83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 315: No More PG WWE

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

On this episode of 83Weeks, Eric and Conrad discuss the weekly evolution from the PG WWE product to the more edgier shows we're seeing every week. Plus the guys react to AEW naming a COO, Rhonda Rousey's comments about her time in WWE, and everything else happening in the wild world of professional wrestling. MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at https://www.manscaped.com/ ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/83WEEKS https://signup.rocketmoney.com/infl/?_forward_params=1&_smtype=3&cl=off&utm_campaign=83weeks&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=podcast&wpcid=83weeks&wpcn=83weeks&wpsnetn=podcast&utm_content=landing-page-variant-Influencer-k&lptest=landing-page-variant-Influencer-k HENSON SHAVING - It’s time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that’ll last you a lifetime. Visit HENSONSHAVING.com/BISCHOFF https://hensonshaving.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=sponsored&utm_campaign=83Weeks to pick the razor for you and use code BISCHOFF and you’ll get two years' worth of blades free with your razor–just make sure to add them to your cart. BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code 83WEEKS at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com/ , promo code 83WEEKS to receive your first month FREE SIGNOS - Signos removes the guesswork out of weight loss and provides the tools to develop healthier habits. Go to https://www.signos.com/ and get 20% off select plans by using code 83WEEKS. FANATICS - When you - or someone you know - is shopping for the latest WWE gear, you can support 83 Weeks too simply by using our dedicated link! https://wwe-shop.sjv.io/c/5036600/1371040/16449 STARRCAST - Be part of the very first international STARRCAST in Australia! Get tickets and information at https://www.starrcast.com/ SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at https://nationsgo.com/conrad/ ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to https://www.podcastheat.com/advertise now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at https://www.patreon.com/adfreeshows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the final trivia question, what is the largest mammal in the world? Sir in the orange, phone away, please? Um, my Kid a Smart Smoke alarm sent an alert through the ring app. See, the train monitoring agent is calling now. Hello? The Kid a Smart Smoke alarm sends real-time mobile alerts in the ring app. And with a subscription, emergency health can be requested even when you're not home. A compatible ring subscription is required for 24-7 smoke and carbon monoxide monitoring, sold separately. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks.

There, fish off here. What's going on, ma'am? How are you? I'm just happy to be home, brother. It's been another one of those great travel weekends where I was supposed to be home at 1.30 Sunday afternoon, and I was lucky to stagger in last night around 8 o'clock. I'm just happy to be home. We're glad you're here as well.

We had intentions of recording before you skipped town. And our computers didn't get along that day. And then, man, I was just getting the play-by-play. Living in the middle of nowhere comes at a cost. Does it not, Eric? Yeah, we refer to it as the Wyoming tax. You know, we don't have a state income tax here. So that's kind of nice.

But we do have a different kind of tax. And that's for those of us who travel for a living, or at least for a big part. part of our living. Because in my case, typically, I'll take the two hours, drive up to Billings, go to wherever I'm going, fly back home from Billings to Cody. I've gotten so used to that. It's no big deal. I kind of enjoy it. But it's, you know, two our drive. This particular trip, I was heading out to Hartford, Connecticut, and this particular trip, I decided, now I'm going to fly out of I did and unfortunately the odds of getting to you wherever you're going or getting back from wherever you've been into Cody is at best a 50-50 proposition but I rolled the dice I rolled the dice maybe I'm going to work out it didn't the flight that I was originally booked on is still not arrived in Cody yet it's supposedly coming in this afternoon but even that's unknown

I ended up buying another ticket, lying into Billings, and fortunately my brother-in-law came up, picked me up, drove me home last night so I can do this show because I was already late, so I appreciate that. Joe, Bacall, shout out to you, brother. I appreciate the help. But yeah, I'm just happy to be.

And I am never going to fly out of Cody again when I have anything on the backout. Well, we're glad you're here, and man, I got at least acknowledge if you're watching with us over at 80.com, We're looking at a different backdrop today. You're not in your home studio or as you call it, the bunk house. It looks like you might be set up at the infamous Bischoff bar right now inside the cabin there.

Is that right? Yeah, I'm still having technical issues with my computer. Evidently, my keyboard is not feeling well and not cooperating and not being a player. So I went out there this morning out to the bunk house to set up and do this show. And lo and behold, my keyboard still didn't work. So, yeah, we're back in. We're improvising from the famous, just about a hundred and one-year-old bar at this. Math out of Hardin, Montana.

So it's around 1900, when that bar is from? No, it was before that. It was a little bit before that. Oh. So, yeah, it's pretty old. And it's, there's a couple of them in a country. Robert Redford had one at his resort in Sundance. It was almost identical to this one.

There's one in a place called the Palace Bar, which is a very famous bar in Prescott, Arizona. Beautiful bar. It's bigger than mine. That's a beautiful one. I've seen one or two others around. Pretty rare. Just for fun, we get you to post over on your Twitter or maybe on the 83 weeks Twitter a picture of the bar because it's such a beautiful bar. I don't think we've ever really shown it here.

Yeah. In fact, why we're doing through. Throughout the show, I'll take a look in my photos, but I think I've got a picture in my photo thing, and I'll send it over to Dave, and maybe he can throw it up and look at it during this show. Oh, how about that? Check us out at 83 weeks.com, if you haven't already,

and be sure to hit the subscribe button, turn the notification bell on. You never know when we're going to go live because, boy, things are changing the wrestling business. And I had a chance. We're actually recording, as luck would have it, on a Tuesday morning. Now, normally, Eric and I try to record on a Sunday morning,

but it's a Tuesday morning so as a result we have both seen Monday Night Raw and I got to tell you Eric I feel like this was one of the better Rawls in recent memory

I'm not going to go so far us to say it's one of the best Rawls of all time and all that but I thought it was a really really good show and it went off the air with a really old school angle it felt like Jim Crockett

promotion something it was a really fun episode I'm curious to see what you thought because I know you've had a stance on blood before, but I thought it was used pretty effectively. What did you think

about Monday Night Raw last night? I really enjoyed it. No, I watched it at 6 o'clock this morning, my time. So I got up early, started pounding coffee and wanted to really be able to focus on the show. And that three hours flew by. Now, I did speed up through the commercials

and things like that, so I didn't have to sit there three hours, but wow, I didn't see anything that didn't hold my attention. That, this show was so well done, and I found so many things about it, especially in light of a lot of the conversation, social media coverage about how many minutes of wrestling? Like that fucking matters to anybody that's an actual producer.

It only matters to that small, you know, subsection of audience who, you know, loves wrestling, just for the sake of wrestling. It could care less if it needs anything, or there's a story or character, anything like that. But I think we were like 22 or 24 minutes into the show. Yeah. Before we heard a word.

Yeah. It was great. And that segment with Rock and Cody. Now, Cody, you know, we got a lot of narrative out of Cody. He set it up really, really well. I came out and you're expecting something explosive. I was. And all you got was that stare down with a little whisper at me.

And I thought, immediately thought, man, this is, if anybody ever wants to take a look at the saying less is more and why that's important, look at this segment. Watch the people in the crowd. Get about Rock and Cody for a moment. Just focus on the crowd. Listen to them and watch them. They were far more engaged in that stare down for people. however long it was i didn't time it they were far more engaged and interactive during that stair down than they would have ever been during any kind of an or god please a match that's the

other thing that i noticed so that's that i thought it was a fascinating study in the art of lessism yes because it worked it just worked so well the other thing that i i really like I like the Becky Lynch reamatch a lot because it, to me, it was a perfect, yeah, a perfect study in the art of keeping people away. Had they done what typically we see so often is some kind of physicality. You know, there was physicality, but the physicality was in the form of them to try and get to each other. And there was good contact.

There was some heat there, no doubt about it. but they were able to make audience just want to see that match without giving them too much. Yeah. That's what I'm really trying to say. So often when you're trying to get heat, getting close to the finish line, right, WrestleMania being the finish line, you're getting close to the event. It's so easy, and I think typical for talent and producers to want to see the action, get heat.

I didn't beat the hell out of Becky. get heat on back, you know, typically would be, you'll get the heat on the baby face, leave them in the pool of blood. That's what they were doing at the end. So they artfully, they gave the audience enough to satisfy them,

but they didn't give them so much to over-satisfy them and therefore build anticipation. Another really classic, well-done example of keeping the talent apart, create anticipation. I want to see the resolution. I thought that was really.

The opening match, I know I'm bouncing around here, but guys, I've been drinking coffee since 530. You're going to have to strap in. I can't. The other thing that I really liked was the ricochet. What is it, J.D. MacArthur, J.D. 80 something? Right. Sorry, I don't know.

