83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 332: Austin Runs RAW 07.26.99

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad take us back to July 26th 1999 for a wild edition of Monday Night RAW. The Vince McMahon and Steve Austin feud is in full swing with Austin throwing McMahon out of RAW with some help from his pal, good ol JR. We see the Big Show beat both Kane and The Undertaker, Double J put Hollywood superstar Ben Stiller in the figure four, and The Rock defeat Bill Gunn and Chyna in our main event. This is a crazy time in the WWF, but also in the WCW and Eric discusses it all. BABBEL - Get up to 60% off at Babbel.com/WEEKS. Rules and restrictions may apply. BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code 83WEEKS at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com/, promo code 83WEEKS to receive your first month FREE 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? But that good morning salutation here at 83 weeks takes on a different tone and power at 6 a.m. It's 6 a.m. here, Mountain Time as we're recording this. We are just, we're not only. getting the worm. We're crushing the worm. We're so we're hell of. We're excited to be with you today. We're doing a fun

watchalong from way back when 25 years ago. Join us to watch Raw. July 26th, 1999. Fire up your peacock. That's season seven, episode 30. Monday Night Raw, July 26, 1999, Season 7, episode 30. Here's where we are in the Monday night wars on July 26 Nitro gets the 3.4 how many people do you

think that would have been Eric 3.4 back in roughly about 5 million and Monday Night Raw got a 7.1 so we're going to be watching that episode my goodness roughly about 8.5 million so you think there's more than 13 million

people watching this day according to Nielsen there was was that crazy I know right it's hard to believe fired up July 26th 1999 Monday night raw at season 7 episode 30 I'm ready for the playback on my side are you ready on your side Eric bring it here we go in three two one play we should mention that just a few days prior to this Jesse Ventura who was the governor of Minnesota at the time was announced as being involved in SummerSlam 99 of course he's going to be the guest referee for the triple threat between Steve Austin triple H and mankind were you keeping up with

and actually watching the WWF product at all in 1999 or is somebody just giving you reports no I would just I would get reports there were people in my office that watched it religiously. Zane Bresloff being one of them, although Zane wasn't ever in the office. He was, he lived in Denver, but we spoke 20 times a day for about 45 seconds at a time. But, you know, between Zane and, you know, others in my office, obviously Kevin Sullivan and Terry Taylor, people on me creative team, but do a pretty good job to keep me up to speed.

So do you have a reaction when you find out that, I mean, I know you have your own history with, Jesse Ventura, but to find out, he's working with Vince McMahon. After all those years, that felt like an impossibility. And now he's got a little bit of notoriety and all a sudden Vince is letting bygones be bygones. Were you shocked to hear that Jesse was doing something with Vince after all this time? More so that Jesse step back into WWE. I mean, I kind of come to expect that for Vince and had learned that when it comes to emotion, Vince is all business.

It either works or it doesn't work. And if it works, regardless of history, as we've seen, including my involvement there, nothing matters if it makes sense. So it didn't surprise me that Vince would make the movie. It did surprise me with Jesse because Jesse was so outspoken. And I haven't had and still have a certain impression of Jesse based on the public persona that we see. And it seemed a little bit unusual. for Jesse, but I didn't think about it a whole lot.

Jesse's always been one of my favorite color analysts. I used to love watching him in AWA. I was a huge fan in AEWA, huge fan. Really love Jesse and his work. And I really liked him even more as this color partner in WW. I thought he did a great job. I want to ask you about some other news and notes from this time. There was a report in the observer that Arne Anderson was planned to return

to the ring on July 22nd. It was a thunder taping in Moline, Illinois. And Dave would comment, although you know how WCW plans are. We know ultimately, Arne did not return to the ring. I mean, I guess he did for a couple of one or two minute affairs with David Flair in the year 2000. But he finishes up in January of 97. That's his last real match. I was shocked to see there was even a byline about Arn here.

in the observer, as far as an in ring return in 99. Do you remember Arne trying to make a go of this or perhaps the day we get this wrong? Well, I don't know what he said. So it's hard for me to determine whether he got it wrong or not. But I don't remember Arne wanting to make it come back. I would have been aware of it because I was the one that was pretty adamant about Arne getting out of wrestling and not trying to work his way back in and taking a job as an agent. It's written at the time politically backstage, although it's not official.

It's pretty clear that Nash's power is diminishing. And the people doing most of the TV writing and formatting are Bischoff, who's heavily influenced by Hogan and Dusty Rhodes. This is July of 99. So we're on the downhill slope for your exit. Do you remember Dusty and yourself working more closely, creatively? No, that wasn't true. I mean, Dusty and I,

throughout our relationship worked closely together for periods of time and then for periods of time we wouldn't and then we would drift back again. And it's almost like a, I mean, I don't think there was a conscious thought or plan, at least on my part, but it's almost like Destiny and I would work together. We'd hit a certain vibe and everything that's rolling. It's almost like we got creatively, not tired of each other, but we didn't feed each other quite the same way. So we take a little break. It was never like anything hostile or negative or tense or anything like that. It's just, okay, we'd stop collaborating for a while and then we'd come back.

So that was pretty consistent with Dusty throughout my relationship with him. So I don't know what Dave's talking about. Probably needed it as Dave. It was mentioned in this era, too, that Goldberg had. renegotiated his contract and he'd gotten a raise to one and a half million dollars per year and Dave would comment the WWF was salivating and that may be too weak of a term hoping Goldberg would somehow extricate himself from WCW and they could promote Austin versus Goldberg there were plans on the table and everything were you surprised to

hear that the WVF was itching to get Goldberg is that ultimately why you renegotiated the contract well we negotiate his contract because obviously we were in a very very competitive environment and on the on the uncomfortable end of that competitive environment and we had spent so much time and money and intellectual capital when it comes to intellectual property we built him up to to such a high degree that it almost worked against this. And I will want to say, you know, and I'm friendly with Bill. We've got a great relationship, tons of respect for him. But Bill forced to renegotiation about a year or a year and a half before he was due. He really forced it at a time that was incredibly difficult for

WCW. With all the things going on that we know about because of Guy Evans' book and seven bucks productions who killed wcW series on dark side um we know a lot more than we knew then but yeah let it go with that we're watching a monday night raw here where we started taker whooping x-pac backstage eventually road dog tries to make the save that doesn't work cane tries to make the save that doesn't work and now it's big show and the undertaker they've got some sort of alliance going here what what time go to you what time go to you at bud i'm at 705 okay we're um we're watching july 61999 just to understand how in the world the w wg got a 7.1 that nightro was up from the prior week they went from a 3.3 to a 3.4

still pretty damn strong but goodness gracious 7.1 on the the channel and that's what we're watching as we see the long black limousines show up of course as you might imagine it's vincent ran on the inside i do want to ask you about some other news and notes on the wcdb side of thing though because we heard that dennis rodman was actually going to be coming back and allegedly according to dave milzer this may have been because he filed a lawsuit against wcw because he felt like he'd been deceived out of another 550 000 that was due to him of course a lot of people would say well maybe they didn't pay it because he showed up in no

condition to perform at the doggone pay-per-view but the reality is he's going to get another deal here at Road Wild according to Dave Meltzer for the same $1.5 million base plus a percentage of revenues above 3.9 of course

maybe jokes on Dennis because WCW's not nearly in the condition they were a year prior. Was this true? Was there a legal dust-up with Turner and Dennis Rodman? I think there was a question on accounting because a lot of Dennis's agreement, a substantial portion of it was incentive-based, and there were a lot of different formulas. And it's a very complicated process.

