83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 371: The Rock And Triple H At Odds??

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad dissect all the happenings in professional wrstling POST WrestleMania 41. Eric shares his thoughts on the Rock's interview on The Pat McAfee Show, The Rock's rebutal to Busted Open host Dave LaGreca, Logan Paul's million dollar offer to Stone Cold, and the impact of Travis Scott in wrestling. All that plus, Eric takes time to honor and remember his friend Steve "Mongo" McMichael. THE PERFECT JEAN - F*%k your khakis and get The Perfect Jean 15% off with the code 83WEEKS15 at theperfectjean.nyc/83WEEKS15#theperfectjeanpod BLUECHEW - Visit BlueChew.com and try your first month of BlueChew FREE when you use promo code 83WEEKS -- just pay $5 shipping. MAGIC SPOON - Get $5 off your next order at MagicSpoon.com/83WEEKS Magic Spoon—hold on to the dream! PAINT YOUR LIFE - Text WEEKS to 87204 to get 20% off and FREE Shipping. Paint Your Life: Celebrate the moments that matter most. ENVISION -  Save money and grow your business with Envision Marketing—visit ConradsGuy.com today! 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/

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How are you, dude? I'm doing great. Clearwater floors, visiting the family, hanging out with Waij and on my way to Las Vegas tomorrow morning for another fun weekend. But, yeah, doing great, man. Happy to be here. Wait, you're going back to Vegas. Are you setting up a second resident?

in Vegas what's going on I kind of feel like it I haven't been home since last Wednesday so this is a week on the road for me and I'm grateful for you guys being flexible I'm able to squeeze these in but yeah I had no idea I was heading back to Vegas from Florida but indeed I am and I think I'll be home Sunday so I'll be able to settle in for a couple days well of course the entire wrestling world is talking about all the news and notes from the past week our plan today was to talk about dust and roads but there's so much going on Eric that I think we're

going to have to call an audible we'll talk about Dustin next week what's catching your eye today I mean there's so many different news stories popping up left and right I want to get your take but I want to start at the very top of your priority list what's the biggest news in wrestling at least from your perspective

this week Eric I think it's the rock and his involvement slash lack there of and the controversy surrounding it I'm really interesting that i you know commented to dave le greta and one of dave's most recent rants um it's really interesting but i think the whole scenario the way it's playing out especially with the people involved you know you wouldn't expect a guy like rock to engage

necessarily in the controversy but he's clearly shown he's not uh not shy when it comes to engaging with social media it really has been an interesting uh study in wwee the last week or so. Let's talk about the Rock's appearance on Pat McAfee show that does have a lot of people talking. He came on the show Tuesday after WrestleMania and gave his pitch for Cody Rhodes to turn heel and said why he didn't appear at WrestleMania 41. The exact quote is I was an advocate of that. Not turning Cody heel soon, but down the line, I like the idea of that. And this idea of way down the road, you give him a reason to turn. turn, not based on titles, but it's his soul.

And what that means that affects generations. When we got to the elimination chamber, we were kicking around ideas, and AAA said, what about turning John? I love it. The next thing is you've got to speak to John and see if he loves it. John love this idea of turning, and there's this anchor here that I want to root it in. That's a real thing I've been experiencing the past 25 years. I knew then the best thing for the final boss

is that we've established this thing with Cody's soul I don't want to be involved in that let the final boss step back into the shadows but all the spotlight go to John and Cody not make it about Cody's soul or John's soul let them do what they do I called John and Cody after the elimination chamber and I said I think the final boss's work is done

we just pulled off the greatest angle in wrestling history I'm always here if you need me but it's best for the final boss to not be involved in that finish. What the hell do you make of this, Eric? I don't even know how to frame it. It's unusual to save the least. And if, look,

if you take your emotion out of it, it's just step back. And without any bite, ask yourself, Does that sound plausible? Could that have actually happened that way? And I think the answer to that is yes. You know, we weren't in the room.

We weren't a part of those discussions. Is it a possibility that the way Rock laid it out was the way he really saw it? Absolutely. Does it have some holes in terms of logic? Sure does. And unless you're in that room in a, Part of those conversations, I don't think we'll ever know. It sounds to me like this is, you know, Rock's explanation for why he did what he did.

It's, you know, on paper, I get it. But still, there's the issue that we talked about immediately following the last night, you know, the second night is you started a story and walked away from it. And look, if Rock wasn't the Rock, if Rock, if Rock, would have been any other, you know, top performer in WWE might not have had as much impact or residual effect, backlash. But the fact is, it was the rock. And that immediately raised the expectations. And I don't think you can look backwards in the beginning of a story and say, well, I know that's how we started it, but I think I'm going to step away.

You can do that, but obviously they did it, but not without a cost. I think the controversy that we're hearing right now is the cost. I didn't get a chance to see Monday night. It sounds to me, based on what I've read, that Monday night, it kind of reset the story and found a solid path forward. But yeah, this whole thing is just kind of a cluster, if you will. if you will, baby. Yeah, it is not a good cluster.

This is not a good look. I mean, it feels like, I mean, I'm sure you've at least seen, we'll pivot and we'll come back to the rock. I'm sure you've at least seen that WWE over WrestleMania weekend announced that they were going to be debuting a new Netflix show this summer.

And it's described as WWE Unreal for the first time ever, step into the WWE Writers Room and outside the ring with your favorite at WW Superstars, where the drama is just as intense offstage as it is under the spotlight. And there's a clip from the trailer that actually revealed what WrestleMania 41 was supposed to look like. And it shows basically the plan all along was Cody Rhodes and John Cena. We'll break down some of the rest of the car in a moment.

But I find this interesting that we're led to believe that they've got all this drama and all this effort and all this time and work. that goes into the writer's room. And Eric, you've been a part of that, or at least seeing that process in the confines of WWE. That's accurate. But we're to believe that the rock just shows up at elimination chamber and says, what if we turn seen a heel?

And they're like, oh, that's a great idea. Like that to me, how do I reconcile either the rock drops in and we just have to drop everything and do what he wants to do or the writers aren't really doing anything? I mean, either way, this is a bad look. this is inconsistent with what we're presenting to the audience. Two things can be true at the same time in this case.

And I have been a part of a lot of writers' rooms, to a certain extent in WWE, and much lesser extent in WWE, obviously. But look, that's what makes wrestling so unique, is that you can have a solid plan. You could have planned weeks or months in advance. absolutely the best creative you can imagine laid out well in advance in detail doesn't mean it's not going to change and it can change for any number of reasons we've talked about a million times injuries is the most obvious one contractual disputes is another one these are these are situations i personally have experienced um family emergencies that take somebody out

personal issues that oftentimes back in the 90s and early 2000s took talent out or if you're really lucky somebody comes up with a better idea and it look I'm giving everybody the benefit of the doubt because although I don't know rock personally I mean we've worked together a little bit very little bit a few you know conversations that were very brief so I don't know in knowing And I also don't know John, seen on a real personal level. I've certainly worked with him a lot more, and I have a good sense of what he's all about, as well as Cody. So there's nothing but respect for everybody involved, but that's one of the things that makes wrestling unique, is that you can have plans and for any number of reasons, including a better idea that everybody goes, wow, I really like that. sometimes you're faced with a choice do we go with an idea that everybody feels like a better

is a better idea or do we stick with what we've got because well that's what we have planned and there's value in that don't get me wrong you know reproduction is the key to good production in every way but sometimes an idea just hits you even though you've done all the work and you're just on the fly we got to talk a little bit about out the line that really caught Jeff Jarrett's attention while the rock was appearing on Pat McAfee's show he's sort of breaking out exactly how he came to appear at elimination chamber he says I got a call from Ari Emanuel who we know owns TKO TKO owns WWV he's been my longtime business partner and one of my best friends for over 20 years and he said we need

help at elimination chamber ticket sales are a little slow but beyond that He goes, what we are finding is with elimination chamber, it's becoming the pay-per-view that's been interesting. Fans have had fun, but it's also a conduit to WrestleMania. How do we create an elimination chamber that people must tune in to see? How do we create that? And he goes, right now we don't have that. And he said, will the final ball show up?

And I said, well, let me give it some thought. Let me get back to you. So I gave it some thought. I got back to Ari. I got back to Triple H in. we had a call that I have an idea. What's most important to the final boss? The most important thing to the final boss is in titles.

It's not money. It's not fame. Been there, done that. Grateful for that. Final boss wants your soul. So that's how we got going on this idea, but it lasted for exactly one show. And it didn't pay off at WrestleMania like a lot of people assumed.

I mean, the Rock's involvement in the John Cena Cody promo at Elimination Chamber led to the historic turn of John Sina and the WrestleMania main event. So I do think it is what I might call a logical leap for fans to believe since the rock was the catalyst that turned John Sina heel. He's integral to the story.

