83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 325: The White Hummer / Nitro 06.07.99

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

On this episode of 83Weeks, Eric and Conrad takes us back 25 years for the infamous white hummer attack on "Big Sexy" Kevin Nash! Who was behind the wheel? Who booked this shit? Find out those answers and so much more on this edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. SUBSCRIBE TO 83 WEEKS: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCqQc7Pa1u4plPXq-d1pHqQ/?sub_confirmation=1 BECOME A 83 WEEK MEMBER NOW: https://www.youtube.com/@83weeks/membership EARNIN - Download the EarnIn app today. Type in 83 WEEKS under PODCAST when you sign up. EarnIn, the most loved way to get paid as you work MACK WELDON - Get timeless looks with modern comfort from Mack Weldon. Go to MackWeldon.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code 83WEEKS. 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 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 BlueChew.com, promo code 83WEEKS to receive your first month FREE 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://www.savewithconrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to https://www.podcastheat.com/advertise now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCqQc7Pa1u4plPXq-d1pHqQ/join BECOME A 83 WEEK MEMBER NOW: https://www.youtube.com/@83weeks/membership Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. Eric, what's going on, man? How are you? I am basking in the afterglow of an amazing sunrise this morning. Got to tell you, it's just absolutely gorgeous. Summer is here in the Rocky Mountains. it is absolutely fantastic. Well, I am pumped to be here with you today. Of course, just a couple of nights ago.

We hooked up for a little recap of Who Killed WCW and airs on Vice. We're doing a reaction show for every single episode over at 83weeks.com. 83 weeks.com is your home for all things, Eric Bischoff. So be sure to hit the subscribe button, turn on the notifications bell. We're going live. some conversations before we clicked record about a very special guest that well might get everybody talking

I enjoyed the series episode one I felt like it laid the groundwork and I'm anxious to see what we should expect in episodes that are still to come what do you think of episode one now that you've had a few days to marinate are you looking forward

to the next one are you dreading the next one talk me through what you feel watching these shows back it's a little bit of both you know there's four episodes, but this is a story. There's an arc to this story. And as such, I think what we watched in the first episode was probably a good act one. Maybe they tease the beginning of Act two just a little bit at the end. I think they did a good job with that. Act two,

you know, Act one, what was the purpose of Act one? It was to establish, you know, WCW and Nitro and where we came from and what we achieved and, you know, all the elements of some of the cool dramatic things that went into the explosive growth of WCW and Nitro in the beginning. But I think now as we get into what is probably Act 2, we're going to see what happened after we achieved all that success and what was the beginning of a lot of the challenges and issues and frustrations amongst the talent and that type of thing. So I think, well, you know, Act 1 was let's establish everybody. let's establish our characters, let's establish our points of view, let's establish

the WCW is on an upward trend and achieve the impossible opinions of many. And now what? And I think that, and now what is going to get really, really interesting. Act three, I'm guessing, because I wasn't involved in formatting this, I haven't reviewed any of the episodes, I haven't looked at any formats, I haven't looked at any show notes. But I'm guessing Act two is going to be a lot of the, things that led up to the end of WCW, Turner. And then Act 3 will probably be a deep dive and maybe an autopsy into just exactly who is responsible

based on everything that we saw on Act 1, Act 2, but we'll probably be beginning of Act 3. So that's what I'm anticipating. What it's going to look like, I don't know. You know, I was able to get comfortable in the very beginning. getting after talking to Brian Goertz and Dave Hodgson over at advice that they're going to be taking a different approach to this and the fact that they're using Guy Evans book as much as they are and and a lot of the interviews that he did with key executives lead me to believe that at least there'll be different points of view presented and I think that's all I can hope

for is a different point of view other than you know the dirt sheet narrative this and out there or the WWE narrative that's been floating around out there for, you know. Episode two will air this Tuesday night at 10 p.m. Eastern and immediately, and I mean immediately after, we want you to go to 83 weeks.com. It'll be your chance to interact and ask Eric Bischoff questions live right after that. And it happens this Tuesday at 11 o'clock. Hey, I wanted to ask you. That's hard, isn't it?

I got a minute. I'm usually in bed by 8.30. So, you know, I had to stay up until 10 my time in order to do the live reaction. And for me, it was like, oh, my God. I did everything I could to stay awake for that. It was brutal. If you want to see me when I haven't had a lot of coffee in my natural state around 10 o'clock at night, check it out. It's different.

But I do expect we're going to get a lot more questions. because I think the nature of what we're about to see in Act 2, or excuse me, in episode two, is going to be more, there'll be more controversy. Again, the first part, the first episode was, you know, what are you going to argue with? You know, we, it was really all about the positive stuff, with the exception of Brett Hart, who's perennelian, just, he's just so negative and dark. But the rest of it was all, yay, rah, rah, wasn't this great, wasn't it fun? I think what we're going to see in the next episode is a little more,

I don't know that this is even possible, but just so everybody knows, behind the scenes, we have a crack producer with us, I'm Dave Silva. And sometimes he'll share, you know, we'll give people a heads up, like, hey, I've got our commercial coming here and so-and-so minutes and, hey, don't forget so-and-so. Well, just now, I got an all-tech, all-caps message in our little private chat for our production of our live show from our producer. And it says in all bold letters, can you tell us about that dick? And then on the second line, it says cheat them text.

And that totally changed the entire message he was trying to convey to us. Yeah, that would be a little, you know, it's like a segue into a blue chew commercial. I thought, we've got something going on we don't know about. I was like, what is he talking? Tell us about that dick. What is he trying to say to Eric? Well, he meant, can you tell us about that dick, cheat him text? So I guess, yeah, we did hear from Dick Cheatham on episode one,

and you mentioned that he had a series of text messages that maybe pulled the curtain back a little bit about Jamie Kilner and some other unsavory characters in this story. We're going to be talking about that this Tuesday night, right after Vice, finishes their episode two of Who Killed WCW, and we might even have Dick Cheatham on, do a little run-in one of these days, as we're recapping is. Let me just explain a little bit about who Dick Cheatham is.

Sure. And I want to reference a comment that Dave Meltzer made a couple days ago after he watched the first 15 minutes of the episode that Vice put up. And he said, you know, hard to believe someone could lie for an entire 15 minutes. I'm going to dig into that just a little bit. But Dick Cheatham, for those of you who don't know, who haven't read Guy Evansville, Dick Sheetum didn't work for me. Dick Cheatham worked with me because Dick Cheatham was the executive, the finance executive in charge of, I believe it was the Braves, for sure the Hawks, the Omni Arena, and WCW.

And again, because of the way Turner was set up, finance and legal separate divisions got all companies report all divisions reported up to they were independent they had independent oversight both legally and financially of every division and turner which means that as a division of turner wcw had to report to a senior executive from turner finance who then reported to i believe vicky miller i think that was the chain of so dick chitam had been oh had overseen wcd from early on i don't know when he started but clearly during the darker hours of WCW were purred and lots and

and then he was in a Cheatham was there when I started getting involved with him. Dick Cheatham had 100% visibility, financial visibility not only into WCW but also into Turner Broadcasting's relationship with CW and I'm talking about senior executives other than Ted and in that first episode you heard

I'll paraphrase Dick I'm not quoting him But essentially, early on in Dick Cheatham's position as a senior finance executive in charge of WCW, he was told by his superiors that helping WCW in any way would be career suicide. That was early on, right? So when, and again, props to Guy Evans, because none of this would have probably come to the light of day, certainly not in the documentary we're watching, but certainly wouldn't have been out there in the public narrative. Because what the story that's been told thus far has been by Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez, who had zero visibility to anything. Their sources were

essentially disgruntled, middle of the card, kind of not really full-time WCW wrestlers in some respects, he had very low level inside information, but that's what Dave Meltzer and Alvarez relied upon, particularly Alvarez and his involvement with the book, The Death of WCW. These guys cannot accept Dave Meltzer in particular, cannot accept a narrative other than the one that he's been propagating for the last 25 or 30 years, 25 years about WCW and what went wrong. And now that there's actual people involved, like Dick Cheatham and others, we had not only 100% visibility, but in many cases, we're directly involved in the day-to-day financial operations of what are corroborating, corroborating what I've been talking about here on 83 weeks for almost six years. And now it's coming to light. And I think it's just

blow in Mr. Meltzer's mind because now there's facts. There's people who are actually there and involved that are telling a different story than the one. And Alvarez has been telling for, like I said, 25 years. It's fun as fuck to watch.

It's fun. Check it out. We're going to be doing it live, 83 weeks.com this Tuesday night right after episode two of Who Killed WCW. By the way, we've had a lot of interesting conversations not just about WCW

but another part of wrestling history that maybe we thought had been covered to death the Montreal screw job well as it turns out I recently sat down with Tom Carlucci for our insider series over at adfreeshows.com

as a reminder Tom spent 30 years with WWE I think his wife and his son both still work there maybe his daughter too either way he had a literal front row seat for so many memorable moments

the iconic attitude era he was ringside the entire time including that Fateful Night in Montreal and we heard some things we've never heard before let's take a listen the Montreal screw job

we used to have a production meeting right every paper we had a production Vince would lead it I think Brian was there Kevin when we had the Montreal screw job there was a survivor series as you know in Montreal all we have the production meetings of Vince goes through the whole show and he says okay we have

the main event Brett Sean and he looks at Kevin and he says Kevin they're not here yet but I don't know if this match is going to go two minutes or 25 minutes he said so you better be prepared to put something up to fill this pay-per-view and when I heard that that day Conrad backstage was so such an eerie feeling like it was so quiet back stage like when brett and shan came in i know vince talked to them separately and then he talked to them together and then when you saw the match happen i was ringside i had the french guys to my right i had the spanish guys and then there was the english table right when vince came out and the spot happened raymond rojole pulls off his headset he goes brett just got screwed and i'm like

what? He goes, yeah, Brett Scott screwed. Vince is taking this whole thing over and that's when everything happened. So the match happens. You saw it happen. You saw the aftermath. So I have to stay out there as a stage manager to town leaves. Brett comes over to our tables and if you remember smashing

all that stuff. He smashed like I could have tried to stop him but I wouldn't never do. I'm like Kevin, you know, what do you want me to do here? And he goes, no, we're shooting all this because he's going to pay for every bit of that equipment that he's smashing right now. And I just let re-rain it. And then we went

backstage and it was so quiet and that's when the you kind of heard a ruppus backstage a little bit in the locker room area and that's when Vince and all those guys came out and that's when the fight ensued between. But it was a weird weird day.

Check out the full conversation with Tom Carlucci on the insiders. Plus we've got past conversations with a lot of key figures behind the scenes and creative production and more names you've heard of like Neil Pruitt, Mike Mansoury, and Mike Weber and Court Bauer and so many others. We call it Insiders and it's exclusively at ad-free shows.com

where you'll also hear from people like the Blue Maney and Mike Keota and Nick Patrick and Lance, I'm sorry, Lex Lugar, and Lash LaRue and David Crockett and Kevin Sullivan and so many others. It's ad-free shows.com. But the reason we're here today, Eric, is because we're going to watch back a pretty infamous episode of Nitro It went down on June 7th, 1999. So believe it or not, it was 25 years ago to the day.

And it's one of the more famous angles in Nitro history, the rather infamous White Hummer angle. We're going to be watching it back together, and we want you to pull your peacock out. Go to Season 5, Episode 22. That's Season 5, Episode 22. And, man, I just, I'm looking forward to watching old wrestling with you. I don't know why I have such a good time with this, but I do.

Before we get going, though, I know that we both want to thank our sponsor today of today's episode. Mack Weldon, and Mac Weldon is like, it makes me think of like, hey, we're going to recap the story of who killed WCW, but we're never going to point fingers. You know, you just can't have it both ways, but you can with Mac Weldon.

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I don't think my dad wears anything but Mac Weldon now. And listen, peacocking and all the flashy stuff, man, that's for the birds. Some guys, I think most of us listening to this, we just want to look good without calling attention to ourselves. Well, Mac Weldon Apparel gives you understated good looks for understated confidence. They're not flashy, just classic, always in style, made from the world's most comfortable performance material. And usually when you hear performance fabric, you think, well, that's going to be shiny or techy, kind of nerdy. That's not what this is.

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even do an ultra-soft antimicrobial tea for that same reason. Get timeless looks with modern comfort from our friends at Mac Weldon. Go to macweldon.com and get 20% off your first order when you use our promo code Bischoff. That's M-A-C-W-E-L-D-O-N.com, and the promo code is Bischoff. So, Eric, without further ado, man, I got it locked and loaded. Season 5, Episode 22 of Monday Nitro, and went down on June 7, 1999. Are you ready to start this playback, dude? Yes, indeed I am, sir.

Here we go. And three, two, one, play. So we're in for a hall today, Eric, without the commercials. We've got two hours, 16 minutes, and 20 seconds in this one. This is the three-hour era of Monday Nitro. And I've been talking to some folks who aren't necessarily talking heads in the wrestling space. But I've heard more than a few people suggest that, Monday Night Raw, when it goes to Netflix, will not be three hours.

That Netflix will say, nope, that's not good. That's too much. And I thought, I don't know, man. If I'm paying for the content, I would think I would want more. I even heard recently Tony Kahn say, hey, I'm not going to turn down more time. We would love more time. And I'm wondering, you know, with the benefit of hindsight, who better to sort of respond to those sort of theories than you?

