83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 385 - Honoring The Hulkster

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson discuss Eric's time on Monday Night RAW this past Monday, plus the very latest on the passing of Eric's close friend, Hulk Hogan.  FACTOR - Eat smart with Factor. Get started at http://FACTORMEALS.com/83weeks50off  and use code 83weeks50off to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. TUSHY - Over 2 Million Butts Love TUSHY. Get 10% off Tushy with code 83WEEKS at http://hellotushy.com/83WEEKS  #tushypod THE PERFECT JEAN - F*%k your khakis and get The Perfect Jean 15% off with the code 83WEEKS15 at theperfectjean.nyc/83WEEKS15#theperfectjeanpod MY BOOKIE - Sign up for My Bookie at http://MyBookie.website/joinwith83WEEKS  with code 83WEEKS and we'll back you on your first deposit. $100 gets you $50. $200 gets you $100 CARGURUS - #1 most visited car shopping site. Shop from millions of cars to find your best deal. https://www.cargurus.com  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.savewitheric.com  to learn more.

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it's Conrad the Mortgage Guy and we are live at 83 weeks.com and, of course, we couldn't do it without the hostess with the mostest. Actually, I don't think that works. Ladies and gentlemen, the Hall of Famer, Eric Bischoff. Eric, how are you, man?

I'm doing great. Doing great. It's Friday morning here. We're packing up. It's our wedding anniversary. is coming up. It'll be 41 years this year. Typically, Mrs. B and I jump on the Harley or maybe we just throw the dog in a truck. We go on up to Bozeman, Montana and hang out for a couple days. But the events being what they are, we're going to be in Tampa on Tuesday for the service. So we thought we'd take a little early anniversary expedition up to Red Lodge, Montana,

state of lodge along the river, and just chill out for night. And then we're on our way to Tampa. what day is your anniversary i don't know that i should know that it's august fifth you know what's crazy i don't know that we've ever talked about this that was me getting a nice first date so i'm taking a little bit of heat because i too am going to miss my anniversary i'll be in tampon tuesday so yeah what a small world i guess i should start at the top of the show today august first happy polkogen in florida day eric what a cool announcement that was yesterday right I know. I heard, actually, when I was coming home, Tuesday night or whatever, I listened because it's hard to get a radio station out here when I live in some black holes where you can't get anything, cell service or anything. So I listened on my wireless. And I listened to the local WFLA in Tampa is kind of my streaming news partner when I'm driving.

And I heard the announcement. Well, that is damn cool. And I think there's going to be a little more to it. I don't want to get ahead of it. But yeah, I think it's really awesome, really awesome. And Nick, uh, his son Nick was, was actually he called me right after I had heard. He explained it to me and he was very, very excited and proud because he knew his dad to be proud. Listen, I know in 2025, it's almost impossible to talk about anything without politics coming up.

We are not going to do that here on the president. Yeah, maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe. Okay. Well, I would rather not have a political discussion and just talk about fun wrestling stuff. But I mean, listen, there's been, you know, Rick Blair Day in Minnesota before. I think it's cool that today, I'm in Florida today, is officially a Hulk Hogan day. That's kind of fun. Our topic today is going to be memorializing and remember the immortal Hulk Hogan, the Hulkster himself. And when we did this last Saturday, the It was just such an outpouring and such a response to that episode and that live show that we did, trying to pay tribute to your friend, The Real Life Terry Belaya, that we couldn't possibly get to all the questions. So I thought, you know what, let's do a little more double dose of Hulkster today. We'll be back with our regularly scheduled programming, we hope, next week. But, I mean, realistically, Eric, we could probably do Hulk Hogan episodes from now until

the end of time. I mean, without Hulk Hogan, the 83 weeks doesn't happen. Without Hulk Hogan, you and I probably aren't doing a podcast together. together, right? Well, I mean, if you go down that rabbit hole, and it's a fun rabbit hole to go down, you know, I always talk about how a one thing can lead to something else that you never anticipated or expected that has a now amazing impact on your life. And certainly that subs up in a nutshell, my overall professional arc with Hulk Hogan, but I think it does for a lot of people. And you can, you can go down that rabbit hole to the point where if you really

are as objective as we possibly can be because we are humans and we're going to have our biases whether we are aware of them sometimes or not sometimes they're subconscious shape the way you think but in my mind I'm really comfortable saying if it weren't for Hulk Hogan there would be no WWE today and in the same breath say that without Vince McMahon in WWE, they would have never been a Hulk Kongan. And I'm not saying that to be equitable or fair. I'm saying it because I'm absolutely convinced it's true. That was a powerful duo that in that moment, at that time,

they had maybe not the exact same vision, but their vision of what wrestling could be was so similar. And the stars aligned, but I don't think the stars would have ever aligned. There would have only been one or the other that big one or Swickmanor Hallcock. So you can have so much fun with that and think about, well, what if that would have never happened? What would John Cena be? Would he be a dentist? You know, would he be an astronaut?

What would he have grown up to be? And you can just go down the line and imagine the what ifs that all begin with this cat named Hulk Hogan. Eric, the internet wrestling community and really just mainstream media, certainly YouTube and everywhere else you go, there's just Hulk Hogan content more than we can possibly consume or shake a stick out. I mean, WWV vault on YouTube last night uploaded something that was just fantastic,

30-some-odd minutes of behind-the-scenes footage. I saw another angle from the heel turn that I'd never seen before from a different camera, just that raw footage, just really cool moments and it's interesting because I'm hearing from people who are not traditionally wrestling fans who are asking about it wanting to talk about it

like I'm down here at the beach for my mom's birthday happy birthday mom and every time you know there's just a lull in the conversation or we're not watching a movie or something she'll ask a Hulk Hogan question and we wound up getting down the rabbit hole last night I guess I wanted to ask I'm sure you've been

inundated with lots of tributes from different luminaries and space. Do you want to shout out any that you felt like we're particularly touching or that really struck a chord with you? No, I can't think of one. I was so overwhelmed, honestly, that sometimes this is just an interesting self-study in behavior, I guess, but I noticed over the weekend that even as recently as yesterday, I can be in a middle of a conversation and It's just one word or a phrase or a kind of, you know, off-the-cuff comment that will hit me. Now, while getting a little deeper in a conversation about it like we're doing right now,

I don't have any issue with that. I'm good. Occasionally, it's this, you can't see it coming. There's no pattern, you know, but there are little words or phrases or comments that take me back to a, memory right that must stand out in my subconscious because again i'm not thinking about it i'm not dwelling on it but the most obscure kind of comment can you know trigger a flashback in my head it brings back a picture that's positive you know and fun good memory and then here it comes right so sometimes like last week in particular is what i really noticed that it wasn't the real profound

heartfelt and in honest sincere comments that triggered me sometimes they were just the most seemingly you know not not important but they're triggered a memory so I don't have any that stand out I have spent a lot of time and on that roller coaster last weekend but I don't have anyone that stands out I know that you mentioned it last week so I'm going to follow up here, but I want to be clear. I'm not trying to pry. I don't need any particulars or details. I'm just making conversation. You mentioned last week that you knew you were going to have a conversation with Kevin Nash. And when you're normally in your recording studio, a famous portrait from Paint Your Life.com hangs behind you of that iconic moment when Paul Kogan told the fans to stick it, brother. As you take a look at that photo, Scott Hall's no longer here. I mean, Gene Oakerlund's no longer here. well cogan's no longer here and kevin nash is the last man standing and boy he's been put through the ringer with loss of his best friend scott hall and the loss of his son and now the holster but he's got to be feeling a certain type of way have you had a chance to catch up

with kevin nash yet yes i did actually monday when uh when i was in detroit for the raw tribute uh we finally caught up it was such a great conversation for a lot of reasons, the obvious one, you know, Kevin really loved Holt and Halt felt the same about Kevin. There was a bond there. You know, they weren't like hanging out every weekend kind of buddies and all that, but there was a very, very unique relationship, special relationship. And we talked a lot about that, you know, and his impact overall and certain memories and moments. But The best part of that conversation was it caught me by surprise, really, but it put just the biggest smile on my face.

He said, you know, it was really, he mentioned a podcast, our podcast. He goes, it was really cool that you talked about Terry's fate. And then proceeded to tell me that he too, Kevin, has, you know, I want to say a period of time, but some time now, has really began kind of reconnecting with his. And I was so glad to hear that because of what Kevin's gone through. Mm-hmm. I mean, is there, I don't know, I don't even want to contemplate, but I don't know what could be worse.

Here there are, but losing your child. Yeah. It's got to be at the top of the list for anybody. And then Scott Hall, and get the order out of, I don't know, excuse me, but Scott Hall, And now Hulk, it's a lot of loss for somebody who, in my opinion, is far more a sensitive person than you would ever imagine. Yeah. Or that he would ever let you imagine.

Kevin is Kevin. That's all real. But the reason Kevin Nash is who he is today is because he's a very sensitive guy. sensitive people learn how to defend that they learn how to protect it and they learn how not to become sensitive or let people see that you are and you get confident sometimes scary especially what you're six foot seven people but he's a very sensitive human being and I think the fact that you know he's fighting his way back to his faith he finds there and the partnership.

I'm happy for him. It's interesting that, you know, Paul Kogan is the one that brought that conversation together, isn't it? Super cool. Thank you for sharing that. I think we're all thinking about Kevin, you know, we all know as wrestling fans, man. He's just been put through the paces.