It's not unusual for talent who hadn't been involved in the typical pay-per-view accounting process and timeline to get really frustrated with it because it took forever. It really took a little over a year for numbers to finally become finalized. And for talent who's never dealt with it before, it got confusing and frustrating. And I think that was the issue. It wasn't a personal issue between Dennis or me or Hulk or talent. It wasn't a creative issue. It wasn't, you know, a performance-based issue or whether or not, you know, Dennis was in shape to work or not.

none of that stuff it was simply an accounting issue and it and it cleared itself up very quickly by the way speaking of accounting i want to ask you about this it's written in the observer that kiss was going to be receiving half a million dollars five hundred thousand dollars to perform two songs on nitro and then have jean introduce a new wrestler the kiss demon and this is all supposed to happen on august 23rd does that sound right half a half a meal for two songs no it was a quarter of a million, and it was part of a much larger program and package that was to launch an entire line of KISS-slash-W-related merchandise and characters, as well as a lot of other things that we had talked about, animation projects and things like that.

So the, the, the, it was 250 for, fourth, um, nitro, which by the way, if in the big scheme of things, it was a bargain, if you will, um, but it was, it was part of a much larger plan. It wasn't an isolated decision. It was part of a broader decision. There's another note that makes the observer, WCW will get four TV guide covers on August 15. which will be Sting Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, and the Nitro Girls. And Meltzer would say the two that would actually sell are Hogan and Goldberg. Talk to me about this relationship with TV Guide.

I know this is from a bygone era, but people don't really think about this, but more copies of that were sold than just about any other periodical. I think that's probably safe to say. So if you're on the cover of that, it's huge exposure, but I am curious how do you go about selecting who's on those covers is that a request from tv guide or does that come from wcw tv guide i i don't know exactly how i don't know who called who first i wasn't involved in any of that that would have been more than likely sharon sedello quite possibly mike Weber and maybe even Alan Sharp.

Alan Sharp was our head of PR. Really good guy. Very, very, very good at his job, by the way. Can't say enough good things about Alan Sharp. I got run over by a tank in his sleep, sleeping in a foxhole, cutting Zs in the middle of the desert. Tank ran over him. Nothing.

Kept on doing his army stuff. Tank ran over. him. Anyway, it could have been Alan if it was a PR move, but typically it would involve, okay, when, when is TV guide going to come up? Because they typically would plan three months out, six months out. It wasn't like they were coming up with ideas every other day. They did have a plan. So they would tell us when the magazine was going to come out or when TV guide was going to come out, what episodes or editions, I should say. And then we would try to project who would be the best focus at that time. So if we knew it was going to be staying, Scott Hall, for example, in a match, then at Halloween Havoc, for example, one of our 10th poll paperbues, then one or both of those individuals would go high up on the list. So a lot of it just depended on what we planned on creatively.

Let's talk a little bit about the television contract at the time. It's written here that WCW Worldwide would soon start on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, which would be the strongest station to carry wrestling in many years in a strong 7 p.m. Friday night time slide. Who on your team, whether it's WCW or Turner corporate, who would have been trying to expand international television like this? Like so many things at Turner, it would have been a little bifurcated, meaning you had Turner Home Entertainment,

Stu Snyder's Group, is technically the agent of WCW content when it comes to international distribution, television or otherwise, and home video. All of that fell under Turner Home Entertainment. So Turner Home Entertainment would theoretically lead the charge and be out there knocking on doors trying to sell the product internationally, whether it be to the UK, Channel 5, or anywhere else.

But they would work very closely with Sharon Sadello, probably, or Mike Weber, possibly. Because although Turner Home Entertainment knew the players internationally, they knew who the buyers were. They didn't know anything at all about the product. So Sharon or Mike, somebody from WCW would kind of backfill and get involved to whatever extent necessary when a little bit more background and experience in professional wrestling or WCW was needed.

Let's talk about Hulk Hogan making an appearance here on WCW Live. It's really the OG of wrestling podcasting. He's going to go on WCW Live and tell a story about Paterson. I wasn't there. It's not worth even reporting what was reported there. did you ever have a conversation of that sort with Hulk Hogan about Paterson? Well, I don't know what the interview was, so I don't know. Well, it wasn't positive.

That sounds weird because my conversations with Hulk over the years has always been pretty positive when it came to Pat. You know, obviously there was, you know, there was controversy there. and we have talked about that but never dwelt on it and I've never heard I don't think I've heard anybody talk negatively about Pat especially Hulk that's the thing I'll do respect to Hulk Hogan we also know that man he's a natural born entertainer so sometimes if the red lights on and the cameras are rolling he's going to try to do an entertaining interview for you, brother.

Well, I mean, that's not a little thing. I mean, Conrad, you're not only right, but people have no idea how right you are. When you have, in Hulk's a great example. I think Rick Flair is another one. Yes. And there are others that we know. But when, you know, wrestling is so weird, it's not like being an actor. You know, Tom Cruise doesn't stay in character, you know, for his top gun series out in

public, right? Or maybe it does. I don't know. I don't know Tom Cruise. My point is a lot of, you know, actors, you know, they're in character. Everybody knows that they're acting. They're not really that character. But wrestling for some reason is such a, it's a unique thing. And people forget, including the talent themselves. They sometimes forget where the character starts and the real person ends or vice versa. especially guys like Hulk and Rick who get excited about doing their promos. He saw it on the Republican National Convention. I saw it with Hulk because I've worked with him so closely and I know him so well when it comes to this stuff.

You know, he wanted to, he wanted to present Al Kogan and Terry Belaya. And that lasted for about seven seconds. He couldn't help himself because he was having so much fun being in. that character. And a lot of that, a lot of times that same type of thing will happen to Rick Flair, to Hulk Hogan, or just anybody else, you know, that's out there. And, you know, you slip into the character a little bit because that's what people want. You don't want to hear from the person. They want to hear from the character they see on TV and you want to give them what they want. But oftentimes in the process, your interview kind of swims back and forth between a real interview

and a character interview. I mean, I watched that RNC thing with Hulk Hogan, and he darned sure did say something along the lines of, okay, I'm talking to you as Terry Belaya now. One Mississippi, two, Mississippi. So I'm press slamming this stinky, nasty 500 pound giant. It's like, so Terry Belaya was press slamming the big thing. We didn't talk about that much.

You know, we acknowledged that it was going to happen the day that it happened, of course, seen it yet. But I, I am so proud of, and I didn't have anything to do it. So I said, proud four isn't the right word. Yeah, proud four, not proud of them. I'm proud for him, you know, because I've known Terry Belaya for a long time, 30-some-odd years.

And I know there are other people that probably know them differently. In some cases, maybe know them better than I do in certain ways. But I've known this guy who has... When I say struggled with his faith, faith has always been important to Terribalea. It's always been a big part of his consciousness and awareness. But like all of us, you know, lifestyle, choices, the people we surround ourselves with and the things that we allow ourselves to get interested in. All of that stuff can kind of separate you from your faith in a way.

It has me throughout my entire life. and over the last few years I've had different kinds of conversations with Terry Balea and each time I feel like he's getting closer and closer and closer to being at peace and eliminating those things that really prevented him from embracing his faith as much as he has and he certainly has over the last couple years and even more so and what's so exciting form me is I can see it in his eyes. Regardless of whether he's in character or out of character, I can see in his eyes that he's happier than he's best since I've ever, since I've known him.

He's generally happy because I think he's finally reconciled. I think Terry Belaya finally defeated Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan was winning that fight for a long time. And I think now Terry Balea is the champion. He embraces Hulk Hulke Hogan. I think he loves that Hulk Hogan character. It will always be a part of his life, but there's a different Terry Balea walking around right now than the one that I've known for the past 30 years.

