83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 368: The Art Of Building Momentum

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad discuss how the build up for WrestleMania is going? Eric shares his thoughts on the situation and if fans need to be concerned. The guys also chop it up about AEW announcing that ALL IN Texas is now going to be an afternoon show. Eric has a lot to say about the decision that might surprise you. All that plus, a ton of questions from our LIVE audience on this edition of 83Weeks with Eric Bischoff.  Author Jennifer Blake discusses her latest book release, "FIGHT FOREVER: The Ballad of Kevin & Sami" — a look at the journey of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. That full conversation is available RIGHT NOW, if you can't get enough about Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, do yourself a favor and check out the conversation at the link in the description below! Link: https://youtu.be/7Ld3ib6fmKA  TURTLE BEACH - Level up your game and get 10% off @TurtleBeach with code 83WEEKS at https://www.turtlebeach.com/83WEEKS! #turtlebeachpod TRUE CLASSIC - Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at https://trueclassic.com/83WEEKS  ! #trueclassicpod MAGIC SPOON - Get $5 off your next order at https://magicspoon.com/83WEEKS  Magic Spoon—hold on to the dream! BLUECHEW - Visit BlueChew.com and try your first month of BlueChew FREE when you use promo code 83WEEKS -- just pay $5 shipping. ENVISION - Save money and grow your business with Envision Marketing—visit ConradsGuy.com today! ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/83WEEKS SAVE WITH ERIC - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at https://nationsgo.com/conrad/ ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 WEEKS You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to https://www.podcastheat.com/advertise now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at https://adfreeshows.supercast.com/

Jacob Simmel, I'm from Bulls Gap, Tennessee. I was looking for a house, and Jason, when I talked to him, it seemed like he knew a lot about what he was talking about, and he was a big help with anything I ever needed. It's my first time buying a house. I didn't know what I was getting into. It was a good experience. I closed actually a week earlier than planned. Anytime I needed help with anything or had any questions, you'd answer right away,

and help me learn a lot, too. I would gladly recommend anybody. y'all are a big help and if I ever go to buy a house again, I'd go with y'all again. My name is Jacob Simmel, and I got into my first time with the team at save atconrad.com. In my lesson number 2129, equal housing lender, savewithconrad.com. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and we are live. at 83 weeks.com and of course we couldn't do it without the hall of famer the only man to put Vince McMahon on his ass not once not twice but 83 weeks in a row ladies and gentlemen

mr eric bischoff eric what's going on man how are you i am in such a good mood conrad i'm in such a good mood it's a great day today i'm glad to be here how do you like my new background well i'm checking it out we're live and in living color if you haven't seen it already go right now to 83 weeks.com hit that subscribe button turn on your notifications bell you never know when we're going to be live like right now we are indeed live right now sean just asked five minutes ago where's eric shan we started at the top of the hour but hit the subscribe button don't miss us next time turn on that notifications bell we uh we got a lot to talk about before we get to our topic today we are going to talk about thunder and the stress and pressure that's created when you add a second show to

WCW, but we'll table that and kick that can down the road for just a little bit. First, I want to get your opinion, Eric. It was announced that WWE is no longer just putting talent into the Hall of Fame. Now they're memorializing moments. The first moment is the WrestleMania 13 matchup between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Brett Hart. It went down in March of 1997 and now the Friday night before WrestleMania. Lex Lugar takes his place in the right. deserving halls of the

WWE Hall of Fame. They'll also add this match as the very first match. What do you think of the decision to put matches into the WWE Hall of Fame here? Yeah, before I give you a take on that, I want to shout out to Dennis Law, who is watching us

here in 83 weeks.com, all away from Scotland. I love Scotland. I had the best time, really, of my adult life in Scotland. I really enjoy it there. Anyway, look, let's be transparent here. You and I cut, we did a watch-along of this this morning.

And I admitted that this morning was the first time I'd ever seen that match. I was a little busy back in 1997. I wasn't too interested in watching other people's product, even if I did have the time, which I didn't. But having seen it this morning for the very first time, Bobo, what a choice. And I think I commented if I didn't, I should have. It was early this morning and I was in a pissed off because my stuff wasn't working.

Technology just drives me crazy. But one of the things that I think we talked about that I was excited about at least is the fact that this match that they chose, as you pointed out, no title, no real stakes. A lot of other things I won't give it all away because people should really tune in and listen to our breakdown because it's really interesting. especially your contributions because you knew so much more about it. But I think it's so cool that the very first match wasn't a title match. It wasn't, there wasn't any real stakes. And what made up for that is the quality of the match. It was a clinic of the type of wrestling that I miss, frankly.

It was a perfect illustration of, what I think is missing and could still be. And you do see it from time to time in different organizations. But, and the storytelling and the ring and the timing and the execution, the selling, both guys, they just sold the art. The selling was pure art. You know, people talk about selling all the time and how important it is to sell properly in order to connect to the audience.

You have to create that empathetic response in the audience. They have to feel for you. And that is really hard. That is really hard. It's just as hard for a wrestler to achieve that connection as I imagine it would be for an actor or an actress on Broadway when you've got a live event. It's really hard. It's a skill. And that match, I think, demonstrated the epitome of that particular skill set.

It was fascinating to watch. We did a watch along here for 83 weeks.com, and we will be posting that. The Week of WrestleMania, you don't want to miss it. I draw some parallels and some conclusions that I don't think people have really made before in the wrestling space, and you get Eric's live reaction to the match, the story, the double turn, and he makes comparisons to WCW. Check that out. First, the first time ever, Eric.

watches that match later this month at 83 weeks.com. It's totally free. Hit the subscribe button, turn on your notifications bell. And of course, we're doing all of this because WrestleMania is right around the corner. And of course, one of the things that everyone's talking about this year with WrestleMania, specifically today, is the report that Kevin Owens may be injured. And that Kevin Owens might actually miss WrestleMania.

I should reveal that I have absolutely no inside information. I've spoken to no one involved, texted no one involved or no one who might know, or just going off of reports that we've seen online. You should start a dirt sheet. That's what everybody else does. Well, there's whispers, Eric, that may actually require surgery. So this isn't something where he could like rub some dirt on it and gut it through WrestleMania, like we saw Seth Rollins do.

And I think when people are talking about Cody finishing the story, over the last year, we have sort of lost our roses. and flowers for Seth Rollins. My man wrestled not once that weekend, but twice and on one freaking leg. So shout out to Seth Rollins for gutting that last year. But people are wondering, can he even do, can Kevin Owens even be afforded the opportunity to do that if he does have to have surgery? If that's real and he's this close to WrestleMania and the rug gets pulled out from under him,

and you feel bad for Kevin and his opponent, right? Oh, I feel really. Kevin is one of the nicest people, man. He's such, he is salt of the earth, as they say. He really is a good dude. And this has to be devastating for him. I mean, the business has never been at a higher apex than it is right now. All eyes are on Russellmania, around the world, Netflix.

I mean, just everything that's going on. And then to potentially have the rug pulled out from you this close. you're weeks away what are we 10 days two weeks away come on that's got to be painful i feel really bad for kevin but i also feel bad for randy orton and i know the stories about kevin owens and certainly we don't know what's going on there we hope that it's all just speculation that he's fine and it's all just story but if he does have to miss russalania i know that'll be disappointing but my heart goes out to a guy like randy orton who we know missed a boatload of time and when he plans

to come back and make his big return to WWE. Oh, by the way, CM Punk is returning the same night. Now with a little bit of time, we're getting ready to tell a big WrestleMania story and have a big WrestleMania moment for him. And maybe his opponent gets sidelines.

Like, I feel bad because it feels like since Randy Orton's come back, he hasn't really had a lot to sink his teeth into. I think a lot of us expected, maybe he would have had the story with Cody Rhodes and maybe we'll get there, but I don't I'm disappointed thinking about both Kevin Owens and Randy Orton. If Kevin's out with surgery, where does that leave Randy?

That's got to be frustrating, right? Yeah, and I'll be honest. You know, Randy is, Randy and Kevin is one of the matches that I would look forward to the most one of. I just love watching Randy's work. And I was really excited when I heard that it was going to be him and Kevin, because Kevin is amazing as well. Put those two guys together. Wow.

I hope. I, you know, hopefully, hopefully it's a rumor. Hopefully it's not as bad as it is reported to be, rumored to be. It's just hope all we can do, man. But yeah, disappointing, you know, you got to think. I know I don't know Randy well enough to try to read into what he might be,

might be thinking. But I know what I would be thinking if I was Randy Orton coming in, as you just described under those circumstances. And I, this could be, this could be his last rust. He's, I mean, he could have three or four more under his belt. I mean, he's that good and in that great a shape. He's been doing this a long time and he's had to deal with some pretty significant injuries. And anytime you've got injuries on your resume, like he has any, any given match could be

your last match. But add to that, you know, 20, 25 years of bouncing around in the ring and being at the top of this industry, it's, no, he's getting close to the end of his career at some point. and hopefully it's not forced upon them in a situation like this. We should mention that WrestleMania is just a couple of weeks away. So we are taking live questions and it looks like we're actually getting some questions about WrestleMania. Hey, come on.

What's to know what are your thoughts on John Cena not mentioning the rock during any of these promos? Do you think it's part of the plan or do you think they don't know what's going to happen with the rock yet? Now that's a fair question. because we've all been led to believe that, well, the rock just gets to do what the rock wants to do. And I suppose he's earned that privilege and earned that right.

But do you think they actually have a plan of how to reintegrate the rock? Or are they still sort of maybe playing it by ear? It feels like at this point, they've got to have a plan, right? Eric? One would think there's a little bit of an investment involved here. And yeah, you would, and I believe they do. I'm wondering if some of the ambiguity surrounding Rock's involvement might be by design.

You keep people guessing. Keep people speculating. Keep old guys with podcasts talking about it. I don't know. It's not working against them. And it leaves the door open or something that feels kind of like a surprise. So maybe it's intentional. Maybe it's not.