Because Nitro, in my opinion, when it was at its peak, was a two-hour show, not a three hour show what say you absolutely easier to be more consistent in producing high quality shows with a two hour format than a three hour form it's i mean look it doesn't matter what your favorite television series may be um if you sell three hours of it once a week 52 weeks a year it wouldn't probably be your favorite show for very long. It's just difficult. But I think the two-hour format,

because it's easier to produce, because it's easier to hold the audience attention, because it's easier in many ways to build anticipation and tell a story that'll resonate within a two-hour format as opposed to a three, I think it'll increase the overall the action to the show.

I think you'll grow the audience. I think more people will, watch wrestling. I think more people will make a commitment to invest two hours than make a commitment to invest three hours. I think all in all, it would be a good move. In the long run, in the short term, yeah, you're giving up some revenue. There's an hour or less content. There's an hour or less opportunity to make money. But in the long term, I think the success of the show will be enhanced with a two-hour form, which is a three. So we show the macho man, Randy Savage with three ladies with him, of course,

the future Molly Holly and there's Medusa and, of course, gorgeous George. He's arriving in the backstage area in a jacket that looks like it's in Darby Allen's closet. And he's in a white limo and he's making his way through the backstage area. And then we see the set, but there's not, this isn't your typical nitro open in that. I mean, I know we all got used to the big white limousines arriving in the back,

but there's no like, Tyro and Ballyhoo. or whatever the shit they call it on the format. We go right into a live shot of the crowd and down the ramp comes hardcore hack, the former Sandman. I know this sounds silly, but I got to ask, was there ever a discussion in budgeting

about trimming down pyro just to keep costs in order? Is that something that was even... Oh, yeah. What you're looking at here in June of 1999 are the decisions that were made in 1998, financial decisions, by Turner Finance. And our budgets, even though in 1998, we were producing record profits,

incredibly high margins and ratings, regardless of that, our budgets were cut dramatically, dramatically. And then it was a scramble to figure out how we could continue to produce the quality of show that we previously had after getting our budgets essentially gutted during the peak of our performance in 1998. We just saw a shot of you with a full head of gray hair, which is not something you rocked a lot back then. But Bobby the Brain Heenan is at the desk,

and we saw Tony Chivani at the desk, and you're the third man at the desk. And I know that you started doing commentary on Nitro, but now you're back in that spot. Was that a challenge for you? Or was it like riding a bicycle? Well, it was awkward for me because I've never been a color commentator

And the role that I was in there, I was more of a color guy than a play-by-play guy. Play-by-play, I love doing. I've done it enough where I feel pretty comfortable doing it and actually enjoy it. But color commentary, by its very nature, is quite a bit different than what I had previously done as an announcer. So I wasn't really the most comfortable in that role, be honest. Let's talk about the presentation of the former Sandman here. He's coming to the ring with Chastity, who maybe became notable in that. era for something else in her previous life but here he is with the cane the jeans the boots the

black t-shirt the cigarette but he's coming down the ramp not through the crowd and he's not drinking beer was that a tell me why we changed like if something was working why wouldn't you still continue to have him come through the crowd and why stop drinking beer i mean i know that at times i could say well maybe that was a standards and practices thing but we would see Big Show have a cigarette before, so it's not unusual maybe for him to do that. But we would see Scott Hall, you know, coming out and pretending to be drunk and things like that. Why the decision to strip away maybe the coolest part of Sandman's persona, that crazy entrance? I mean, I know we might not license the song, but we could still come through the crowd, right?

Nope. This is standards and practices. And, yeah, we previously had seen a big show come out with a cigarette, probably a year before this, perhaps, whenever it was. Sandman coming down with a cigarette didn't necessarily pose a problem. Drinking alcohol for us in WCW and Turner Broadcasting at the time was a standards and practices issue. Clearly it was not in WWE because Austin was making chugging beer famous and it was doing. extremely well, but this is another one of the, you know, seemingly little, you know, I said in the documentary, who killed WCW, the death of WCW, you want to call it a death,

was by a thousand cuts. It wasn't any one thing. And one of those cuts, two of them now that we've seen already in this show in 1999, was one, the obvious reduction in budget, production budget so that we couldn't have the type of energetic open and to reaffirm to the audience that there's a really good reason to be here tonight and all that shit we had to lose that we're losing a little bit of creative freedom with regards to standards and practices all the while wcw excuse me wwe is turning up the volume on the attitude this is just a perfect kind of juxtaposition between what was really going on in WCW behind the scenes, not in the ring, in the locker room, talking about the business of WCW.

Looking at the juxtaposition here, I guess what WWE was doing at the time. Pretty amazing. Yeah, so the storyline that we're seeing here is you on commentary said, hey, it looks like HAC's been drinking for four days straight. And of course, J.J. Dillon comes out and says, hey, you can't smoke a cigarette, those the smoke in his face. You come in, say the same thing. He blows the smoke in the face.

So eventually you slap him. There's a pull apart. And you're actually going to jump back on commentary and make sure to mention that Castity is a well-known movie star. I guess I sort of alluded to that. But around this era, maybe a few months prior to this, is when it came out that prior to joining WCW, she had starred in an adult film. And that film had a little bit of resurgence amongst Internet wrestling.

and maybe the tape trading community and everybody was talking about it on message boards was there, I mean, you're referencing it here, so you knew, but we've also heard, you know, standards and practices, this and that. Did they not have a problem with her prior career, I guess we'd call it? No, I mean, they weren't the morality police.

Right. Nobody was sitting on office internal broadcasting, judging people's personal lives. Standards and practices was more, interested in what was actually being presented on television. So the fact that we referenced in a tongue-in-cheek man or her movie career didn't create any problems with standards and practices. Now, who would have showed a clip and blurted out?

Yeah, that would have been an issue. Well, that's an issue, yeah. It would have also been great TV. That's essentially what they were doing over in WWE, some version of that. so Sandman just threw Prince Iacaa into the table that was propped up in the corner the table did not break and of course he still rolled him up and the fans are booing the finish they wanted to see this table busted but that didn't happen here comes Brian Knobbs and Hugh Morris and they're like hey this unbroken table that won't do they're going to

get hack on the right track here and hey whether you meant to or not you're going through it buddy they're trying to set it up and here comes Kidman to make the save so we've got some chaos right away and really some dangerous chaos with that table upside down as Kidman comes flying through here. This, um,

listen, I appreciate chaos and this feels a little, maybe a little ECW like, but I kind of like my first match on Nitro to be luchadors. Am I old fashioned? No. No.

And it's just, look, look at the crowd. I mean, you got a lot of people on their feet. You've got a pretty full house. At least it looks to be, here um and people like this kind of chaos and just guys beating a hell out of each other i i don't

i it's just chaos for the sake of chaos and a schmaz for the sake of schmaz and i i i don't dig it i'm with you man i like to see a good solid back and forth wrestling match with great athletes to open up the show cruiser weights for the best man fast pace high energy no slow points during the match all energy and excitement this is just a little bit like It's another hard one. We should have a million times. This match took place at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, to give some context, we're on the Go Home Nitro headed towards the Great American Bash,

which is going to happen just six days later. There's a total of 9,943 fans here. We're about 1,000 shy of capacity at that number, and 8,600 of those fans paid 182 grand. So just a random television taping here, or a live television show. 8,600 paying fans. Pretty good, man.

I mean, I know that people say WCW was, you know, a coffin on roller skates by this point, but hey, we got 8,600 paying fans. That's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, look at where AEW is today. Last night, they did about 2,800 paid. Yeah, their residency they're doing on the road to all-in in in Arlington is set for under 1,300 fans.

Like, that's the capacity for what they're setting up. So if we're comparing- 1,200? Yeah, 1260, 1,260, yeah. I think June will probably be, I don't know for sure, but based on what we're seeing with, like, Russell Ticks, it does seem like June might be the all-time low attendance-wise for AEW. So we're hoping that they can, you know, pop some ratings and pull the nose upon that thing. Healthy AEW is good for the industry.

It is, but they get a long way to. First, you've got to diagnose the illness and accept it. Then you've got to discipline yourself to engage in a cure. I don't think any of those things have happened. So it'll be interesting. And, you know, June is, some are such a tough time to begin with because there's just so many other things to do. And, you know, we've talked about it here before.

People aren't watching television as much. You know, it's light till 10 o'clock at night. There's softball tournaments, there's kids events, there's just, you know, hanging out after work with your friends, you know, in a restaurant or a bar sitting outside and having a drink and a meal until eight or nine o'clock a night. You don't do those things in the wintertime. So summer is such a tough time. And summer in Texas, in a residency with a brand that isn't very hot, it's going to be an interesting experiment with that. here we go now it's the recorded intro the actual official open of nitro and we get the open entrance graphics after we saw the nitro girls dancing in the aisle and now it's a recap package so we started with a little bit of a hardcore situation there with hack and prince ikea we're doing a recap just to sort of catch you up on all the storylines the upcoming great american bash does have hack versus brian nobs that's why we saw them we would also get and yes this is a real paper view match. Van Hammer versus Mikey Whiprick.

Buff Bagwell versus Disco Inferno. Kerr Henning and Bobby Duncom Jr. against Ray Mysterio and Conan. Ernest Miller versus Horace Hogan. So far, I'm seeing why WWE was kicking the shit out of you guys. Rick Flair versus Rodney. That just sounded horrible, brother. That car is just like, what the fuck? Sting and Rick Steiner in a false count anywhere.

The tag titles with DDP and Canyon against Saturn and Benoit. And the main event is Kevin Nash and Randy Savage. So we've got an interesting collection of talent here, but some of those matches respectfully sound like television matches, and by television, I mean thunder. Isn't it funny, though, Conrad? And I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm fully agree with you.

But just for shits and giggles, one of the critiques of WCW in 1999, and I think a valid one, because we had such a dense top of the roster, So many massive names, proven draws, financial track record behind them that would justify them being in the positions they were in. But nevertheless, we had a lot of talent that just wasn't able to break through into that main event roster. This was, and that's what we did in 99. That's what we're trying to address all the way through my return later on in 2000 or 2001, whatever, when we formed the new blizzard.

2000. The effort in 99 was to give some of that talent that are not household names a position on a pay-per-view to help build the perception of them bigger stars in giving them

better opportunities. People that wouldn't otherwise necessarily make it to a paper. So you're saying it's chicken in the egg, kind of. Well, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Right. It's probably a better way to say it.

You know, if you put names that are kind of young and fresh and evolving and developing and you start putting them on pay-per-views with guys like Randy Savage and Kevin Nash, there's always that, well, why? What are you putting him on a pay-view for? But then when you don't give those people, you know, when people like that opportunities, it's like, well, no wonder, oh, you're telling you, it's a glass ceiling, all the ties at the top are keeping the guys down. So it's damned if you do, damned if you don't, really.

And there's a way. I mean, I'm not suggesting there's not a way to do it. There is, and I didn't accomplish it. So I know from where I speak, but it is an interesting conundrum. I love that. The thing that always tickles me about the discourse amongst A.E.W. And I consider myself a diehard A.W.

But I know that a lot of them are on the war path for you. And the thing that always jumps out of the page for me about that sort of conversation is it's like, Hey, man, who's better qualified to comment on this than Eric? Like, I know you could say, hey, well, he tried and he failed. Okay, then let's make a list of who succeeded. If Eric Bischoff failed at this, then who succeeded? And the answer is fucking nobody. Okay, so then who got closest?

Who had it and then fumbled? And is there anything to learn from that? But the idea that we just dismiss anyone who actually lived it is just a little silly. Well, I think it's a reflection of the, I don't want to say intellect, because I think if people actually think about things in a rational, critical thought process kind of way, they would agree with you. But I think what's,

what wrestling represents is not a logical thought process in almost any shape or form, right? We abandoned logic when we decide we're going to watch wrestling for entertainment. Right. Because so much of it isn't logical. But I think, the level of emotion for those people who are just as you point out die hard AEW fans

I think they're emotions they're irrational because there's no logic in emotion it's just a feeling and I think the feelings and the emotions are actually dominating the discourse because there's no logic to it whatsoever just not some of the crazy stuff right now there's some good analysis people have good takes sometimes people like me have of snarky chase, you know, is they're having fun with this stuff, engaging, or pissing people off, which I've kind of built a career off. But overall, I don't think there's a lot of logical discourse taking place. I think vast majority of it, particularly online, is all just fanboy emotion.

Well, we are big fan boys here for Scotty Riggs. So glad to see Scottie in his most recent return to wrestling. he's having a little fun. I think he's your and I are recording this less than a week ago. He was at center stage for MLW. Just the idea that he's got a newfound renewed vigor for professional wrestling. And he's gotten himself in good shape and he's got a fabulous head of hair. And he looks like the old Scotty Riggs.

And he does with cooler hair, man. I mean, his hair is fucking on point. Right. I knew you were like that. I know hair. I know good hair when I see hair. I wouldn't have ever been in the freaking wrestling business. Were it not for the, just the quality, the density, and the look of my hair.

If it were not for my hair, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. But I will wrap just without question, give it up to Scotty Riggs, who has undoubtedly the best head of hair in the professional wrestling business at this freaking moment. And can you imagine how much fun it was for Scottie Riggs, especially in center stage? Come on. I mean, Scotty's been through the Diamond Dallas Page rehab your life program, whatever he calls it, because Scotty had issues.

And Diamond Dallas Page being Diamond Dallas Page, loves to fix people. He loves to help people. Took Scotty in, along with Mark Bagwell, both of them committed. And they both have come out better human beings. And now Scotty Riggs, after putting in the work and the time and facing his challenges, goes back to center stage where it all began and he has a whole perspective on life to go along with it. I think it's just awesome. It's one of those feel good stories and I wish we would hear more about because there's a lot of really good things that happen to really good people also happen to be in wrestling industry.

