83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 376: Goldberg's Last Match?

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric is in the hot seat answering questions from our LIVE audience on 83Weeks.com and show listeners/followers  on X. The guys also take a deep dive into all the latest news and notes from the wild week in professional wrestling. What does Eric think of WWE's heavy push to counter program AEW? Does Eric think Goldberg will get back into the squared circle in Atlanta? Why does Eric think Logan Paul's rant on his podcast is brillant? All those questions and tons more on this episode of 83 Weeks.  CARGURUS - #1 most visited car shopping site. Shop from millions of cars to find your best deal. https://www.cargurus.com  ROCKET MONEY - Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff in the survey so they know I sent you! PRIZE PICKS - Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/83WEEKS  and use code 83WEEKS and get $50 instantly when you play $5! BLUECHEW - Visit https://bluechew.com  and try your first month of BlueChew FREE when you use promo code 83WEEKS -- just pay $5 shipping. SAVE WITH ERIC - Stop throwing money away by paying those high interest rates on your credit card. Roll them into one low monthly payment and on top of that, skip your next two house payments. Go to https://www.savewithconrad.com/savewitheric/  to learn more. ENVISION - Save money and grow your business with Envision Marketing—visit https://conradsguy.com/  today!

Don't we all love summer vacation, relaxing, laying out by the pool, barbecues, hitting the beach, doing, well, nothing? Well, how about a summer vacation from your house payments? Withsafewithconrad.com, you can do just that. Reduce your monthly payments by making the equity you built up in your home work for you. You can roll together those high interest rate credit cards into one lower monthly payment and perhaps access some of that newfound equity to turn your house into your dream home with no money out of pocket. And how about this? you get to skip your next two house payments that's right you won't have to make your june or your

july house payment you're done until august first go right now to save with conrad dot com let my team run the numbers for you for free there's no obligation and if we can't help you save some cash we won't waste your time and did i mention we're offering a three-year guarantee right now that's right that means if at any point interest rates improve over the next three years you get a free refile that's right no new lender fees from us so you get to save money now without wasting money later when the rates improve on a whole second set of closing costs, why not go to savewithconrad.com and get a guarantee. Save money now and save money later with your friend in the mortgage business.

That's me. Conrad Thompson at save withconrad.com. Shoot me an email at Conrad at save withconrad. Give us a call at 8884250105 or get yourself a quick quote, even talk to a live person right now at save with Conrad.com. NMLS number 2129, equal housing lender. Let's take a summer vacation from house payments at save withconrad.com. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and we are live at 83 weeks.com.

Early on Friday, May 30th, 2025, for a little something we like to call Ask Eric. anything of course we couldn't do it without the Hall of Famer himself easy E Eric Bischoff Eric what's going on man how are you I'm doing great I'm in Park City Utah with my family my wife's side of the family we're all here for a little mini family reunion of sorts I've never been I've been through Park City about a million times but I've never spent any time here and looking forward to it it's cool town I am excited to hear how your trip goes but I'm most excited to talk to you about your big birthday you had a big celebratory week this week before you were at a family reunion it was your

birthday and I think most of us always remember that because it's around the same time that Scott Hall came down the steps on Nitro way back with and you want to talk about this special birthday was it a big one what did you guys do what was it like um just another day uh you know kind of been looking forward to it and working working towards it I wanted to make some real big changes physically prior to my 70th birthday and did and I was going to do this big reveal but I'm not quite ready yet because I'm vain as fuck and I'm not quite ready to do that yet I mean I'm close I'm real close so it was a big birthday in the sense of I had a goal that I wanted to achieve on this particular birthday but beyond that it's just a

another day. You know, we didn't do anything special. It was just Lori and I over the Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time, you know, but we just hung out in town and went out to eat. I think on Sunday, we went to town and had a couple cocktails and a bite to eat, but it was kind of it. No big deal, man. Well, we love celebrating your big birthday in these parts, and we love celebrating good news. We got the news earlier this week that Jim Ross successfully completed his cancer surgery. I think he thought ahead of time it might be a two-hour surgery we're hearing it was closer to a four-hour surgery but we're hopeful that they got all of the cancer and it's been completely removed and

hopefully chemo and radiation aren't next but man that's great news that the voice of wrestling came through surgery just like we hoped yeah we hoped and we kind of knew because he's too damn stubborn and too damn tough to let something like you know cancer get him down it's just too tough it's too stubborn too honorary cancer stepped in and say hey let's go hang out with jim ross for a while and it stuck around and went nah let's get the hell out of here so i know the feeling if you get a chance we want to encourage you go tweet jr you have some of your favorite jim r memories just give him something positive on his feed whenever he has a chance to scroll through that feed hearing from fans about

what he's meant to their fandom is always a nice thing so i want to encourage everybody to find jr at jr's bbq on twitter and send some love his way we are throwing you guys the keys to the show today you'll be able to ask eric anything you want so keep those questions coming we've got some questions already selected for twitter locked and loaded but eric i want to put something on your radar that you may have missed because i know you've been traveling and well it's been a crazy week with the holiday and your birthday and a family reunion but did you see that dustin roads apparently is not too happy with a discussion that we had about him on last week's episode. Yeah, I did see that.

And, you know, I've kind of wrestled, no pun intended, with how or even if I should respond. One of the things that I noticed is that Dustin said he was going to talk a lot about the incident that we cover. in his book has that book already been written or is there a new book coming out? I think he's talking about a new book but he did have a book that was done years ago when he was doing the gold dust

persona in the WWF but yes I think he's working on another book as what was insinuating and in his first book because I didn't read it in his first book did he discuss this situation that we're referring to I don't recall just to catch our audience up we're we're talking about Dustin Rhodes and the way he left WCW after uncensored 1995 Dustin was our topic last week I thought we did a I mean if I do say so myself I was proud of

the job we did on the Dustin episode and I thought that we were more than fair and super complimentary but I guess when it came down to the particulars of his exit from WCW there was a lot of differing opinions I suppose between the way you remember it and the way he remembers it so we discussed this where Mike Graham was the agent for Barry Darso and Dustin Rhodes in a king of the road match which was basically a match that was filmed in the suburbs of Atlanta on the back of a flatbed truck and I guess there was a no blood policy Mike Graham bought the blades that day and got them ready for the guys and they did it and then of course they were fired so Dustin took to Twitter to say I don't another note Eric Bischoff was

speaking on my firing of WCW about bleeding number one and this will be talked about in my book at length I reached out beforehand to Craig Leathers and was told we could I would never disobey what my boss says number two why did Hogan bleed on that same pay-per-view but it was okay need to get your facts straight I lost my job and they did not. You know why? Because Hogan and his boys had just arrived and they needed to clear out a few contracts. It was wrong, but you know what I didn't do? Sue, because I knew I was going to be just fine because I bust my ass each and every time I'm out there and have had an extraordinary career. For the record, I don't have a problem with Eric, but this shouldn't have been talked about

on air. I'm Dustin fucking Rhodes, a charismatic, hardworking legend. Man, this ship pisses me off. All right, Conrad, let me jump right in here because this will get complicated quick. Let's put that graphic back up there again, please, Super Dave. So let's start with the end, where he says, I don't have a problem with Eric, but this shouldn't have been talked about on the air. Well, according to a wrestling historian who's here with us, Dustin did talk about it in his first book. So I'm just, I'm not going to make a statement, but I'm going to ask a question.

question to Dustin why is it okay for you to talk about it in your first book this incident and why is it okay that you plan on going into depth on the subject in your next book but somehow I shouldn't talk about it on my podcast tell me how that works explain that math to me because it's really interesting math Dustin and I love Dustin I think the world of it. And that's not going to change. But when we're talking about getting our facts straight, let's do just that. Just for a moment. The other thing I want to address is let's go up to number one. I reached up beforehand to Craig Leathers and told we could. I would never disobey what my boss says. Craig Leathers wasn't your boss.