Maybe Rock has got enough plate spinning that it's too hard for him to fully commit. Keep in mind, he's in the movie business. I don't know what his schedule looks like. But if, let's just say he's booked to do a movie starting in what is this April, let's say July. If he's already signed, everybody's committed, money is, committed. There's a limit to what Rock can do. And he's going to have to be insured. I mean, there's a lot that goes into this. And perhaps that's an issue. It's understandable

you're in a rock situation. Or like I say, maybe it's intentional by a third on the list is, you know, I don't know, I'll tell you what I'll tell you what I'm going to do when I feel like it or when I feel it. I don't think that's it. I don't think it is either. People are hot and bothered with this WrestleMania talk. Alex is with us here live and he says, Randy versus Sino needs to happen one more time. I agree. But maybe an RKO

out of nowhere after Sina's mania match to start a final feud or Randy as the third man. Now listen, I think we all want to see one last time, Sina and Randy Orton. But I could get behind Randy Orton doing a similar speech like John Sina did.

I was gone for year and you didn't even care you welcome see him punk back blah blah blah like if he wanted to cut a promo like john senior did randy orton's probably got a shot at that right so randy's awesome on the mic you know john cina's gotten really really good i mean he was always good now he's really really really good and and orton is great on the mic i don't know that I'd want to see him in a battle necessarily like we saw with Cody and John. Oh, I'm not suggesting that. I just mean in terms of when Sina explained why he became a heel, you fans turned on me,

you treated me like crap, blah, blah, blah. I think Orton could go down that same road with, you know, I was gone for a year and I thought you welcomed me back with no, you were with the flavor of the month, C.M. It does feel like he could do a very introspective, hey, you didn't love me the way I loved you with the fans. I could see Randy Orton doing something like that. And they can also kind of acknowledge reality. They're both a little bit in the same boat.

I mean, John, Sina has acknowledged. Okay, this is it. And I'm going to, this is my last run. You know, we haven't heard that out of Randy, but wouldn't be surprising.

I mean, I think Randy would be a great candidate for a six month tour, farewell tour, 12 month farewell tour, similar to what they're doing with Sina. I think Randy would be awesome. I mean, he's got 20,

how many, 25 years of, of equity massive massive massive equity built up in his character and i think you get a really cool six month 12 month run out of that and maybe this starts it off maybe this i mean there's a lot of things they can do that's a great thing about having such a fantastic roster that's so deep you can handle situations like kevin old speaking of a uh a fantastic roster this deep it looks like it's going to get even a little deeper today. I don't know that you've seen this, but much like they did before his debut on Netflix, W.W.E put Penta's merch on sale the

afternoon of the event. Well, today, Ray Phoenix's masks and t-shirt went on sale ahead of his WWE debut. Now, once upon a time, this would have been sacrilegious, Eric, the idea that you quote unquote spoil a surprise. I guess in the modern day, very few people are actually surprised, but am I old school in wishing that they would put this up for sale after his segment aired, even doing it live during the show and giving it a shout out on commentary, but to post it earlier in the day, and I get it's a different thing, but if they would have posted John Cena heel merch before the elimination match started, that would have sucked.

Like, let me just pretend. Post it five hours later. Am I asking too much? No. No. No, and I think I'm a little bit desensitized to it. And again, one of the things that I'm fascinated to this day about wrestling business is the business of the wrestling business and the evolution of it and the new ways of doing things.

And as you pointed out, this would have been sacrilegious. This would have been considered somebody fucked up. Oh, my gosh. The right head didn't know what the left hand was doing. It would have been, you know, dirt sheets would have been on fire for months over this. But it also kind of helps build anticipation. And in today's collectible market, do you not want to have an opportunity to be the first one to buy his first merchandise, whatever that may be?

If I was a collector, I think that's an opportunity. And does it hurt, does it hurt his appearance? Maybe it would be a little better if it was. a quasi-surprise for all the people that don't know that he's already there and been there for a while. I don't know, maybe, but I kind of lean into the business aspects of what I'm saying in a long-winded way is if I was sitting at a desk and somebody said, okay, Eric, here's what's going to happen, Ray Finney's going to launch, and we can either hold off on this merch until after we introduce him or put it out there first.

And the first thing I would say is, well, why would you put it out there first? And you could expect the response that sounded something to the effect of, well, if we do it because such a large part of our merchandise sales or percentage of our merchandise sales always goes when it's a first run, always is hot because there's a big collectible market out there. And people are just excited. And by the way, it'll add to the anticipation. So when he does show up, people are really into it because they're wearing his merch. So look good on TV, Eric. Think about that. guy makes his debut and there's already hundreds of people thousands of people all of them

positions strategically at ringside so that we can capture them and capture that merchandise and sell the hell out of it i say you got me at sell the hell out of it you've got me right there that's what we're going to do maybe it was something like that i don't know well i'm going to probably what they say in office space i'm going to go ahead and disagree but something you and I are not going to disagree on is the stealth 700. I'm a big believer in this product. I got one from Turtle Beach and I have to admit, I wasn't sold on headsets because I tried them a long time ago. And my experience was I didn't like being tethered and the batteries always died if I got a wireless one. That is until I found out about Turtle Beach's Stealth 700 headset. How about when

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and get the ultimate immersive gaming experience with Turtle Beach today. So, Eric, these questions are coming in. Everybody wants to talk about WrestleMania a little bit. Let's stay on that. Alex says, for Sina to go full heel, should they have fooled all of his merch? And Sina talk about how the fans deserve nothing, et cetera. Man, he's selling the shit ton of merch.

I can't imagine them doing that. But what say you, Eric? There again, the business would rule the decision to get it. I'm a little disappointed that they didn't have CEDA come out in some kind of new characterization. He's got a different attitude, yes. He's got a different perspective, of course. But he looks to say. Yeah, I agree.

And to me, it's just. it's a little bit harder to really connect to the heel character when he looks exactly like he did 15 years ago. He was the ultimate baby phase. And I think conversely, yeah, I think having some fresh heel merchandise to go along with this new character. I'm sure it would have done really, really well. But again, I'm going to go back to the collectible thing.

This is just seen his last run. Phoenix's first run, seen his last run. Maybe there's some business logic in not doing what is probably the most obvious, which is to come up with whole new merchandise and have seen a heel merchandise. I like it artistically, creatively, I should say, but I think financially they probably made the right decision. It's horrible when a company is supposed to make money. Like when your choices come down to what makes us the most money,

Lane usually wins. It does indeed. Speaking of wins, Gareth Jones points something out. He says, what view both Rumble winners, Jay Uso and Charlotte Flair, not being main event of mania,

as has been last few years, does it diminish the Rumble winner? I think what he's saying is, if we've conditioned the audience that the winner of WrestleMania or the winner of the Royal Rumble goes on to main event WrestleMania, and now we see in this case,

both the ladies winner and the male winner neither one are actually going to close the show I think maybe we should change the wording it's not main event WrestleMania it's get a title shot at WrestleMania because that's really what's happening it's not the main event we probably should change those stakes the winner of the Royal Rumble gets a title shot at WrestleMania as opposed to saying the winner of the Rumble gets the main event of WrestleMania. Is that the fix next year? Yeah. And there's actually two main events, right? Because you got two nights. So it gets kind of convoluted, doesn't it? It does. Your solution might be the best solution. Straightest, the shortest distance between two points is a

straight line. Yes. I think you might be right on that one. Good instincts. What would you close the show with on night one? I mean, we assume that's going to be the group. I can't do it. I can't do it. I just haven't been watched enough of it to be honest with you. I'm all, of fantasy booking this week good deal here's Sean he's got a question they've botched the Ria biancoe is stuff so bad Ria could have just been acting like a child hopefully the match will at least be good Eric hadn't seen it but thanks for hanging out with us mr. whip for one right because I'm a big fan of Ria so I can't imagine nobody they want to hear from you so don't bring don't send any more current questions uh about storyline stuff

well yeah storyline a little bit but yeah fantasy booking I'm all out of I'm all out and do that. I do want to talk to you about a question here for Mr. Whisper because this is a good one. He says, I was watching one of Tony Schiavani's recent videos where he talks a lot about great matches being buried in WCW. Conrad was there,

so perhaps he can provide context. What is your view on this? And to allow to expand on that question a little bit, Shivani was saying we had to talk over a lot of great matches. We were kind of ignoring a lot of great matches. because you had incredible cruiserweight bouts that the audience at home was watching and we could all be impressed with the athleticism

and the moves that we were seeing but the storyline that the announcers were talking about was fine large the NWO that's the A story that's what everybody wants to hear about that's what they're talking about but in an effort to better serve the main event or the A story

sometimes they did it at the expense of some really great stuff happening in the ring I think that's the genesis or the basis of the question, and I wanted to just give you a chance to respond. I think Jonah is probably right. You know, there's a, there's a, there's a balance and we probably, oh, we did it. We overdid it. We, we didn't, we didn't balance the narrative throughout the show as well as we should have.

No excuse for it other than we're just, the cash register was ringing, man. It's like I said a few moments ago, sometimes you do what makes. the money and you could argue in a long term did it service as well in the long term probably not and that's where the error in judgment was on my part by over serving one part of the show and underserving others um yeah that was a mistake i'm not trying to justify it but it was a mistake i made because i was chasing the money yeah i um i get that and that makes sense to me i think we all kind of understand that. Gareth Jones says,

do you think we will ever see a war games match at WrestleMania? And also is there one gimmick match that Eric is most proud of? I believe if we were going to see a war games at WrestleMania, we probably already would have with the whole bloodline story. It feels like that would have happened last year or this year. It feels like that ship has sailed. I don't know that it really makes sense now. But is there a gimmick match when you think back on your WCW days or your WWF days or

hell AWA days? And you say, hey that gimmick that was my idea and that was a good one or that one happened on my watch maybe it wasn't my idea but i'll take the credit this is not going to resonate with anybody but me and i don't remember what pay-per-view it was but when i think it was kevin sullivan and brian pillman we were in baltimore and they fought outside of the ring up into the bathrooms it was sullivan and chris benoit great american bathroom okay that's like bin wow that was crazy fun.

Yes. Now, I don't know how people felt watching it home. Maybe they didn't enjoy it as much as I did, but I enjoyed it from a producer's perspective because pulling something like that off is really, really, really, really, really hard. And we did it,

and it looked good. A lot of the times when I see things go on backstage, you know, the ring is, you know, guys are used to working in the ring and women are used to working in the rain. used to taking bumps in the ring. You get outside of the ring and it's, you know, kind of different and it hurts more.