Let's talk about something that I know is important to you. I was happy to see that while you may not have been able to make it to the Smackdown tribute, you were there for the Raw. tribute on Monday night of course if you tuned into our live this past Saturday Eric had just gotten home unpacked the bag and then repacked it to turn around and fly back to Detroit and do this thing but it was a who's who uh including I was really happy to see it Nick Hogan front and center I got to ask uh how cool was that to see Nick Hogan sort of taking the the stage for the the Belaya family I thought that was fantastic

I am so proud of Nick. I have known Nick all his life, to me, literally. I have no Nick all his life. And I've always enjoyed being around Nick and spent a lot of time around him. Probably, well, it doesn't matter. Spent a lot of time with him and all together. And I've always had respect for Nick. I mean, he's always been a pretty smart kid.

Never really got to know him real well because he's a, You know, my son's age, she's younger than my son. Right. So it sounded like we hung out and did stuff together. But I never really got to dig down deep, you know, and have deeper conversations with Nick. And I certainly did over the last week or more, actually the last several weeks, getting up to it. And I am really impressed with how level-headed and intuitive Nick is.

He's a strong young man. I'm really proud of him, really proud of him. step it up he's handling it he's handling it like a man glad for him you know i know that this is uh you know probably not the time or place to ask but do you assume that that he's going to step into some of the hulksters business stuff because i mean the hulk ip and that stuff will live forever and and somebody is going to have to manage all of that do we assume that nick will be a big part of that i mean that's logical to me i would assume so i have a But, you know, gotten into that type of conversation.

Sure. It's not on the list of things to do quite yet. But I would assume because Nick is already involved. It's not like it's been involved on the beer side of the American beer, right? Nick isn't necessarily directly involved with real American freestyle unless it pertains to assets or trademarks or preference, that type of thing. And then he's part of the discussion for sure. so he's and he's been on tour with us for real American freestyle he's he's part of it just doesn't have an operational definition yet but I would assume that that would

I for one I'm looking forward to that and hope it happens I I've always felt like he should have you know been a bigger part of some of these wrestling gatherings and get together's like you know I see so many other extended family members of giant wrestling personalities at these and I don't know I think it's kind of his birthright to be able to see how much love people had for his father we're celebrating Hulk Cogan we got a lot of great questions left over from last Saturday but we are still taking your questions live now so if you've got those we are live it is Hulk Cogan day here in Florida on August 1st but right now we're going to take a quick break talk about some factor we'll be right back all right boys summer is here summer

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You'll be a factor fan for life. Factormeals.com slash 83 weeks, 50 off. Eric is with us here live and he says I'm curious as to how different the attitude era would have been or happened if Hogan didn't form the NWO at the bash of the beach the NWO changed pro wrestling and we got the Monday Night Wars I think that's all facts Eric I don't know that we have you know that hardened edge of the stone cold Steve Austin character aloud on TV with middle fingers and beer swearing and all that if there wasn't a little more edginess to the NWO a little more realism to the NWO, don't you agree? Look, it's indisputable to anybody that would argue what I'm about to say

is so entrenched in their alternate reality of what the world really is. But here's my take. Without Nitro, head to head, and without the NWO,

becoming what they became because those things are directly connected said it a million times in a show better than less than different than I couldn't be better at WWE than what they were doing so I was different than WWE at what they weren't doing I was going after males 18 to 49 they were going after teens and preteens that's in it's irrefutable just all you have to do is freaking look, or as your friend, Dave says, study the business. Yeah, study the persons you don't want to admit to, dip shit. But anyway, you look at that, that was the decision. Fears are preteens, no, can't do that, 18 to 49 year old men, yep, I'm going to do that.

Once that decision was made, that was the catalyst for the NWO, the reality-based storylines, letting Kevin Nash use his real name, having Scott Hall. coming down through the crowd all shit nobody had ever seen before it's all new fresh hey everybody talks about disruptors nitro was a disruptor the NWO starting with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and then the Hogan turn was was the mother of all TV bounce in a positive way we nuked the traditional format for presenting wrestling on TV. It took WWE until November of 1997. Go back and look for it.

You don't want to just take my word for it. When Vince McMahon came out and basically told the audience, we're changing this shit. But he didn't say, subtext, because we're getting our asses kicked, we might not be around for another six months if we don't. That's a fact. I don't know if six months is a fact.

But the financial position of WWE as a direct result of the head-to-head competition and more importantly than that, the absolute mega shift by advertisers and interest from advertisers in that 18 to 49 year old demo, our decision, it was a, it was, it was. is a premeditated, calculated decision, not only to go after 18 to 49, but creatively how to do that within the context of professional wrestling. Those two decisions, head-to-head, NWO, 18 to 49, that changed the entire wrestling business today, and I'll go so. Now, that's everything that I just said is in my mind, you can't argue it. Now, here's a kind of, you know, objective opinion. I think had it not been for that period of time,

at that competition, me forcing Vince McMahon to go, this isn't working, I can't afford it. I'm going to do what they do, only I'm going to turn the volume up because I have to take their audience. Their recipe for their soup is working so good that I've got to come up with a soup that's just a little bit better in a different way so that I can get some of my soup customers back. That is what was going on.

In November of 1997, when Vince Mann came out and said, we're going to change our game, essentially. From that point on, essentially, is when you really started seeing the focus on that demo from WWE. That decision, Vince, to change his formula from what had been working since day one, teens and pre-teens, to now creatively in every other way,

going after a completely different demo and having to change his recipe to do it. That's what changed the business forever. Had it not been for that situation. I don't think we'd be seeing WWE, at least not the way we see it today. Not on the scale that we see it today. You just have to step back long enough. And again, I'm admitting probably a little bias on this one. But acknowledging that I'm biased forces me to look at it even harder

because I know I'm going to have to defend a statement like this at some point and I look forward to doing it because it's just numbers. It's just calendars and numbers. You can just look at it and see. And I think Hogan turning heel within that NWO storyline absolutely made all the difference in the world. Looking for relevant CME-eligible content that fits your schedule, check out A.Cog's new podcast series. We cover the latest on early onset breast cancer and provide practical strategies for the prevention and early diagnosis of breast cancer and gynecological cancers.

Stay on top of the info you need to better care for your patients. Search for women's cancer conversations wherever you listen to podcasts or visit. Visit www.acog.org forward slash women's cancer pod to learn more. We're live here with EZE, if you've got a question for the Holkster. We've got a quick little comment here from Affected Prime who's with us live. Thank you for everything you do, Eric. My childhood in the 90s was the best because of the magic you created with WCW. Nothing will ever compare to it.

Ask a bum wants you to know that Natalia could be good with the new. real American freestyle promotion with Kurt Engel. And Condustin B is with us here live. And this is an interesting question, one that I don't know that you've ever maybe even discussed with Vince. We know Vince went all in to make

WrestleMania happen. Does Vince even create WrestleMania if Polkogan doesn't make his way to the WWF? If no mania, where is wrestling today? Now, I don't know that you've had that specific conversation with Vince, but we've all sort of freestyle

out, hey, if it wasn't going to be Hulk, who would have been the guy? And there's lots of debate and discussions, but I do think in order to make a big push for WrestleMania, they had to have a hood ornament. They had to have a central figure. They had to have a star. And just as a refresher, Hogan's first match with the company when he returns to the WWF airs on January 1st. He wins the belt 23 days later, January 24th, 1984. But by March of 85, which is when the first WrestleMania was, they'd already been on MTV. He had already done Saturday Night Live.

They had already had the Sports Illustrated opportunity. But maybe biggest of all, they had a new licensed action figure. The action figure deal was out there. Like the momentum was rolling. And I think it can't be argued or even debated that those early years, especially WrestleMania, those were built around Hulk Hogan. like these days eric people say and i hear this in my real life all the time oh are you going to the matches w wwee's coming to town this weekend or something like that but it's always wwees coming to town

but back then eric people didn't say that they said i'm going to see hulkogan this thursday i mean it was a totally different way that that we see wrestling promoted the way it's promoted now like now you can just say it's monday night raw and tickets are on sale and man they're flying off the shelves. Oftentimes, WrestleMania would sell out just when they put tickets on sale. They don't know who the card is, who's on it, what's on it, none of that. But early promotion from WWV, Hulk Hogan was on everything,

every single thing. I mean, even a guy like the Iron Sheik, he made hundreds of thousands of dollars on his action figure because the Hulk Hogan action figure needed to beat somebody up. He really was the central figure in professional wrestling. That is funny because it's so true. You know, I don't even remember what day it was, the last, honestly, the last, I woke up this morning and I wasn't sure where I was.

I didn't, you know, I was not drinking or anything like that. I mean, I woke up this morning, first of all, I slept in. I woke up at six in the morning instead of four, which is very unusual. And when I woke up, I was completely disoriented. I recognized that I was in my house, but I couldn't, I didn't know what day it was. I didn't know what I had to do. Usually when I wake up in the morning, I already have like a. mental checklist in my head. Not that I get it all done. Trust me. I start out with one and

you know, we'll see what happens. But I usually am very aware of, okay, I'm up. I need, I got 20 minutes to get my coffee, I've got to get in the shower because I've got to do whatever at such a such time. So I woke up and it took me, it took me five minutes to figure out what I had to do today. It's weird. But I, early on, I wrote something that said, thank you for the household stir. Put that on social media. And I ended up having to explain that, but the amount of feedback I got from that, just one little comment, is crazy. I'm sorry, I lost track of the question. Well, we were talking about the Iron Sheik making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Oh, oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I feel like we're doing last week's show all over again.

my point in that is the comment is the point that my comment was really the point that you just made because so many people don't realize how elevated everybody even people that didn't like Hulk Hogan and didn't want to wrestle Halk Hogan ended up making more money because of Halken and then of course those that did work with Halk really felt the benefit but it was truly he, O'Cogan, the brand, truly was the tide that raised all boats. And a lot of people recognize it. And they would say something like, hey, Hawks are thanks for the house, which is a recognition of just knowing that all those tickets they got sold tonight, they weren't coming to see me,

brother. They were coming to see you. And I just got to come along for the party and make more money in the process. That's really what it was. But you're right. You're right. He made so, well, it's just, I say he also Vince McMahon. He and Vince together that boat, you know, rose so hard and so fast that a lot of people made more money.