That was a phenomenal match. I mean, that, for the, for the audience, it needs to see fast-based kind of a lucha of high-flying cruiserweight-esque match ricochet's a freaky so i mean wow that was that was fun to watch um what else did i really like let me time out i know you're doing like a will osprey love i'm i'm grateful because i think he's phenomenal talent i think i've mentioned before but i don't recall have you seen his match with Ricochet from several years ago, maybe 2017? No. Just throw that in your Google machine when we finished today.

Now that I know you were impressed with what Ricochet did, I can't wait for you to see what he and Will Osprey did like seven years ago. It'll blow your mind, especially in the context of seven years. And I think, and I will do that because I'm interesting. One of the things, you know, I've always loved, this is one of the reason I created the weight division because I love the high flying faster-paced action. So it's not like I've never liked that style of wrestling.

I was impressed with it enough back in whatever in 1995 or so to create a cruiserweight division and bring people in from all over the world to showcase that stuff before anybody else did on a regular basis in primetime. So it's not like a new fun love for me, but what I like about what I saw with Rikoshae and J.D., and I'm so sorry, JD, I don't remember your last name. McDonough, McDonough, J.D. McDonough, one of my favorite new talents in W.D. McDonough. But one of the things I liked about it is the moves were, they meant something.

They were part of the story. It wasn't guys out there lying around for the sake of around. It made sense. Right. And I enjoyed one. The precision and timing mind bog. But it was that it made sense to me. And there wasn't too much of it.

I didn't feel like I was watching really big, high-risk moves just for the sake of a really big high-risk move. I guess that's what I mean. What else that I really love? Gable. Gable and Sammy. Chad Gable's finding his character. Yeah. And I love it.

He is a great. I worked with him a little bit in 2019 trying to find, trying to help him find, his groove a little bit and didn't get to spend a lot of time with him but the little bit of time I did spend with him was really, really enjoyable and I was so impressed with him and he's such an amazing performer, but he's never really found his group. This might be it. Let's see where it goes. I've always been a fan of Sammy's, but I think Sammy's facials, recognizing, right?

Rather than being defensive, as we normally would see, when somebody's like Chad was coming up and telling him what he needed to do to beat Bronson Reed and all that, it's, he sold me. Sammy sold me and he's such a great performer that I really, I was excited about that. I'm excited about the combination of Chad and where that goes. And obviously the end, you know,

and there was a lot of other stuff in the middle. But let's talk about the blood. How did I really feel? Let me time out for just what are you thinking about them? Because I wanted to ask you, you know, we've talked a little bit about PG. And this move to Netflix, what could that mean? And very early in the program, you know, we saw that great Cody Rhodes promo. We saw The Whisper from the Rock.

I told my wife the same thing. I said, boy, that right there is less is more. It proves that sometimes you don't need 10 pounds of shit in a five-pound bag. guess what you say. But I mean, less is more because now there's so much intrigue about what did he say. What does it mean? blah, blah, blah. And then later, when he stopped and asked about that by the interviewer, he says, go ask Cody Road. And then she says, you know, who's Cody? And it kept a thread all the way through. I thought they did a great job. Yes, exactly. But what was really neat in the middle to me talking about two things, and then we'll go back to the show, the CN Punk promo,

where he said, you know, hey, my arm doesn't work, but my mouth still does. And he made some sort of reference to, but we're not on Netflix yet. April knows what I'm talking about. So there's a Netflix reference that maybe we're going to get a little more edgy. And then he called out when Drew McIntyre referenced himself as the chosen one. I thought it was interesting that punk said, oh, yeah, who chose you? almost daring him to say Vince McMahon's name on the television program. We know it can't happen.

I thought that was a fantastic segment in one of my favorite moments on the show. That whole Seth, Pump, Drew, I think Drew and Seth are like two of the unsung heroes. I know all of the attention right now is on Cody, Rock, and Roman, and I get that. But real MVPs of the last year for WWE, got to be Drew McIntyre, who I think is doing his best work yet. And Seth Rollins has been doing this on a bad wheel. really impressive what they're doing but then fast forward to the end of the show not only the blood

but the rock cursing multiple times including where you could visibly see where he said but wait wait wait wait that can't be because Dave Meltzer said that before everybody wants to sanitize the show and be an example

Dave Meltzer said it so it must be true right did Rock not get the what the fuck? Great question I have to ask Mr. Johnson but when he says this is what happens when you fuck with the final boss, I was like, wow, we're just dropping F bombs on raw. Now, granted, they knew it was coming and it was bleeped and they had plenty of coverage. But I'll tell you what, you want to talk about suspending disbelief.

Everybody listening to this knows what pro wrestling is. But in real life, if you and I hated each other, we would not say, I'm going to kick your heinie, Mr. Bischoff. I am so upset with you. That's not the way we talk. And for him to say, this is what happens when you fuck with the final boss. It felt like a movie. It felt way more real than the cartoon confines of pro wrestling

that sometimes has existed. I think this is a huge step in the right direction and maybe further proof that the, maybe not attitude era. It's a different era. We've got to stop saying attitude era. I think a lot of people in the business are sick of us referencing the attitude era. I think this is, I don't know, not PG, but I loved it. As an adult wrestling fan, as a 42-year-old man,

it was very well done and very believable. I like the blood. I like the F-word. I like leaning into that. Now, I know you can't do it all the time. You got to make it special. If everybody's bleeding and cursing, it's not special. It doesn't stand out.

But I thought it was done. Fabulous. Yeah, I did too. And I want to talk about that again, I'm glad you brought up punk and Drew. That sitting through that, I actually felt bad

I empathize with punk because it's not going to be you can't wrestle right you can't really do anything physical in the ring right

obviously the audience wanted to see him they wanted him to be a real part of the show evident but that's a tough spot to be it it's a tough

spot to be in when you can't do anything and everybody knows you can't do it So I thought, and as I'm listening to this, and I listen to it closely, I'm thinking, man, they're spending a lot of time just to make a point that CM Punk's going to be in commentary. Right.

Like, who the fuck care? Really. I mean, if you're a big CM Punk fan, of course, you're going to be happy. But it's not like he's going to go out there and do anything other than run his mouth. And I don't know what the timeline is for him to get back in the ring or not. Months. I'm guessing it. Months.

Yeah. So it's not going to be like a week out. after WrestleMania, he's going to be in a match or he's going to be in a program. That's not it. But I'm sitting through that segment and I'm thinking this is, you're spending way too much time.

Way too. And there were some awkward moments and reactions because it was, my feeling was if it was scripted, it was loosely. Absolutely. I could be wrong. But it had enough peaks and valleys

in terms of its quality. And I don't even say, in terms of its. It didn't feel scripted. It didn't, it wasn't as fluid as scripted for the most 10 to be. Therefore, it felt real. And I love that. But I thought, man, this is going too long.

And then came the finish of the segment. And Seth, like it, boom. And now it all of a sudden, however long that segment was, it might have been six minutes or eight minutes in the vessel. All of a sudden, it all made Seth. It worked for. because they finished it. They finished it perfectly.

And you delivered on it. I thought it was a fantastic segment. I couldn't help but notice, not playing conspiracy, but I couldn't help but notice that when punk went to get out of the ring, he braced on the bad arm. So when he goes through the ropes to jump out,

he had all his head on that arm. And I was like, okay then. Clearly, he's been working hard and he's been rehabbing. Now, I don't have any inside knowledge, but obviously I know that Bruce had tricep surgery, I think the same week that Punk did. And from what I understand, that's several months.

I would think he's probably even very conservative two months away. So do I think we'll see Punk over the summer? Absolutely. Any chance we'll see him at SummerSlam? 100%. I don't think we're going to see him turn that into a three-way, which is what a lot of people have been asking online. It's like, I just don't see that being possible at WrestleMania.

opinion. However, they're not just going to have punk do commentate. He's going to be involved in that match somehow. He's going to influence the finish somehow, and that will set up future business. I, for one, am looking forward to that. And I'm wondering, were there other Easter eggs in the program? I don't know if you noticed this, but I noticed it live and then online, man, it felt like it was everywhere right after. Where people were noticing the final scene with the rock and Cody brawling out

in the rain and 53 degree Chicago weather and rocks running around with a tank top on which is awesome. There's a big tractor trailer there that moves all the WWV rings and lighting and rigs and now remember he's referred to himself

as the final boss and in the background we see these trucks and we've seen them a lot. But normally there's a lot of current talent on there. This particular truck which I admit I've never seen before but I don't know that it's brand new

but certainly made me wonder is that a coincidence that the only two other people that are seen in this shot besides Cody and the Rob are the faces on that big tractor trailer being John Sina and Stone Cold Steve Austin. We've heard the rumors that John Sina is going to appear at WrestleMania

we don't know at what capacity but he's going to be there and it does stand to reason it's wrestling Mania 40. It's in Philadelphia. It's the 25-year anniversary of when Stone Cold wrestled the rock in the main event at WrestleMania 15. We're back in Philadelphia.

