83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 341: AEW Grand Slam Reaction

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

On this episode of 83Weeks, Eric and Conrad sit down and watch AEW Grand Slam! Eric shares his thoughts on Bryan Danielson facing off against Nigel McGuinness, Hook retiring the FTW title, Jon Moxley's brutal battle against Darby Allin and what he believes is still missing from AEW's presentation. They guys also cover all the news and notes happening in the world of professional wrestling. MAGIC SPOON - Get $5 off your next order through https://magicspoon.com/83WEEKS , or look for Magic Spoon in your nearest grocery store! TECOVAS - Get 10% off at https://www.tecovas.com/83WEEKS when you sign up for email and texts. 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 LUMEN - Take the next step in improving your health, go to https://www.lumen.me//83WEEKS to get 15% off your Lumen.  MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at https://www.manscaped.com/.  HENSON SHAVING - It’s time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that’ll last you a lifetime. Visit https://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. HOME CHEF - Home Chef is offering 18 Free Meals! Go to https://www.homechef.com/BISCHOFFFAM 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 Bish off here. What's going on, man? How are you? I'm good. Good. Help Mrs. B load up the truck. She's on the way of Billings so she could catch a flight to Virginia for a wedding that I was supposed to be at this weekend.

But, you know, we've got other obligations. It's got to make Hay West Sunshine. So I'm flying so. here in Cody Wyoming, just me and my dog. I love it that way, though. I'm flying solo down here at the beach. We are hunkered down. Hope everyone is staying safe from the silly hurricane nonsense

that we're dealing with again. I also want to mention some other nonsense that Eric and I have been up to. We've had a lot of fun over on our YouTube at 83 weeks.com. Right now, we're in the middle of going episodically week by week, episode by episode, day by day. Do this Mr. McMahon documentary.

our first effort went over 90 minutes as you're listening to this number two is in the can and we'll be live tonight at 5 p.m. Eastern talking all about episode three. We're not just going to do broad strokes on this. We're going to get pretty granular, which we'd like to do every now and again and break down each episode. I can't wait to continue this conversation. So if you're looking for more Vince McMahon content, I want to direct you to 83 weeks.com. That's a where we're going to be continuing that conversation. And hey, man, we just recently had a little fun over there talking about top five, about the top five biggest arguments you ever had with Vince McMahon. You're doing a lot of fun stuff at 83 weeks.com right now, aren't you? I do. I absolutely love it. I mean, I love doing a podcast.

It's always fun. Anything that I get to do on ad-free shows is always a blast because you're, you know, interacting directly with the family, so to speak. And speaking of which, we lost a really cool member of the Edpree Show's family, Joey Carr. What a wonderful kid. He showed up. He had some real challenges, physical challenges. But last time I think I saw him was in Huntsville.

That's right. Top guy weekend. And I believe it was part of his family that brought him. He was in a wheelchair and had some real physical challenges. But we lost him. and he was a huge fan. He was a big part of the Ad Free Show's family. I know a lot of people are going to miss him and miss seeing him.

I'm going to miss chatting with him because we spoke frequently as a part of the Ad Free Show's project. So thoughts and prayers go out to Joey, for sure, and Joey's family and friends because he had a lot of them here. We had that opening slate at the beginning of today's show, dedicating today's episode to Joey, and we've got a nice little video package at the end of the episode. You know, we think a lot of our little ad-freeshows.com community, and, you know, sometimes we all get lost in the fact that it's not really about wrestling. It's not really about old wrestling stories or rumor and innuendo about what's going on today. It's about the people you meet along the way. And that's what ad-freeshows.com became as a little community within a community with a shared passion for pro wrestling.

And Joey Carr was one of the foundational members of our ad-freeshows.com family. and gone way too soon. But boy, I know he had the best time, and he squeezed all he could out of life. And I hope today we all live a little bit more like Joey and get a little more out of life today because I'm proud to have met him. He made an impression on me,

and I think everyone he met, Eric. Yes, he did. Absolutely did. We're now going to awkwardly find a way to talk about silly AEW wrestling last night. I had a lot of fun watching Grand Slam. as you and I are recording. It's a Thursday morning, and I had a butt. My buddy Bart came over, and we were, like, really pumped that we're getting a pay-per-view-level show on free television.

Of course, they were in Arthur Ash last night, and they did a doubleheader, if you will. So they've already got this Saturday night's collision in the can, and there was some debate about what matches will go where, as far as the Wednesday or the Saturday efforts. Eric, I know we're going to be doing a watch along here and you've got the file on your end and I've got it on mine. Did you catch any of the show last night or are you going to be seeing it for the very first time here live? No, I'm going to see it for the first time.

I know I had control to the television last night and I actually considered watching it. But I knew we were doing the watch along and I like my comments to be fresh. I don't like to plan too much, think too much about what I'm going to say or what my opinions really are. So I'm watching it for the first time as if I was watching it live last night.

Well, we want you to watch along with us. If you haven't already, go fire up wherever you watch AEW. I've got it on my DVR, but we've got a fun show here. AEW Grand Slam from Arthur Ashe Stadium. Are you locked and loaded on your side? Ready to roll there? Ready to pull the trigger, my friend. All right, here we go.

I'll give us a countdown. And when I say play, we'll press play. And three, two, one, play. and here we are live at Arthur Ash Stadium, it's Grand Slam, and boy, they're getting a hot star immediately. We see the Nigel McGinnis graphic, and here he comes. What a great story Nigel McGinnis has. You know, I want to encourage everyone, if you've not seen the Nigel McGinnis documentary from, I don't know, say 10 or 12 years ago, I want to really encourage you to go out of your way to see it.

You know, his wrestling career was cut short, and as somebody who was at a lot of those early Ring of Honor shows, I'd say by 05, I was convinced that Nigel McGinnis was going to have a better career with WWE than guys like Samoa Joe or Ryan Danielson or C. and Punk. And for whatever reason, it just didn't happen. So they're actually going to explain on commentary here, which we're not tracking today, Eric, that this will be the first time that Nigel has had a traditional wrestling match since December of 2011. And this was a legendary feud that's sort of being picked up from the Ring of Honor days.

between Brian Danielson and Nigel McGinnis. So there's some backstory. How much of that did you know about Nigel and Brian's history, Eric? I'm just like 99.999% of the country who didn't have any freaking clue, nor did we learn about it on Dynamite in the days and weeks leading up to this event, which typical AEW fashion, no backstory. You know, great, if you happen to be a Ring of Bonner fan, if you're one of the 300 people nationwide, you kind of knew that story.

But if not, you don't. And this is just a rando match, kind of a dream match. I'm not taking anything away from Nigel. I'm happy as hell for him. I think the world of Nigel. I think he's one of the best color commentators in a business right now. And it's a shame that as great shape as he's in, is great of an opportunity this is for Nigel. There's absolutely no story going into.

it. Well, the story that we have tried to convey here is that Brian Danielson's only going to be wrestling here if he's cleared to compete. So they have played his music. It looks like he's not going to show up here. And now maybe this is the story of, is Brian cleared to go? That's so lame, Conrad. You got to admit. I mean, I know, you know, you don't want to, you know, beat up on a evening. And I don't want to beat up on him. And I don't want to beat up on him. just for the sake of it, but that's lame as Fiazog. Well, I'm not defending it. I was just explaining me what's happening since you're listening without commentary.

I watched it last night. So I'm just trying to keep you on beat here of what's happening since we're listening without the sound. If we did have the sound. And that is, to your point, that is the story as this match is being presented. I was referring to the lack of story prior to this event. So we're kind of talking about it. I'm not arguing that at all. I do want to spend a lot of time talking about that point you just made.

but I want to explain that's the reason we're seeing this countout perspective happen right here. But right before he's officially counted out, what do you know? They're going to play the theme song that everybody loves for Brian Danielson, the final countdown. And this has sort of been the theme as he's sort of marched through what he's calling his last year as a full-time professional wrestler. He's never said he's going to officially retire and never wrestle again. I think he's actually said quite the opposite, that he has no plans to ever return. retire, but he doesn't want to do the Terry Funk deal where he's doing our retirement and back and a retirement and back.

He just said, hey, I'm not going to continue to wrestle on a full-time basis. So with that in mind, they've sort of leaned into his old Ring of Honor theme song, the final countdown, and he's going to use that here, and the fans are going to be singing along. It is a cool moment for Brian Danielson to have one last chance to wrestle one of his greatest rivals in a pretty legendary arena, Arthur Ash, where he made wrestling history a few years prior with Kenny Omega. Now he's back with their big belt around his waist, and he's dapping up all the fans in the front row, just like you would imagine a white meat, baby face should.

What do you think of this, for lack of a better word, almost like a farewell tour for Brian Danielson announcing this is going to be his last year. We've seen a similar announcement from John Sino on the WVE side saying that 2025 is it for him. what do you think of that as a promotional strategy just let everybody know right up front this is it i think it's great and if it's if it's real and apparently this is and understandably so brian's had an amazing career he's probably achieved financially everything he needs to achieve to be set up for the rest of his life and he's in the process of i guess brian's desire to go out exactly the way he

wants to go out, wrestling the opponents that he wants to wrestle. So from Brian Daniels' perspective, this is just awesome. And he's got a great look. I thought, you know, that entrance that he made, to your point, yeah, that is typical white, baby face 101. And it works. And it's certainly working here. Brian looks great. His attire look great.

He looks like a real pro here. And Nigel looks like he's in phenomenal condition for a guy that. that's been out of the business, out of the ring, at least, for what, 13 years to step into the ring and look as good as he looks. Hats off to Brian. I'm anxious to see how Nigel does. But hats off to him for being ready with the bell rings. All right, guys, I got some great news.

Listen, I know you love nostalgia because you're listening to this podcast, right? But remember when we all woke up on Saturday mornings and we were just dying to turn on wrestling and pour a big bowl of cereal? Well, then you grow up and, well, you still pour that. bowl of cereal and watch wrestling on Saturday mornings until your wife says, honey, that's got too much sugar. You need more protein in the morning. And then she introduced me to Magic Spoon. Tadda! Magic Spoon fits a variety of diets. It's high protein and it has no sugar. Magic Spoon is an easy source of protein. It makes it convenient for me to eat more protein whenever

I'm too busy or too tired to cook. And Magic Spoon tastes just like the cereal you grew up on and loved as a kid. The most popular flavors are things like fruity, cocoa, frosted, and peanut butter, but there's a lot of others. But every serving of Magic Spoon cereal has 13 to 14 grams of protein. It has zero grams of sugar.

It's got four to five grams of net carbs. That's it. And you can feel good about what you're eating. And here's why you'll like Magic Spoon. It's delicious flavor. It's crunchy texture. It's amazing macros. But maybe even better than that,

all the sudden now they've got cereal bars. Yeah, buddy, it's perfect for pre-workout, maybe taking it on a hike with you. Look at Eric, he's whipping one out right there. It's a great midnight snack. I really love this product because it tastes like the stuff that we ate when we were kids that wasn't really good for you. But now with no sugar and all of this protein, what flavor are you chomping down on today, Eric?

Double chocolate. And it's freaking delicious. And not only, yeah this says it's got less than one gram of sugar and that's cool because you can't find protein bars a lot sugar in them i dare you go look sometime but here's what i really there's only two net carbs i keep my carbs under 20 grams of carbs a day which is kind of a challenge usually under 15 i can sneak a couple of these in and still have some room this is awesome because the amount of protein is you get in two hard-boiled eggs and this is a lot easier to carry around you look like

an idiot carrying our bold eggs around your pocket this thing's it's right in your bag boom go to protein and it won't run people off because it smells bad like those eggs i mean this is a real life hack buddy i mean you want something that tastes great you want something a snack you can feel good about eating look no further than our friends at magic spoon these cereal bars dude you got to try them and i want you to be sure to use our code 83 weeks or click on the link in the description to try MagicSpoon cereal today and get $5 off. You can also now find MagicSpoon in your nearest grocery store. And by the way, MagicSpoon is so confident in their product,

it's backed with a 100% happiness guarantee online. So if you don't like it for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. But look at Eric, he's loving it. Click the link in the description or go right now to MagicSpoon.com slash 83 weeks for $5 off. Eric, what do you think? Scale of 1 to 10.

What do these cereal bars get? This is a 9.8, 10's being, you can't get to 10. And again, I know I keep harper on the same thing, but it's so hard to find something that tastes good that you can get down that's good for you that only has two net carbs. That is amazing. The sugar speaks for itself. I love this. 11 grams of protein in a bar.

That's awesome. All that protein, none of that sugar. That's good. Check it out. MagicSpoon.com slash 83 weeks and get $5 off. you'd be glad you did yeah it's something that jr actually pointed out on commentary that it's hard for a lot of ex-wrestlers to keep themselves in shape once their in ring career is over but you could argue that nigel may be in better shape than he's ever been and he's ready for this he is

i mean i didn't watch him in ring of honor but i worked with him in in t-a and that was even long i was back in 2014 2011 12 whatever it was he looks better now than he did it then that's for sure this is going to be a fun match especially if you have kept up with their feud but i do want to point out the elephant in the room i saw some of the uh the biggest most hardcore AEW supporters online being critical of the fact that you know they didn't do the best job explaining the backstory between these guys now if you were really interested in that you could go find it i know that we're going to get hit with that they did do a great job of posting about this on social media and certainly on the YouTube channel.

But as far as just making it easy for the fan at home to follow and be up to snuff, like I know Bart and I, we knew their Ring of Honor history. We were really excited for this match. But I could also see how if you didn't grow up watching Ring of Honor and that wasn't a passion of yours and you've only been a pure AEW fan, then it might feel like, hey, why is the world champion wrestling a commentator? I can see why, you know, that would be an issue. And obviously, if you've been listening to the commentary, we've heard that, you know,

Nigel's been getting these digs in on Brian since he first sat at the desk. And you gave him some props, I want to too. I think Nigel McGinnis might be one of the very best as far as out of the gate. He was good as a color commentator. He understood his role. He's not trying to do play by play. He's trying to add context. He's trying to add character.

I think he's done a phenomenal job. there, but if you're not plugged into the history, I could see how this is a real head scratcher. Wait, the world champion is wrestling the... Especially in a company that branded itself as, you know, wins and losses matter and it's, you know,

we're going to be more sports-centric and we're going to do things differently and this is just a random match. And, you know, the one thing I want to say, whether they explain the backstory or not, a storyline is designed to create emotion to get the audience. Yes. the audience vested, invested, and care about the outcome.

It is impossible to care about an outcome when all you do is tell people that they've got history. Regardless of how exciting that history may or may not have been in real life, you've got to create emotion, and there's just no way to do that in this match. Look at the audience. They really don't care. They're just sitting there going, why are we watching this? Oh, we're going to see a really good technical match, and they will. most likely well wow what a miss what a miss you know i got to say eric i uh i'm normally the big

a e w defender but i kind of agree i was i was disappointed in the match last night not based on the work that the guys did but the lack of crowd response like i saw these guys have incredible matches in ring of honor but like take a look at what we're seeing now alex pretty horseshit against coming back with strikes we're going to see like of exchanges like that and when we were in close quarters and it was dark and it was dimly lit and it was ring of honor and we had those metal signs around the barricades it created an atmosphere that you had to see this you know they were at the murphy rec center or something like that and it just felt different than when you see it under the big lights of arthur ash and those

ring of honor fans who saw this stuff you know 15 20 years ago well man they knew every beat of these characters and their stories and what exactly was happening i don't know that this translated to the national stage and i'm i hope that nigel's not disappointed because i do feel like if you know they had a different crowd they would have been into this the work is good i enjoy the match but i don't i hope he feels fulfilled because this felt like a big deal for me as a nigel mcginness fan and for it not to get the crowd response i was hoping for i hope he's not disappointed he shouldn't be because it's not his fault he's not the one that didn't create a story and decided to just put this match on because it's a really good match with some history that no one knows about that was the impetus behind putting this on and that wasn't that's that's not Nigel's fault so i agree with you he shouldn't take the lack of proud response or any of the following response that we're going to read about over the next few days or weeks take it personally because it really wasn't his fault I, uh, I'm enjoying that these guys are in the ring together, but there are certain exchanges like that one right there that, you know, the crowd, you would think as we see more of these flurries of punches and strikes, they would be getting into this.

And when they're not, it just doesn't translate to feel exciting. And I mean, Conrad, I hate to interrupt you, but I'm watching this and I'm, this looks like a bad YouTube fight. at this point i mean they're throwing you know i get it we're throwing a lot of punches and we like that japanese hard style kind of tone it seems to be brian's choice of offense a lot um but it's just crowds in it because it looks sloppy as fuck and there's even though there's no story there's still a way to create some buildup and and create some emotion and a match and starting out slapping each other around in the corner in the first minute of your match, and ain't the way to do it. And I'm shocked that

you know, Brian's got so much experience and knowledge. He's got to know. He has to know that. I'm more confused than anything else, to be honest. I want to give Nigel some props here because I know that everybody watching this is going to hold Brian Danielson in the highest

of regards. And many would argue that he's the best wrestler in the world today. I know Jeff Jarrett feels that way if this is your first time seeing Nigel McGinnis and the crowd is not necessarily into it and and I just want to challenge you to go back and watch some of his body work and I want to remind you he did the casino gauntlet thing in Wembley but outside of that this is the first time he's wrestled in forever we're talking well over 10 years and to now be put in a position where you're going to open a show in Arthur Ash against the world champion on live television in prime time and you're going to go like 20 minutes and he's got to

be commended for even trying that shit because that is a tall ask for anybody in the preparation that he had to go through to be ready for this and you can tell just looking at him physically he took it seriously he did and i i don't know nigel well enough to be certain about what i'm saying in a moment but i also would have to believe that night is pretty nervous. This is a big moment. It's probably a combination of nerves and excitement. And you get, it's surprising how fast just being nervous tires you out. You don't realize it, but you're not breathing the way you would normally breathe. You're tense, your muscles are tightening up. I mean, your, your, his heart rate was probably about

a buck 20 before you walked out. So it's, nerves also come into play. here and perhaps that's the reason why this match is starting out as slow as it is because a lot of these as we're watching right now these are rust holes these are these are moments within the mats that were laid out to slow things down and maybe to help you know work through the nerves and I'm sure it only lasted a few minutes once you get in there you kind of get over it and you get caught up on what you're doing but I would imagine no matter how hard you try to get in shape you just can't really condition yourself for the nerves and the excitement that you're going to feel and that

does tire you out too. All right. We've got to take a time out right now to talk about our friends at Tocovus. Toccovus crafts quality Western boots for everyone from generational ranchers and lifelong cowboys to guys like me, the first time boot buyers. Born in Texas in 2015, Tocovus makes it easy for anyone to find their perfect boot. Every one of their boots are handcrafted with over 200 meticulous steps for broken-in comfort right out of the box. Whether it's a long day or a big night, your Tocovas are built to last and impressed. And that's why Esquire loves them and says, quote, there's a reason we keep coming back to Tocovas.