I'm happy for him. Could he have asked for better cross promotion for his new real American beer? I mean, to come out with a real American theme song and tear that shirt off. You know, how many times of you and I said, you know, you can come up with the best idea in the world, but if the timing isn't right. Yeah. Or you can kind of come up with this. an okay idea but if the timing is perfect this is one of those the timing is perfect i mean it's

awesome super happy for hulk to have this much of a mainstream opportunity and another act and i'm excited to see what he does with real american beer i mean you couldn't have asked for better cross-promotion than uh than that appearance we're watching a very interesting Monday night raw we're seeing yet again another shot of Vince McMahon in the backstage area is let's talk a little bit about some news and notes from the WCW side of things and the observer. They've talked with Disco Inferno about taking a bump on his head and doing an insomnia gimmick where he thinks he's one of the more established stars like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. And he does promos where he's upset at Benoit and Melancho for thinking they can take the main

event spots from people like him and Hogan. That's hilarious. You're over hearing this creative. I don't remember hearing it. And I don't know where it came from, but it's funny as hell. And disco would be great, you know, because you need some comedies. You need something fun. It can't all be intense and serious and dark and promoting all the time.

You need some, you need to break it up a little bit. And disco was one of the best at that type of a character. I don't know why we didn't do it, but we should have. Let's talk about Dave Finley here. he's going to wound up well in a bad spot he's going to go through a table and part of the metal underneath the table is going to slice his leg to the point where you can actually see the bone through the skin this happens in july in jackson mississippi actually the day before this monday nitro here there's a live event in jackson and this talks about pretty immediately based on the amount of blood and just the severity and the location hey this could be a career ending injury what do you remember of this i mean this is the the side of a table spot nobody talks about i remember obviously i got the report i don't know who gave it to me

probably jenny angle most likely and then i think the very next day which would have been at tv i got more detail from people that were there and it's to me it sounded like he's not coming back from that I mean, there were tendons involved, I mean, ligaments, and it was ugly. It was very ugly. And I remember, I think it was Terry Taylor, excuse me, describing how it happened and all that. And it wasn't a situation where anybody was to blame or nobody prepped the table properly that I'm aware of at this stage. But I did remember hearing how bad it wasn't pretty much under the, being under the impression of it was.

be able to make it back let's talk a little bit about conan he's going to run into some legal trouble here he actually gets arrested at the airport and he was coming off an injury where he had gotten injured in a wcdb match and now he's got some some legal woes you saw a few guys have some legal woes while when they were in uh wcd whether it was Scott Steiner or the big show or Scott Hall or I mean it happened a few times even once with Mr. Regal what happens with Conan here what's the what's the policy what's the procedure like with Turner influx you know what was the procedure like there was no there was no standard operating procedure um every case was unique your situation was unique

For the most part, though, we didn't react to too much of anything unless it was bodily injury. Somebody was hurt. Severe laws were broken, things like that. Then we might possibly make a statement or come out in front of it. But typically we didn't and stayed away from it unless it was a conviction. So do you in times like this, when you know that one of the talent have had a legal issue, do you pick up the phone and have a conversation about it or do you I don't play out okay I don't maybe sell Kevin Sullivan possibly Terry

Taylor somebody from the office would but it would not have been me well I I was gonna ask you know is there a different protocol when it's someone like a Conan because we've heard for years that he was sort of the liaison for a whole country and even though he's not technically office that feels like he's wearing both hats at different times just because he's that liaison in my off base no you're 100% right it was a very it was a unique position it was very difficult it was difficult on conan it was difficult on us was conan you know loving to death now we're tight as fuck now but there was a point in time when i was watching conan pretty closely

because he was wearing two hats and he wore them very very well well well i I'll tell you, the reason that Conan was able to have that opportunity is because he understood how to speak two languages. That's really it. And the best way to learn a new language is immersion. Living where the language is spoken and using it every day, that's the best way. But if that's not in the cards this year, you can still learn the language the second best way. And that is with Babel. I'm such a big fan of Babel.

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get up 60% off at babel.com slash weeks that's bababbell.com slash weeks rules and restrictions may apply hey you know what else is cool about babel one of the big advantages for me is I learned enough, Japanese, so that when I go to a sushi bar, I sound like an almost native-born. Like I can conduct a sushi-related conversation. What's fresh today? What would you recommend? Oh, that yellow tail looks good. When did it come in? Where may I find the restroom? And of course, the ever popular. Kudasai, which is bring me another beer, please. When you can learn just enough Japanese so that you're comfortable sitting at a sushi bar

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WWF has been enjoying so much success. It's an in-ring promo with the BMF himself, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mr. McMahon. These guys maybe are the most prolific feud in the history of wrestling, wouldn't you agree?

Certainly one of the most meaningful ones. I think it everybody has opinions and a lot of them are valid. They're just different perspectives. There's no right or wrong. It's just different perspectives. You're looking at different moments in time from different angles. And consequently, you see things differently.

But there are, I think there was one moment. There was one creative decision. There was one point in time when everything kind of fell into place. Almost like almost so much so that it almost looked like it was by design. But I think a lot of it was just default. Good luck timing and things like that. But when they brought him Tyson and set up the Tyson, Austin,

Mr. McMahon, Mr. McMahon feud used Tyson to do that. That flashpoint, that moment in time, that story, that angle, that moment probably had more to do with the success we see in WWE today than anything else you can point to. Anything else you can point to. That one moment, that decision, because that really, in my opinion, was the moment that WWE abandoned their previous business model, the teen and preteen model. That moment was the manifestation of a speech, I believe, that Ms. McMahon gave in November talking about the new direction of WWE and the new type of storytelling, which he was

foreshadowing the attitude era, which was a reaction to Nitro. but the way they did it the way that story was created the way it was executed in particular that story has more to do with the success of WWE today than any other single moment that I can think of let's keep everybody abreast of what we're watching on the watch along Vince McMahon just stomped to the top of the ramp. Turn back to Stone Cold Steve Austin, who's still in the ring, and hit him with the double bird. This isn't Stone Cold flipping off Mr. McMahon. It's Mr. McMahon flipping off Stone Cold.

It feels like Vince is having a blast here. Would you agree with that? Oh, will the real Vince McMahon please step forward, pal? Yeah, you think after all that time behind the desk, pretending he was a color commentator and, you know, golly, gee, you know, I can't believe he did that. And now to be able to come out and be who he really is or was, you know, that Mr. McMahon character was Vince McMahon with the volume turned up. How many times have we talked about that? So I'm called Steve Austin, is Steve Williams, what the volume turned up.

You know, it's when you find those characters that resonate and all you have to do is allow the allow them to be themselves a bit bigger and louder as so much fun and that's where Vince McMahon was he was probably having more fun in those few moments when he first came out as Mr. McMahon that he'd probably had in his entire career up to that point let's talk a little bit about the no limit soldiers it's written here master P is officially gone Conan and Mysterio have been pulled out of the no limit soldiers, which will now become a jobber group. There's been some attempt to pull Brad Armstrong out of the soldiers and group him

with Mysterio, Conan, and Eddie, but since they got hot as a team in Moline, that won't happen as quickly. Talk to me about that. What do you remember about throwing in the towel with Master P? And was this really maybe the last opportunity for Brad Armstrong to have some mainstream success? Well, I think it certainly could be considered. one of Brad's last opportunities for sure because it started out, you know, hopeful.

It was very high profile. It could have been, it could have been special. But it didn't live up to anybody's expectations, including masterpiece, including ours. So it wasn't a, from what I remember, at least, it wasn't a hostile separation. There was no, there was no, I don't think there was much legal back and forth. I think it was a pretty clean break from what I remember. But I think it could, yeah, fair statement about Brad. I don't know that he had any other really high profile opportunities from this point forward.