But one more point I wanted to make, early on in your question or you set up for it, you talked about, you know, you didn't think about WrestleMania. You thought about Hall Coga. Muslimia wasn't coming town Hulk Cogan's coming to town that's a fact that's a fact and it's also the

it's around zero for all of the friction really Vince and Hulk throughout their entire relationship was that they both knew early now at today then

They both knew that, well, they didn't know, they were fighting over who that was going to be. Are the fans going to be more aware of the WWF brand, or are they going to be more aware of the Hulk Hogan brand? Because if they're more aware of the Hulk Hogan brand than they are of the WWF brand, Vince loses leverage. Vince didn't want to lose leverage. And Hulk gained leverage. Hulk wanted the gain leverage because Hulk wanted. He wanted equity in WWF. He felt as he deserved it.

And Vince obviously disagreed. But they both had an argument. That's the fun party. It's not fun. That's the really almost dramatic. It's almost funny how these two argued over that point that you just made back in 1984, 1985.

I can't wait. press to talk about this it is the thing i've wanted to talk about with you the most on today's episode i think you could argue that the whole whole kogan vince mcm man who made who thing that's almost like wrestling's version of chicken in the egg is it not it is that's what i mean it's and if you think about it think back to all the disagreements and all the because those two i can't obviously i can't speak for the vinside but i know you know i was sitting next to him you know listen, I was on this, I was on speaker. I was listening on speaker phone, so, you know,

conversations they were having back and forth. You know, and it all comes back to one thing. It's like a husband and wife that just can't get over the fact that there's no compromise when it comes to lifting the lid on the toilet. Like that, no matter what, we can't get over that and we'll get along and we'll do business and we'll have fun. But the minute we both have to piss in the same pot, it's World War III. that's what that was I look forward to us talking more about the the Hulk Hogan Vince McMahon relationship we're getting lots of questions about it too Jason Jocelyn is with us here live and he wants to know what did you think of the Hulk Hogan Vince McMahon match Eric you may not recall but this was a WrestleMania match from like 20 years ago that we saw a surprise return from Roddy Piper in it did you ever see that match what did you think of uh of of Hogan?

and Vince's match. Did it take place in Seattle? It did, yes. Then I remember it. Yeah, I remember it. I was there. Yeah. I remember.

I was entertained by it. You know, I had an idea of what to expect. I didn't talk to talk about it. You know, I didn't hear how it was going to be laid out or the finish was going to be or anything like that. But he was pretty lighthearted about it. He wasn't, you know, concerned about it. So I knew it was probably going to be something that was physically, you know, within his

boundaries and things that he'd be able to do safely and look good doing it. So kind of knew what to expect. I was anxious to see, you know, Vince play out his character because he was crazy in a good way. I liked it. And when you, when you mention that match, the very first thought that came up, flashed up out of my hard drive was there's a camera shot. Yes. Where Vince McMahon is looking up over the ring apron and his eyes go this way and this way.

I love that shot because it's a perfect example of how to use TV and professional wrestling. Like that same thing wouldn't have had nearly the same effect and didn't have the same effect to the people in the audience unless they're watching on the monitor. Because then you're right in the face of the character. You can, you know, you read their mind. You kind of say, oh, I know what that dirty bastard is going to do. That's engaging you. That's sucking you in. That's train you along, right?

One camera shot is probably the best example of how and why to use cameras in professional wrestling. Otherwise, they're just, you know, action, which is still interesting and important. But, man, when you can bring out the emotion and get people inside your head just with a camera shot, it's awesome. I've always liked that shot. Can you tell? I thought about it a lot. It's the first thing I thought of too. I think most fans who saw it live,

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And for a limited time, our listeners can get 10% off of their first bidet order when you use the code 83 weeks at checkout. That's 10% off your first bidet order at Hellotushy.com with the promo code 83 weeks. I love that spot. I love that graphic. I just can't help it. I know this sounds like half twisted, but I'm looking at that picture of that young lady sitting on the toilet in her skirt, by the way, which is kind of, okay, I get it.

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throughout those you boys and girls hey we're talking about the interesting relationship with Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon we are alive taking your questions and we've still got a bunch of questions from this past Saturday but Eric I'd be remiss if I didn't follow up on something you said earlier

Hulk felt like he deserved and was equity in the WWF. I don't realize, I don't know if you realize what you said there, but we've never actually officially heard that. Have you had, do you remember having conversations with Hulk about him not being an equity partner in the WWF and his disappointment about Vince's, I guess, denial of that offer? Many times.

I'm surprised that hasn't been to discuss more. I mean, I didn't get the impression it was a secret from anybody. Yeah, I heard of that. You know, it's not like he didn't dwell on it, but it certainly came up in, I don't even know how many conversations. I mean, it stands to reason. It's the wrestling business. Hulk was its biggest star. He saw what was happening.

Hulk was everywhere. If there would have been no Hulk Hogan and Vince would have been about there promoting WWF and the same thing that he had been promoting the same way he had been promoting it it wouldn't exactly the way it was maybe a little bigger, a little better but the fact that this shifted years and all of the promotional weight

ended up on Holcock's shoulders you would have to be kind of simple to not if you're the talent, if you're the wrestler, if you're the brand that people are paying for you would just, it would be human nature, go, hey, dude, you know, we're doing this together, 50-50, but, you know, what do you think?

We're kind of in it together. Makes sense. That was the basis of it, I think. It's just, you know, this wasn't going to let it happen. I didn't, we never got to why or, you know, what Hulk thought, you know, prevented that, you know, Vince from wanting to do that. We never discussed that. But it was, you know, kind of a pretty mad.

matter-of-fact comment that I've heard many, many times in conversation. I know you weren't there, so you would just be trying to guess based on what Mr. Baleigh I told you, but what time frame do you think that was? I got the, again, this is not a historical data that I'm presenting fact. So it's just check yourself. I'm guessing whatever period of time when Hulk moved up. up to Connecticut because that was kind of like, oh, here's a, well, it's part, it was one more thing that led him to believe that that was possible, you know, that Vince would be able to

it. I think, I don't know, it wasn't there, but it all seems like when I heard this story, it was within the context of Hulk actually physically moving to Florida, which if you knew Hulk Hogan, that's a big commitment. Leaving Florida, he loved Florida, he loved beach he didn't like connecticut at all for all the same reasons he loved the beach so um but he did it because my understanding is he was hoping for or believing that there was an opportunity for him to end up having some equity into everyone man you want to talk about a major what if if Vince grants him equity in the company he would have probably had clauses in there that I mean, it just wouldn't have made any sense, especially if he had equity to go

to a competitor like WCW. Like if Vince had given him equity, WCW and Nitro and I mean, it could all look a lot differently, right? Yeah, they're on here. And that's a whole different rabbit hole in so many different ways. And again, I want to make it really clear here because I've seen a specific over the last week what happens when I tell a story like that, which is fairly. Um, it's not a complex story, but there's, it's a, it's a story in context.

People will take little pieces of a story and then regurgitate it in their, whatever, whatever, on their platform to make it sound like I said something completely different. So, and there's nothing I'm going to do to change that because people are low life, low hanging fruit, bottom feeding pieces of shit. and they're going to do what they're going to do. But at least from my audience at a listen to the show, I'm telling you something that I remember talking about,

hearing about over the past, you know, for years. It doesn't mean it's a hard, cold, provable fact in the court of law. It doesn't mean that, you know, it's complete nonsense and never happened. And it's somewhere in the middle of all that. It's Paul sharing with me his disappointment whenever we talk about his relationship with Vince McMahon.

And again, I want to make that very clear. It wasn't bitter. It wasn't resentful. It was almost respectful because Paul did respect that Vince was protecting his family and his brand. He didn't like it. buddy kind of later in life especially yeah he's a tough son of a bitch good luck negotiating with him you know that was the context in which these conversations come up so let's please not blow it up

any bigger than that Dustin B is with us here live and he says it's like Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan Bill Belichick and Tom Brady those are the sports equivalents he thinks of Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan you know I'll be honest I never really put much thought into that until several years ago. I saw an interview with Stephanie McMahon, and she sort of alluded to the fact that while everyone was celebrating Hulk Hogan, she wanted to be in defense of her dad and say, well, hey, it was my dad who did some of that too. So I do think some of that comes down to ego.

And with all due respect, I think some of that existed between Dusty Rhodes as the Booker and Rick Flair is the top star of Jim Crockett promotions. I think that same thing, that dynamic exists. I mean, I hate for me to say it this way, but that just feels like ego more than anything else. Of course, it's ego. Well, it's,

it's ego. And in Vince's case, it was business. I mean, Vince had a very, he was a control. He was not giving up, he was not going to cede control to anybody. We,

and we saw that right up until, you know, recently on the way he's handled his business. He just does. He fights. and he and he wants control. I don't think Vince does play well with others. Yeah.