He'll be there at the payoff. And I think the reason people were so frustrated with night two of WrestleMania is not just Travis Scott's involvement. And I don't think that as a reason is a reason to be upset. But the time it took for him to get down the ramp, that's another story. And I think there was an expectation that if Travis Scott is here, because we last saw

him with the rock, we're going to see him. And to me, this felt like you do this bad gangbusters awesome NW. Angle, Eric, at the bash at the beach in 1996. But at the next pay-per-view, when we're expecting Hulk Hogan and is all black and white, you know, gear to come out as Hollywood Hogan, instead it's just Ed Leslie. the guy we always see sort of tagging along here comes ed leslie and he takes three minutes to get in the ring and we're all looking around like okay we got it we see him but where the hell's hogan that's the way i felt and that's the closest analogy i could make this because i do feel like fans i don't think

they hate the rock i think they're just frustrated that he wasn't there what say you clearly you know it's funny how difficult it is to manage expectations I mean, as a producer, promoter, whatever you want to call it, you need and want to promote the hottest thing that you can and you want the expectations to be as high as they can be, especially for something like WrestleMania, there's a cost associated with that and you have to manage those expectations and meet slash or exceed them. In most cases, WrestleMania always does because it's just such an amazing. spectacle in and of itself, and then you have matches and the stories that get propelled forward. But you also have to manage your expectations, and if you're going to take the risk, and that's what this was. This was a creative risk. According to Rock, designed to really put some steam on elimination chamber, which they did, and they raised the expectations, and they failed to meet

them based on the creative expectations that they failed to meet them and this is the result it's i think probably more online chatter obviously i think the mainstream audience while i would agree probably left a little unsaid eric bischoff is on location in clear water florida and uh maybe he's having an equipment malfunction and hey if you've ever had an equipment malfunction then you understand how important it is to rock with blue chew have some better sex with blue chew what don't you blue chew is the original brand offering chewable tablets for better sex and now blue shoe's got a combo so strong it's going to knock your socks off we're talking blue chew max it's arrived and it's combined the active ingredients of viagra

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for our listeners. You can actually try your first month of Blue Chew free whenever you use the promo code 83 weeks. Just pay for the $5 shipping. That's promo code 83 weeks. Visit Bluetooth.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Blue Chew for sponsoring the day's podcast. So Eric, we got cut off there in the middle of your answer. Do you want to sort of pick up where you left off there? Yeah, I'm sorry. I lost my internet here. What were we talking about before we lost it?

We're talking about the Rock at WrestleMania and his non-appearance. Yeah, and I think where I left off is probably talking about, you know, managing expectations. There's an expense in raising them, and there's clearly an expense if you don't meet them, and I think that bill has come due with the controversy that we're hearing. I think what I was also saying is I think the mainstream audience, the 90% of people who watch WrestleMania at home, probably weren't nearly as affected by this controversy.

As the people who live for controversy and online chatter, debate, arguments, just general negativity, you know, those people are up in arms and, of course, they're over-analizing and analyzing and the world is telling us what they should have done and could have done. And it's not wrong. It's just that I think the smallest percentage of the audience is making the biggest noise about this. And at the end of the day, it sounds like they picked it up on Monday, stories going forward will drive interests and they'll continue on. It was a speedbub in the big scheme of things.

Disappointing speedball, but it was a speed bump in big scheme of things. I do want to, you and I normally veer away from trying to talk about negative stuff, but I can't help but try to be a little negative in this, because I do want to put my tinfoil hat on and wonder about these conspiracy theories. You know, we have seen and heard,

even going back to last January, not this January, but 2024, when the Rock came back and was seemingly going to set up Rock and Roman at WrestleMania, there was a narrative online of people who believed that the rock just dropped in, having not really paid attention to what WWE was doing, and he wanted to make the biggest WrestleMania in history. And we know that, you know, what we got was Cody finishing the story, and we saw the Rock on night one, and it was indeed the biggest WrestleMania in history. The Rock wasn't at this WrestleMania, but this was the biggest WrestleMania in history

when it came to attention, when it came to pay-per-view, when it came to sponsorship. Of course, when I'm saying pay-per-view, I mean Gate and the meteorites and, I mean, more people saw this between Peacock and Netflix, you would think, than ever before. So I can't help but wonder, why would the Rock show up the Tuesday after? It almost feels like he's explaining, hey, this was not my fault. I was at home on my couch. I think there was a lot of heat on on WWE Sunday night

based on where's the rock? And for him to do the media appearance on Tuesday and say, oh, I was at home watching on a couch with my friends and family. That to me came off like there's more behind the scenes, more pissing contests. Maybe The Rock felt like, because we've all heard his promos,

he wants to make history. He wants to be a part of the biggest shows and the biggest events and the biggest gates and he wants to be the record maker. Well, if the rumors are true and this WrestleMania did like $80 million or something crazy like that and they did it without the Rock, does that create a little bit of back and forth between certain figures inside the tent at WWE and the Rock? What do you think?

I don't know. My mind just doesn't go there. I just, I mean, could it, sure, could there be some political tug-of-war or creative tug-of-war going on? I don't think there's any doubt that Triple H is in charge. I don't think there's any doubt that the creative team as a whole is pretty cohesive, just from the outside looking in. Could there be an issue with someone like the Rock?

I mean, let's face it, he's got a certain amount of gravitational pull, giving who he is and what he's accomplished. WWE is going to want to leverage that. I saw it with Vince, you know, when I was there, in 2019 you know getting rock to show up at the the fox debut was like premier was like the most important thing anybody could focus on for quite a while of course he came in at the last minute and he did his thing because he had a schedule he's a busy guy he wasn't part of you know the day-to-day operations he worked it into his schedule and was able to show up but i also saw

the collateral expense. We won't call it damage. The collateral expense which is an incredible amount of time invested by writers and producers and all of us really working together not knowing how to time the show because Rock also has a history of if you give him seven minutes plan on 17 but it works so nobody's really bitching about it too hard.

It generally delivers in a big way. But there's a conflict with a guy who's not there full time, who's not a part of the process. Here's, I use this example the other day. It's like when you're producing a television show, there's a million threads. It's like a thousand count bed sheet. There's a million threads of bring it all together. And each one of them are as critical as the other. Because if one thing goes wrong, the whole production crashes in many respects.

So you need to have redundancy. You need to make sure that every thread in your production sheet is woven tightly and there are no loose threads. Because if you pull one of those threads and before you know what the whole thing unravels. And when you're not there every single day, absorbing, some of the nuance involved with talent and stories going forward. If you're not a part of that, it's easy. And it has nothing to do with bad intentions or being an egotomaniac,

thinking you're better than everybody else, you're more important. It has everything to do with it. You take a guy like Rock, who, okay, I'm available. I can do this. Creative has to, you know, they're writing on the fly. And a lot of times it doesn't matter because someone like Rock's going to do what Rock feels the most comfortable doing. he's earned that right and he's delivered so he's going to come in with a certain expectation

that he's going to have some flexibility and and control over what it is he does because he does and that is also true for guys like sina and cote and holcogen everybody made a big deal about creative control well if you listen to these guys talking they all acknowledge that the talent has to kind of sign off on this stuff so you've got a lot of people that have strong creative influence, if not creative control. And if one of those guys comes in and he says, yeah, okay, I'm going to pull this thread right here because I can fit myself into that spot without realizing how it affects everything else around it, that's a real problem.

It's the price you pay to bring in someone like the rock, in my case, to a large degree Hulk Hogan, especially early on when he had a limited number of dates and who couldn't want to come in and he had an idea, he had months to think about it, weeks to think about it, people pitching him ideas all the time and he would come in and he would pitch an idea that he was passionate about and it might have been a great idea but it affected 25 other things and i think that's probably what's happening with rob is his intentions are good despite the perception that people have of him i think he just really wants to be successful whether he's the record holder or not he's associated with wwe people know he's on the bar they know his relationship there he

wants it to be successful. That matters more to his overall reputation than his individual stature. I think a lot of, I think too much is made of that. It's like, oh, as he goes so big, he wants to be the guy that says, I don't believe that to be true. I think he wants to be involved in really successful stuff because it's way more fun. It's a better use of his time and the gravitational pull that he brings with him. But I think it's more just a matter of being totally aware so that your presence doesn't disrupt. And I think that's what's happened here. Communication is probably part of it.

Like I said, rock not being there full time is probably part of it. It's tough to just drop in and then drop out. It's a tough way to do business for everybody. I can't help but feel like what you said a few moments ago as soon as you started is being challenged. What I mean is you said something along the lines of, hey, we all know Triple H is the boss.

He's in charge. I don't know if that's true. I know day to day that's true. But even in the Rocks interview with Pat McAfee, he didn't say, I got a call from Triple H. I got a call from Nick Kahn. He says, I got a call from REO manual. We know owns TKO and TKO owns WWE.

And he's my friend and business partner for 20 years. He's framing it like, This was a call that was made to him sort of outside the tent of WWE. No disrespect to Ari Emanuel, but he's not in that writer's room. He doesn't know what the plans are creatively, I would imagine, for the next three weeks or three months or three years. But he is looking at a ledger and he sees, hey, we can sell more tickets than we have for elimination chamber.

And I think they wound up selling like 27,000 seats or something, but certainly that Roger's Center could have held more. But that note to me feels like maybe that's the Rock intentionally being divisive. And Dave Legreca, who hosts Busted Open Radio, he absolutely went off on Sirius XM all of Monday and some of Tuesday. And then the Rock actually responded. And he says, hi, Dave. The business is a complete work.

Always has been, always will be. every aspect of it every match every interview please join me coda sina brian and the rest of us for our creative discussion so you can expand your perspective until then stop ranting it's not healthy my friend enjoy the show t-s tell bubba i have grand marnier and hush puppies for all of us what do you make of this i mean even the comment please join me cody brian and the rest of us. The rest of us?