unless you worked into production team, Craig Leathers was not your boss. I was. My Graham was not your boss. I was. And one of the reasons that I think I had to draw, I guess a line in the sand, or maybe say it even more bluntly

to make an example out of Dustin and Barry Darso, who by the way was a friend of mine too, still had to fire him because I was explicit as the boss not to intentionally get blood. That was my directive to all of the talent. You went to, now this is the first I heard it was Craig Leathers' approval. I have always heard it was Mike Graham, but now it's Craig Leathers, which is fine because the reason that I drew that line in the sand and the reason I had to make an example is because the culture in WCW up until that point when it came to the wrestling side of the equation

and the creative side of the equation is if you're a talent and you didn't necessarily like what was laid out to you on any given night for your television appearance the kind of common theme was well if you don't like what this person's telling you just go find somebody else and ask them. And if that answer doesn't work for you, then you can go ask this person over here. All of these people that I'm referring to are people that would be on the creative team or on the production side of the equation, as in Craig Lutter. So in other words, if I don't like Conrad, which you're asking me to do, I'm going to go to somebody who works with you. It's pitch my, clean my case to that individual. And if I can get to,

some sympathy there if I can get yeah that should be okay well then I've got to get out of jail free card my what I was faced with at that time is getting that situation under control and with respect to blood it wasn't my choice not to get blood it wasn't my choice to let all of the talent now and it's not acceptable that was a mandate that was handed down to me from my bosses and after making it explicitly clear from me to the talent and everybody else involved not to get blood intentionally we did it anyway now i'm going to accept the fact that i probably didn't handle it as well as i could in hindsight i could have been more clear i guess but the fact that Dustin takes exception to the fact that he would never go against his boss,

but yet he goes to Craig Leathers, someone who's not his boss, to give permission to do something, his boss made clear not to do, it just doesn't really sit that well. Now, as far as Hogan, as I said, the last time we touched on that, I'm going to go back and look at that. I definitely am. because I can't, as I said last week, I can't comment on something that I haven't seen or don't remember. But I'll watch it and then I'll follow up on this particular subject next time we do a podcast because I really want to dig into this.

Really want to dig into it. But look, Dustin doesn't want me to talk about it, but he's pretty comfortable talking about it. Dustin says he would never go against his boss. Well, he did. which is why I had to make an example out of them and I didn't want to because Dustin was a friend I was tight with Dusty if anybody

suggested and this is the part that I guess I take exception to it was because Hogan and his friends came in and we had to make room in other words we had to fire some people to make room for Hogan and his friends that's the chicken shit part of this that really disappoints me

one had nothing to do with the other and for Dustin to subscribe my intent and get inside of my head and decide what my motivations were it's really not fair Dustin it's not fair you don't have all of the information I understand why you would have been upset I'm I understand why I'm disappointed in the way I handled it I really am however it had nothing to do with Hogan and making room for contracts. That's absurd. That's a blame somebody else. Put the heat on Hogan. It has nothing to do with Hogan's contract or anybody else's for that matter. That was lame. It was weak.

I was disappointed. And I hope Justin forgives me for addressing this the way that I have, but he felt, I guess, necessary to address it once in book and coming up shortly but if we're going to get our facts straight in your next book dustin make an effort to get the facts straight still love you you know what i hate about this whole thing is eric i mean there was so much love and respect and appreciation just pouring out of your side towards dustin and his whole family last week that i feel like he probably didn't hear the episode and he's just been told that this is what said or maybe heard a clip and I don't know maybe

he felt differently about it that if he had the context because we've said it many times on this program context to skiing if he had the context of the entire episode I don't know I think maybe he'd feel differently well who knows maybe maybe not you know I've seen Dustin I mean there's no heat between this or at least it wasn't until probably now that I've actually responded to to what Dustin said. And I debated whether I was going to respond to it or not, because responding to something like this, all it does is keep it alive and probably makes it worse

in the long run. And a large part of me was just gonna, yeah, whatever, it's not gonna change my life one way or the other. But when I saw the comment about, I was fired to make room for Hogan and his friends, that was such a bullshit comment, and had nothing to do with the fact facts, as long as we're talking about facts, that's the part that really got under my skin.

And I felt, you know, let's clear the air. That was the statement that made me go, you know what, maybe I should respond. And of course, you know, it's the first thing we did this morning. So hopefully this will be the end of it. But it doesn't would ever want to sit down and talk about it. I'd be happy to do it. Grab a steak, reminisce, talk about old times, clean the air on this one. happy to do that. Do you ever feel like car shopping is sort of designed to help you second

guess yourself? I mean, is this a good price? Am I making the right choice? Well, with car gurus, you don't have to worry or wonder or even wait. They have the most inventory of new cars and used cars so you can find the best deal. You'll find their unbiased deal ratings, their price drop alerts, and their in-depth vehicle reviews make you feel that you're going to be making the right decision. Because a big deal should never feel like a big risk. That's why I go to car gurus for that peace of mind. Car gurus will connect you with trusted dealerships when you're ready, ensuring a transparent and hassle-free buying experience. With over 4 million listings, car gurus has more car listings than any other major online automotive marketplace in the United

States so you can find the best deal. Car gurus give you the control to shop how you want to shop with the tools, information, and data-driven deals ratings that you need. It's no wonder that similar web estimated traffic data shows that CarGurus is the number one most visited car shopping site. So what are you waiting for? Go buy or sell your next car today with CarGurus at CarGurus.com. Go to CarGurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's CarGurus.com.

that's c-a-r-g-U-R-U-S dot com car gurus.com. We're live here with Eric Vischoff, taking your questions, and we've got a bunch coming in. A little bit of love from little Jimmy Sorensen, who's with us, who says, you're the best, we appreciate you. A-O-T-V productions has the question that everybody's been talking about all week. Hey, Eric, what are your thoughts on Johnny Ace

turning on Vince? Any chance he turns on Janelle last minute. Of course, this is about, the John Lauren Titus piece of business when it is related to Vince McMahon. So Vince McMahon is still embroiled in a lawsuit with this accuser who used to work for WWE. And once upon a time, Johnny Ace was aligned with Vince McMahon. But now it feels like he's aligned against Vince McMahon. So I guess this will mean that John can stop writing checks to attorneys.

and maybe John isn't going to be in any sort of legal trouble or criminal trouble. But this is probably not exactly the news Vince McMahon was looking for. What say you, Eric? God, I don't know. I mean, I read that. I kind of want to, you know, it's like when you get near the mud, eventually you get muddy. You get dirty. If you play too close to the mud.