Or in order for it not to hurt a lot more and actually be dangerous, you have to adjust what you're doing. And oftentimes, balls, my opinion, just me as a viewer, my taste, we care if you agree with me or not people out there. So I don't fill up my feed with your nonsense. But 75 or 85% of the time balls outside the ring look like crap. it the punches everything just looked so bad compared to what we're used to seeing in the ring with benoit and Sullivan it was you couldn't see through any of it I mean they made it look good they beat the hell out of each other in the process but they made it so good I think the secret sauce is all you've got to do is you've got to have one guy steal

another guy's wife and then it'll look real when they rest what's your motivation shouldn't get me to my wife uh that is great america bash 1996 if you want to go watch it on peacock and it is hilarious because dusty's on commentary and he loses it when they go in the ladies room yeah it's fun hilarious uh by the way if you want to see some great punches and i know eric was just saying crawls into the crowd don't look good even eric would agree that one with steve austin and brad hart from wrestling media look pretty good both those guys i mean the punches were It isn't it funny, you know, I'm so excited about a great punch in wrestling. You know why?

Because you hardly have to see them. Yes. That's an art form too. I mean, everybody can throw a working punch, but not everybody can throw a beautiful one. And Austin, they both put out a clinic, but Austin was like the head of the class. For your money, who are your favorite punchers? Like a lot of people point to like a Jerry Lawler or a Jeff, it and they say all those Memphis punches they really get excited behind those

was there so anybody that really stands out to you and you think man that guy had a good I mean the person that made the biggest impression upon me was Nick Bockwinkle okay Kurt Hanig was right there with him right there with him but Nick Buckwickle no that's because I didn't get to see a lot of Jerry Lawler if I didn't see any Jerry Lawler until probably 1990 so I just wasn't as familiar and same with Jeff now I have seen Jerry's some of Jerry's matches especially early on early in his career oh he was unbelievable same with Jeff but as far as impression I was just like always looking forward to Nick Lockwood sort of big

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dot com slash 83 weeks you'll get $5 off magic spoon that's some good stuff dude i haven't rocked the granola yet megan is smashing it but dude the treats hard to beat check it out you're going to love some magic spoon and we're going to love this tweet from hurricane w we has tweeted it ray phoenix is making his debut on smackdown tonight but my favorite is friend of the show hurricane wants to know what's up with that we can't have two rays how will people know the difference of course this is a funny deal here because when Shane Helms first joined WWE they said you can't be Shane we've already got a Shane so you're going to have to come up with something else I

thought that was funny we've heard that a lot clearly that's a McMahonism but now we do have two rays R EY we've got Ray Mysterio and Ray Phoenix if Ray and you're both Lutja or does it wear really cool masks. Don't you imagine Vince McMahon would be putting his foot down and he would just be Phoenix or something like that today? Like if you could pay admission to watch Vince McMahon react to this, like if he was still in charge, it would be worth, it would be worth a WrestleMania ticket. Like if you could make sure it was going, you know, you could watch him rant for about 20

minutes. It would be worth the price of admission. Uh, it would be fun of what. Ah, Sam! kind of third grade bullshit is this hilarious here it's awesome hey want to shout out to rich he just gifted five memberships here for 83 weeks with

eric bischoff we appreciate that thank you very much up and in and hanging out with us we promise eventually we are going to get to our topic but we've got some other news and notes i want to give a quick plug eric you are recently live doing an interview with vampiro You did it right here at 83 weeks.com. Bamp is a pretty interesting guy. One of the most fascinating stories and journeys through wrestling I've ever seen. Check it out. It's here in the archives at 83 weeks.com and totally free.

And Eric, I don't know if you saw this on your radar this week, but Miss Elizabeth was in the news. Yeah, she's actually got a museum display going up in Kentucky. And it's going to be up for two calendar years. It opened earlier this week on Monday. And it's opened.

Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Capitol City Museum. And this is in Frankfurt, Kentucky. It's a two-year exhibit called the lovely Miss Elizabeth, the first lady of wrestling. It's open now and will be for the next two years Monday through Saturday, 10 to 4 at the Capitol City Museum. And I, for one, am all in on this. Eric, I've seen, I can't tell you how many small towns I've driven through in my life and I saw some sort of sign when you got to the city limits. Welcome to So, and so home of NFL legend or whatever there's a sense of local pride whenever they have some sort of celebrity that made it in the sports world or what have you but wrestling should be lumped

into that category and i think it's cool that you know miss elizabeth is getting some flowers in kentucky what do you think of this i think is awesome and and i'm pretty sure that's where she's from yes and is a beautiful part of kentucky lorry and i've driven through it a few times on our way to Florida or our way down to visit you guys in that's full I think if we drive through again which I think we're going to this winter our way to Florida for the holidays we will step in and check that out I'm sure Lori would love to see it I love it you know quick Google search shows that it's a small town of under 30,000 people so she's got to be one of the notable residents of uh of the area and when you make

the list you know I guess um you know there's some other names on there certainly but miss Elizabeth stands out man how cool is that I'm just so happy for her and her family that they have this opportunity hey speaking of opportunities want to give a shout out to uh this new book fight forever the ballot of Kevin and Sammy uh Jennifer Blake is the author of that book and yeah considering the story that everybody's talking about Kevin Owen I thought we should plug it right now. The full conversation with Jennifer about the book. We've got a link for in today's show

and down in the description. Jennifer shares her first impressions of Kevin Owens and Sammy and what it was like sitting down with them to talk about their careers, what inspired her to write a book about them in the first place. And if you just can't get enough, Kevin Owens and Sammy Zane, I think you're going to dig this conversation. Check it out in the description. Hey, let's hit a few more news and notes.

I don't know if you saw this, but there's another rumor. Again, I haven't talked to anybody, and I don't think you have, but you might. I don't know. The rumor is that Rusev, who we saw as Mero in AEW, is headed back to WW. And I'm seeing the same report saying that Lana, who we knew were by in WW, C.J. Perry in real life, I guess they're back together again in real life, not that's in any of our business. I don't think that she is involved in those conversations, according to the reports we've seen. I, for one, will always miss the original Rusef and Lana.

I mean, that motherfucker wrestled John Sina in a tank at WrestleMania. Like, if you get a tank entrance at WrestleMania, I will remember you forever. So I'm always going to want that sort of Rocky 4 inspired. I love that presentation, but I'm excited that maybe Rusef gets another bite at the apple with WWE. What do you make of this news? I've been aware of the evolution of this or this has been going on for about three months, maybe more.

Rousseauv was, he was anxious to get out. He's anxious to get back to WWE. I don't know much about the Lana situation. I've heard both two different sides of that. So I don't think there's enough meat on the bone to discuss, but I know for a fact Roussef's back and he's been working at that for quite a while now and that everything worked out for him. Of course we know, he's got a great agent.

Want to give him a plug? No. I just did. No, I shout out. I do want to mention there's some, you know,

obviously what you're talking about is he's back from AEW and I saw some speculation that maybe people were wondering these promos between John Sina and Cody Rhodes have a little too much AEW talk.

Now they stopped short of saying AEW in the promos but as a reminder, John Sina pointed out to Cody this past Monday on Raw, but hey, you had to leave. I didn't have to leave. I stayed here the whole time.

I was good enough to make it work, whatever they handed me. You had to leave. I stayed and I create empires for billionaires. And all you do is steal money from their kids. That was basically the gist of the promo. So there's enough inference where you can, you know,

read the tea leaves. That was kind of deep. You actually have to think about it. it for a second. Yeah. Because on its surface, it's just a, you know, until he gets to the end, you just steal money from their kids. Yeah.

That was a, that was a direct shot right between the eyes, laser sight. How? What do I think about that? Is it too inside baseball? Does it have a place? Do you need to do it? It doesn't get any heat with me. I mean, the kind of heat that you would want.

It is, I mean, nah flat doesn't work for me brother it's just it's too inside and it look i've got no problem with good inside stuff if it's got if it draws blood like if you're going to lay something on somebody and you're going to use reality as your support mechanism which i love and encourage you got to do it in a way that draws blood it creates heat between you two I would imagine 70% of the audience went, huh, what's he mean by that? I don't know. It just wasn't strong enough for that setting.

Now, if it would have been an offhandic comment on TV and wasn't, you know, right there in the center of the ring and the focus of the show of that moment, then I would have left it off and it would have been, I think, appropriate. But not under those circumstances. It's flat. Ask Obama is here with us and it says Eric you and Conrad should do a whole episode about the Jacques Rouge Joe Dynamite Kid thing. I'd also love to hear a full episode about Sister Sherry.

At course, Eric, you weren't even involved in wrestling when Jacques Rejo and Dynamite Kid dusted enough, I don't think, but did you ever have a hard to? I mean, we could do a wash along or something like that and get somebody on. It wasn't filmed. Huh? You don't know the story, do you? No, I don't. Okay.

So I guess as the legend goes, Dynamite kid had been picking on Jauchrege. He was a notorious river and maybe he took it too far and Jacques Rzeau got a roll of quarters and sucker punched him and knocked his ass clean out. And the quarters went flying and it became a whole big thing in wrestling. When it became one of those legendary stories, but it happened backstage. It wasn't film. It wasn't an angle. This is just guys in catering dusting it up.

But I was thinking as I'm reading the question, you never even met Dynamite kid, did you? No. Yeah, I met Jacques, you know, worked in a little bit and see him every once in a while, but no, I never worked with that. I'm like, I never met him. Why, why do you think Jacques or Joe gets the negative reputation or just a negative connotation attached to his name? What do you think that is?