He called himself the final boss. Is that an Easter egg? Is that some foreshadowing? What's say you, Eric? I'd say that truck was lit. I mean, lit, professionally lit for the camera. So that was not, oh, look at that.

Just happened to be there. And it was framed up. And here's with, no, it's, it, I mean, it was centered in the frame. Yes. You know, Rock made sure he was positioned and he put in Cody to be sure that we got a full look at it. I mean, if you look at that right now, that image is probably 25% of that. Yes. And it was lit properly.

So that was a really cool Easter egg. And it, you know, kind of opens up the door. I, you know, but the 25 year anniversary. Or two with with Rock, but rock getting involved. could Rock be surprised that Cody needs you're saying Rock you mean you mean Austin I mean Austin yes I'm sorry Austin thank you

could Austin be there to lend an assist if Cody I don't know but but see here's the fun part we're talking about it yes and we don't know and we're curious and we're wondering it's like we wondered what Rock whispered to Cody when you can get your audience

asking questions whether it's on social media or back in the day they called it water cooler talk right everybody would get together you know the next day after rar after nitro and you know talk about what what happened yes one of the reasons the shows were successful at that time because people were engaged and i think the less is more approach with cody and rock in the inning created that question that was as you pointed out correctly read throughout the show it's didn't just happen. And then, oh, that's right. I remember that. By the end of the show, they threaded it throughout the show to make the audience focus. What they really did is they told the audience to. And subtly or subliminally, you're telling the audience to pay attention because something big is going to happen. But they do it in the form of a question as opposed to a threat. Rock could have come out and said, Cody Rose, before the end of the night, I'm going to bloody you up. That make your mom a

Right. Okay, now I know what's going to happen. I'm not curious. I may too much to see it, but I'm not curious about it. But the way they did it got us all talking and asking. And I love that. Who's the third man? The reason the NWO worked as well as it did. There's a variety of reasons. But one of the big ones is the who's the third? Because for months, people were asking the question. beat. And if you can get the audience to ask questions, as opposed to making statements, you won. Creatively, you won. That's exactly what last night's show did. So effective. So yeah, I think it was intentional. I think it is a foreshadow. Here's another good one. If you want to go back and watch it, there's a couple of other things, you know, business of the business wise, not so much storyline or character-driven, but when we first, start to go outside of Cody's or excuse me a rock's laying out Cody backstage he's dragging him around bouncing him off shit hitting him with a garbage can all that good stuff

he goes to take him outside and as he opens the door what do we see we see the back of Cody's bus yeah which is wrapped with a weekly vodka advertisement yep now I don't know what that deal is I don't know if that's a Cody deal or a WWW deal WWE deal but here's what I do know. What was it, Conrad? WWE. It's a WWE deal. Okay. Now, I'm working. So Rock opens up the door, doors over his left shoulder. As he opens up the door, he holds it open, and once again, right in the center of the frame is weekly vodka. Yeah.

Awesome is that. That's the business of the wrestling business. Yes. That's a big step, because now we're, now, we've talked about long, a lot of times over the last year. alcohol and wrestling never been able to find a way to play together. Another big thing that's and that's a massive thing for business because if you can open up

the door to alcohol advertising within the show you've got a plethora I don't think I've used plethora I have it's you have a plethora of brands out who have a hard time advertising because they're alcohol.

It's expensive. And now they've got a great audience advertised too that is opening up the doors to them where they've been closed before, whether it was W.D.E. closing the doors or FSA closing the doors, maybe the vodka industry or the alcohol industry, just being too afraid of it of wrestling because of the kids in the audience.

But whatever, man, they're embracing it. And I just thought it was really cool. the way they did that. And there were so many other examples, you know, Michael Cole and whoever it was doing color and play-by-play for a fucking Godzilla movie. I mean, did you see that? I don't know if you skip through the commercials or not.

I skipped it. Oh, my God, it was awesome. It was so well done. And not really commenting on the quality of how well it was done because it really, really was. But the fact that somebody sat down negotiated a deal with a movie which historically

they've spent a lot of money in advertising decade. They were always a go-to. If there's movies coming out a certain time of year, you could always plan on that ad spend within wrestling. But WWE is now taking it to an entirely different level. And

in such an effective way, go back and check out that commercial. It's really interesting. The fact that they can make an interesting commercial that holds your attention inside of a wrestling show is another big step. It's just a lot of things excited about from the business to business

what I saw. Well, I know what you're... Now, you ask me the question. How did I feel about the blood? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Eric, you know, occasionally we have to take a time out. And now is one of those times because I really want to talk to you about the hair

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several years ago, there was a pretty controversial moment at a Summer Slam, I think it was in New York, where Brock Lesnar hard-wayed Randy Orton with some really stiff elbows on the brow

and got some real blood going. And I know that was the headbut with Vince McMahon and K.O., but I mean, a traditional old-school wrestling tippity-dudah. Cody did it in the parking lot right outside of the bus. We don't normally see blood

on WWE television when we have blood on WWTV, we would get a wide shot. It would be accidental. You know, we would try to shy away from it. We embraced it here. And I know that, you know, we talked about this at the very start of the show

just with the whisper, less is more. And if you're not bleeding in every single segment, every single week, it matters. This is WrestleMania. And this is sort of that awkward period between pay-per-views where I think by and large fans are ready and have been ready for a week or two.

for this show to happen. But we've still got to build television, not a little bit, but five hours a week. So how do we keep it going? Well, we're reaching our old bag of tricks and we find a razor. Eric, what did you think?

I didn't like it. Oh, come on. And I, and I, I just, I have a thing that I can't get over. And, Look, it wasn't excessive. No.

It wasn't be zoomed in with a camera and nobody had to lick the blood off their face. You know, they kind of protest shit I've seen. So it was judicious enough that I wasn't completely turned off by it. I think I get it.

I know why they do. did it. It's just I am absolutely in the minority on this. I don't know why I feel as strongly as I do about it because most things are pretty, I'm pretty flexible. Yeah. In many ways when it comes to creative, but something about it, I don't know. I would have, you know, maybe if it would have been a little less blood, I said it wasn't that shot that Dave just put up. I guess I notice it as much but maybe if it would have been just a little bit more and we weren't showcasing it quite as much as we were trying to make that point if it looked a little bit more organic and I'm not saying cut away from it and it didn't happen to shoot wide shots

but if you're watching along on 83 weeks.com you're seeing what I'm seeing and that's the cameras right there I mean 25% of that frame is Cody bleeding yes I think that was just a little bit more than necessary, but I get it. I get it. But help me understand why you don't like it. Do you think it pushes advertisers away? That's part of it. That's the business side of me because in my experience,

it does, or it can't. That's part of it. But part of it is, I guess because I've seen so much of it and it's so overdone that when I see it, it doesn't make me feel, empathy in this case for Cody doesn't make me feel sympathetic towards him it just makes me feel like oh they're trying really hard here that's why I say it's just me the good news is

we didn't see it on the rest of the show right wasn't like five other guys got juice which is typically what we some promotion like every other match somebody's getting split open to it gets to the point where it doesn't mean anything in this case it you know didn't see it anywhere else we haven't seen blood in w wwee all the time so i guess it mattered the part of me that liked it was it's a it's a throw back to old school it's like the way it used to be done that part of me likes that a traditional way of getting getting heat the fact that there was blood all over the the weight belt to have Cody's mama or Mama Cody or whatever it was. Mama Rhodes.

Mama Rhodes, yeah. That was a nice touch to bring Cody's mom into this. I'd like to see her face when this is going on. Oh, she's going to be front row at WrestleMania. You just know it. Have you spent time with Michelle, right? Fantastic woman. How could you not love her?

One of the sweetest people on the face of the earth. Yeah. But she can get hot. She does have a fuse. Cuban like really really short so I'll be anxious to see her as well you would have love to have seen her in an AEW paper view I forget who she was wrestling I think Cody I think he was wrestling Jericho forget I think that's right and as Jericho made his way over with Cody and obviously Jericho's got the advantage and he's putting a

whooping on Cody or something he starts talking trash to Michelle. She rears back, slaps him, and then starts hollering, fuck you. And I was like, this is the real Michelle and it's fantastic. And I can't wait to see her at WrestleMania. She's going to steal the show. I mean, I know we're fantasy booking the territory. And I know this isn't going to happen. But in my dream scenario, not only does Stone Cold come help make the save, but Mama Rhodes is doing a beer bash. That'd be hilarious. Why do you think that's not going to happen? hope that happens that would be so awesome i'd get that shit framed in my house yeah it's amazing see i mean you just fantasy booked a really really cool spot there i mean if that were to happen

because obviously just roads and us and a lot of history there yeah i mean it kind of all just big so much sense like just what you laid out there could be really great moment inside of WrestleMania, especially with the focus. And this isn't the first time Rock has brought up Michelle, Tony's mama, right? This is a reoccurring theme we're seeing here. So it lends me to believe that you might have something there. I'm excited.