And this is pretty muddy. And I really don't have any comments. I don't know anything about it. I don't have any inside or detailed or even strong opinions about it. Other than the whole situation is really, really, really unfortunate for everybody. I don't know. I mean, anytime you have somebody join the prosecution or in this case, the civil suit, the complainant, I guess, and has the ability to expose things that might

otherwise not be exposed. That would be a problem. That would be something to be concerned with in general. But beyond that, man, I don't know. It's just so unfortunate. I think that's why I try not to think about it too much because it is so unfortunate for so many people. And it's not even the principles. You know, Vincent, everybody involved in that situation has got to take some responsibility for allowing themselves to be put in that situation it's at some point we all have the ability to say no and walk away and you can talk about the manipulation and the pressure you can talk about a lot of different things the end of the day you make a choice and for the principles involved in this they

made that choice under whatever circumstances however bad they may have been they made the choice and they're going to and they paid the price they're paying the price every single day Vince McMahon is paying the price we talked about it you know the relationship or lack there out with his family as a result of this that's a really really big price to pay Vince is probably not even welcome in the company that he built that's a big big price to pay the public humiliation is a price to pay and Jody's had to deal with that you know grants had to deal with that and there's so much collateral damage to friends and family that everybody's paying the price and i just want to stay as far outside of it as i can

and i just look forward to the day that it's over and no longer popping up on our newsfeed amen to that i hope that uh we get some sort of positive resolution for everyone sooner rather than later. But there has been a lot of other discussion about Vince McMahon this week. AOTV productions is still with us here live and says, what do you think about the rumor that Vince wants to buy WW back? How unlikely is that? I think this all starts with Jonathan Coachman, who I believe has some sort of connection to the McMahon family. I don't know all the details, but I guess there's speculation that may be started on Jonathan Coachman's podcast. that perhaps Vince would like to buy the WWB back.

There was a lot of response I saw online saying that, well, TKO's not interested in that. I mean, what would you expect if they were asked that sort of question? But is there a scenario? Is it even possible, Eric? Do you think one day? I mean, I guess we always hear never say never in wrestling, but that feels pretty close to never to me, doesn't it to you? Yeah, it feels that way. but when Vince McMahon is involved, I tend to lean into the Never Say Never a lot more.

I mean, I can't imagine a scenario where that would be plausible. Take that back. Likely. I can't imagine a scenario where that would be likely. However, it is plausible. TKO may not be interested, but it's a publicly held company. Depending on the offer, TKO has no choice but to be interested because they have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to maximize shareholder value. And if Vince somehow, some way, I don't know, let's just throw SOTI into the mix, put together a fund that would make a legitimate offer for a publicly held company, interested or not, it has to be entertained. Now, I know almost nothing about mergers and acquisitions other than they suck, having been through one that didn't turn out too well for anybody involved in the entire company, not just WCW, but Turner Broadcasting as a whole. That was a disaster. It has gone down, I think, in financial business circles.

as the AOL Time Warner Turner merger as being the worst corporate merger of all time. So that speaks to itself, but for itself, I should say. But it's plausible, it is plausible that Vince could put together enough money to make an offer for a publicly held company that because it would have a positive potentially impact on shareholder value, the offer would have to be entertained. You can probably find a million ways to not accept it, but it doesn't mean you can't not entertain it. That's my take. And I, you know, again, I don't know enough.

I'm not an expert. I don't live in the merger and acquisition world, but I think I'm probably right or close to it. I do want to ask you some merger and acquisition news, but before we do, you mentioned Saudi. Listen, you know, there's the old cliche we've all heard before, Eric, telephone, telegram, telewrestler. And a couple of days ago, I heard something that I thought, well, that doesn't sound right. We just recently heard that the WWE is, in fact, rescinding the announcement that they're going to take WrestleMania to New Orleans next year. And a lot of people are of the belief that, well, that means Las Vegas is getting WrestleMania again. and I have to admit that's what I thought too

and maybe that still is the case maybe that is where it lands but through the wrestler whisper campaign I heard and again not directly from WWE but from someone around WWE might be doing

WrestleMania and Saudi Arabia next year and when I heard that I thought that just doesn't I don't think that's I can't imagine that after they just announced New Orleans Orleans, I could maybe buy into moving to Las Vegas. Would you be surprised if WrestleMania next year was in Saudi Arabia?

Yes. I would too. Yes. That would be, I mean, it's like the NFL. Are we surprised when the NFL has games over in Europe? No. When they play in Mexico, are we surprised? No.

But if they move the Super Bowl there? Right. that's a little different right that's a that'd be a big move and i think somewhat risky in the sense that your core audience would feel somewhat disenfranchised i mean let's face it the the U.S. audience is the largest percentage of their viewing audience. Well, maybe that's not even true anymore. India is pretty big. But whatever, whatever the case may be, this is still,

WWE is an American entertainment brand. And to take your showcase event and move your uniquely American brand to another country, any country, Saudi, England, Germany, France, Italy, India, it doesn't matter.

The country doesn't matter. To take it out of the U.S., would be like taking the Super Bowl or the world's... Can you imagine a Major League Baseball taking the World Series out of the U.S.? No. That's how it rubs me.

That's just my visceral... Ah, I like that word, visceral reaction yeah I mean listen it is it still seems far-fetched and again I'm not saying it's going to happen but when I heard someone say well I heard normally I would have just totally dismissed it but then I started to think they did just remove the announcement for New Orleans they would have to have a major opportunity fall in their lap to walk that back so we'll see what happens in the coming weeks well let's let's add another layer didn't they just move crown jewel to australia yes they did

hmm i mean this is a fun little game you know it's like what if speculation all that what's that what's that term that i hate uh hypothetical oh yeah yeah yeah that's what this is but it's sometimes fun right but when you look back you go wait a minute because it was kind of odd that they move crown jewel to Australia yeah I mean you know what I don't even think of that but if that's real let me just say it is going to create a huge opportunity I do believe it'll create a huge opportunity so Eric we've talked a little bit about all in which is going to be AEW's first stadium show here in America and it certainly felt like WWE has counter-programmed the hell out of it.

We know that originally all-in was going to be on Saturday, July 12th, an evening show. WWE announces Saturday night's main event live on NBC and Peacock on that same Saturday night. So, AEW moves to an afternoon time start. And then they announced NXT Great American Bash is going to be that same day in the afternoon. and oh by the way the very next day we're going to run the evolution pay-per-view the first ever

women's pay-per-view but this is the sequel now I guess seven or eight years later this is this feels a little Jim Crockett promotions WWF counter-programming I got to tell you as an old school fan

I like it and I know as a business guy you got to love this sort of thing don't you It's good for business. It's good for business. Competition creates better product, right? Creates cash. Forces people to up their game. I prove that.

More than anybody in the wrestling business. I proved that. And this is AEW's opportunity to step up their game. you Tony talks and I'm not bearing this is not me being negative Tony likes to talk about being the challenger brand now's the time to be a challenger brand whether it's intentionally I you know I think the NBC date I think that's a little bit that's a stretch

you know it's not like NBC can just arbitrarily because they hear AEW is doing something and, you know, Nick Kahn or Ari Emanuel calls their contacts over at NBC and say, hey, I don't know, I don't care what you had programmed before. Let's do a Saturday Night Main Events on that night. That's not how television works, folks, especially at the network level. The advertising for those shows are sold in advance. There's commitments in advance.

There's promotional things. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it. It's not like programming a social media channel. Let's put it that way. It's a very complicated thing, programming a network. And they would have known, they meaning NBC, would likely have known six months ago that this date is the date that they would likely want to pencil in a Saturday night main event. My point in all this, because I'm guessing I don't know anything,

other than how things kind of normally work typically. And it would be atypical for the Saturday night main event to be. be some kind of counter programming measure more than it is coincidence i think that portion of this is coincidence i think the rest of it is fun eric there's no chance it's a coincidence a w announced this stadium show a year ago all right that's a good point then i'll then i'll i'll i agree it makes it less likely than I didn't realize that it was announced a year ago my bad well any I'm not cutting you off I mean here's the thing that I think you're going to love about this throw that graphic up there in the three shows again so if you don't mind

so this is the great American bash in Atlanta this is evolution in Atlanta and this is Saturday night's main event in Atlanta I don't know. I have no inside information, but I felt like an idiot because I can't believe no one's talking about this. Do you want to take a stab

at what the main event on Saturday night's main event is going to be, what the big headline attraction is going to be, Eric? I couldn't even guess. Bill Goldberg's last match. We've heard that Goldberg