Because he's French Canadian. That's all it takes. Instant heat. Didn't you just shit on, didn't you just love on Kevin Owens a few minutes ago? Oh. We'll move on. I'm going to rescind that shot. Instagram,

a wrestling historian says, what if Eric won the WCW championship instead? I'm pretty sure what he's inferring there is you instead of Vince Rousseau. Do you think if you would have been the WCW champ, would there have been as much heat as there was when Vince Rousseau became the WCW champ? And before you answer, I want to remind everybody that Vince McMahon was both the ECW and the WWF world champion. So I know we're going to say no one should be, I get it, but I'm saying if we're going to do it,

when people dunk on, you know, a quote unquote writer or someone in a backstage capacity being the champion, they almost always point to Vince Rousseau. They almost never point to Vince McMahon. So I'm wondering, where do you think you would have landed in that when in the annals of history? So let's talk about Vince Rousseau's heat. It wasn't money heat. It was disgusting heat.

It was not, there was no money there. Heat to me is a commodity, and you can exchange it for money. Ms. Rousseau's heat was pure disgust, disappointment. Maybe disgust is too strong a word. definitely disappointment. Such a big difference. First of all, I would have never, ever, ever in a million years. You look at everything I did when I got into the ring in WCW, I got my ass kicked because I had heat. And in the transactional nature of the wrestling industry, I had heat because I was the smarmy boss who everybody hated and I was full of myself and I had really dimples and I made

sure everybody knew I knew it and all the stuff I did to make I want to see you get your ass kick. They wanted to see me get my ass kicked. Nobody wanted to see Rousseau get his ass kicked. They didn't want to see him in the ring. Just like they wouldn't have wanted to see me kicking somebody's ass and winning the title. I had my heat was valuable. Rousseau's heat, was invaluable. Now, neither one of us, Russo or Bishop, should have ever been in a situation where we could have won a title. First and foremost, neither one of us are wrestlers. All we can do is get our ass kicked. I was good at that. Rousseau wasn't even good at that. McMan, on the other hand, was believable. And you could get into the ideology of performance.

professional wrestling and the history and the culture and weird, blah, fucking blah. However, Vince was believable. Vince looked like he could kick your ass. So it wasn't as big of a stretch, and that was, that was transactional heat, not disappointment heat or disgusted heat. So I don't think you can compare really McMahon to either. obviously to me or Russo in terms of credibility in the ring it's had transactional heat so had by the way let me put a little heat on Eric Bischoff here he just said that he should have never held the title but he beat

Terry Funk for the hardcore title yes that's not the world championship though there's a difference and it was a gimmick thing and I lost it immediately so what and you beat Rick Flair at Starcade it was his idea and you made out with Vince's daughter and wife that was Vince's idea when you said it was his idea I was like oh I got another one I can go to immediately we're having a lot of fun we want you to keep those questions coming swerved daddy says with the build of Jacob and just how over he is and his promos are so different from anyone else he is a true one of one but you'd be surprised if he is a

headliner next WrestleMania now that's fun calling your shot a year out, do you think, he's talking about Jacob Batu here. Do you think Jake, I called that three months ago. You think he'll be in the main event next year? Yeah. I think he's, I think he's going to be one of the biggest stars in the company by this time next year. I said that three months ago.

You asked me, what do you think of Jacob had too? I said, he's going to be the guy. Just wait. Feel the same way about Bronner by the way. He's going to be right there with him. Those are your next generation of superstars right before your very eye. they're right there are they ready probably not they don't have the equity built up yet that just takes time exposure but man there's both of them are on their way

i'm pumped to see both of those guys move up the car jacobitu especially i mean long overdue glad he's there alex wants to know with tNA's partnership with w e do you think the main event mafia could ever be inducted into the t and a hall of fame that's interesting I don't know if people talk about the T&A Hall of Fame, but, uh, yeah, I mean, I could see the main event mafia going into the Hall of Fame at some point. Why not? What are you? So, do you think, Eric?

I don't know. I, you know, it's always such a, it's first of all, none of us understand the process of who goes in and who doesn't or what the parameters are, criteria is, or are. So. You're left to your own subjective opinions and mine is what do these guys ever accomplish each one of them individually are probably all all of them are in hall of fame or most of them but as far as main event mafia hang on eric we're talking about the t and a hall of fame i want to make sure you got that this is the t and a hall

of fame right okay i thought the question was given the partnership between the two companies would we ever see main event mafia in the wwee hall of thing. Nope. It's the T&A Hall of Fame, but he's saying there's a lot of people who are now associated with WWE who are in the main event. Like would Booker T or T. That's what we're talking about. Like we've just seen like a guy we never thought would be back in TNA, Ethan page, because he didn't leave on the best terms. He was on the TNA show this week. So I think people are saying, hey, since some of those borders are falling a little bit, W.W. would probably allow some of their

I'm sorry, I misunderstood the question. You're on a T&A show and going to the T&A Hall of Fame. So in the context of a T&A Hall of Fame, could you see them putting in the main event mafia? In that context, absolutely. Because within T&A at the time, that was a

really cool angle. You know, in terms of what did it accomplish, you know, that's objective. But in terms of the quality, characters, the work, just the mega power, uh, in terms of star power. Absolutely. Absolutely. Travis Medway is with us here live and he says, I don't like being negative, but is the

story animosity for Sina Cody losing steam? Should it have been more physical like rock Cody last year as being out there by themselves with no one in between them hurting the heat. So there's a lot to unpack there, but I just want to say at the top here, Eric, we've got five episodes of television. There's three smackdowns and two raws in between us and WrestleMania. So there's five more live shows to advance this. Of course, he's

referencing the beat down in the rain with, uh, behind, you know, the building in front of all the production trucks with the belt and all that stuff. Yes, that happened on the way to WrestleMania, but we've got five weeks to get there. I just don't think we've gotten there yet, Eric. What say you? No, I'm not feeling it.

You know, I haven't watched the show. you know, in their entirety, but I do go back and watch Cody's stuff. Obviously, I'm interested in Cody as a person and just because I've known him since he was a child. So I am paying attention to that and I catch the clips or I'll go back and rewatch stuff. So I'm a little more familiar with that one. And I have to admit, there's just something, something's missing. I'm not worried about it, given the nature of the talent involved and the writers

and the people producing, to your point, we've got five weeks. Yeah. But at this stage of the arc, do I feel compelled to stay on top of it? No, I'll catch up when I can. And that's not the feeling you want. You want to feel the, you can't,

I can't wait until, you know, the next episode. You want to see the next step in that story. I'm not quite there yet. we're getting a lot of questions about Booker T. I don't know that you've kept up with this. Have you seen Booker T in the news this past week? A little bit, yeah, negative stuff. So the idea is, I guess Shane Strickland, who we know is Swerve Strickland,

sat down and did an interview with DJ Vlad, who was a big influencer in the hip-hop space. And I'm actually very familiar with Vlad TV and count myself as a YouTube subscriber. But I guess there's some. some heat because once upon a time, Booker T was maybe agreeing to do a DJ Vlad interview and it didn't come to fruition. And when it bubbled back up, Booker said thanks, but no thanks. So I guess Vlad has heat with Booker T over whether or not he'll do an interview. And I guess the whole Vince McMahon bad behavior from years ago and all of that

sort of bubbled up to the surface in the interview with swerve. And I think Booker took it personally. I wanted to get your take on this if you have an opinion or if you've kept up with any of this at all. I've just seen the back and forth in social media and it's kind of the kind of thing I try to avoid. I'm actually unfollowing certain people that just either because all they do is talk about the dumbest things in the world or their takes are so hot garbage that I just feel dumber every time I see one or people that are just looking for. the garbage now just so i say i'm aware of it i don't know enough about it i know booker i know what kind of man he is so whatever the issue is it's probably with the other guy because i know i know booker it's a solid individual so other than that i haven't followed it

let me just say this i think there's going to be a lot of people throw an opinion around i think this is something that swerve and book or t should just handle like my under my my experience with both of those guys is they get face to face and this will get straight and a hurry i think sometimes distance creates false animosity and you know it's hard to read tone to text and things like that that's the biggest thing you hit it right on the head kind of right you know you can say something in especially if you're if you're being quoted in social media yeah now you're Now you're two people removed for what you were really trying to say. And that's what shit goes bad.

That's why try not to read that stuff because you're never really getting a very accurate take. And sometimes people just try to be funny or they try the word thing or in their minds of saying it one way, but you're reading and it comes off completely different. That's right. I've had that happen to me on both sides of the equation. I fired back to somebody, you know, something I thought was really kind of funny and consistent with my humor, but I didn't realize the person on the other end was in a really, really bad mood and was angry at the world for whatever. And they see that they don't see the humor

because they can't see my facial expression. They can't hear the tone of my voice. They can't just read me and know that, hey, I'm just going to have fun with you. Right. You don't have that. And it tends to, it can cause issues, real issues. That's probably what this is. I say that as somebody who's had a misunderstanding with Booker T before. There was a time where I didn't think I liked him and he didn't think he liked me. We got together in person. And man, we figured that out real fast. And it was based on just there's no tone to text.

In my experience with both guys, swerve included is, hey, these are two straight up dudes and they both have mutual respect and admiration for each other, I'm sure. They'll get in the room and figure it out. But the issues that they're discussing, I don't think a couple of white dudes probably need to weigh in on. So we'll leave that to them.

Travis Medway just gifted five memberships here at 83 weeks.com. I want to give you some love. Oh, Travis. We love you, brother. And appreciate you, Darren Staley, gifting a membership as well. By the way, I want to take this a minute and brag on True Classic. I'm a big believer in True Classic. You will be too.