Ever wondered how you can pull your boots off with your personal style? We owe it to your feet to pull on a pair of Tocovus. Plus with Ticova's best in the West guarantee, you get free return. turns and exchanges for 30 days. And right now, you can get 10% off at Tocobus.com slash 83 weeks. When you sign up for email and text,

that's right, 10% off at T-E-C-O-V-A-S.com slash 83 weeks. Tocovus.com slash 83 weeks. Seaside for details. Takovus, point your toes west. I want to mention this is the style of match

that they worked in Ringel honor they would do lots of technical stuff lots of ground work lots of submission stuff but some really really hard strikes as well and so I do think this is a a classic Nigel Brian style match they weren't really ever guys who were going to go do commander type hotspots they're going to be hard hitting more ground and pound more logic based so we're going to see more of that here and I actually do like that but I know that we've conditioned the AW audience a lot of times to look for these over the top spectacles and we're going to get those later in this

show so maybe it made sense strategically to start with this because after you've seen guys doing six 30s and seven 20s and double moon salts going back to an ankle lock that might be challenging so I understand the placement on the card but I want to give you credit for what you pointed out about Nigel's nerves and I know some people would think that you were saying that to shit on him as if he wasn't ready. But to be clear, this is the biggest match of Nigel's career. Respectfully, he did wrestle in T&A, and he did wrestle in Ring of Honor. But this is a big crowd. There's a lot of people here based on his independent run. I mean, there's 8,000 people in the building, I believe here. And it's prime time on cable television against the world champ.

This is a big deal for him personally. And that's the reason I said, I hope he's not disappointed, because I, for one, would love to see him come back. I'm not saying he has any interest in being a full-time wrestler, but you sparingly, hey, man, if Jerry Lawler can do it, by God, so can Nigel McGuinness. And there's also a real kind of creative opportunity there when you've got a great color commentator like Nigel is, as I said. I think he's one of the best of the business right now. And in many respects, I don't think it's even close.

But when you've got a color commentator who is a former wrestler, you have a really cool advantage in production in that you're listening to a guy who can get inside the head of the performers in the ring. He can, with credibility, tell you what he thinks they're going through or what they're thinking or what their strategies are. And you can only really do that with any degree of credibility if you've been there and done that. So that's a big advantage as a color commentator. That's why I like former wrestlers as color commentators. But when you've got a guy who's capable of also getting physical, that's a creative opportunity that, you know, you can use it a couple, two, three, four times a year when talent is outside

of the ring and perhaps getting too physical with a color commentator or getting too physical with a referee outside of the ring, it gives a character like Nigel the opportunity, again, with credibility. You know, you're not going to see Tony Schiavani do it or Eric Bischoff do it. or, you know, Joey Stiles back in the day, do it. But a guy like Nigel McGinnis can get up and do the righteous thing. And again, it's not something you can rely upon every week. It would get real tiresome at that point. But there's always that potential of a guy like Nigel McGinnis, you know,

coming to the rescue, so to speak, in an important part of a match. That's also valuable, very valuable. We've got some folks watching with us from AdFree Shows, dot com part of our live studio audience as we see uh nigel just land a european uppercut there and well brian's returning fire tony flowers says i'll have to go check social media or other platforms to understand why i'm watching a match on tv it feels like a fail i mean i think that that is is a common thread there's been some criticism that that backstory wasn't maybe explained properly josh any says a lack of story and build to the match was the issue i had no idea of this rivalry and

still wasn't invested in it from what was said slash shown and anthony d says joe tessitore did more to bring home the j uso story for the new slash lapse fan than a eW has over a historical series is this do you think i mean that is a criticism that i've heard about tony con's booking almost from day one and that because he himself is such a wrestling junkie like i remember once when AEW ran a house show in Huntsville, and I was fortunate enough to get to go when I managed to see Tony. The first thing he was talking to me about was what happened overnight in New Japan. Tony had stayed up and watched the event overnight that aired in Alabama. It was probably three in the morning, but Tony was up watching it.

He wanted to be up on exactly what was happening. He has such a fervor for, I mean, he's insatiable when it comes to wrestling content. So I think Tony, because he's so obsessive in his pursuit of wrestling, he may take for granted that not everybody is dedicating that same amount of time, effort, energy. And he probably assumes, well, everybody knows the history. But to your point and to the point of a lot of folks who are watching along with us, they didn't know the history. They love Daniel Bryan for what he did in WWE, but they maybe didn't even know a lot about Brian Danielson pre-WB. so how would they know more about Nigel McGinnis? That's the challenge, I do think, that has been in place almost from day one of AEW and Tony

Con is maybe Tony's such a big fan that that is lost on him at times. I think that should be pretty clear. I mean, Tony's, I'll refer to it as an obsession with the indie style wrestling and what's going on in Japan. That's great. if that's your thing. I mean, I kind of get it. It's unique. It's different than what we're seeing here.

So I understand being interested in it and perhaps even being a fan of it. I'm not, but I understand why some people are. And again, I think that's great. But if you're a television executive, which Tony is, he's producing television. And you don't understand that just because you like something, doesn't mean that 98% of the rest of your market does, then you shouldn't be in that position. I mean, Ted Turner said it once,

and he didn't say it directly to me, but if I was in a room or I heard it secondhand, but whatever it was, the message is, you know, don't program for yourself, program for your audience, know who your audience is, know what their appetite is, learn and understand and be able to predict

how they're going to react to what you're creating. And you might stay at half a chance of putting out some good content. This is a situation where Tony and Dave Meltzer and that very myopic, fractional portion of the overall audience of market, are so obsessed with something and think that everybody else should be. And that's what the product should be. And I think the last four and a half years have proven that to be. a false premise. And for a guy who's a data analyst, supposedly, how can you not look at the

data that says even your hardest core fans are walking away? Even people that have been with you for the last two or three years are leaving your brand. The people that were buying tickets two years ago, three years ago, hell even a year ago, aren't buying tickets anymore. You don't have to be a data analyst to figure that out. It's bizarre to me. It really is just bizarre. Did you see that submission that Nigel just had Brian Danielson

in where, I mean, I had to look it up myself, but it's called a let me make sure I'm doing this right, a London Dungeon's surfboard combo. I'd have never seen that before, and buddy, that was badass. And I thought it, I mean, Danielson immediately switched it into

like some anvil elbows, I think is what you would call it. but he did them to the beat of yes yes yes to get the crowd into it and that lariat right there that you just saw that was one of the signature moves from nigel mcginnis i mean he was hitting dudes with lariots that would make john layfield say slow down brother i mean he was tearing biceps throwing them uh so i love that if you're a hardcore fan and you know all of this boy this is checking a lot of boxes for you but we are getting that consistent feedback that not enough people uh knew the whole story. Josh Enney says, I consider myself a dedicated fan, but I absolutely love to be reminded what's going on. Life doesn't allow me to hang on to all the wrestling content and force me to remember versus just enjoying. I think that's probably the way a lot of casual wrestling fans feel. The bulk of them, millions of them that enjoy watching wrestling because they want to see a story and they want to see characters. They want to be able to forget about their job. They want to be able to forget about their bills. They want to forget about all the political gaga that's going on during an election season.

They just want to disconnect and enjoy something and live vicariously through the characters and the stories that they're portraying. And this doesn't do that. And I've got to say this. I've been reluctant to say this in the last few minutes. I am not impressed with Brian here. This is slow. It's awkward. you know, talking about Brian Downison and I don't disagree that he's one of the better wrestlers of his era.

But to suggest, based on what I'm seeing here, this guy might be considered by some of the best in the world. This is not a representation of it. Nothing against Brian, nothing but respect for him. But what are we seeing here? I'm not seeing anything here that somebody's been in the business for three years couldn't do. It's really bizarre to me. Oh, wow. Well, I'm disappointed to hear you say that.

I totally disagree. I think it is a different style for sure. I mean, that is not, with all due respect, that is not an American television match, what we just saw. And I realize we watched it on American television. So I'm picking up what you're putting down. But they wanted to work in an old school ring of honor style match,

and that's what that was. And so it might not be your cup of tea, and it might not be the cup of tea for a lot of, anybody sitting in that arena right now it's not their cup of tea well i did want to ask you about that because i saw a comment that i couldn't believe in our live studio audience but it jumped off the page to me and i thought well that i can't be right but i saw someone say they were underwhelmed they didn't feel like the like the building looked good uh and i was kind of shocked for that because i thought it looked nice on television last night they had around 8000 people there oh anthony d

that's what he said he says i felt like the aesthetics of the crowd did not look good on tv i thought it was lit good i or lit well rather uh it looked full i know it's not full i know that they were strategic and how they positioned it but this skit right here we're about to see i think may have been to me the worst part of the match just to catch you up uh he has an opportunity to get a title shot sort of like a money in the bank type scenario that's christian cage and he's about to sign it and that's kip sabian who just steals his pen and runs away like they're in eighth grade and as he starts to scurry away

he just walks right into two members of the Blackpool Combat Club Claudio Castagnoli and Pock and then Hotails it out of there. That little skit right there I felt did not feel very big time. I enjoyed the match. The post match to me

was a little three-stoogee. I didn't really dig that. What do you think? WCW Saturday night 1992. That's what that look like to me. Yep, ladies and gentlemen, even at this advanced stage of my life, I dig me a good time. And it's all about performance.

Bluetooth has been an advertiser, a sponsor here on 83 weeks for a long time, and I've been a customer ever since. It's got the same active ingredients as Viagra, Salas, and Lovitra, but in chewable tablets. And Conrad loves this part for a fraction of the cost. You can take them any time, day or night. Just plan a little bit ahead. For me, 15, 20 minutes, works like a dream, and the process is simple. Sign up at Bluetooth.com, consult with one of their licensed medical providers.

And once you're approved, you receive your prescription within a matter of days. The best part, and it's all done online. You don't have to go to the doctor. You don't have any awkward conversations. No waiting in line at the pharmacy because we all know how much fun that is, right? It sucks. Blue Chew's tablets are. are made in the USA and prepared ship direct to your door in a discreet package.

Does it work? Don't you think you need it? Well, I don't know. Try it for a month and see you're going to love it. This is me and I do. You could be missing out of some of the best sex in your life with you two men everywhere are excited to see the postman because when the postman shows up, your package has arrived. And you know, your package has really arrived, right?

You always say first impressions are important. But what about lasting impressions? Say there's nothing sexier than confidence. And Blue Chee gives you the performance boost you need to have all the confidence in the world. Blue Chew wants to help you have better sex. Discover your options at BluChoo.com. Chew it and do it. And we've got a special deal for our listeners.

Try Blue Chew free when you use our promo code 83 weeks at checkout. Just pay five bucks in shipping. What did I just say? I said, just pay five bucks. in shipping. That's it. That's bluechew.com promo code 83 weeks to receive your first month free. Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Bluetooth for sponsoring our podcast. Well, let's talk about the crowd. You know, listen, there was a lot made about this because we all know it sold out and was like a million dollar

gate years ago for them when they did Brian Danielson and Kenny Omega here for the very first a show at Arthur Ash. This is not the same AEW that it was in 2021. So there's over 8,000 people in the building, but we were down from a peak of over 21,000 once upon a time. It also meant there's different staging. You know, in those early episodes from Arthur Ash, they had like a digital board ramp that they would walk down. Clearly, they've just sort of shortened the playing field, if you will, because they didn't need all 21,000 seats. But I still think the actual presentation, that looks pretty cool right there what we're taking a look at Eric what do you're looking yeah you're looking at a really nice camera shot there and it did look good and you know

Mike Mansoury's in the truck yeah former production executive at WWE definitely knows his stuff very very talented guy and he's going to get the best look he can out of this venue and I think he did do a good job but that's one of the challenges you know when you book these giant buildings and you cut him down what are you really getting? You know, the idea behind building or booking 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 seat venues is so you can establish the power and the magnitude of your fan base and the product itself. It's credibility.

It's telling your television audience that there's 10,000, 20,000, 15,000 people that want to come to this party and if you could, you should to. I mean, that's a subconscious message that you're trying to convey. with your camera shots and going to big buildings and lighting. It's a way to create emotion and credibility. And when you go into a smaller building, you know, it looks good. It looks as good as it possibly can. But you still don't have that magnitude, that sense of, wow, this is really an important event.

That's just me. Well, we are in for a treat now. we've got the offspring of Taz, the young hook coming in as the FTW champion and he'll be defending against Roderick Strong. You see Roderick is flanked there by Mike Bennett and Mike Taven

or Matt Taven my apologies. I'm a big fan of Roger Strong and have been for like 20 years. Like this dude, the innovator of the backbreaker, this is the way I first learned about him in Ring of Honor. And I was convinced that he and Nigel McGannis, I mean these guys

man they were going to be in the next big wave of superstars he enjoyed a great career with ring of honor spent some time in t and a obviously blew it up in nxte and now here he is challenging hook for the ftw title and i want to remind everybody that hey man hook had his first match on national television once upon a time that sentence wouldn't have made sense those words shouldn't ever touch but that was his experience and here he is a few years in in prime time right up the road from where his father used to have some pretty fantastic ECW memories I mean this is a homecoming of sorts for Hook but in a weird way I can't help but smile thinking about the fact that he's here and thriving after he had his first match on TV like the odds of that happening are just astronomical, Eric. And right now,

he looks freaking awesome. I don't know what the rest of this match is going to look like. But this cat's got my attention. I love the fact that I love the underdog component of this. And I'd like to see Hook play that up just a little bit more because it's working with the obvious

and making it work for you as opposed to against you. But man, his timing so far, His, the crispness, that was what was lacking. And I know there are different styles. I get that theoretically. But there were a lot of basic fundamental things that we saw in that first match that just looked very slow and awkward. Everything I'm seeing at this, you know, we're early.

We're a minute and a half, two minutes in, but hook looks so crisp. And that's the part that makes it believable to me. You know, when I saw, and again, I'm not beating up. I just have to be honest about this stuff. Otherwise, I'm just a shill. You know, when Nigel's throwing those haymakers in the corner and the opening minutes of that match, I'm sorry, that looked like a bad YouTube fight in high school.

But what we're seeing here is crispness and aggression and follow through with some of these moves. It doesn't mean you can't chain wrestle. It doesn't mean you can't do a lot of the things that we saw in that first match, but you have to make it look like it hurts. And right now, I'm seeing a lot of good. shit on a hook man yeah listen you want to talk about i mean it is a jr phrase i think maximizing your minutes you know we're only a couple of minutes into this match and there's already been a lot more

violence a lot more uh pizzazz i mean look at the crowd the crowd is reacting to some of the the crazy stunts that we're seeing here and now we're going into a break and and and hook is selling he's not selling dead he's selling in a way that obviously he's creating a motion It's connecting to the audience. They realize he's in trouble and they're getting behind him. He's selling is, I'm impressed with two things right now. The crispness and the follow-through, we were in the middle of a sentence there a moment ago outside of the ring, but hooked through a running clothes line.

And the follow-through was perfect. You don't see that a lot of times. You guys run across the ring, and I don't usually comment on the physical aspect of wrestling because I'm not a wrestler and I couldn't do a quarter of what these guys do. But I know what I like to watch and I know what works on TV. The follow-through for Hook, his running clothesline looked believable. Even though he's, you know, 180 pounds, 190 pounds, whatever he is, I don't even know what he is. It doesn't matter.

He looked like he's a little bit dangerous. I love that. I love watching Hook and his progression. I mean, against all odds, what a guy like. that succeed and I'm just so thrilled that you know I mean listen he's here doing this thing you look at how many matches he's had it's not that many and he's answering the call and one of the things I like about hook that makes him different and I know part of this some people would take as a criticism but the little stuff between the moves like he doesn't do a lot of showbiz

stuff like he's going to do one move and then go to another move I know an older veteran would say oh he's got to work on his game there but right now actually actually like that because it makes it feel more like a real fight and occasionally yes i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm going to say everything about hook right now now i've watched him you know occasionally i don't watch aew consistently but the character that i'm seeing in the ring right now the hook i'm seeing in the ring right now looks like he's been in that ring for about 10 years he see right now he's to me he's looking awesome this is This is kind of fun for me. I like it.