And I love to hear more of them. But right there, Scotty Riggs, hats off to you, brother. I'm so proud of you. We are loving seeing Scotty in this. I hate your hair, but I'm proud of you. I love seeing this version of Scotty Riggs. We know it's not going to, you know, be hugely successful in WCW. But he looks great.

It's a fun character. And I just wonder, was the timing off for this presentation for him? Like, you and I've talked about this before. But if WCW had actually claimed Buff Bagwell and he didn't become the mega heel with the NWO, I think that would have really cleared the floor for Scotty Riggs or even vice versa. But when that tag team broke up, maybe that was a missed opportunity for Scotty. And when he gets another bite at the apple, man, he's got a Hogan level 10 here. He's in great shape.

He had cool gear. I mean, his work is good. Timing is everything. And I think Scotty Riggs has got to be one of the most old examples of that. Indeed. And by the way, before we forget, Travis Medway, gifted to 5.83 weeks, Derek Bischoff, memberships. Hey now. Thanks for that, man.

That is awesome. Travis, all the way over in the UK, I believe. And Jim Pesinski, Jim and Buffalo, gifted 5, 83 weeks membership. So what is an 83 weeks membership? That's a membership to our YouTube channel where you get exclusive content that I don't provide or share anywhere else. I give you some hints as to what I'm going to be doing next over at Wise Choices or what Conrad and I are going to be doing. over to 83 weeks.com get a lot of cool stuff.

Last night I was out taking my dog for a walk and I brought my phone with me and I just chatted. Remember. So yeah, that's what you get in a bunch of other cool stuff. So thank you, Jim. Thank you, Travis.

83 weeks.com. Appreciate you guys being with us. Travis actually has a question for you. He says, hey, gents, please, please for some lighthearted fun, do a watchalong of Thunder Russo, New York rules. we all need a giggle sometimes keep up the amazing work so it was a homecoming in long island i think when um oh that sounds fun russo came back maybe we need to do that over at 83 weeks

com stay tuned we'll get that on the schedule that's a great idea jim and buffalo brings up what we just saw we talked over it but i definitely wanted to circle back to it you had a comment here and i want to read the observer but keep that up there too we'll get the question as well Silva. This is directly from the write-up for Monday Night Raw. Bischoff said the higher power was initialed VM and then on the other station they just keep recycling the same crap. An interesting choice of words. He said WCW had signed Rodman. Recycling the same crap became an even more interesting choice of words at that point. He then said how Vince had a $110 million lawsuit problem and that unlike Vince, he can go public. By the way, Bischoff figured it was VM and didn't

know and backstage when Raw was on and so many people were watching Raw instead of paying attention to their own live show he was relieved that it was Vince McMahon so he didn't look bad that's what's written in the observer and of course Jim and Dave knows and Dave knew all of this because

I mean he described what I was doing backstage and what I was thinking what other people were doing while he was sitting in his shitty little fucking cluttered apartment pranking out dirt sheet garbage. How would he know

what was going on backstage thousands of miles away? Great question. He didn't. He's just making shit up. That's what that does. It is like creepy. Jim and Buffalo says, This Nitro opposed the higher power episode on commentary. I believe it was Eric

that gave away that Vince was the higher power, which was true. Was that done to drum up heat? So Eric, we know that you did this in the early days of Nitro, but that was back in 95. here we are now in 1999 and for the better part of the last year WWE has been kicking that ass and now we're trying to sort of claw back and this feels like an Eric Bischoff move when did you know it was going to be Vince was it just a guess

and what was the motivation by sharing that here especially knowing that we had tried this with the whole butts and seats thing back in January and it worked against you But yet here you are, five, six months later, trying it again. Yeah, I don't give up easy. You know, I mean, giving away finishes, having Lex Lugar show up in a very first episode, creating the overrun format or addition to the format. All of that shit hit.

You know, I probably did it a hundred times. And one time when I was referring to the, the rock and McFoley match and butts and seeds. One time it didn't work. So I'm not the type of person that's going to abandon something because, yeah, it may have worked 99 times, but on the 100th time, it didn't. So I should never do it again. Took a shot.

Stuck with a formula that had previously worked, created controversy, get some people talking, knowing that it could probably, as I experienced in January, as you pointed out, it could have led to people tuning out of Nitro and into WWE to see if my prediction was accurate. But I was willing to take that risk, that tradeoff to maintain that spontaneity and anything can happen on Nitro and they're kind of half crazy

and do shit nobody else ever does. That's what got Nitro to the dance in the first place. So I wasn't willing to abandon it because I got spanked. hey i need to make a correction i misspoke a few minutes ago i said that the a w residency in arlington was going to be scaled uh for 1290 that is or 1260 that is incorrect wrestlenomics is reporting 1290 i said 1260 that's not right it's actually 1290 uh backstage a big difference that's that's going to change everything well you know i just don't want to be corrected hey we've got uh chrispin wah here uh

sitting under the learning tree of the now president, Rick Flair. This is kind of surreal to watch back now. Is it not? It is. I think of everything that's happened, you know, since this time. Yeah, it is surreal. It's a head trip if you allow it to be. In this little segment,

Flair is convincing Benoit a team of him later in the show to take on Diamond Dallas Page and Bam Bam Bigelow. Meltzer would say they finally made Flair uncool after so many jealous bookers trying for the past 15 years to do so. Blair was talking seriously about taking time off,

but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now. It would have been hard for me to imagine Flair really ever taking time off. I agree. I mean, it was up to Rekke be in the ring this weekend bouncing around with somebody. father time has finally made that clear that that's no longer on rick's dance card but if he could

he would he loves it lives for it as the rating show scotty riggs and lindy lane goes six minutes and 20 seconds scotty got the win with the rocker dropper and we see perry saturn in the backstage area now talking to rick flair and Chris Benoit. Up next, we've got a pretty famous or maybe infamous Randy Savage promo. But before we do that, let's do a question here from Coach Rosie.

How do you handle it when people tell myths, truths about the fall of WCW? Does it still bother you or is it just in one ear and out the other now, Eric? It's pretty much in one ear and out the other. You know, but truthfully, in the beginning, it drove me nuts. I would, angry.

I wanted to lash out. I want to correct the record, all this stuff. I was defensive about it. But over time, you just realized that people are going to have whatever opinions people have. Some people who are critical thinkers will be interested in finding out facts and real information. Others are just, they have that bumper sticker mentality, man. Whatever, whatever headline they read in social media, whatever headline they read in mainstream news, whatever headline they see in social media clickbait is their truth.

and that's what they latch on to. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is. It doesn't bother me anymore. I've gotten to the point now, thankfully, to be honest about it, because of this podcast. I talked about this before. At a very beginning, I brought some of that resentment and defensiveness with me, even to this format when we first started. But over time, I've gotten real comfortable criticizing myself. acknowledging what could have been done differently, what should have been done

differently, as well as what was done right. I'm really, really comfortable with all. And I've gone to the point now where when I read the stupid shit I read, again, from guys like Dave Meltzer, now it's actually entertaining. I've gone from being angry and resentful to being entertained and humored. And it also gives me great content because there's nothing I love more than exposing idiots like Dave Meltzer and proving to the world, along with guys like Bruce Pritchard and Jim Cornett and so many others who are, you know, just willing to tell the truth

and expose Dave Meltzer for the con man and the fraud that he accuses other people. But it really is Dave Meltzer as a con man and a fraud. And now we all have platforms to call him out and point it out. And it's just fun to watch. it's entertaining. Well, I hope you're entertained because Savage is here with a bucket. He's wearing that same. That's a lat spread.

Check out the lat spread on Randy Savage as he's coming to the ring. His arms are almost completely out to the side because those massive lats can't even fit within the confines of that pink fur coat. Pink fur coat is hot. His hands are in different zip codes because of the lats. Hey, here's the deal. Life doesn't happen biweekly. So why should payday?

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so listen we got a really long promo here this is a segment that's going to die a terribly slow death it's going to take forever but we've got savage out here cutting a promo with three ladies and something's in the bucket yeah Nash is going to come out and well there's some silliness here there's going to be a contortionist involved what yeah Eric this is one of the crazy come on and this is it's easy when everybody says oh russo russo he's on the other channel he's not even here do you remember anything about this promo or segment not at all this is like i'm not even sure i saw it live when it happened i was kind of i was focused on a lot of other things and it's pretty obvious here i don't know man this is the first time i've seen it this is feels weird I'm wondering what's in the bucket

shit it's shit he's got shit in the bucket but where's the contortionist coming is a contortionist in the bucket of shit uh she's going to come out is there a contortionist that tied himself or herself into a fucking knot and crawled into the bucket of shit

so when bucket of shit eventually it's going to be dispersed out comes a contortionist oh suspense uh you might have already guess this, the contortionist comes out with Kevin Nash.

Because of course they do. I knew Kevin had a thing. I knew you'd say that. I just, I never said anything. It was just a feeling I've had. So here's what Meltzer had to say. Bischoff's laughing was so ridiculously fake and overdone

that whatever was funny about it wasn't anymore. Then they had to clean up the ring and the ring crew had to sell the smell, so to speak. Hey, if that was the case, nobody would dare work in that ring. Actually, if you're either old or have a great memory, you'll remember this angle from another era, and it was important. In late 1983, Scott Casey dumped a pile of crap on the head of Bobby Jaggers and the USA Network, obviously under different management,

was so repulsed that they pulled Southwest Championship Wrestling off the air. And it was replaced by All-American Wrestling, hosted by Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation, which was the flagship national cable show leading to the WWF's National Expans, mansion the next year. Judging from how the ratings plummeted the rest of the show, history may be repeating itself. So listen, I know that Vince McMahon likes toilet humor. Like we've all heard that and those sort of comments before.

You know, he loves farts and poops and things like that. But I'm just saying all that to say, he's not here and neither's Vince Rousseau. So this is the first time that I've actually been okay to ask this question. Do you know who booked this shit? the shoot shit really don't it could have it could have been

Kevin Nash um is that there was that point in 1999 where Kevin kind of took over creative for me but I don't know for sure I couldn't tell you again 1990 this part of 1999

is like a mental blur it's hard for me to pinpoint anything really specific teenage Sting has such a cool look here I like the way he's changed his makeup

I like the presentation he's on the ramp cutting a promo going back and forth with Randy Savage Kevin Nash is still coming as a reminder Kevin Nash and Randy Savage are going to be hooking it up at the Great American Bash on pay-per-view in just six days but this version of Sting

although it is a cool look, and I know it has to evolve. It's still not crow sting. I mean, it looks like crow sting, but he's on the ramp and he's not coming down from the rafters. So WCW just had to evolve, of course. But another reason, and I'm not saying that he would have normally, just want to add context. Owen Hart's funeral was just days before this.

So he had passed away doing a stunt that we had seen Sting do many, many times. But there is that connective tissue there. and I guess there was a lot of hurt feelings with Martha Hart in the WWE because specifically she didn't want any footage of Owen's funeral shown on WWE programming and of course Vince did show some footage of his wrestlers attending the funeral and she was pretty upset about that and said it was disrespectful and they didn't care about her did you hear anything about that on your side of the fence about should they or shouldn't they show the footage was that something that people were talking about in the back

or Brett was talking to you about or anything like that? Perhaps, but there's no way I remember conversations like that. I mean, it, now, not that I recall, but it likely could have got a topic of conversation in passing. Sting has a tucktail. He wants no more of Randy Savage's shit, literally. So he's out of here. He's headed to the back. Savage is still holding court right in the middle of the ring, though.

It's going off. We should mention somebody else had been going off, and that's Rina Mero. She is on all the headlines, not just in the Internet wrestling community, but mainstream media has picked up her lawsuit that was filed just four days prior to this

against Titan Sports. $140 million is what she was looking for. And I know that just a week after this episode, to the day after the Great American Bash Paperview, just seven days, the following Nitro, you've got her seated ringside at Nitro. Talk to me about how that came to be. Had to be Kevin Nash or somebody that had a relationship with.

I could have been Terry Taylor. I didn't really have a relationship with her. But she was with Mark Merrow. Of course, I visited. I was at their house for a couple of boxing events, Mike Tyson fights, things like that. but never really got to know her on a one-on-one basis. So it would have been somebody else on our team.

Again, could have been Nash, could have been Terry Taylor. It could have been somebody else. It would have been Rick Flair, I don't know, that did have a relationship with her. And, you know, controversy creates cash and she was topical and why not stir it up a little bit? It was probably the thought process. By the way, I wanted to be clear that you were mentioning this lawsuit. You know, hey, Vince has got to worry about that lawsuit. It's this one.

very topical with your commentary here. And as a reminder, the whole conversation about going public is because the WWF was saying, hey, they're going public. And all of these lawsuits and the timing of her lawsuit probably doesn't thrill folks who are trying to underwrite the value of this new IPO opportunity. When you first heard that Vince was going public, did you think, oh, good, that means he's going to have to deal with some of the standards and practices stuff that I had to, or what was your reaction to all of this?

I welcomed it because it would be a distraction. You know, it's an enormous, taking your company public is not just like putting a for sale sign up truck. It's a massive, massive process. And I was hoping that it would become a distraction. It would take Vince's eyes off the block. ball, so to speak. Also, it would put a lot of handcuffs on WWE and Vince McMahon that as a private company

he wouldn't have capable of doing a lot of different things as a privately held company than he would be as a public company. And I was hoping for all of that. Oh, my God, what are we doing here? We got this is where Kevin Nash drove the doo-doo truck to Nitro and in the backstage area shot the do-do hose down into the back. back of the limousine where there was a camera and we caught Savage and his three ladies swimming in the Duke.