I don't I really don't even know how to respond to that. You know, it's I was shocked like I said, opening this up. I was shocked that Rock took the time to even respond to that. Especially because all it's going to do is continue

to stir the pot. Maybe we're all just, you know, gullible. And because we think we know a lot about the wrestling business we're all jumping on some of these theories. It kind of makes sense based on the impression we have of the people involved. And it kind of fits a dramatic, you know, behind the scenes story, drama, conflict. Maybe that's just our nature as wrestling fans to look at that. It's probably why, you know, the internet wrestling community exists and why dirt sheets exist,

because people just are fascinated by speculating and about what could be and what the theory is behind why people say and what people do. Like, I just, I think it's unfortunate. I'm surprised Brock responded to Dave. And I get your point, though, you know, he's made that, even that message made it sound like he's in that writer room every day, which. Well, hang on. Who's not mentioned?

Let's go back to the quote. I mean, because this is what sticks out to me. Please join me, Cody, Sina, Brian, and the rest of us. He's not mentioning Triple H one time. He's not mentioning Bruce Pritchard one time. See, I didn't even notice that. Toski one time. I didn't even notice that.

Maybe I should have. I didn't notice that, really. That's what stood out to me the most. Like, you know, here you are saying, and I'm not arguing that, Triple H is at the top of the org chart when it comes to content. He is the chief content. officer, I think is what they're calling him. So instead of a C-O, he's the C-C-O.

But still above him, we know on the arc chart, there's Nick Kahn. And above him, well, there's Ari Emanuel. And Ari called Rock. The whole thing just feels like, man, there is some uneasiness and unpeevilness. I almost wonder, did the Rock later after he said, hey, I'm done after elimination chamber, was he interested in showing up at WrestleMania? Because he knew it was going to be a huge financial success. and Triple H and WVE said,

oh, we got it. We don't need you to just drop in by helicopter every now and again and just throw a grenade in the middle of our creative. We got it. We'll be fine. Just sit this one out, bud. Is that what happened?

No. I mean, there may be people thinking that. Nobody said that. And with Ari Emanuel, who I've never met and don't know, I know of him by reputation, as a lot of people do. He is Rock's agent.

He was Rock's agent first and foremost up until recently. I don't find any of this, just not as held to buy into the conspiracy. I really do think it was bad communication. I think Rock jumped in. He said he was going to try to have some fun and elimination chamber. I don't think there was a lot of thought put into what do we do at a WrestleMania until it started getting closer to WrestleMania. And for whatever reason, Rock didn't participate. I don't know what that reason is.

I just don't think that with Ari up at the top of TKO, that there would ever have been a conversation internally. It's like, no, Rock, we got you. Don't worry about it. Maybe next time, we don't really need you this time. I don't think anything like that was said or implied or inferred. I just don't. I'm not there.

You know, people, people, they all have flaws. We all have flaws. I certainly do. I've got an ego. I've got pride. Sometimes I think that I'm absolutely right and find out otherwise. You know, performers in particular, in particular, are guilty of that. You know, they're passionate. They're not necessarily people who think like analysts. They're inspired by creativity. And sometimes they're inspired over the wrong things at the road time. I know. But I just don't see it being as political or nefarious necessarily.

not saying it's not, I just don't see it that way. Now, if this continues over a period of time and we keep seeing this back and forth, you know, I'll probably have a different opinion. But right now, I just think bad planning, bad execution, everybody's covering their ass. That's what I think of all this is. There are choices that can change your life. Like the choice to start routine colorectal cancer screening at age 45. It's one of the most common cancers for women and men.

and it doesn't always have symptoms. But there's good news. Routine screening can catch colorectal cancer early and even prevent it. And there's even better news. You have screening options. Make the choice to put your health first. Talk to your doctor about your screening options. Or visit cdc.gov slash screen for life for more information.

You don't think two wrestlers in a row is enough evidence? How many wrestlers should he try to fuck up in a row before you think that he was involved? all right all right listen i'm i'm asking the tongue and cheek but i do want you to ask a question here and you're going to immediately get defensive i want you to not immediately take a defensive position and i want you to really listen to the question before you decide to have a visceral reaction i want you to think back to your wcw days and you had a creative team you had a committee whether it was kevin or whoever else was involved you had a committee and you guys have worked on creative tirelessly for several days perhaps weeks

maybe months and every now and again the biggest draw in the history of the business would show up and have a legendary comment about that creative on the day of the show he'd stroke that foo man shoe and he'd say something along the lines of that doesn't work for me brother now i'm not talking about whether or not hogan made the right call that's a conversation for another day i am asking you whenever hogan would use that creative control card and stroke that Fu Manchu as often or as infrequently as that happened, how would that move by Hogan and that reaction by Hogan be received by the rest of the writing team? That writing committee in WCW, when Kevin Sullivan was given the note

back from Hogan, hey, we know we've built this pay-per-view for six weeks or whatever it is, but Terry says that doesn't work for me, brother. What else can we come up with? How did the team in the writer's room on the day of where he drops that grenade, how do they respond to that? By the way, that happened, not exactly the way you laid it out and not as cut and dry as you laid it out, but that type of thing happens often.

That's why I spent so much time talking about, you know, the best laid plans of mice and men, no matter how great it looks up paper, is subject to change for any number of reasons. And in my case, flashing back to WCW, I'm not defensive about this at all. It's a great question. and I've experienced a lot of it, so I feel qualified to answer.

In WCW's case, what would happen if we had been working on a, first of all, if we had been working on a plan for weeks and months, the general idea of that plan, the premise at the very least, and probably the finish involved in it, would have been discussed with Hulk, in particular, because of the nature of his contract and his limited schedule, we had to know in advance, especially early on, as best we could, what we were doing, who we're doing it with, and what the outcome would be.

Three things that we had to know. Now, there's a lot of stuff in the middle that we would figure out as we went over a period of time, but the basic tempoles of an idea would have been discussed. It's not like everybody's seen some room, comes up with an idea, and then sends it over to the hall to see if you liked it. That wasn't the process. or would have been involved incrementally throughout the whole period of weeks or months, whatever the time frame would have been.

Now, I think a fair or more practical question because it happened was what happens when, even though there's been all this communication or communication, I don't want to suggest there was an abundance of it, but we spent time communicating. There was buy-in initially, and there was buy-in throughout the majority of the process. process. What would happen if, for example, Hulk or anybody else would have come in and said, hmm, that doesn't work for me. Okay. Tell me what. That would start the conversation. If there's a reason why all of a sudden it's not working, let's figure that out. If we can, sometimes you can very easily sometimes you can

makes you to another issue but for the most part that never happened with the exception of 97 when we were with staying when we were presented with a set of circumstances we didn't anticipate not going to litigate that again here we all know the story but with the exception of that evening I never once was in a position where Hulk or anybody else had agreed with a story

that had been laid out fundamentally and it came in at the last minute and changed your mind. What we would do once we ask the question, okay, going back to the example, it doesn't work for you, brother, okay, tell me why. We would address the why. And at that point, it would become a pretty collaborative effect or reaction, meaning, The writers, producers, bookers, whatever you want to call, my team, myself, Kevin, depending on the talent involved, perhaps the talent that Hulk would be working with, would get involved, Hulk would be involved. We'd try to figure out a solution to the why.

And 999 times out of 1,000, we did. I'd argue it was a better idea because of the challenge. Hulk or somebody else threw a flag or perhaps it wasn't that was the process it wasn't like I said we didn't spend months or weeks even laying something out and presented the day off and go what do you think that I didn't have well they didn't lay out any ideas for months and weeks to the rock for him to approve so I feel like you took the sidebar there I want to repeat my question when the hope when the Holkstra would stroke that Fumanchu and say that doesn't work for me brother and now that message goes back to the writing room and now it's

pay-per-view day it's show day the hayes in the barn the tickets have been sold the pay-per-view buys have been made we've got their money and now we're going to change the story and as you know Eric I think a lot of our listeners sometimes think you can change one guy in one segment and it only affects that one guy in that one segment you know that's not true it affects the entire show. If you change one segment, you change everything else on the entire show by some sort of ripple effect. How would Kevin Sullivan and company feel when everything they've been working on day of, nope, now it has to change? Is that a positive thing? Are they looking forward to that? Or is it a negative reaction? I'm just asking. It depends if the solution to why it doesn't work

for me is a better idea and a better outcome, everybody would be thrilled to death. If it's just an absolute brick wall, they're going to be frustrated. Do you think the Rock at WrestleMania was a better idea? What happened this year at WrestleMania was a better idea, or was it a brick wall, in your opinion? I don't think it was a brick wall, but I don't think it was a better idea. there's no chance it was a better idea it would have been a better idea not to involve Rocket Hall

that would have been a better idea unless there was a commitment to be a part of the end of the story then there's no reason to be a part of the beginning of the story so we said the night up let me ask you this do you think I'm not asking this to be a smart ass

but you're going to think I'm being a smart ass I'm trying to make a point to the audience and I want you to hear it all the way do you think Triple H called Ari Emanuel and said, will you call the Rock and see if he'll come to elimination chamber for us? I have no idea. Maybe. I doubt it. But I do think a plausible scenario would be Ari, Nick, triple H, probably Bruce, any number of other people associated would have had a meeting and say and said something to the effect of how we're doing an elimination chamber. If the response came back as soft, we're not doing as well as we thought we would or

we could. Then I think the next natural step would be what can we do? Somebody throws out a rock card and already picks up the phone and calls rock. I've seen that scenario play itself out hundreds of times in WWE and WCW. So I think that's probably more plausible than a triple H pick up the phone and go on Rock saying, Hey, buddy, we need some help. Could you come and help us out? I don't see that, but I see are he doing it as his agent and business

partner. I'm just saying I don't believe that this was a triple H call. I think Rock was called by Ari Emanuel or he called Ari or whatever. And this was just sort of forced upon triple H and company. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. Yeah, look, I wouldn't want to be Triple H. He took a lot of heat, and maybe he deserved it. Maybe he didn't.