Here's where we are, just so you know, with your taste versus the hardcore AEW fans. If you go over to cagematch.net, which is where a lot of the AEW hardcores let their voice be heard, they've got 63 votes so far for this hook in Roderick Strong match as you and our recording, and the average rating on a scale of 10 is a 5.38. So they think it's, as the kids would say, mid. Yeah, well, unfortunately, the people that that are reacting to this matchway, look, I said it earlier on. If you're a hardcore, sicko, as Tony likes to refer to his fan base, there's YouTube channels for that shit. This is a commercial enterprise that you have to maximize and create revenue.

with and grow your brand with there's a place for that really cool hardcore stuff that people really love again it's called YouTube do that and then have what 99.999% of the audience really enjoys

on your main television show especially your A show we're back from a break I wanted to ask you about this I do want to talk about cage match again but the entire time that we were in a commercial we had what I believe they still call picture in picture. So you've got the commercial on the left side,

and in a much smaller box on the right side, you had the playback from the arena. What do you think about that as a strategy to keep viewers engaged and keep them from changing the channel? Boy, you know, it comes and goes, or at least it did when I was producing television, particularly in TNA. We didn't do a lot of that in WCW.

We did do some fly-ins and things like that, but occasionally we see it a lot more now because advertisers are fighting they're fighting so hard to get a return on the investment of their ad dollars because the television advertising market is so fractionalized at this point there's so many places for advertisers to spend their money where you know 20 years ago there wasn't as many right so they keep trying this technique and theoretically gets more eyeballs on your on your commercial but it takes away from what's going on in the ring so it becomes an irritant so yeah the audience is seeing it they don't necessarily appreciate it though because it's distracting them from the action in the ring

so you know advertisers will get on the bad wagon for three four five months you'll see tons of picture in a picture let's try to do this and then the research comes back and people find out that it pisses off the audience and they quit doing it for a while, or at least they did. I don't know what the pattern is now, but it was, you know, when I was producing television,

particularly in T&A. All right, Eric, we've got to run a time out right now to talk about our friends at Lumen, and this is a product that you and I are getting more and more familiar with. My wife is absolutely in love with it. I know yours is too. Let me explain.

Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. Here's the deal, guys. it's a device that measures your metabolism using your breath. That's right. And on the app, it lets you know whether you're burning fat or carbs. And then it gives you tailored guidance to improve your nutrition, your workouts, your sleep, and even your stress management. And here's how it works.

When you wake up first thing in the morning, breathe right into your lumen. And that's going to tell you exactly what's going on with your metabolism. And then lumen will give you a personalized nutrition plan for that day based on the measurements. You can also do this before and after your meals, so you know exactly what's going on with your body in real time. You can do it before and after your workouts. This has been a real game changer for my wife. I think everybody listening to this knows that she started her fitness journey. She's doing fitness competitions now, and she's looking for like cheat codes and life acts.

How does she get a little better? And Lumen is her cheat code. Your metabolism is like your body's engine. So it's how your body turns the foods you eat. into the fuel that keeps you going. You see, your metabolism is at the center of everything your body does. An optimal metabolic health translates to a whole host of benefits, like easier weight management, improved energy levels, better fitness results, better sleep.

Lumen gives you recommendations to improve your metabolic health with each breath, and my wife uses it on her way to the gym. As soon as she wakes up, on her way home from the gym, before she eats, after she eats. she's got the information in real time. She's actually got a doctor friend to hers who lost 45 pounds with a lumen. Think about that. This is a doctor.

They know what's going on with their body, but what he didn't know is some of the stuff he had been reading was maybe not one size fits all. We'd all heard about these 18-hour fast, but with her doctor pal in particular, man, he needed to cut it off at like 10 and a half, 11 hours. If he got to that 12-hour mark from there to hour 18,

he was actually undoing the good he did in the first 12 hours of the fast. This is a real cheat code to know exactly what's going on with your body in real time. So if you want to take the next step in improving your health, go right now to Lumen.m.me. slash 83 weeks for 15% off your Lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N dot me slash 83 weeks for 15% off your purchase. And we thank you, L-M-M-N for sponsoring today's episode. Conrad, you hit it right on the head when you talked about. There's no such thing as one size fits all when it comes to metabolic health.

We've learned so much in the last eight, 10 years about gut biome and metabolic health and how it's all interconnected. Yeah, you want to lose weight. That's an obvious one. And people, rather than take it a lifetime of drugs to do it, just learn how your body reacts to the food you eat, tailor it for yourself, and you can heal yourself so easily, but you need the technology to help do it. And Lumen is an amazing piece of equipment that you can have in your home that you probably

would have had to spend a fortune to try to get that same information about your metabolism five years ago. So I love the product. I use it every single day and I encourage others to do it as well. My wife's in the medical research field and when she unboxed this, because anytime there's a box delivered to my house, she assumes it's for her. So she opens it up and she took a look at this and she damn near did cartwheels into the living room.

Honey, you don't know what this is. And she tried to explain it to me, Eric. We've all seen the visual, maybe even like a 50-cent video back in the day. You'd have to go into the doctor's office, schedule an appointment months in advance. They're going to hook you up to a bunch of different machinery. They're going to put the big mask over you. They're going to put you on a treadmill. They're going to have a dude walking around with a clipboard reading a bunch of fancy equipment that they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on.

And now you can do that with aluminum. It's that easy. You don't have to go to the doctor's office. You don't need an appointment. You don't need the equipment. It's a freaking app on your phone. This is easy and it works. My wife is a real believer in it.

Jeff Jarrett, we've all seen him. Have you seen Jeff Jarrett with a shirt off? He's 57 years old. How's he doing it? He's got a cheat code. And it's not the one you're thinking. It's L-U-M-E-N dot me slash 83 weeks.

Take a look. It costs nothing to look, as our pal J-R says. But you're going to be impressed like my wife and Eric's wife and Double J is. Go take a look for yourself. Lumen.me slash 83 weeks we were watching the the match starting to wind down here where I was getting at a minute ago is I wanted to make sure that you heard this because as silly as it is I know you'll have a take we just saw well they just set up a couple of chairs here we're going to get some nasty bump Brian Danielson and Nigel McGinnis over on cage match got 8.25 on a scale of 1 to 10 and the hook roger strong is 5.38 on a scale of 1 to 10 i think that there is a difference amongst the AEW hardcores and the casual television audience and i don't think there might be a better comparison of that than the first match that went 18 minutes and 51 seconds a lot of mat

wrestling a lot of chain wrestling that gets a much higher rating than the spectacle we're seeing right now because you know that was more old school luthes style you know catch as catch can dean malenko special in the first match and i loved it this is much more sports entertainment here with hook and roger strong would you agree no first of all i just don't agree with your take on the first match lewthes would be would turn over in his grave if he saw that match and then heard that comment it just really wasn't that good it really wasn't in whatever style in my opinion it didn't register with me it didn't register with the audience and I'm really glad that all the hardcore fans over a cage match dug it but they're a fraction of a

fraction of a fraction of your market and as long as you're booking for cage match wrestling and Dave Meltzer expect what you're been getting for the last four and a half years so they see hook is victorious he's raising the belt and Roger Strong comes up from behind and we think we're going to get some sort of big confrontation, but instead we just get a handshake. Feels like a little cool moment for Hook in his career. Rice Rimsberg was your referee. So what's,

because you heard the commentary, and I'm not obviously. Why the change of heart? We just saw Roderick Baten a dog shit out of hook. Well, because he lost. What was the reason? Well, because he lost.

The better man won. there was a little bit of controversy because they had had a match before and well roger strong had his foot on the ropes and the referee missed it and by missed it i mean Aubrey edwards just stepped over it which was kind of embarrassing uh i'm not trying to call Aubrey out but it did go a little viral on that moment and so this is the this is the payoff of that this is the rematch and tony shivani is not going to be interviewing hook at ringside and Hook is going to retire the FTW title and hand it back to his dad, Taz. And it's funny because Tony Chivani points out that only about three miles up the road at the Elps Lodge is where the FTW title was first born by his father.

And I think about all the fun talent from Taz and Sabu and everybody in between who's held that FTW championship. But this is the end of the FTW title. And the feedback I saw online for this, Eric, was, overwhelmingly positive, like, hey, we can let Huck move on beyond the FTW title and now perhaps go pursue six-man gold, a tag team gold, or the T&T championship, or just head another direction rather than sort of defending his dad's legacy. It's probably okay to sort of step away from the FTW title now for Huck, wouldn't you agree?

Yeah, especially with all the titles. And it's a little bit, it's a little crowded when it comes to titles and belts. So it probably is a good idea. And it served its purpose. You know, there was some legacy behind him, the relationship between Hook and Taz and Taz and the FTVW belt and all that. And I get that, and I appreciate it. And it's a great storytelling device.

But you can only play that out for so long until people just don't care. That was the 11th title defense of the FTW title. Cool little moment here to see Taz and Hook embrace. in New York, Arthur, Ash, cool moment. Yeah, it's a motion. People want to share that. They want to live vicariously through Hook or Taz. And many of those people, including myself sitting here watching,

can kind of weirdly relate to this. So, yeah, I think it's a cool thing. I was excited. I'm glad I got to watch this one, frankly. What do you think about the, if you look in the left-hand corner, we're getting a plug, still to come tonight. Darby Allen, John Moxley. It's running through some of the other matches.

This is important to get people to stay tuned. What do you think about that approach as we're going to a break, just reminding everybody about the matches that are still to come? I think it's absolutely necessary. And it's one of the flaws in the AWA formats is that, look, graphics, they help a little bit. What we really should be seeing are shorter clips. Backstage comments, 10, 15, 22nd bites from the talent so that we can feel what they're feeling going into this.

They can repeat some of the key points of a story. And if there's not a story there, they can try to establish one going into the match. It's a way of preconditioning the audience as well as hooking the home audience and getting them to stick around through the commercial break. But I wish AEW would do a better job of recapping story. stories and bringing people up to speed in an entertaining way like every other successful dramatic series, scripted series does. It's effective. It works.

It not only holds your audience, it gives you an opportunity to put some meat on the bone storyline-wise or character-wise. I wish they would do more of it, to be honest. I do wonder, do you think that perhaps Tony is trying to, for lack of a better word, maximize his minutes. He wants to overwhelm the viewer with value and maybe he feels like hey in WWE there's more backstage skits, there's more in-ring promos, we're going to do more in-ring wrestling because I'm sure you recall seeing the articles over the years, but there used to be all of these headlines about hey in a three-hour raw there were only 17 minutes of wrestling matches

or what have you. Do you think that might be a part of the approach from Tony? is, hey, we're not going to waste any time with all those packages and that's all filler. We want to get in-ring action, let's go. Yeah, I think that's the core of the issue. Tony doesn't understand how to produce television. He's producing television for Dave Meltzer and Cage Match wrestling and worrying about how many minutes of wrestling. What you should really be worrying about is how much emotion per minute are you creating

in your show and how many people come back to watch it again next week? That's the only thing that freaking matters. You know, how many minutes you're wrestling to equate, that with somehow a higher quality product, it's like, you know, Michael Bay deciding he's going to produce, you know, an action film. We don't need any stories. We don't need any plots. We're just going to have guys chase each other around the cars. Nobody knows why they're chasing each other. We have really cool car chase shit blows up. It's been a fortune on all the special effects. It's the coolest car chase ever film, but nobody cares because nobody knows who's

chased and who or why. But we've got more minutes of car chase than any other action film. It's just asinine. And I think that's the core of the issue. I don't mean to cut you off, but are you seeing the Young Buck's entrance here? I did not see it. I was babbling. Well, take a look at this. You see Kyle Fletcher and Will Osprey set up right behind them to mock them a little bit. I wanted you to take a look, though, because when the Young Box came out, it was remarkable to me the difference. And I know that you know they've been playing a heel character for a while but it's hard to imagine if you just close your eyes and you think back to the beginning of dynamite before this thing was

even dynamite just the all-in era this was one of the most over-beloved baby face tag teams and i know that there are aew haters who are listening to this who are going to say oh bullshit but i want to remind you that this entire promotion exists because these two guys were so over and connected with the audience so well that they had LJ in action figures they had their t-shirts in the mall at Hot Topic they had a cracker barrel sponsorship these are things that your traditional indie wrestler did not have i mean these guys were writing checks for homes in california on the independence from their merch sales so take this revisionist history bullshit that the young bucks were never over and stick it up your ass that's not reality what i wanted to bring up here though is

when they came out silence they did not get a hero's welcome they didn't get a bunch of heat it was almost indifference the the fumbling of the momentum that the young bucks had i think is something that should be studied because clearly these guys are being miscast as heels and i know that if the internet's already decided because of he said she said stuff with cm punk or whoever else that hey we can make their own decision and let's lean into it but it doesn't seem like that's working. There wasn't a bunch of heel heat when the bucks came out. And we know that they're so over and connected with such a large portion of the fan base,

the whole company exists. How do we get the young bucks to where people either love them again or they hate them again? Because in ring, we're going to see an entertaining match here. There's no doubt of that. But from a character perspective, how do you hit the reset button now, Eric? Because we know they're talented. We know the audience wants to feel. I just don't know that they do because I was blown away with the lack of response the buck's got.

It's not because we're not familiar and we don't appreciate their work. It's got to be we don't have the right story. And I know that that whole AEW elite takeover thing never really went anywhere. How do we get out of that and hit control, Alt, delete, and let the young bucks do something new? If somebody came to me today and put a gun to my heads to come up with a solution, The only thing that I could think of without having to take a bullet would be to get them off TV for about six months. Let the audience forget about this garbage because that's what it's been. Their storylines, the use of their characters has been nothing but pure garbage for quite some time.

And you can't just go from garbage one week to over the next. I would take them off TV for six months. I'd sit down and really think through their characters. I would keep them baby faces because they're never going to be heels. They just can't be heels effectively. Bring them back his baby faces, but you've got to give him a rest. You've been cramming them down everybody's throats and they've been gagging on them now for quite a while. This audience is dead.

Dead. They do not care not only about the bucks. They don't care about Osprey and the other cat either. There's nobody in that ring right now. Well, hang on now. Let me just tell you this. I know that based on characters, you would agree with that. Like, the Young Bucks came in to almost a little to no fanfare.

Not a lot of cheers, not a lot of heat. But you're going to see this crowd come alive, really for the first time all night. Much bigger than they did for Brian, much bigger than they did from Hook. They're going to get going. And they're going to be in love with everything Osprey does. now you haven't seen that yet in the match but it's going to happen they get plenty of time in this one as a reminder danielsen and mcginnis went 1851 hook and strong went 857 we're going nearly 20 minutes here 19 minutes and 27 seconds this is a great match i think it's probably the

highest rated on the night and you're going to be entertained with what you see but that's the thing that always gets me is it's like hey if the young bucks get going and everybody's on their feet and people are losing their mind. How do we make them do that when they hear their theme music? And I just feel like they're being miscast as heels right now. We want to cheer for these guys. Yeah. And you could be absolutely right. You obviously watch more of them than I do. My comments, though, so far about whether or not Osprey and so the cat are really over is the reaction when they came out. Sure. You know, the AW audience is probably going to react to spots and some of the high-flying and incredible athleticism that we do see.

They will react to that. But it's not the same as reacting to the character and the story. It's a spot they're reacting to. I'm guessing I haven't seen it yet. But reacting to spots is not the same thing as reacting to the character and the story. Once again, we're in a commercial break, but they're still doing picture and picture. I got to tell you, this really works for me. It keeps me tuned in.

I understand why some advertisers might not be bullish about it. I think that is a mistake. I would like that because it tells me that, hey, they're not going to fast forward the thing. Like when I was buying advertising for a mortgage company through traditional radio and television before we just stumbled down on podcast advertising, that was what I was looking for, Eric, was live programming. I wanted something that people didn't feel like they could fast forward. I don't think a lot of people will record and DVR the 10 o'clock news. Oh, I missed the 10 o'clock news from last Thursday.

Let's turn it on, said no one ever. So we would buy a lot of sports and news. But this wrestling component here, maybe if we did DVR it, I would be less likely to fast forward it if I still had picture and picture. I could still keep up with the match. So I'm still getting what I want to see, but having to sit through the necessary evil of a sonic commercial or what have you. Yeah, I agree with you.

I agree 100%. I don't think that advertisers get pissed off about it. Like I say, they struggle. Most advertisers that I ever interface with or networks, I should say, that I interface with, Scott Fishman over at Biacom, who was the network rep for TNA. The advertisers love it because they know if you don't have picture and a picture, people are you going to fast forward through it or otherwise not see it. pay attention to it and this does force you to pay attention to the spot all right eric i love we get

to talk about this buddy if there's anything i love talking about eric with it's a e w no not kidding it's the wiener hair fellas you want to get your grooming routine down to be a one and done deal well the days of using the same trimmer for your face and your private parts are over thanks to our friends at manscaped i'll even stop calling you dick breath around the office that's hurt for eric and it can work for you too they've come up with the ultimate package to keep your hairs trimmed from 12 to 6. Introduce the Beard and Balls Bundle. That's right, the Lawnmore 5.0 and the beard hedger.

It's a trimmer for the money maker and another for the boys downstairs. Think of it as like the separation of church and state or, you know, Manscape style, beard and balls. Get 20% off plus free shipping with our code 83 weeks at Manscape.com. That's 20% off plus free shipping with the code 83 weeks at Manscape.com.

for the premium grooming experience trust manscaped Eric they've been day one sponsors for so long everybody here knows all about the lawnmore 5.0 ultra say goodbye to those endless passes this tremor gets it done the first time cutting through the busiest bushes effortlessly now Eric before we clicked record you were telling me that you recently visited with Dave Silva he needed a hand and you took the weed wacker and you got going. Not really, not really. All right, there's two interchangeable skin safe blade heads on the lawnmower. And yes, did I mention it's waterproof? But you decide you want a precise trim or a smooth finish. You can do it in the shower. I mean, Silva even shaves his gonads in the shower and then waffle stomps it right down the drain. I've heard that JR, he always makes

sure he gets a hot tub. He wants to see him float around. This is waterproof. You can do it. It's even got a titanium-coated stainless steel T-blade. There's 20 different length options. I don't know why you need 20 different lengths, but you could, you freak. How about the lawnmower, the beard hedger? It's all waterproof. Did I mention it's got a 60-minute runtime?