Well, let's talk about the whole equity piece because you mentioned that Hulk felt like he should have had equity in the WWB. And I could see why from a, again, I don't mean for this to sound the way it probably comes off, but from a greed standpoint, I could see why you wouldn't want to give up shares. and percentages. I get it. But I also see the strategic partnership value of making sure, hey, he's never going to go anywhere. Now, in fairness, WCW was not turning a profit. All the territories were dead. Vince probably never imagined this guy who, as Hulk used to say,

used to sell meat out of the back of a truck, was going to kick his ass for Ted Turner. Nobody saw that coming. So I get that. But I do want to ask, when you're luring Hogan over to WCW and you're trying to recruit him and get him back in the game because I think he probably felt like wrestling was in his rearview mirror I'm just going to do Hollywood stuff now did the equity conversation come up with regards to WCW at any point no no and I but I think Hulk was I mean Hulk already controlled his brand right so it wasn't the brand came with him all the marks the IP and everything you know came with him or he had he had to work through some of that with Marvel when he actually first got to WCW before he signed on the

dotted line he had to close up some open-ended copyright trademark issues with regard to using Hulk Hogan because Marvel also had a claim. So they negotiated it. Hulk got the rights to use it the way we see it today. W.W.E is using it based on the rights that Hulk negotiated, Henry Holmes negotiated with Marvel so that when Hulk Hogan landed. did in WCW, he brought complete trademark with him, all the marks in the IP with it. So I don't, and we were a publicly held company. So it's not quite the same thing, but no, it never came up. And I think all by that time was looking at WCW was like a really high paying part-time

gig that allowed him to continue doing more movies and TV commercials. He was doing a syndicated television series with the producers of Baywatch when I met him. There was a lot of money in that. So that's where Hulk's head was at in terms of where he was going to spend the majority of his time and money. And wrestling was just like a good support system, not only financially, obviously, $2 million a year, for paper views. Nice part-time gig if he can get it, right? But it also gave him a platform, that being Turner broadcast. with T&T, TBS, you know, New Lights, all that.

So it was more about, hey, I'm just going to go join the team and see how it benefits me as opposed to I'm going to build this company. This episode of 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff is brought to you by Progressive Insurance, physically responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are the things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty and Insurance Company and Affiliates,

potential savings will vary not available in all states or situations. You know, there's been a lot discussed about Hulk Hogan's WCW contract. That went public again, the 1998 contract. I do want to spend some time talking about that. And I also want to talk about what the Hulk Hogan value meant when he joined the company. You've talked about that a little bit before, but I feel like Guy Evans really named, it in his new book I want to talk about that here in a couple of minutes but first let's talk about the perfect gene all right guys if you know one thing about Eric Bischoff you know that

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they're going to ask you how you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you, fuck your khakis and get the perfect gene. Eric, let's talk just a little bit about Hulk Hogan's 1998 contract. It's a pretty big opportunity to resign the biggest, most successful wrestler in all the land. But you right smack dab in the middle of this incredible NWO run. I think the new contract is going to be agreed upon on May 29, 1998. So we're six weeks away from him making good.

Goldberg at the Georgia Dome. But this has been discussed for years and years. I guess this contract first went public through the discovery process of the discrimination lawsuit that WCW faced in 2000, I believe. Either way, this contract is one I wanted to talk to you about because people point to it and they point to, you know, some of the structures and their percentages and the fee just to wear the NWO merch and the signing bonus.

And they wondered, man, how can one guy be? worth all this blah blah blah but i think what's lost in the sauce there is that wcw had never turned to profit until hulk ogan came in they had their most successful pay-per-view of all time in his very first pay-per-view event this nw o thing that created this wave that made wcdbcd number one it was by and large because of polkogen when you're offering him a contract like this do you think that's i mean i'm not going to say it's you offering equity but it's maybe as close as you could get to keep him sticky to the WCW brand. I certainly, that wasn't a thought process.

That wasn't a beginning of a formula for anything. No, I mean, look, first of all, we, Henry Holmes pretty much structured this deal. You're dealing with, in our world at the time, the largest start, not debatable, no matter how much you study or what you are into, the guy is in every measurable way, the biggest start in the business, particularly when you start measuring business, touch points in the business side of it. track record, earnings history, growth. There's just, there were no categories that you could look at from a financial and business perspective, which is the basis for negotiating an agreement or a talent deal, right? You've got to have some starting point.

You've got to have some, okay, what you want, X? Tell me the reason you deserve X. Tell me my why. Why do you believe that you are worth, to this company, what you're proposing. And that's the starting point. And Hulk Hogan came in in 1994. The agreement was $500,000 per pay-per-view with a maximum of four paper views.

So that's $2 million a year. That was the financial risk that we ended up with. And that's the deal we made. How do we get to that $2 million? What was the math? Was it a gut feel or was it a bit of a pair? Do we have to go for, you know, equity and parity and everybody all has to make the same amount of money?

It doesn't really matter if you've never drawn a dime. But if this guy's making this, well, it's only fair that you're making this. Well, it's not. In any form of entertainment, you are paid for what the market is willing to bear for your services, just like everybody else. Hulk came with a track record and in any one of the measurable data points in a business conversation, you could look at and point to and go, okay, this is what he's done. We believe we can do this for you.

And is it worth it to you? If it is great, if it's not proud, it's essentially the negotiation. And we work hard on the Turner side. And I wasn't a part of negotiating the deal necessarily. I was given the position once it was arrived to, but the halted deal was structured outside of WCW's legal team. It was a Turner Entertainment legal team. So I didn't even have any visibility into the day-to-day discussions or developments.

Anyway, that's how you arrive to it. You look at as relevant of information as you can find. And it's hardly ever apples to apples. there's always variables but you start with what you know what do we know oh the only thing you know is what was done previously you don't know what's going to happen in the future so let's take a look at the last five years what are we working with that's how you start the appreciation i love hearing about how these old deals came together and i think one of the things that i wanted to point out is while people may be critical or not understand or take issue or

whatever with that contract the Hulkster got at WCW. Beyond Nitro, the fabulous Guy Evans book that we have mentioned a lot here on the show. You may not know this, but the original book, Nitro, has a sequel. Came out this year, the follow-up book, Beyond Nitro, it's fantastic. And here's an excerpt about the Hogan, T&A, Spike TV, piece of business. Paul Benson, who was formerly the conduit from 2008 to 2015 for an agency that headed up TNA's international programming sales discussed the impact of Polk Hogan's acquisition in late 09. Here's what he said. Previously, T&A had really strong on-screen product. You had guys like

Samoa Joe, AJ Stiles, and Kurt Angle. Creatively, they were arguably at their peak pre-Hogan. But when I went to meetings representing T&A, I was essentially there with my laptop bag, my presentation folder, and an iPad with T&A demos on it. I was meeting these broadcasters. who weren't familiar with wrestling in some cases and certainly weren't familiar with T&A. I'm showing them these action shots of Samoa Joe and AJ Styles, and that was all well and good, but it wasn't really pushing any of their buttons. After 2010, however, all of our marketing materials became focused on Hulk Hogan. The guys who I was meeting, it was guys in the vast majority of cases,

every single one of them knew who Hulk Hogan was. If nothing else, it was a massive conversation starter. it broke the ice it got the discussion moving they could relate straight away because they knew i was pitching a hulk hogan to them it was a mark of quality essentially if they knew who he was their audience would likely know who he was and therefore it was less of a risk from a financial standpoint and recalling the circumstances benson describes the intangible consideration for which hogan could benefit quote imagine you're in the shoes of a broadcaster he outlines and i say so can we do dinner next week. I'm going to bring Hulk

Cogan with me. And that was night and day compared to some other T&A talent. Hulk knew how to play the game and he played it expertly. He was always the most charming man in the room. He knew what his role was, which was to make people feel like he was

their friend. He was an expert at doing that. You know, he could have been the best salesman in the world if he wasn't a professional wrestler. He always made the executives feel like he wanted to be there. He talked passionately about TNA. He showed an interest in what executives were doing on a business level. He could hold his own in that conversation relative to what a wrestling property meant to a TV station.

Shout out to Guy Evans, and I appreciate the words from Vincent, because I think they really lay out something that you've said on this program for years, that when you brought Hulk Hogan into WCW, all of the ad executives who were trying to land accounts on Madison Avenue, like Eminem Mars and everyone in between, they now had an ace of their sleeve. When they mentioned Hulk Hogan, everyone's ears perk up, right? It's a whole new ball game just because of his brand awareness in the marketplace. It's brand awareness and, you know, depending on the level. You know, I don't know the individual that wrote that story. I find it interesting when he says of Paul Kogan wouldn't have gone into professional

wrestling. It could have been a great salesman. He was a salesman. Professional wrestlers are the greatest salespeople in the world. yes wake your ass up young man but but the rest of it I kind of appreciate it but yeah it's true and you know going to the previous question that I spent you know way too much time explaining you know those are the variables that really smart people whether it's your attorneys your representation or whether it's you as a as a talent have a deep enough real knowledge of

licensing and trademark issues and copyright true, even unknowing the difference between the two. If you're really, really smart and have a lot of experience, you still need a great attorney because situations like we just heard from this person that worked with T&A and international sales, that has a value. It doesn't have ticket price necessarily. You can't measure that value very easily.

especially in the short term, but if you're an agent representing your client, I know that that nuanced value is there, and I have to capitalize on it. So you've got to sign a value to it, and you can argue over that. But it's those little things that Hulk Hogan brought to the table, whether it be in this case a television distribution meeting with programming executives, Well, of course, a programming executive has a job, and that job is to sell more programming. And, oh, by the way, if I've got somebody that everybody knows that's attached, and he's going to be on that programming, I can take a risk.