I think the politics are pretty obvious here, and I think, again, because of who Rock is and the gravitational pull and the success that comes with him, generally speaking, I think there was an accommodation made that they wished they wouldn't have made because it wasn't well thought out or executed. I want to show you how fans are reacting to this tweet from Dave LaGreca. Everything The Rock does is overanalyzed by fans, but one of my favorite follows on Twitter is the Andrew Dice Clay. And he posted this in with regards to the Rock's tweet today.

The Rock knows what he's doing with that line. Of course, the line being, Dave, feel free to join John, Cody, Brian, and the rest. It doesn't feel like he's too shy about flexing who the Rock is and his power. That's the way fans believe it and perceive it. And no matter what they think, I don't know that you saw this, Eric, but WrestleMania 41 did not make Netflix's global top 10 chart,

meaning neither night of the event ranked among the most watch shows on the platform. And I have to admit, that blew me away to think that this was shown. on Netflix in the UK, Canada, India, Australia. Like it felt like to me, this being the first widely available WrestleMania like this with all the attention that WWE has had over the past 12 months. It felt like this was a shoe in to be one of the most watched things on Netflix, but it didn't crack the top 10.

Are you surprised by that? And do you have any takeaways from that? I am surprised. I was excited to see what WrestleMania was going to do. And when the number came in, I was, yeah, I was surprised. It landed where it did. Do I have a take on why? I think WrestleMania is obviously part of pop culture and has been now for however many years, decades.

And while it's not the Super Bowl necessarily in terms of public interest in the United States, It's probably close in some ways, but outside of the United States, not so much. And I think the big bump that I expected from WrestleMania was not so much the domestic audience. I didn't think Netflix was going to have a big impact on the domestic audience, because the domestic audience has been able to get and stream WrestleMania for quite some time now on Peacock previously. So I didn't see a big jump in the U.S., but I really thought that the international pump would have been much more significant than it is or was. I'm kind of surprised, too.

I just assumed that it would have been. I mean, they're, of course, touting the social media impressions and things like that. They're saying that there's 1.1 billion views, but I know for sure that this year the Super Bowl had 127 million viewers here in the United States so it's much bigger than

WrestleMania domestically but the rest of the globe combined Eric only 62 million people watched it I know I just said only in front of 62 million but it is the rest of the globe I think when it comes to WWE that's inversed and that yes it's a big

deal in America but cumulatively outside of the confines of the continental United States WWE is bigger than it as just domestically here in the United States. I don't think the same of the same thing is true with the NFL. I think the NFL is huge here domestically, just not nearly as big internationally. I don't disagree. You know, the WWE has had decades to create their international footprint.

I've done so very well. As some I looked, I think they were in like 186 different countries. This is before, you know, Peacock and all. all that. It's a massive international footprint and it hasn't been for a long time. I just don't think that that international audience feels the same way about WrestleMania as the domestic audience because WrestleMania hasn't been promoted heavily for three decades internationally the way it has been here in the United States. I just don't think the appetite is quite there. We're used to kind of a cause and effect. If you look at your television,

television ratings, you can figure out a formula to kind of predict where a premium live event or pay-per-view is going to end up. In this case, we didn't have that. This was the first for WrestleMania. And the only answer I have is just the appetite isn't bigger internationally, even though there's a bigger audience necessarily for WWE and has been for quite a while, I just don't think the appetite for WrestleMania is quite there yet. I think that will continue to build over time. How do you think Netflix took this? Like we know they've made a substantial investment in WWE.

There's no denying that that Netflix has pushed all their chips in and they've went all in, so to speak, on WWE paying more than anybody ever before has for that. And then WrestleMania didn't crack the top 10? I'm not trying to be negative, but I am saying, I think if I was writing such a big check, I'd be like, wait a minute. How much did we pay for the things that did come in the top? 10. Like, if WrestleMania is not going to be in the top 10,

is WWE ever going to be in the top? What would your reaction be if you were WWE hearing, wait, it wasn't in the top 10? Would you feel pressure to over deliver for Netflix? Or is it just another day at the office? Neither. Neither. Sure you feel pressure because you have to serve as your client.

In this case, in this case, WWB's client is their streaming partner on Netflix. They're paying. for a product and there's a responsibility and, yeah, pressure to deliver not only to service your client, but also to service your brand. Now, you know, you ask the question, how would I feel if I was a Netflix executive? That all depends on what their strategy is. I don't think, I don't know this, clearly, I don't believe that Netflix was looking at this investment as any kind of a show short-term ROI. I think Netflix made a decision strategically, long-term strategy to be number one in

live streaming. WWE was a big step in that long-term plan because of the nature of the audience, because WWV was able to bring such a huge streaming audience along with them. It's not like launching a new program or, you know, spending $14 billion on a movie or whatever that you get one shot in a event. It makes money great. If it doesn't, write it off and put it on a streaming platform for free. I think the business model with Netflix, and again, I don't know, but it's just kind of common sense to me that if you're a streamer and you've made all your money in original content,

because Netflix over the last 15 years has spent 10, 12 years, has spent a fortune buying everything scripted. Several years ago when I was still in production, it was like you get a meeting with Netflix. If you've got an outline for a good idea, you're going to sell your show. I mean, they were buying everything. Everything. The budget for the Hulk Hogan movie was an excess.

of $85 million for one movie. So I think they saturated that market. They've done such a great job with original content. They have such a vast library of original content that they own. Their next step, business-wise, is sports and live streaming. WWE and that acquisition was a part of that strategy. It was a tactic.

Let's acquire something that already has a built-in audience. That's live, that people are used to watching live, and they watch every single week. Let's acquire that and continue to build out our live streaming platform. If I'm right about that, it's a long-term play, and they're probably looking at ways to continue to grow that number. I just don't think it's a short-term return on investment. I don't think anybody looked at this deal. What was it, a five-year deal? I don't think anybody looked at this deal and said, man, we've got to make, you know, we spent $5 billion on this.

we've got to make $7 billion in the next five years. I don't think that's, do they want to? Sure, but I just don't think that's the strategy. I was surprised that the first WrestleMania globally free on Netflix was not in the top 10. But I know it's not just me when I say that it feels like this winter lasted for F and ever. The weather is finally changing. And you know what?

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going to ask you where you heard about them please support our show and tell them we sent you fuck your khakis get the perfect gene so listen everybody's talking about uh wrestlingania and in all the headlines that have come out of it but there is one piece of business that I think jumped off the page to me off of Logan Paul's podcast he revealed that he and his team at prime actually offered Stone Cold Steve Austin a million dollars to wear a prime bottle costume at WrestleMania 41 of course he says Austin turned it down without hesitation Logan was even quoted as saying bro we offered Steve a million dollars to be in the prime

bottle he didn't do it oh he's not the guy I don't care what the number is he's not getting in that bottle ever the absurdity of on cold Steve Austin, driving a four-wheeler down to the ring as a prime bottle. I can say that would have been hilarious. Thank God for you, Dave Silva. Lord, bless you, Dave Silva. But a million dollars, Eric,

would you have dressed up like the prime bottle and driven the ATV down to the ring? Maybe not crashed into the guardrail and announced the attendance on Sunday if given the opportunity for seven figures, because I would. I mean, I probably would, but not probably. Who am I kidding? Yes. Um, but not about Steve Boston.

He doesn't need the money. Agree. And he'd never, he'd never live that down. By the time he pays taxes out and say half a million dollars, he would have killed his character for 500 grand. And get why he didn't do it. I'd have done in the heartbeat. By the way, shout out to Logan.

I don't think there, he believes there was any chance it was going to actually work. But he knew, I also get to talk about it. people will talk about it I'll get some headlines I'll get some free buzz I enjoy Logan Paul and his his approach to business I do want to talk a little bit about Joe Hendry that's been a big debate I mean even Dave Meltzer is saying hey point out at any point in history where you've seen a world champion for a promotion gets squashed on another promotions program in three minutes and of course that doesn't exist.

But Joe Hendry says when he's unbusted open, you know what? See and Punk told me? We had a great conversation afterwards and C and Punk told me that's exactly how it should have gone and if it had gone longer,

I think it would have worked out worse for me. There's no shame in losing to a legend like Randy Orton. I want to remind everybody as folks are dunking on Joe for losing to Randy Orton. Triple H famously got squashed by the ultimate warrior and it didn't slow his career down.

He was just fine. I don't think this is that big a deal in the scheme of things, but the idea that it's a big talking point makes me wonder, could this have a negative effect on Joe Hendry's relationship with the fans or with T&A, or does anything change negatively at all? Or is it all just positive? Because I just think back about all the silly stuff we've seen at

WrestleMania through the years. I mean, I think Randy Orton wrestled Bray Wyatt on a canvas filled with worms at WrestleMania a few years ago. And we seemingly have moved on from that and said, okay, let's just block that out of Vermont, how silly that was. I don't think this is the end of the world for Joe Hingry. Am I wrong? No.