And if you can't trim your balls in 60 minutes, see a doctor, God damn it. There's an LED charge indicator on this, so you're never going to get caught by surprise with a dead battery. This is the very best. When it comes to trimming your balls and your beard, you shouldn't trust anybody but Manscaped. They know what's good for your balls and your beard.

So get your game up and get 20% off with free shipping when you use our code 83 weeks at Manscape.com. That's 20% off plus free shipping with the code 83 weeks at Manscape.com. No more juggling multiple tools or dealing with subpar results. Just efficient, effective grooming wherever you need it, whether it's on your balls or on your beard. Think of Manscaped. we're watching a really fun match i'm going to recommend if you're going to watch one match from

this show make it this one uh i think they really showcase the different styles for a e w in this show well i know that you didn't really love that first opening match i would agree it didn't really connect with the audience there but as a long time fan of those guys it worked for me i enjoyed the spectacle of the hook match and now we're seeing a tag match that is going to be out of this world i think you'll really dig it as it starts to heat up but we're still got a women's match and then a crazy match with john moxley and derby allen where they're going to take all kinds of crazy risks and chances so this is kind of um i've heard dusty describe once upon a time that wrestling should be like uh of the circus there should be something for everybody or a buffet

there should be something for everybody i think this show does that it checks a lot of boxes in that we're doing them at style we're doing some some street fighting we're doing some women's stuff we got a tag match we've at least got a variety in our show here yeah you do you just don't have a crowd that cares i hate to keep harper on that but this is shocking to me i've never seen people so quiet i did a ted talk not long ago and i got more reaction than that in fairness you're saying how quiet they are we're listening without the sound but i get you i'm watching i'm watching them they're sitting there's some of them with their arms folded keep watching motherfucker you're gonna i mean you just sell this shit to be all you want

i just watch a crowd i pay more attention to the crowd than i do with what's going on in the ring and maybe tony should do the same thing it might change change the trajectory man what the canadian destroyer man i just don't get tired of seeing it what's the crowd doing now eric are they sitting on their hands no they're reacting to a spot because that's how their condition that is the AEW audience they're there to see the spots and that's cool god bless you if you're into that what would you prefer you just want these guys to come out here in suits and hold a microphone and come down to the ring and have a little talk what I would really want to see is a reason to care that's all it's not being that it's

not asking that well but hang on now Eric these shows don't exist in a vacuum this is essentially a pay-per-view on free television that you would have had to have watched the preceding episodes of television to really be caught up on the story what is the story so you're watching a tag match you here with Nigel McGinnis, not Nigel McGinnis, but Kyle Fletcher and Will Osprey. Will Osprey is normally, as you know, a singles wrestler, but he was great pals with the Aussie Open. Kyle Fletcher was one half of that tag team.

And the elite are in a feud with AEW and specifically Will Osprey, who's supposed to be the next big thing. The young bucks are here to remind everybody, you're not the next best thing. We're still here, and you're always going to be second fiddle. as long as weird blah blah blah blah so it's about uh take a look at what we're seeing here it looks like we're setting up a melzer driver well just a spike pile driver right on the uh the apron there hey listen since you're in a mood to fuck with the young bucks today i don't know if you noticed but it looks like matt jackson has pearls weaved into his hair i've never seen that as a look

before could we count on you to show up the top guy weekend with pearls in your hair Yeah, I don't see it. First of all, I don't have enough hair. Maybe if you glued them on, you could probably do it. No, but, you know, I'm going to let you off the hook and not get it too far into that story because there is no story. You gave me, here's where we're at, here's what's happened. There's no jeopardy. Are there any stakes?

Has anybody been in jeopardy leading up to this match? I mean. Well, the stakes are there's a tag title. I mean, occasionally we wrestle matches to see who can be the champion. All right. I'm sorry. And maybe it's been a great story up to this point. I just haven't noticed it.

But neither is anybody else in the crowd because they don't give a fuck. Well, since they don't give a fuck, Eric, how can we make this watch-along interesting? Help me out. I've done all the song and dance and tap dance that I can do today. I'm all tap-danced out. Well, I could agree to quit complaining about lack of story and character. because it's pretty fucking redundant. There's nothing new to say here.

And I'll look for the rest of the show. I am going to look for the most positive thing that I can think of with regard to everything that I've seen in the ring. I will shift gears because there's always positive. You just have to look for them. So I'll do my, I'll put my, here. Let me take my glasses off, clean them off a little bit. Well, I mean, here's the thing, Eric.

you know, a prerequisite to enjoying watching AEW wrestling and hear me out now. But in order for you to enjoy watching AEW wrestling, you've got to like, you know, like watching wrestling. And that's kind of a prerequisite.

And I don't think you like watching wrestling matches. And so if we're going to watch a show from AEW that doesn't have a bunch of in-ring promos and has a lot of wrestling matches, but one of our critics on the show says, I don't really like watching wrestling matches. It kind of doesn't matter what they're going to do. you're going to shit on it.

But see, there's, there's, let me take issue with what you just said. I enjoy watching wrestling matches when there's a reason why I'm watching it, when there's a story. All right. Great. Name one. Name a wrestling match you've watched this year that you really liked. Within the last 12 months? Yeah.

Well, just within the calendar year 2024. Don't say the WrestleMania main event. Without it being that? No, don't say the WrestleMania main event. I love the Ria Ripley match that I saw last in WWE. I thought she did a phenomenal job in that match. I think her character continues to elevate. I do like watching wrestling matches when the wrestling matches the result of a lot of other components.

I do love watching great wrestling. Wait, hang on now. Who was Ria wrestling? Who did Ria wrestling? You don't know me. I couldn't tell you. If I would have watched it last night, I couldn't tell your name. That's my point. You don't like wrestling matches. There's a lot of our audience, a lot of the AW audience, and that's the target audience we're talking about here. They want to rattle off. Oh, my favorite match was WrestleMania 13 with Brett and Stone Cold, and I really like Terry Funk and

Rick Flair at the New York Knock. I mean, that's the way they rattle it off. And so when I say, hey, what's your favorite match? The most recent one with Ria Ripley, that's not a real answer, bud. You're just not the target demo for this. And that's okay. That's true. But I should be, the target demo should be people that are like me that do like watching for reasons other than the cool wrestling moves. And I think that's, look, we do this podcast.

I have a perspective based on my personality, based on the way I grew up, based on my personal preferences. And kind of 30 years of learning what works. and what doesn't work. And when I cover, whether it's AEW or WW or TNA, if that time ever comes, I'm going to come at it from the perspective of what works from a business perspective and what doesn't work, not what I like watching as a wrestling fan who just likes watching wrestling, because I am not that guy.

I don't know that I've ever been that guy, to be honest. I don't think I was that guy when I first met my wife, Lori, and she would spend the night and we get up on Sunday morning and I'd make her sit down and watch wrestling at 10 o'clock every Sunday morning. I looked over and she's looking to me like, what the fuck am I doing with this cat? Yeah, I mean, he's fun and all that, but this is weird. He's watching wrestling instead of bouncing off the walls with me in a bedroom. What's up?

And I would say, Lori, you don't understand. This is the purest form of marketing in the world. True story, by the way. This is the truest form of marketing on television. I've always appreciated wrestling for what it can be and what it is in some cases, in many cases. But from my perspective, again, when we're talking about competition and growing the product, there's a lot to be desired. And it's my nature to point those things up.

I point out the difference and the contrast between what I believe works and what I believe doesn't work. not what I sit and enjoy, what I sit and enjoy watching with my buddies in a cold beer. I'll try to do better. It's just my natural take on things. I do the same thing when I'm watching Outlander. I'm with you, but I'm saying right now,

as you're saying the audience doesn't give a shit, I see everybody standing. Well, right, right this moment you do. But, yeah, sure. but I guess what I'm asking though is are we supposed to have them standing as soon as they get in the ring it's whether they're engaged

from the minutes that you're if your characters come out and people are sitting on their hands and clapping like seals to be polite I mean that's a glaring freaking issue for someone like me that's like the house is

on fire somebody called 911 we've got a problem here there's no investment Now, again, we're watching right now. Osprey's phenomenal. You've heard me talk about, you know, how impressed I was with him when he first came out. Here, they're reacting to a spot.

They're not reacting to the emotion in the match. They're reacting to a spot, which is why they stand up, they cheer at a spot, and then they sit down and wait for the next one. That's my take. Maybe it's not a good take. Maybe I'm wrong. But when you combine what I see

and sometimes what I say and I'm sorry if it pisses people up. I don't mean to do that. I don't mean to be negative. I just mean to be honest. But they're watching, you know, I love Osprey. I love seeing some of the amazing things that he can do.

This kid, Kyle Fletcher, very impressive physically. I just want to care about the match. Well, I think in order to care about the match, you've got to watch the show. I mean, if you just fired up a random Monday Night Raw or Smackdown or I guess we'll call it a Saturday night's main event because that's kind of what this is closer to

if we were to watch a Saturday night's main event but you hadn't been watching the show on a weekly basis and now you're going to watch it without the sound it is going to be hard to really grasp fair point fair point we should remind

everybody that we are live here at ad free shows.com we've got a live studio audience and as we've been recording there's been a lot of things that are breaking and we are going to cover those stories at the end of our AEW watch along we've got about 48 minutes left in the watch along but there is some breaking news about people who have been sued or maybe in a public spotlight and maybe there's going to be a new announcement for a mega PLE and so much more we will cover all of that later after the AEW watch along so Don Callis

who came down and started doing commentary for this match. He's now handed Kyle Fletcher a screwdriver, and Don Callis is, of course, trying to get revenge on the young bucks and the elite. And Will Osprey is quick to stop that. He wants no part of this cheating. And this right here where, if I'm going to be critical of anything in the match, this felt a little convoluted, a little overbooked here

with the whole saga about the screwdriver, and now some belt shots. But we're getting really, really close to the finish. And I think that's set up a couple of false finishes. I'll see how you think the crowd reacts here. My take, whether it's WWE, by the way, or AW, I see way too many of them. Is this as me?

Do they mean anything anymore? I mean, I think, you know, the crowd still respond to them. And I think that's been going on since the Rock Austin days, where hey we're not just going to hit you with one stoner or one rock bottom i'm going to hit you with three and because they want people to kick out of those finishes but i think you'd have to go back and unwind wrestling 25 years to start it over now but i do agree with you there's too many you know i think a predictable finish is okay but sometimes we want to see people kick out of that predictable finish

two or three times and then get hit with something else and then it's finally over um i do prefer the faster finish. You go back maybe eight years ago and we saw Goldberg come out and win a match like that fast against Brock Lesnar. And it caught everybody off guard. I mean, Brock Lesnar had just thrown John Cena

from here to Timbuktu 22 times. So the idea that Goldberg could hit him spear, jack hammer that's done, that was cool because it got us out of the pacing that we're used to in a traditional wrestling

match. I'd like to see more out of nowhere faster finishes because that's the way it happens in real fighting. Like if you take a look at mixed martial arts or MMA, I think there's a lot of edge of your seat moments because you know, hey man, the heavyweights are in there at any moment. Somebody lands one lucky punch and the whole thing's over. Sometimes we don't have that in wrestling if we're going to have a whole bunch of false finishes. So I think I'd go the other way. Let's finish some early when you don't expect it. I agree. That's one of the reasons why DDP's diamond cutter

worked so effectively. I mean, visually it was pretty cool, but it also could come from out of nowhere at a moment's notice there was not a lot of build-up to it. Randy Orton, same thing.

I do agree with you. You know, if you think about it, if you're going to present wrestling as a sport or try to make it look as real as you can in any company, you do have to do things differently. You have to break up the pace, pull some things,

do some things that, audience doesn't expect to see and my my bitch and it's in wwe as well it's just too many false finishes that don't really matter especially when they happen so close together the pacing of them it's it's just you'll see two or three false finishes and the audience really hasn't had a chance to react to the first one yet that's technically that's my issue and even just as a fan watching it's hard for me to get sucked in when i see two three four rapid fire false finishes because you just know, subconsciously you know. Okay, I'm going to have to sit through three or four more of these

and then I might get to the finish. It kind of takes you out of it a little bit in WWE as well as AEW. All right, Eric, we've got to press pause right here. We're talking about our friends at Henson Saving, and let me just give you a pro tip. If you were born after 1970, Roll Tide, there's a very good chance your first razor was a multi-blade razor. These razors have been the status quo for like a half century,

but where's that got in us? According to a recent study, two-thirds of men expect some form of irritation when they shave. We can do better. But the reality is there's virtually no information on how to prevent irritation, only on how to treat it. How about this? Over two billion plastic razors wind up in the landfill each year just in the U.S. alone. And that razor-raiser blade model leads to high operating costs, which is why when you go down to the damn drugstore, it's the only thing they've got locked up behind gate and key. More and more people are even opting to stop shaving and explore other more invasive hair removal methods.

You don't need to do any of that because the mission statement is clear from Henson's shaving. They want to change the shaving industry. Not through gimmicky subscriptions or stupid moisturizing strips, but through groundbreaking research on the impact that shaving has on your skin. And here's the real dirty secret about the whole razor industry. even the cheapest dollar store disposable razor will give you some of a reasonably smooth shave. But the trick is removing the hair without any negative outcomes for your skin. You know what I'm talking about. Razor burn, ingrown hairs, razor bumps.

We want to have you stop talking about getting a smooth shave. And instead, Henson wants to get you a skin-friendly shave. You see, when Henson looks at all the other razors, they notice a consistent lack of blade support. Basically, the blade has too much bend or flex. And think about if you were trying to use a kitchen knife. You wouldn't want the blade you're using to be moving because then you'd have less control. Well, Henson's razors are designed to hold the blade so steady that there's less bend and less wobble. And here's what they do.

They use their aerospace grade C&C machines in Canada to make parts for the Mars rover and the International Space Station. And now those expert machinists are exceptional. at precision razor blades. What they're doing is they're creating blades that extend just 0.0013 past the shave plane of the razor. That's less than the thickness of a human hair. It means a more secure and a more stable blade. So not only does it give you a better shave and a better for your skin shave, but it also costs less than 10 cents each, you heard me. Once you own a razor, it's only like $3 to $5 a year to replace the blades.

not $3 to $5 a shave, not $3 to $5 a week, not $3 to $5 a month, not $3 to $5 a quarter, $3 to $5 a year. What are you talking about? It's a game changer. My barber loves it. Think about this. She's been cutting heads for 30 years. She's done with all the other razors. She's a Henson gal, and you will be too.

Let's say no to subscriptions. Let's say yes to a razor that will last you a lifetime. Go right now to Hensonshaving.com slash Bischoff to pick up the razor for you. And then use the code Bischoff, and man, you'll get two years worth of blades free with your razor. Just be sure to add them to your cart. That's 100 free blades when you head to H-E-N-S-O-N-S-H-A-V-I-N-G.com slash Bischoff and use our code Bischoff. And I have to tell you, I love this razor, so much of shaving, and I don't even use shaving cream. I shave in a shower, and I look forward to it because,

I try real hard to get that super smooth kind of a shave that you only get from a professional barber that uses one of those fancy razors, and I can achieve it with a Henson razor. I don't even use shaving. That's how safe that blade is. Hook it up, man. You're going to love it. Hensonshaving.com slash Bischoff. Don't forget to add those blades to your cart.

Use our promo code Bischoff. Get the best shave of your life. You'll be glad you did. Man, what a fun promo of Mark Briscoe is. Have you seen very many Mark Briscoe promos? I've seen quite a few of them. I kind of dig him. He's different.

Yes. He's better at this crazed lunatic kind of character than most who attempt to do the same thing. He does stand out as a little whack. I like it. I love it. Super fun stuff. Orange Cassidy, of course, a big merch seller. They just revealed a new piece of merch there.

That's what that was is essentially a plug for their match on Saturday. Saturday's version of Grand Slam and a plug for that t-shirt. Here's a fun little moment here that maybe a lot of people didn't have on their bingo cards. Tony Chivani is up near the entrance. I would call it the ramp, but there's not technically ramp. And he's about to introduce Prince Nana. Of course, Prince Nana is the manager of Swarf Strickland. And Prince Nana has recently announced that he's got his own coffee brand.

And he's been promoting it on social media. And he's going to come out drinking a cup and have a bag of, Prince Nana's coffee with him and he's going to be doing a promo here with Tony Chivani when all of a sudden he's interrupted by MVP and we've not seen MVP in AEW before so this is the AEW debut of MVP who we know has recently parted ways with WWB and he's uh well he's got some interesting words for Prince Nana saying that perhaps Prince Swarpe Strickland wouldn't have lost the championship if he would have had a manager who was interested in protecting him and handling business rather than building his coffee brand.

So it's a nice little thing that they're doing here to set the stage, if you will, for MVP and what's next. What do you think about the idea of MVP continually being here and repeating the word business? of course we all remember the hurt business from the wwee but we know that the hurt business meant Shelton Benjamin and it meant Bobby lashley but now he's talking about business with swerve strickland hey that's intriguing what do you make of this you love story here's one

yeah possibly I like it I like MVP as a character as believable as hell I'm anxious to see how it plays out but I I don't think referring to business. I mean, he's bringing some of that audience with him, and he's creating some anticipation. People are going to ask who and when? Who are we going to see next and when?

And that's a good thing. That will get people to tune in. We should also mention that Prince Nana, I don't even know that they've shown him or acknowledged him. But West Side Gunn, who's a pretty big time rapper who's giving you a shout out on some of his albums and stuff. I think you may have actually met West Side Gunn.