I mean, he does have a little bit here and there. I mean, you guys even let him pick up a win on a Halloween havoc, which seems crazy. But he beat Berlin Halloween havoc that year. But it does feel like we were trying something for the first time in a while with Scott. I'm sorry, with Brad. let's talk a little bit about where we are ratings wise it's written here that you had to be shocked when you saw the Tuesday or the ratings come in the prior Tuesday because it was Hogan and Sid the main event of Nitro

meanwhile it was the undertaker in Triple H on Monday Night Raw and as we've mentioned well they've been on quite a tear I showed a 3.3 that week raw did a 6.3 but the overrun would top a 7 And Hogan is doing radio. Maybe he's doing a bit. And he says, well, it was Malico Binwa, Perry Saturn, and Shane Douglas that brought the rating down. And then I had to make up for Lost Ground. And of course, that gets covered in the newsletters and they're trying to do all their fact-checking.

Whenever I would see that Hogan did an interview like that, it sounded to me, I know a lot of people would say, oh, he's throwing those guys under the bus. it sounds to me like he's just trying to set up future angles and storylines and matches i just don't see him being a guy to just throw somebody under the bus like that am i way off base no you're not you're you're right on the money now he may look he's capable of cracking a stupid joke that falls wrong just like all every day but there's no malicious intent there was never he's the opposite that's what drives me crazy and why I probably over defend at times because if you really know the guy, first of all, he's generous as hell, to a fault, he would not hurt a fly. Like, if there's a spider

crawling across his deck, he won't step on it. He's about as gentle of a human being as I've ever met. He'll stand out for himself. You're not going to let anybody push him around, but he is a very, very gentle soul who doesn't really like confrontation at all, at all. But it's so different than what people perceive him to be. But yeah, part of it is what we talked about before, you know, slipping in and out of character, sometimes, you know, challenging your relationship to reality along the way as a result. All of that kind of adds to it. But in his heart, he's just, he's a nice guy.

there's not a malicious bone in his body. He's gentle and he's generous, but you would never know that unless, you know, you actually get to know it. Let's talk a little bit about developmental for WCW. In this era, this is an interesting signing. Dean Roll, who was from the Ohio area, and we've fallen in love with him as an internet wrestling community

under his persona Shark Boy. He's a cult favorite here, and he actually winds up signing a developmental, deal with WCW in 1999 and of course it's written in the observer he's going to be headed to the power plant and there's been some criticism of the WCW developmental program compared to the w WFs instead of working in the ring it seems buddy lee parker is like having a boot camp instructor who gets guys into great condition and they don't learn in ring wrestling enough so you see these chase tatum and chip mitten looking characters who look like a million dollars and after

years of training can't even do an acceptable television squash match pretty strong words from dave melts for there in the observer what did you think of the power plant buddy lee parker and lastly shark boy don't have a lot of recall on shark boy just power plant wasn't high on my list of things to pay attention to in 99 um not that it should have should have should have Shouldn't have been, by the way, but nonetheless, it was what it was. I think the overall feeling was it was the best we had. You know, that was always, you know, developing talent was always such a big topic of conversation consistently. Sometimes it got bigger, depending on who had a voice.

When Oli Anderson was there, right after I was the main executive producer, that's all Oli ever talked about was, where are we going to be? going to get talent from? Where are we going to get talent from? And only talked extensively about how the power plant was a part of the solution, but not the solution. And I think everybody agreed with Oli's take on that. It was a part of a solution, but not a complete solution. The complete solution, the consensus being that would involve talent, yes, learning the basics, the fundamentals of what goes on inside of the ring and how to tell the story. But that training alone without the ability to go out and do it in front of people so that you can learn how to interpret the audience's reaction or you can learn how to control the audience's reaction, even more so. Those are

things that you can't learn in a power plant, in a training for facility, or even necessarily in front of a crowd that isn't representative of what you would typically find as a crowd at a wrestling live event or television show. Meaning, T&A, the Impact Zone, WCW, worldwide tapings in Disney, MGM, Universal. Functional, yeah, we're able to crank out shows. but those shows just aren't going to resonate and connect with the audience in large part, in some part. No, in large part, but in such subtle ways

that's not obvious to people, it's because that crowd is not a typical crowd. It doesn't feel like a sporting event when you're watching at home. It feels like a game show with wrestling. And people that absolutely love wrestling, no big deal. You don't care. But that's a small, small, small percentage of the audience. The larger percent of the audience wants to look at wrestling like they look at other live sports and just escape

and have fun. And you don't get that with a studio audience. So even NXT, as great as they're doing in so many respects, that audience, while it may feel more typical than a lot of other audiences, still has that soundstage vibe to it. And that's the part that's missing. That's the part where I think you'll see the Jay Cargill's spending a lot more time learning the transition. You know, Braun Breaker, look at how much time they're taking with Braun Breaker. They're really giving him a lot of time.

And I think the time that they're giving him, it's not because he needs to learn how to, he doesn't need everybody can always improve mechanics okay i'm not saying that but that's not where he's he needs work right now where he needs work right now is the experience so that he can time his emotions so that he can start planning on manipulating the crowd instead of reacting to a crowd sorry went into the weeds it's one of my favorite topics can't help myself we like when you go in the weeds the uh the whole idea of the power plant has been pretty controversial through the years you know we've heard from guys like dave batista who says that he was excited to be a professional wrestler

and came down here and worked at it in the power plant ultimately got ran off he enjoyed success later we know and even chale sunnin who's gone on to become an mima superstar and made over eight million dollars fighting anderson sylva in the rematch once I mean, a real successful talking head cut wrestling promos in his MMA career to draw money kind of guy. Tried his hand at the power plant and got ran off. It does feel like with the benefit of hindsight, man, that was a great opportunity. A couple opportunities missed. Yeah, it was.

And like I said, it wasn't for everybody. And I think there was a little bit too much of an emphasis on, I don't know I'm going to take that back one of the aspects of the power plant that people took pride in was getting the respect of the people that came through it and I think in order to accomplish that too much emphasis was put on the boot camp mentality yeah I just talked to a guy the other day where was I I can't remember where it was I must have been in Atlantic City I'm talking to this guy oh no he's a phone call

it was one of my ad free shows calls I made and I'm talking to this guy Ernie I'm talking to Ernie goes oh I want you to talk to my friend so I talked to his friend right they were together and his friend's yeah I just want you to know I spent $5,000

plus a plane ticket and I stayed in a hotel because I wanted to work out at the power plant. I want to become a wrestler. You guys search to be $5,000. And I didn't last a day. I quit.

I said, well, did we give you any money back? He goes, no, and I don't want it back. It's not why I'm calling. So he was proud of the fact that he didn't make it through Sergeant Buddy Lee Parker's version of a frat challenge. But, yeah, it was pretty tough.

think probably a little too tough it is interesting to think how it's all sort of evolved over the years and how you know the way to get into wrestling has changed if you were a young and up-and-coming aspiring athlete who wants to become a star and professional wrestling you were starting that journey in 2024 what would you do or recommend erie i think nsts about as close as you're going to get to a system from top to bottom that's going to produce a talent that has the potential of making a living in professional wrestling. There are other ways. I'm just not as familiar with them, but if my son or daughter came to me at 20 years old

or so and says, hey, I really want to do this. How should I do it? I would point them to WW. Not that it's the only way. Again, there are other ways. Somebody say better. But from beginning to middle to end, I think that's the best opportunity.

We're talking over a triple H and China promo. Triple H is stomping around, cutting a promo in the middle of the ring. We see Stone Cold walking or, are watching in the backstage area. Let's talk about where we are live event-wise in WCW. I mean, the year 1999 should be studied in a major way.