is working on his last match. We've heard that he's planning his WWE retirement. retirement it's coming up soon he said in interviews it's happening down south where else would it make sense for goldberg to have his last match other than Atlanta and what a big attraction since you're out of the paper view business to say that you're going to give goldberg's last match to nbc live for saturday night's main event like no one has told me this i'm just saying boy isn't that logical that this would be the home of goldberg's last match

head to head with AEW all in my goodness Eric it's pretty cool it's pretty cool and it'll do very well good for Bill good for Saturday night's main event because that's going to be a hell of a show should get a pretty big number I read the other day that the last this last Saturday night main event did really well one of the better ratings they've had since they started if I remember the story correctly this will probably be bigger than that so that's cool what's what i'm curious about though that's a lot of wrestling in atlanta right you can well but again great american bash is at center stage so that's not going to be hard to fill right i mean i just think they're leaning they're clearly

going to be leaning into the wcw nostalgia you know bringing back dusty roads creation the great american bash doing it in atlanta and then of course they're going to have we believe i'm guessing no one's told me this but it is logical to imagine that would be the site of goldberg's last match i think it's also logical to expect that if i'm wwee i think i'd want you there eric wouldn't i don't know you know i think my value as an on-camera talent um has diminished to the point that i don't think it would be added value i think it'd be kind of cool it'll be nice little be like garnish on the plate but at the end of the day it won't matter i don't know i'd love to think that there were a bunch of wcw cameos like if goldberg really is going to have his

last match in atlanta and i get there's a variety of reasons the timing wouldn't make sense but as a long-time wrestling fan i do think it would be cool to see hulk hogan and goldberg in the ring together one last time i'm not saying as a match just a photo op just the the the image of Hogan and Goldberg in Atlanta with the old big Gold Bill? I don't know. It just feels like I think that's one that I think would be that would be added value that that I would be excited to see because it kind of connects the dots really. Yeah. It was Atlanta, you know, it was Hulk Hogan that said I want I want to get I want to get Bill Goldberg over as much as I can and volunteered to do business for Bill with Bill in Atlanta. That wasn't my

idea. That wasn't Bill's idea. That wasn't Ted Turner's idea. That was Hulk Hogan's idea because he believed that much in Bill Goldberg. Shocked me. Shocked everybody else. But was just so excited to be able to bring that to Atlanta. And I don't remember what the attendance was somewhere around 35, 45,000 people for a live television show that you could have stayed at home and watch. That's pretty freaking awesome. And I think because of that night, because of that moment and because of what that moment did for Bill Goldberg, I think it would be unfortunate if Hulk Hogan wasn't there, even if it's just sitting or inside, doesn't need an interview, don't need a promo, but to not have Hulk there for a match like this would be, I don't know, an incomplete story. they need to throw together you know the steiners and you and ddp let's just get a box of wcw legends there for goldberg's last match if that really is what they're going to do we'll stay

tuned we'll see but you know my wrestling math says that's probably the direction they're going i also wanted to get your take on the the announcement that wc is headed to philadelphia we've recently discussed here on the program that a ew is going to be doing a resident see where they're going to run like six shows i guess it's you know three weeks worth shows here but it's just been announced that nxte is going to be there the night before uh or the week before so right before that all begins for nxc and or for a e w at the 2300 arena nxte's going to be there a week early i don't know why but i find this hysterical to me Is this just comedy at this point, Eric?

I don't know. I think it's fun. It is funny. It's awesome. It's awesome. This is the game. I mean, again, you know, it's up to AEW to respond, of course, and make it a real war. But at least from a scheduling perspective, I have to throw in the towel and say,

say yeah you poke the bear here it comes hope you like bears yeah i do want to ask you about tony con because he did a uh press conference after his paper view double or nothing last weekend from glendale arizona and he was asked about the counter programming that w u's been doing lately like the announcement of nxte being an afternoon show and t said quote it's been pretty consistent, I'd say it's the most consistent event head-to-head scheduling I've seen since Jim Crockett promotions. So a lot of scheduling that went that way. I can tell you this will go a lot differently than that did. So that's Tony's reaction. Of course, we know that ultimately it became a pissing contest with JCP and WWE and ultimately JCP was headed for bankruptcy

and sold the Ted Turner. What do you make of Tony's response? I mean, when he's out of the question like that that's about as good of an answer as you can give right no no again it it implied a threat at the end this isn't this is going to go differently than that i i understand why he said it but there's a point where this is the point this is the part that i think tony just doesn't relate to it's how to get yourself over how to get your company over and how not to. How not to is to thump your chest

and call yourself a challenger brand and come out and talk about and having your talent. And I haven't seen it happen in a while. So I'm referring to probably 2019 for sure through 23 or later

when you have the head of the company in this case Tony and a lot of his top talent constantly denigrating the company this being WWE in this case and positioning yourself as a better property, as a better organization with better quality product. I understand why you want to do that instinctively, but unless you are a better product, all that does is draw comparisons and they're not favorable to you. It's better to put your competition over until you're ready to compete.

By that, I mean, if I was Tony, in the situation that Tony's in, I would be cheering WWE on, and I'd be telling my audience that I'm going to do everything in my power to compete. And I'll survive this, and it's going to be fun. Help me do it. Engage your audience. Embrace the competition. Don't denigrate your competition,

particularly when they're like five or seven light years ahead of you in every respect. in every measurable way other than your emotional frame of reference and you know that's not a knock that's human nature will Osprey continually going out there and maintaining that the in-ring product at AEW is light years ahead or ahead of that in WW is comical it's a comical statement to make. It's a ridiculous statement to make. And it will invite fans to look at your in-ring product from a subjective position, meaning they're not the ones in the ring. They're looking at that product and they're looking at the WWE product and you lose a lot of credibility that way. That's not how you get people on your side by making a statement like that, drawing attention to the

difference between the two products. And in this case, Will Osprey looking like a goof. Because if you look at the totality of the product, if you look at AEW from the, from the top down, the product is really bad in some respects. Just the physical narrative of the show, the wrestling itself. Yeah, you've got some really cool high spots in there with guys like Osprey. Admittedly, able to do some amazing things in the ring that very few other people can or are willing to do good for him but AEW as a whole I am sorry

70% of what I see when I look through their cut and I don't sit there and watch every week however I do see and catch up with a lot of their product and social media the good stuff that everybody's talking about is so great as well as the rest of it there's a lot of stuff in here that looks like WCW circuit in 1991 and not in a good way the women's match that i saw clips of early this morning i don't remember who is in it don't remember the names they're relatively new um should have never ever ever happened in front of a camera women were completely not ready for prime time which is fine not everybody's going to come out of the gate a superstar it takes time but while you're

building, don't compare yourself to the juggernaut. It's just not the way to get people engaged in your brand and want to fight on your behalf. I told you the story last time about a particular talent that I'm not going to name, who tried so hard to get himself over that it became almost obnoxious. And when I finally pulled them aside and said, dude, you put yourself over so strongly, so consistently that you're taking away the opportunity for the fans to do it on your behalf. That's the magic in getting yourself over, whether you're in the ring or whether you're the business side of the equation. Learn how to get people on your side. And not just the hardcore, the sickos, as they're referred to, and I don't know if that's derisive or not anymore.

Maybe it's a good thing. I don't know. But not only that 600,000, the group of 6,000, the group of 600,000 fans are going to watch no matter what. We got another 8 or 900 or a million fans out there that could be on your side. You have the platform. It's not like they can't find you. They choose not to watch you. Figure out why they choose not to watch you and get them on your side. That's television.