He's a friend of Prince and on certainly Swar Strickland. He's in the front row for this. I know that sounds super random. But didn't you actually meet West Side Gunn before? Don't you know him somehow? You know, I know he had a song. This was several years. Man, this may be 10, 12 years ago.

He had a song that came out and part of it. It was a rap song, obviously. and there was a reference to me in it. Somebody sent it to me, and I became a big fan. And I think we probably exchanged, you know, texts or DMs a couple of times. I don't think I've ever met him, but perhaps at an event in a large group. I don't think I've ever met him one-on-one. Well, a big promo here from MVP, he did get sort of a shocked reaction.

And I got to say, I do like the idea that they're, you know, pointing out that, hey, this is supposed to be Swerp's manager, but he lost his belt and had his house burned down. And now Brian Danielson's walking around with the world title. I like that we're poking holes in that relationship and trying to plant some seeds of some distrust and building some intrigue for what's next. But if you had your druthers,

is there someone you would want to see in the former her business paired up against swerve strickland or would you like the idea perhaps of swerve becoming a part of that faction what would make sense to you eric is you know big loss here because i can't hear the commentary so MVP's all over nana and blaming nana for being a bad manager yes so obviously perhaps mvp is positioning for nana's job job is that the story that we're probably seeing here seems like he wants to have a conversation with swerve and we know that in in storyline MVP's a manager so yes it was it's like he would like to represent swerve strickland it could be fun as long as not is got

none is going to need something up his sleeve i mean that could be a great story it could be the beginning of a really interesting story as far as who i should see with him brother you know I'm not watching this shit. You just pointed it out. I don't know. No, no, no, bud, bud, bud, all right. Hurt business was a faction in WWE. Are you familiar with them?

Yes, of course, yes. Okay, so I'm asking, would you like to see Bobby Lashley versus Swerve? Oh, okay. I didn't understand. Bobby Lashley and swerve together. Like, does he join the faction or does he feud with the faction? I didn't get that part of the question. My apologies.

All good. Do you want the feud to be swerve versus Hurt business or swerve in the Hurt business? or swerve in the hurt business? Swerve in the hurt business. It needs a fresh tape. It needs a fresh coat of paint, so to speak. I would prefer to see that. You've got, you've got MVP.

He's got some great equity. The audience knows who he is. He's got credibility. He's very well established. I think MVP taking over for NANA and somehow coming back and trying to fight for his position could be a great story. As far as who I'd like to see from WWE, we joined there.

I miss Shelton Benjamin. Bobby Lassie, huge star. I get it. But I saw Shelton Benjamin in Australia a couple months ago. And the cat is in phenomenal shape. Not that Bobby isn't. But it's been a while since we've seen Shelton. I'd like to get a look at Shelton.

Something, again, feels a little fresher just because it's been so long since we've seen them. I think it would it's going to be interesting to see what happens with the hurt business in AEW. I know they can't call it that. What do you make of that shot right there? They just showed the scapegoat bus of Jack Perry.

Of course, it's headed in because we're going to have a grand slam version of Jack Perry's a T&T title defense where he's got an open challenge that'll air on collision. Of course, I've actually read the spoilers. I won't give you the spoiler here. year, but Jack Perry will be on the Saturday version of Grand Slam on collision. So will Jeff Gerrett and Hangman Adam Page.

And that's going to be tough for me. First of all, I love me some Jeff Gerrett. I was really hoping it would be on Wednesday, though, because that thing's going to be head-to-head with Alabama, Georgia. So respectfully, sorry, Jeff, I got a DVR you. If I'm watching that game with my dad and I say, let me see what Jeff's doing. I'll get stabbed, as you know, Eric, no chance. that's as Larry would say that's bullshit

so listen this is probably and Lord I'm not trying to pick but this is probably the biggest miss of the show for me we're about to see Mariah May come out to defend her AEW women's title and she's going to be defending it against what is probably a very talented

Yuka Sakazaki and the crowd is not into Yuka at all they never really connect it doesn't really go well for her that's a shame I'm sure she's a fine performer but boy the audience here live is not into her and I think it's this is what's interesting to me about AW at times like they made Mariah May a star with this Tony storm thing you and I both love that storyline it was so well done they took their time they just crushed it but we're

going to go from someone who just had all the success with a great story And now we're going to just let her have a match. And I know that there is story if you really look for it. But boy, it sure didn't connect the way we would have hoped. I mean, if you take a look at the crowd, they're just kind of indifferent to Yuka. I just don't think that they have a reason to care yet. They're not invested, Eric, in Yucca. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know what else to say. You pretty much covered it. How long has Yucca been in AEW? do you know well i wanted to ask you because you tried this and i know that you know you get criticism for a lot of things but hey i just want to remind everybody Vince McMahon wasn't putting a kira hopatoo on monday night raw and letting her wrestle live matches that that wasn't a thing you would see special attractions from japan in wcd where there wasn't necessarily a lot of backstory with a eugenegata there wasn't

always a ton of backstory with a supercalo but Nitro was a place to showcase international talents that you wouldn't see anywhere else. And I know that, you know, with the benefit of hindsight, maybe we should have done more profile pieces on those luchadors and learned from some of those mistakes. But as someone who grew up in love with the Monday Night Wars era of professional wrestling, I really enjoyed it. But then I see something like this where this does feel like, hey, you're trying something new with an international talent. but the fans are just not connected. It's like they don't either connect with her story and they don't love her character

or they just don't perceive her as a star or a combination of both. But how do you fix it, Eric? I mean, you at least had the boss to try things like Akira Hoka-2. It didn't really ever hit in WCW. It wasn't a booming success, but is there something you could look back

to 25, 26, 27, 28 years ago and say, when I was trying to do the women's division and internet introduce different talent. If I had it to do over again, here's what I would do, knowing that they can't cut a promo in a traditional way. No, I get that.

It's hard to compare because it's such a different situation. Part of the reason why I was bringing Japanese women over was because it just wasn't that many American women that were television ready. The talent pool wasn't there yet. much greater talent pool now to choose from. So again, the reason why I booked that talent was different than the reason why Tony's introducing talent like we're seeing here and including talent like we're seeing here.

As far as what you can do today, I think it would have to be a much longer term, a long-term strategy. But one of the reasons what perhaps is small reason why, I think the largest reason and it's just like everything else, and I hate to, I'm not even going to say it. You know why nobody cares about her or this match and its character and lack of character, lack of story. Believability is a little bit of an issue here. You've got a big size difference, but we see so many international talent, and it's not a bad thing.

I dig it kind. It's one of the things I do like about AEW is we see the Will Ospreys. We see talent, international talent, regularly. We see a lot of Japanese talent in AEW. you. It's no longer special. It's no longer an attraction because it's so commonplace. So I think if you want to use Japanese talent, international talent, whether from Japan or Mexico or anywhere else, and you want to make it a big deal, you have to make it a big deal. And part of that is by making it feel special. There's nothing, I'm surmising, based on a lack of

crowd reaction in your commentary, that there's not been much of an attempt to make her feel special. I've seen a couple of the backstage skits they've done with her and it made her look silly. Perhaps that's part of it. But if you don't make the talent feel special, you can't expect the audience to treat them that way. She's been on a bunch of darks. She's been on some rampages. She's been on some collisions as far as this year. she's been around back in April and then of course she's been on collision two weeks ago

last week she was on dynamite in a tag match and now she's on a singles match but to me if this really was a quote-unquote pay-per-view on free TV now they didn't really market it that way but that's the way I perceived it based on the way they pushed all the card I think I would have liked to have seen a skit with Mariah Mae a backstage interview some sort of segment and not necessarily this match like this makes the this brings it down a little bit for me and i think the uh the people who keep up with this sort of thing over on cage match they would agree you know the uh the first match as we mentioned brian and nigel got an 8.24 hook and roger strong got a 5.37 the tag match with the young bucks got an 8.7 and this match is down to a 4.94 so

they wouldn't even rate this as being an average match fans are just not invested in it and i know i'm going to take some criticism uh from from hardcore anti-a-w haters who say why are we using cage match as a source well because a lot of AEW fans use cage match and i know that the AEW office at times does review to see hey what is the feedback we're getting not from troll accounts on social media but what are the hardcores what do they think what are they rating it and that's what we do here on the show as we're telling you what everybody else thinks and then we get what Eric thinks. Yeah, and usually when it comes to AEW, it's not very good.

But look, like I said, I'm going to look for the brighter spots of this match. There's nothing particularly, nice kick. That was a good kick to the head. What's her name? That is Yuka Sakazaki, Yuka Sakazaki. Yuka Sakazaki. Well, she landed a beautiful kick to the head on her IMA. that did look good if you would have if i wish i had commentary on right there because when she

just hit that move on maria may excalibur lost his freaking mind uh and it stood out like a sore thumb when i watched it because the crowd did not react to it but excalibur did and it felt inauthentic not to pick on excalibur but i think sometimes we can we can hear the announcers try to force something and we heard tony chivani try to force things on nitro a generation ago oh the biggest night in the history of our great sport i did feel like excalibur tried to force that move and i understand he's trying to create excitement i mean i've heard from w w e people before hey if their ass can't create motion or movement create the illusion of movement and motion and that's the reason they started to do all the shaking

of the camera and all that so shout out to excalibur for doing his best to try to make something happen but the crowd was just dead for this and i felt bad for the ladies like ladies like I'm sure they all had their nerves and and excitement of hey we're in new york and we're in arthur ash and this is where they have the u.s. open and there's going to be 8,000 people here and all the lights but the biggest reaction is for post-match stuff maybe not even for what happens in the match that can't feel good when if you're actually in the ring the audience always loves this kind of a beat in a story when i always liking this kind of a scene that we're looking at right now when you're

face to face in the middle of the ring. It's like watching an old Western and it's good. Fighters come out and they face each other in the middle of the street at noon and walking it towards each other slowly and the camera cuts to their hand or hands by the gun, the fingers are twitched a little bit. You're creating that anticipation of who's

going to do what first. And you get those beats when you're face to face like we just saw the two ladies in the ring. Of course, for me I would have let that play out a little bit longer. I wouldn't have let it rush because the audience, It sucks them in. They know something's going to happen.

They don't know what or when. And you want to let that breathe a little bit. Just let it breathe. Just when you think it's been too long, go another 20 seconds. And you're probably going to be right. It was a good moment. So here we are, Eric. We got 27 minutes left in our playback.

And we're pushing and promoting before we crashed a break here. That when we come back, we got John Moxley and Darby Allen in the main event of night one of Grand Slam. and Darby Allen's title shot is on the line. So he won the right to have a title shot, and of course we know we're just a couple of weeks away from Russell Dream and Tacoma. Since that is his old stomping grounds,

I kind of thought maybe that's where they're headed. Brian Danielson versus Darby Allen, I don't think that's ever happened in happening in an area where they're both kind of from. Tacoma, Washington's where the show is going to be. I could see that, and we find out that's not actually the plan so it doesn't seem john moxley's going to pick up a win here over darby allen in our watch along

but i wanted to get your perspective on how you think john moxley's being presented we started with a backstage shot down a long hallway felt very mike tyson very goldberg but we're shooting him from behind and he's no longer wearing the leather jacket we used to see now he's got the camo jacket uh and he's got marina schaffir as his heavy and he's still walking through the crowd but no longer at a wild thing He's got the old death writer theme. So he switched it up. He's no longer presenting himself as a baby face.

This is a new hardened, edgier John Moxley. What do you think about this presentation of the character? He looks like a movie character. I mean, he looks like a heel in an action movie. He's got a great look. He's believable in a sense that you've never seen him. I've never seen him break character. the first time I ever noticed John Moxley was so god I don't even know when it was

he's in a WrestleMania I think it was in Tampa a while back I don't know where I was it doesn't matter it was a big WW event and Moxley was a part of WWA it's probably 2015 2014 somewhere in there and I never really noticed Moxley much in the ring I hadn't been watching his work but I did see him at an event and he's he carried himself and he was you know with a bunch of friends i mean it was a social event mostly w wwe people down in a bar a large group of people and it wasn't a you know party and drinking kind of thing it was a gathering that i think it was a staging area to go to something else and uh i noticed moxley and he kind of carries himself the same way socially that he does

here on television so i mean he's a believable character that stays in character i don't really you know i haven't really followed a ton of his career i certainly watched him in wwee i've watched some fair amount in, in AEW. Again, I think that type of character, that hard core character, can be a really great character if there's only one or two of them on a roster. I think if there's a challenge for Moxley in AEW, it's because you got Eddie Kingston, you got, and I'm sorry, what was the guy's name? He asked me if I'd ever watch his backstage interviews earlier with the beard.

Oh, Mark Bresco Brisco You know, a lot of those characters Have the same kind of vibe to him So Moxley doesn't necessarily stand out as much But he's a very believable character Darby Allen, man One of the bigger, more prominent stars in AEW

I mean, after the incredible quote unquote rub He got from Sting He's a bona fide superstar for AEW. I'm a big fan of both of these guys as characters. I could totally understand their characters, like their looks, like their presentations. These guys feel like stars that are well established and we know their backstory, et cetera, et cetera. I know that sometimes you're critical of the lack of character development. I don't think we can argue that for Moxley or Darby, though. No, no, I think Moxley's been, as I just said, he's been very consistent and stays in character.

Like I said, I think the biggest weakness is he doesn't stand out as much as he possibly could or should. And there is a big market. The people love that style of wrestling that Moxley brings to the table, that hardcore, bloody barbed wire, baseball bat, whatever it takes, you know, to get the job done. There is a market for that. We're going to see some crazy things in this one. I'll admit, it's not the craziest things we've ever. seen from Darby Allen but you're gonna see some like I'm not really sure what to make of this but we're seeing Moxley sort of go after the mouth of Darby Allen

which is a strategy I don't think we've ever seen before and we're gonna see a lot of blood come out of his mouth here my goodness what I mean wow I don't think I've seen anything like that before where the the intent is bite the bottom rope and I'm going to kick the shit out of it. And then here comes the blood. Goodness gracious. Yeah. I don't know what to say.

I mean, he's body slamming him where his legs are hitting the ropes. Like, we're seeing some different things here that we don't normally see. Do you think it would have been better to kind of build up to this kind of physicality as opposed to starting with it, just interested in your opinion, maybe? Or do you think it's better to start out hanging and banging?

I think people have an expectation with John Moxley that it's going to be a brawl. Oh, did you see that bump from Derby Allen right there? That was fucking crazy. I've never seen that before, and it was a holy shit moment watching with my buddy Bart last night. So in case you're not watching with us,

John Moxley just did an Irish whip. into the corner for Brian Daniels, not Brian Daniels, and Darby Allen. And Darby sailed between the top and middle rope, hit the steps on the outside and then bounce to the floor. And now he's trying to peel himself off. Here's the above view here, Eric. I, wow. That was a hell of a bump.

Good on Darby. That's, I mean, it looked like Moxie tossed him like a frisbee. He threw, he threw Darby farther than I could throw a frisbee for my dog. What made me laugh last night watching with part is after seeing that spectacular bump that nobody would be crazy enough to try with Darby Allen getting slung through the ropes down to the floor and hitting the steps along the way. He immediately goes to, I'm going to dig my nails into Moxley's back and it made me think of NWO Hollywood Hogan. Now, this part right here is something I want to get your opinion on. You see Darby Allen coming up and now he's going to stuff John Moxley's arm down to the elbow. in the ring post what do you think of that visual right there eric i kind of dig it

it's new it's different i've never seen it before and it would actually work if you were in a street fight like if you could stuff somebody's arm in a gutter so they couldn't punch you in the face but you've got a distinct tactical advantage i love it but i haven't ever seen it's kind of cool and it looks like it looked like it was spontaneous too i like that it sets up the uh the coffin drop there as well all right Eric, you know I love talking about eating. Come on now, you can take a look at me and know I know where the good food is. But you know, it's not always easy when you're battling with the wife and you've got to have that dreaded.

What should we have for dinner conversation? Me and my buddy Cassio, we'd pretty much rather jab our damn eyeballs out than have that conversation one more time. Because we all know we're just going to wind up debating, takeout, and ordering something that's expensive and not good for us and not really satisfying. but at least we don't have to have that conversation. Let me give you a little pro tip, though. You really want to get some brownie points at home? Do what I'm doing. Check out Home Chef.

They're providing you fresh ingredients with chef-designed recipes conveniently delivered to your doorstep to simplify your cooking experience. And boy, does this pay dividends? Like, I don't know what you're going to pick out for dinner, but if you're going to cook with your wife, I can guess what you're going to enjoy for dessert. Whether you prefer the classic meal kits with pre-portioned ingredients,

and easy instructions. Maybe you like speedy recipes that are ready in less than 30 minutes. They've even got oven-ready kits with pre-chopped ingredients. Or maybe my favorite. You want to talk about quick. How about microwave meals that assemble in minutes? Home Chef has you and the entire family covered for delicious meals without the hassle. And when I say the entire family, I mean it.

Home Chef now even has a delicious kid-friendly family menu with 18 new options each week. think of it as being picky eater approved. There's more than 30 options a week that are going to serve you a variety of dietary needs so you don't have to worry about what to make ahead of time. So not only is Home Chef more convenient, it's also more economical too. Home Chef customers save an average of $86 a month.