I'll bet on that because otherwise I'm betting on the unknown. And if I want to keep my job, I'm not betting on the unknown. I'm going to bet on what I do know. And even if it's just one guy, the track record of, success, real or perceived, is such that I'll take the risk. How do you put a price tag on that? You can't, but it's there and it's real in Hall Cogan and this individual who wrote that, just kind of laid it all out there.

Shout out to Guy Evans. Be sure to check out his new book, Beyond Nitro, Eric, and I think a lot of guy and think it's one of the best books around when it comes to setting the record straight on all things WCW. Hope you'll check it out. Beyond Nitro on Amazon or anywhere you pick up books. Philip Rams was with us on our live stream last Saturday. We didn't have a chance to get to his question. We've got a little bit of catch up today.

So I'll rapid fire some of these to you, Eric. Philip wanted to know, do you still get goosebumps seeing the response to Hulk Hogan's heel turn at Bash at the Beach 96? It has to be different. And, you know, it's a little more, it's deeper than that. You know, the moment is cool. I get it, but, you know, it's, and this has been going on for a while. You know, you're the older, you get, you look back in the context of everything, kind of, you know, while it remains the same in that moment, the context in your life, probably a different,

I am a different person. I look at things a little differently. I appreciate things that sometimes I didn't appreciate, you know, previously. So every time I look at it, something like that, it's almost like looking at it, not for the first time, but from a different angle. But it's a big moment. And it's only going to, here's the thing, it's only going to get bigger as time goes on. That's the amazing thing that's just actually dawned on me in this moment doing this show is I got to be a part, however small, I mean on camera, right? I got to be a part of certain moments that are pretty big moments that will probably become even bigger over time.

I think that's a, that's a blessing in it. So that's pretty cool. It's super cool. And don't shortchange yourself. You were the, you were a huge part of all that. Oh,

I know, but that's not why they're going to be bigger. I got to, I'm, I'm, I'm Jimmy heart and myself into that. opportunity, brother. I was in the right place at the right time doing the work. You have to be there. And it's going, it'll always be around, which is, you know, kind of cool.

James Leach says, what about a future, what about in the future having a Hulk Hogan Memorial tournament? I don't know about a Memorial tournament, but I do think it's interesting. You know, we saw the WWE celebrate Andre the Giant at WrestleMania with the Andre the Giant Memorial or whatever. and they had the big trophy. If the WWE was going to have some sort of event or match or or segment to sort of celebrate Hulk Hogan, what do you think that should be? Like if Andre got the battle royal, what would be a Hulk idea for the WWE to do moving forward to celebrate him with like a trophy or a medal or a belt or whatever it may be? There's got to be an idea, right?

You know, I'm just going to have some fun with this. right this is going to be half crazy because there's so many good ideas out there i'm sure that this isn't one of them it's so fun so here's what i would here's what i would pitch to hold if i could okay what are you known for certainly not your wrestling it went to great technician nobody nobody know how to build a character neck to the audience The way that you did, and some of them may get close, but nobody's going to leave you behind. That's who you are, Hulk. You're that guy that really knew how to build a character, more importantly, a character that connected to what the audience wanted.

And I think Hulk would agree with that. He might even smile. At that point, in this pitch, I know I had him. I just say, you know. And then what I would pitch him is, why don't we have a series, competition elimination series on Netflix. This is a little cable middle of the night bullshit, it's for you, Larry. But a real series. This competition elimination comes down to a format where we're taking.

developmental talent coming through NXT and they're competing not only to showcase their wrestling abilities but with a big emphasis on creating their own characters and developing those characters and Hulk gets to judge and so what I'm saying is I would pitch him something that he felt really comfortable with that he could be a part of and engaged in because he liked to create all was far more creative than and like all creative people you create some really amazing shit and you create some embarrassingly bad shit nobody that's ever been in the business the actual business of creating entertainment has ever not come up with some really really bad ideas some of them public some of them not

But Hulk loved that process. The reason that he got excited about Real American Freestyle, when he called me and not tag me into this thing, what sold me was he said, he's amateur wrestlers. I've been on the road with him for the last six weeks. Long story behind all that. Because I'm getting to know these guys.

These guys got that Connor McGregor's swag. We can build something with these guys. These guys have it. And that's what, that's what made me get on a plane. But here's the point that I'm making is that Hulk's passion was seeing or looking for or hoping to see characters, big characters emerge, because that was Hulk's point of reference. That was his entire professional career with him, obviously, at the top, when it was the right

character at the right time that connects with the audience. That's a lot harder to create than one might think, because a lot of things have to be right. But that was his passion. And I think that's why an idea is something like that focused on teaching professionals, you know, some of them veterans that could use a little fine-tuning or the younger talent, teaching them how to create or how to attempt to create in the process of creating characters that really connect to the audience because if you can accomplish that you could be the next Al-Cogun you could be the next rock you can be the next John Cena

you've got to figure out how to get there it's not always the booker doing it for you or the writer doing it for you kind of creative doing it for you now sometimes you just got to think through it and begin to feel it first and then help it develop with the people around you. That's the kind of process of Hulk. It's really interesting to see what, if anything, WWE comes up with. Travis Medway had a question for us this past Saturday. That's interesting because we heard it all the time for Andre, but never for Hulkster. Eric, do you have any legendary food or drink stories about Hulk? Could he pack away both any memories that that make you laugh. I saw on YouTube, someone had a clip of him in the old Willadale

house there in Bel Air Beach, the old Hogan knows best family estate where he, he, I think he said in there, he ate 24 eggs a day. Do you have it? We've heard like, oh, Andre drank a hundred and six beers or whatever. Do you have any fun, uh, Hogan consumption stories you can share with us? No, I mean, most of the, uh, time, what were we ate together, either out on the road or whatever, traveling, or when our families were together down of Florida, it was always sushi. I don't know that we've ever gotten together as a family or probably individually, never not just eating sushi.

And my only comments about, you know, that is I'm glad he was buying because the man could, he could empty inventory, he could eat a lot of sushi. I can eat a lot of sushi I couldn't even get close to what that man could consume so I was just grateful that give me just for the check before real American beer

what was Hulkster's go-to beer brand who's a Miller light guy he would look at me because I was a Coors light guy and he's just what do you drink nasty man

Miller Light or if I you know if there was only you know there were no more miller lights available and all the course lights like when we're on the plane i god forbid i handed him a cor's light other is it true uh back in the nitro days that he'd have a cooler full of beer for after the matches for the boys i didn't know that was a secret either but yeah that was uh yeah that you know i'm not look people say is there anything you'd do over again differently sometimes this little shit like letting you know beer backstage while everybody's working

pretending to beat the hell out of each other so you know what could go wrong right bring a couple of cases of beer in here um not proud of it but in a look it wasn't obsessive uh or a excessive but yeah and that's why hogan had a lot of friends it is his dressing room and yeah we probably had you know staff put 10 or 12 on ice and then somebody that Hulk knew really well would you know come along two or three hours later with a case or two so yeah generally speaking it never caused a problem I can't I can't remember one time that oh man wouldn't have read that beer in the backstage that wouldn't happen there were people that got into incidents but they were

never part of the you know the the handful of guys that would come in and drink a host beer um but yeah we did that Puski had a question for us this past Saturday he said Eric any goofy big sexy and Hulk stories always saw those two as big goofs behind the camera Hulkomaniac since 89 Hulkomania lives forever yeah let's talk about that do you have any fun Kevin Nash Hulk Hogan stories I mean I can only imagine when those guys traveled they walk in a store or restaurant i mean those are the biggest two guys that could possibly walk into that establishment that day but from what i understand they're both pretty uh laid-back chill guys maybe they like a beer or two and maybe some left-handed cigarettes

every now and again any fun goofy uh big sexy hulk hogan stories you can share with us no because i didn't really hang out with either one of them after the shows you know Hulk, I always, you know, went wherever the team was. I like to come down after the shows and shows were all pretty good back in the day. So we were always leaving the arena, you know, kind of jacked up and excited. It was fun to go to the bar and have a couple beers with the team and watch the replay because then we had to see on TV what we just got done doing, which is kind of a cool thing. And Hulk would never really be a part of that.

He might come down for a little while, but being in a large group, especially in a bar where the public also has access, if Hall Code is there, it turns into chaos, right? It's not fun for anybody around him or him, but especially for the people around him and he knows that. So he'd hang around for a little bit, but he would disappear. Kevin Nash is very similar. Kevin would occasionally hang out. We would hang out together occasionally, but for the most part, you know, you didn't see them as part

of a traveling circus after the show, so speak. Sean H had a question this past week. He says, Eric, you came into the WWE after WrestleMania 18. So I wanted to know your thoughts on the match. Is there anything you would have changed? Do you think the double turn was the right call?

Of course, the match he's referencing here, Eric is perhaps Cody Rhodes favorite match. Hulk Hogan and the Rock at WrestleMania 18. Of course, as you may recall on the way to that match, the rocket challenge told Cogan, And then Hulk Hogan responded by hitting him with an 18-wheeler. So clearly, Hulk Hogan is the bad guy, but not that night. The fans were booing the rock.