Here's what's written in The Observer. Shows this past week where WCW Saturday Night taping on July 20th in Madison, Wisconsin, it drew 1,655 fans. That's 44-64, and the building was papered like crazy. for $33,117. Here we are doing a television typing, Eric. Granted, it's WCW Saturday night,

so it is very much a C show. But it only draws 1,600 fans. Does that seem crazy to you? No, when you think about it. I mean, WCW Saturday night, which was the A show for such a long time, has at this point in time been relegated to about a D show. So in light of that, in light of the revenue that it was generating for WCW,

in light of the expenses that were associated with that particular show, and the difficulty that we had with it, simply because Nitro had completely changed everything in WCWCD, including viewing habits. It just wasn't that important to a show. It's kind of like, you know, collision, I guess, or a B show, a C show, a D show in some cases. You just can't afford to put the resources into secondary type of content

because you're not going to get the revenue from it. It's just not going to, there's no return on an investment. It feels like maybe it's a ring of honor typing. There's 16 matches. is on the show and here's the card that night this is a w c w c w saturday night taping here madison wisconsin dain county expo center 1,655 paying fans ernest miller over lashler roo scotty riggs over scottsky the disciple over the gambler vampiro over psychosis mike whipwreck over viana number five adi guerrero over adrian beard jerry flin and

Hugh Morris over disorderly conduct. Van Hammer over Mike Enos, Prince Iykea over Evan Courageous, Disco Inferno over Bobby Eaton, Kurt Henning over Al Green, Brian Knobbs over Fit Finley, Billy Kidman over Huventoo Carrera, Ray Mysterio Jr. and Brad Armstrong over Kendall Windham and Bobby Duncan Jr., Johnny Attitude and Barry Horowitz, Jim Duggan, and Barry Darsoe. No disrespect. That's a lot of matches. That's a lot of talent. but it doesn't feel like there's very much of consequence on that show when you when i rattle off that card to you what's your first impression what are you thinking about as i run through that list of matches everything i just said a few moments ago it was filler material

yeah it was the least we could do to fulfill an obligation and meet its expectations We met that shows expectations by providing the least amount of resources, whether it be production and or talent. It was what it was. It's just filling material. It's, um, it makes me wonder, you know, because you've been given painted with this brush at times. Oh, it's ATM Eric.

Oh, the roster is too deep. oh overspin on talent and we've heard similar things being said about other promotions in 2024 but when when i rattled that off it it was sort of overwhelming that well there's a lot of guys on this list who are under contract to wcw and they're not exactly moving the needle is there something too less is more in wrestling or your wrestling fans always want more is more there's a there's a limit to everything right? I mean, on the one hand, people that have never been in the position as an executive producer or Vince McMahon type or in, you know, A.W. Tony Khan gets the last word, right? Vince

McMahon got the last word. To a degree up to a point, I had the last word. that situation and being in that situation teaches you that, yes, from a business perspective, there is a much more efficient way to manage your talent roster. There is, without question, certainly there was for me. I did not do a good job of managing my talent roster. I learned that the hard way. If you look at Tony Khan, I think he's an example. of going to an extreme to have as much depth on his roster as possible.

And that's easy to be critical of because while you're not using that talent, they're frustrated, they're chirping in the background, which gets your audience chirping in the background, which turns into an issue eventually over time. If it continues, and there's more and more of it. So you've got talent discontent and that weaves its, way into your world on a day-to-day basis, generally speaking. You know, you've got talent that people just forget about, which isn't really a big

issue for the talent they think it is, but it's not. It's actually an advantage in some cases, but, you know, out of sight, out of mind. And it's easy to be critical of that, but you have to understand that at some point in time, you may need three, four, five people that you didn't expect all at the same time. You need an inventory of talent that at least you believe it's possible to try to get them to a level where they can replace somebody who is one of your top two, three, four, five, or six stars. And you need to have a lot of bodies around that can potentially fill that role. Should that role become available through injury or conflict or anything else? So you need to have a fat enough roster that if you've got a gun to your head, you have to make three, four, five critical.

creative decisions because of things that are out of your control, you're going to have to do that. You can't get to the point where you've got, I got my A player, I got my B player, and my C player is really not even a D player or an E player. You need some depth. You need to plan for the worst. And unfortunately,

that means keeping a lot more people around than it might look like you need on paper. Let's talk about what we need, which is a shot in the arm creatively because I'm really scratching my head about the next day. So we just ran through this thunder taping. I'm sorry, this Saturday night taping. That's on July 20th.

And we're in Madison, Wisconsin. The next day on July 21st, we're just doing a non-televised live event. We might even call it a house show. In Peoria, Illinois, and the Civic Center there on July 21st. And there's only 1830. 1,830 fans here.

The main event is Rick Flair and Sting. That's a house show? Yeah. And I know that you think that sounds bad, but what's dynamite doing in Texas this week? 1,800 people, 2000. Their residency in Texas. What's that projected to do?

I'm not sure. But I mean, my point is, I'm shocked that we could draw 1,800 people to a house show in 1999. You're shocked that it's as bad as it is. Talk about different perspectives. Well, I'm just saying we're not that far removed. I mean, in January of 99, you put 35,000 people or something in the Georgia Dome. And so here we are six months later, 1,800 people will pay to see Sting versus Rick Flair.

Well, that's a little different. I mean, come on, one is a nitro and the other is a house show. There is a little bit of a difference. But it doesn't change the fact that your point is clear and accurate. The difference between being hot and being not has never been so profound as it was during this period of 1999. Because you could look back a couple months ago, holy shit, do you believe we did that? And now we're like, oh, my God, this is where we're at? and that happened over a relatively brief period of the very brief period of time

I do hear you on the sort of eye rolling well a house show's different it's not TV because that was in Peoria 1830 is the attendance on July 21st the next day in Moline at the mark of the quad we're doing a thunder taping so it's July 22nd and we've got 3,560 paying fans over 6,700 fans in the building and we've got Rick Fleer and DDP and Canyon on one side standing across from Chris Benoit Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn we've also got Booker T wrestling Bam Bam Bigelow we got Sid Vicious here in a handicap match we got Buff Bagwell we do have some television stars here

but I find that interesting that in Peoria Rick Flair and Sting house show 1830 double that for a Thunder TV taping I didn't hold thunder in high regard by 1999 but I think the the notion was out there with wrestling fans that live events how shows are shows of no consequence of no substance and if it's on TV well you might see something major happen you might see a great match or a great angle or a major happening something of consequence do you think that's the difference big part of it for sure Sure. Big part of it. And there was always, you know, even going back to 1991 when I first got to Turner, different people had different initiatives to try to address that problem.