So if we're eating better quality food, we're having better quality family time with the fam, we've eliminated the things that we don't like about the cooking process, the shopping and the chopping, and all that you got all that handled why wouldn't you do this oh yeah it's also cheaper sign me up and for a limited time home chef is offering our listeners 18 free meals plus free dessert for life and of course that free shipping on your first box go right now to home chef.com slash bischoff that's home chef.com slash bischoff for 18 free meals and free dessert for life you heard that right

homecheft.com slash fish off. Of course, you must be an active subscriber to receive dessert. Eric, you know a thing or two about for life. Free dessert for life. Come on, man. How do you beat that? Well, that's definitely a benefit. But the benefit that I appreciate the most is having that product in my house, having a home chef in my house. So if I get home late, if I'm out late, rather than waiting for delivery service, because where I live, that can take a while. there's not a lot of DoorDash opportunities out here in the middle of nowhere. So if I want to order something to be delivered, I've got to wait 45 minutes to an hour. I could be into dessert and kick it back on the couch, watch it be some great TV in less than that time with Home Chef.

So it's convenient. And more importantly, to me at least, it's a lot healthier than anything you're going to have delivered to them. Check it out. You'll be glad you did. We've got the link in today's description to Home Chef. it's the real deal 18 free meals free dessert for life come on am down to the floor how old is derby you know that's a good question let me click that right fast

derby is uh 31 check on him when he's about 45 see how things are going he's he's he's sacrificing a lot he doesn't feel it now because he's young and he's lighter so he can fly he can bounce around and it can look a lot worse than it really is as opposed to being a 220 pounder that's doing it or more but that's it's going to catch up to him yeah he's a ddp yoga guy i don't know if he is or not probably will be if he's not or he should be because you know if you if you keep yourself loose and keep yourself Perhaps the wearing chair isn't quite as bad, but he's he's putting himself through a lot and has been for a while.

Just so you know, Eric, this is a guy who has said, and by the way, the only reason it didn't happen this year is because he broke his ankle and then got hit by a bus. What a sentence that is. But after he finished his climbing Mount Everest, this is real, he wants to become an astronaut and go into space. he wants to go to space here that's the type of cat we're talking about with Darby Allen I want to climb mine out once I recover for getting hit by this bus I'm going to climb Mount Everest and then I want to go to space so when you're saying hey let's check in on him he needs to slow down

he's slow down bud I heard about that Mount Everest thing he wanted to do a reality show or a documentary. He wanted to do a documentary about climbing Mount Everest. So I had heard about that, actually. And it's not a bad goal. I think John Layfield, did he not attempt it once or twice?

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, John Rayfield, for a period of a couple years, was scaling all kinds of mountains and planting the WWB corporate flag. I think Vince sponsored him. And at one point in time, I think Mount Everest was a goal. but if I recall, it just got set aside for some reason, probably because John Layfield came to his senses after climbing one or two other mountains.

Well, I was going to say, I mean, that, uh, I mean, not to make light or poke fun, but boy, there's a lot of people who thought that was a good idea and never made it back down. Yeah, you can still go up and visit them. They're still there. Can't get them down. Uh, Michael Stutler's with us. And he says, Eric, the ramp to the ring was rather.

a short walk, it made the audience look smaller, even though there were 8,000 there. Do you think the longer walk to the ring gives the impression of a larger house? Of course, it does. It changes perspective. And it gives you a lot more options in terms of filming that walkout because you've got more time. You've got more space. You can shoot different angles. But when they're short, yeah, they happen fast.

And it does make everything feel smaller. That's the problem with, you know, not having enough crowd to fill. the facility that you're in. James Sorensen is with us here live and he's got a question that I'm sure you've at least thought about or been asked about before. He wants to know, do you see some comparisons between Darby Allen and Jeff Hardy? Definitely. Character wise, absolutely, ringwork, without question.

Yeah. I mean, there, Darby Allen is a spinoff in many respects, and I don't mean that derisively. I'm not criticizing him for it, but he's, and he is a, he's a spinoff of Jeff Hardy for sure, every aspect of it between his character, the way he sells, and certainly his proclivity for taking ridiculous bumps. When you, when you take a look and you think about the fact that, you know, we've got two big paper views coming, we know, next weekend, AEW or WW, rather, is going to be in Atlanta for bad blood. The weekend after that, it's going to be Russell Dream in Tacoma.

As far as I know, there's not been a ton of matches announced yet for Russell Dream, but I think there are at least one on the other side of this. You know, Brian Danielson defending against John Moxley, you know, with what we've heard about this wanting, John wanting this or I'll get it right, Brian wanting this to be the last full-time year as a professional wrestler. Do you think there's a chance

that we see a title change? Do you think that Brian Danielson could drop it to John Moxley and maybe right off into the sunset for a little bit or do you think that we're not done yet with Brian Danielson on a full-time basis if you had to guess?

I don't think we'll be done. I don't think Brian is, and I don't know him, I'm just my impression from a distance. I think he loves it too much to walk away from it. I don't see it. His passion for what he does is what got him through his injuries. It's what propelled him into the ring when his doctors and everybody else told him he shouldn't. When you love it that much, I don't think he's ever going to be able to satisfy that desire to go out there and perform.

It's a powerful, powerful addiction. So many people that we both know still have to this day and have a hard time managing. Said it before, man, once you're out there in front of 3,000, 5,000, 20,000, 100,000, it doesn't matter. When you're out in front of that crowd and you have the good fortune of being out there, there in a story or with an opponent or somebody else and you get that crowd reaction that that is a drug that you can't find anywhere else can't go to the doctor and get it can't buy it on a street corner does it come in a bottle or box it only comes in the center of that ring or on a stage if you're a musician going stones still touring or work recently why they don't need the money

But they love it. You can't get it out of your system. And that's kind of my impression, because I don't know, Brian. That's my impression of him. Do you see the chair spot there with John Moxley and Darby Allen? I didn't. I'm sorry. I have this bad habit of looking in your eyes when I'm talking to you instead of looking at the monitor.

And I apologize. But I did not see that spot. Well, I'm glad you didn't because you would have had a rant. not really i mean seriously that that share spot it's going to be talked about on other podcasts i'm sure i wanted to talk to you a little bit about the pay-per-view approach because that is something that um i think needs to be addressed i mean we're we're less than two weeks away now from the uh from these pay-per-view extravaganzas it's next weekend for w and the following weekend for AEW.

So we don't have a ton of time to get there, but as it is, it looks like we've got five matches that we pretty much know what's going to be happening for WWE in Atlanta. Liv Morgan and Ria Ripley with 30 Dom and a Shark Cage above the ring. Damian Priest and Finn Baller in a singles

match, C.M. Pump and Drew McIntyre and a hell in a cell. Nia Jacks against either Bailey or Naomi. And then Cody and Roman Reigns teaming up to take on Solo Sacoa and Jacob Fatu. The

comparison is sort of night and day and that without me rattling off those matches you probably

could have guessed most of those because it's just obvious based on where the story has been

heading that that's what we're going to do. I do think it's interesting that the

AEW card doesn't feel as black and white. It's just one week later. We know it's

Moxley and Brian Danielson but it would be difficult to guess the rest of the card. And I think that goes to support your overall narrative of there's a lot

less story in AEW. And I know that the hardcore AEW fans would argue that and say maybe it's a little more nuanced. But the difference in us being so close to both pay-per-view events, and we basically know the full card of one and only one match on the other, that's a pretty stark contrast, Eric. Especially when you don't have any momentum. It makes it hard. Where is the AEW pay-per-view? Tacoma Doe, Tacoma, Washington.

Not exactly a hotbed of wrestling. I mean, it's not a bad market, but it's not a Chicago or a St. Louis or even a Milwaukee, Chicago-Milwaukee, same market really, but Detroit, it just seems like. that's going to be an uphill battle as well because I mean Tacoma's just historically I could be wrong I haven't been there in a long time but historically that's kind of a soft market more of a mainstream market and less of a former ECW type of market or probably AEW audience as of a few days ago there's 5100 tickets out for the Tacoma dome they've got it set up for 73 75 do you know what the capacity about what a brutal spot

my goodness you want to talk about darby allen just going full tilt like some of the stuff he does here looks like oh not this uh right on the steps this is yeah but he he hit that he hit that really well moxley moxley said moxie put him right where he needed to you to make that it looked fucking awesome but that didn't hurt him I don't think easy for me I was going to say I don't think I want to take that

bump I wouldn't take it either but if he's doing his best cactus jack here is he not boom he went right across the shoulder blades of that the Tacoma dome could handle 21,000 folks Eric and they've got 5,000 sold so they'll

you're scaling it for seven they're going to, it's going to look a lot like this. Yeah. Let's face it, once you get inside of a venue and you turn a lights on, they kind of all look the same. Yes. Not a lot of difference between venues. It's really just the size of the crown. I'm sure it'll be set up to look a lot like this.

The colors will be different. The stage you'll probably be different, but the venue is going to look a lot like this. Let's hope the crowd is a lot hotter in Tacoma. Well, in fairness, you know, we did watch this one with the sound. down, but I will tell you, they had their favorites. I mean, everybody's standing. This is a spectacle. Nobody's in there sitting on their hands when Darby Allen's out there, you know,

flying around the ring, splatting himself on the floor. If you had it heard, speaking of Darby as we watch him swinging away and taking a big right hand from Moxley, I heard rumors a couple weeks ago that Singh might be coming back to AEW. Have you heard any of that? Any buzz on that? he already did he was in london i mean i what i had heard is he's coming back in kind of a general manager role or

some more of a regular role i mean you and i sort of freestyled you know earlier this year i would use him and make him a commissioner and i would call him commissioner gordon and put the red phone on his desk and the whole thing i thought when they were doing the whole hey we're going to give a a spike pile driver or tony con and all that jazz i really did think it was leading towards we needed um another on screen authority figure to replace tony con and i thought sting would have been great for that they haven't done that yet maybe that's where they're headed but yeah i'm for it anything that gets sting on tv i'm a fan of joker by the way he's choking him out for real are you

watching this it looks like i have i have for i am it looks like his eyes look at like Darby's eyes are about to pop out of his head. What is he spitting out there? Blood and spit and blood and drool. But I would say Joker 2 is coming out. I think in October, they should bring Sting back as the Joker's Day, as your commissioner.

That would be entertaining. Are you going to go see Joker the weekend? It comes out? Probably. Yeah, I probably will say. I mean, the last one I saw, I was in Stanford. It was 2019 when I came out. And when that, prior to that movie coming out, there was so much concern about how the audience was going to react that the studio was reluctant to release it.

And they literally had law enforcement at a lot of the major theaters because they were afraid of the way the crowd was going to react. There was a lot of controversy. about that movie. It turned out, you know, nothing really happened of no, but it was, it was an intense movie. And I've become pretty good friends with Scott Silver, the guy who wrote it and I'm certainly going to go see the next one. Well, it comes out next week. I'll see it next Thursday. The day it comes out in my local theater. And I hope that everybody else will too. We need more movies like that, man. It's crazy. Crazy. Lady Gaga's got a big role in this one from what I've heard.

How about that finish right there, man? I got to tell you, when I first saw it happen live, my buddy Bart and I were a little freaked out. We thought, oh, my God, I hope he's okay. They see it from other angles. And we're just not used to seeing top rope DDTs like that. I guess that was a top rope death rider or an avalanche death writer, I think is the official term.

Excalver's happy with me if I get that right. But the DDT where he just falls backwards is the way we've seen. seen some of these. But that's not what that was. How cool is that? Darby's trying to go for a superplex. John Moxley overpowers him, turns it into a DDT. Buddy, that was a finish. That was devastating. I mean, at least he didn't kick out, right? If we're going to critical for false finishes, boy, that was not one there. And how about this for a nice little Easter egg? Here comes Brian Danielson jumping in from the middle of the crowd. Of course, they used to be boys as part of the Blackpool Combat Club.

Moxley has turned on Danielson. So this is where we're headed. And Brian is choking him out with a necktie. And I know you may not get the connective tissue there, Eric. But when Brian Danielson was first with the WWE and appearing on the main roster, he was a part of that group that ultimately would get ran through by John Cena, the Nexus group. and there was a skit where they took over Monday Night Raw and they destroyed everybody at the ringside area

this is probably 15 years ago and when this is happening Justin Roberts is the ring announcer for WWE and he's pretty good friends with Brian Danielson so Brian attacks Justin and starts choking him wearing his necktie so he's actually pulling that pulling back on Justin with the necktie and

Brian Danielson got fired from WWE for that because there were some sponsors who were upset about the fact that they used a choking hazard like that in this PG era. So he got fired. And of course he got on the independence and William Regal was encouraging him. Hey, just keep at it. They'll bring you back. They did. He had that second act with WWE, the Yes Movement, became the world champion.

But that little necktie right there was certainly a tip of the cap to the history that Brian has with choking people in and around to wrestling. ring with the necktie. And, of course, you saw private party come in with Commander. They made the saves for Brian Danielson. So we're getting ready to go to war. And that's what Brian Danielson is doing in the postmatch here. You wanted a war.

Then I declare war. Come wrestle dream. I'm going to kick your effing head in. They're playing the final countdown. And that's how we finish night one of AEW Grand Slam here on dynamite. What do you think of

the main? event with Darby and Moxley and the post-match where we set up and make it clear that Russell Dream is Moxley versus Danielson in Tacoma. Postmatch was the best part of the show. In terms of the crowd reaction, you got the yes. I mean, the whole crowd was doing the yes, yes, yes stuff. So it got a positive reaction, created a lot of emotion, set up the next pay-per-view. Seven, eight, on a scale of ten.

Well, how it could have been any better. The action in the ring was great. devastating if you're into that kind of thing Darby was Darby incredible bumps Moxley stayed in character true to form can't really pick it apart

I enjoyed the show it was an easy watch I'm going to have the DVR collision and I hate that because I really wanted to see Jeff's match here on Wednesday night but I can't wait to see what the hangman does with double j and a strap match so i'll be watching that on saturday night all right eric

we can't get out here without talking about our friends at magic spoon man i absolutely love this product and i got to tell you i didn't even discover it my wife did you know i think we all grew up the same way we wanted to watch those saturday morning cartoons we wanted to watch wf superstars on sunday and saturday morning and then we keep that going as we're adults because we never grow out of it help some of my best friends collect action figures but you know what we all never grow out of two every now and again we get a hankering for a big old bowl cereal well when you're a kid you don't think about all the sugar you're eating but then as an adult you realize hey maybe i need to make some different and better choices my wife turned me on to something she

knew i would love i'm talking about magic spoon it tastes just like the nostalgia i'm looking for just like my childhood favorites but without the sugar and with a ton of protein and if you're already a Magic Spoon fan like me. We've got big news. Magic Spoon has turned their super popular cereal into high protein treats that are light, crispy, and taste just like those classic crunchy cereal bars. Magic Spoon's brand new treats are so delicious that they've become a go-to for both me and my wife. She uses hers on her way to the gym. But man, if I need a snack at some time during the day, I'm reaching for these. They taste great and they're loaded with protein i don't have to feel guilty i'll have to go hide the wrapper from the wife hey the cereal's the

real deal too if you've never had magic spin let me put you up on game how about 13 grams of protein zero grams of sugar and four grams of net carbs you can feel good about what you're eating the most popular flavors are fruity and cocoa but there's so many more and i i gotta tell you i absolutely love the fruity it tastes just like your favorite as a kid but the cocoa i didn't rock what the cocoa as a kid. As an adult, dude, it's awesome and it makes the milk taste even better. And brand new, these new treats for Magic Spoon, Buddy, crispy, crunchy, airy. And it's an easy way to get 12 grams of protein on the go. And for the first time ever, these Magic Spoon treats are available in grocery stores with delicious flavors like marshmallow, and that tastes exactly like you hope

it does, and chocolatey peanut butter. And right now you can get $5 off your next order at magic spoon.com slash 83 weeks or look for magic spoon on amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magic spoon.com slash 83 weeks for $5 off for magic spoon. Hold on to the dream. Erica, here's some paper rustling. You got something over there? I love me some magic spoon. These bars, this is one gram of sugar, one gram of sugar in this bar. I'm going to show you the bar just a minute. Only three net carbs and get this

12 grams 12 grams of protein that's the same amount of protein as you're going to have two hard boiled eggs which you'd have to carry around your pocket all day stinking up the joint or you could have one of these delicious sons of bitches these are good really good pack them to work take them on a plane do whatever you need to do you could eat healthy one gram of sugar are you kidding me and it tastes delicious is it? Oh, God, that's good. I love them.

I'm jealous. I've got to go get some. MagicSpoon.com slash 83 weeks. Get $5 off. Use our promo code, 83 weeks. I dare you to try these treats. You're going to love them. Blueberry's great.

Okay. How about it? MagicSpoon.com slash 83 weeks. But what we've got to talk about right now is some pretty interesting things that have developed and uh well a lot of this happened while we were together here recording i guess we should start with some big pl news it was announced on cardi b's twitter yes the rap phenomenon cardi b teaming up with bianca bellair to announce that summer slam

is coming to metlife stadium not one night but two nights we predicted this on this very show that this is going to be a two-night affair and it is it's official and here's a spoiler the royal rumble is next now we knew that but now it's official met life summer slam new york new jersey the northeast two nights back to back with a stadium show that's big freaking news next august area yeah you did you actually predicted that not me and you were right on the money and That's, I'm kind of surprised, but I'm sure they've done the research and it's just going to mean more money. I, uh, I'm not surprised by this. I mean, we saw the success and the huge financial success that WrestleMania was.

It does lend itself to, well, we'll do that for the Royal Rumble and we'll do that for SummerSlam. Now we know it's coming. We know that Indianapolis has plans for major PLEs with WWE and I guess That's been in the works for a long time. But this being in MetLife Stadium, I don't know why that feels bigger. That New York market just always feels bigger.