You know what's really strange about what's, oh, this is actually done pretty well. I mean, you can say what you want about the scene, whether it was a good scene or bad scene, but it was produced really, really well because this looks freaking awesome. I kind of dig it. I kind of dig it. Does it smell like Vince Rousseau or Vince McMahon during the attitude era? This is the type of thing they were doing almost every week. Absolutely.

It does not seem like an original idea. However, had it been done earlier on Nitro before 1997, when WWE kind of copied our format, also targeted 18 to 49-year-old men. This would have been a typical WCW Nitro move. But by this point in time, WWE has been doing it so more often, so much more often, and doing it better, honestly, from an execution. that it became known as more of a attitude era ripoff moment than an original nitro moment. I, however, kind of dug it.

So who's ever ideal? So that was a recap to something we had seen in the past. And here comes Kevin Nash, coming down to the ring, holding the big gold belt. And he's got a big duffel bag. And that duffel bag, of course, is going to be the contortionist. And you're probably thinking to yourself, self, how long is, to this show are we right now? And the answer is, without commercials, 42 minutes.

And we've seen that match, that one match. And I guess you could count the hardcore thing with Prince Ikega as a match. But lots of story, lots of guy, guy so far in this one. And here's Kevin Nash sitting up a seat right in the middle of the ring. And he's got the duffel bag that he's carrying around with one hand. And he's going to put the duffel bag right on top of the seat right in the middle of the ring. middle of the ring and he's going to cut a promo where he basically says hey savage you brought i brought this bag to the ring but you brought three of your own or she's talking about

the ladies here um the whole rina merro thing let's talk about that because we mentioned briefly that she's just filed this lawsuit and a week later she's going to be on nitro you're going to be making comments when she appears where you never call her sable you never call her you don't even say her name, I don't think. I think you're just saying things like, hey, I've seen her in Playboy or something like that. Sure. Was there ever any serious conversation that you recall about trying to get her under contract to WCW? No. Just women's wrestling was not priority. Again, Terry Taylor, Kevin Asher, somebody may have had a conversation with her about her that didn't make it to me, but I never had any conversations with anybody about

her. I'm not even sure she was interested in coming. She was just interested in stirring some shit up. Of course, the idea here is I don't think that she was even able to legally sign because her WWF appearance or contract would forbid her from appearing on a WCW broadcast. But of course, if you guys say, well, she bought a ticket, then she can do what she wants. But I think technically her WWF contract wouldn't expire until August of 2001. And well, by then, WCW was no more. Speaking of No More, it feels like there's not going to be any more conversation when we stop talking about it about Master P in wrestling. But this is around the same time that you had re-upped both Dennis Rodman and Master P. Master P in this era is probably one of the biggest players in the entire music industry.

And he had just started something he was calling no limit sports. Of course, he had no limit records. But now he's got no limit sports. And his first client, rather famously, was Ricky Williams, an incredible running back who maybe had some off-the-field stuff that was behind the times. But either way, he's throwing his hat in the ring here. And we've talked a little bit about Master P and how much respect you have for him as a businessman. In hindsight, was bringing in Master P worth a try or was it a misstep?

It was 100% worth We didn't take advantage of it To the extent we certainly could have And really should have But to be a brand in the entertainment business And have the opportunity to co-brand Whether it was with KISS to reach that segment of KISS's audience That might not otherwise watch WCW

Was a smart move regardless of anybody's critical opinions. Same would be true with Master P. That relationship could have and should have provided many more fruitful benefits and opportunities than it did, but that wasn't because of Master P. That's because of where WCW was at at this point in time. That could have been a great relationship. Should have been.

So take a look at this wide shot. here. We're getting it this way on purpose because you see Savage in the middle of the ring with the three ladies facing the stage and the ramp. He has his back to that folded chair with the duffel bag. Nash is very slowly backing away. And the hard cam is positioned in such a way where you can see the entire thing in the frame. And when I say the entire thing, I mean the full ring, including that bag that is behind Savage. And we know that's where the contortionist is. And as I understand it, they're kind of stalling here. And this is dragging a little bit because the contortionist is trying to figure out how the heck to get out of the doggone bag

Kevin's going to get him looking at her and going come on what are you doing in there are you not getting your cue no he had to feel like he was dying a long slow miserable death let's uh let's do a few more questions that we've got here from our live studio audience then obias mac wants to know who's the booker for the sting and savage match it was terrible and i do not recall sting getting any offense in I mean that's really not a booking thing. That's probably more of an agent thing, isn't it? Oh, you see the bag behind Savage starting to move a little bit and we get a tight shot on it.

It's not only, I mean, to answer that question, it's at that level, the talents is laying out that match. You can't blame any. You can't blame an agent. When you were talking about guys like Sting and Savage and Ash and Hogan and Flair, yeah, the agents have input. The bag's jiggling. People got to be going, what in the hell is in that bag? But at the end of the day, the talent's calling the shots out there in terms of the So every once in a while, guys just put together a stinker

No matter who they are. Look at this. This is kind of crazy. What are we doing? I like the idea of it. I like the idea of it. It's weird. So the contortionist slips out of the deal and here comes whatever.

I mean, the oatmeal. That's whatever that is. Oh, my God. It looks like, oh, male, doesn't look like shit. You've seen shit before? Well, usually once a day. Everything's working the way it's supposed to. Thanks to my AG1, I take every single day.

My gut biome is an absolutely perfect working order. I have the right bacteria and the right places at the right time, making sure that all of my biochemistry is fine. at the highest level, thanks to EG. Petrosi says I'll see Master P at the National High School tournament next weekend in California. Eric, I think a podcast with Master P would be fun. I'll ask him. A little run-in over at 83 Weeks.com for Master P would make him say, oh, Eric.

Hey, I just, I had a meeting with Master P about five years ago, four or five years ago. Yeah, we talked about that, right? Yeah, he's a great guy. Yeah, told him I said hi, coach. You know, I love that you're out there, you know, sort of helping steer the ship and call some shots and be controversial. But I can't lie. I think my favorite set of Nitro announcers is Tony, Bobby, and Mike tonight. I just like that combination.

How do you two? You're going to say on commentary here that Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, and Kidman haven't gotten their break. And some of that was your fault. but even more of it was Flair's fault and of course that's going to lead to Flair and Benoit taking a page and Bigelow for the titles you're going to be pushing

Benoit pretty hard in commentary did you think you know when you I mean I was hearing from people in 1998 my casual wrestling fan friend that they felt like Booker T and Chris Benoit were the next big thing in WCW

did it feel that way you? I mean, clearly saw the value Chris and Eddie, which is why I brought them in

in the first place. I had a very high opinion of them and I felt that they were very instrumental in creating the kind of show I wanted to create with Nitro. Did I think in 1999

that Benoit was ready for main event. I'm not just talking about a one-off pay-per-view or being a transitional champion. But as the face, the brand to lead the company, I did not. It just wasn't time. The audience hadn't accepted, in my opinion, hadn't accepted Eddie or Chris.

Enough at that point. Everybody was excited about him. But I just didn't. feel like they write for multiple pay-per-view headline face-to-the-company kind of roles. We got another question here from DeNovia smack as we see the cleaning crew out here, cleaning up the dokey. Donovia says, when you were on your sabbatical leave from WCW, did the WWE know about it and reach out to you at any point about jumping?

No, I didn't hear from anybody. and I was still under contract and I think that was pretty well known even when I left so nobody reached out to me and at that point it wouldn't have mattered if they did I was so done with wrestling that I couldn't wait for it to be

in my rearview mirror at them so there we see DDP spinning his tag title belt around to the front it's a new look for DDP he is no longer the people's champ here and he's taking on Bam Bam Bigelow Bigelow man I enjoy

enjoyed his work so much in ECW. Do you think that you really got all you could out of Bigelow in WCW or was there an alternate universe where he moves up the card? There's always an alternate universe. I think as the character that we're seeing right now, which was so reminiscent of Bam Bam and WWE, I don't think there was anything there, there with that kind of character. But do I think we could have evolved Bam Bam, Bam, into a. different character or a fresher character that wasn't so reminiscent of

WWE absolutely because he had the talent you had the personality he had the look he had the skill sets but the bam bam character while it had value and equity in it there wasn't enough value and equity for him to progress beyond the kind of attraction role as it we see um we see it like just sounded more I got Arne Anderson coming down the ring here alongside Chris Van Waugh. Is Arn left to AEW yet? Has he gone? Yeah, his contract has officially expired.

That's what I wanted to bring up to you. You know, we saw not too long ago an interview from our quote maybe from Cody Rhodes where he said, hey, maybe he needed an old school manager. And I saw someone else say, hey, Sean Michaels had his Jose La Therio. Do you think it's realistic that we could see Arna, Anderson back on the road for WWE, this time in the corner of Cody Rhodes? I think it's possible. You know, I don't know what the relationship was with Arn and WWE when Arn left, but

not good. You know, not good? Well, there's different people in place now. It's a different situation. Maybe that can be overcome. I don't know. I don't know any details, don't know the relationships. But I do know that Arn is a wealth of knowledge.

Yes, sir. I do know that I love. of his perspective on wrestling, probably agree or not only agree, but probably I would stand to learn more from Arne Anderson than probably just about anybody else right now, other than a Rick Flair or maybe even a Ricky Steamboat, you know, that era of performer who performed at the highest of high levels during the 80s and the 90s, and there was still a heavy influence of the territory kind of psychology and presentation and performance, transitioning into the television era, certain guys that bring a lot of that inherent knowledge that helped

make the territory so successful. And Arn Anderson's. I hope he ends up in W. I hope he ends up somewhere where people are willing to learn from a guy like Arn or open-minded. Arm falls into that same category as, ironically, Steve Regal. You know, there are certain people like Regal and Arnd that you can learn such little, seemingly little things that makes such a big difference in your matches.

Arnard's very valuable in respect. We've got this match going, and they're going to get plenty of time here for a Nitro, over 12 minutes in this tag match. but a lot of star power, you know, Bigelow and DDP taking on Benoit and Flair, kind of right smack dab in the middle of a nitro. It's not the main of a match. It's a hell of a match.

A lot of talent in there. Speaking of talent, Coach Rosie wants to know, in 1999, did you have your sight set on poaching any WWE talent? We know that what really started the boom for you guys is when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash came over, but by this point in 99, were you seeing or hearing about anything on the other channel that you thought, man, I wish we had that. No, no, it's similar to, no, we didn't have a talent issue. We had much bigger issues.

We had a corporate issue. We had a budget issue. We had a morale issue. He definitely had a creative issue. But what we didn't have was a talent issue. And I could draw a lot of parallels. I think AEW currently, they're struggling. Numbers are down, just like ours were here in 1999, although ours were not as down as AEWs are.

But nonetheless, at this point in time, we were at a downward trend. There's no denying that. A ratings perspective, probably even attendance perspective, pay-per-view buy rates perspective, probably merchandise perspective. There was likely no category that we could point to and go, yeah, but look at this over here. But our issue wasn't talent, just like AEWs. isn't talent. It's other variables that matter more. That's where we were.

That's where I was at WCW in 1999. I wasn't looking at talent at all because that wasn't the challenge. We mentioned Arne Anderson earlier and you were talking about talent. I got to think if hypothetically, and we're fantasy booking the territory, if Arne were to show up in support of Cody Rhodes, I would hope that Brock got a shot at NXT as well. We recently saw another AEW talent jump ship from AEW to NXT,

and Ethan Page is already programmed and doing stuff on NXT immediately at a high level. I mean, for the world title, that's a guy who couldn't really get much TV time. And I think, you know, if there's anything that Brock needs, it's just more reps, right? He's just, he didn't get a lot of opportunity in AEW. And I know he's still learning, but goodness gracious. Brock Anderson and NXT for a bit, sign me up. That could be great.

I think it'll be great. Brock's got a great look. He's such a polite young man. Yes. I've met him a couple times. He is just very, very impressive. I'd love to see Brock get a shot. It's hard.

Coming up and Arne Anderson's, what, you know, what's that? is hard. It's hard for any second generation because the expectations are so high. But I think Brock is a guy that could make it. I'd love to see him get that opportunity. I saw he's wrestling, you know, he's out on the independent scene.

I just saw an ad the other day for a match between Brock and West Briscoe, Jerry Briscoe's son. And Jerry Briscoe is going to be in his son's corner, West's son. Oh, that's fun. and Arne is going to be in Brock's corner. So I think that'll be a lot of fun.

And maybe just getting out of that AEW environment and being able to go out and have fun and try some different stuff and get out in front of a crowd, it would be the shot in the arm that Brock needs to kind of reinvigorate his career. I hope so. I'm pulling for him.

He's a heck of a promo, but nobody's had a chance to hear it. But when we were getting ready for Rick Flair's last match, we did some sit-down interviews, and ultimately the editors didn't use a bunch of what Brock said, but, man, for a young guy, he's, uh, he's going to be just like his dad, man, cut from the same. Well, if he's got half the promo ability that his dad has, he's going to have a long,

successful career. Yeah, totally agree. Keep up with Arne over on YouTube, uh, thearn show.com, I think is the YouTube. And he and Paul Bromwell are putting the band back together and having some fun over there. So be sure to check them out. Uh, coach Rosie wants to know. Brad Siegel really looks like a weasel on the TV program. Did my spidey senses come out, correct?

