a few years ago he was uh found to have colon cancer i believe and i understand he suffered from a few strokes and dementia and unfortunately passed away on the 28th but man do you want to talk about a guy who was there at the two peaks of professional wrestling at least in my mind the golden age of the w f call it 88 89 90 91 all in there and then of course when the company or the industry got really hot again with the nw o in the late 90s he was there late 80s Mike jones is there late 90s Mike jones is there uh an important part of wrestling history no longer with us man

you got to know him a little bit tell us about mike jones he was a happy guy talked a little bit about this on strictly business with elba last week um the last time i saw i was at an autograph signing in albany new york yeah downtown albany actually and mike was there and i got to the building and well you know it wasn't a big wasn't a big event but i got there and Mike came, I saw him coming. I had just gotten set up at my table and I saw him coming from across the venue and he had something in his hand.

He came running over to me. And I'd seen my wrestling conventions, signings, events. It wasn't unusual to cross paths a couple times a year. I saw Mike come out, he was bee lining towards me. He had something in his hand. He came up and he handed me this picture of he and I together and he signed it to me to my friend Eric. Thanks for everything.

and hand it to me in. I set it off the side and he was just smiling, happy. He could tell he was just thrilled to be there at that event. And it was a small little convention. It wasn't a big deal. But he was so happy. When I heard that he passed, it reminded me of really Mike Jones backstage when he was in WCW. He was always smiling.

He was always happy to be there. And the rest of the roster had a lot of respect for Mike, not because he was the greatest wrestler, not because he was the greatest character, but because he loved being there. He loved being a part of it. He loved being a part of it when he was there with the NWO, and possibly arguably the peak of the NWO era.

He was there and he was having fun. And he was having just as much fun Albany the last time I saw him when he ran over and gave me a picture of that's what I remember Mike just a happy one guy what's the piece he comes into the NWO or WCW at a time when the NWO was just hotter than ever was that at the urging you think of the Biasi Hogan how does that idea come to be do you recall I don't really recall who was the catalyst. It could have easily been Ted.

It could have just as easily been Hulk. Could have been somebody else. It's hard to pinpoint. Who raised their hand in a room and said, hey, I have an idea. Why don't we bring in Mike Jones? Put them in the NW. I couldn't tell you.

I didn't tell you the idea. But universally, everybody was excited to have them. Again, everybody on the NWO side had respect for it's um it was a fun run for him in wcw and i know it was maybe when things weren't exactly booming the way they were with the nw o but his participation in the west texas rednecks curly bill that's funny ship and a great sense of humor too he did he had great timing it was uh you know he was even you know his meat sauce gimmick yeah i mean he was He still had his finger on the pulse in a way long after, you know, he saw the red light of a camera.

It's just a character. He was born to character. Shout out to his entire family and all of his friends who loved him. I know Paige and those guys are pretty tore up. I mean, they had a lot of fun with him and certainly gave him a new life on social media. So a really fun tribute from Joey Janella to all the counts. Mike Jones just loved living life, man, and a big part of my childhood, man. His turn with a million dollar man when I was a kid, unbelievable.

And I got to tell you, it only coming out now sort of more mainstream, that the dude just shaved 11 years off of his life and just gave a working day to birth to keep working was just amazing. How wrestling is that? Yeah. Let's see what I mean. he just, he was born for the business. I mean, he would tell people he was born in 62.

He's born in 51. It's unbelievable. I mean, I talked to DDP earlier this week and he was like, man, do you believe he was 61 years old? And I'm thinking, right, sure enough, I did a little digging and it's out there. 72. Somebody who lived a little longer than that was somebody that you got to know pretty well for better or worse.

and in WCW. Oly Anderson. We lost Oly, unbelievably, just two days prior to Mike Jones, February 26th. We lost Oly on the 26th. We lost Mike on the 28th. And we lost Mr. Roshan on the 29th.

Oly had been sick for a long, long time. I don't pretend to be close with anyone in his circle, but I used to be pretty good friends with Peggy Lathen. I know she was pretty tight with Oly. She unfortunately passed away a few years ago. So when I heard the news about Oli passing away, the first person I thought about was Peggy.