They wanted everything that they could get from Hulkomania one last time. The next night on Monday Night Raw, they couldn't even let him speak. I mean, it was like a six-minute standing ovation. And every time he brought the microphone closer to his mouth, the pop got louder and louder. Vince sees this, and as the story goes, says, you got to fly home and get your red and yellow ship. So we're going to pivot immediately.

The WWE audience didn't want the black and white Hogan. They wanted the red and yellow Hogan. So, of course, Rock takes that as an opportunity to lean into the Hollywood rock version where he's going to come out and do funny songs and mock the hometown crowd. But I don't know that it's called a double turn, but that was certainly the result. You're not there for that piece. Do you think if there was an Eric Bischoff component to the NWO, it changes anything? Do you think they made the right call by going back to the red and yellow?

What did you make of all that? I don't remember watching it. I don't think I did. I've had a lot of conversations about it. You don't want to say a lot. Plenty of conversations with references to it, you know, and many conversations with Hull. So I have a take on it. Let me go to the first part of the question.

Do I think having an NWO involvement in that would have changed anything now? Here's probably the answer to every other question you could get asked about that. I'm guessing Hulk knew that coming into, where was it, Toronto? Yes, Scott O. He knew, you can make me heal all you want. you could just have me biting heads off fidgets like Ozzie you can do whatever you want when I come to Toronto they're going to cheer how about we can get it done I'm guessing I don't know that and and probably I'm taking this position based of just different things that I've heard

but it sounds to me like he just went along knowing that it probably wasn't going to work because it became obvious that no matter what they did They didn't want a Boo Hall candidate. Well, something that nobody wants to do is, uh, is boo SummerSlam. It's this weekend and it's the biggest summer slam ever. You've got a two-night summer slam and I know a way to make it a little more fun. This weekend is the biggest summer slam ever. It's two nights and my bookie has odds on every match.

Jay Cargill is a heavy favorite over Tiffany Stratton for the WW Women's Championship. and Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul find themselves at plus 300 taking on Randy Orton and jelly roll. Meanwhile, the betting odds are completely against Braun Breaker and Bronson Reed who are hooking it up with Roman Raines and Jay Uso and tag team action. But at MyBooky, man, you're not just betting winners, you're betting entrances, turns, shock wins, and getting paid when you read the story right.

Sign up with the code 83 weeks and MyBooky will back you on your first deposit. $100 gets you 50 extra. 200 gets you a Benjamin what you do with it is up to you two nights summer slam 2025 bet smart cash in only at my bookie we're live here talking to easy e eric bischoff about the incredible Hulk Hogan if you've got a question we want to hear from you keep him coming uh david martinez offers this comment he says i met hogan and n yc when no cameras were around he was always incredibly kind to me we will always love him uh do you guys think another future Hogan DVD of him can be made, any future projects about him.

Eric, I don't know that they're going to be cranking out a bunch of new Hulk Hogan DVDs, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a rush on Hulk Hogan content, whether it's documentaries or specials or compilations or even that Hulk Hogan movie that I know they tried a few years ago, like it feels like there's going to be a renewed interest in Hulk Hogan right now that maybe people didn't foresee. And so, you know, the media companies, I suspect they'll try to feed the beast, the appetite for fans who want more Hulk Hogan content. Do you expect that's coming? Yes. Yes. And I am, you know, I know Netflix is, well, they were pretty close to closing out production on, on the

Hulk Hogan project that Netflix is doing with WW. So I don't know what the status is on that. I'm not directly involved in it. I just know that they're still shooting things. for it. So as far as other media of opportunities, yes, there'll be an avalanche of them at some point. We'll tell what happens with it. Obviously, the whole relationship with WWE is what it is and it's not going to change. So it'll be interesting to see what happens to the brand in general in the trademark, particularly with WWE and their ability to continue to build upon it, which is what I'm hoping for. What you hope for in a brand is longevity, obviously.

And now that especially, I think because it's past, just personally, I would be more interested than ever in building that brand and making sure that it's a part of legacy and history and positioned according. I look forward to seeing what's next because, I mean, even this weekend, I think most of us are going to watch SummerSlam and we're going to assume at some point there's going to be another Hulk Hogan tribute. I mean, there's almost no part of WWE that Hulk Hogan wasn't a foundational building block four.

Hey, Brian M is with us here live. This is kind of fun. Eric, I'm the guy you fake handshake on your way to the ring on your WWE debut. Great times. Remembering Hulk, I still take my vitamins and still pissed he lost to the warrior. I look back with fondness in regards to Hulk and yourself, EZE. How about that? Somebody who was there on your debut night.

That's kind of fun. Thank you for joining us, Brian. Yeah, I appreciate that, Brian. Forgive me for the whole handshake thing, but he's got to get himself over, right? So I understand. Yeah, I mean, that's a fun thing about Hulk and looking back at some of the stuff. I even said last week in between, you know, hell down Zip, just going back and seeing some of the stuff that people are fighting and posting on Instagram,

you know, on social media's in general. Some really cool stuff out there. A lot of it I've never seen before that's fun to watch. But it's an experience. Scott Hall, not that one, but a member of 83 weeks.com for the past four months.

We greatly appreciate you. Throw you a little too sweet action says, Hulk Hogan was my childhood hero, meeting him at WrestleMania in Florida was a dream come true. He inspired me in so many ways. growing up. Thank you for the memories Holkester. You will be missed. RIP legend. We're seeing so many people who have such fond memories of Hulk Hogan. I can't help but think about a not so great moment in the Hulkster's career this past January 6th, the debut of Monday

Night Raw on Netflix. They were in Los Angeles. I'm sure, you know, we're two months after an election where he clearly made his voting choice known. And my goodness, the response was, overwhelmingly negative in the moment I felt bad for Hulkster and now with the benefit of hindsight I feel even worse thinking man that was the last wrestling reception he got just a total opposite of what we were talking about in Toronto way back at WrestleMania 18 did you ever spend any time with Hulk and talk about that reaction did he just was that water off a duck's back or I just imagine that has to bother you at some point no matter how much he's been around

and all that, like, do you think it bothered him? Yes. And he dealt with it by accepting it and then trying to use it to kind of calculate, okay, if that's the vibe, if that's what the market is thinking, how do I, or why play into that yeah how do we use that because otherwise it's like that we'll let's just

throw ourselves off a cliff so you know i don't want to see here's what i think and sharing something personal that i think he would be okay with so i'm kind of thinking through it as i say it so bear with me um of course he didn't want that right that should if you look at that he's been doing prior to that moment, you know, going out there and getting that positive reaction and all that has been, you know, as part of the journey, it's why he kept doing it is because he loved those moments. He loved coming out and getting that Hulk Hogan reaction. It made him feel alive. It made him feel younger. It reminded him of what life was like, but he was kind of in better control of it and not in the pain he was in and the situation he was in.

You would have those moments, probably much like Brick Flair does and others, that when you find to get that opportunity to step out in front of the crowd and you get that connection again. It's not about ego. People think, it's not your ego. It's just an energy. And I can't think of a better word than connection. That's rare to get in any other way. He loved that. So when you say, oh, do you think he was disappointed?

Here's what he told me. not, brother. It is what it is. I'm just going to lean into it. And he was positive. I didn't give the positive Hulk Hogan inflection there, but he was very determined slash positive. It didn't hurt him. I think emotionally. I do believe it did in the moment. I do, because I remember watching it with my wife, actually. And I could see, I could, I could hear what he was thinking by seeing his eyes and the way he was his body language, right? There was a moment. I told my wife, I said, there's a moment.

I said, honey, he made, he made turn heel. It's live TV. He's reacting to the crowd. He's doing what his instincts have always told him to do, which is to go with the crowd. How many times have we heard that all? Or excuse me, how many times have we heard guys like Hulk or Rick Flair talk about you? Got to learn how to listen to the audience. Yeah.

Well, he was listening to the audience, and now his wrestling instinct is use it, turn it around, get control, make it work for you, brother. You know, that's what you do. It's your instinct telling you to do that, but he didn't do it. But there was a couple moments, maybe split seconds, but I could see in his eyes he was ready to reach for it he so do that totally he don't do that he went the other way and he wrote it out i have to believe he didn't tell me that it hurt the fact he tried to convince me that it didn't because he was convincing himself that's what he did thank you for sharing that i um i want to ask you a question from instagram a wrestling historian my man always brings

They're great questions. And this is no different. Did Hulk Hogan ever tell you how he wanted his WCW career to end if I hadn't been for the Bash at the Beach 2000 debacle? Thanks in advance. So we know that he leaves Bash at the Beach 2000. So do you. And he never comes back to WCW. They're gone and out of business by March of the following year.