That's being a television producer. That's being a brand builder. Don't satisfy the market you have, find a way to increase the market by learning why the people that don't like your product, don't like your product, and then fix it, or at least attempt to, as opposed to veiled threats that we've all heard before and nothing happens. I don't know. Maybe Tony's thinking in his mind, you know, Jim Crockett had to file for bankruptcy. Ted Turner bought them out of, essentially the assets of Jim Crockett promotions out of bankruptcy. to launch WCW. And in that respect, I agree with Tony.

It's probably not going to end up the same way. Technically speaking, no, likely it won't. Cox didn't have a billion dollars to play with. Tony presumably does. So that will change the outcome. But it's similar to one of his earlier press conference where he addressed the same things. And he came out and he was all hot.

I'm not going to put up with this shit. Oh, really? what are you going to do about it so far nothing that's what i mean about throwing down a gauntlet until you're ready to back it up put your competition over people will root more for you if you're putting your competition over than they will if you're constantly taking shots if the guy that's beating your ass in every conceivable way you know with prices going up on just about everything lately being smart with your money isn't just a good idea it's essential, but managing

subscriptions, tracking your spending, cutting costs, well, it can all feel overwhelming. Lucky for you, Rocket Money takes the guesswork out of all of it so you can make smart decisions. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your own wanted subscriptions,

monitor your spending, and even help you lower your bills so you can grow your savings. See all of your subscriptions in one place and know exactly where your money is going. And for the ones you don't want anymore, or Rocket Money can help you cancel them. Rocket Money's dashboard gives you a clear view of your expenses across all of your accounts.

You can even easily create personalized budgets with custom categories, all to help you keep your spending on track. You can even set alerts, so if your bills are going to increase in price, so there's unusual spending activity, or if you're getting close to going over budget. There's even a new goals feature. Rocket Money is the real deal. They'll even try to negotiate to lower your bills for you. You see, they automatically scan your bills to find opportunities to save, and then you can ask them to negotiate on your behalf.

They deal with customer service. You don't have to. Rocket Money has over 5 million users. They've saved over half a billion dollars in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter the show name 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff in the survey

so they know that we sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from us at 83 weeks. Eric, we've got a live studio audience here. Let's do a question here. Matt LaRousseau says, planning a road trip with the family

to Yellowstone from South Florida. And I was planning to check out the Cody area. Are there any recommendations on restaurants or must seas and or around town. How about that? We've got a Cody visitor. What do you recommend out that way, Eric? Oh, well, in general, the restaurants and Cody are okay.

There's no special restaurants in Cody. The trailhead is pretty good. If you just want one of the best burgers in the West, in the Rocky Mountain West, I would say the silver dollar bar right downtown. There's a great little lunch place there called Cities Table, S-I-T-T-I-S, great, great Mediterranean food. Other than that, that's it. But there's so much to do otherwise.

One of the coolest museums in the country is there, the Museum of the West. It used to be called the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. It's really five different museums under one roof. I think it's called the Remington Western Art Museum is there. One of the largest collections of Western art. anywhere in the world, amazing stuff there. Artists like Charles Russell, for example,

who's famous for Western art. The Firearms Museum is second to none from an historical perspective. So if you're interested in the history of firearms, not only in the United States, but from around the world, it's an amazing, amazing museum. Natural History Museum is there. My favorite part is the Plains Indian Museum.

I've always been fascinated with Plains Indian history. By Plains Indian, I mean, North, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, kind of the northern part of the Rockies and the little bit east of the Rockies. That part of American history, Native American history in particular, has always been of interest to me,

read a number of books on it over the years. But there is a museum there that is second to none when it comes to Native American history. So I would check that out for sure. But if you just want to do outdoor stuff, there's a rodeo seven nights a week, starting June 1st through Labor Day. Rodeo is always fun.

And a lot of good rodeo, too. It's not just a local rodeo. These are cowboys and cowgirls that compete all over the west all summer long, and Cody's an important stop on that tour because they're all riding for points trying to qualify for something. so the rodeo is always fun river rafting it's all over the place right you know the river north and south fork of the shoshone river coming out of yellowstone is a blast horseback riding hiking there's a lot to do here really hope you enjoy your time and cody we've got another

question from uh well i'm going to butcher it mr cox says good morning eric and conrad eric if you could manage a talent in the wrestling business today and help him on the path to be a world champion and who would it be? Thank you for the years of memories. Who do you have your eye on as a top young, up-and-coming talent that you think, hey, that could be fun if you were to get to do your best Bobby Heenan on the outside for that guy? You know, for me personally,

I would have the most fun working with a really young, like an NXT star or somebody, hoping to become a star in NXT, that would be fun because you're working with moldable clay, people that are willing to listen, people that are willing to learn, people that haven't developed their own habits, good and bad, because it's hard, you know, I've never golfed, but I think a good metaphor might be trying to un-teach a golf swing, meaning I would have imagine golfers who are really intent on learning the game, practice their swing and practice their swing and practice their swing.

And in the process of practicing that swing over years, you develop habits that are not necessarily good habits, right? You don't even notice them, form, whatever. It's harder to untrain that bad habit than it is to train in a good habit from the beginning. working with somebody that doesn't have a lot of experience can be the most rewarding because you don't have to undo anything. They're just moldable clay in your hands. And it's up to you to shape it and make art out of it as a director or coach, I guess. There's a guy in NXT that I really like because I worked with him for about five minutes in the ring. Ridge Holland.

I've had a few conversations with Ridge since that time. We've become, I don't want to say friends we're friendly right haven't gone out to have a beer or anything like that but we you know we started communicating that's an example of somebody that it would be fun to work with because they're so wide open and so eager to learn and driven to succeed that's fun that's fun so i'd throw my hat in a ring for ridge just because i've had a chance to get to know them a little bit great question jared christin is with us and of course everybody watched dark side of the ring this past weekend i guess it was this past tuesday it was the season finale and it was on mohammed hassan jared wants to know what do you remember from mohammed hasan in his oh four oh five years when you were working as the general

manager on raw i just saw the dark side of the ring with him the real life mark caponi super nice guy What was your experience like with Muhammad Hassan? You know, I never, I don't recall because I don't think we really work together directly in the ring. I don't recall having any segments with him or even dialogue. So in that regard, I have little or no memory of him. In terms of, you know, seeing him backstage and passing each other in the hallway or seeing each other in catering and just saying hello and, you know, general. day-to-day communication or acknowledgement seemed like a really nice guy. I probably have had a couple conversations with him, but they were always just general conversations, nothing heavy,

nothing serious. My impression was he was a, he was a young, eager, very talented, and friendly person. That's about all I remember. We got another question here from Stella Stephen, who says that Eric consider promoting folk style or greco wrestling as well as freestyle wrestling of course this is all about real american freestyle or any other types of wrestling considered eric or was freestyle always the answer well this to clear it up a little bit folk style is high school wrestling the rules for high school wrestling are different than freestyle wrestling differentiated from both of them in that you can't attack your opponent's legs all of your

takedowns your throws are all upper body throws um no use of the legs you can't do a single leg takedown or a double leg take down or trips or hook you know you can't it's against rules everything has to come from the waist up right um see a lot of suplexes in in greco that's the thing that's the move that most people would recognize That's very much a Greco kind of move. It's all upper body, right? I prefer Greco. I enjoy watching Greco.

I wrestled Greco for about two years out of high school when it was the AAU sanctioning, the Amateur Athletic Union was the sanctioning body. And there were AAU sanctioned both freestyle and Greco tournaments all over the Midwest, and that's where I was competing at that time. I was better at Greco, because I had dead legs.

My legs were slow. So I was easy to take down, or easier than I should have been, to take down. And with Greco, because I had good upper body strength, and just mechanically, I just adapted to Greco more quickly than freestyle. I prefer Greco. But freestyle is the most popular style of wrestling around the world.