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All to give back to communities they believe in, you see, every detail is done with purpose. And I've been wearing True Classic for a while now. I know you have two, Eric, you've even made some appearances on. And I got to say, from the first time you actually hold the product in your hand, you're going to know what's different. It's snug where you want it. It's relaxed where you need it. There's no weird bunching. There's no awkward tight spots. It's just a clean, effortless fit that works. So forget the overpriced designer nonsense. Skip the cheap throwaways. True Classic delivers premium essentials that are built for real life. Grab yours today at Target or Costco or to support the show and get the best

price, go right now to True Classic.com slash 83 weeks to get hooked up today. That's trueclassic.com slash 83 weeks. Eric, what do you think of your true classic teas? I'm wearing mine right now. I love it. Absolutely love it. You know, it, it does fit well. No doubt about that. But I love the feel. It's a very comfortable. feel. I wear a lot of shirts that people give me, you know, t-shirts. You go to conventions or you do autographs on these and everybody's got a t-shirt. You know, when I'm working out, you're working around the house, I don't usually put on anything that I, that I'm worried about ruining, right? So I didn't wear the cheap stuff. And you get used to it. It's coarse

and it's heavy and whatever. And you put on something like true classic. And it's just, it's the feel of it as well as the fit that that works for me. I love it. I get an old closet full of it. I will never not have True Classic shirts of my closet, ever. Go see why right now in True Classic.com slash 83 weeks. Gareth Jones, he's got a couple of questions about Goldberg in Atlanta. He's just one final question following on,

what was it like to be backstage for the Hogan Goldberg match in Atlanta? How was the backstage atmosphere, reactions, feelings, and how was it put together with Goldberg and Hogan in Atlanta? Did it feel like a pay-per-view that night? in July of 1998. It actually felt bigger than most paper views because it was in Atlanta and every executive at Turner broadcasts. It is funny, these hypocritical sons of bitches.

For the longest time, they didn't, they meaning other Turner employees and especially executives did everything they could to pretend that WCW was not even a part of Turner organization. And then all of a sudden, people that I never even heard of before from Turner, the executive side, we're calling and asking for tickets. Their neighbors and their kids and family members. It was nuts. It just had a whole different energy.

Between the crowd, you know, the fans, and that had to do with Bill. It was a hometown guy. It turned into a massive character up against Hulk Hogan. For free? Well, not for free if you bought a ticket. on a nitro? Oh, man, it was crazy. But what made it crazy for me was all of the executives that I had to interface with

because everybody wanted to be treated special. Some of them deserved to be, but a lot of them just wanted to hang out backstage. And, you know, that's the thing. You'll hardly ever see me backstage at an event, ever. And you because I know how awkward and I know what a pain in the ass it is to have people that aren't working that are coming in backstage and they want to say hi to everybody and they don't want to see what's going on and you're in the way.

Unless you have a job backstage, it's a hectic environment, everybody back there, other than people like you, if you're just there visiting, I mean you, you, what I mean, me, you if I'm visiting. But that day, everybody and their brothers and sisters were, backstage which made it just a lot harder to work especially when he couldn't yell him get the fuck out of the way because you know they were executives i love it so much hey here's a question that's kind of catching me off guard i don't know if you saw i guess we should mention this uh jimmy usa was beat to a bloody mess by gunther this past week on

monday night raw and everybody was talking about this they're saying that raw's getting a little more adult, a little more risky. And the whole storyline and run here with Jay Uso has been criticized a little bit by fans, which I thought was interesting because it felt like last year he was

one of the one of, if not the most over talent on the roster. You've got the entire crowd moving and grooving with them. The merch is flying off the shells. I counted. I know five little boys who win is Jay Uso. Like all of my buddies when their kids want a wrestler themed costume,

him they send their kids photos to me keep that going by the way but i saw more j uso than any other wrestler this year so i thought i got to do something big with him here he is he wins the rumble and i see criticism people are saying hey this guy's not a good wrestler he doesn't have a lot of great moves he just does the super kick over and over he's not a great promo and then granted he did have a slip on a dive but that happens it's part of it and the boo birds came out of nowhere but I saw criticism that I didn't expect from Kevin Nash and Alex brings it up he says what is your reaction to Nash saying that Jay needs to do some cardio that he's gained weight and looks tired maybe the pressure is getting to him we've heard stories of guys like this before

who they're they've done really well on the roster and they've flourished and got the fans behind them and they're clicking on all cylinders but then when the spotlight's on them maybe it doesn't connect maybe they second guess themselves i don't know what that's like i'm not saying that's happening here but kevin nash is certainly implying it who am i to question kevin nash he's seen people do this up close and personal i don't know j uso i don't have an opinion on this i haven't noticed what kevin's saying but i trust his judgment what do you think of kevin nash saying perhaps there's too much pressure on jay i'm like you you know i'm not going the question, Kevin. He's certainly much better to have an opinion about in-ring action than I am.

But there's also the other side of it. Last year at this time, Jay was in a spotlight. And he was really, really a prominent part of a really, really, really hot story. Perhaps it's because there's, you know, other things going on that have taken the spotlight away from him a little bit he's not in as important of a role as he was at this time last year maybe that's part of it i don't know heaven could be right though i could be right well we'll see what happens with uh with j uso you know when you think about structuring that show i mean ressomania is always so loaded i would think and i know that this is not ideal i know there's some traditionalists who's going to

say he won the Royal Rumble, he should go on last. I get that. But I would think if I was planning out a match card, I might want to start my show with Jay Uso's audience and all that hype. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really look forward to the spectacle of Jay Uso's entrance at WrestleMania. You know they're going to do something cool. Yeah.

And you know, that's a nice thing about WrestleMania is it's an opportunity. I mean, Jay Uso could come out and pull the match of a lifetime, you know, out of a hat, it just blow everybody away and be right back in the eyes of the fans of where he was. So, yeah, let's just see what happens. We still got five weeks, man. We got time. Michael Stuttler's asking a question that everybody's been talking about this past week. I want your take on. He says, Eric, I was curious your thoughts of AW reporting approximately 500,000 people watching weekly on max, this pushes their viewership each week to add or above

one million viewers. Collision is close. I want to be clear, I don't believe that A, w reported that i think there was a report that tony con was asked about and he said he's heard numbers that are similar so who's b j bethle that's the guy that reported it and you out you i don't i don't know b j bethle do you have a personal relationship with him oh i just remember seeing it i remember i was following the uh the coverage of that and trying to figure out if it's legitimate or not evidently it's some individual Not associated with AEW, not associated with WBD, not associated with anybody for all right now. He's just a wrestling fan that somehow discovered information that nobody else has,

including Tony, according to Tony, that suggests that there are 500,000 people watching AW on Max, while there's 500,000 people and change, watching on AEW on TBS. it's it's another it's just a number pulled out of the air it's kind of like there's no there's no backup to it there's no receipt there's no documentation there's no reference there's no credibility there's no source it's just the guy saying it and then tony in a press conference saying well i've heard those reports too which means he's not confirming it and he's not denying it but he loves the attention that's what all this is this is more dame melts or bullshit It's throwing numbers around and stating facts and planting information that people get to talk about on the internet or in a press conference.

It kind of plates the image a little bit, and it's all based on freaking ether. It's no different. And this has got nothing to do with how AEW runs a business. I'm talking specifically now about Dave Meltzer. This is a guy who is every time. In fact, I've muted him because I don't even want to see his name come up on my feet anymore. He's getting so ridiculous, but he's been pounding his chest about the profitability of AEW. According to who?

And give us an example. Why do you think they're going to be profitable? How are they going to be profitable? Have you seen their financial statement? And if you have seen their financial statement, then do disclose. You don't have to go through details. but if you're making the statement, they're profitable, you're infertering that you've read the financial statement

and the contract associated with it. And I don't think he has. I think he's hoping and being fed enough information from non-official sources that he feels confident to come out and say, I'm 100% sure they're going to be, they're profitable and they're the second most profitable wrestling company in history. Cool.

Show us how. Just share it. You're already sharing it. You're making an official statement or you're making a statement. Explain how. You're a journalist. You don't get it. Just like we don't get anything out of the silly 500,000 people on max nonsense.

That's all it is. It's nonsense that people in the internet get to have fun disputing and burying each other and dragging each other through the mud. your tribalism and all the silliness. It's just so, hang on for a bit here. Frequency bullshit. First of all, I'm always fascinated by why does anyone care?

That seems silly to me. Well, that's number one. What do you mean? Brand loyalty. There, you, I think Dave,

um, again, I'm talking specifically about Dave. Dave has got a small little, following of people that identify with Dave. I want to believe the things that Dave tells them is true because if they convince themselves that they have information from Dave that the average wrestling fan doesn't have

or they have a perspective that makes them more knowledgeable than the average fan. It gives them something to brag about and argue about on social media. So Dave has his little cultural, light following of people who are just going to believe every word he says and spend $15 a month to get more of it. And no matter what Dave says, they're going to support it. And the more they support it, the more people that know that Dave is full of shit are

going to argue about it. In the meantime, Dave sells dirt sheets. Because you've got two groups of people arguing about the stupid shit that Dave Meltzer says. I think he's like he's an evil genius. I don't think he believes a word he says. I think he knows he's full of shit when he says what he says but I think he knows it and it's intentional because it gets people talking about Dave Meltzer's

point of view. I'm just saying Eric, you're a former TV guy. I mean, you put dozens of show on TV. You worked closely. You worked for a network. But if I was to ask you how many people watch the finale of Yellowstone, you don't freaking know or care. Like either it's entertaining or it's not. And that's the thing I kind of I think the business of the rust it's the reason dirt sheets live it's the reason this podcast lives because people who are really into whatever they're really into want to know more than just what's going on on the screen they want to know how things work they want to know the rumors they want to know who's screwing whose girlfriend or wife they want to know they want to know

They want to know the dirt. They want to know, they want to know more than their friends. So they dig them. It's no different than probably football or, or anything at NASCAR. Come on. When you get really super hardcore fans and loyal fans, and I think wrestling fans are really more loyal in an almost unhealthy respect than just about any other fan of any other sport.

I mean, they identify with it in a different way. It becomes part of who they are. It's in some cases. And I think the noise that we hear in social media, the things that make you go, why do people care so much, you're hearing and reading and feeling the energy that's created by people who are, I don't want to say unhealthy, but we're maybe borderline obsessed with needing to know what's going on.

behind the scenes and none of them do they doesn't have any access to anything well either do i what do i have access can i call bruce richard you know when we're not i didn't say well about you i'm just saying no but i mean you're not going to get really good information nobody's going to get that dames is not going to get it i'm not going to get it i'm not going to get it you're not going to get it we you and I can have conversations with people and maybe we'll hear a thing or two that'll lead us into believing that we know something or perhaps something is going to happen but nobody's going to call and talk to us about really important stuff or creative direction only people that do are you know interns

and entry level type creative assistance things like that i do um I just want to say, I think people losing this. So we're talking about the app being international and a way for the people around the world to be able to watch Max versus just the domestic rating. So when people are all up in arms, acting as if half a million people globally is out of bounds, I just really struggle with that.