We're going to see him show up after he walks out of WCW in July of 2000. We next see him on WWE program, February of 2002. Did you ever have a conversation about the right way to finish the whole Cogan character in WCW? Was there ever, because I know he sort of played hokey pokey with, hey, I'm going to take a break for a bit, I'm going to do this whole, I'm going to run for president gag. So there were always stops and starts for films and other things. Was there ever a serious discussion where he said, hey, Eric, what if I wound it down? What about this idea? And he pitched like a last match, last angle, last story idea.

did that ever happen no no i think there's you know i mean i don't know you've been around enough of these guys to know that they never want to say i'm done right even if they say i don't never want to get back into the ring again in their mind they're hoping somebody comes along and convinces them otherwise they again it's that connection that they can't get anywhere else and no matter what they say they always would love an opportunity to do it A lot of guys realize that it's not realistic. Physically, it's just not realistic. Medically, some of them would not even be allowed to get into the ring,

according to WW existing protocol, just because they're not at a level of physical condition where they're a acceptable risk to put in the ring, right? So there's certain people that if you've got certain situations and a bad hip and replace knee or whatever, and you're on the do not touch list, which means do not touch so most guys know that some some still want that opportunity down inside he never talked about it he never talked about it he never it's almost like

I don't want that we're so far away from that he not wanting to accept that the end is coming that's kind of a big statement but not really looking at your end of career as a timeline as opposed to a lifestyle with hawk it was still the lifestyle we mentioned Hulk hogan's son nick a little earlier in the program was there ever discussion about nick doing more in the wrestling business i know some dads we see that are professional wrestlers sort of put their foot down and say absolutely no way know how i don't want you in the business others sort of lean into it and encourage it we know that rick had both read and Ashley decided to pursue professional wrestling and Charlotte Blair has become a mainstay in

WWE, but Nick Hogan and Brooke Hogan, I don't know that we ever saw them in a serious wrestling role. Was Hulk adamant that the kids not get into wrestling or was it not something that interested them or what can you tell us about that? Well, Nick actually trained with Rikishi in Rikishi School, Knoxboro, in California. I think Nick and my son Garrett were there at the same time. My timeline may be off on that. I'll have to check with Garrett.

But I'm pretty sure that they were there training at the same time. and there was a point where Nick was, I don't want to say how serious, but he was serious enough to get on a plane and put in some pretty grueling hours and time in a not-so-sweet environment when you're a, you know, a multimillionaire's kid from the beach. So Nick toughed it out, and he trained with Knoxport. Now, I don't know how long he was there. I do know he suffered a shoulder injury, which is probably what took about.

out of the process but he he was committed at that point for sure because he was there with my son interesting and we saw and we saw brook on t and a i know i know you the the question probably meant are you your man she didn't wrestle in the right which is true but there was a pretty cool storyline i think bully will would tell you one of his favorites um there's a pretty cool storyline between hulk and brook and and bully as a part of the whole Aces and A's thing. So go back and check that out. It may not be your cup of tea generally,

but as a story and character development and really getting a look at Brooks' abilities, because she's really, really good. I'm quite surprised that she didn't lean more into acting as opposed to music because she's got great instincts as an actress and a character. Amazing instincts. And you'll get a good look at them there because it was the first time you'd ever really done anything like that other than being on VH1, which is not the same thing.

She was playing a character for us. She was just being broke there. Check it out though. She did a great job. You know, we've mentioned Nick a few times. We haven't spent much time talking about Brooke. I think most of us fans, we've heard that, hey, she was, you know, working as an interior design business. She owned an interior design business in Nashville helping Airbnb owners.

And I'd heard that for years, but I don't know, a few months ago, I actually stumbled across some of her posts on Instagram. I was blown away. And she's really good at that. Like, wow. Yep. She has her mother's instinct artistically. Linda, uh, ex-wife, that's, that was her passion.

Um, and, and obviously grew up in it and developed her own instinct in player for it. So I'd heard she'd been, I haven't talked to Brooke in a couple of years, obviously. And I heard she's doing really, really well. I'm happy for it. Very happy. Absolutely. You know, fun little fact. I don't know that me and you've ever talked about this or you and I've ever talked

about this, but I saw what she made a really nice heartfelt post about her dad on, on social media the other day. She mentioned that she named one of her daughters. I think she has two girls. I'm not sure, but I know she had twins either way. She has a daughter with the middle. name jean which is of course paul cogan's real life middle name terry jean belea and what caught my eye about that is megan fleer rick flair's eldest daughter she named her daughter morgan after

richard morgan fleer i think it's kind of interesting that the two biggest wrestling icons from the eighties both have granddaughters bearing their middle names i think that's kind of fun can i can i throw in another one yeah please do my father's name was kenneth james bischoff garritt's middle name is here it james bischoff oh wow here it's son my grandson is wow dames bishop so there you i love it i love that that's awesome i love when uh you know it's like everything's kind of cosmically can I don't know if you saw, but Vince McMahon was in a pretty bad car accident last week. Surprise, surprise.

He had one of the last V12 Bentley Coupes all blacked out exactly like he was looking for. And it was hard to find. But he got it. And then he ran it into the back of a BMW doing 80 or 90 miles an hour. But as the story goes, it was within a couple hours of us finding out that Paul Cogan had had left. us you know i i don't believe in that sort of thing necessarily but you hear those examples and you're like man the universe is connected somehow is it not now this one's been a little too connected for me be honest with you yeah i'm walking around in a constant state of whoa yeah well

that was unusual there's been a lot of that going on in my life in my head lately but, you know, I expect I don't want to go into detail, but as an example, I talked to you about last week when I literally got the news in real time that Hulk Hogan had passed, I did so watching television that used a clip of Hulk and I sitting next to each other just a couple of weeks earlier on that same television show on the year. Oh, God. Wow.

That was my, I'm dialing the phone. I'm dialing Nick Hogan because I had heard from Mike Johnson, a PW insider who I'm very grateful for that there might be something going on and I should follow up. So I go up to my room, the TV's on, I dial the phone. I'm calling Nick Hogan, breaking news, old cogan dead 71, and cut to a video of me sitting right next to Holt just two or three weeks before on that same. My God. That was my, so I mean, and I didn't say that before, you know, sympathy because I'm fine with it now. I'm actually it. puts that that puts a smile on my face yeah then it does now for the reason you just pointed out

it's it's amazing the if you believe it's amazing what can um what you can see and feel that you might not otherwise see him feel we're going to uh talk a little bit about car gurus we'll be right back after these words all right all right all right if you know me in real life you know I'm obsessed with cars. I am a car guy. I can't help it. I'm on car gurus every day looking at cars. And I know where to look.

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that's car gurus.com C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S-com Car-Gurus.com We're live here with Eric Bischoff at 83 Weeks.com and I want to give a shout out to Ronnie who's with us and he had a great question. At W-C-W ended up winning the Monday Night Wars, what do you think the next decade,

talking about the year 2000 forward to say 2010, would have looked like for Hogan, but he have continued wrestling there full-time. Now that's interesting. If WCW winds up beating WWE, and now they're the big promotion, the sole promotion of wrestling, I mean, Hogan's going to be front and center for that thing for a long time, right? Yep. Yep.

And my guess is because Hulks, I doubt, I don't know this is a fact, I doubt that Hulks contract with Turner was assignable, so it didn't come with the acquisition. So if Brian Bedal and I, I see Greenberg, and I know how I would have voted, and I know how Brian and Steve would have voted by the way, because we talked about it, would have had to cut a deal with Hulk and Hulk probably would have had equity in a new WCD. Because he didn't come over as a part. It wouldn't have come over as part of the sale. Billy T had a question this past weekend when we did our first Hulk Hogan tribute episode

and he had an interesting thing that we haven't really talked about before. Hey, Eric, whose idea was it to end the Goldberg streak? I really feel that Hulk Hogan should have been the one to end the streak. Eric, if you'll recall, it was such a big deal that the Goldberg beat Hulk Hogan. Most people who are familiar with Hulk Hogan's history and wrestling, they know that he always saw money in the rematch now granted usually that's when a heel or another baby face i guess got a win over a baby face whole cogan this was the n w o hollywood hogan character but we know that you know we first had renegade in wcd and then later the actual warrior we know the whole piper thing was around the savage so that any time there was a history there holgan always saw money in the return i mean even famous famously, hey, Andre is no longer with us, but we can say that Paul White is the son of Andre.

Why didn't we get Paul Kogan, Goldberg, the rematch on pay-per-view? I mean, don't get me wrong. What happened in July was fantastic at the Georgia Dome, but it does feel like it lends itself to a paper-view rematch. Why didn't it happen? Oh, timing. There were a lot of things going on at that particular time. I'm not sure, but perhaps one of them might have.

have been Goldberg demanding or forcing a new contract in the middle of an existing contract. That did happen. Now, the question is, is this time period, you know, when it happened? Because if it is, that would have been a part of the answer. I don't know that for certain. I have to go back and look and match up some timelines. And I think, again, I'm reading into it now. This is not based on any conversations I had at the time, at least not that I remember.

But I think it was probably Hulk realizing the timing was right for him and for Bill, knowing that Bill could not continue, you know, to keep doing what he was doing. He had to have something to take him to that next level. Walt really knew that this was the next level opportunity. And I think all probably did see in his head, okay, down the road because of this, we can bank on that. But whatever that idea may have been, really wasn't a part of our conversations. I think it was just something that, you know, Paul had, you know, in his calendar, so to speak. Let's see, you know, a couple of months where this is at.

Maybe there's a rematch there. I'm guessing that was it. Let's, uh, let's do another question. here from Sean he says hey Eric I was glad to see it raw the other night the Hulkster would have been proud hope you're doing well I've been wondering who do you feel was his greatest rival as a face and as a heel that's interesting because you've got a unique performer who had an incredible run as a baby face and then another as a heel so if you're gonna pick you know the the best baby face

opponent feud and then the best heel opponent feud who would you pick Eric more time. I'm sorry. Who was Hulk's greatest rival as a baby face and who was Hulk's greatest rival as a heel? So when Hulk was a bad guy, was it sting? When Hulk was a good guy, was it Randy Savage? What do you know, and I'm thinking about that because some of this stuff I wasn't there, you know, the Hulk, you know, and he was a baby face. It just wasn't, you know, I wasn't watched a lot of wrestling back at the time. So I'm kind of scanning my, uh, my, my database looking for the one that makes the most sense. And to me, that probably is Randy Savage,

mega power story. I mean, no, that's not it either. That would be it. I don't know, man. I hate these kind of questions because I have to think too much about it. Well, let's ask you guys.