Of course, he's talking about Brad Siegel from Who Killed WCW over on Vice. I'm sure we'll be talking about Brad and his future appearances on the show, but I kind of agree with Coach, just as a first pass, as a wrestling fan. Very quickly, I decided, I don't think I'm going to like this guy. Yeah, I mean, look, I got along with Brad. he didn't want WCW. He didn't want Nitro presented the fact that the decision was made

really without him. It wasn't even a part of the decision-making process. He found out after the decision was already made. But once the decision was made, Brad accepted it and Brad provided a lot of support. And Brad had some great ideas. You know, the name of the show, Nitro. That was Brad's idea because they already had a Nitro action block.

so it made sense. Brad was very supportive and actually paid for a lot of the research that went into kind of creating the nitro format and finding a way to make it different. I knew that we had to make it different,

but Brad was smart enough and willing to invest his money, his network's money, into providing the research that would help us achieve it in the most effective, efficient way possible. However,

Brad made it very clear in this documentary, what he thinks of wrestling, didn't like it, didn't want it, thinks that professional wrestlers are all pathological liars. Brad, you are in an executive environment that probably defines pathological liars. Like the corporate community is so much more straightforward. It has so much more integrity, especially in the entertainment business, doesn't it, Brad? I thought that was a real cheap shot, and I think it more than anything reflected what Brad really understands, what he learned about the wrestling business, because he got involved enough at the very beginning, as I said with Nitro, but he never really understood it. He never really took the time to understand why it was working as well as it was working from 95 on.

He was happy it was working, but he didn't understand why or how. And I think Brad's way he articulated his feelings about wrestling, probably explain why. Never took the time to learn how or why, because it wasn't his cup of tea. It wasn't highbrow. It wasn't, you heard Brad talking about his desire to make T&T the movie network. Wrestling was the farthest thing from a movie you could possibly get. In Brad's eyes, there's no prestige for Brad to have Nitro. Even though a Nitro was doing well, it had achieved Brad's goal of helping to beat USA

Network as the number one cable outlet. That was Brad's goal. And it was also interesting to Brad, also interesting to hear Brad talking about me in the sense that Eric was obsessed with ratings. Well, what fucking television executive do you know who isn't for crying out loud? If you're a television producer, Brad, if anybody should know this, it would be you, clown. Not a clown. You just said some stupid shit.

Yeah, I was obsessed with ratings because that's what Ted wanted. But Brad wanted something hybrid out of country club or a dinner meet. His favorite Hollywood executives. Had to piss me off, Brad. and I love you for what you did. Did help us out. You were fun to work with from time to time. Statements were a little off-putting.

I hope you clean up your activities in the series. I'll have more to say. I love you for that. Hey, listen, they're building towards a hot tag here and got all the fans chomping at the bit for this. Benoit is desperate to make the hot tag. And you see Flair sort of pulling back. and now Flair's going to walk off.

And Arne's going to get pissed at Flair and jump on the apron to try to join the match. Saturn's going to run in and do the same. When Benoit tags Saturn, going to use a Death Valley driver on DDP for the pen, and they win the tag titles in 12 minutes and 19 seconds. So, yeah, think about that. This match started with Flair and Benoit.

It was Flair who invited Benoit to join him in the match. And now Benoit's out here by the match. himself catching a beating. Arn's going to take the watch off, take the shirt off. Look at the crowd. Arn's pissed and man, the crowd is with it. But ultimately, we know, Arns' days in the ring are done at this point. So Perry Saturn joins and then becomes a tag champion? I mean, listen, I know that we're supposed to suspend our disbelief and this is not supposed to make logical sense. You even said, hey, if you want logic, don't watch wrestling.

But a guy who's not even in the match is going to get tagged in and win the tag. titles? What? Yeah. Can we move on? Let's move on and talk about one of our favorite folks. Of course, we're talking about Henson Shaving. You know if Rick Flares around, there's got to be a razor nearby. Hey, this is the razor that Eric and I really, really trust, know, and love. Even before we clicked record today, Dave Silva was bragging to me about how much he loves his Henson Razor. We think you've got to meet these folks. First of all, I want to explain their backstory. Henson shaving is actually a family-owned aerospace parts manufacturer, and these folks have made parts

for the International Space Station and the Mars rover, and now they're bringing that same precision engineering to your shaving experience. What they're doing is they're using their aerospace grade C&C machines to make metal razors that are just 0.0013 inches. That's less than the thickness of a human hair, and that means a more secure and a more stable blade that gives you a vibration-free shave. It gets better, too. the razor actually has built-in channels to evacuate hair and cream, and that makes clogging virtually impossible. Seriously, Henson wanted to make the best razor, not the best razor business. And that means no plastic, no subscriptions, no proprietary blades, and no planned obsolescence. The Hinson razor

works with a standard dual-edged blade to give you that old-school shave with the benefits of new school tech. And once you own a Hinson razor, it's only about $3 to $5 per year to replace the blades. Think about that. Three to $5 a year? Let's say no to subscriptions and let's say yes to a razor that will last you a lifetime. Visit hensonshaving.com slash bischoff to pick the razor for you and use the code Bischoff. And man, you'll get two free years worth of blades. That's right.

Two years worth of blades, all free with your razor. Just be sure to add them to your cart. One more time. That's 100 free blades when you head to H-E-N-S-O-N-S-H-H-A-V-I-E-I-E-E. and g.com slash bischoff and use the promo code bischoff that's henson shaving.com slash bischoff use our promo code bischoff henson shaving.com slash bischoff that's hensh-a v i n g dot com slash bischoff with the promo code bischoff a hundred free blades eric how do you meet that you know what i i was in LA last week for four days on business. And it happened. It actually happened. I left LA. I got

home. I opened up my suitcase, get out my shaving kit, and realize I left my freaking shaving kit at the Marriott Marina del Rey Hotel. I called the hotel immediately. Please, please, find my bag it's a leather it's a leather bag it's got all my shaving and personal grooming things in it you got to find it you have to find it please find it an hour goes by two hours go by nothing nothing now i'm starting to panic and then i realized that i may have lost my henson razor it may be gone i'm depending on somebody that doesn't speak english to find my shaving kid, they can't communicate with me. I can't communicate with them. All I know is my facial hair is beginning to grow and I'm nervous. So what do I do? I go to hensonshaving.com

forward slash bischoff and I ordered not one to replace my loss razor, not even two. I ordered three because I never, ever, ever want to be the position again where I, I do not have my Henson razor. I don't want to use some one-off garbage piece of plastic with seven blades that doesn't do the job. That costs me $28. And I have to have an armed freaking guard to walk me into the Walgreens or the CVS store and open up the safe. So I could grab my incredibly overpriced piece of garbage razor to hack my face with. No, no, no, no, no, no.

I have three on order three since shavers. Never again will I be. Check it out, hensonshaving.com slash bischoff. Be sure to use our promo code Bischoff. You get 100 free blades. We've got a heck of a tag team match coming up here. I said earlier,

I really like when my nitros would start with a little lucha. Well, how about Leparka and Silver King taking on Damien and CicloPay? They're going to go seven minutes and 14 seconds here. and we're actually going to have that crowd build we're filled to the rafters yeah you got like over nearly 9000 people there 8600 paying yeah unbelievable uh we got lots of you know what do you know what the dollar gate was by any chance 182 000 we covered at the top of the show sorry about oh i forgot i'm sorry 182 based on today at today's rate that was probably close to

250 000 275 000 house for a tv show that's not bad even though the wheels They weren't falling off. Two of them fell off. We were dragging our fucking rear axle at this. You know, this is not a bad show, though. I mean, as far as the economics, I mean, I know that it's going to get beat in the ratings pretty badly. But, you know, anytime you've got, as we said at the top of the show, 8600 folks paying to see the show. That's, I mean, I know you said, oh, that's good for AW.

That's good for WW. I mean, that's good for any wrestling company. It is. Yeah, no, no, it is. I didn't mean to dismiss it. It would be awesome for AEW. you don't get that many people at three of their shows. Over the weekend, by the way, on June 4th, you would be in Cincinnati and you had

4,193 fans paying 125 grand. You had a 17,500 seat arena there, and you only had 4,100 fans. So that's not great. In Columbus, Ohio, you're going to draw 2,600 fans. paying 72 grand. In Athens, Ohio, you had 3,100 fans paying 57 grand. Merchandise for the weekend is $101,000 or $5.46 per head. So things are certainly sliding, but based on what we just read and based on the numbers

we know for this at the Gundarina in Cleveland, it feels like television is still strong, but maybe the house show business is weakening again. I mean, that's the way it looked when you first joined. in WCW, probably not a surprise that we're starting to get back to that now that the product or the creative is a little softer, right? No, absolutely true. It's a downstream effect.

It starts with television and television affects every other revenue stream, pay-per-view, licensing, merchandising, all of it. If your television is weak, everything else around it starts to die a slow death. It's like atrophy. It doesn't happen overnight. but it's like it's atrophy and slowly but consistently you start losing audience losing revenue in every category that was sweet this is going to be a complete disaster according to melzer i mean if you're watching along with us and we hope you are there's tables

there's ladders there's chairs oh my you're gone off a commentary at this point so it's bobby heenan and tony shivani laughing through this over and over and they're calling this a Mexican hardcore match. Meltzer says, these guys are out there killing themselves for no reason at all. It's a little crazy. No, it was for a reason. They got a paycheck

and they're there to entertain the crowd. And to me, it looks like, what would Dave have them do? Go out and, I don't know, grill hot dogs in the middle of the ring? I mean, they're doing what they're paid to do.

You weren't in a story, but you've got to understand. We couldn't really include luches in any kind of detailed long-term story because they were kind of in and out and irregular. Some of them were available on a regular basis. A lot of the luchadors weren't. We took him when we could get them, so to speak. Well, I think what Dave was sort of insinuating is, I wonder how long Joey Stiles would last as an announcer in ECW if he laughed

his way through all those crazy spots on the Van Damme Lynn matches. Oh, okay. His comment was the guys were killing themselves in a ring for nothing because Bobby and... We're laughing. They weren't selling that this is brutal. It's funny, ha-ha. Well, you've got to kind of admit the way the match was laid out.

I don't think anybody should take it too seriously. I mean, it is a little comedic. Well, I mean, here's the thing. It's all context, right? we say that on the show here all the time. We don't know the story here. We know they're having a match and there's weapons involved. But it's not like, well, that guy stole this guy's girlfriend.

And now he's pissed. So he's going to hit him with the, we don't have any of that. It's just, hey, man. Yeah, suspectable. I mean, we just saw a freaking A. Moonsault with a trash can. I mean, we're having some fun here. By the way.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. Let me, let me hit you with the ratings right fast. This Nitro did a 3.2 rating. rating raw meanwhile got a 6.7 so over the head head to head two hours and five minutes because the first hour of nitro as a reminder is unopposed so then we've got two hours head to head and both companies are doing like a five minute overrun nitro did a 2.81 in that head-to-head period and a 4.4 share now what was the highest rated quarter well it was Monday night raw when they had Deborah and Nicole Bass in a bikini contest,

which, believe it or not, earlier this week, Tony Chivani and I watched. So if you'd like to watch two of the bigger who done it angles of 1999, this is the way this happened. The White Hummer happened on June 7th, 99 for Nitro, and the higher power reveal happened on June 7th, 1999 for Monday Night Raw.

So it's interesting that we've got this White Hummer, who done it, and the greater power reveal. Did you think that, you know, the suspense and the whodunits and the mystery? I know you've talked a little bit about Sarsa, a lot about Sarsa on the program. Was that sort of cliffhanger, wait, who? Like, we're asking questions. Was that part of that formula? Yes.

You know, I learned with, I mean, going back to Nichow, the who's the third man, that mystery and the fact that we were able to keep it quiet and keep speculation going for as long as we did is one of the reasons that that angle worked as well as it did. And I learned from that experience that as often as possible, you can't do it every single time. But if you can get the audience to start asking questions as opposed to making statements, you've got them in the palm of your hand.

That's like the first part of really getting a hold of your audience is to be able to manipulate your creative in such a way. is an audience is asking questions about what's going to happen next, whether it's the next match, the next episode, the next pay-per-view, whatever it is. Get the audience asking questions. Definitely learn that from the NWO experience in the very beginning, which became a part of the Sarsa formula, eventually. Meltzer is sort of recapping what happened here with the brutality of this hardcore Mexican

Mexican hardcore match, whatever they're calling it on commentary. He says, for the body count purpose, it's Damien that wound up with a sprained knee and Ciclopae who needed stitches and nobody got over at all. Of course, he's just upset with the commentary. And I do think that's a fair criticism

because it did feel like a lot of times the English announcers would be dismissive of a lot of the luchadors. I mean, I even heard Bobby Hennon once say when there was like a luchador battle royal, it looks like a riot at a daycare. You know, he's, I mean, it's funny, but at the same time,

it's at the expense of the talent. That is a fair criticism, isn't an Eric? I agree. Yeah. It is. It is. And look, there are times when a lot of the stuff that, especially the Lusiodors,

was for the American audience. So let's just remember Dave Meltzer that we're producing a show for the domestic U.S. audience, not for the Mexican audience. Certainly not for the Dave Meltzer audience. and a lot of the things that the luchadors did were comedy-based. It just is what it is, particularly for a domestic U.S. audience.

But I do agree that it could have been treated differently. Like, Tenae would have added a lot of depth to that match in commentary. It's disappointing that he wasn't there. And that's why I hired Mike. I mean, I needed Mike there for that very reason, because Tony and Bobby didn't have the background. What else could they do other than have fun with it? When they don't know the history, they don't know the background,

they're not even really familiar with the style in a way that you can talk about it differently than you're talking about other matches. By default, they go to comedy and shock. And that is unfortunate. It's not an excuse. It's just that's what happened. Take a look at this scene we're seeing backstage at Night Show here.