Problem being that the audience have been conditioned to know that nothing really dramatic or exciting is going to happen at a house show. That's saved for pay-per-view and as a result of the Nitro era, some of the things I was doing differently, occasionally on television. that was always a big problem. And we tried to, you know, I remember under Bill Watts, there was some kind of a, I don't remember the details of it, but there was a plan, a creative plan whereby titles would change hands, world title, would change hands in house shows. And of course, there would be a WCW, E and G,

or a news gathering crew there just to happen to catch it so that we could use it on television. But that went out for a long time. It didn't work. People saw through it. obviously. It didn't work to the extent that I think people hoped it would. It wasn't really until Nitro that house shows became a viable business for WCW because up to that point, you know, drawing 1,800 people for Sting and Rick Flair in a house show would have been huge

numbers in 1992 and 1993. That would have been considered a massive success. But after what we went through with nitro and this incredible rise and then the inevitable fall thank you guy have guy evans um we were in the middle of that dramatic fall and it was hard to hard to reconcile we should talk a little bit about where we are with the cards too because the next day we're in nashville july 23rd and we've got 42 73 paid so way more paid and it is a house show now maybe this is the difference yes the main event is sting versus rick flair but the co-main event is bill goldberg and dd well there you go we're going to go on the 24th to little rock arkansas now we're up to 7,358 fans even in jackson mississippi we've got 6,234 fans

once again sting and flare goldberg and dd p goldberg is a ticket seller my man I mean, we can say what we want about, you know, who wasn't this type of performer or that type of performer or blah, blah, blah, but dude, the proof's in the pudding right there. You added Goldberg on that card, and we were selling tickets. He's one of the greatest workers in a business at that time. Now, I said that intentionally because I knew there'd be dead silence. There'd be a look of shock and awe. I don't know if it was shocking awe on your face or as much of what they. hell is he talking about well i thought you know every now and again eric will say things on this

show just to get people talking and that sounds like one of them right there well the truth is and let's go back to my buddy hall kogan holkogen told me once and and when he said it it kind of rubbed me the wrong way but the more i thought about it the more i realized it was true i know exactly what you're going to say he said the best worker in the business is the one that makes the most money. Real, Todd. And by that standard, Bill Goldberg

was the best worker in the business. He made a lot more money. As I mentioned a few moments ago, a year and a half before his contract was even set to expire, he forced a renegotiation. That took him from, I don't know what I was paying

him under that contract, maybe 500 grand a year, to whatever it ended up being. I remember off the top of my head. 1.5, 2 million a year. And he forced that negotiation because he was the best worker in the business at that time.

And I put Will Osprey and Mercedes Monet right up there with him. Mercedes, for sure. Without question, the best worker in the business. Women, anyway. So, yeah. it all depends on your perspective doesn't it because everything else is subjective

everything else is based out oh i like tomatoes oh i don't like tomatoes i like whatever cucumbers oh i hate cucumbers i like cauliflower i think fuck everybody's got a different thing they like it doesn't matter it's all your opinion it's all subjective the only that's not subjective that's a reflection of how good you are at your job when it comes to entertainment in professional wrestling in this case it's how much freaking money you make there you go end of conversation see how easy it is to listen to this show here little things innocuous in some respects but profound in others it'll stick with you and you'll be able to carry it forward to apply it to other parts of your life you can thank me later take a look at

what we're seeing here we got ben stiller on monday night raw nice little crossover here he is in the ring having a chat with your old buddy double jay jeff jaret and of course one of the biggest rating getters one of the one of the ladies dominating the quarter hours miss deborra is in the ring here i can only imagine if uh jerry lawler were here he'd remind you that today's episode is brought to you bubble at you our next sponsor needs no introduction you've seen the ads you've heard us talk about it a million times and I bet there's a part of you, a big part of you, that wants to try it. You know what I'm talking about. Blue Chew. That's right. This ain't your grandpa's blue pill. This is the one. The OG tablet for better sex. Blue Shoes is a unique online service

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That's BOMBAS.com and use code audio at checkout. So what do you think, man, of the use of Ben Stiller here? He's got this big movie coming out and... Here comes the figure four right in the middle of the ring from Double J, the Intercontinental Champion. Hey, anytime you can cross-promote, get some mainstream advertising, pick up a little PR, get some free mentions in the trades, it's a good day. No harm, no foul, no wrestling characters were killed in the process of making this story. The business will survive. Yeah, it did $33.5 million at the box office.

He's here to promote the movie Mystery Men. Did you ever see Mystery Men? 33 million at the box office. That's horrible. No, I've never seen it. Clearly, I'm in the majority. Now, wait a minute.

Help me understand. Their budget was 68 million, but it made 33 million. And you think that's horrible? It's not good. Now, you pick up a lot on the international. I mean,

it looks like a horrible loss on the front end, right? But you'll pick up international. By the time you're done over a five-year period, that thing's making money. What if they were intercompany allocations? In the movie business, they fucking invented that stuff. They invented stuff that doesn't exist in any other business. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it is a flop. Name me all the people that you know that have ever made money. on the back end of any deal that was produced in Hollywood. Jack Nicholson. Maybe if you're, you know, Stephen Spielberg or somebody that gets really lucky and if people are willing to give you a bunch of stuff that they would never give you previously because they don't think your project's going to go anywhere, and then it does.

Those stories are out there, but my God, they're few and far between. let's talk a little bit about some other Hollywood opportunities on July 26th the same day that we're watching this Monday night raw the Hollywood reporter has an article come out and it mentions that there's going to be a WCW movie David Arquette is set to star in the movie and Meltzer would say people who've read the script say it's awful somewhat taken out of the Brett Hart deal about two wrestling fans who find out ahead of time that the promoter

is about to screw their favorite wrestler in a match and then try to warn him ahead of time. Rose McGowan plays a Nitro Girl in the comedy written by Stephen Brill who wrote The Mighty Ducks. Bischoff will be the executive producer and several WCW wrestlers will appear in the movie. Chat me up about this.

I've heard over the years that the character portrayed by Joey Pants originally was an Eric Bischoff character. What can you tell us about this movie and your involvement and what the original idea was and what actually happened? Well, I was approached. And again, this is Time Warner, Turner, merger. I was still of the mind that this was a great opportunity. I was still a deer in the headlights. I was naive. I believe Gerald Levin and Steve Case at a Christmas party at Terry McGurke.

Turner was, Turner was the president of Turner Broadcasting. I was there along with my bride. Ted Turner was there. Scott Red Siegel was there. Scott Sasser was there. It was the who's who of Turner Broadcasting. I was the token wrestling guy. but Ted liked that and they liked me so I got I got an invite felt like a fish out of water clearly

but I remember standing in the in the dining room of Terry McGurke's home and looking over and listening to Gerald Levin talk about the strength the stability the decades and decades and decades of roots in Hollywood the Time Warner represents and the entrepreneurial instinct and drive of Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting and how bringing that entrepreneurial spirit and drive

representative of Captain Outrageous himself, Ted Turner. And how that exists within every employee of Turner broadcasting. And now to be able to merge these two unique powerhouses into one conglomerate driven by the entrepreneurial spirit with the strength of old Hollywood and I'm in a corner corner yeah yeah bitch I'm doing that I'm with it

bring me more because I'll take more I was excited so when Dino Dibonaventura. I think that was his name. Di Bonaventura was his last name. I think Dino was his first name. I don't know. Came to me. And Mr. Bonaventura went on to become one of the biggest producers in Hollywood for a long time.

Still is. But he came to me, this is one of his first projects. He came to me with the writers and said, hey, I've got this script. We'd like to know if you'd take a look at the script, and perhaps if WCW might be interested. I'm flashing back to Terry Merkirk's dining room going, here's my shot. I'm going to make this synergy thing that everybody's talking about. I'm going to show everybody how it's done with a major motion picture from Warner Features, taking my brand, the WCW brand, and the talent within it, and putting them in a major motion picture from a major motion picture company.

studio. That sounds like a great idea. And I read the script and I'm not in a good job. You know, reading a script is different than reading a book or, you know, you've got to know how to read scripts. You have to be used to it in order to pick, in order to really see the picture in your head the way the script writer wants you to at least. I, you know, I read through it. I was, oh, this looks like fun. We could do this. My guys can do all that stuff. There's nothing in here too heavy. These guys are pretty good. Women are good. We're all right. there was a chance for me to play myself. And I said, I think I can do that because the character was written so that I could play it myself. It wasn't written so that it would take somebody

with a lot of talent to pull it off. It was written for me, basically me playing me. So that's not a big stretch, even for me. And that was going to be the deal until I got sent home. And then they brought in Joey Pants and whatever. And they went about making a movie. I appreciate you sharing that because I've always wanted more context about the movie. Is that one of the great missed opportunities, do you think? Like, do you think had it worked out and he got to hang around, you would have enjoyed that experience? I would have enjoyed the experience because I would have learned. I mean, I love being in any new situation where I'm learning something that I really didn't know or

understand. I just, I'm very, very, very curious intellectually by nature. I just got to know how shit works. Now, once I figure it out, I may not be interested in it anymore, but I have to know how things work. And I would have loved being a part of the process. What I was looking forward to more than actually being on camera and seeing myself on a movie screen, what I was really looking forward to was being exposed to the process. Like everything that happens before the actors get to the set. That's what I really wanted exposure to. The rest of it would be fun.