But I knew through Peggy that Oli had not been well for years. So in a lot of ways, it's probably a blessing that he's no longer in pain. But I bet like everything else in Oli's life, he was going to do it when he was good and damn ready. What can you tell us about your time with Oli Anderson? I liked Oli a lot before I got any power in WCW. O'I and I, you know, I guess maybe a little bit of the Minnesota connection.

I think Oly had a lot of respect for Vern. I think the fact that I came out of Vern's mentorship, so to speak, coming out of AWA, I think I automatically got a little bit of a hall pass with Oly as a result. And we got along great for a long time. You liked the fact that I was an amateur wrestler in high school and college. You got a kick out of that. We'd wrestle around back in the production office every once in a while. And just it had a lot of fun with Oli.

He had a great sense of humor if he was comfortable around you. If he wasn't comfortable around you, he was just the biggest jackass on the planet. It was either one or the other. There was not a lot of middle ground with Oly. Very little, if any, gray area. You knew exactly. whether or not only was comfortable around you, liked you. I don't think he liked a lot of people, but comfortable around you or he wasn't.

And, you know, obviously once I took over WCW and he ended up working for me, I think that was tough on him. There's some resentment there. And I think only in general resented anything in everyone that had progressed in the business once he stopped. once Oly was no longer the booker or a main character in a program. Once Oly had to kind of be on the sidelines and coach people from the sidelines or try to build, you know, in case of O'Lei Anderson, the live event business,

he wasn't comfortable. O'I wasn't comfortable in the office. He hated it. He hated coming to the office. And he was miserable in that. environment, but it was tough. He was stubborn, much like Vern Gagne was stubborn, much like Bill Watts was stubborn. These are guys that came up and experienced a tremendous amount of success in the business at a time when their way of conducting business worked. But once it

no longer worked in the business involved, Oli was kind of frustrated. Sometimes that frustration would come out at the worst possible times. But I tend to think back when I first heard Oli passed, I thought back to him and I fucking around back in a post-production studio and just having fun. I choose not to remember the crabby part of Oli because we all experienced a little bit of that too. Tough guy, stubborn as fuck, was proud of it, had a great career. What was one of the, can you tell us one of the things you learned or maybe one of the greatest things you learned from Oli, because I know when you come into wrestling, I mean, you're still a bit of a novice. You're learning.

You're wet behind the ears. Man, by the time you get there, he's done it and seen it all. Did you learn anything that you carried with you for the rest of your wrestling adventure? I can't really say that I did because O'I was so much like Vern. And that's probably one of the reasons I gravitated towards him immediately. I first got to know Oli. It was just like talking to Vern. And it wasn't really anything to learn.

There was a lot that Oli reinforced, I think, from my time in the AWA and our kids, only would talk for hours about psychology and mostly about psychology. And it was like listening to Vern and like listening to Wahoo McDaniels or listening to Ray Stevens. I'd spent hours and hours and hours over the years listening to those guys after the office closed. Now, when there was a refrigerator in the AWA offices that was always filled with Miller-Light. And, you know, at the end of the day, we'd all sit around and have a couple beers and I'd just sit and listen to stories. I didn't have any to contribute, all I could do is listen. But to sit there with Vern and Wahoo and Ray Stevens, it's just, you know, Greg Gagne, it was just,

much fun listening to them talk about wrestling so that when I left that environment, I go to Turner where I was an outsider. Nobody knew me. I didn't really have anything in common with the new kid on the block. But Oli was kind of like an extension of that wrestling family I had in the AWA. It's pretty remarkable what all Oli did behind the scenes of professional wrestling. I mean, I think most people listening to know that he was a top star and a top draw and a main event everywhere he went. And then we saw him, you know, towards the end of his career, teaming with Aaron Anderson and becoming one of the founding members of the Four Horsemen and all that stuff.