Scott Norton is upset. with the rest of the NWO black and white. That's Horace Hogan. That's Stevie Ray. That's the former Virgil, now Vincent. He's upset that these guys weren't watching his back last week. There's Brian Adams who just came into the frame. And everybody's got a different excuse as to why they're not there.

And I know when I see all these guys wearing the traditional classic NWO shirts, I know it makes you go, oh, man, I know you have to groan. Because this was often referred to as like the B team. And I even wonder, was there a missed perhaps merch opportunity? I mean, why wouldn't you just put these guys in B-Team shirts that just said B-Team? It looks like the NWO, but it just says B-Team. Like that could have sold. That could have got over, right?

Like your version of the Job Squad, I guess. Could have had some fun with it, especially with Scott is ahead of the head of it all. Because Scott, you know, it takes everything so seriously. He could have been fun. there was something there was something there well you can go ahead and check it out 83 weeks merch.com we're going to have a brand new B-team shirt that looks like the NWO shirt but it says B-Team speaking of somebody who's never B-team to you and I Ernest the Cat Miller is coming out to take on Horace Hogan Ernest Miller of course has Sonny Ono with him I absolutely love Ernest

Miller I think he just has natural charisma I think him just reading a newspaper would be funny. He just has, I don't know, a spirit around him that's just fun. He brings energy. It's a fun vibe. I like it. I know you got criticism for it from certain circles from folks who maybe didn't get it. But how could you not just think Ernest Miller was a natural entertainer?

He has so, to this, he has so much charisma. I mean, and realize at this point in time in 99, Ernest had probably been in the business for a couple years maybe, I had to talk him into it. He had no interest in getting into professional wrestling. I actually had to talk him into trying. Just trying it. I said, Ernest, just give it a shot. Just give it a shot. You'll have fun. And he did. And he still does. He still works to this day. Ernest and Sonny are both going to be out here in Wyoming and August. Or to have him out at the house, cooking some steaks, having some fun, some laughs about the old times. But I think he's a great great for cool in the aura the energy that he has around him he is such a positive person talking

about earnest things that he does for his community within his community impact that he has on kids around him he teaches martial arts to this day he's a very very positive person i wanted to ask you about um a little byline that made some notes to make up for the revenue shortfall expected by the end of the year and pay-per-view and house shows by the end of the year, WCW will begin a policy at many nitros and pay-per-view shows, charging

$200 for ringside seats with people buying the tickets, getting a commemorative chair, similar to what the WWF has done for big shows for several years. And we know, to this day, Eric, fans are going to these pay-per-views and getting commemorative chairs, and it's a big deal.

People collect them, people sell them and flip them, and it is an added value. but it's an, oh, you know, create new revenue and upcharge. Do you recall who deserves the credit for thinking, hey, WCW should do some of that here? We're a hot ticket. People would pay for that. More than likely, Zane Bresloff. That was his area of expertise.

And he kept his finger on the pulse. He knew what was working in WWE. Had worked with other promoters in the past. And 100% bet all my money on Zane Brasloff. we're seeing an extended Ernest Miller promo here and he's going to be taking on Horace Hogan and they're going to go thankfully just a minute and 56 seconds as you see Dave Pinser storing order here

he's got the microphone back and Horace Hogan is going to say am I in Tampa? He hits the ring with the rest of the black and white and Stevie Ray says I think we're in Pittsburgh no Cleveland and Meltzsche says that unlike everything else on this show that was actually funny.

Horace Hogan did have an interesting look. You know, we haven't spent a lot of time talking about Horace Hogan. You know, you've mentioned before that there was a Hulk tax. That meant you had to hire some of his friends. Was Horace part of the Hulk tax? What was your read on Horace Hogan? Well, 100% honesty. Of course, would have never gotten any opportunity in WCW were not for

Hulk Hogan but Hulk didn't like pressure me it was more of a let's give it a shot and see if he's got it see if there's something we can work with as opposed to a mandate it was a little bit of both but it was not a heavy-handed push from like hey at this nephew work maybe we can do something because he is a nephew story there let's give it a shot that was probably the context of it we we should break down some more of the the ratings here because this is what everybody was obsessed with way back when head and clearly me according to brad seagull which by the way brad i was the one getting pressure from you guys about not having greater ratings in this period of time So what the fuck?

Can you tell I'm a little hot at Brad? Brad, I put you over so often on this show. I talk about all the great things that you did. And you come out and say that all wrestlers are pathological liars. What the fuck? And then I was obsessed with ratings. Why was I obsessed with ratings?

Because your boss was obsessed with ratings. I like it when you get fired up. It's fun. Certain things. Let's talk about the main events. here over on Monday Night Raw where we had the whole higher power reveal the main event was the Undertaker

versus Big Show and that does a 6.86 final quarter hour and a 7.32 in the 5 minute overrun meanwhile you guys have a pretty big main event here Sting versus Randy Savage and it does a 2.48 final quarter hour and a 3.48

5 minute overrun. So Raw is going to double the rating of Nitro and every quarter hour except the first quarter, where Raw had a 5.0 to a 3.7 edge. That was where Nitro was completing the Nash Savage angle and then starting that fabulous flair and Benoit tag match against Paige and Bigelow against just the normal regular open of Monday Night Raw. The biggest gap happened during the bikini contest.

It was Deborah versus Nicole Bass that got a 7.13. That same segment would also see draws and Prince Albert throwing up. I don't know if those were related or not. And that got a 2.46 on Nitro, and that was where you were recapping the angle of the unknown driver. And it was actually teased by you on the internet that, hey, what if it was Sable without actually saying Sable? I mean, I like that you're leaning into the controversy.

That is an Eric Bischoff 101 move. I know you're not able to monitor the show during the show, but we did hear in episode one of who killed WCW. Conan basically say him and disco would often find a monitor and watch Monday Night Raw. And when people would ask them,

hey, why are you watching the other show? They would just supposedly, according to Conan, say, because it's better than ours. Did that annoy you when you would see guys in the back watching the other program? No.

Really didn't. He didn't mind it. It wasn't offensive to me. I don't know. I don't know what to say. It didn't bother me at all. Maybe it should have. I don't know.

It certainly didn't. I was focused on much other more important stuff, be honest, than what Conan and disco were watching backstage. We got to mention that we got the Nitro girls out here welcoming us back, and we're not done with a lot of in-ring talking. Roddy Piper is going to come out for a verbal confrontation with Bagwell. Meltzer would say Piper destroyed Bagwell, who choked under pressure as he was supposed to stay with him toe to toe and froze.

But this was beyond stupid. Piper asked Bagwell if he'd ever main evented in Madison Square Garden. Hello, Roddy. MSG is controlled by the other guys. Main eventing MSG is a 70s term. Today it's pay-per-view, and the arena is now practically irrelevant. Bagwell sort of pointed that out, but not really because he froze, but at least he tried. Piper came back and said how they still have fights. in Madison Square Garden, and they do,

and it's the other guys. Thanks for clearing up to the few who haven't figured out that the other guys are the big leagues, and you're on top of the Hasben League. Actually, by the time it was over, Piper promised Bagwell a big push if he beat Flair and became president. Great, Bagwell, another guy who doesn't do house shows

is in for a big push. So you can certainly see there is a tone of, I don't know, disdain. Yeah, excellent. Excellent word. I mean, I just don't get why everything just comes from a negative perspective, Eric. Because Dave Meltzer is a dipshit.

Because Dave Meltzer has personal issues that transcend his abilities to be unbiased approaches. He's emotionally invested one way or the other. Look at him cover the disaster that A. AEW has become, in every conceivable way, creative point of view, a bi-rate from an attendance point of view, there's just not one aspect of AEW that anybody could point to and say, yeah, but that's working, except for Dave Meltzer, because he's emotionally invested in AEU, and it overcomes his objectivity, an ability to actually be what he claims to be, which is an analyst or a journalist. He's neither.

It's just an emotional fanboy. And his emotions and his fanboyism supersede any objective perspective that's been capable of having. It was true then in 1999, and it's true today. Piper's cutting a big promo here and we've got a bunch of questions from our live studio audience. You can be a part of that live studio audience at adfreeshows.com. Danielle wants to know, were you surprised about the narrative about Hogan in the documentary? I know it's not the first time you've heard this, but I was surprised specifically to hear the sentiment from Booker T. I kind of agree with that.

Like it was out of left field for book. It did feel like, you know, I listen. It's the same. I don't mean to interrupt you. but I am a little, I do want to talk about this. I have, I like Bookerty as a person. I respect him as a professional. There's not enough good things I can say about Booker in just about every way.

However, Booker did the same thing. Everybody else does. Talent. Go back to the same old bag of tricks as far as their perspective. Let me make something really clear. Let me make it fucking unassailably clear. There were three people in the room the night that we were trying to figure out what to do with the finish. It was Hogan, Sting, and it was me.

Three people were in the room that had a valid. perspective of what was going on. Sting, his head was not in the right spot. Didn't know why, but it was clear to me that there was something going on that I didn't understand. Hogan felt the same thing I felt, and together we made the decision we made, good or bad.

Booker was not in the room. Booker was nowhere near that. Booker T was not sitting in that meeting with Hulk and Steve or Sting and I. So for Booker T to be able to assign the blame for that night on Hulk Hogan because Hulk Hogan was selfish and only cared about Hulk Hogan and didn't care about the company, that trite old WWE perspective bullshit is so far below you. Booker? You weren't in the room. You don't know what the motivation was. You have no idea. It's just too easy to go back to the whole good selfish. All he cares about it's token.

The opposite was true. You may not like, people may not like, I may not have light the way that things ended up, but it was not out of beings. It wasn't because Hulk was selfish or greedy or wasn't thinking about the company. It's because Hulk recognized the situation that I recognize, and neither one of us were comfortable that that night was the best night to make the decision that we're about to make. It had nothing to do. You can criticize a decision all day long, but to assign it to Hulk Hogan being greedy or selfish is so disappointing.

A guy like knows, unless you're in the room, unless you're in the ring, unless you're part of the actual process to have opinions about it based on what you've heard other people say is it doesn't change the way I feel about Booker. I still have so much respect for them, but I'm going to be honest. I was really disappointed in that. I expected it from other people because they've established those people. You know, Brett Hart has established what, there's no surprise what Brett Hart's going to say. There's no new information coming from Brett Hart.

He's a bitter, angry, resentful, depressing individual. And I respect the hell out of them. But it is what it is. I expect that kind of negativity in that go to my bag of tricks and just bury whatever I need to bury. But Booker, I was really surprised because you weren't there. You had no idea what you were talking about as it related. Now, maybe it's an editing thing. Maybe Booker T was relating to something else.

Yes, that's what I was getting out of something. edited into the Hogan commentary. That's very possible. And I hope that that's the case, but I wouldn't be quite as disappointed as I am. I swear I was thinking the exact same thing as you were talking that, you know, I love Jason and Evan,

and I think they do a great job. And I mean, every time they have a new product on Vice, I can't wait to see it. Whether it's tales from the territories or Dark Side of the Ring or Who Killed WCW, I love it all. However, I have heard from people who say,

man, that's not the full context. And I'm sympathetic to that. And you and I've talked about this before. They probably shot 20 hours worth of footage for that 41 minutes that aired or whatever it was. So, you know, decisions have to be made. Like if you really, because I saw some criticism and they said, boy, they really glossed over a lot of stuff. And it's like, guys, you got to tell the whole story in three hours, like start to finish. It's not like you can have this, you know, well, we're going to do two, we're going to do 12, two hour episodes.

That's not what the order was. So we've got to make it fit. So when I saw that, I kind of thought, man, I wonder what he was really responding to there. And again, I'm not saying that Jason or Evan did any poor editing. I am just saying they're tasked with an unenviable job of how do we take this much content and make it fit here. Like that's tough. Yeah, it is.

And I hope, like I said, I hope that that's the case. I don't want to be disappointed. Well, we're getting this Roddy Piper, Buff Bagwell, segment here. Of course, the idea is, you know, we're headed towards the Great American Bash. This is the go home show. You know, where would you say Great American Bash ranked for you as far as the WCW paper? You've made it clear that in your mind, Halloween Havoc was the tippy top. I know it falls off a cliff from there a little bit, but is Starcade second or where's Super Brawl? Where's Great American Bash? Where's Bash at the beach? Can you

rank some of those for us? Yeah, I mean, Halloween Havoc was number one for me. I I think Starcade was number two just based on its history. Bash at the Beach was always a good one for us. The rest of them we struggled with. Now, anything that you do in the spring, you're affected by WrestleMania. The summer, as we've talked about before, people just aren't watching television the same way. It's a little bit harder to kind of get an audience. get pay-per-view buy rates in the early summer because this is another shit going on.

But by July, people have kind of got, okay, it's summertime's here. We've had our fun, get a little hot and humid out, maybe start watching a little more television starting around July or August, right? Kids are going back to school, so your fall pay-per-views are going to do better. But I wouldn't have to go, Halloween Havoc, number one, Starcane number two, bash at the beach number three, and everything else was tied after. after that. So there you see Kevin Nash making his way out of the arena. He's got his duffel bag. Maybe his contortionist is in there.

And I mean, that's a place. If you're going to bring a contortionist to the party and you've got three, you know, blondes in the backseat of a limo, if you've got a contortionist in the bag, that's where a contortionist is going to come in handy in a backseat of a limo. I mean, just just saying. Well, it turns out he put her. in the trunk. So hopefully it wasn't actually her. It's

just his gear bag. But he's going to climb into the back of Savage's limo. Hopefully this is a different limo than the Doodoo limo. And of course, it was a trap. Hogan's ladies have jumped out of there. Savage's ladies. Yeah, sorry.