And I'm sure I could have learned something as a talent, no doubt. But the really interesting part for me was like, how does this shit all come together? You two guys said, or I don't go, hey, let's do a wrestling movie. Okay, tell me everything that happens after that, because that's the stuff I want to know. that's that's the important so so it was a missed opportunity for me personally on from that perspective but the rest of it yeah whatever doesn't matter there's another note and the observer that says the new wcdb contracts call for a drop in pay if a wrestler is injured and unable to return after 30 days the old contracts called for a drop and pay to be

put into effect only after an injury that keeps a wrestler on the dL for 90 days So we're trying to do some cost-cutting measures here July 26th, what we're watching here on Monday Night Raw is the fallout episode from the fully loaded pay-per-view that happened the day before. The main event in that show was Steve Austin defeating the Undertaker in a first blood match to retain the world title.

And the stipulations were that if Austin won, Vince had to leave the WWF. So the show we're watching right now is big recorded, I guess it's live here at the gun derina in Cleveland it's sold out 16,340 fans are here in Cleveland paid $404,000 at the gate the dark match that night was a young Aaron O'Grady who would go on to eventually become Crash Holly getting a win or getting some ring time rather with Kurt Angle at the shotgun tapings or before the shotgun taping so it's a dark match for Kurt Angle here in an alternate universe, would Kurt Angle have been a star in WCW?

I mean, obviously his timing would have been such where he would have been there and call it late 99 and 3,000. How different does Kurt Angle's career look if he winds up in WCW and not the WWF? In 99 or 2000, I think we, I think Kurt Engel would have come and gone and nobody would be talking about him to this day. people would have forgotten about them. That's not a good time to emerge as a star in WCW. It was possibly one of the worst times to emerge as a star

because nobody would notice or care at that point. We were in such a state of desperation, generally speaking, but because of that pressure and feeling desperate, you're constantly chasing fires to put out, and you don't even have time to recognize what you have, especially something that's emerging, something that would take time and would need to be nurtured. You don't have time to pay attention to that stuff.

You're putting out fires. So, yeah, if Kurt would have come along, 99, 2000, we wouldn't even know who he is in WCW. It is crazy to think, you know, if you could have kept the train on the tracks and you and you debut Goldberg in 97, if you come behind it in 99 with Kurt Engel. That's, I mean, when you first asked the question, I'm thinking, oh, man, that would have been, but now you're, now you're extending the window of opportunity, you know, that would have

happened, that would have had to, Kurt would have had to happen really around 1998, shortly after Goldberg. So those two could kind of be rising at the same. imagine and then eventually have to face each other could have been so awesome it's like a movie really wrote itself we would have gotten curt angle and brett hart finally too which just would have been unbelievable yeah that would have been fun i mean what could have been well the reason we're watching this episode of july 26 1999 is it sets all kinds of record ratings before we get there though i want to mention

What the ratings were doing that previous weekend. LiveWire did a 1.6. Superstars did a 1.7. Sunday night heat does a 4.1. But WCW Saturday night does one of its worst ratings in like its 30 year history. The Andy Griffith show that was on right before WCW Saturday night did a 1.6.

And then the new content filmed exclusively for TV. Bs started for WCW Saturday night and the rating failed to a 1.4 old reruns of Andy Griffith are out drawing WCW Saturday night I know it you know it's not priority that's the only way to describe the show it's just not priority is there more to it than that I mean who was respond is Jimmy Hart completely running this show by this point yeah Jimmy Hart and he had a team It wasn't like Jimmy all by himself, alone in a room with a yellow legal pad. He had a team, and he had resources.

He had talent. He looked at, and I think Jimmy had a very, very, still does to this day, had a very, very good perspective of Nitro. It was where some of our younger talent that didn't have a lot of experience in front of a crowd could still get experience in front of a crowd. I mean, it's easy to make fun of. of and kind of tongue and cheek, but look at three count. That was a Jimmy Hart idea that was born on WCW Saturday night.

There was some great talent in there that went on to become long-time professionals in the industry. So it was that like it didn't, it was a complete waste of time. There were talent that was on WCW Saturday night that weren't going to get any time on Nitro or Thunder. Great opportunity for them. And if you look at that 1.4 rating, that show probably delivered two and a half million people with that rating, maybe a little less, 2.3, pretty accurate. And it costs about 40 bucks to produce.

There's almost no cost associated with it. So on a return on investment basis is just low priority as that show was. The fact that it had such a low cost of production and that it was giving talent and opportunity to work and in some cases even emerged to become stars, it was still a good effort. Let's talk a little bit about where we are ratings wise. The handicap match that we just saw with Kane taking on big show. Undertaker hit a record-setting 7.81 quarter hour that made 5,9338,000 homes.

Wow. That's big, man. That's, yeah, that's pretty big. The overrun here is going to be a 7.52. That's Rock against China and Mr. Ass. The overall rating.

for raw it's going to be a 7.11 and an 11.6 share and uh it's pretty monster meanwhile nitro is going to peak for its main event it's hogan and sting against nash and vicious it's going to do a 4.08 final quarter hour it's going to be head to head with a 6.58 for the beginning of the rock's handicap match it's pretty i mean listen it's easy for us to say oh the wbf's kicking your ass but my God, a 4.08? That's unbelievable. And again, it's like a Mercedes Monet came out. And she's celebrating, oh, dynamite's going to surpass the number of episodes Nitro ever did.

Like, who gives us shit, right? But it's like a goalpost and a lot of fans are, you know, a lot of AEW fans. Like, I can't believe Dynamite's going to be around longer than Nitro. It's really, you know, it's like a little kid. you know, when you're around like a four-year-old or a five-year-old. And they're just beginning to learn how to really communicate and try to manipulate and get what they want. And you have this little kid come to you.

And they're so earnest. They're trying so hard to be so serious and tell you why they're trying to, that you should do what they want you to do and believe what they want you to believe. And they tell you this long, elaborate story. And they get into the whole facials and really bring in the drama home. And then you realize they're just babel.

As earnest as they are and as passionate as they are, they're just babbling. And when you look at, especially Mercedes, she comes in with her reportedly. We don't know if it's true, $5 million plus a contract, one of the highest paid women and wrestlers. And if you look at the four weeks rating for Dynamite prior to her arrival, and you look at her premiere episode, which, by the way, was the last, less than the four-week average that preceded her arrival, I should tell you something right off the bat.

But then you look at how far they've dropped since she came on board. It's embarrassing. Those are the numbers that matter. If I was a Mercedes-Monnais, I'd be terrified to put such a high-price take on myself, demand, and reportedly, we don't know if it's true or that. Maybe it's not true. But reportedly, been given creative control. and then to exercise that creative control

only to lose ground and lose audience in the process that's a number that matters. Why are we talking about numbers? You must have brought it up, I brought it up about how they did a 4.08. I mean, I know we're dunking on nitrous and oh, the WBF kicked your ass, but it's still such a strong rating.