You're absolutely right. And I read some of the comments and saw some of the interviews that Joe has done. First of all, he's a pro. He's smart. He made a great, he had a great opportunity. And he not only handled it well in the ring, he's handling it really well outside of the ring, which to me tells me everything I need to know about him as a pro

and somebody that I would launch on my roster. I think the people who are making a big deal of this, that Dave Meltzer appellites out there that try so hard to pretend that they understand something about the wrestling business that the average fan just doesn't understand. galvanizes them together, these low frequency thinkers who've never really done anything or will ever really accomplish much other than being really active in the internet wrestling community and sharing their take on what should and shouldn't have happened with

Joe Henry and, you know, looking back in history and trying to find a similar situation is the dumbest, low-hanging fruit, low-frequency thinking that one should come to expect on the Internet. I think Joe had a great opportunity. I think Randy did a great job with Joe. I think Randy did more for Joe Andrew than anybody else has individually up until this very point. Joe's future is very bright.

Unlike the people that have a different take on this whole thing, their future is what it is and they'll be on the internet you know playing to know about professional wrestling in community with dave mouser for the rest of their uneventful lives that's their world that's who they relate to that's the kind of thinking that attracts them like moths to a flame you know if you could start talking about what should have done and what was good for joe's career and not good for Joe's career. I can't believe they squashed him in three minutes. He's on a rocket ship.

It may be a slow rocket ship. It may not be the speed of light. But Joe Henry made a name for himself at WrestleMania, and he'll continue to build on that. More importantly than anything else, now I did a good job in the ring. He's doing such an outstanding job outside of him. And his head is out straight.

Thank goodness he's not one of the dirtbags your following day bounce around the internet and think like he does because this guy would have never gotten out of stocking shelves at a Walmart. Good for him. We should talk about some other news and notes around WrestleMania. Of course, we saw the Austin footage. I think that everything is okay. I feel like that young lady who had maybe took a tumble or had a fall on the other

side of the barricade. She seems to be all right. Thankfully nobody was hurt. But the, the POV. of that footage has released and wow what a cool perspective that is i think we may have that to show you here i almost feel like those apple goggles right there like i mean it's coming right there like i mean it's coming right at you i love your take way was what was at their feet. That was the biggest thing. I was,

most people are sloppy, man. I wouldn't want them over my house and party. Can you imagine what they do to an Airbnb? Oh, right. Oh my goodness gracious. Uh, listen, we also saw some other headlines coming out of the weekend. One of the biggest ones was a discussion about Liv Morgan. And I know that there's been a lot of folks who, uh, have pointed to Mickey James comments recently on L.A. She was critical of some of the apparel and attire and costuming that some of the women of today wrestle in. Maybe she feels like their, quote unquote, butts are hanging out too much or something like that. Well, we know that Liv Morgan showed up fairly scantily clad at WrestleMania.

And this feels like it's created a debate online about whether or not this is good for the women's revolution. I mean, even WWE superstars took to Twitter to talk about it. We saw a tweet from Zoe Starks, who says, I grew up believing women only, I grew up believing women had to fight twice as hard to earn respect in this business. Is this sports entertainment or only fans? Evolution, question mark, question mark, question mark.

I mean, I realize that, you know, this is not our place to say. We're a couple of dudes. But I do think this is a conversation that is happening in women's wrestling right now. What's good for business and what's best for business long term? I mean, clearly, Liv got a lot of social media attention and a lot of chatter with her outfit. She knew that that would be the case. So if you're courting attention from that regard, I get it. But I also sort of understand, hey, we're trying to move past the Divas Division.

We're trying to be taken seriously. And I wonder, you know, if Cody came out wearing gear like Liv Morgan was the other day with his ass hanging out, everybody would be like, wait a minute, what the hell is going on here? And I think that presents a double standard in wrestling. Where do you land on this, Eric? Is there a line? And are we supposed to decide that or do the performers decide? The audience decides.

That's how it works. It's entertainment. And I don't disagree necessarily that there's, there's, there's a, line where it becomes distasteful and look I love half-naked women as much as the next guy not I'm not taking any kind of moral position on it but if you step back in you know okay we're talking about wrestling obviously we're talking about Lou Morgan and WWE and Russell Media in this case but if you look at any other form of entertainment you seen dual loop a lately do you know who do it is

And it is what it is. The music industry, the entertainment industry, is getting more and more provocative in every way. I think it's more of a reflection of the culture than it is necessarily an isolated issue within WWE or even within wrestling. It's a reflection of the culture. That's where the culture is going. And if you, you know, skate where the puck is going instead of where the puck has always been, you're going to be bumping up against that line of good taste because that's what pop culture does. I don't think about it anymore or less than that.

If that's the direction of mainstream entertainment, which it is, if that's the, I mean, we got actors and actresses showing up at the golden globes and see-through dresses. Yeah. I mean, at what point did we just stop picking out professional wrestling because it suits our social media narrative and it gives us something to talk about and get likes or hang on now, Eric, I mean, I'm not trying to cut you off and be argumentative here, but a lot of those movies that are at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards and the Emmys, they're not marketing toys to children.

Like, I've never seen Minnie Mouse, you know, twerk that thing in a phone never seen that once i've never seen you know the little mermaid pop out in the bikini or looking like she's doing some only fans thirst trap posts never seen that well wb is targeting 18 to 49 year old males like most sports so or sports adjacent i guess it's the right way to say it um that's their target audience yes some kids watch it just like some kids watch a lot of things that are very, very provocative that aren't necessarily targeted towards kids. I think it's unfair to say WWE targets kids.

WWE has a young audience, to be sure, but I think their core audience and their target is clearly 18 to 49 year old, men in particular. There are choices that can change your life. Like the choice to start routine colorectal cancer screening at age 45. It's one of the most common cancers for women and men, and it doesn't always have symptoms. But there's good news. Routine screening can catch colorectal cancer early and even prevent it.

And there's even better news. You have screening options. Make the choice to put your health first. Talk to your doctor about your screening options, or visit cdc.gov slash screen for life for more information. All righty. We'll agree to disagree. You're just trying to get me to hammer on WWE today. Oh, no, not at all.

We're talking about WrestleMania. I mean, let me ask you this. What did you think of dynamite last night? I along with a lot of other people didn't see it. I didn't watch it. What did you think? I thought it was a good show. I've always enjoyed whenever they do shows from New Orleans.

I love that they had your man, Master P on there to start the show. Master P, who you took a bunch of shit for. I do find it hilarious and the irony that so. 25 years ago when he was hot. So many AEW hardcore fans have just ridiculed. And I'm one of those AEW fans who have, but a lot of these other fans have ridiculed everything you've ever done. And they would always point to look at when he gave Master P all this money.

Oh, what a flop that is. Nobody gives a shit about Master P. And then when he comes out, always that I, woo, Master B. And it's like, Eric was doing that 20, 27 years ago when no limit was was putting out a platinum album released a gold album literally every Tuesday um it is a different business but you know i love mastery i know you do too he didn't have the best he didn't have the best looking punches on wednesday i will say that i think that's

pee that street fred whatever you had left he'd gone don't throw a punch if you don't know how to Roll punch. Well, listen, C and Master P made me nostalgic. I mean, you had Samoa Joe out there saying, make them say, uh, I heard some people hitting the hooty who. I mean, listen, wrestling occasionally is about nostalgia. And you know that if you're listening to this show. Well, how about some nostalgia cereal?

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And I also want to brag on a friend of mine. I'm talking about my friends over at Envision Marketing Consultants. Eric Nichols specifically, man, he helped me grow my business so much back when I first started advertising. We've had a long-term relationship with advertising in my real life over on the mortgage company side of my world. I started advertising quite a bit in 2009 and 2010. I was buying billboards. I was buying radio. I was buying TV, but I didn't really know how to market online. And then I did what I always do. I reached out to my trusted advisors. And at the time well that was radio and television salespeople and they took my order and they took my money

but i got no leads i had no idea what i was doing eric nichols taught me a lot about the space i understand the space more i understand what i'm buying more and more importantly i'm getting more leads and my cost per leads went down so if you'd like more leads and to pay less for them you need to talk to my guy it's conrad's guy dot com let eric's team take a look and see what your company is doing in digital marketing, and I'm talking to you if you're doing any SEO or pay per click or targeted display, or maybe you just want ads on streaming video like Hulu, YouTube, or Amazon. If your company's doing any of that or you want to do some of that, go right now to

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What the hell do you got time to do spending on the YouTube algorithm? Like, how can you be on top of the YouTube algorithm and on top of your business? You can't. Something's going to suffer. Focus on your business and let Eric worry about optimizing your campaigns. He can help you with your B2B, your retail, your food and beverage, you're manufacturing, your nonprofits. Man, if he can do it for my freaking mortgage company,

you can do it for you to go right now, to Conrad's guy.com. You're going to love working with Eric Nichols and envision marketing consultants. We're smart, but simple marketing drives results at Conrad's guy.com. Eric, there's so much to talk about in the shadows of WrestleMania.