Hulk as a heel, that one's a lot easier for me, obviously. I think, you know, as great as the Hulk stink story was, as a story, If one of the fucked up ending, I get it, you to remind me, um,

as a build and a story, I think that I don't know one that could even compare. Um, that would have to be it. Uh, Derek Payne was with us here live this morning and he says, was there ever a storyline that Hulk sold Eric on that turned out brilliant that Eric wasn't keen on?

Was there an, idea that Hogan laid out to you that you didn't love, but you went with it, and man, you were wrong. It was fantastic. Yes, but not an idea in the sense of, hey, let's draw a picture of a wrestling story or character. It wasn't an idea that you could assign to a moment that we could talk about that we'd all remember. But I was just thinking about this this morning.

actually it's a highly different subject it had to with real American free cell one of those moments that I kind of teased a few moments ago where every once in a while this thing happens in my head you go it's weird where did that come from it's not how I normally think what the hell it's like my brain is speaking in tongues I understand it not really it's just a joke on it but there were so many moments in an overall creative discussion whether it be let's shape

an idea or what this happened just casual conversation he would throw out a perspective he would always call it his feel but he would

react to something that he was hearing go no no brother this on and he'd come over the top with his version of your idea and a lot of times you would go oh he just doesn't really get the core idea and oftentimes you would go oh where did that come from because it was atypical of the type of an idea or of a perspective. It was atypical from what we would normally expect.

So you expect you, you see the whole picture with Hulk Hogan when it comes to creative. And for the most part, you're pretty close. But he had uniquely had these, Scott Hall had the same thing, and only more of it, to be honest. had a unique ability to capture the right vision in their head at the exact right time where it really enhanced a story for a moment. Scott had it in abundance when he was sober.

He was amazing. I've said that a many times. So is everybody else that's working. When you got his head straight, he was fool. He was wicked good. Hulk had the same thing, but his came in bursts, you know, and it wasn't always there, but boy, what it was, he would knock it out of the park. We're getting a lot of really, really positive comments about the Hulkster, and we're going to

be streaming some of those. I do want to ask something that's a little silly, but I feel like we all know how strong of an individual he was. I mean, one of the most jacked wrestlers that we had ever seen. seen when he debuts. Askebom says, I'd always heard that Hulk had insane grip strength. Did you ever see anything that sort of surprised you? Like, oh, yeah, I forget that my best buddy here is probably the strongest guy on the zip code. Did you ever see anything like that? No, I never did. And I worked out with Hulk. There was a period of time. I don't remember the dates

anymore, probably, uh, it doesn't matter. It was in a 2000s. I was living in Los Angeles, most of the time on Santa Monica Hulk was there a lot for whatever reason and whenever we were in town or together we had time we'd go to gold's gym over been a speech and work out when i'd visiting it when i visited his home at clearwater he and i and i and randy savage brian nobs would would go to the gem and we'd all work out so i've spent a lot of time working out with him in his gem in belair as well as one in the house that he was living in when he passed so i've worked out enough with Hulk to get a sense of his strength. But here's the thing about Hulk. And all that time, even when he was coaching me, because clearly I never spent a lot of time throwing weights

around a gym, but he would coach me. And I would see the weights that he would work out with. He was a big believer in using lightweight, not throwing as much weight around as you could. And now, granted, he was lifting for a different goal, you know, not everybody is lifting for the same reasons or want to achieve the same things physiologically. But for Hulk at that time, as big as strong as he was, incapable as he was, to move a lot of weight, he used surprisingly lightweight and encouraged me to do the same because he valued joints. It's one thing, it's easy to make your lean tissue bigger, stronger, and you can do it fast. And, you know, you can work at that really, really hard.

good, but your ligaments, your tendons, your cartilage, it doesn't adapt as fast as the lean tissue does. So that's where you tear yourself up. No, this is what it educated me in a lot of ways on that. So I never saw him throw big shit around. There's always medium-sized shit. Brian M is with us here live and he says, what was Hulk's thoughts on NWO expansion? Also, how did you Hulk, Kevin, and Scott brainstorm? never really spent time talking about that. Did Hulk think the NWO was the more the merrier? I think Hulk was kind of caught up in the momentum just like I was.

I mean, I was building it for a reason that her bat right and wrong. There was a reason I was doing it. Hulk was just kind of along for the ride and it was working. I mean, there was, and just as, you know, the problem is, you know, this is where success can sometimes be your, your worst friend. It was working so well. There was a period of time where you could get anybody over if you wanted to in an NWO story. It had that much value as a storytelling device and a brand.

In fact, it was so easy and worked so well that we did it way too often, whether it was part of an idea or not. Too much too soon, too fast. Audience got fault. You go to your favorite sushi bar. I love sushi. I love, when I go into a sushi bar, and it's a family-owned, Japanese family-owned, traditional, not this Asian fusion bullshit. They're hilarious.

It's two for the show. I like really traditional Japanese sushi. I like to know when the sushi is flown over every other morning from Tokyo. It's that fresh. It used to come from a place called the Ski-Jews. fish market no longer there but it was the for hundreds of years where all of the best fish in a world that was caught at night came into the skeegy fish market and the fish merchants would come in and they buy it for the restaurants in their homes or whatever i want my fish that good

but if i go into one of those restaurants and that sushi chef is throwing fish at me and just hear eat more eat more eat more it's good i love it it's good i love the sushi's a best sushi in the world choking on it. I don't want any more sushi. It may be weeks before I go by and get sushi again. That's what we did with the NWI. We just gave them too much, too fast. They got their fault. Got their fill. But you don't recognize it while it's happening as much as you recognize it in hindsight. While you're in it, it's like, hire me up. Here comes another one. Let's get him over. Let's get her over. He was there. Something that you're going to recognize the value of while you're in it is Blue Chew.

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Erica, cut that commercial last night while my mom was at the beach for her birthday. and she was literally eight feet away in the kitchen making a drink. And I thought, well, we're recording a Bluetooth commercial. She's going to hear it and help pay for the beach house. So here we go, Mom. Listen, I saved this for the end because I don't know how much we want to talk about or don't want to talk about. But something came up over the course of this week that I didn't know. And I think most of us watching didn't know.

But there were several reports for mainstream media outlets. that detailed that Hulk Ogan in his final days was battling leukemia. That took me by surprise. Did you know that Eric? Or did he keep it that quiet? Absolutely did not know that. I was, I reacted probably the same way you did when I read that. I don't know if it's true or not true.

I don't know where that information came from. And it could have been something that was discovered in the autopsy, but I, He never, ever, nor anybody around him, ever said anything about leukemia or anything other than the obvious issues that he was having that he talked openly about. It's all public knowledge, unfortunately. I don't think there's a lot of secrets about what he's gone through medically over the last years. um but no i had not heard that one was interesting we uh we wish we could sit here and talk about hulk hogan all day i don't know that we could ever really encapsulate what he's meant to the professional wrestling business to his legion of fans across the world a true icon you know

this is before we had access to quote unquote celebrity the way we do now i mean now we can look on Tom Brady's Instagram and see what his workouts look like and who he's dating and what he ate for breakfast. But, you know, back in the 80s, we didn't really have access to that. Hulk Hogan was one of those pop culture icons and his level

of celebrity is going to be something that people talk about for a long, long time. Again, I save this for the end because there's somebody who used to be pretty close to Hulk Hogan's life, who has, for whatever reason over the last two months their entire show has been consumed

with talking about Hulk Hogan and not always in a glowing manner do you want to address any of the Bubba the Love Sponge stuff at all here today? No. I didn't imagine so. If I could go through life and never hear

his name again, it would be a good it would be a good way to end a good run. maybe uh maybe the the worst best friend ever i guess is the way to frame that one my goodness um thoughts and prayers with with the belia family i hope everybody has a fabulous friday and celebrates polkogen in florida day as best they can and eric i know you're getting ready to do some travel and to go celebrate with mrs b and then you've got the uncomfortableness that's going to be the celebration of life i think it is next next tuesday something i thought about eric but i don't know why my brain works this way but that might be the first time that all

the mcmans have been in the same place in a long time right if they are i would assume they will be but no i think that's just another it'll be it is going to be interesting because it's another testament to how much Hulk Hogan has meant to everyone that everybody, no matter what they've got going on, he was such an important figure to so many, we'll, we'll put the, take the gloves off or put our swords down for the day and, uh, and get everybody together to celebrate Holkster. You want to have the final word on your friend, the real life Terry Belaya here today, Eric. No, you know, I feel the last week was tough.

This week, I'm, I'm proud of him. I'm proud of how people around him have responded on every level. I was proud to be on the stage standing next to his son and his daughter-in-law. I was in Bruce Pitcher and even C.M. Punk. I got an opportunity to connect with C.M. Punk and nothing but respect, like real respect for punk. But, you know, it all brought us together. that moment a tribute brought us together in so many different ways as wrestling fans as peoples as peers as friends in respect so just being really aware and and appreciating the chance

to just be there and be a part of that energy super bright and super grateful thanks for the house holster catch it down the road so long everybody