It's, you know, the Olympic style of wrestling. So that's what we're going for. We are talking about introducing Greco at some point down the road because I think it should be a part of our organization, but not until after we really get established with the brand. And the audience begins to understand what freestyle wrestling is. Unless you're a wrestler, competitor, or friends and family, of a competitor freestyle wrestling is kind of yeah you know it exists but you're not really sure

how it works so part of our job is to not only bring great action to the ring and great stories that's you know that's going to be the biggest challenge is creating stories because these are real people these are going to be real stories not fictional you know scripted stories it's finding their character, the respective characters in our athletes and bringing them to life in an entertaining way through storytelling. That's going to be a big challenge.

The action in the ring, part of that is going to be a challenge because people just don't, outside of the wrestling community, don't really quite understand it. But that's why we've got guys like Chal Sondin. You know, we're talking to Daniel Cormier, We're bringing people in that will be able to not only entertain the audience while they're covering the action in color and play-by-play,

but they're going to be able to educate the audience at the same time. Educainment is the word of the day when it comes to real American freestyle. So it's like MMA. I may have said this. If you've heard this before, Conrad, please stop me. But I used an analogy in an interview, I think, last week. you know, 15 years ago, if you would have walked into a bar and pulled 10 guys out of the bar out in the parking lot

and said, okay, I've got $100,000 in my pocket if you can describe to me what a rear naked choke is. They would think you're talking about a scene in a porn flick, right? It's like, what? We're naked. What? Choke? What? Now if you go into that bar and pull out 10 people and say, I've got 100 grand, if you could tell me what a rear naked choke is, all 10 of those people would likely be,

able to not only tell you what it is but demonstrate it because the ufc has done a great job of educating and entertaining educating that mMA audience that up until probably 10 years ago 15 years ago whatever it was such an obscure niche kind of sport that the general audience just didn't understand it they didn't know what to get excited about ufc has done a phenomenal job with that and that's our that's that's our goal our goal is to replicate the success that ufc had with respect to edutaining our audience yeah you've got to teach them what it's all about but you've got to keep them entertained in the process like i said chel sownin if daniel cormier comes on board which i think is likely at this point um yeah we're

on our way well when we think about being on our way and we think about uh edutainment thanks the way he called it all right guys it's time to cash channel basketball playoffs with prize picks don't miss your last chance to add your favorite players from the court to your prize picks lineup whether it's points rebounds assists take your pick of more or less for your shot of up to win two thousand times your cash and this is the time to play boys the five finals are finally here, and I'm pumped. And prize picks is here to make sure that you have the most fun possible. I think prize picks is the best way to get action on sports,

and they're in more than 30 states. I'm talking to you, California, Texas, even Georgia. The prize picks app is really easy to use to create a lineup. All you got to do is pick more or less on a few player stats, and bam, you're hooked up for your chance to win up to 2,000 times your money. I'm a big believer in this, and I love their platform. Prospects now has Venmo, Apple Pay, master card more they make it quick and easy for you to get deposits and for you to get paid that's

what we're about let's have some fun and right now i got to tell you with us having so much fun with the nba playoffs that's what i'm going with for my prize picks i'm going with miles turner with oklahoma getting more than five rebounds and i'm going to throw down with tyrese halliburton with indiana getting more than 17 and a half points that's what i'm picking what are you picking i'm telling you prize picks is so fun you're going to have a blast I want you to stop what you're doing and go do it right now. You're going to be glad you did. Download the prize picks app today and use our code 83 weeks.

You'll get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code 83 weeks to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Price Picks, run your game. Eric, we got ahead another headline here from this past week that I feel like is worth discussing. This past Sunday night, Joe Hendry was the NXT champion, I say was past tense, because he

dropped the NXT or the T&T, I'll get it out, the TNA World Title, to NXT superstar Tric Williams. So now we have a contracted WWE wrestler as the TNA world champion and just seeing over the weekend

photos and screen grabs of Sean Michaels holding the TNA title was just kind of surreal. I mean, never in a million years that we imagine we would see Sean Michaels holding a TNA title, much less a WVE superstar being the TNA champion.

I know we've talked about the synergies and I stop short of calling it a partnership, but I guess that's what it is. What do you make of this strategic move here, a WVE star as the TNA champ? I think it's cool. Right? and I don't

follow TNA I mean I'm aware of them through social media and I try to keep up with any news that's coming out of there but I've noticed over the last couple of months there's a lot of momentum with TNA I saw a shot from

one of their recent I don't know if it was a pay-per-view or a TV show but it looked to me like they were in front of four to five thousand people just estimating by the photo that was online. They, just TNA appears to be gaining momentum.

And if I was AEW, I'd be much more concerned about TNA than I would be WWE, because that's your real competition. And if you're not careful, AEW, you're going to find, instead of looking in your rearview mirror and see them coming up from behind you, you're going to be watching them pass you by. Because they're gaining steam in this kind of thing with NAC, and even something as subtle as Sean Michaels holding up the title.

That's a hell of an endorsement. That's a big endorsement to a very large segment of the audience that loves wrestling. So good for T&A. I don't know what their plans are, but whatever they are, they seem to be working. It was a couple of months ago I read about a new hire, somebody that was going to come in and had some strength.

strategies, some strategic plans in order to grow the brand. That's all I know, because I read it online. But if you look at what we're seeing and the indications, much like we're discussing here, with the crossover, partnership, call it whatever you want, seems to be working. Yeah, it does seem to be working. There's a little bit of momentum going with T&A right now. And I know that AAA is hoping they're next. I want to bring this up to you because we saw a big announcement on Monday night.

It was, of course, a holiday, and Raw was live on Netflix. And at one point, during a three-way dance with Pinta and maybe it was Dragon Lee and Chad Gable, either way, Vikingo, who is going to be wrestling at the Win Worlds Collide pay-per-view, it'll be Gable versus El Hio de Vikingo. Well, Vikino comes up and kicks Chad. the head and then they show this graphic which i thought was pretty smart let's go ahead and get the word out there hey uh the afternoon of money in the bank come watch worlds collide it'll be t and a it'll be w w it'll be triple a and we're going to see el hio da vikingo versus chagabal

now the trouble is eric you'll see just above their names it says it's for the triple a mega championship but at that time and even as of right now as we're recording vikingo is not the triple a mega champion but he is wrestling alberto del rio tomorrow for the triple a mega championship now i'm sure there is so i guess creative is subjective there's two ways to look at this i never even considered what jeff gerrott suggested earlier this week not that this was a blunder that this was a botch not that this was a mistake or a spoiler but the wb e just doesn't think there's a ton of crossover and only w w fans are going to see that so it doesn't matter who cares where do you land on this eric is this a spoiler is this too much in wrestling

doesn't matter i if i had to bet i would bet it was just a mistake because that's fairly common. Yeah. That's easier to understand and wrap my head around. I think if I want to stir the pot, I might suggest that it was because nobody cares. I don't think that. I just don't believe that.

I believe people are capable of making a mistake. Well-intentioned, highly intelligent, seasoned professionals, guess what? Make mistakes. It's a lot easier to wrap my head around that than somebody in a decision-making capacity going, ah, it doesn't really matter, let's just do it anyway, because nobody's going to know.

That's old-school. I think that would have happened back in the regional territory days for obvious reasons. It would have even happened during my period of time in WCW before getting into management, probably into the early mid-90s, there wouldn't have been as much concern. But with social media and the awareness

and the emphasis and the investment that TKO makes in social media and the management thereof to suggest that somebody right now, we just don't care. Nobody's going to know. I think that's a little weak. Possible. but not a strong, not a strong probability of my mind.