And, you know, I just made the analogy of their comparison, rather, of your use of Master P in WCW versus him making an appearance in AW. you. Well, perhaps WVE's taking a page out of your book. There's a report that's come out since you and I have been reporting this morning

that says that they're actually aiming towards a tag team match. There's been a pitch for John Sina and Travis Scott to work a tag team match together at some point during this year. That feels logical based on everything we've heard. It feels like we've heard

Triple H on more than one occasion say that Travis Scott says this feels like his full-time job now. He loves it. He wants to do it. We know that Burke Kreischer's got the bug. We know that Bad Bunny has wrestled. We know that Logan Paul is doing phenomenally well. But once upon a time, man, when you had Dennis Rodman out there, people thought you were killing the business, brother. What do you make of this? I mean, and listen, I know I always go to the Dennis Rodman comparison, but we didn't have social media the way we do now in 1997 and 1998. If social media

existed in 97 and 98, how much bigger a star would Dennis Rodman have been, Eric? I mean, it would have been unbelievable, right? Yeah, because he was, he was courting social media before there were social media. Yes. He was so outrageous, and he was doing it just for fun. He wasn't trying to get attention. Well, he was obviously trying to get attention, but not like we do today. It would have been monstrous.

would have been awesome fun to be a part of it was already fun to be a part of it would just would have taken out a whole different level what do you make of this report that we may be looking at a tag match with Travis Scott and John Cena I know there's some some of our listeners who are going to say boy I can't believe they're butchering John Cena's last year the idea that he probably had a real plan for how he wanted to spend his last year in wrestling he's probably been thinking about this and planning this and looking forward to it and then he shows up at the elimination chamber and they've already got all this merch printed for all these tours and

everything's approved and the rock says well let's just turn him heel and now it's in about face and now he's going to be tag teaming with a famous rap musician and by the way there's a guy in my office who out loved the death you know him very well steve patty he came to me on monday and he says is this got a big deal and i had to put it in perspective yes steve i know this is going to be hard to hear he's perhaps a bigger deal than WWE when it comes to social media. He has 15 million more followers on Instagram than WWE does as a whole.

Like Travis Scott is a major influencer. There's no denying that. So I see the value in them tagging with John Sina, but I can't help but feel like if that happens, man, people are going to be critical of it. And I hope they keep that same energy they had when you were teaming Hogan with Dennis Rodman. Or they're going to love it and claim that it's a genius move.

yet still dunk on you teaming Hogan with Rodman. I don't do it. It makes sense. Yeah, but it does when you consider the audience. You know, it sounds so, you know, trite,

but you just have to look at the source. You know, let's go back to the first question, just how do I feel about it? I mean, the timing right now, it's just, it's hard for me to go,

hmm, that would be interesting because we've seen Travis got twice thus far. neither one of them moved the needle for me. Now, I'm obviously not a trap. I know who he is.

I certainly am aware of him, but I'm, you know, not on my playlist, right? First of all, we don't know if that's even remotely true because it came from a wrestling website. So, who knows? It could be somebody throwing out a hot tape to try to get some action on their social. social media, which is 90% of the time of the case.

Or it could be, maybe it's true. If it's true, Travis Scott's got a lot of work to do. And I'm not saying that because of anything we've seen up to this point. I'm saying that because guys like Logan Paul and Bad Bunny set the bar. And it's a pretty high freaking bar. So I hope if Travis Scott said this feels like his full-time job, that he really means it. and he's cleared his schedule because he's got two big names to follow that over-delivered by so much I wouldn't want to be in Travis's shoes.

But look, we know that WWE is really good at getting talent ready for this. We've seen it twice now. Logan, we continue to see it. What does he have 15 matches in his career and all of them have been high-profile premium live event appearances. They're good at it if they've got a willing, coachable talent. So if Travis is willing and coachable and we'll dedicate the time,

there's a backstory there. There's something there to work with and hopefully to work out. And we'll look at you with a good guess. Logan Paul's actually had 19 matches, but that does include, you know, the Royal Rumble a couple of times. So yeah,

If you talk about singles matches, 17, you were real damn close here. Here's the thing about Logan. Now, you know, we didn't talk about this because we went right off on the main event so hard the other night, it's where we spent most of our time. Logan is, he still boggles my mind of good he is for only having had 19 matches or whatever the number is. It's just insane to be able to. comprehend. But here's the challenge for Logan, I think, longer term, is we're used

now to seeing Logan Paul come out, having a great match. It's kind of going back to expectations. Logan Paul has established very high expectations for what he does physically. And there's no doubt in my mind he'll continue to deliver on that aspect of it. But it's going to be really interesting to see what happens with his character. Does his character and his in-ring performance, does it plateau? Is it as good as it's going to get? Or are we going to see variations of the character so that we have growth, we have evolution, we have a journey.

Because I don't know how much better he can get in the ring, to be honest with you. I mean, given his size, how much better can this guy get noticeably better? or incrementally better. I argue that because he's so freaking good, he can only get incrementally better, which doesn't really land on the viewer quite as much. But if Logan's Paul character can evolve, that's a whole different story.

So I'll be really interesting, because right now it feels like I know exactly what to expect from a Logan Paul match. And it's great, but I'm gonna need more. As a fan, I'm going to need to see him grow one way or the other. And if I'm correct, and he's kind of not maxed out, everybody can always improve. But he's not able to do something radical with his in-ring performance to make him feel fresh. Obviously, his character is the best route.

It'll be interesting to see what they do with him. Or are they just satisfied and are going to keep him kind of at the level he is for the reasons they're using him, which is much like Travis Scott for his social media presence. That's how you grow the brand. That's how you give people who aren't watching your show to watch your show and to sample. So it'll be fun to watch. It will be fun to watch. Something that we're never going to be able to watch is creating a little bit of controversy a few days later.

And I don't think this is one WWE had planned for on Sunday night, immediately following WrestleMania night two, WWE went back to the Fountain Blue and they presented the roast of WrestleMania featuring Tony Hinchcliff and friends Tony Hinchcliff is a mega wrestling fan years ago he did a podcast based out of the comedy store and he called his crew the store horseman

instead of the four horsemen. He's had Rick Flair on Kill Tony. He's buddies with Uncle Laser who's a big wrestling fan. I mean he has talked about his love of wrestling on Joe Rogan a lot. famously he made some headlines on the campaign trail last year for President Trump but now he was in the business of roasting WrestleMania and there's been a lot of roasts in wrestling but this is the first one that WWE has done and WWE apparently was nervous about this getting out there because they know that out of context roast jokes

are pretty brutal so I believe the term is a Faraday bag but I've used one of these when I've done a Joe Rogan concert or performance before it. You have to, when you go in, put your phone in a bag and you're not able to record anything. I don't think WWE filmed it or recorded it. No one was planning on releasing it, but as you may imagine, somebody in the audience did, apparently a few somebodies. And some of those comments are coming out and, well, they included roasting people who weren't there.

Now, I for one, am a big fan of comedy and I love roast. I've promoted a few rows. I'm with it. I understand it. But I think when you're a publicly traded company with as much at stake and on the line as WWE and TCO, I get while they want to be careful to make sure this isn't released.

But then when it is released, and you hear that there are jokes about people who aren't even in the building who don't even work for the company or who work for the company but are just trying to go to sleep in their hotel room and they wake up to, wow. People are taking shots at you.

This feels like a risk that maybe is backfiring on WWE a little bit. Would you have done the roast, Eric? And if you would have done the roast, if the answer is yes, I would have done it. Would you have made one of the rules, hey, we can only roast people who have agreed to participate in the roast.

Am I ever thinking that? No, I don't like roast. I'm not doing anymore. I don't want to go watch other people. You know, probably if there's someone, something really funny online that I see in another celebrity roast.

I may drop in for a joke or two, but the whole thing makes me really uncomfortable. I get it like you. I understand it, and it's fun, and we all volunteer. We have, I should say, I have in the past. We volunteered to participate, but they just make me uncomfortable. So I wouldn't have done it. Number one, I wouldn't want to have been a part of it. either producing it or on camera.

But if someone forced me to, if I was in a job or I had to do it, I would have done everything that I could to make sure that everybody who is going to be rusted was aware, not necessarily have approval over the content. You can't do that. But at least they would acknowledge that they're going to be a part of it and could be the brunt of a joke. so that they're ready. Because it's, you know, it's one thing, you know,

I have pretty thick skin. There's very little anybody can say to me that we'll get under it. But it's not just me, it's my family. It's my kids, it's my wife. And I would want to assure us that if I was part of something, say whatever you want about me, but leave my wife and kids out.

And I've seen that too many times where people venture, you know, off. And, you know, I don't like it. I guess if I had to produce it, yeah, I would have made sure everybody was aware they're going to, you know, be the part of a joke. And, yeah, it would have made everybody put their phone in a bag. I would have searched them. I would have made them go through a metal detector like at the airport to make sure they were hiding any cameras or recording devices on them. I would have done everything I could to protect that and not have it get up. Because, you know, in context, yeah, you can laugh along with

some of these things, but out of context, it's just hurtful. The thing I keep thinking about is the people who weren't there and when they wake up the next day, still in town from working with WWE and they realize, hey, the company we work for just promoted and profited and all that shitting on me in my real personal life or whatever it may be. It just feels off. And I wonder, hey, what is the risk reward ratio for WWE on this? I don't know how much money this thing made.

Let's say it made a few hundred grand. Let's say it made a million. Is it worth it with the potential backlash that you get? I just don't think the risk reward ratio is there for a roast. I think this is the last one. Yeah. Wouldn't surprise me. I mean, you know, you produce them.