Just this conversation makes me excited even more. That's the other thing I was thinking about. Okay, this show. What are they trying to do with this show? obviously build anticipation without giving the audience so much in terms of action, physical confrontation, that

they feel like there's nothing there's nowhere to go yet, or there's nowhere to go. Teasing them, keeping everybody apart, intensity is there, narrative is all there. I don't know.

I just, I think the fact that they produced that show in such a way is to talking and to create conversation amongst people like you and I and everybody listen. So what's going to happen? What if they do this? Who's going to, whoa, what if? I mean, fantasy booking is, you know, probably one of the things they were hoping to achieve

during this thing because it helps to build anticipation. I knew it was going to be a good show because over the weekend I got a handful of folks who texted and said, hey, Monday's Charlton. And it was, it was a home run. and I loved it, but we decided to ask you guys. We're running polls now over at 83 weeks.com. I encourage you to head over there now, hit the subscribe button, turn the notifications bell on.

But when we're soliciting questions for the shows now, we won't be doing that on social, doing that on YouTube. When we're running polls about new topics, we won't be doing that on social, we'll be doing that on YouTube. But we threw a poll up last night, our guy Derek Spotto, who helped us on the back end,

threw up a poll that said, hey, what did you think of the angle? how would you rate it? And 7% was a dud, two stars, two percent, three stars, six percent, four stars, 16 percent, and an overwhelming 69 percent

gave it five stars. That's with 5,500 votes when we cut it off. 69 percent gave it five stars, Eric. So I know that, you know, we're trying to get things to a fevered pitch for WrestleMania, it feels like they did that last night blood be damned people were digging it man are you surprised that so many people gave that five stars no not at all i mean given the intensity of it

and i know the audience you know reacts positively to blood which is why i know i'm in the minority um but but it wasn't just that was that was a part of it just the intensity the fact that it's rock i even i really dug the fact that it was raining out just another thing that made me feel like I'm watching live TV, right? It's just so much about that whole segment was intense and it got serious heat, old school. It was poetic. I'm not surprised at all.

I'm not surprised at all. I'd be surprised. I'd like to meet a couple of those two percenters and have a conversation with them. Yeah, what was that? What are they looking for in wrestling? Like, if that's not it. And I think, you know, this is a show like last night

is proof positive. In my opinion, that story matters more than matches. Now, I'm not saying matches don't matter. I'm just saying if we had to pick one, I was more excited about the stories last night, which specifically were the opening segment, Cody and the Rock,

one of the crossover hours with Punk, Seth, and Drew, and then the final segment with Cody and Rock. Those are my three favorite segments from the show. Not one minute of actual in-ring wrestling happened during any of those three segments. But those are the three that resonated the most with me. And I know you're anti-blood and you're really anti-blade, but I bet there's one blade that you're actually a big fan of.

Do I have that right? Dude, so much so. I've got anxiety right now because while I got home last night, my luggage is somewhere between here and Hartford, Connecticut, and my handsome razor is in that bag. And if you can't see, I haven't shaved, like in three days because I don't have my razor and I'm not going to go use a different raise I'm not going to go use I have them I have backup raisers I'm not going to touch

him I am not shaving so my razor gets if it means I have to order another one to have a backup I will do that the next time you see me I may have a beard well let me give you a pro tip Eric it can get there fast when you go to hinsonshaving dot com slash bischoff and use our code bischoff we've been talking about about Henson for a while now, and it's because Eric and I really do believe in this product. We've been fortunate enough to promote some really fine products on the show over the years, but man, this has got to be near the top of the world. You'll just feel the quality in your hand, and when you use it, you'll understand the difference.

Never have I ever put anyone on to this who didn't absolutely love it. Well, that's not true. I got one negative response on social, and the guy said it cut his face up, and I said, hey man you put the razor in upside down they said no i didn't i followed the instructions it's a bad problem the next day he posted hey my bad i tried what you said this is the best shave i've ever had so the only way to get this wrong is user error but if you're using it as instructed this will be the best shave and the last razor you'll ever use i mean that sincerely my dad's on it my barber's on it think about that how many times does my barber have to use a razor every day five six seven 20 i don't

know how many haircuts they do a day, but the point is they're only using Henson now, because this is the real deal. And what makes them so special is as a company, they're on aerospace parts manufacture, a family-owned business that's doing aerospace stuff. Yeah, they made parts for the International Space Station, Mars rover. But then somehow, some way, they said, hey, what if we use our aerospace grade C and C machines to make the thinnest razors you've ever seen? Well, how thin are they? Thinner than a human hair. Now, why does that matter? Well, because it gives you a more secure and stable blade that gives you a vibration-free shave. And that means less nicks and cuts, scrapes, and razor bumps, and all that jazz.

The razor also has a built-in channel to evacuate hair and cream. If you're watching with us on 83weeks.com or just go look at yourself. Hensonshaving.com slash bischoff. You'll see those channels on either side. It's unlike any razor I've ever used. These guys were intent on making the best razor, not the best razor business. you see if they were just after your wallet they'd have some planned obsolescence they'd come out with the hinson 2.0 next year that ain't going to happen there's no proprietary blade meaning it's not

like you know if you run out of your henson blades you can't just go get our standard dual edge blade you can do that will the shave be as good no because you want the really thin hinson but there's also no plastic this is a one and done purchase this will outlive you and there's no subscriptions This is a real-deal product that we are thrilled to have the opportunity to represent here because we love it in our real life. And you will too. I hope you can hear our passion because we really believe in this product and we want you to try it. Not only is it better than what you've been doing, it's also more affordable.

Check this out. You get the standard dual-edged blade like your handsome-ass grandfather. Very old school. Cody had one in his hand last night. But it also has the benefits of new school tech. so this aerospace stuff man pop pop never knew nothing about this here's what's really cool it's three to five dollars to replace the blake not three to five dollars a shave or a week or a month or a quarter three to five dollars a year y'all

we're talking about a quarter and a dime and you're hooked up this month what let's say no to subscriptions let's say yes to a razor that truly will last you a lifetime go right now to hinson shaving.com slash bischoff to pick the razor for you and use the code bischoff. You'll get two years worth of blades free with your razor. Just be sure to add them to your cart. That's 100 free blades when you head to H-E-N-S-H-A-V-I-N-G.com slash bischoff and use the code Bischoff. You know, if this product would have came out in the 80s as a stocking stuffer,

you could have just given Rick like the 100 free blades. You could have said, all right, see you in three months, champ. You know, I was watching, when I was watching, what I was morning, it might have been before I sort of watched it. I saw an advertisement for a competitor, a subscription-based competitor, and, you know, they show you the razor, and I've had that. I've subscribed to this particular competitor in the past, and it's a light plastic razor. It just doesn't feel like it's worth anything. And it's, oh, and it's got three blades or five blades or whatever. And oh, when I need to replace my blades, there are only $3.

I'm thinking, that's a year's worth for a little bit more than that. I mean, what are you talking about? Only $3 a blade. And the fact is it when you said at the beginning of that read, you'll feel the difference. Yes. You'll not only feel the difference, you know, because you get an amazingly close shape, but because of the weight, it's a very heavy. for a razor heavy real it feels like a real product not a piece of plastic it's substantial

yes that's the word i was looking gantial check it out henson shaving dot com slash bischoff be sure to use our promo code bischoff eric our topic today boy we've been talking for a while and we haven't even sniff the topic we are eventually going to talk about celebrity champions of wrestling but before we do i got to bring up at least a few things i got sent this a couple of times yesterday day, but I guess R.J. City sat down with, well, I don't know if he's called Johnny Nitro anymore, but for the purposes of our story, we're going to call him Johnny Nitro. Maybe he's Johnny Elite. I'm not exactly. But you know who I'm talking about, a really talented performer who you worked with in WW. And I guess, RJ, who has a lot of fun on Hey, EW, which is a great show

if you haven't seen it on you. He asked Johnny about being your apprentice, you know, hey, or you were his protege or he was your protege or he was your protege or you were his mentor, whatever on-camera thing that happened in W.D. and R.J. said Something along the lines of. Hey, what did you learn from Eric Mischel? And of course, Johnny said nothing.

And R.J. had a little tongue-in-cheek response about, hey, maybe in 20 years she'll go do a podcast and say the exact opposite or something similar. I thought it was funny. I wondered if you thought it was. I saw it this morning, and I didn't feel one. I mean, look, if you're going to do it, do it, you know what I mean? Make it mean something.