You mean to tell me in every corner of the earth that has the Internet that can access the Max app, I mean, because the way it was explained to me is if you just click on the doggone thing and it loads. And again, this is all internal. Who knows what's real or not? Because it's not like Max has released any of these numbers. Because here's the other thing. If it was millions of no,

if it was an incredibly ridiculously high number, there would have been a press release bragging about it. No doubt. So whatever the number is, it wasn't worth bragging about. But I would even challenge to say half a million globally, ain't necessarily worth bragg it's not a huge number here in here you this is another little subtlety in this and i'm interested in this because i i'm fascinated with

the effort that goes into creating the illusion that Meltzer in particular is trying to create and i'm picking on Dave because i promised myself i was going to pick on AEW to be honest with you. So I'm trying to address the subject, but keep it focused on Dave because Dave's really easy to focus on. He's very active in defending AEW and putting forth a lot of information that is proven on a regular basis to be flat out wrong. And he never admits it or acknowledges it or apologizes for it. He just moves out like nothing's ever happened. But here's what I mean about the illusion and the subtleties of what's being discussed and presented. If the half a million additional max viewers are international, it wouldn't take long to

convince me that that's probably true. In fact, I hadn't even thought about that aspect because every time I read about it, it's, you know, here's an example. The ratings came out, what, yesterday or today, whatever day? I haven't looked at it, but whatever it was. I think it was today, for whatever reason. 550,000 people or 590, whatever the number was, under 600,000 viewers. That doesn't include at max.

And now we're hearing, oh, there's 500,000 additional max viewers. I like you, probably think that's global, which means there's no 500,000 people here in the United States watching that show, but that's the inference. nobody's coming out saying it directly, but they're inferring it. So that 500,000 viewers, it's a pretty shitty number. Let's just be honest, call it what it is. That's the number five show on TBS. Well, TBS is at the bottom of the freaking barrel for viewership.

So there's, eh, not much to brag about. The effort to convince people that something is true that isn't, And in this case, in particular, Mousser is trying to convince people in his own snaky way that, oh, that $500,000, well, it's bigger than that. No, it's not because you don't combine Nielsen numbers with international numbers. That number is that number. There's nobody else in the United States or the number, the number of people watching on Max instead of watching it on TBS is insignificant at best, maybe a little more than

insignificant. So the idea I think early on was, well, yeah, you got TBS. There's only 500,000, but man, when Max comes on, more people are going to be watching. Yeah, in freaking Bulgaria. Who cares? We're not buying a ticket. Probably not going to buy a pay-per-view. Not going to buy any merch. You're not going to tour there. So who cares? It's the tree that falls in the forest. Nobody hears it. Does it really matter? You got a hard-on for Dave Meltzer, don't you? I have a hard-on for bullshit artists who refer to other people as con men. Dave Meltzer is the biggest con on the planet.

The fact that people spend $15 a month to buy his bullshit only to read him get just eviscerated week after week after, almost daily. it's incredible and he keeps doing it he keeps making things up keeps putting out bullshit goofy information all in hopes of spitting an illusion that somehow makes him feel good about himself weird well if you'd like to have a boner for just about anything take a listen have some better sex with blue chew why don't you Blue Chew's the original brand offering chewable tablets for better sex. And starting now, Blue Shoes offering a combo so strong, it'll knock your socks off and your neighbor's socks off.

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that Gunther showed Monday is what he needed I think to move it to move off of him is a mistake. I think post mania, Gunther and Punk should be the build to SummerSlam or even Jacob if Jay does win, he will be a transitional champ. That is something I've seen a little bit. I've seen people speculating

that this could be the next Kofi moment and then a lot of people point out remember how that ended? If they're not going to actually go with Jay Uso and give him a run, would it make sense to have Gunther retained? Do you think, Eric? I don't know what it is.

It's probably just me, but I've really been paying a lot more attention to Gunther in the last three months. He's just ratcheted up the intensity and such a believable character. I mean, Monday, I did catch a clip, I watched this stuff for Monday. He's really believable. I really, really like him. I would be pushing for him, not putting him a lot. the position to not advance he's really good i don't know if it'll get maybe it's just me but it's

just like it seems in the last three months is he's on point i mean listen i um almost wonder you know is the money in the chase do you keep it going i mean i know that people sometimes point to that and get frustrated but cody lost his first shot at russomania for the world title and he came back and won at the next year maybe that's the reason that's the and fans are pushing back now before Kevin Sullivan passed away. We had him here on the podcast, and he didn't think Cody should have won that first night.

He felt like he hadn't slayed enough dragons. I remember that. If you would have won it the first time, fans would have turned on him and it wouldn't have worked. Instead, fans had to wait another year and it has worked. It feels like fans are still with him. I mean, Cody's over like Rover. It's just that London crowd this past week.

Maybe there is something to that. Maybe they do need to wait. So we'll see. We'll see. Because, I mean, especially if he's getting hotter. And part of it is they're writing him and producing him to be stronger and he's living up to the expectation and exceeding it. So maybe originally the plan was to take it off over, but I do believe the money is always when you've got a hot heel. People want to, here's the psychology, I think, is one of the most powerful drivers.

For the audience, I think for our culture, just people, not just wrestling fans, but in general, you want to go on the journey with your hero. You want to overcome things with your hero because you're living vicariously through that hero. And you're kind of in your own way consciously or sometimes subconsciously or more often subconsciously. You're putting yourself, what would I do if I was in that situation? That's where we watch this stuff. It's why we get connected to it because we care about it.

And you put yourself in the baby face of shoes. And when the baby face is struggling and on a journey and that journey gets more and more exciting every week and he gets a little closer and now, it's a setback. But I still believe in him because it's done well. And he keeps moving forward. You're on that journey with him. And then when he gets there, I want to, I want to want it for somebody. Wanting to see somebody achieve their goal and being on that journey with him is, a pretty powerful experience and connection.

It's a little bit like being excited about going to a destination on a vacation that you've always dreamed about. When you get there, it's kind of like, okay, after the first day or two, it's like, okay, when do we leave again? Wanting something is sometimes more powerful than having something. Think about that. Have you ever bought something that you really thought you wanted and then you get it? it's no longer that big a deal same thing happens i think in wrestling with with with heels and baby

faces there's so much money in the chase and it's so much easier as a performer because you can relate to that it's a struggle everybody can relate to i like the chase man i think that's where the money is because that's where the emotion is well we are uh pumped to have you guys here eric is with us live answering your questions we had a topic but we're having so much fun that i don't know when we'll get to it but let's do a few more it's thunder i don't care if we ever get to it i knew i knew you were trying to drag if those questions coming please i'm begging you people keep them coming i don't care if they're good or they're bad just i don't want to talk about thunder eric had a tech snafu today

this morning before we did our watch along and he came on the video before we clicked record frustrated and I can tell he's in a good mood this morning so then when he showed up today this evening to record he's beep popping around and he's in a good mood and I'm like I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we're talking

thunder today this will not last of course maybe we will if we keep getting these questions swerved daddy says I feel that Rollins needs to come out of heel after mania I love his energy and his promos but I feel he's lost his character I'm all for a blood feud with punk

but he needs to turn punk as a heel just doesn't work I don't know I think punk could be a hell of a heel but I think they probably need to wait if they're going to do that until after we've had that John Sina punk rematch in Chicago do you think we'll see John Sina turn heel this year I mean not John Sanna but seeing Punk turn heel this year

officially I hope not I really really am beginning to enjoy him as a baby face he's so good even the stuff he does outside of the ring you know in his interviews he's i would really hate to see him turn heel i don't think he's gotten over as much as he's going to get over as a baby face yet i think he's got a lot of runway before anybody should be thinking about turning him heel first of all they don't need him to turn heel there's that and he's only getting better so why uh somebody trying to sell me on turning him heel right now or in the next three six months it would be a be a long conversation bring a

lunch maybe breakfast it'd be a long day alex says is melzer on your mount rush more of wrestling gibronies how has he never been confronted didn't booker almost open a can of we'll pass on him. I don't think there's ever been a big confrontation with Dave Meltzer. Am I wrong on that? Yeah. I'm not encouraging that by the way. Me neither. Oh no, no. I'm not being cute. I mean, come on now. Let's not. No, I'm I'm saying, yeah, I'm not encouraging it either. Um, no, I'm the, uh, Jericho Cruz. I wasn't there. I'm not going to give you a blow by blow, but, um, what I was told by a principal involved that would be Booker and it was very short conference it was a brief

conversation because I had heard about it I asked him about it what the hell went off you and Meltzer that was just hard for me to comprehend that there'd be any kind of a confrontation between us do because also sets a weed but evidently from what I remember I wasn't there Booker told me something to the effect of Booker was sitting at a table with a few other people and Dave Meltzer came walking up like was one of the boys and Booker made sure he realized that he wasn't and he wasn't welcome.

It's probably a little more graphic than that. Yeah. I was on a Jericho cruise that I was on a couple years ago. Well, shout out to the Jericho cruise. You never know what you're going to see. Luis Martinez says, I truly don't get why people care about what Meltzer says. Wrestling is like a weekly drama show.

Why should I listen to him so people can tell me what's going to happen before I watch it? no you should listen to him because if he tells you you know that's not going to happen oh come on that would be worth 1499 just whatever dave says believe the opposite at that point it would be a good investment as long as you understood what you were getting and you knew that to take whatever he said do 180 degrees and you're more likely to be correct than he is hey eric i know we uh we agreed we weren't going to talk about a w anymore but there was some news that was announced this week uh they're going to be moving

all in, which is their first ever stadium show here in the United States, to the afternoon. Of course, I think everyone expected it to be an evening show. So when WWE counter programmed it with a brand new free on NBC and Peacock, WW, Saturday night's main event, maybe it makes sense to make wrestling an all day affair and do it in the afternoon. After all, the last two all-in shows have also been in the afternoon. And I, for one, am almost an advocate of this, like, Sign me up for more afternoon paper views.