And we know that they've had a couple of WrestleMania's there. To come back for SummerSlam, you know, the complaints when they did WrestleMania there were, oh, it's cold. Well, it's going to be hotter than shit at the beginning of August. But that's going to be,

you want to talk about a cash cow. That's going to be a mega show. And I assume they're going to pull out all the stops for that and then the New York market. because still to this day, and Eric, you can back me up on this. A lot of the buying decisions, a lot of the major business deals that are done, certainly from a media perspective, it all happens in New York. So this is going to be a dog and pony show twice as big

because you can bring in two sets of advertisers, two sets of sponsors, two sets of business partners. You can really whine and dine those folks and show them the big spectacle that WWE has become, and to have two nights to have stadiums full back to back, this is a big feather in the cap for Nick from the rest of the curry. It's a marketing platform is what that is. Yes. A big one.

Big one. So stay tuned. We know that's on deck. And boy, what a big show that is. But, you know, listen, on the heels of that documentary that we're all talking about at 83 weeks.com, We learned things about the interpersonal relationships of Mr. McMahon that maybe we didn't know. And AEW is in that market. We just watched the show, Arthur Ash, they're in New York.

And what do you know this morning? Twitter is alive. The Young Bucks tweet out, interesting flight today. And they posted a selfie with Shane McMahon. How great is this? I mean, listen, you got to give the Young Bucks some flowers here for at least understanding the assignment my goodness hey let's get a little buzz let's get on social media and show shane omack now before the internet goes nuts here i don't think necessarily that

this means we're any closer to their being Shane McMahon in at eW uh he lives in the area they're at the airport it kind of is what it is twice you think there's twice come on now him and jane and tony first what was that a month ago and now this and notice I'm glad you did that because I want to remind everybody when that photo leaked of Shane and

Tony Kahn it just happened to be right before AEW was battling against SummerSlam so if we can have some of the conversations SummerSlam week be around this photo of Tony and

Shane McMahon I like it and now this feels like a version of trend jacking in and of itself and that hey everybody's talking about mr McMahon and the documentary and what do you know here's Shane we got to post this photo I think it could be a coincidence and just well played but are you suspecting that there might actually be fired of this smoke and we're actually going to see Shane McMahon on AEW programming I don't know if we'll see Shane on programming or not but I don't believe that two rando photographs of AEW personnel, including Tony, and now the Bucks,

just happened to run into Shane McBan? Nah, I don't, I've never believed in coincidence. I don't hear either. I don't know if Shane will be on camera. I don't know if he's involved as a business partner of some sort, strategic or otherwise. I don't know, but I don't believe in coincidence at all. Well, listen, I don't think any of us really know what's going on in the mind of Shane McMahon and what his motivation is, or if he's just having fun and having some harmless fun.

But it is going to be interesting, but it does feel like it's not going to be the talk of WWE today. Brandon Thurston posted a little earlier that the UFC, specifically, TK. is going to be settling, or they've reached a new settlement for $375 million. This all stems from the UFC basically running a quote-unquote monopoly. That was the charge. Kung Lee had promoted pretty successful events there in the California area for years and years. And he banded some folks together and they've rallied the troops. $375 million, and I know that towards the end of last year,

the internet wrestling community was on its ear when they heard that MLW had won $20 million from WWE in a similar type lawsuit. $20 million, $375 million. Lord have mercy, those are big numbers. $375, Eric, what's your response to this? Their insurance premiums are going to go way up, because they're insured for this kind of thing. It's called E&O insurance.

I think it's called ENO insurance, errors and omissions. They've got litigation coverage, I'm sure, but still, you learn a lesson, $375 million a lesson. In WWE's case, a $20 million lesson. We talked about that a couple weeks ago, you and I here on the podcast. I think a lot of the reason that we're seeing WWE reaching out and doing things with TNA, for example,

is largely because they want to mitigate any of those monopoly conversations and risks. Yes. I don't know what the UFC will do to accomplish the same thing, but wow, that's an expensive lesson. No doubt it's an expensive lesson. My goodness. Here's a part of the statement that TKL pushed out. TKL reached an agreement with the plaintiffs to settle all claims asserted in the Lee case for an aggregate amount of 375,000.

million payable in installments over an agreed upon period of time by the company and the subsidiaries blah blah blah the company anticipates that the settlement amount will be deductible for tax purposes i love that even when they're trying to put a button on this thing i mean that is like some old school sandwich technique bullshit hey bad news guys we're getting sued uh yeah it's 375 million good news is we're going to get to write it off on our taxes because we're going to make so much fucking money that we'll be able to do that. But 375 million, Eric, and then just casually mentioning, we will be able to write this off on our taxes. Boy, if that's not corporate America in 2024, I don't know what is. That's a fact. Let's talk about some other news

and notes. And this is another piece of information that we haven't talked about. Bleacher report is shutting down and this is an interview that has been done recently where Tony Kahn has said that the former BR live bleach report live which was the home of the early AEW pay-per-views is sunsetting and then during Grand Slam we heard Excalibur offer a little bit of clarification where he says that bleach your report was ending and starting with October's wrestle dream streaming pay-per-views will only be available on Triller, YouTube, and Paperview.com. If you've previously purchased a pay-per-view on Bleacher Report, access to the previously purchased

events will migrate over. The migration is assumed to be to Triller, which we used to know as Fight, which still has all the archives there. The move is the latest interesting development in the ongoing television rights negotiation between AEW and Warner Brothers Discovery, which owns Bleacher Report. Prior to this past April's dynasty, it was announced that the ability to buy AEW's streaming pay-per-views would be extended beyond just Bleacher Report for the first time in the company's history. So let me just explain what we're talking about there. I was there at the very beginning of AEW in that parking lot in Jacksonville when they first announced that. Now, happened to be there with Mike Weber, her you and I both know and think

a lot of. And at the time, he was spearheading the efforts for fight. He's no longer doing that. He's since retired. He's still with the organization as a consultant, but he's kind of, for the most part, retired now. But he's still actively trying to grow other projects and help with Triller because Triller has now purchased Fight. But for a long time, there was some frustration from Mike Weber and some of the folks that fight that they had international pay-per-view rights but they couldn't get domestic pay-review rights. Now, of course, that's because

we believe that Tony had worked out some sort of an exclusive deal with Warner Brothers Discovery as part and parcel for him being on TBS and T&T. Hey, we want to get a piece of that pay-per-view revenue so direct people to bleach your report. I did not like watching AEW paper views on BR Live.

I didn't think the interface was as good as fight. I really preferred the fight version. And eventually that loosened up, as we said earlier this year, going back to April, they were for the first time Triller slash fight was able to offer AEW pay-per-views. It has led to a boom in fight and Trillers relationship. They're setting records. Like most recently, when they did all in and all out as a combination offer, because they were only 13 days apart, Wembley and Chicago. They did record business. with Trillers. So things are going really, really well with that relationship. But a lot of people, Eric, are seeing the statement of, hey, they're no longer going

to be on Bleacher Report Live and they're saying to themselves, self, what does this mean for the AEW television deal if it's no longer, if their pay-per-view products are no longer going to be on their platform? Do you think that means it's because they're just going to migrate it to HBO Max? Yes. Or is there more at play? Okay. No, I think they're going to max. Okay. I think we're going to be hearing a lot more about that relationship in the weeks and months to come. About HBO Max and AW?

Yep. And you would, I mean, you're not suggesting, I want to be clear, because we're going to get clipped up and quoted everywhere, because anytime you have an opinion about AEW people want to report on it, do you believe that AEW television is just going to be on HBO Max, or do you think the paper views will move to HBO? Paper views. You're just guessing.

Okay. Paper views. For all intents and purposes, do you think that that deal is a done deal, AEW continuing on TBS or T&T? Or do you think there's still something at play and there's a reason we haven't heard the announcement? Or do you think they're biding their time until the five-year anniversary show next week? If I had to bet, I mean, I don't know anything.

I don't talk to anybody on anybody that matters about anything. If I had to guess, I know what I would do. I would, if the deal was done a week ago, I would hold off and announce it at the five-year anniversary. It's a milestone and I would exploit it for as much benefit as I could possibly get. So that's, that's by bet. What would you do if you were, you know, taking a look and trying to figure out what the next steps are for the television relationship? Like, if you were Time Warner and you're going to say, hey, we're going to keep this deal together. We want to maintain AW.

Do you think they keep collision? Do you think they keep rampage? Do they keep dynamite? Is there a shuffling of the nights? I mean, there's a report out there that they've trademarked the name Shockwave. And we've heard Tony Kahn use that buzz word a few times about they're about to send shockwaves through the industry and all that sort of thing. Do you think we're going to hear an announcement of a new show on a different day next one? Oh, God, I hope not.

I hope not. God, I mean, it's so hard for me. I mean, I sincerely have to work on my self-discipline. I know I do because I struggle in moments like these to not be aggressive about my opinion. and why in the world would Warner Brothers Discovery or anybody else want another show out of a company, the collision, their numbers are horrible. What other night are they going to go to? They go to Thursday night?

You up against football for a few months out of the year? And the NBA comes in. It's ridiculous. Put all of your eggs into the A show. Make dynamite competitive. make it work, grow the audience, give us some freaking reason to have hope beyond looking at, you know, Brandon Thurston's numbers and the research that comes out and shows us every single week they're losing more and more audience. Stop the hemorrhaging. Get the patient off the table. Get it healthy. Make it grow and prosper and then do another show.

I can't imagine another show in an AEW kettle. I just can't. Maybe on YouTube. Well, I want to be clear, I'm not suggesting a fourth show in addition to Rampage and Collision and Dynamite. I assume that with this new contract, it almost works like a reset button. Nothing's off the table. We can negotiate something from scratch.

You know, if you were Warner Brothers, would you want to continue with the three shows that you have now? would you want to fold rampage and collision and then create and introduce shockwave and that's on a different day i mean you want two a w properties not three or four right right absolutely and you know two's a stretch but i could live with two i would fold them up i picked the strongest night of the week not obviously wednesday but i would pick another night and just put those resources and i'm not talking about money tony's got all the money in the world it's not a money issue he doesn't even care if he makes money or not it's not that issue

issue is creative horsepower focus and more than anything vision come up with a vision for growth start building on it two shows would be more than enough AEW content can i just freestyle something to you sure where's monday night raw going to be in january yeah netflix so what monday night wrestling exists now on television come january nah it won't matter Netflix is just like cable television in terms of its penetration I'm not arguing that but I'm saying

a friend of mine who's pretty smart I hold him in high regard he says you know sometimes Conrad in business you've got to be less than better than or different than well if they're on streaming they're behind a paywall we're on cable

the idea that they're just going to go because we know once I'm going to of time people were trying to figure out when will AEW programming air? Tony doesn't want to counter program the NFL on Monday. He doesn't want to counter program the NFL on Thursday. He doesn't want to counter program

the NFL on Sunday. So that really only left Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Well, we've got Wednesday. I think that's pretty established. I wouldn't move that necessarily. We know NXT has just finished up on USA. We'll talk

about that in a minute. Tuesday could be a day, but if there's been wrestling on Monday night for as long as we can all remember, and now there's not going to be. I mean, there will be, but it'll be on Netflix. Is that the shockwave name? Do you think, a Monday night, AEW show? Nobody's told me that.

I don't have any inside information. I'm just saying, hey, there might be an opportunity here on television. I know it's Netflix, but there's not going to be any wrestling on television on Monday night. Is that the answer, do you think? I can't imagine it.

I can't imagine a program network executive saying, okay, let's, because you're still going head to head. Yeah, one's free TV, one's behind a paywall, but so many people have Netflix already. It's almost ubiquitous in television. I can't see it, but who knows? Maybe somebody at Warner Brothers is, got the balls to give it a whirl.

But how does that affect Tony's position of not wanting to counter-program? I mean, that's funny to even suggest that AEW was somehow competing against the NFL is funny to me. It's a punchline. But let's just say, you know, Tony really believes that somehow he may hurt the NFL audience by being on Monday night and he doesn't want to do that.

Has that changed? I know you don't know. I'm not asking if you know that. But, I mean, that would be the question I would ask. If that's been Tony's argument about not doing it, why is it different now? Because WWE moved off TV? Maybe. Well, I mean, if we're going to stick with that, then that would still,

that we don't want to compete with the NFL. Would you go Friday? Would you go Tuesday? Would you go Thursday? Like, if we're going to stick with dynamite on Wednesday, day. Hypothetically, this is all hypothetical. Nobody says this is happening. It's just two guys bullshit in here, freestiling. What would you do if it was your decision? If you know, we're going to lose rampage and we're going to lose collision. And we don't know that. We're making a guess.

But that word shockwave has been hit over and over. So we know it's something. Do you just rebrand a new show on Friday or Saturday? Or do you spend off a new show on a new day? I wouldn't go to a new day. And of Friday or Saturday, obviously, you're leaving Wednesday alone. I wouldn't go near Monday for obvious reasons. They're going to get fried like an egg if they do. Between Friday and Saturday, I would prefer a Saturday night show. I think Friday night just culturally is get off work, take the wife out to dinner, take the girlfriend out to dinner, take the husband, boyfriend, whatever out to dinner, go out, end your week, socialize parties, younger audiences, typically party on Fridays.

I think Saturday might be a better night, but it's been a long time since I've been involved in programming. I'm not sure. But of the two nights, I think Saturday would be a better night than Friday night. I know I'm in the minority and we're going to disagree. I'd go Monday night. I'd go Monday and Wednesday. And I would try to see if there were any opportunities in the future in doing that to allow me to run more Saturday pay per views or to run more house shows and live events on. Friday and Saturday. And I know that, you know, nobody's making a bunch of money with house shows

right now, but that at least affords you some opportunity. I know that we don't talk about this on a lot of other programs, but this is kind of a low-key business show. I feel like you also get better rental agreements, achieve more affordable hotel stays. I know people don't think about that, that sort of stuff, but a hotel rate on a Monday night or a Wednesday night is usually different and then a Friday or Saturday night. Sure. And you might say, well, what's $200 to a billionaire, L-O-L, I get it. But when you need 250 rooms times $200, boy, that shit adds up week in, week out.

So I do think that if you got more affordable and let's also say this, from a routing perspective, it's going to be more challenging to get good buildings on Friday and Saturday. It'll be a whole heck of a lot easier to get good buildings on a Monday. Would you agree with that, Eric? Absolutely. because your concerts and all of your other shows outside of wrestling, typically are on weekends or oftentimes on weekends. Well, I can't wait to see what the shockwaves are,

but we're going to take a little break right now. We're not done with new content, but we teased it earlier. I want to go ahead and just remind everybody what a community adfreeshows.com is and shout out a very special member of that community. Mr. Joey Carr, he recently passed away, and our buddy Chris McDonald is one of the secret sauces of what we do here. He put together a nice little tribute video.

We'll take a little break, watch this video, and we'll be back after this. Hello, Joey. This is the hardcore legend Mick Foley, which you should help these. You're right next to me. You have a good day? Yeah, excellent. Well, they say people come. They say people go.

This particular diamond was extra special. I know you might be gone. If the world may not know, still I see it's in last the old. And I should, but I can't let you go. If you didn't know this before, ad-free shows as a family, because I've made a lot of friends here. It's a family. covers in blood or sisters who ride

Yeah, we swore on that night We'd be friends till we die But the changing of winds And the way waters flow Life is sure that's the falling of snow And I'm gonna miss you, I know know the

new I'm a good to and his car was a special guy and I'm better for having known him.

It was great to host him and his mom at Top Guy weekend last year and hunting and he literally left the hospital to come hang out with some of his wrestling family one last time we didn't think that we were going to have an opportunity to uh to be with joey as long as we did and i'm thankful we got the time that we did and we got the moments that we did and he got to meet some of his favorite wrestling heroes uh the person he wanted to meet most of all was see and punk and we were able to facilitate some of those things working with the AW team behind the scenes and man there's more to life than arguing about some of the silliness that we argue about sometimes

in wrestling and I know that we have a lot of fun on these shows but the connective tissue amongst all of this is our shared fandom of wrestling and we could have you know friends all over the world and with totally different backgrounds, totally different upbrings, totally different challenges and perspectives. But wrestling somehow brings us all together. And Eric, of everything that we've done in wrestling, you know, my favorite part of my wrestling journey and experience like this, yes, we've, we've had some fun shows and we've had some fun laughs and we've done some fun live events. But it's the people you meet along the way that make all the difference. And I'm glad you and I got to meet Joey Carr along the way as well.

Absolutely. And I mean, it's the same as you with so many of the people that are part of the ad free shows family. I reach out typically once a week and just randomly call eight or ten people and thank them for being a part of it because it's fun and it brings a lot of meaning and joy. And I say this with so much sincerity, there are people that I never had met before that I met through ad free shows family that have had a big impact on not only my life but my wife's life she's developed friendships and relationships that go way beyond just having fun together at an event or a top guy event or starcast event um these are long long term relationships that

evolved out of this common interest in something is crazy and silly in many respects as professional wrestling. I value it highly and the opportunity to meet Joey and and others that are a part of our family. I wanted to make sure we talked about Joey and how important he was and all that before we did any sort of negativity and that would be an excellent place for us to end today's show, but there is still some more negativity that we got to talk about wrestling. So if you want to go ahead and log off and call it a show today i won't be upset and uh shout out to joey and his whole family we're thinking about you guys and we're praying for you i do want to talk about a little bit of wrestling business to put a button on this week's show eric there's a lot of moving parts

in wrestling right now nxte has finished up their run on u s a next week they're going to be debuting uh on c w of course once upon a time nxte was never even imagined to be a television property I think at first it existed on Hulu and then the WWE network but when AEW became a thing we got a little head-to-head action once upon a time with USA and T&T AEW and NXT and I miss those Wednesday nights that was fun and maybe I'm hoping that we get to recreate some of that with a shockwave on a Monday night we'll see but what do you think about that CW transition and with the benefit of hindsight, do you consider NXT on USA to be a success?