But to have, if it's Johnny TV, I think how they refer to him coming out, say, boring. And I think RJ's response was equally as boring. For me, I mean, it didn't, I was hoping it would be at least funny or interesting, and it was either. I found it interesting that they felt the need to do it or wanted to do it, but it wasn't really funny, it wasn't really a shot, kind of was, but not really, so it didn't have much of a thing to it. It was funny because the people who sent it to me thought I'm pissed off, and I was like, what? Why would I be pissed up? It was a silly, it was an on-camera thing.

It was a storyline. It's not real life. And I don't know. It just made me chuckle that after all the times we've talked about AEW and you specifically made it not so glowing at times. Just to hear your name said on an AEW program made me laugh. I don't know why. I think it was an attempt to take a shot at me,

but it was such a weak-ass shot. You know, yeah, the EW. So this is what it is. well it is what it is with ronda rousey too i got at least put this on your radar she's been doing a lot of publicity and doing some interviews she's promoting uh her new book as i understand it and man she's uh she's just letting it rip tater chip and she said some pretty pointed things uh specifically it's hard sometimes nowhere the evil unethical slimeball character of vince mcman played out for the camera ends an actual

questionable, ethical, many times sued, and multiple times accused of sexual misconduct, Vince McMahon began. Paperview events are held in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, as well as now twice a year in Saudi Arabia, a nation that restricts the rights of women in a way that I'm certain. Vince McMahon wishes he could. WWE bills itself as a sports entertainment organization, and just like in the mainstream entertainment industry, it was by all accounts a casting couch culture where men back. backstage in powerful positions, pressured female talent for sexual favors

in return for airtime. In MMA, I originally just started them for publicity, talking about... But those other bitches did not get the demo, so, or the memo. So they became personal. And in WWE, it's all fake.

I love them, except for Bruce Pritchard and John Laurinitis. They can go fuck them. She had a lot of other comments where she talked about you know, that she doesn't like Bruce and felt like Bruce, you know,

she's just not a Bruce fan. And she was specific about saying that Johnny Ace, maybe he implied that there was a cutoff. He wasn't interested in recruiting women who were working the independent circuit. He wanted girls who would maybe have been blonde-haired women

from Tennessee or Florida. I don't know if that's specifically referencing someone or not. But she certainly, indicated that she has no interest in going back. She can't deal with the mediocrity. Well, that's good. Blah, blah, blah.

But she was very complimentary, and I mean, very complimentary of Triple H. But she also said that when Stephanie slapped her, she got a concussion, and she felt like she couldn't speak up. I mean, I don't know if she's intending to go scorched earth, but her, it seems like every day she's got another headline.

I'm sure you've seen them. What do you make of all this? it leaves a bad time i've never had a never had a real high opinion of ronda anyway i mean in the m-ma i did i really really enjoyed watching her nothing but respectful her background in judo and the fact that she transitioned into m m a did really well for a while but when she got knocked out by holly holm that was it that changed her dramatically and even her character her personality character in and ufc she was kind of a whiny just whiny and when they brought her into wwee and made her a baby face i was it didn't make sense to me because she's not a baby face just

kind of a not she's a much much better but they wanted to cast her as a baby face it was a very very it was a square peg in a hole for around for around it because she's not a performance She's not an actress, although she's done some acting, learning, it's better. But for the most part, she's an athlete trying to become a performer. At least she was in WWE at that. And she wasn't able to pull it off. So number one, she was miscast. And I never really felt like she really wanted to be there.

I always had this feeling. It doesn't mean I'm right about it, but it was just my feeling that she was just a long, she was in it for the payday, wasn't really powerful. passionate about what she was doing. I think when Holly Holmes knocked her out, she lost her passion for just about everything, and she was there for the money. That was my impression.

However, right or wrong. And to hear this all now, it just sounds so bitter and so angry that I kind of feel the way I felt about her when she lost to Holly Holmes and UFC came out and was just bitchy about it. Look, you get knocked out, and she got knocked. out. I've been there. I know how that feels. It is not a great feeling, especially when

you go back and watch it over and over again and know that the world is watching it over it. But that, I think something changed and like, I've never said a word, never had a word conversation with her. I don't know. Right or wrong, but it's just the way I feel by I get from her. I think she's a bitter, angry woman. And hopefully she'll sell a lot of books. because she's really, I think she's burying herself. I don't think for a second that she needed the money. She was watching wrestling way back when the shield broke up and her friends posted her reaction to it.

I mean, she is a big-time wrestling fan, and I think her experience was less than awesome. But almost everybody has a similar story about working with Vince. I mean, even AJ Stiles came out recently said, I wish all those other guys and other companies but realize this is a new WWV.

This isn't the same WWV. And I would love to have seen what this version of WW could have done with Ronda, but position her as a heel. I agree with you.

There's a miscast as a baby face. You're asking her to do something that's out of her wheelhouse. You know, if you go back and you study the way she built, fuse, for lack of a better word, in MMA, she was the heel. Now she was dominant.

So people love to see that. They love to see a winner. That was a time where you just knew Arm bar submission first round can't stop it. Like, here it comes. And then, of course, as you said, she lost. And maybe the bloom was off the rose. And maybe the bloom's off the rose for wrestling for now.

But mark my words, Rhonda Rousey. I'm not saying necessarily wrestling, but she's going in the Hall of Fame. She's going to be around. It's a whole new ballgame with Vince and, others out, I think she'll be back. I don't think this is over. I think she likes it.

If she didn't like it, I don't know that she would still be talking. Does that make sense? Yeah, she'd be talking about if she wants to sell book. Yeah, maybe. We'll see. I, for one, I'm a Ronda fan. I felt like she, certainly we didn't get the best of Ronda,

but I don't know that that's necessarily her fault. And let's also appreciate she was really thrown to the wolves. A guy like Kurt Angle was afforded the opportunity. to get reps and learn and get better and then get on TV. She's learning in front of us. It is a different thing when you're immediately on TV right away and judged by that. So we'll see if she really has a long-term passion for it or not. But boy, people are talking about it.

And I'm curious to see, you know, what the next quote is going to be. It feels like every time I log in, there's another statement from Ronda. With the conflict in Iran, global markets are all. on edge. Oil prices are surging, volatility is spiking, and the US dollar is under pressure. This isn't a distant headline. You're feeling it at the pump, in your grocery budget, even on your utility bills. When uncertainty rises, many Americans turn to physical gold and silver, tangible assets that have protected wealth for centuries. And with gold recently topping $3,300 an ounce, experts believe the upside is just getting started. That's where

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when it's convenient for me, and I can message her anytime. It was so easy to set up, and they accept TRICARE. Therapy was going so well, my husband and I started seeing a couple's therapist through Talkspace, too. Talkspace works with most major insurers, including TRICARE. Match with a licensed therapist today at Talkspace.com slash military. Go to talkspace.com to get started today. That's talkspace.com slash military. see any other future crossover. I mean, clearly we saw Michael Chandler a few weeks ago calling out Connor McGregor at a Monday Night Raw. We know the history of Ronda and the UFC and certainly Brock Lesnar and punk and a bunch of others. Bobby Lashley was in MMA, but not UFC. You get the

idea. Do you think there will be more of this crossover? Do you think there will be UFC stars in some capacity? At WrestleMania or in WrestleMania? At this year's WrestleMania. just attending the show, getting involved physically. I do. I do. And I'm here for it. I think that's great. Sure we will. I think I've read comments.

Executives in the UFC talking about, you know, having talented at some of the bigger events and that. So I think for sure, celebrities, a lot of these fighters are legit celebrities in their world. So I think, of course you will. As far as seeing, you know, UFC fighters transition into WWE, I'm sure that we will at some point, but I don't think it's going to become any more frequent than it was before the merger.

I think some people are going to be really interested in doing it and able to do it. Well, we'll see it. I mean, I was watching, I was following the news on my 40-hour trek to get home. And there's some amazing, I mean, great-looking talent coming out of the, the NCAA wrestling finals going on right now that went on over the weekend. I mean, super heavy. I can't remember his name right now. I think he'd be 265 or 285.

Looks like he was right out of central casting wrestling. Big budget wrestling. Looks great. Someone like that spends a little bit of time in UFC. Makes that transition. Definitely. I could see another current angle coming out of the woodwork. But I don't think we're going to see a lot of it.

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing what's next with, with WrestleMania, because it feels like it's getting to a fever pitch. I mean, we heard that they were trying to do something with Sylvester Stallone, and there's no telling what other crossover we're going to see at this year's WrestleMania. What I know for sure, though, is we're going to be doing over at 83 Weeks.com, our YouTube channel, Eric Bischoff's top five WrestleMania moment. he's going to be breaking down his top five reasons this WrestleMania is going to be the biggest WrestleMania yet and some of the bigger moments through history we're going to be doing a lot of these top fives and top tens and things like that they're going to be exclusive to 83 weeks.com they won't be posting here on the RSS feed of course you're going to get them early and ad free over at ad free shows.com but be sure to check us out at 83 weeks.com if you haven't already

Eric, let's talk about our topic Why we're really here today I forgot why we're here today I thought we got done talking about why we're here today, right? You know what? Let's do this. Let's do some questions.