I could get behind that. Like, I think that could be a real differentiator for AEW moving forward for the afternoon paper review company. I get that becomes challenging when the weather's nice and people want to go do stuff and all that jazz. But to have our freaking Saturday and Sunday nights back, man, I'd be all for this.

What did you think of the decision to move AEW to an afternoon show just like the last two all ends have been? Probably a smart move. And I'm with you, though, I like, it's so much easier for me to find the time to watch a pay-per-view if it's, you know, like we've seen a couple of the WWE international PLEs that would start here in the States earlier in the day. I love those because I still have to get to have a relatively normal life, like to do things with my wife or family or friends or whatever in the evening, have people over for dinner.

And I get to check out my pay-per-view in the afternoon and you and I can do a show and not to do it at midnight. So there's a lot of reasons why I like the idea. I think business wise, it probably sense for a EW given realities of the situation. It's a probably a great idea. I hope it works. I hope WWE does it more. I mean, even back in the day, you know, a lot of WWE shows started in the afternoon. The very first WrestleMania was an afternoon show. I could get behind wrestling being a matinee event. Now, that said, I do think it looks and feels different if you're doing that inside of a stadium with light above you. And of course, I know most stadiums can close and things like that, but I know for

some characters in wrestling, like I'll never forget the undertaker walking out in daylight instead of the darkness. It just doesn't hit the same. The entrance isn't the same. Does that make sense to you, Eric? No, of course it does because you don't have the lighting. Yes. And you don't have, You know, the ambiance, the audio is different. You don't have lighting. You know, you're, you got pyro, but it's got to be a different kind of pyro. There's got to be a lot more of it. So there's a, there's a certain production value disadvantages at daytime.

But I think, I think the advantage is far away. When you think about it, you look at WrestleMania, get out at 11 o'clock at night, 12 that's late and go back and do it again so much easier if even if they started at two three get them get them done by eight in the case of wrestling and and for your shorter shows your you know typical three or two and a half three hour pay per views p lees whatever you want to call them have them during the day man it's so much easier for people to participate well there you go a little of business advice from EZE and if you're trying to I don't know good business or not but I know personally I would dig it well I think

you're going to dig in vision consulting let's take a listen all right folks want to put you up on game as the kids are saying these days you know I have kissed a few frogs when I'm trying to grow my businesses once upon a time I decided to double down on all my advertising man I blew out my budget on radio and TV and it wasn't worked. But then eventually I realized, hey, you know what? I'm not even listening to the radio as much as I used to. I need to get some digital advertising going. I didn't know who to call, so I called my same radio and TV reps. And sure, they placed an order. Yes, they took my money. Did they get me results? Ah, ah. You see, calling the TV and radio reps to help me buy digital

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how excited they are so everybody says seen us promo monday and taking a dig at tony by saying cody taking money from a billionaire's kid also watching seen a mic work is something that we took for granted all these years. It will be missed. Your talent should be watching. Yeah, this sort of farewell tour with John Sina, it does give us an opportunity to show our appreciation, which is why I guess I could probably get in line with them,

not necessarily changing the character in the presentation. Eric, if he wasn't in his final year, if this wasn't the farewell tour, I get how people, you know, would want his character to be different. I'm among them.

but I also know if this really is it, I want to buy one more traditional John Sina shirt because I don't think there's a chance he retires a heel. I think he retires a baby face. And this will be a blip in a really long story. So I want to say, hey, I saw Sina on his last trip to Scotland or England or wherever. And this is my shirt from that tour. And it's more consistent with what Sina has done for his entire career rather than that one off appearance.

Does that make sense? Sure does. it's an interesting spot to be in, right? If you're WWE. Yeah. It's an interesting spot. I don't think there's a right answer. I think both answers are correct.

This comes down to money, which makes more sense financially. And if we're right, because both you and I have talked about this, we both feel like, as you just said, this is a blip in the story, so to speak, meaning, I believe as you do that he's going to end up being a baby face when he when the match finally ends and it's time for him to leave his boots in the ring or whatever uh it'll be as a baby face that's my opinion and in that case then consistency in the merch does make sense i'm saying a lot of comments like ritchie g is saying the bill this year is mid i mean we're seeing a lot of that and i really wanted to ask you you know because you were a part of this Do you feel like at your height when you felt like the NWO was at its peak,

you guys are firmly in the driver's seat, you're selling more tickets, you're selling more merch, you're generating higher ratings, you're making more money, like you're the number one wrestling company in the world? Do you eventually become a victim of your own success where people expect, well, if that happened last week, it's got to be even bigger this week? I mean, eventually you just can't top it. And even if you're having good shows, if you're not able to consistently super serve

them the way you were with the original germ of an idea, you can't help but do it to diminishing returns over time. That feels like the story of the NWO. And I know there's a lot of criticism about the build this year. I do think part of the reason for that is just the timing because we do, we're doing WrestleMania so much later than we normally have like WrestleMania would have normally already had normally already happened or happening right now. now, not a couple of weeks from now.

So maybe that's some of it. But do you think there is this, man, the elimination chamber was great. Royal Rumble was awesome. So WrestleMania has got to be even bigger. Like that's an unrealistic expectation to have week in, week out for every big show, right? You hit on so many things there.

First off, I think managing expectations is the art of maintaining momentum. heard me say this a million times creating momentum is really really hard maintaining it is even harder and part of the art in storytelling which means in this case promotion is managing expectations managing it anticipation specifically building that desire in the audience to be so excited about what you're doing that they have a sense of they can't wait till that day gets here that's goal When you can create that sense of urgency, that's awesome. It's also really, really hard. What's harder than creating that urgency is maintaining it over time.

That's exactly right on the money what you just pointed out is timing. Part of managing expectations successfully so that you don't fall victim to your own success, is pacing yourself. It's a little bit like running a marathon. You do not go balls out too early or you're going to gas before you finish. It's maintaining the right amount, the right pace, the right energy at the right time. We're still five weeks out, and I'm not making your excuses. I'm talking specifically about managing a story arc.

There are elements to a successful story arc that are consistent no matter what story you're telling. If you look again, just as an example, I encourage everybody to Google, rock, chat GPT, whatever you use. Learn a little bit about Joseph Campbell, an author, and a book he wrote called The Heroes Journey. It's all about the history of storytelling. And it's also about story structure. And if you look at the elements of successful story structures, all of them,

have the same beats that create the same emotion. The only thing that's different is it a 90-minute feature film arc? Is it an eight-episode television series arc? Is it a six-month pay-per-view build? Those things change. Timing changes. The length of the arc changes. But the elements within it do not.

So you, again, I'm not predicting anything. I'm just suggesting that there's a strong possibility that you're going to see things heat up three weeks out, probably, to be my guess, is when you're really going to feel like, oh, okay, now we're on fire. Because if you start feeling that now, chances are they're going to lose you by that time. managing that expectation that anticipation is an art form unto itself. It's not just, we're going to shoot an angle, and then you're going to get your comeback, and there's going to be an injury, and we're not going to be sure if you're going to come back, you're going to come back, you're going to wrestle injured, and then we're not going to be able to hobble into the main event or not, blah, blah, blah, blah.

That's easy. That's just angle. Those are just a series of angles, but a really well-structured storyline arc. It's tough to manage, and I think you hit it right on the head, man. It's timing. Let's have this conversation in three weeks and see how everybody feels. Or better yet, and I don't know how to do this and I don't have the time to do it even if I did. But I think if we would be able to go back to, what are we, five weeks out from

WrestleMania, let's go back and take a look at what the chatter was like five weeks out last year. And I don't remember, but I'm wondering if we were having the same conversations back on five weeks out. We weren't just quite feeling it yet. We sure felt it by the time we got there. And you know, I remember specifically there was a lot of, it was just ups and downs and confusion

and drama and potential drama and make believe drama. A lot of make believe drama. And there was a feeling of kind of, I don't know, I'm not really feeling it until they did. And I think there's going to be a, until they do moment coming up here in the next couple of weeks.

I'm having a lot of fun picking your brain here. And a lot of people are wanting to do fantasy booking, which I know you love and you're in a mood for. I'll do it if you help me. Let's put it that way. Do you know what's going on? I don't. But here's what I know.

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money go to rocket money.com slash 83 weeks today that's rocket money.com slash 83 weeks don't be Dave silver let's start saving money at rocket money.com slash 83 weeks don't be Dave Silva go right now rocket money.com slash 83 weeks don't be Dave silver I love that little love plug there at the end hey Alex says Eric do you think we could see a surprise Lesner appearance at WrestleMania? I don't think so Luis Martinez wants to know, who would you rather have lunch with Russo or Meltzer? Oh my gosh.

I would say. I mean, if I had a gun to my head, I'd have to pick Russo. But boy, that would be painful. I don't know. I kid. As long as he didn't get into the bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro shit. And try to convince me,

of anything, just have a conversation, talk about the hamburger he's eating and stuff like that, weather, kids, family. Yeah, I can probably get through that. Hey, speaking of bro, bro, bro, bro, you got broed out last week in Atlanta. You were hanging out with Lex Lugar and Diamond Dallas Page at Dallas's place there. Of course, I know he's got a phenomenal new spot on the beach, I'm in Panama City. I haven't checked out yet, but you got to hang out with a couple of bona fide hall of famers.

Tell me about your trip to Atlanta. How great was that? It was awesome. I mean, I was only there for like two days, but man, that I really enjoy those two days. First of all, I did the gauntlet. I don't know if you've heard him talk about his gauntlet, but I didn't do the yoga.

We were short on time. But I did the ice bath first. And I did one right from there to this oxygen depth. deprivation kind of treadmill gimmick that you get on backwards, you walk backwards, you've got a mask on, and he controls how much oxygen you're getting and carbon dioxide. It's crazy. It's some real biohacking cool stuff. And then from there, we put on these power cuffs that he's got.