Savage is now speeding away right in front of the dumpster. And then here comes the White Hummer. This is before the H2 was a thing. So this is the OG military staff. Oh, yeah, we're going to go for a ride, brother. I'm fucking out of here, because boom.

I mean, listen, him, the camera shot of Nash in the back seat reminds me of no holds barred, and you see Nash reaching through the window to try to open the door lock and divide out of energy, and now we're going to fade to black and go to commercial. Meltzer would say they spent $50,000 to get a point seven quarter. They also never updated Nash's condition on the air.

So the millions of viewers still have no idea if he's going to be able to main event the pay-per-view in six, six days. That's the whole idea. Plown. Plown. Don't give me, sir. I don't want to talk about David.

They told people to click on the WCW website where Bischoff tried to hint it was Sable, who was the driver. Was this bad taste or what? and even said it doesn't look good using the same tone Lawler did when he came back being near Owen Hart. This is one sick business. You know, that's something I really hadn't thought about

when he's talking about poor taste. But I guess context is important. I mean, we did just a few weeks ago lose Owen Hart and now we've got this angle. Were those two close or is that not relative? It's wrestling. We've got to do silly stuff. It's bullshit.

It's just something to, It's just something to be whined about and complain about another shot at WCW. It's just, you know, the holier than thou approach that Dave Meltzer so often takes. It's just creepy as fucking person that, for whatever reason, we keep. Well, I know why, because he's been writing a shit sheet for 35 years. There's a lot of stuff to talk about. Coach Rosie says this week on Click This Kevin Nash explained how great you were

creating the visual when he pitched a match to you Nash said that you made the TV experience behind the matches. What do you think of that? Well, it's obviously nice to hear especially when I've been sitting here for two and a half hours listening to Dave Meltzer's comments about the show and me and all that. No, it's nice to hear. Kevin was there. He knows. He saw. He's been around.

He was at the very top in WWE. It was at the very top of WCW. And I think Kevin probably knows me more than a lot of the talent that I worked with. Because we were just closer. Just whatever reason, chemistry. We just spent more time more, talked more, and shared more. We got another question here from Donovius, Matt. Can you think of anyone with the intensity in the ring like Chris Benoit in today's era of active

wrestlers. I know that sometimes guys might be nervous about that comparison, but as far as bell to bell, I think most people would agree, man, he was incredible. I think he probably drew on inspiration from Dynamite Kid, but do you think there's anybody that when you see they're in ring style, it reminds you of Chris Benoit? Not really, not really, because Chris was just intense from the minute he walked through the curtain to the minute he walked back to the curtain. He just never lost that aura of absolute intensity. So I can't think of anybody that reminds me of Crispin. You see glimpses of it every now and then, of course.

But bell to bell, does anybody out there as intense as Crispin? We've got Bobby Duncan, Jr. here, wrestling Ray Mysterio. They're going to go four minutes and 21 seconds. Kurt Haining is on commentary, and I think he's going to interfere here. I would say the difference was ridiculous, but what else is new? I actually think that's what they're going for, right?

You wanted to sort of like ECW had made Spike Dudley, the giant killer. I think they like telling these David and Goliath stories with Ray Mysterio. I know that it feels like creative. It's relatable. People can relate to that. You've got a natural underdog. And my God, it's not that hard to figure out. It's great storytelling.

And especially Ray, because he was so good at selling, just you get, you'd have so much, you know, and a lot of times, wrestlers will say, oh, you know, we got to get sympathy on you. It's not sympathy, it's empathy. Sympathy is just feeling sorry for someone. Empathy is being able to identify with a way that you think they're feeling. It's relating to what's going on at a much different level. And Ray was great at getting empathy because he was the underdemeanor. duck. That's the story.

Fuck. That's so hard. Let's talk about Bobby Duncan, Jr. We haven't spent a lot of time talking about him, but as sad as this is, this guy wasn't with us just like seven months later. He passed away January 24th, 2000. It was an accidental overdose. But, man, a guy who was from Amarillo, Texas, who stood over 6 foot 5, 6 foot 6,

nearly 300 pounds. Like it just felt like, you know, with him being trained by Skandar Akbar and Dori and Terry and it felt like he had a big career in front of him. And I know that, you know, he's going to pass away when he's 34. And I guess at this point, when we're watching him here,

he's just 33. God, Lee, can you imagine what he was capable of? I mean, just the look, it felt like he checked a lot of the boxing. And he worked really well for a big guy. I mean, he's deceptively big, you know? Yes. You know, in there against Ray, obviously size different.

But he was deceptively big and quality of his work, even as we're seeing here, it was pretty exceptional. To be able to go out there and have a match like that with a guy like Ray Mysterio, pretty freaking awesome. It's pretty terrible to think that, I mean, he just got his big break here. He signed with the company in November of 1998. We're watching him here in June of 99, and he's no longer with us by the end of January 2000.

I mean, just a cup of coffee on national television, but you've got to think in an alternate universe, man, he would have been a big star. I'd like to think so for sure. He had all the potential. There's no question about it. And an incredible look. Hey, shout out to Donovius Mac. He just gifted five memberships for 83 Weeks.com.

If you haven't already, what are you waiting for? Go check out 83 Weeks.com. Be sure to hit that subscribe button. Turn on the notifications bell. Thanks for joining the club and throwing up the two suite there at 83weeks.com. And you know what we're going to do on 83 weeks.com this week? What's that? We're going to do because, you know, why often we talk about where WCW was during 1999

compared to where, for example, AEW is right now. And we look for those parallels. Aunt Evans, our Sherpa Guidesman over at YouTube, 83W.com, came up with the idea of, look, why don't we do the five lessons that I learned the hard way in WCW that AEW should take a close look at? As opposed to me just taking shots at AEW, let's actually say, here are the five things. Here are the five top mistakes that I made that I see happening in AEW and how I address them or didn't address them. this case may be, and what was the ramifications to take a really honest, critical, but constructive look at what Tony Kahn should be learning from WCW that apparently he hasn't

learned yet. So we're going to do that. 83 weeks.com. Subscribe, hit notification as soon as it drops. You will be notified. You're probably going to want to hear this one. Be sure to check it out. 83 weeks.com.

Travis Medway says, Eric, you're the king of predictions. Was there any prediction you were continually making in 99 with a reference to the future of the business that came true? So you've predicted a few times, hey, I think, you know, in the future, this is going to happen. Was there anything that you thought was definitely going to happen in 99 that did come true? That you didn't have a podcast, so you weren't talking about it every week, but people in your circle, they were hearing it. probably that I thought WCW was not for long. I mean, I saw it happening. I saw it starting in 98.

It got more intense early in 99. By June of 99, it was fucking miserable. And by September of 99, I was fired. So, yeah, I had a very dismal future by June of 1999. And I shared it with the promises to me. We got to also share our important sponsor information. Of course, all of our episodes are brought to you by Blue Chew. And if you haven't tried it already, what are you waiting for?

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It was complimentary. It was complimentary. It was complimentary, yeah. And, hey, J.R., you know, never gets you through the night, brother. I don't judge. Man's got needs. I don't judge. Learn long time ago.

Judge not, less you be judged. That's an important one. We should mention that in that match with Bobby Duncan, Jr., Ray Mysterio, actually cut his mouth and he's bleeding pretty badly from that. We're now back from commercial, and we're seeing a recap of the White Hummer angle. I know what you're thinking, hey, they just showed this. Remember now, context is king. This was Monday Night Wars.

in case you were watching Monday Night Raw we're coming back from commercial we want to make sure you see this again now we've talked about this a lot Eric you know that's been debated a lot on the internet wrestling community and everybody wants to know what was the payoff supposed to be

who was supposed to be in the White Hummer do you remember any of the ideas that were floated around I knew this moment and I tried really hard to come and I tried really hard to come up with some bullshit that would sound at least plausible. But I'm a really fucking bad liar.

I can't come up with any bullshit. I don't remember. I don't remember if we even, I don't remember whether or not it could be true that we said, man, I really love this scene. Let's do it and we'll figure out who is driving later. I'm not proud to admit that. but as an example of the honesty

and sometimes just taking a hit I'm here to admit that I'm not even sure we on a driver at the time we did the stunt I think it was something that came up rather spontaneously because we knew it would be a good stunt and we knew the door would be open to decide we could put anybody we wanted to as the driver but I don't think we actually had it figured

out when we did it. Could it have been Goldberg? Could have been. I'd actually like to talk to Kevin Nash about it because, you know, Kevin's got a good memory. He remembers a lot of details that I don't. Kevin may know, but as I sit here talking to you right now, I couldn't even be of course, Kevin Nash is the world champion at this point.

As a reminder, Kevin Nash beat Goldberg's streak at the the very end of 1998, Starcade 98, but the famous Fingerpoka Doom would see him drop that title to Hulk Hogan. Rick Flair would beat Hulk Hogan and uncensored in Louisville as a barbed wire steel cage. The following month at Spring Stampede, all the big stars were in there. Diamond Dallas Paves would walk away as the world champion. Only 15 days later, in Fargo, North Dakota, Sting became the champion. That same day, Diamond Dallas.

Page won it back later in the very same show. Only two weeks later at Slambury, Kevin Nash wins the world title. So he's been the champ now since May 9th, 1999. So he's almost at the 30-day mark. But yeah, that's where we are. And we know that he's going to be taking on or defending that title, rather, against Randy Savage in six days at Great American Bash. Nash would win that match, but by D. Hugh, the underneath, we saw earlier Roddy Piper,

he's going to be wrestling Rick Flair, and Rick gets the win there. But with Buff Bagwell, who looks like he's in line for a push based on that promo with Roddy Piper, he beat Disco Inferno. And they had a 10-and-a-half-minute match on pay-per-view. I mean, it's an interesting pay-per-view you're trying to build for, but it does feel like it's sort of rudderless. It doesn't feel like we have a really focused direction. direction. It's like we're trying a lot of things, but I don't know how many of those

are really connecting with the audience. Is that fair to say? You're absolutely right. I was sitting here watching this show and I'm thinking, man, nothing, so far nothing feels bad to me. Like, ooh, why did we do that? But nothing feels good either. Like, there's no, there's no meat on the bone. There's no substance. there's action there's good matches there's some interesting stunts and themes but nothing that feels coherent or linear the way the show is being produced there's no emotional ebb and flow to this show it's all kind of at the same it's like all i mean there's a beautiful shadow everybody's standing up you know scotty cider cutting a promo in the middle of

bring 8,000 people on their feet. So the crowd is engaged, but nothing feels special. It's really weird. It's the first time I felt that way watching a show like this doing watch along. It's just like, there's no, just nothing is coherent. We, we probably agree on that. We've got a Steiner promo right now. They're acting like it's going to be Steiner's versus.

Sting and a partner, which I guess in theory would be Lex Lugar on the next pay-per-view, but they don't actually say it. So they're not really laying out exactly what the match is, but it winds up being Rick Steiner versus Sting in a false count anywhere match. That's what

we wind up doing at the pay-per-view. And I just think it is a fair criticism to say that well, we're not exactly building a lot of hype for this pay-per-view. I mean, we don't really even know what a lot of the matches are.

I mean, I understand that we're trying to serve a lot of masters here and that there's absolute chaos behind the scene. How far down, I know television ratings were number one. It's a television company. I get that. Is pay-per-view revenue number two, or is it something else? Say that again, you broke up just a little bit. So if television ratings are number one, most important for WCW, is paper review?

review sales number two, or is it merch or is it something else? Because this doesn't feel like a focused way to sell a pay-per-view what I'm seeing today. No, it's not. And the lack of focus is evidence on this show. It's evidence of the way we're booking and building for the paper views. The lack of focus is the core of everything that was going wrong with WCW, starting in late 1998 and certainly by this time in 1999. Lack of focus was at the core of every decision. that was being made. Lack of focus was the problem, but I guess I should say every decision

just wasn't any, wasn't any consideration to it. So to answer your question, pay-per-view was the number one revenue stream in terms of what we had control over. Keep in mind, we didn't have anything to do with ad sales.

The revenue that was generated, on Nitro was managed and overseen by Turner ad sales with no participation at all, financially or otherwise, WCW. So we couldn't affect the revenue from ad sales. The only direct impact that we could have on revenue was pay-per-view. Sure, licensing and merchandising, we could have an effect on that, But that effect was determined by the ratings of the show. The higher the ratings, the more people that are watching your fucking simple math.

Nothing complicated about it. More people who watch, the more people who buy your pay-per-views. The more people that buy your pay-per-views, the more people that will buy your merchandise. The more of the people buy your merchandise, the more of the licensing companies, toy manufacturers, widget-fucking companies that make really cool mugs that want to put. your logo on them. All of that is licensing and all of those opportunities come as a result of the downstream impact of positive ratings. So ratings, Brad Siegel, were the driver of every aspect of the business from a revenue perspective. Paper view singularly was the one thing that we could affect directly and potentially dramatically given the right.

right circumstances, meaning solid management, vision, direction, support corporately, all of those things, then you can focus on great creative and building. But absent great management, good management, any stability at all within the company, absent those things you get a hectic kind of non-linear non-focused effort that's what we saw really starting in late 98 but for certain in 99 just go looks awesome here by the way just fucking awesome just looks the part probably still has that shit probably wears it around Vegas I bet you he could go scam and act somewhere at one of the smaller off-strip restaurants just doing like, you know,

stand-up comedy trying to convince everybody he's actually a louncing. It's a fun look here. He's doing a bit of a shoot comment saying Bagwell, you choked out here with Roddy Piper and challenges him to a match.