And then we'll talk about our topic. We've got a live studio audience here from ad-freeshows.com. I want to give a shout out to everybody who's hanging out with us. Mike Hoop wants to know. Eric, would you keep on with the promos or have some tag matches

Bloodline and Cody, Jay, and Seth? I, for one, don't think they should touch Bill Ressomania. What say you? I absolutely agree with you, Conrad. I don't think they should touch. The more they touch,

the match will be able to build that anticipation. Make them want it. This is like the professional wrestling of sexual foreplay. You've got to give it some time. You've got to build up the anticipation in order for the ending to be as magic as you want it to be.

Don't jump in it. Do it right away. and no, I don't believe in any more contact than it is absolutely necessary as we're talking about. The largest part of the beginning of the show. I think the magic of involved in last night, a lot of it, but I think the greatest part of it for me

formatting, the goal of the show, was all that show did was build anticipation. Story's already there. Anticipation, reality, surprise, action. WWE is hitting on all five of those critical areas or to the Sarsafone. And any more contact

that is absolutely necessary right now is only going to diminish. Carl Hayes wants to know, do you see WWE's Women's Division getting their own TV show maybe once streaming starts? They seem to be growing and stacked with talent. Could you see a women's only show

sort of to maybe compete with Wow? Would you see that? Could? You got the talent to do it, right? Yep. Especially if you look at, you know, including NXT talent. Well, of course, yes. I think it could happen.

Do I think that there's a television market for it that I'm not sure of? I know the, what is, is it wow? Yeah, is that the name of the organization? Women of wrestling, David McLean. Women of wrestling. I mean, I don't follow it, obviously. It's in syndication. It's not on cable.

Last I checked. but in terms of its viewership, it's competitive with AEW. So there's clearly a market. I don't know that there'll be a market for it in cable, but if there is, the talent is there, the abilities are there, production capabilities are there,

everything's there. So there's a market for it. Why not? It's funny you say if there's a market there for it, because as we're recording this on a Tuesday morning, just yesterday it was announced that WWE is, doing a deal with Roku for a brand new all-access docu series called WWB NextGen. The idea is, I guess they've been running these tryouts, camps, and they're trying to see who could be the next superstar,

and John Sina is the executive producer for it. But the reason I bring this up is it's not on peacock, it's not on USA, it's not on Fox, it's on Roku, and I thought, wow, that's different. What did you think of the news that on April 1st, so just a few days from now, WW NextGen is going to have a presence on Roku? I think it's, again, the business of the business, growing, expanding, reaching out into other areas of entertainment that are beyond just cable and network. I think it's fantastic.

I think you're going to see more and more of that type of. because there's other companies out there other than Roku. There's Vizio, for example, television manufacturer who is out actually looking for original content that could be a part of the built-in app of televisions that are sold all over the country.

So there's more and more people that are looking at wrestling as a way to capture an audience. And I think that is nothing but fantastic. You've got to think that's just another revenue stream more money for WWV more money for the talent and if you're looking to get a little more money can I recommend rocket money Eric and I are big believers in this you know we've all heard the

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She would sign up for some other fitness apps and then try it, forget about it. It's still getting drafted every month. She hadn't used it in months. Rocket Money found all of it. And we're not alone. Like 75% of people have subscriptions they've forgotten about. And I thought I've got like five or six. No, I had more than a dozen, way more.

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Cancel your unwanted subscriptions right now by going to rocketmoney.com slash 83 weeks. That's rocketmoney.com slash 83 weeks. One more time, rocketmoney.com slash three weeks. Let's do another question here. This is from Drew Russell, who's a part of our live studio audience. I'm not criticizing The Rock by any means. He's my all-time favorite star in history. But do you think he's outshining every person on the roster without trying to just because he's.

God, that's a great question. That was actually, I want to say a note, but I kind of, I'll be careful how I say this because I don't want to contradict me. but it's it's complicated because i almost feel as a viewer i'm not overthinking this perhaps roman and cody feels less than as a result of all of the focus and the magnitude of what rock and cody I actually feel like Rock and Cody is the only main event at WrestleMania that we should be talking about.

Well, hang on now. That's night one. I know, I know, I know. I understand. That's why I'm conflicted with it. I get it. And because it's the two nights, I mean, I get it.

It's a real challenge. But in terms of the question that was just asked, I almost feel like Rock is overshadowing everything else. Now, the finish will take care of that, assuming we're going to have a great finish, sure that we will.

But right now, in the moment, I think Rock is overshadowed Roman. Just being honest. How could he not? I mean, I think that's got to be kind of the idea because that helps build towards the next show. I don't really worry about outshine. You know, I mean,

think he's supposed he's a legendary hall of famer who who has this presence i mean you saw the reaction the rock got he came out and said nothing and did nothing and whispered but we had no idea what it was and they ate it up they when he exited the ring they booed he did nothing so i just think um they're using the rock very very effective and i'm so glad they made a pivot i can't imagine that the original plan of rock and roman would somehow be better than what we're actually no i know and i certainly don't mean to imply that yeah and really what i'm suggesting is that rock creates a very very very very unique problem and that is the magnitude of his

stardom it's almost impossible for rock not to suck up the oxygen in the room when he walks into is what it is that's the benefit of having to rock it's it's like a lot of having to rock it's also the reality of having Doc is he's going to suck up the energy room because he is that big of a star. Again, I think

the finish and the story will manage all of that and at the end it won't be a negative but right now less well this morning as I was watching the show I thought all I'm thinking of is Rock and Cody I'm really not thinking too much about

Roman and it's partly because of what I was watching designed to do. Sure. Yeah, to answer the question, yeah, I think a little bit, man. He's going to overshadow anybody. That's the fucking rock. Travis Medway, shout out to Travis.

I don't remember seeing Travis in a lot of lives. Appreciate you being here with us and joining us from adfreeshows.com. He's got a question. I know you're not a fan of tag team main event matches, but is this upcoming mania won as good as he? I think it is. I mean, and one of the reasons it is, is because the stakes are going to impact night two.

How do you not love that? Not that I don't like tag team wrestling. It's said it's hard to manage if you're a producer because in terms of roster size in order to have a vibrant, robust, viable tag team division, you've got to have a lot of tag team you can play with, build stories around, which means you're going to have twice as many people on your roster

that are tag team wrestlers that you would normally need. So it's a budgetary issue, and it's been one of the problems. You have tag teams, but they're kind of secondary. They're really not a lot of focus on tag teams, generally speaking, because you just need to have so many. To round out a good meaningful division, tag team division. But when you can have a tag team that's a match, a main event, It's set up like this, where not only do you have major stars, primarily wrestle and singles,

you have major stars coming together for purpose and the purpose is to raise the stakes for night two, how do you not love that? I have to love that. Coach Keith is asking the question we're all asking lately. So what a great question. I know I'm going to be putting you on the spot. I already know your answer. Eric, and please, can you answer Conrad also,

if Vince was still in charge or had any say in the company with the WW? No. Isn't that crazy? I mean, we saw that beginning to happen before Vince was forced to officially permanently. Yes. So, and we saw almost within a week or two weeks of Triple H, Paul Beck, I'm sorry, taking over a lot more consistency, a lot better storytelling. Consistent being probably the biggest continuity.

But I don't know any question at all that WWE creatively is much. And just not to take away anything from what Vince would man achieve. Did you read Becky Lynch's interview when I was talking about being conflicted? I think Becky did a fantastic job. And I think a lot of people to varying degrees, that worked for Vince with Vince feel much the same way. I do.

I'm conflicted. I'm in an even weirder way because I was so, I was, we were competitive. Right. And it was an ugly, brutal, bloody, legitimate fight competition that I'm coming to work for.

And in the process of all of that, I gained a tremendous amount of respect for Vince McBan and what he's done for the business. He would have never heard me say, although it was true, but I was too focused on my shit

to think about it. If it weren't for Vince McMahon at WWE, there would have never been a WC. Right. There certainly wouldn't be an aide. It wouldn't be a lot of things. And when you look at it from that perspective and you're honest enough

and intelligent and see that big picture and admit that were it not for Vince's creativity, vision for the industry, all of the good things that Vince did, there would not be, we wouldn't be talking about,

you and I would probably not even know each other. Right. So that's one perspective I have on Vince McMan, but it's in direct contrast to what, we've read and learned about in recent months. So I'm not taking away from Vince's creativity, some of the genius things, creatively genius things that probably did

starting back in the 80s that had his fingerprints all over it. But I worked for the guy for a few months back in 2019, and that was not something that I could see myself doing. He was a wreck creatively. His process demoralized people. It created inconsistency. Continuity was hard to even talk about because Vince's opinion of what he wanted to do

change from one day to the next or from one meeting to the next, the day of the show. All you have to do is have talent come into the room, sit down with Vince for 45 minutes. You walk out and you're tearing up scripts and starting over again. All of that was out of control. And I think with Paul Levec in control, along with Bruce, you know, Ed Kosky, and people don't hear about too much. There's a lot of great writing talent, creative talent, experienced talent as producer and writer. Now with Brian Goertz there, I know how much input Brian has.