We heard some other news this week, Eric, I wanted to get your take on. I mean, you know a lot about wrestling on television. And the report is that SmackDown is going to remain a three-hour show for the foreseeable future. Originally, I think the show was supposed to go back to two hours starting in June of this year. So maybe as soon as next week. But I guess the USA Network has, been pleased with the performance of smackdown and now they've added a third hour so i got to admit i was kind of looking forward to a two-hour smackdown i guess this is good for wrestling and great

for the wrestlers there maybe they'll get more opportunities but you uh made a noise you're not a big fan of these three-hour nitros i mean three-hour thunders i mean three-hour smackdowns either are you three hours of anything is not every week i just i can't think of you know outlander was a series that i loved watching with lorry recently over the last year i can't imagine watching three hours of it every week there's just not enough time in my head to watch three hours of anything like that um and then it's physically you know creatively, I should say, really, really, really draining. It's so difficult to hold the audience's attention for one hour. Two hours is a major challenge. Three hours is asking the

impossible. You're stepping into, you know, fan fatigue at that point. No matter how much of a fan you are, it's just not going to hold you for three hours. You're almost forcing the audience to go back and watch it on DVR and skip through stuff that doesn't necessarily appeal to them. You're encouraging that pattern of viewing. And yeah, it will show up in your plus ones, your Nielsen ratings, you know, the next day it'll show up. So maybe it doesn't matter from an ad sales perspective. So that's my guess Is they're not as worried about fatiguing the live audience

Because they know they'll make it up in plus ones But man It's hard It's so hard I'm just glad I'm not the head writer on that show Or even on the team because it's what a grind What a grind Got some other news and notes about John Sina

He recently sat down with Stephanie McMahon for her podcast and talked about why he was retiring and he said something like this I can't do those lifts anymore this was from John Cena's hard-noxium in Florida I can't do those lifts anymore because my body's so beat up as soon as I got through that jagged pill of like oh man I'm never going to overhead press 374 pounds ever again but let's get to work to see what the best I can do for today is. It's a very similar course to WWE. My skills are on regress. If I continue at a full-time capability or involvement, I'm not going to run right. My partner's not going to run right. Our relationship isn't going to run right. Sorry, kid, it's time to

close this chapter. I wish I was 18. I wish I felt great because I don't feel more at home besides in the arms of my wife, then I do want a canvas. So John is basically laying out, hey, he doesn't want to retire, but he feels like he can't do it the way he used to, so that's a sign that it's time to move on. I feel like we've heard a lot of wrestlers say things like this before,

but usually it leads to what we've all sort of understood with a wink and a nod was a quote-unquote wrestling retirement. This doesn't read like John Sina has any intention of making this a wrestling retirement Eric no well no I disagree I think he's done I think he's gonna go through the schedule and I think he's sincere I admire him for being able to look at himself objectively and when you recognize that you're just not able and here's what I think it is I know what here's what it would be for me if I can try to imagine being in John Sina's shoes as a performer.

People have gotten used to seeing a pretty impressive John Sina in the ring physically. And you can argue, he doesn't have the technical wrestling skills. It doesn't matter. He puts on an amazing show. He is an incredible talent that got himself. He's in the Austin Hogan Flair rock conversation. all freaking day long. But he can't deliver

to the level of expectation the audience has who have been watching him for the last 10 or 15 years or longer. He's just not that guy anymore. And when you recognize that as a performer, if you're fortunate enough,

if you've planned your life well enough, you can look at your career and go, you know what? I've been blessed. They've had an amazing amount of success. I know I'm not capable of delivering based on the audience's expectations of who I've been for the last 15 or 20 years. So it's time rather than holding on and being less than I used to be.

I'm going to embrace what was and kiss it goodbye and look back fondly on it. Now, fortunately for John, which separates him from a lot of other professional, professional wrestlers who always end up coming back with a retirement of some way, shape, or form, is that John doesn't financially need it anymore. Number one, he probably never needed another career, but he's got one in Hollywood, a very, very lucrative one. So there's no financial reason for John to pursue, you know, coming back into the ring one more time the way a lot of the wrestlers have because John's been able to carve out in a pretty amazing career in Hollywood. very few people get to do that.

Very few people have something to move on to once they leave professional wrestling. And unless they've been able to save their money, which you and I both know, generally not the case. It is in some cases it is. But in many cases, that's not true, right? So they're more or less forced to find a way to get back

every once in a while. Jobs aren't in that category. Good for him. And that's why I'm proud of them. it's going to be really interesting to see how it all winds down for john i think the entire wrestling world was paying attention to what his 2025 is going to look like logan paul made some comments recently that i saw got your attention on social media he said something like this on this podcast it's my understanding that some of my peers are not happy that i get these shots so quickly

in my career let me make it down for you in your simple brains do you think i'm I'm here because I go viral. You see the numbers and you think that's why I'm here. No. The reason I'm given these opportunities so early in my career is A, because I'm fantastic. But B, because I've been getting those impressions for a decade now. And with those impressions comes an audience, a fan base, eyeballs.

People watch what I do. They care about what I do. Whether they're on my team, they want me to win, whether they're wanting me to fail. Doesn't matter. They're watching. And that's the currency, attention. So my question for the people who have a problem with my position in the WWE is,

who's watching you? That was awesome. I responded to that with the money sign. That was so good. And here's what's more interesting. Did you see Carrying Cross's response to Logan's? I did. Yes.

What was it last week when I talked about Dominic, Mysterio, and how he's using social media and i kind of conflated an interview with a social media post but nonetheless it ended up on social media i don't know but here again logan paul just cut a hell of a promo hell of a promo carry across had a hell of a response it's organically potentially god i hope i'm right about this. I really, really freaking hope I'm right about this. Because if this is another example of WWE really using social media effectively to plant the seeds of a storyline in social media that then begins to unfold on camera, that's fertile ground. There's a whole lot of fertile ground that you can begin to tell stories and begin stories in a whole new way.

Engage the audience before you even see a camera. I so hope I'm right about this because it's that will be the next step of the art of sports entertainment is learning how to use social media effect. Everybody uses it, but we don't really use it that effect. effectively, especially in the wrestling business. I hope I'm right, man. But that promo was awesome. I'm a big Logan Paul fan.

And he's right. Didn't say one thing that wasn't true. Did not say one thing that wasn't absolutely 100% true. So I don't know, man. Fingers crossed. I loved it. And I'm a big fan of Carrion, too. Big, big fan.

I think I said on this show a year ago, maybe longer, that I really thought that Carrying Cross is going to be one of the next big stars in WWE. Not the biggest, but one of. I expected, over a year ago, I expected to see something out of Carrying, and we're just now beginning to see it. So I hope I'm right on both counts. All right, guys, get ready. Now you can be ready when she needs it and get your first month of Blue Chew,

and we've got breaking news here. Blue Chew Max is here. Yeah, it combines the active ingredients of Viagra and Cialis into one chewable. It's a combo that acts fast and it lasts. And that means that great sex is just a few clicks away when you sign up at bluechew.com. You'll consult with one of their licensed medical providers. And once you're approved, you'll receive your prescription within days. Blue shoes tablets are made in the USA.

They're prepared and shipped directly to your door. And the best part is it's all done online. and that means no business to the doctor's office, no awkward conversation, and no waiting in line at the pharmacy. So make your life easier by getting harder and discover your options at bluechew.com. We've got a special deal for our listeners. Try your first month of Blue Chew free when you use the promo code 83 weeks. Just pay $5 shipping. That's promo code 83 weeks.

Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. We thank Blue Chew for sponsoring today's podcast. Eric, we're going to be wrapping up here. we've got a bunch more questions coming in i do want to hit a few before we get out of here ask a bum says three hours is fine in today's environment because no one watches a full show of anything these days anyone anyway everyone just watches segments i hate to uh to disagree because i don't i don't watch the entire show eric i have to admit i usually start a wrestling show on a dvr and then i try to catch up at best i'll be caught up

by the end of the show but i'm finding the things i like and i'm watching those and i'm fast forwarding the things i don't like how many wrestling fans do you think consume wrestling like that today in 2025 eric wild ass guess haven't looked at any research but i would say probably 70 75 percent wow it's just too easy it's it's you know people take the path of least resistance no matter what it is it's human nature and if you can get your dopamine hit faster and more frequently by fast forwarding through things that just doesn't appeal to you and you can get right into the dopamine you're going to do that it's human nature you're not going to sit through things that don't necessarily excite you and wait to get to

the good stuff when all you have to do is pick up your remote and go and boom dopamine hit i i would i don't know 70 75% be my guess Ryan Potter is with us here live and he says Eric please do one mystery opponent per RAF pay-per-view I saw that come up earlier I was thinking about that a little bit Ryan that would be kind of fun that would be a new twist on freestyle wrestling that people haven't seen before I might steal that I'm going to float that you know when it comes to this kind of thing I'm not making those calls Izzy Martinez and Chad Brunstein will have a lot more to do with that because they're working directly with

the athletes and the other sanctioned bodies that we're aligned with. So we can't get too far out, play too far outside the lines necessarily. But I think this might be an interesting, I'm going to pitch it. I'm going to pitch it. Something I pitched once upon a time was riding shotgun for a road trip with, with Jim Ross and Tony Chivani. We did it. It was called Road Stories.

we did it for ad-free shows.com and we've recently started posting clips over on our YouTube at podcast heatwrestling.com. Let's show you a little clip of what we just posted at podcast heatwrestling.com, Eric. Some of those stories where you almost felt

alienated, not wanted in Turner sometimes. If you would be out of the food court and have a sandwich and the Rindies or something and look at you like you just go off the goddamn carval tour. Yeah. Oh, you know, I I don't know, I may have told you this story, but bear with me. I'll tell it again. Remember we built a little headed studio right down to do.

Okay? You and I were down there right up front, and a couple Turner execs came in, not only seeing any execs. And they came through there, and they were fucking laughing about. All this were fucking wrestling, making fun of us, and you jumped their shit. I don't remember what you said, but I remember, like, at the, I think the last thing you said was, get on out of here. Yeah. And I thought it was great because you were defending us, right? If this is disgusting.

Yeah, it was disresciting over what we did for a living. Exactly. Why would you do that? Why would you do that to anybody? If that was their choice, that was their lot in life. That's how they're providing for their family. What right do you have to tell us, tell me or you or anybody else? Us, that that's wrong, right?

I know. So what do you do, asshole? Sell ads? Licking. So you get a wider show. the bluer jacket, the red tie. That's what they were doing. So they were, I mean, it was just, and they like,

and I remember the looks on their faces, they were like, whoa, shouldn't have done this. That was good. Stand over the bits, it was all. It ought to be a dick. Go check out road stories available now at podcast heatwrestling.com. Man, is there anybody like Jim Ross?

How great was he in that clip, Eric? Yeah, it was great. That was typical Jim. I like, he's just salty as salty can be, but I love that about him. We're all pulling for Jim. We hope you guys will continue to share your positive memories with him on social media. Eric, it's going to be a fun weekend for you. You've got the big family reunion thing coming up, but I think you're hitting the road for

real American freestyle after that. Is that right? Yeah, we're going to be, we've got a field crew, and we're going to be starting to shoot the background packages, the feature packages, and some of our, top athletes we're going to do kennedy blades is on the schedule for this week i can't wait to be a part of that kennedy blades wait to you meet her wait to you meet this woman amazing athlete and even more incredible human being and just so much charisma we're going to take a deep dive into izzie martinez one of our founding co-partners uh got a hell of a story

but does an amazing job as a coach. He's coached some of the top UFC champions in MMA, helped him with their ground game, guys like John Jones, for example. We're going to get to know him, get to know some of the people he coaches. Ben Ascran. We're going to sit down with Ben Ascran

and really get to know Ben. A wrestler that I'm really, Really, really looking forward to getting to know. His name is Real Woods, R-E-A-L, Woods. Wait to you hear this guy's backstory. Absolutely phenomenal. And it's a privilege for me. It's a blessing, no doubt about it,

for me to be able to be a part of this and to bring those stories to life, because that, I believe, is going to be one of the things that really makes R-A-F successful. is the storytelling that we're going to bring to the table. Stay tuned to boys and girls. We're going to be talking the good, the bad, the ugly of professional wrestling. And, of course, we'll have all the news that's fit to print, as they say,

about Real American Freestyle in the coming weeks. Eric, I love when we get to bounce around and have different conversations about different topics. I'm hopeful we get to see some sort of Goldberg's last match announcement. I'm hopeful that there is going to be a WCW look and field. that weekend and uh i kind of pumped to see what they do next weekend you know with the idea that we're going to have the first triple a w w show is that something you'll try to watch next saturday as a matinee opportunity i think i will i will definitely watch it i may not be able to watch it live but i'll pick it up and and watch it after the fact i'll be working

saturday um but i definitely want to watch it because it's it's the first right this is another big first so i want to i want to experience that of course the original when worlds collide pay-per-view was such a big part of lucia history and wcdw history i can't wait to get your take on what it looks like next week we'll be talking about it stay tuned hit the subscribe button turn on the notifications bell you don't want to miss us the next time we're live right here at 83 weeks dot com all right folks want to put you up on game as the kids are saying these days. You know, I have kissed a few frogs when I'm trying to grow my businesses. Once upon a time, I decided to double down on all my advertising. Man, I blew out my budget on radio and TV, and it

worked. But then eventually I realized, hey, you know what? I'm not even listening to the radio as much as I used to. I need to get some digital advertising going. I didn't know who to call, so I called my same radio and TV reps. And sure, they placed an order. Yes, they took my money. Did they get me results? Ah, ah. You see, calling the TV and radio reps. You see, calling the TV and radio reps. to help me buy digital advertising is a bit like if your kid broke their arm and you just ran him on down to the jiffy lube. Hey, yeah, that guy can fix your car, but he can't fix your kid's arm. You need a specialist. You need Eric Nichols and the guys at Envision Marketing Consultants. My leads went up. My understanding of what I was buying went up.

My overall understanding of the space went up. And I learned about more options that would have been great tactics that I would have never known about had I not talked to Eric. First of all, let me tell you, this costs absolutely nothing. If you're a small business owner, you need to go right now to conrad's guide.com. Let Eric's team take a look at what your company's doing in digital marketing. And listen, they got decades of experience. And more importantly, I trust that they're staying on top of the technology and optimizing my campaigns. They know these algorithms are changing every day.

It's not like what works five years ago, works today. But if your business uses SEO, or pay per click or targeted display or streaming hulu or maybe youtube or even amazon ads you owe it to yourself to go right now to conrad's guy dot com let my buddy eric take a look i'm talking to you if you're b-to-be if you're retail your food and beverage you're manufacturing even non-profits and certainly even mortgages let eric take a look at your digital marketing and see if envision can help you improve those results you're going to save money and you're going to get better results. How do you lose? Go check it out right now. It's conrad's guy.com. I'm telling

you, it's worth the time it will take. You're going to love Eric Nichols and envision marketing. Let's get on track. Let's make this the best year you've ever had in business with conrad's guy.com. That's conrad's guy.com.