Yeah, and if you compare, If you compare, take 1999, which, God, we admit it. I talk about it all the time, all the mistakes I made, all the bad choices I made, all the horrible shit. Okay, check those boxes. Look at WCW's last full year in business, 1999, arguably the shittiest year in WCW, especially under my control, and we still outperform the fuck out of current AEW. in terms of viewers in terms of ticket sales certainly merchandise still outperformed and outperforming

current AEW pretty amazing I don't know why but you saying the fuck made me laugh hey we got a lot of studio audience you're watching along with us here this special episode of Monday Night Raw from July 26th, 1999. One of those members of the live studio audience is Doug Ritter. And Doug's got a question. You and I are recording early on Wednesday morning. Normally we try to record on Thursday morning, but we're a day early for travel reasons this week.

And tonight is a unique circumstance. AEW is going to be live with their blood and gut show from the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville. They've been building to this show for a long time. and it's going to be head-to-head with a rare and very important presidential address. We're going to hear from Joe Biden. We don't talk about politics on this show, but my goodness, with him announcing that he is not going to seek the presidency,

or re-election of the presidency, rather. There's going to be a lot of people watching that, and now AEW show is head-to-head with a major world event is there anything at eW can do for this or do they just have to grin and bear it tonight no there's nothing they can do about it just put on the best show you can put on go a bunch of business and wait till next week i mean there's there's nothing there's nothing creatively they could do there's nothing promotionally that they're capable of doing the short of time span so just roll with it you know put out the best show you can and don't even pay attention to it

we should mention we've got another question here from our live studio audience daniel wants to know were you on board with expanding wcw internationally would you have brought up the idea or was it more of a corporate proposition you know we did see at different times when the W. W.F. was sort of on their ass domestically. They just run more international shows where they may struggle to get a high school gym to run a live event in the Northeast. Boy, they could sell out arenas in Europe, especially over in the UK and Germany. And my goodness, they had a lot of success. Was that, how big of a priority was that for WCW? It's very big. It was top three, top three or four in terms of growth areas.

very, very important, particularly on the TV side, there was a lot of money being made in international television, which was relatively new, you know, international television distribution, especially for Turner, for WCW, was a relatively new market. WWE had done a great job of exploiting that market way, way, way before WCW ever figured out that they should. But once we did, and the product got hotter, which makes it a lot easier, It became a big focus. And I think it really represented the largest percentage potential growth of any other business unit within WCW International.

Represented the biggest upside, I think. So we're watching the rock and the main event here with Billy Gunn. And of course, Billy Gunn, the prior month, had one king of the ring. Let's do some questions here, Eric. We got a bunch of them. Let's hit a few. Eric Burns wants to know. With the Netflix era starting soon,

do you think we see some big surprise former WW star signings? They have a ton of up-and-coming talent and a stacked roster of current talent. But for what Netflix is paying, I wonder if they will bring in more proven star power. Eric, I'm not even sure who they could bring in. What say you? Well, guys like, I mean, Cina's on board.

Austin's available. I ain't coming. I don't know. What do you say about it? He ain't coming. Won't see Austin and WWE anymore. All right. Well, you know something.

I don't know that. I know the rock's on the board. So there's heat between those two? I didn't say that. All right. I got it. I got it. I got it.

Hogan, Flair, Undertaker. You've got enough of that nostalgia, legacy talent that are out there that used judiciously and appropriately can bring in that older demo. But none of those guys are wrestling? I'm sorry? Those guys aren't going to wrestle. It doesn't matter. They're there. They can be part of the show.

They can host the show. They can get involved. Undertaker can choke slam somebody. Whatever. Just salt and pepper some of that legacy talents in and around the sides. Kevin Nash, same thing. And use it to augment and support your younger talent. I think that'll be a good move for Netflix because I do think

they're going to want as many of those older fans back as they can get because they're not as ad dependent. They're subscription dependent. They do ads, obviously, but they're primarily subscription dependent. And the target for that audience is people with disposable income. Those tend to be the older edge of the 25 to 49-year-old demo. So I expect to see more legacy talent.

used judiciously i think the only two on that list that you could think you could turn to would be austin which i think is going to be a fortune to pull that off or goldberg like i could see even though they've tried it before and i know he said some not so nice things if you're really looking for that nostalgia guy and you want to do one last program you know those are the two guys i think you could reach back and grab but i don't know who else I mean, wrestling-wise, I don't see it. I mean, and I just don't think it's necessary. I don't think anybody want, I mean, look, would I love to see Steve Austin wrestle?

Sure, if it was Stone Cold Steve Boston from, you know, 2000, 2002. But do I want to see the guy that I was in the ring with in 2005 at No Way Out? I don't want to see that guy. Because that guy was, he could have gotten hurt seriously. So But Steve Austin brings so much to the table I mean just charisma And he'll connect people to the product in a way that very few other people can

And he doesn't have to get in the ring to do it That's how great of a character he was So I do hope we see him and Utilize him the right way Because he could just add so much to To the format Eric we the episode of Monday Night Raw has gone off the air and of course there's

extra attitude that was available so you could see you know once the live broadcast was over hey what was still happening in the arena so that's pretty cool that we've got access to that but I did want to ask a couple more questions that have come up that are pretty topical and and then we'll move on I don't know if you've seen this but it got a little bit of attention recently Adam Mercer says. Lenita Erickson recently claimed that you were trying to buy WCW with Fusion and she nixed a potential TV deal with Fox. She also said you'd never stood a chance of getting a deal because if anyone did their due diligence and looked into the company accounts, they'd see how much

money you lost the company due to financial mismanagement and handing out crazy guarantee contracts. What is your response? Have you seen you've been tagged or seeing that I guess Lenita Erickson recently did an interview and maybe she was telling a different story than he. Somebody sent it to me. Now,

this is about as low rent as it gets and to comment on I don't know, Anita Erickson it's just it's even it's below even me.

that's bad you know that you are a lower life form when I won't even take the time to comment on you Bradley Rice says SummerSlam is two weeks out and there's still more than 7,000 seats remaining to be sold who and or what can they book to push them over the finish line Eric I don't know I'm not I don't do the fantasy booking thing I'm sure they're going to sell out. Really? You think I'll get there? What is the date?

It's two weeks away. And what's the venue? It's a big venue. They're running outdoors. Yeah, but which one? The stadium. All right. Then, yeah.

We're Cleveland Browns. You know, it's an NFL. Oh, okay. Yeah, they'll do fine. They'll do fine. They're going to sell out. Don't worry about it. well I don't know 7,000's a lot feels like a lot where are they out right now 7,000 away

we uh we enjoyed watching this old episode of 1999 Monday night raw did you see anything in there I mean there's a lot of star power there's a lot of story the presentation I still think the presentation of WCW stands up more Like if I go back and I watch Nitro, I just think I prefer that presentation and formatting over the Monday Night Raw format from this era. I just think it stands the test of time better. Did anything stand out to you in our playback today? Not really.

And I'll be honest with you. I was kind of engrossed in what we were talking about. I was only half as paying attention to it. Nothing really stood out to me. And of course, with the audio down, you don't get the full benefit of it either. I agree with you. I think Nitro, the presentation. of nitro kind of really found the sweet spot between high production values and i want to feel like

i'm there and i think for the most part we were able to to check that box pretty consistently but no i didn't really see anything that stood out to me well next week we'll say we'll take a look at monday nitro see what stands out from august 2nd 1999 there's no tony shirvani harlem heat is back together. The Revolution is dubbed. You're on commentary. Chad Brock is here. What? Chris Benoit versus DDP. What about Dennis Rodman, ICP? Sid is going to team with Rick Steiner in the main event against Goldberg and Sting and so much more. And that's happening next week here on the program. Join us live at 83 weeks.com. If you haven't already hit that subscribe button, turn on the notifications bell. You don't want to miss us when we're live. And we'll see you sooner rather than later.

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