I think the show is reached. I think it's creatively a better show that it's ever been to me. Eric, we're actually recording live here on a Tuesday morning. And we've got some breaking news that I want to get your take on. But we need to take a break right now, but we do have some breaking news on the AEW side of things. I want to take just a minute, though, to thank our sponsor, Blue Chew, who's been with us

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So, Eric, we got to talk about the breaking news. I can't believe that, you know, this is happening while we're recording. But it turns out AEW has just announced they have a new C-O, a chief operating officer. Of course, this is, I believe. I believe I've heard Jeff Jarrett pronounce it. Hosea Urby. I have not yet met Mr. Irby, but as I understand it,

he used to work at WWE, and that's where some people you and I know first met Mr. Irby. But Tony Kahn announced today that he is now the CO of AEW. He's going to oversee strategic planning and execution of live events,

marketing, finance, human resources, licensing, consumer products, and other major lines of business. business for the company. He's coming from Clemson, and he's worked for WWV, PBR, Alliance of American Football. Here's a quote from Tony. Coucher brings decades of experience within sports, entertainment, and wrestling industries alongside an incredible work ethic and passion for our brand. As chief operating officer, he will be a phenomenal asset to AEW. We enter the next phase of

the company's ongoing business development and expansion. You know, listen, The knock on AEW for a while has been they just needed more corporate structure. They needed more support. You know, maybe Tony was burning it at both ends. Maybe he needed more help. As a reminder, he has a sports data company, a football club, and the Jacksonville Jaguars, and oh, yeah, AEW. And there's been some criticism that perhaps he was stretched too thin and doing too much, which is probably fair. So having somebody in your back pocket who's going to join your company and,

and take that role as COO, that's got to be a value ad. What do you make of this news, Eric? Hard to comment on too much because I don't know the individual. I don't know what he did in WWE. Look, I think bringing in highly qualified, experience management can only be a good thing.

I don't think that that's AEW's biggest problem in terms of where they're at. Their biggest problem is creative, and until that is solved, none of these other areas, you know, marketing, licensing, for example, nobody's going to be interested in licensing your property unless your property becomes legitimately successful. Those are all things that come with success and growth. I don't know that someone is operating in the capacity traditionally of a CEO-O is going to have enough impact on those specific areas you mentioned to really matter too much in the short or even midterm. Long-term, yes. And if that's the strategy, it was a good decision on Tony's part. I think Tony, and I've said this a million times, Tony definitely does need to surround himself

with qualified, experienced, legitimately successful people in their respective areas of discipline. With the conflict in Iran, global markets are on edge. Oil prices are surging. Volatility is spiking, and the U.S. dollar is under pressure. This isn't a distant headline. You're feeling it at the pump in your grocery budget, even on your utility bills.

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Yep. is able to take some pressure off Tony. If Tony's actually engaged in a lot of those areas, able to come in and take some pressure off Tony, so Tony can focus more on creative, then potentially that's a good thing, particularly if there's other people working with Tony in creative that can actually learn how to produce a television show

because they don't know how to produce television. there's enough people there that do, it's just a matter of will Tony listen? Will Tony take guidance from people who know more than he does? That's what it always comes down to, especially with strong personalities. I don't know that Tony's a strong personality per se.

He's a unique personality. He's got all the money and he's funding it himself so that gives him a very, very loud voice, clearly. But learning how to delegate and recognizing one's strengths and weaknesses is an ongoing process for most people. It certainly is for me. It has been still it.

And I think Tony would be really well served to bring in people like Mr. Irby and others who can assist in the areas that AEW the most creative. Jen Pepperman's there. Jim Pepperman. Great resource. Will he listen to her?

Will he take some guidance? And just experiment with another way of doing it and give it enough time. to see if it's a better, if it's a, it's a better process or not. There are people there in AEW right now. He doesn't have to hire anybody. He just has to learn how to listen and delegate and, and give some people enough room to fail.

Well, I for one am, I'm glad that they got some more help in there. I, I know that, you know, it's a startup. We've got some growing pains. We're working for that second contract. This is going to be a big year for AEW. So I hope it feels like they've got a lot of, momentum right now. Like, you know, we've seen some really, really fun episodes in a row now, and we've seen

really fantastic raws. It feels like we've got a lot of momentum in the wrestling business. And Josh Henney has a great question that I wanted to ask with us out of the live studio audience. We're from Edfreyshows.com. He says social media usually spoils everything. How great is it that WWE is creating anticipation still? What can they be doing to make it work?

I mean, the anticipation, I mean, the anticipation, I don't know. I think you nailed it earlier of wondering, like, what did the rock whisper? And by the way, I think what he said is if you're trying to practice lip rating, I'm going to make you bleed to them. And then he did it. It was awesome. It was well done. And hopefully we'll see more of that in WWU programming in the future.

And I don't know, is that because Vince is out? Is it because Brian is back? Is it a combination of things? but anticipation it's the biggest part of wrestling and i got a friend of mine and used to do tv shows to have this formula he says sarsa and i think one of those a's i'm pretty sure was anticipation i agree and i think thanks for the nod goes back to what we were talking about earlier with vince McMahon being head of creative what we're talking about here are little tiny details

Right? The anticipatory rock coming out and saying nothing. Now, that wasn't a little tiny detail. That was a big decision creatively. It was a really big decision. But the execution of it whispering in Cody's ear, you know, spreading it throughout the show. That's an attention to detail within how many times have you heard me say,

discipline, storytelling. And I'm wondering how many people that have heard me beat on that drum, merciless without mercy beat that drum talking about it disciplined well-structured story and that's what we're seeing disciplined and well-structured meaning little detail and stringing those little details together to create a narrative and creating a narrative that creates questions it's not brain surgery. It's a craft. It's an art. It's a subtlety. But it's hard to reach that level of storytelling when you're constantly changing gears and shifting on the fly and changing basic stories and adding things in at the last minute. You lose that continuity. Lose the

discipline within the structure of a story so that you're getting plot points along the way that create the anticipation that makes everything work. It's one of the reasons that I lose my shit when people talk about the, and again, I'm not here to beat up on AW, but there's such a contrast to the storytelling in WW and the lack of storytelling or the excuse of a story in AEW. AEW stories are nothing more than angles that justify a match, if that, oftentimes they're just fucking random, right? Look, we've all heard the stories from people that we all know about shit changing minute by minute backstage before a show.

Same things. It's one of the reasons that I call the shit out because everybody in AEW was so quick, you know, to talk about how a WCW, you know, we wouldn't know what we were doing until an hour before the show. Same thing with WW week. We didn't know what we were doing until an hour before the show. Well, guess what, folks? the talent in AEW don't know what the fuck they're doing until after the show starts half of them.

We all, those of us who have contacts behind us, we all know that is true. And that's one of the things that's holding AEW down is the lack of continuity and consistency that manifest as a result of just random booking in emotional changes of direction

as opposed to a plan. I think what we're seeing right now in WWE is a plan. A lot of extremely talented writers are now able to focus on the little details that they know will help build anticipation and give you the plot point architecture you need within the storyline for the storyline to be effective. And we're seeing now, because of Paul Avak and Bruce Pritchard

and others who are involved in that process, they have the time and the ability now to focus on those little details, and those little details are what matters. Somebody told me once, I don't know who it was. I think it was Mike Shields. Actually, the guy who was responsible

for getting me in to work for Verne Gunny in the AWA. Vern, obviously, made the final decision, but it was Mike Shields who got me in the door. And Mike Shields, pretty sure it was here and told me one time of it, great television is nothing more than great attention to a lot of little detail. All television is, is little detail.

the better you are putting those little details together and crafting them into an arc of a story that builds anticipation and then pays off at the end, much like Bluetooth. The better you are at that, the higher performance, your storytelling process is the higher performance. The story will deliver. And that's what we're seeing. And I don't think it's like anybody woke up

and learned how to do it in WWE, I think now because of the structure in the process, the way things have changed with Polo Beck in charge, along with his team, I think you're seeing the best of great writing talent coming out and manifesting on the screen. I, for one, am really excited and motivated about the rest of 2024 in wrestling.