But behind the scenes, I mean, he just had a genius mind for booking. Before there were writers in professional wrestling, there were bookers. And he was in such high demand, he would book more than one territory at a time, which couldn't have been easy but clearly it was working and you know i think he still had a logging business and i mean he was an entrepreneur he got professional wrestling and maybe he wasn't always the kindless gentlest soul but he was our archie bunker of professional wrestling and that's a great way to say it bro and and i know that he's a polarizing figure and and i don't pretend that i know only but i don't know how you could take a look at his resume

man, his contributions and not feel like he left wrestling a better place than he found it. Thoughts and prayers to his extended family and, man, the family of not just totally Anderson, but Mike Jones and Paul Vashon, I mean, three days, almost back to back to back of just, gosh, I hope that's the last time we have to talk about something like that for a while here, Eric. Me too. Me too. All right, listen up.

We've got great news. We're excited to announce a new affiliate. at partnership with fanatics and the WWB shop, it's an easy way to support your favorite podcasts. Shop official WW gear and apparel by using our special URL, shop wrestlingmerch.com. That's shop wrestlingmerch.com. Or if you're watching along with us on YouTube, just hit that QR code that's up on the screen right now and check out the description below for the link. We'll have it up on all of our socials as well. But you can shop with confidence for your favorite at WW Superstar, T's, hoodies, caps, championship belts, and more with the WWE shop.

And don't forget to use our special link, shop wrestlingmerch.com. Not only we get some great deals and some great swag, but it's also an easy way to support the show. That's shop wrestlingmerch.com. We are going to be talking next week about your book. We did a poll over on YouTube about what you wanted us to talk about next. And you can vote in all of our polls. That's where they're going to be moving forward.

83 weeks.com. Next week, we're going to be breaking down Eric's book. Controversy creates cash. And we're going to read back what Dave Meltzer had to say about your book. Of course, we'll cover all the news and notes. I'm sure we're going to see the rumor and innuendo is that we're going to see a big debut on AEW television this week. And you're probably picking up what I'm putting down there because there's one big

free agent who we don't know officially where they are, but we have a good idea. and maybe that will be revealed this week and of course next week we'll be talking about the rock and roman and cody and seth is it just me or does it feel like maybe it's just because it's artificially inflated because it's WrestleMania season but with stings last match and WrestleMania season right here a huge elimination chamber event the huge crowd in Greensboro WrestleMania right around the corner it feels like there's more momentum right now in wrestling when there has been in a few years, Eric.

Would you agree with that? Yeah, and that $5 billion Netflix deal kind of kicked it all off, didn't it? Oh, there's that too. Yeah. It's just, yeah, I mean, so many things going on in such a short period of time. How can you not be excited

to be a wrestling fan at this point? It's awesome. If you're looking for some Sting talk, some Revolution talk, and yes, we'll talk about Sting repelling down from the rafters, that's all available for you now over at 83 weeks.com.

We covered it all as part of our AEW Revolution pay-per-view pre-show and then the reaction show. If you haven't already, be sure to check out 83 weeks.com. You can check out those videos, but be sure to hit the subscribe button and maybe more importantly, hit the notification bell so you know the next time we're going live and if you've got a question about next week's show or we're going to be breaking down Eric's book

and what Dave Meltzer said about that book, you can ask it right now at 83 weeks on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or maybe the easiest place to make sure we're going to see your comment and us on YouTube 83 weeks.com drop your comments and your questions below and we will find them and highlight them here next week. Eric, I don't know what to expect with the twists and turns as we get to WrestleMania but I want to put you on the spot right now. Do you agree with my theory? Do you think the rock turns on Roman and Cody Rhodes leaves champion night two at WrestleMania.

100%. 100%. I hope we didn't jinx it. And we'll see you guys. I mean, I absolutely believe that's what's going to be the final outcome. But I think how we get there is the

most intriguing thing in a long time. Hypothetically, do we get you in a pink bathrobe next week? I don't have one, but I'll find one. We could get Lagrecas. We'll see you next week. right here on 83 weeks with Derek Bischoff.