And I've been telling you, he's been talking about these things for about a year and a half or two years. And I was kind of, yeah, whatever, another gimmick, the gimmick guys. get another gimmick. So I got to his house, he puts me through this comment and he straps me up to these things. Now, now I'm interested in them because I read a little bit about him. He called me and said, hey, as long as you're going to be here to do the interview, how about we do this too? And I went, sure, I'll do that. And I was interested in the cuff. So I did a little research about how it's called blood flow restriction training is what it's referred

to as. And I went, wow, that sounds pretty interesting. And then I got excited about trying him. So we went again, cold plunge, oxygen deprivation, and then we did a chest and bicep workout using these power cups. And I was way impressed, so impressed that I took a set home and I've been using them in my workouts now. Really, really, really, really impressive. So that was fun. And then we had a great steak dinner after, you know, I got to hang out with his wife, page, page and page or as my wife says boy page girl page um then the next day was must have been there for three days no one night two days so the next day we did the interview and and that was cool as hack and then i had business to take care of and he had

things to do Thursday afternoon Thursday evening we had another great meal and then Friday I think it was Friday, I went with Page. One of Page's instructors has been working with Abdullah the butcher, who is way overweight, really bad hips, and is confined to a wheelchair. As a surprise, because Abby's been putting in the work, working with one of Page's trainers, instructors,

trying to improve his mobility and his diet and things. But it's kind of a surprise, Paige showed up. And I came with him and went to Abdullah's house. And I just sat back and I watched Paige put Abdullah through a workout. And I've never been so inspired. First of all, I got to have a real conversation with Abdullah the butcher, which I worked with them once or twice. He was around WCW when I first got there, but I never had a chance to have a conversation with him.

So to be able to go to his house and see Abdullah so inspired and committed to get out of that wheelchair. And he's got a lot of work ahead of him, to be honest, he's got a lot of work ahead of him, but he's putting it in. And I got really excited for Abdullah. And more importantly, I have a whole different, I've always respected page, particularly, for what he's been doing for quite a while now for other people. But to see it firsthand and see the look in Abdullah's eyes while he was working out with Paige, and Abdullah looked like he was 35 years old in his eyes. He was excited.

He would put 100% into the workout what he was capable of doing, the different exercises that he could do. He was putting 100% in it to it. It's really, really freaking cool. shout out to ddp man and uh we're pulling for abdula hope he uh gets to feeling better sooner rather than later the chat is blowing up eric you were trying to elaborate on a story when russomania was five weeks out they no longer think we're live what day is it right now eric can you prove what day or time it is can you hold your phone up to the screen

well my phone my phone my battery just died but according to my lenient you're lying According to my computer, it's Friday, April 4th at 5.52 p.m. Mountain time. Well, we'll have to, we'll have to prove it. J.T. says, WrestleMania isn't five weeks away. It's just two weeks away. See, look, we did that live. So we're live.

Does Eric wish to change his mind on the opinion being mid this close? So Eric, with only five episodes of television. Now remember they've only got 14 more hours of storytelling to go Is the build sufficient for WrestleMania or should we watch those other 14 hours before we decide there Yeah okay you got me on a technicality

I admitted I was wrong we're not five weeks out We're just a little over two weeks out but there's five hour Or five episodes and in my ancient mind An episode is a week You have five episodes to hit your storyline elements, your arc points. And I will hold out, I'm going to hold out in confidence that they're going to do it. WWE has demonstrated over the last two years that they know how to tell stories.

Anybody doubts that? Have at it. It's your opinion. Go with God. I, on the other hand, have a fair amount of confidence in our ability to get us where we need to be prior to WrestleMania. Yes, two weeks. Sorry about that.

I stand corrected. Humble. I get where you got it. There's five episodes of TV. So counting tonight, we've got three smackdowns and, and of course, two Monday night raw. So there's still five big time shows. It's not like the show is tomorrow.

So I don't know. We'll give us some time. Jim says question about WWE's top titles. From your experience as a booker, do you think WWE should retire the universal championship lineage? since they officially have three top championship titles of course they've combined two of those into one for Cody's gold belt I think they've kind of already done this and this is just something that needs to be updated for pro wrestling illustrated or Wikipedia or something like there's

two belts there's Cody's belt and there's Gunther's belt I know Cody's belt represents two belts but that's a little confusing there's two physical belts that's it right that's what it should be if there's there's a lot of baggage associated with that then they should clean up that baggage because obviously people are still a little confused wherever they're getting that information from or however they arrived at that perception they have so it's a that's right you should to fix it shout out to daniel for joining us and gifting a 83 weeks membership greatly appreciate your support cool to see you in huntsville this year looking forward to okay can i interrupt you yes two things before i forget because i know i will

one is we're going to launch a new podcast YouTube show called Stumps and Bumps Friday, April 18th. Myself and Barat Sandrasian are going to be hosting it. We're going to talk about WWE specifically all things going on in

WWE and cricket. We're going to be covering the world of cricket. Barat, who's from native India, is now living in Australia. It is one of the most famous one of the most well-known cricket journalists anywhere in the world. And he's a super guy, he's colorful as hell, he's funny, he's smart, he's a massive WWE and WCW wrestling fan.

He loves wrestling. That's how I met Barat, through, we had three shows for crying out loud. And we've become friends. He came out here from Australia and hung out with Lori and I over the 4th of July, and we decided let's do this podcast, and we're going to cover the world of cricket, and we're going to cover WWE. It's called stumps and bumps. Stumps, of course, is a common term. People that are cricket fans will know what it means. And bumps, of course, refers to. So that's coming.

Really excited about it. And one of the thing, and I forgot to mention it. I forgot what it was. Yeah. It'll come to me. Just like our thunder conversation is going to come to you next week. Eric, we got a bunch of questions. There's no way we'll get through them all. So we're going to try to rapid fire some. to close the show. Are you ready? I'm ready. Trigger Cheese wants to know, will you make a book again? You and J.R. are tied for the best. No, I'm done. I'm done. The last book I did, I really, really enjoyed doing it with Guy Evans, who does have a new book coming up. Boy,

you got some dirt on WCW and Turner Broadcasting. Oh, I can't wait to see more of it. I got a glimpse into it. I can't wait to see the rest of it. But I wrote a book called Grateful with Guy Evans and it really said everything I need to say in a book for sure. No, I'm done. I'll leave that up to J.R. J.R. loves to write and he's really good at it. He's a great storyteller. I don't know much to talk about. Askebum says Eric is Roman top five all time in your opinion? Yes.

Alex says Booker and Benoit Best of Seven is severely underrated. I think we can all agree. Swerved Daddy wants to know. Have you kept up with Mr. FEMA in NXT? Do you think he'll be a big time star on the main roster this time next year? I have not been watching him, so I can't really comment. Ask Obama wants to know, why don't you think Haku is in the WWE Hall of Fame yet? That's a good question.

It's a hard one to answer again because of the subjective and mystical nature of the Hall of Fame process. But that is probably true, right? in most of each sport or every hall of fame. There's some drama and mystery and controversy around who's getting nominated and who's not. So I don't know. I mean, certainly he should make a lot of people happy.

He's got a very, very well respected in the industry. And we think if that's a criteria, that should probably put him in all by itself. He shared a title with Andre the Giant. He's the only guy to do that. That's pretty cool. uh there's that yeah uh gareth jones says is the product better now i much prefer triple h being at the helm real quick eric do you prefer vince's wwee or triple h's he can't even compare the two triple h is for sure that's not taking anything away from

what vince did this look take whatever your perception of vince or the reality in some cases of it's with man just set it off to the side and just look at just look at the body of work. I don't even look at it as body of work, body of accomplishments. However, anybody feels about him, including yours truly, you can't take any of that away from him. But I do believe, said this before, it's so applicable in so many different ways, comfort is a thief. And I think in Vince's case, he got very, very comfortable. And sometimes when you're comfortable, you're resistant to change. You're resistant to new ideas.

You just keep going back to formulas that have worked in the past. Or you find a variation. You're going back to something that's worked in the past, but you can change it up enough where it doesn't quite feel the same. I think Vince got comfortable. And that comfort stole from WWE and the fan base, the kind of diversity. and I'm not talking about diversity like, you know, you hear about in the news.

I'm talking about diversity in storytelling and in characters. You know, I got hired in 2019. Like a month before I got hired on this podcast or interviews that I was doing at the time, people would ask me, what do you mean? WWE. I would say, it's just too much of the same all the time. In fact, the analogy I gave was, WWE, this is 2019, a month or two before I started working here, so it's not like I was trying

to get a job either. I mean, I was fairly harsh. And I was also honest. And by the way, correct. Saying that as a viewer, maybe more of a producer, the viewer, it seemed to me like if you took all of the talent and all of the matches, the way they were laid out, all of the presentations, and you ran it through a press and a press kicked out wrestling cookies, those wrestling cookies would all be the same shape, it would all be kind of the same color, that really distinguishable in terms of flavor. It was just a sameness to everything that came out of the WWE creative cookie cutter.

It was just such a familiarity with everything that it was flat. because I think Vince was comfortable. He was kicking ass financially. The company was growing exponentially. It was just too many great things that you could point to as successes that allowed Vince the comfort of not feeling the pressure to push the envelope. It is the pushing of the envelope creatively. and from a storytelling perspective that grows the business.

And Vince got comfortable until he was no longer in that position. Triple H came in, and I don't know. I haven't talked to him about this, but I'm pretty sure he had a lot of ideas that were building up inside of him because he saw it. He was on the other side. He worked for Vince on the creative team.

I worked with Triple H a little bit while I was there creatively. in pressure situations, day of TV and things like that. He was never part of the creative process necessarily, although I would send shows to him and we'd talk occasionally about all the shows as they were being drafted. But for the most part, you know, Triple H had the same challenge that we all had

dealing with Vince's personality and the way Vince ran his business. Again, not being critical. It worked for him. But, and that change was so, desperately needed and I think he's doing a phenomenal job well we hope you've enjoyed our live broadcast here of 83 weeks we uh we got several questions we didn't get a chance to get to we're going to save those for next time because i realize smackdown has begun and we are on

the final march to w w's russamania so make plans to join us you never know when eric and i are going to go live i'm sure something major will pop up in the next several days and if it's worth going live for we shall, but otherwise make plans to join us next Friday and every Friday right here at 83 weeks.com. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson here to tell you a little more about what ad-free shows.com is all about. Get early ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcast every single week, starting at just nine bucks. That's less than 20 cents an episode each month. And yes, you can listen to them all directly through Apple podcasts or your regular podcast apps.

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