Of course, Bagwell is going to win, but they actually give them eight minutes and one second. And then it's time for our main event, which is going to be Sting and Randy Savage. They're going to go to a DQ, and Meltzer's pretty critical of Randy Savage.

He says he can't work a lick anymore. and he's going to hit a pile driver on the referee and then attack the other referee, Mickey Jay. Sting makes a comeback on Randy, but the Steiner's hit the ring, and Luger finally makes the eventual save. And Meltzer would say, whatever happened to Tank Abbott,

who last Monday was the focal point of the entire show, that's actually a fair criticism when we've talked about Tank before. Did you guys just throw him out there and not really know exactly what you had? Saw where he was and said, eh, maybe we're not ready for prime time just yet. likely i mean you looked at that scene from last week when we covered a tank uh not tank's fault

tank was likely not given a lot of direction clearly had no experience but when you got somebody like tank abbott who is a celebrity who is known tank abbott was kind of a big damn deal and a ufc even though the ufc back then wasn't what the c is now tank had a name he had some equity. But he had no experience and thrust him into a situation he wasn't prepared for, which happens all the time. It's not so bad, provided give that individual some direction, some help. And I think that's where we screwed up with Tank, just to give him the kind of direction

of someone like Tank needed to take advantage of the equity we had with the audience. We got to mention some news and notes from the observation. server. It says WCW has expressed interest in Sid. They were supposed to have a meeting with him about a contract over the weekend, but we haven't heard if the meeting took place. There was some interest expressed in Shane Douglas, and there may be talks this week. Bischoff was said to have interest in him, but Nash doesn't want him around. Let's talk about that for a minute. Let's break it down piece by piece. Sid, I mean, I absolutely think Sid was a guilty pleasure of mine as a kid.

I think if you gave a kid a piece of construction paper and some crayons and said, hey, draw me a wrestler. They would probably draw something that looks like Sid. But I just loved his look and presence and just the way he would turn his head with the crowd. And I thought it was great stuff, but I know that

he didn't leave under the best terms and circumstances when he was here before with that scuttlebutt, to say the least, with Arne Anderson overseas. Was there any hesitation or pushback of out perhaps bringing Sid back in, considering what happened last time? No, not for me.

I mean, look, it was a bad situation, but there are two sides to every story, and I heard all of them. I said there was only two sides, but I heard all of them. That's the joke. Yeah, there's only two sides of every story, but I did hear all of them with regard to what happened between Sid and Arne. I don't think it was as definitive as a lot of people wanted me to believe that it was. So I left room open in my mind for her.

I had to take action, Sid. I had to make a choice and I did. But in my mind, Sid was not son-a-non-gratta. Enough time had you gone by. I wasn't too worried about it. I always got along with Sid. I don't know why. Just instantly always got along really good with him.

Always honest with me, never tried to work me, ever played the game that a lot of talent thought they were good at playing but actually aren't. I got that from Sid. So I had no issue. What about the other comment? There was some interest in Shane Douglas.

Bischoff was said to have been interested in him, but Nash doesn't want him around. It's been said before that for whatever reason, Shane Douglas just did not get along with the click. At the time, maybe we thought that was Scott Hall or Sean Michaels or even Kevin Nash. Do you remember Kevin Nash having any sort of hesitation

about working with Shane Douglas? No. Look, Kevin may have had an opinion about Shane Douglas and maybe he had expressed that opinion backstage and that rumor may have gotten back to or that fact may have gotten back to Dave,

which is usually where Dave got his information. But it wasn't an issue. and there were a number of people that had been worked in WCW for a long time that had that other people had issues with it's not like everybody all got along sure Kevin had an opinion about Shane Shane may have had an opinion about Kevin but neither of those opinions got in the way of us doing business together and I don't I don't recall Kevin's ever saying anything to me and Kevin at this point was the Booker so he would have had some

him and by the way we brought Shane in so I suggested Dave's full of shit unusual not unusual to see Buff Bagwell wrestling on TV but a little unusual to see him wrestling in jeans what do you make of that because he was called out you think

or I mean I don't know it just feels weird to see him wrestling in yeah I don't like it I don't like it I mean look in in the name of sponsor If indeed something is spontaneous and you're calling somebody out from the crowd or calling somebody out from backstage, but if you've got a match scheduled, then, yeah, don't, you don't want it to look like a street fight. Blazy, as Jimmy Hart would say, and a dress like the audience, you're going to end up being in the audience. Dress like a star, you'll be a star. Jimmy Hart said that.

You know who told Jimmy Hart that? Dick Clark. Dick Clark, late, great Clark. American band stamp. Hearted that, valuable advice, coming a star and maintaining your stardom to the one and only, mouth of the South.

Jimmy, my man, Hart. Yeah, baby. Love you, man. Another name that was bandied about in the newsletters in this era that really blew my mind. WCW continues to have interest in signing Yoko Zuno despite the fact that he's banned in every commission state.

Now, we saw Yoko one of the last times at like Survivor Series 1996. His weight had just gotten away from him. He was no longer able to compete in a lot of commission states. But allegedly, according to the rumor and innuendo, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were big fans of his and really enjoyed their time with him in the WWF. Was there ever a serious conversation that you can recall about the, besides that one-off. I think there was a one-off in Vegas

at Halloween Havoc that you guys made a cash offer for that he didn't agree to. But was there another time where it was like, hey, what if? I mean, do you think there's a chance he was driving the Hummer? In theory, in storyline? Absolutely not.

Again, that's just make up shit. You know, take a little bit of fact. Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, a lot of Yoko Zuna. So, just about everybody else I've ever talked to that worked with Yoko Zuna. I had a great experience working with Yokozuna before he became Yokozuna,

back when he started in the AWA. But just because you have a great experience or you think fondly of somebody doesn't mean there's an actual plan to bring somebody in. And there was never a discussion, despite how much everybody thought of Yolkazuna. There was never a discussion to bring him in. another Dave Meltzer fabrication, a lie, to try to create the perception that Dave has some valuable inside information or insight that he's never really had, makes the shit up.

That's a perfect way. Matt Hustwate over on Twitter says, whether any laborious risk assessments or approvals needed to do stunts like this. Of course, he's talking about the white. limo? Or had the corporate world not gotten completely wooled yet? Yeah, that's worth mentioning. You know, we've heard a lot about standards and practices. Were they involved? Did they have a say or were they a roadblock in any way for you doing a stunt like this limo hummer thing? No, and you think that would be. Although standards and practices is kind of like the morality police of what you're doing on

television. Risk mitigation is another division of a lot of television shows. For example, when Jason Hervey and I were producing shows together for various networks, there was one in particular. We were down at Ted Nugent's ranch in Waco, Texas. We were doing a reality show with Ted and his wife, shooting it on their ranch. And it was, it was a, it. It was a, was a competition elimination show that had a lot of teams of competitors camping and trying to hunt and fish and living off the land. That was the premise of the show. But it was a fairly dangerous show because there was just a lot of stuff that we were doing outdoors that were inherently dangerous. And we had representatives from the network, in this case it was Viacom,

was on location every single day of the shoot and had to approve. every scene as it related to risks. They'd have safety people on staff. So if we wanted to do, if we wanted to create a stunt, for example, for this reality show, it involved any level of risk whatsoever. Then we had to have representatives

from the safety vision of the risk assessment company come in and approve how we executed each scene. WCW never did that. First time I was ever exposed to the, that level of oversight was when I was an independent television producer, never experienced it in wrestling. And even though this was 1999 and the government wanted to take over complete control, the government being Turner at this point, AOL Tom Warner Turner, even though the government

wanted to, the network wanted to exert maximum control, that's one area that they didn't stick their nose in, which they probably really should up because of all the crazy shit we did. That was the book. Some of those stunts were the riskiest, but they never raised their hand. The Rosencoaster says, How to turn her corporate or standards and practices let this slide, but oftentimes you've said they didn't want the talents expressing their hate for their opponent during a promo. Isn't this considered vehicular assault?

I could see, based on all the things we've heard, how that would be, Tough for people to sort of wrap their head around, but I think he laid it out pretty clearly there. I wish we had a more definitive answer for what the creative could have been. Maybe that could be a fun thing for us to do at 83 Weeks.com. What would have been a storyline that would have been hot at the time? Who could have driven that Hummer? Was there a way to spin that yarn into a tail that is a ratings bonanza?

That could be fun, a little fantasy booking idea. Yeah, especially with one, you know, with an idea that had no resolution because the door is wide open. Right. I mean, your only limitation is your imagination and how far you want to go. I mean, if you take a look at what could have happened given, he was on the roster at the time, who was already coupled up in a storyline, for example, or committed to a storyline that was already existing, who is available, could it have been, and how could that outcome have played out in a more interesting way

than just, I don't know, let's just forget it ever happened. Hope everybody else does too, which they haven't to this day. They haven't. Inevitably, I'll go to an appearance. I'll be signing autographs. And some guy will come up about 40 years old, 45 years old, tell me how much he loved watching Nitro. He was in college or whatever.

And then his little 12-year-old kid will come up and go, hey, Mr. Bishop, can I have an autograph too? Because I just love the NWO. And I'm thinking to myself, here's a 12-year-old kid that wasn't even a glimmer in his mother or father's eye back when I was involved in television. And here's this 12-year-old kid coming to me asking for an autograph in a picture because he remembers, remembers the quality of content that we provided. Even though he wasn't there for a live, he gets to experience it on the network, Peacock. But inevitably, that 12-year-old kid, before he leaves, he'll look at the picture. He'll look at my autograph, and he'll thank me very politely for the experience that he's just had. But before he leaves, he'll stop, turn around, and he'll look at me and you go,

but Mr. Bischoff, who was driving? And it devastates me. I can't answer it. But we could have, and now you could have. Who do you think should have been driving the White Hummer? As a matter of fact, lay it out. Lay out a two-month story. Tell me who you think should have been driving the Hummer,

who is on the WCW roster, and then lay out your booking. People think this shit is so easy. You do it. Man, what a great little scene we're seeing to watch the end of Nitro. Sting is going to splash the macho man. And at the last minute, he pulls Molly Holly in. Sting eats her up with a Stinger splash, tries it on the other side.

Savage gets out of Dodge and Sting lands on Medusa. When he's trying to land Savage the last time, he manages to get Gorgeous George out of the way and he finally gets him. And fans are on their feet for this. Like, we can be critical of this if we want, but it is an interesting finish. Now, I have to say on paper, I would have assumed that Randy Savage and Sting in the main event

was going to outdraw big show and The Undertaker. That was, in fact, not the case. And I can't help but think that, you know, this is a time to remind everybody that this stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum. Context is king. The momentum is certainly on the WWE side of things here. I mean, WWE has all the momentum at this point. I mean, it feels like almost nothing you card out there could have been a,

a one-time fix. I think sometimes people think, oh, we just need one idea to get hot. And while that may be true, that one idea can't just be for one episode,

right, Eric, it's got to be something that has some continuity and can hang around and build some momentum and build some steam. You can't go from cold

to white hot in one segment. No, no. It's got to be more than just a great storyline between two athletes or four if it's a tag team. It's got to be more, it's got to be a vision.

You know, and I said this about WW, excuse me, about AEW, one of the things they're lacking is vision. By that, I mean, when they initially came out, oh, it's going to be a sports-based company, and wins and losses are going to matter, and we're going to keep track of it, and, you know, the audience is going to be involved and they're going to know, and, well, fuck, that lasts in a minute. And I knew it wouldn't work. It's been tried before. You end up painting yourself into a corner. You make those kind of commitments to the audience. audience. And then, you know, AEW was going to be the alternative to WWE.

Well, then they imported, you know, 60% of the WW roster that was on their way out the door. They bring them over to AEW. And then AWB becomes very much the sports entertainment company that the WWE was and is. And the exact opposite of what AEW said they were going to do. That's what I mean by lack of vision. Got to figure out what your company is. What is your brand? What does it represent?

Why is it different than anybody else? What makes it unique? What makes it better? And then go do it. But without a clear vision that drives and dictates creative, your approach to the business, without that vision, you're never going to have consistent creative.

Because every day you're working for a different direction. Every day, it's like getting in your car and going on a vacation every single day, but going in a different direction and never ending up anywhere because you didn't have a plan, have a vision, you didn't have a destination. And that's what was going on with WCW in 1999. That is what's going on in AEW, 2024. It's the same challenge, same problem. And that's, again, one of the things that I want to talk about, 83 weeks.com,

Five things that Tony kind came out and said, four or five years ago, five years ago, we're not going to make the same mistakes that WCW made. Oh, yes, you have. And you've not only made them, you've made them, you've exacerbated the mistakes. You've made them worse. You've made them more often.

You've added some. So let's talk about that in a constructive, as objective of a way as we possible. can. And I'm encouraging discourse here. I really want people to not chime in and tell me that they think I'm right. Fuck, I can just stay at home. My wife will tell me that all day long. Well, but I really want to have that conversation about what did WCW do wrong? What did we learn from it? What is AEW? What could they learn some of those mistakes that they should have learned by now, but still have an opportunity to learn and course correct.

Find out what Eric Bischoff thinks and what you can ask of Eric Bischoff anytime he goes live at 83 weeks.com. It's your home for all things, Eric Bischoff. Be sure to hit the subscribe button, turn on the notifications bell, and be sure to tune in to wise choices. You never know when he's going to go live at 83 weeks.com. Eric, that's going to do it for us this week here on another episode of 83 weeks. We're now launching on Fridays. Spread the word. and we'll be back next Friday and every Friday right here on 83 weeks with Eric Pishaw.