Clearly a success. I mean, whether they're probably averaging between 600 and 650,000 viewers probably do in the 0.25.30 demo, which is a guess. You know, I glance at it occasionally every couple weeks. They'll take a look at it and see what the performance look like. And it's pretty, you know, it's flat. It's, you know, you get an occasional NXT bump up to 700,000 plus. But that's probably only four or five times a year. And usually as a result of a stunt casting,

some of the bigger stars from WWE coming over and working with a developmental talent. But I think, you know, by all standards, it appears that 650,000 viewers, on average with a demo of somewhere in a 0.20, 25, 30 range is pretty successful by today's standard. So, yeah, it's been successful. It's developed as a television property. It certainly provides a great opportunity for young talent that are developing to gain experience in front of a crowd and dealing with the pressure of television as opposed to learning their craft only in The house shows where you don't have commercial breaks and all the other things you have to worry about, hitting your times and all that. So absolutely a valuable opportunity for WWE and for USA.

The CW thing, honestly, I just, man, I just don't know what kind of a footprint. Here's the thing about looking at networks and their footprint. You can say, for example, TBS, and I use that only because I worked there for a minute. You know, they had, when I was there, they had a footprint of about 91 million households, maybe 89 somewhere in there. It was a little less than USA Network, but very, very close. I don't know where CW is at. I don't know what kind of a footprint they have.

And just because you're available in 90, 1 million homes or 80 million homes, whatever the number is, doesn't mean that people watch it. So I don't know what kind of viewership on average CW gets. I really don't. I haven't looked at that. Because I don't know and because I'm going off previous impressions from 5, 10 years ago when I was active in the industry in television,

it seems like a step backwards to me. But A, I could be wrong. wrong and B, even if I'm right, there could be a strategy behind growth for CW, which made them willing to write the check. We'll find out. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. I know that there's lots of rumor in innuendo out there about the CW. I think there was a company or an outfit of guys who were trying to put together a new show there once upon a time. And then we heard the NWA was going there. And now we know it's going to be nxte and it starts next week uh i got to think they're going to pull out

all the stops for a big debut on a new network like this um will this be the first time you've seen nxte in quite a while i assume you're going to be checking next week's out yeah i'm going to check it out for sure um and it yeah it's it's and i see it's not high on my list of viewing opportunities no offense anybody there but like i said my wife has a lot to do with what we watch on television and they wrestling isn't it all right well mine does too i totally get that i bring this up because there was a lot of a discussion recently about a tweet that william regal pushed out you know he doesn't necessarily take to twitter a whole lot but he did talk about how strongly he felt about nxte he said i was a part uh except for triple h's family part of the very

beginning of AAA or WWE's NXT. I was still involved, but not as much as I was. Thank you to H, Sean, Matt, and everyone else that fought for making a one-hour program on the WW network to traveling the world, but making new

stars and memories for the fans. It continues today. It doesn't matter what the color scheme is or was or has been. We change the wrestling world, although a few will want to admit it. It's been the best part of a 40 one-year career being

at WWNXT to the core. Now, I like that he said we changed the wrestling world, even though folks don't want to admit it. I get what he's insinuating there. And if you go back to 2013, certainly 2014 or

15 or 16, even on in the 17, you were seeing NXT shows that had more fanfare for the hardcore fan. And I think a lot of people took a look at the success. of the NXT brand and thought, well, that's what AEW is going to be trying to do and compete with. And we know that Regal himself found himself in AEW. And once he posted that about maybe not

getting the proper credit for changing the wrestling world that NXT deserved, he got some negative responses. And he responded. He said, FYI, although it serves some people's agenda and having a massive amount of people who work in AEW that can only back me up. I went to AEW to help because Brian Danielson asked me to. Please find me one person who can say otherwise. I arrived at 10 a.m. And until 6.15 p.m. Eastern, I would train anyone who wanted to come. Apart from going to the restroom and refilling my water container, I never attended a single production meeting. I needed people to realize I was only there to help. Nor did I ask a single question about anybody that works there's contract status. I helped at the ring with what any

of the talent needed. I showered and got into a suit by 630 and then watch the monitor with everyone else. I'm giving you the right to ask anyone who works backstage or talent the right to ask them if I did anything but help with no agenda. Feel free. I also didn't call Tony when his mom was ill. He called me and as soon as he told me where he was, I ended the phone call. and we spoke two weeks later. FYI, my deal was up December 28. That's when I left. These are all facts I can prove.

Anyone trying to twist this has the right to check this out. I'm friendly with 60% plus of the talent backstage and crew. Feel free to do some research. So Regal was catching some shrapnel on social media saying, hey man, I was here with no agenda trying to help out. And all these rumors you've heard about, I called Tony when his mom was sick and tried to get out of my contract

or I had inside information on AEW contracts. It's all for not. It's rare that we see someone come out and address these so much later after the fact on social. But I was proud for Regal. If this has been something that's been on his heart and mind and he wanted to share it, good for him. What's say you?

100%. Steve is a very unique individual. He's got a lot of, first of all, the first word that comes to my mind when I hear Steve's name is integrity. He has so much integrity. And for people to suggest otherwise and spread rumors to help feed their internet wrestling community drama issues, you pick the wrong guy.

He is the most straight up, legitimate, honest. straightforward person I've ever worked with. And I think it does bother him when people question his integrity. You can probably make all the comments you want about him as a character or his work in a ring or whatever you want. It's subjective. But to question Steve Regal's integrity is to reveal your own lack thereof. I'm excited to see what's next for NXT.

I know that so many people look back fondly on the black and yellow days or black and gold or whatever you want to call it. But this is a new version and a next step in what's possible for NXT. And I'm looking forward to next week's show. I'm going to be watching it. I'm also going to be watching every episode of this new Vince McMahon documentary series. If you haven't already, I want to encourage you to go right now to 83 weeks.com. Hit the subscribe button, turn on the notifications bell, so you'll know the next time we're live. But as you're listening to this on Friday, yes, even today at 5 o'clock Eastern,

Eric and I are going to be live breaking down episode three. As you're listening to this, episode one and two are in the can, we've got special guests lined up. We're even going to be responding to things that have been said by other folks who are recapping it, including a wild claim, and I'll tell you about this on 83 weeks.com, Eric, but Dave Milzer has said that he had conversations with the feds back during the steroid trial era,

and he said it was made pretty plain to him that they had evidence that Hulk Hogan was dealing steroids. Now, of course, we know that sounds like bullshit. We'll respond to all that and a whole lot more at 83 weeks. I can't wait. Did you say, was it 83, 83 weeks, or was it 84? No, it was 83 weeks. I have a podcast called 83 weeks.

When you did that on the documentary, I want you to know I felt like the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes. I was so proud for you. Hey, let's talk about the ugliness of that. I know that, you know, we said we'd delay it and do it at the end, but we're finally here. I do want to mention two things that are, I guess, news that aren't necessarily things that need to be covered inside our coverage of the documentary.

According to post wrestling, Vince McMahon is no longer being represented by the public relations firm that he had signed up with. And we all heard about this when it first came down with the lawsuit in January that he was using essentially the same folks who helped Harvey Weinstein. Maybe help isn't the right word. The firm's exit from McMahon's team comes five months from the working relationship from when it began and just before the Wednesday premiere of a Netflix dokey series Mr. McMahon. Citric and company led by PR strategist Michael Citric began working with McMahon in April. We learned to the split on Monday when we contacted Citric who informed us he is no longer representing McMahon. We followed up on Tuesday to ask specifically when the

working relationship ended and who initiated the change. And he responded. with respects to clients we don't comment beyond we are no longer working together this is interesting because when i mean as the story goes this was something crazy like twenty thousand dollars an hour or some obscene amount of money and when we first heard this we thought boy vince is not taking this lawsuit or these allegations lying down he's going to fight back but to now hear that no they're no longer working together a lot of people are wondering What does that mean? What's your read on this report, Eric?

Too hard to even guess. My only, again, if I was forced to make a guess, Vince McMahon can be very difficult to work with. He is intense to the point of being unrealistic at times. And I can only imagine if he's feeling the pressure, which clearly he is, based on the statement that he provided right before the documentary dropped. He's feeling the pressure.

I can only imagine what he's like under that kind of pressure, and it might very well have been a mutual decision. Hard to say. Nobody knows for sure, but Vince and Citric and his team. It's just curious that, you know, he leaves a PR firm, right before the docu series comes out like it feels like now man you need it now more than ever is he an honest that statement nope but he did push that statement out the day before or two days before the series launched and i thought even even melzer said i don't know if this was a good idea

it almost brings more attention to it in an effort to quiet and some of the noise down you just brought more attention to it and what's really weird conrad and i don't want to say a whole lot, but I, without giving away anything that we're going to be talking about, because we will be breaking it down. And episode two is going to be a little more fun to break down than the first one was. But, and three, for sure, over to 83 weeks.com. I just didn't think it was that bad. I mean, up until, because I did watch, I was up until three o'clock this morning. I didn't sleep much at all last night, but I was up late watching, and I got through all six. I'm going to go back and watch two again before we

record today, and I watched three, you know, tomorrow. But my takeaway was up until the final episode, there was nothing really that bad or anything new. Or more importantly, I think from my perspective, anything that Vince McMahon wouldn't have wanted you to see or hear anyway. It's rather, the whole situation is bizarre to me. It's almost like somehow Vince got a hold of a copy that was 10 times worse and overreacted and said that, you know, made that public statement over something that was really up until the last 15 minutes of the final episode was kind of a non-issue to be. me. I don't understand. The whole thing is very confusing to me. Why it's even on Netflix is

confusing. The fact that everybody thought it was going to be such a terrible, devastating, you know, revelation, which in my opinion, it wasn't. Nothing new. Nothing we haven't already read in the paper about. To me, it just seemed like a whole bunch of focus and intensity on nothing. I don't get it. The whole thing is confusing. Well, of course, the plaintiff in that lawsuit from this past January, she has released a statement that says the Mr. McMahon docuseries makes it clear there's no difference between Vince McMahon's on-air persona and his true self. They are one and the same. His quote-unquote character known for violent outburst, sexual deviants, and manipulation is the real Vince McMahon and exactly what she experienced behind closed doors at WWE for years. While the docu series puts McMahon's obsession, with power and control on full display and only scratches the surface of his criminal behavior

and fails to tell the story of his abuse, sexual assault, and human trafficking. She deserves the opportunity to tell her story on our own time and in her own way. We look forward to her day in court and seeing McMahon at least held accountable

for his actions. You know, when this statement comes out, She deserves the opportunity to tell her story on her own time and in her own way. You think she's got a book deal? You think, I mean, like legitimately, you know, like we saw the other day, I mean, I watched the Netflix series on the Menendez brothers. And then the next time I log into the HBO Max app to watch one of my favorite shows over their industry, I see there's a whole 90-minute documentary that HBO just produced around the

And it makes me wonder, you know, they were doing this Mr. McMahon series long before any of these controversies, well, the most recent controversy, came to light. I don't think we've heard the last of this, Eric. I mean, that right there, she deserves the opportunity to tell her story on her own time and in her own way. Sounds like somebody's shopping a book deal to me. Something. That's exactly what that is. Exactly what that is. This is why this whole thing just stinks to me. And I am not defending Vince McMahon. I've already gotten enough feedback just based on what I said yesterday when we broke down the show. I am not. I'm not taking a position. In fact, that's my position is I refuse to take a position because I wasn't there and I don't know. And neither is anybody else other than the parties involved. And the more of this thing plays out in the media, and the more we read these kind of statements,

the less credibility in my exclusive opinion this story has. This is just litigation infotainment, and I hate it, because the truth should come out. If Vince is guilty of the shit that she's, General Grant is accusing him of, then it should come out in court with evidence and proof. Not swaying public opinion because you've got a $20,000 an hour PR firm. Bullshit.

Yeah, that's shopping for a book deal. That's what that is. Or movie deal. Come on. Something. She has the right to tell her story in court. That's where this story should be told. In front of a judge with evidence.

I hate it. I hate this kind of stuff, not just because it's a wrestling thing. Does anybody think that I have any personal attachment or affection for Vince McMahon? I have respect for what he accomplished. There's no question about it. You and I would not be doing the show if it wasn't for Vince McMahon and his vision for what wrestling could be back in the 80s, late 70s.

We wouldn't be here today. I wouldn't get to know you. I wouldn't have got to met Joey Carr. I would never have the opportunity to do things that I've done for my family and travel the world and if you provide things for my kids, I would never would have been able to provide had it not been for Vince McMahon. I don't, I'm not so repulsed by what I've read in the media that I can just totally disregard the positive things that have happened in my life to me personally. That doesn't mean I have any affection for the man or I'm going to defend him.

I just also refuse to accept anybody else's version of it when it's played out in public because you can't trust it. You can't trust media because media is going to do what media needs to do to make money. They're going to look for sensational stories. They're going to jump all over shit. And they're going to exploit it for their own benefits.

That's why I can't trust it. And the more I see of it, the less I do. It's just, it's unfortunate. Too many people get hurt too easily with people that are just too inclined. to play themselves out, play their stories out for media and clicks, and perhaps book deals and movie deals. Well, listen, we're going to keep monitoring this situation.

We'll be talking about it in the coming weeks here on 83 weeks. In the meantime, if you can't get enough of this Vince McMahon documentary series and all the new information that's coming out as a result of that, join us at 83weeks.com. We're breaking it down each and every day at 5 p.m. Eastern. it's totally free and it's live it's interactive you'll be able to ask eric questions at 83 weeks dot com eric as we're uh buttoning up today's episode a lot of people are getting awfully nervous about the weather we've even started to see some shows and some flights being announced as being canceled t and a has come out and revealed that they've canceled their taping in spartanburg

south carolina they'd plan to be there this friday and saturday night but the inclement weather headed that way has made them second guess that our old pal jr and i were supposed to be recording this afternoon his flight to jacksonville from new york city was just canceled now i can't get home until saturday so he's got two free nights in the big apple delta sky club look out here he comes this is um this is a real deal man you know this is my first time being down here at the beach when we were going to have a threat of a hurricane now thankfully i'm going to be okay it's going to come into the east of me or at least that's what all the models look like but around me around here man it is the uh it is major news a lot of people

are talking about sandbags and i mean really critical stuff later today i was supposed to have as soon as i finished with you uh something we do for ad free shows called insiders we had a special guest who worked with us with the wwe for a long long time and and we were excited to do a deep dive on what his roles were. He's without power today. I'm saying all this to say, hey, folks, take care of yourself. And get out of the line of that damn storm if you can.

Goodness gracious. A hurricane, man. I mean, I guess I always knew October was hurricane season. But, Tim, it's awfully early. It's not even October. What's going on, Eric? Yeah, I heard this morning, I mean, Garrett, my son, our son, Gerrett, and his wife and our grandson,

Wayjay, are down in Tampa, on Clearwater, Florida, just outside of Tampa. And the storm is, you know, not, obviously not going to hit the Tampa area. It's up around. What is it, Pensacola or Tallahassee? I mean, Pensacola. It's coming in more on the Panama City beach side, more on that eastern side. Yeah.

But I've heard, again, this is the news media. And, of course, they want to scare everybody to do that so everybody stays tuned to the news media. But they're talking about it being, you know, unsurvivable 20-foot storm surges. That's a lot of water. That's crazy. be careful folks take care of yourselves stay safe and uh tune in next week when we're here at 83 weeks dot com have i told you what i'm helping people with in my real life yeah i'm helping them save money over at save with conrad dot com if you haven't already what are you waiting for go get

yourself a quick quote interest rates have improved and people are realizing hey now's a chance to save some cash and i'm talking to you if you're still on the fence about buying a house we can get you out of that apartment tell your landlord to kiss your grits and get you into a brand new house you can do that with 5% down with 3.5% down and yes there are still no money down options available in 24 save with conrad.com is your first step we're going to ask you hey where are you now and where would you like to be and we're going to get you on a path to fit those short-term goals but really meet the long-term goal that we all want and that's to appreciate the American dream The American dream isn't to give 29% of your gross monthly income every month until you die to some banker.

No, you want to own that thing for real. Your own piece of land for you and your family, your legacy, and we want to help you get one for yourself. It's saved withconrad.com. You don't need perfect credit. You don't need money out of your pocket. And maybe heavy you've already got a house. But it'd be nice if you could pay a little less. We're routinely finding a way to help our podcast listeners combine all of their debt.

And I mean all of it, credit cards, personal loans, even car payments. Get it into one low monthly payment. Not only is it a better interest rate, it's also a greater tax deduction, but maybe most importantly, a much cheaper payment. Routinely helping our podcast listeners say five, six, seven, even eight hundred bucks a month. But how much can you save? Find out right now at save withconrad.com. You guys, the housing market is really good right now, too,

for you folks out there that are thinking of making a change in your overhead, or your living conditions. Now it's not a bad time to make that move. Now we're better to do it than save a conred.com. He's going to save your money. He's going to be honest. And it's like dealing with a friend, an educated friend. And boy, there's a lot of uneducated and unfriendly people in that world.

Conrad Thompson is not one of them. Well, I appreciate you saying that, Jim. Check out our reviews online. You're going to see we've got more than a thousand five-star reviews. Customer service is what it's all about. we want to be your mortgage advisor for life. So there's no application fee. There's no credit report fee.

We just want to talk, man. Hey, tell us where you are and tell us where you want to be. And we'll try to help you get a plan to get there. We want to be your advocate, your humble advocate at save with Conrad. That's a boy, Connie. Look at those cheeks, ladies, look at those cheeks, ladies of gentlemen. My God. How could you say no to that, right?

NMLS number 2129, Equal Housing Lender, SavewithConrad.