You know, you know what it's like. And everybody's having fun while you're doing it. And then it's over. Those jokes can leave a mark. I've seen it. yeah i mean and there's you know i hate to say it this way but in a roast it almost i mean you're looking for the most foul jokes you can have so there's going to be dirty jokes there's going to be racist jokes there's going to be personal jokes uh so to do it without those

means it's not a roast i don't know it's going to be challenging so you said that they mentioned some of the people that weren't at the roast were there any names of ball yeah i mean listen uh i'll read you off some stuff uh they said gender mahal was was for the roast but uh what they wanted gender mahaal for the roast but he's going through a midlife isis j j uso's an underdog which is what shinskay ate for dinner tonight uh prime and drumstick ice cream have more preservatives in them than charlotte flair's face Can you imagine waking up the next morning, your Charlotte Flair, just wrestled your ass off at WrestleMania and you wake up and you see that and you're like, wait, who said

this? Where? A WWE show? Yeah, that's not too cool. I mean, listen, there were, I know that there's a lot of people who are defending Maurice, Ms. Ms. Because there were lots of jokes about how big WrestleMania is and how big the Allegiance

stadium is, it's almost as big as Maurice's vagina. But if Ms. is a roaster, he's in line for that. Jinder Mahal doesn't work for the company. Shinska Nakamura's not there. Charlotte Flare's not there. There was even a joke about Del Rio and Page. Neither of them work here.

What are we doing? Like it just feels like there's so much you can poke fun of with people who are on the dais. But people who are outside the tent or people who are in their hotel room. I don't know. It just feels like, what the fuck are we doing?

What's the upside? I don't disagree. Disagree. It wasn't produced for television, right? So, I mean, I don't know anything about it. This is the person hearing about it, actually. Was it a ticketed event? Yes, it was.

At the fountain blew, exactly the same building you were in for the Hall of Fame, same room. Wow. Yeah, it seems like a whole lot of feeling for a relatively pittance of revenue. So yeah,

it wouldn't have been on my list of things to do. To be clear, on that same stage on Friday night, 48 hours prior to this, we finally welcomed Lex Lugar into his rightful place in the W.W.E. Hall of Fame. And 48 hours later, they call Lex Lugar the total package total package is what the wheelchair salesman called come all man what are we doing i just don't get it i don't think it'll be done again it's not going to be a highlight uh for w v and

russimony weekend but maybe it's a teachable moment we got to we got to be better i think it's interesting that we've made so many strides to talk about the importance of mental health and all that but then on this it's like i understand there's a roached, but I'm saying, I think you should roast the people who were saying, yes, I'm up for this. I'm game for it. But to subject people who are under contract or don't work there to it, it's like,

where's the upside? I can be wrong. Let's take a look at some other news and notes before we put a button on this week's episode. We've seen a report come out with the power rankings. Now, of course, this is someone's opinion. I do want to get your opinion about this, Eric, on the

heels of WrestleMania, where do the men and women fall. Let's specifically take a look at the men. We see they're saying that John Cena's number one, Seth Rollins is number two, Jay Uso is number three, Randy Orton is four, punk is five, Braun Breaker at six, Willispray at seven, Roman Raines at eight, Dominic Mysterio at nine, and they've pushed Cody Rhodes all the way down to 10. Now, of course, this is just Ariel Hawani and Yahoo Sports doing their power ranking, so we're not saying this is official from WWE. It's Yahoo and Ariel. But I think I want to ask you about your perception about Cody Rhodes going from holding the belt for over a year

and falling all the way down to 10. Of course, as we're recording this on Thursday morning, we know we did not see you're here from Cody on Monday Night Raw. I don't know what to expect or not to expect tomorrow night, or as folks are listening to this tonight on Smackdown. What is your gut reaction to seeing Cody Rhodes go from top of the mountain to number 10 on these power rankings? You know, I don't have a strong opinion about it because this is just somebody's opinion. And I'm curious as to what Ariel used as a basis for the. is, you know, I don't know what, what was the methodology here? Or was it just personal

apparent or personal preferences? So without any of that information, I think it's kind of interesting that Cody went from, like you said, 12 months at the top, and now he's number 10 and he has to work his way back up. I find that unusual. My first reaction to that is, oh, it's at work, and now we're going to be invested in watching him get to number two and to be the challenger and get that shot. That's the chase. And maybe this is a good way of beginning that chase. But that's only if WWE promoted.

Why Ariel and his team put Cody at the bottom? I don't know. I have no idea and I don't know how to react to that. If it's like a set, work, and this is all designed to get us to cheer on Cody and watch him fight all the way up. food chain until he's the number one contender so that was up a man i didn't if you lose the title didn't you all you have a have a closet you get a rematch suppose that's got to no no

how much of that structural stuff no longer even really exists i like what they did on monday night i don't know that you had a chance to see it but as a reminder we're less than three weeks away from backlash backlash this year is in st louis so we opened the show with john John Sina coming out, cutting a promo, old school heel stuff. He's going to have a little piece of paper so the ring announcer can give him a proper ring introduction. And then he's going to cut a promo. And he's talking about how no one has enough experience or is fast enough or strong enough or has enough ruthless aggression to take the belt from him. And out from under the ring slides Randy Orton, who sneaks up behind John Sina, delivers the RK.

it certainly feels as if it's Randy Orton and John Cena main amending backlash and I for one absolutely love that I know that some people would have preferred they got to the Randy Orton John Cena story later in the year but if routing had it where the paper view is in St. Louis it only makes sense that John Senna's last match in St. Louis should be against his longtime rival Randy Orton I love that yeah it would be great great to be there but I'm like

you i love i just love seeing randy orton in a high level i love seeing him in the main event semi-main event he's such a great performer that i want to give every bit of randy orton action as i can get on tv for as long as i can get it i think him and john are going to be a great match up. Randy's, Randy is really, I think, the best performer of our generation. The last 20 years for sure. He is such a phenomenal performer.

I can't wait to watch it. Well, I can't wait to see them face to face in St. Louis. I think when it's all said and done, I may run over to Paint Your Life.com and hook up Randy just in time for Father's Day. Hey, no fooling. Paint Your Life has been an absolute.

game changer for me and my family's life. And I want you to really think about this. What did you get Mom and Dad for Mother's Day or Father's Day last year or the year before or ever? Do you think you remember any present you gave your parents for Mother's Day or Father's Day? And even worse, do you think they remember? This year you can give an unforgivable gift. The most unforgivable gift that you can possibly give is at Paint Your Life.com.

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I've been able to take photos of him as a baby with his parents holding them. Now, we're going to paint his son into the photo with him now present day. So, we're going to make that family reunion possible. And I can guarantee

you, Derek will never forget that gift. He's going to hang it with pride in this house. And anytime people come over, he's going to say, yeah, my cousin Conrad got me that. And I made it all happen quickly and affordably at Paint Your Life.com. They make it so easy. They've got tons of options.

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Hurry right now and check out Paint Your Life. I'm telling you you're going to be glad. you did. Paint your life will transform your photos into a one-of-a-kind, beautiful hand-painted portrait done by professional artists. You truly can give the most meaningful gift you've ever given at Paint Your Life. And there's no risk. Check this out. If you don't love the final painting, your money's refunded, guaranteed. And right now, as a limited time offer, you can get 20% off your painting. That's right, 20% off and free shipping. Now, to get this special offer, just text the word weeks to 87204

text weeks to 87204 text W-E-E-E-K-S to 87204 paint your life celebrate the moments that matter most message and data rates may apply see terms for details Eric paints your life is the real deal and when you're at home we normally see you with that iconic painting of Hulk Hogan turning heel in the background and listen

It's a fantastic present. I encourage everyone to go check it out. You're going to get a great deal. You're going to get free shipping. And it costs nothing to look, as our pal J.R. says. Just text the word weeks to 87204. I want to talk a little bit about what's next for Cody Rhodes. You know, we mentioned what's next for John Sina.

He's going to be working with Randy Orton in St. Louis in the main event. I'm sure it's going to be fantastic. But what would you do next with Cody? That does feel like the million dollar question. because Cody's clearly going to be looking for revenge and payback. What would you do next with Cody, Eric? I don't like Cody's character as an underdog. I really think that's where he's best suited, meaning I think he's best suited in the chase

as opposed to being the champion. And maybe it's because I, you know, you put that power ranking in front of me and I saw Cody at the bottom, but there's something about watching a guy. This is just true in our cultures. It's true in storytelling, in general, it has been forever. People love to watch you rise, enjoy watching you fall, but they really, really want to see you. I think the comeback for Cody is the best, he's best suited for a great comeback story. We kind of saw it once, right, when he first came into WWE, having left AEW, I think we'll probably see a, not a similar version, but a version of a comeback story. I think the obstacles that it will be placed in front of Cody going forward are going to be, they're going to be surmountful, but it's going to be tough.

I think you're going to put a lot of things in his way to overcome stories. I think he'll get there. And I think somehow he and John are going to come together. That's what it is. How? But I still believe, as we've talked about here previously, previous to WrestleMania, I still think John's going to end his career as a baby face. And I think he's going to end his career with Cody Rhodes at his side.

Just my take. I tend to agree. I can totally see that happening. I don't know that you saw it on Monday Night Raw, but they did something. great with Gunther, or Gunther, I want to get your reaction to. He choked out Pat McAfee. Pat McAfee, of course, has a huge show on ESPN. He is one of the preeminent, if not the preeminent talking head and influencer in the

sports space. So he is a quote unquote mainstream celebrity, but we also know he's mixed it up with some wrestling before. But in his heart of hearts, he's a football guy. He just happens to love pro wrestling. And Gunther comes out, puts a beat down on Pat McAfee, and chokes him. out. This is great for headlines. You're just going to get people talking. I think it's a good spot for Gunther. And I guess my question is, does this lead us to Goldberg and Gunther?