It feels like we're going to have a landmark year this year. I mean, here we are at the end of Q1, and we've already had big Royal Rumble, a huge Vince McMahon story, major power ships and shake up, Stings last match, the Rock is back, just like WrestleMania is bigger than ever. This might be like a banner year for professional wrestling as a whole, and I got to think a lot of that credit goes to the storytelling. I mean, really. I don't know how we can't. And we wouldn't have been having this conversation a year and a half ago or two years ago.

Yeah. The storytelling in WWB has changed so dramatically. And it's all been, you know, along the lines of Bolivak taking over and stepping away. And I think we're going to continue to see better and better storytelling. More success they have, the more confidence they'll have in that process, I think we'll see more and more of it, which is only going to lead to more and more success for WW.

And hopefully at some point, Tony will wake up and go, okay, I've got to change the way I do things in order to be viable. And to truly be, you know, as Tony likes to say, a legitimate contender, you're not right now. You could be, but you're not. And I think the more Tony sees the success of, of WWE, hopefully, the more open-minded he will be into putting more emphasis on story and less emphasis on the spectacle.

Because that's what, AEW is really a spectacle-driven company, and WWE is a story-driven. Those are the two big different companies. One is a spectacle, one is a story. Well, let's take a time out right now and tell you about something that I've learned a lot about, and we're talking about our friends at Cynos. You know, you have been on this train for a long, long time, and I'm just now learning. I have to admit, I was ignorant to this, but I've learned a lot, and it was really a learning

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Man, I'm excited that we had an opportunity to catch up on all that's going on in wrestling. I'm excited that we got to talk with some of our live studio audience. I want to give a shout out to Josh Eni and Coach Rosie and Travis Medway and so many other people who chimed in. I know Bobby was here and Carney was here. And it means a lot that you guys show up and hang out with. us early on a workday like this. Shout out to Eric Green, who's hanging in there, Coach Keith's in the house, Mike Hoop. It's a big deal that you guys are hanging out with us because we know, you know, our schedules were shuffled a little bit this week, but you're still

here. And Mike Hoop wants to know, Eric, you spent some time in Whiskey Row in Prescott. That's a fun question, a little personal question. Have you spent any time there? Yes, I have. Prescott was about an hour and a half drive north of where we lived in Cave Creek Arizona, Scottsdale. And, yeah, Mrs. B would jump on a Harley and Mrs. B and I would jump on a Harley and head up to Prescott. And it's a very, very cool town.

It's an old, the western town. And Whiskey Row is just a collection of bars. Famous. Talked about the palace. You know, Doc Holiday, basically a bouncer there. Got a lot of history.

And yeah, we'd go up there quite often. It was a beautiful drive. especially on Harley. And Prescott was a little higher elevation in Scottsdale. So even in the middle of the summer when it was like 110 degrees down in Cave Creek, Arizona where we lived, it would be, you know, 85 or 90 up there. And that was so, yeah, we would go up there quite free. We got to mention that over at ad-free shows.com,

not only did you get to be a part of our live studio audience and you get this bonus content from new series like Tuesdays, with the Passmaster or Lex Express or Monday Mailbag with Mike Kyoto. You get all that stuff. But you also get bonuses from like Eric Bischoff. How about this? Wrestling with Shadows. As I understand it, you're going to be sitting down

to watch the Brett Hart documentary Wrestling with Shadows for the very first time. And I know folks will be excited to hear your thoughts and your reaction to it and they can do all of this over at ad-freeshows.com. We've got a ton of bonus content in the archives for you to enjoy as well. Check it out.

ad-free shows.com. And we were intending to talk about Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling. We're like 90 minutes in. We haven't even started. So we'll kick that can and we'll talk about it after WrestleMania. Obviously,

WrestleMania is Paramount. We're going to be talking to all things WrestleMania next week as well. And we want you involved in the conversation. We're going to be throwing up polls. We've got some questions. We're going to let you vote on topics and things you want to hear about.

83 weeks.com is your home for all things, Eric Bischoff, make sure you're subscribing and you're liking, turning on the notification, throw us some comments, we've got some live streams coming up that are going to be there. You don't want to miss it. It's 83 weeks.com. You can also see the Hall of Fame Induction. We're going to be discussing that and a whole lot more, I'm sure, in the next week or so. And what I'm really excited about, one of the ideas that we kicked around, Eric, that we're going to be doing soon is if there were a WCW Hall of Fame, who would be in that class.

Now, I know there's never going to be a tradition. I know there was in the midnight. But with the benefit of hindsight now, who would be in that WCW Hall of Fame? And I say the benefit of hindsight, because I bet you didn't even notice what today's day is. No. March 26, 23 years ago today was the very last night.

How crazy is that? It's funny. I didn't think of that until we sat down to click record, and I looked in the bottom right hand corner my computer and I go, wait, March 26th, how about that? It's pretty poetic that when we did finally get to record this episode, we didn't record it two days before the anniversary or a day before the anniversary. We recorded it on the actual anniversary.

And we would love to hear your feedback. Who do you think should be in the WCW Hall of Fame? Hit us up at 83 Weeks.com. If you just can't get enough Eric Bischoff, be sure to check out his new book, Grateful. It's over at Amazon or Bischoffbook. com also love to have your interactions on social if you haven't already follow the show at 83 weeks on twitter instagram or facebook you can also interact with eric on twitter he's pretty active there at e bischoff or you can see a bunch of beautiful pictures of eric's house dog family oh my at the real eric bischoff

on instagram and boxogimics.com has all that you can shake a stick at 83 work 83 weeks merch dot com has heat is life i'm an eric bischoff guy cody is the guy and so much more and i think we've mentioned it but now you can buy an n w o shirt from eric bischoff this is a real thing we've got all kinds of nw o swag now available at shop wrestlingmerch dot com you got hats for the black and white and the wolf pack you got tank tops you got hoodies you got t-shirts and you've even got the big gold belt spray painted with the nw o not only that but all of your W.W.E. merch. We have an affiliate partnership with Fanatics now. So this will be the first time when somebody buys an NWO shirt. Eric gets a royalty.

How about that? Go right now to shop wrestlingmerch.com and join Eric Bischoff in the 83 weeks world order. Eric, I'm glad you're home. I'm glad we got to see your smiling face and I can't wait to see your bar. And I can't wait to talk about next week's TV, man. We've got a lot of big shows coming up. We've got the Go Home Monday Night Raw for WrestleMania. We've got the Go Home Friday Night Smackdown for WrestleMania. And not one, but two nights of WrestleMania. Man, I'm feeling it. I'm ready for WrestleMania this weekend.

I can't wait. Yeah, I'm going to need to take a vacation. When the Media's over and I'm not even involved in it, right out loud. Another thing we're doing over at 83weeks.com starting tomorrow night, Wednesday night. I'm going to be doing a four episode, four-part series, with an author by the name of Brad LaJukee. This is his second book. The first book was called The Wax Pack.

His most recent book, which is coming out, I think, a week from today, is called Sixpack. And the book follows six of the principles of WrestleMania 3, goes behind the scene, some amazing, amazing interviews you've never heard before. and the amount of research that Brad did this book was similar to what Guy Evans did to research the book, Nitro. The quality of the book is so fantastic, and we're going to touch on. We're going to break down a couple of the main chapters in the book and talk about what went into getting the interviews with his talents

and the research that went into it. We're going to learn some things that nobody's ever heard before about WWF back when Vince McMahon Sr. was involved. lawsuits, research, traveled blogs, payoffs, all kinds of stuff that Brad was able to unearth in his research. And we're going to talk about all of it. And you'll be able to 283 weeks.com. You'll learn about the book and get to meet Brad.

It's another great thing coming to 83.com. It's starting again tomorrow night, Wednesday night. We'll be doing it for four weeks straight. I'm pumped about it. I've had a chance to see the book, read the book. the book. I think Brad's done a great job and did a data dump and some of the stuff that we're going to be sharing. I had a

chance to preview. My goodness, the internal reports that he has access to the lawsuit that he was able to dig up. Like if you're a hardcore wrestling nerd, you don't want to miss any of it. It's all going to be on our YouTube channel, 83 weeks.com. If you haven't already check it out, man, he's got the

entire Bill Eady lawsuit with the WW. I mean, it is hundreds of pages. And I actually thumb through all of them. and it was fascinating to see a real page turn. Not only that, but like internal reports for what merch was sold at WrestleMania 3, all this and so much more, 83weeks.com,

and be sure to check out the brand new book. We're going to have all the details on that in the coming weeks, but join us tomorrow, tomorrow night, Wednesday night, 83 weeks.com. Eric, thanks for the time. Welcome back, and I'm looking forward to catching up again soon. We'll see you guys next week, right here, on 83 weeks.

with Eric Bischel.