I hope not. For the same reason, you know, I talked about before. I just don't, I'm not a big fan of dropping guys in that come from out of nowhere. It's different if it's a celebrity play, a Logan Paul, bad buddy, et cetera, et cetera. That I get, but I just don't, I don't see it with Goldberg going to go through. There's nothing there. Is Bill going to become a part of the weekly programming for weeks and weeks leading up to it? Then, yeah, sure. Let's see that.

Any character-wise, it could be interesting. but unless they're going to do something fairly extensive with Bill from a storyline and appearance point of view, I'd rather not see it to be honest because it feels like it's forced and we're trying to get one more out of Bill Goldberg for no other reason then we want to get one more out of Bill Goldberg. I just don't like that. It just doesn't feel right to me. There's speculation that the Saudi show is going to happen on June 28th.

So it does feel like if we're leading towards Goldberg's retirement match, if that's really the way we're going to frame it, and we're going to do it in Saudi Arabia, and he's training for the match now, and there's only one Saudi date this year, it feels like Gunther Goldberg, June 28th, Saudi Arabia, would you be an advocate of that or no? Didn't they drop a Goldberg-Gunther seed about four or five months ago? Wasn't it a little confrontation between the two of them? Yes. So Saudi Arabia would be the one instance where I can see why they're doing it. Because, again, I was there for five minutes, so what the hell do I know? Not much. But my understanding was the Saudis have, they have their own ideas.

about what the card should look like. And I'm not saying booking-wise, but they know who the top stars are. They know who is over in Saudi, or at least what the fans are talking about. So there is some input from the Saudi government into the talent that's coming. At least that was the impression I got from Vince

while I was there. So I understand this as a one-off for Saudi. That at least makes sense to me business-wise and I can understand why they're doing it. Everything else is the same because they're going to be promoting that match on television, right, either Smackdown or Raw. So it's still going to have to have story. It's still going to be a part of the program.

But at least I understand the why. Why would they do Bill Goldberg and Gunther? The answer is because there's an appetite in Saudi for it. That makes sense to me. I get it. we should address the elephant in the room i didn't want to start with this i know it made most sense to do that but i know it's going to be a downer but there's no other way to bring it up than to just address it sadly we finally lost mongo and it happened yesterday when i shared

the news with jeff charrett he texted me back praise god mongo's been in the fight of his life a few years now, you really helped him get his start. I don't think a lot of people have even put this together, but he's the original Pat McAfee. Social media and streaming and all of that would have existed back then. Some of our listeners may not even know this, but he was an award-winning radio show host. He had a very successful radio program built on the back of his football career in the NFL. And then he parlayed that as an opportunity to get into the wrestling business and he did quite well there and i know that over the years people have poked fun and that oh he wasn't the best wrestler as a reminder he was trained for one match

a single solitary match and then after that successful match they just put him on the road as a regular wrestler after one match that's not normal but he had enough charisma to pull it off And he's finally in the NFL Hall of Fame where he belongs. And now no more pain, no more hurt. He's got the great reward. Tell us about Steve Mungo McMichael, Eric. Just such a fun guy. You know, people ask me yesterday a lot, you know, do you have any Mongo stories?

I really don't. You know, Steve and I were introduced to each other through Harvey Schiller, Harvey Schiller was the one who was President Turner Sporce who came to me and said, hey, I ran into Steve McMichael or his agent, whatever. He'd really like to talk to you about

coming on as a commentator. And, of course, I knew who Steve was. I've lived in Minnesota and being a Vikings semi-fam for a long time, really well aware of Steve and all of his accomplishments. So I was excited to meet Steve. I didn't have any idea

of what he was like in terms of his personality. and how we would come off on camera but I met with him and we just hit it off instantly like instantly over lunch such a down-to-earth guy no bullshit

just straight honest look in the eye tell you exactly how he feels and he wasn't he wasn't a bully he was very he was very gentle he was a quiet guy

and he was married to Deborah at the time, and especially early on, you know, whenever Lori was with me, the four of us would meet after the show and watch the replay in the bar with everybody else. So I really spent a lot of time with Steve and his then-wife, Debra, and got to know him pretty well. And so did Lori. And when we went to Sturgis, for example, with Steve and his Harley and Debra on the back, and I, of course, had Lori, sometimes at one of the kids, Lori would switch off with Garrett and Garrett would switch off

with Montana and the Lori would get back on. So I kind of shuttled my whole family out to church or so the back of our heartily. But at night, we would get together and we had a motorhome and we had a motorhome. But we would get together in one of our motor homes and just sit around after

riding all day. This is my best memory of Steve is on that ride. And once it was all over to get into our campground and wherever we were staying, sometimes it was a hotel and just sit around and talk about the day in the experience. It was just so much

fun, and he fit in so well with everybody. I mean, he was universally liked and respected immediately. He didn't have that, oh, he's a celebrity, so we have to be nice to him thing. People just gravitated to him instantly

because he was a genuine guy. He had no errors. He had no he didn't carry himself like he was more important or bigger, or he didn't even jack. He You would have never known he was a celebrity or Super Bowl winner or anything. If he just met him, he was just a nice guy from Texas, and he had an amazing sense of humor. He was such a fun guy.

I really, I thought back on that a lot last night about those times in particular. The one, yeah, I'll just let it go with that. He was a wonderful guy. He really found his faith. I've reposted something last night that Steve said not long ago that I really found touching. And I'm happy for Steve that he's out of pain, happy for his wife, Misty, and the team of people that took such great care of him. I'm grateful for them and happy that Steve's in better hands and out of pain because he was trapped in a body that I'm sure. he struggled with but he hit and that's the other thing about seeing you look at the pictures of him

even when he was sick i was in a convention like two years ago with uh and rick flair was there and booker t was backstage it was like four or five of us the from wcw when steve was there we're all backstage i have a sandwich whatever we were doing waiting you know how rick is let's call steve and he sure enough he calls called misty and she put him on his wife and she put Steve on a phone. And Steve's telling jokes. Man, he's cracking jokes while he's fighting for his life. And last night I said he's the toughest man I've ever known. That's what I mean. And he was obviously tough. It's physically tough as a man. But the mental and spiritual toughness of this man, I don't know. I've never met anybody like him. So I pray for him and

glad he's resting. One of the all-time best. He was a man's man, a super fun guy. We used to have him on Rick Claire's podcast. And even when you were talking about being backstage and Claire saying, let's call Mongo, we were in Chicago for that fundraiser, money for Mongo, Eric, at our top guy weekend event when he did that. And Rick jumped at the chance to be there for Steve.

And I know that, you know, Rick has his fair share of critics and a lot of that is deservedly so online. But man, he was a champion for Steve. Steve McMichael in a big way from day one. Was he not? He was. You know, look,

just like the rest of us, Rick is not without his critics. Sure. But when Rick is loyal to you, and it's sometimes a hard thing to bend down on him, Rick had a loyalty to Steve from the very beginning and a respect. And I think that's what all starts with someone like Rick Flavis. Ultimately,

it comes out to respect. And Rick had a, It's a lot of respect for Steve and truly loved it because it was kind of cool to watch a relationship evolve. You know, I think everybody listening to this has at least heard me mention my best friend Cassio Kid. And when we did our very first starcast in Chicago, I thought, well, we're doing a wrestling convention in Chicago. We've got to have Mongo. Well, Cassio was assigned Mongo's table. So he was, you know, helping process the orders and take photos and all that.

And they became fast friends. And he made, and I mean, forced Cassio, try the Super Bowl ring on. I just thought it was so cool that he was so giving and understood what it was like to be a fan. And his fan interactions, I think, are legendary. And as we were recording this morning, I saw one that appeared on my timeline from yesterday that I wanted to share with everybody. Because I think this sort of tells you who Steve was as a dude and as a fan and as a a performer. There's our account on Twitter at ZEE 8552 who tweeted, I was at a bear's event as a kid and he yelled at Steve McMichael, screw the Packers. He came over to me and put his

hand on my shoulder and said, son, you shouldn't use that language. It's fuck the Packers. Shout out to Steve Mongo, McMichael, thoughts and prayers to him and his entire family. he will be missed and we're going to bring today's show to a close I hope that some of you will go look up some of his compilation videos from his days on the football field I know there's some negative silly wrestling stuff but I want you to view that through the proper context

he was trained for one match and then put on the road after that and he still left an impression at the height of the Monday Night Wars a lot of love for Steve Mongo McMichael here on 83 weeks and we greatly appreciate you guys joining us for another episode of 83 weeks. If you haven't already, I want to encourage you to hit that subscribe button, turn on your notifications bell. It greatly helps us. And let's hear your comments.

We're going to start reading some of those comments here on the program. So what you like, what you don't like, give us the thumbs up, give us the thumbs down, and we want to hear from you. We're soliciting that feedback. And next week, our topic will be the one and only Dustin Rhodes. We've been talking about some different legends here to, day and certainly including the rock and triple h and now john sena is in his final year we don't know how much is left for dust and road but we're all looking forward to seeing what's next and

we're going to talk about what has been next week here on the show i'm pumped to talk about dustin roads next week eric how about you so my i love the guy he's just his self of the earth and i can't wait to talk about nothing but respect for dustin join us live right here at 83 weeks com