83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 386: The UNREAL ERA Begins

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad tackle all the news from the past week including WWE PLE's moving to ESPN, WWE UNREAL, SummerSlam wins and loses, and attending the funeral of one of Eric's closest friends Hulk Hogan. All that and so much more on this edition of 83 Weeks. NOTE: Eric and Conrad will discuss WCW VIDEO GAMES AND LICENSING on next weeks program. CARGURUS - #1 most visited car shopping site. Shop from millions of cars to find your best deal. https://www.cargurus.com  TRUE CLASSIC - Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at https://trueclassic.com/83WEEKS  ! #trueclassicpod MANDO - Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code 83WEEKS at http://shopmando.com ! #mandopod 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. DELETE ME - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to http://joindeleteme.com/83WEEKS and use promo code 83WEEKS at checkout. 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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Good morning. It is Friday morning and we are live at 83 weeks.com. Real, early in the morning, 7 a.m. Central, 8 p.m. Eastern. So we're doing it last. We're ready for your questions with the Hall of Famer. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Eric Fischoff. Eric, how are you, man? I'm good. I'm good. I'm in Pittsburgh. Actually, I'm about five miles from where I lived when I was a kid and lived here in Pittsburgh. Penn Hills is where I live. So it's, uh, it's, it's kind of surreal, you know, after everything that's happened and I'm kind of going back to uh going back to where i spent quite a bit of time and and things happened here for me that were very influential in my life so it's kind of it's kind of cool being back i haven't been

back here just to look around the old neighborhood so to speak and i don't know man 25 years or so it's it's pretty cool buddy where didn't you live i mean there's there's the the michigan piece and then there's the minnesota piece and i know you lived in chicago and you've lived in Arizona and you've lived in Atlanta and you lived in Wyoming and he lived in Pennsylvania. Are you trying to collect them all, man? This is like a Johnny Cash song. I've been everywhere.

You know, what's funny is I only lived here outside of Pittsburgh for maybe two years, but they were two really formative years. Like I said, I had a guy that lived across the street from me when I was like 13 and 14. He was like 25, 26. So he was kind of a, he ended up being. kind of a big brother to me at a really important time, I think, in my life. And he just had a lot of influence over me in a really positive way. It exposed me to some really cool things and did things with me that my dad wasn't able to do because he was paralyzed. So there's

a limit to what my dad could do with me. And his name was Bob. And Bob kind of stepped in and big brothered me. And like I said, had a lot of impact on me in a really positive way. And what's really cool is my friend Bob passed away, I think, in 1981. He was only 33 years old or so. Oh, man. And he had a daughter. Her name is Regina. And I met Gina when she was maybe three months old and hadn't seen her since. I won't take you through the family drama. But I met her for the first time yesterday in person. Oh, my. And had lunch with her and she brought her son and gave Gabriel, who's 21 years old, and just a great kid. He was my friend's grandson and developed a really cool relationship at a very short period of time

and kind of look forward to doing some things with him. And by the way, he's very interesting getting involved in a real estate mortgage business. So I said, I think I know a guy that maybe help you out a little bit. So I promise to help him as much as I could and point him in the right direction. and that that really made me feel good that I was able to do that for my for my friend so it was a cool moment man I was going to try to talk about the more emotional stuff at the end of the show but you've opened it up I got to ask do you think those of you who don't know eric in in the casual real life way that I do Eric is not like a big phone guy eric can talk 17 times throughout the week but if you took our

talk time from all 17 calls it might be 20 minutes it's just quick here's the information okay see you there's no heat no one's upset it's just the way we communicate and you know you're not always willing to to share what's underneath that that candy shell there's some new get in there but there is a hardened shell sometimes but you got to know how to worm your way through but to hear a story like this that you met his Bob's daughter for the first time after all this time do you think given everything else that's happened in your life over the last few weeks and we all know what we're talking about it just put you more in touch or in tune with

that i mean was this god's plan like not trying to be overly emotional but i just think the combination of what your week has been like it's probably a roller coaster of emotions right now it really has been and and do i think it's god's plan absolutely do believe that so many things that have happened Well, probably throughout my life, but sometimes I haven't been aware, haven't been really grateful in the ways that I should be. But over the last several weeks, and not just with Hall of Passing, but so many things that have fallen into my lap, so to speak, I can't look at it any other way.

I mean, I've always been a believer in throughout my life, as far back as I can remember, but my relationship with God, with Christ has kind of been off and on. It's a little bit like our phone conversation sometimes. But just over the last couple months, that's really changed a lot. And over the last, you know, 10 days, two weeks, I'm even more aware. So absolutely, I believe it to be true. Absolutely believe it to be true.

We are indeed live this morning at 83weeks.com. If you've got a question, we would love to hear it. it, so keep them coming for Eric Bischoff. By the way, I want to remind you, we only bought the domain to forward to our YouTube. So if you're on YouTube, which I guess by this point is the second largest search engine in the world, you can just type in 83 weeks and you'll find us there. But that's where we're live. I want to encourage you when you find our Facebook or our YouTube rather, hit that

subscribe button and turn on the notifications bell. So you won't miss us when we're live, even if it's early in the morning. Speaking early in the morning, Eric, we've got more of our Australian contingent. with us this morning just based on ben jones and veg mite man we appreciate you guys hanging out with i saw daniel up and early this morning greatly appreciate her support over at atryshows dot com jacob brown is with us because i just want to give a shout out to eric bischoff thank you for everything i was the wcw kids still chasing that high you influenced in those 83 weeks i'm also sorry about the holster love you guys you know our topic today once upon a time

we had sort of mapped this out and said hey we're going to talk about licensing for WCW video games and the way all of that work, all of your third party licensing deals. We were going to get in the weeds on business. I'm going to make an executive decision. We're going to punt that next week because I feel like there's enough news. And of course, what you and I attended earlier this week, I do feel like we should touch on a little bit.

So if you're here for a licensing discussion or a video game discussion, I'm calling it in the ring, pal. We're going to talk about that next week. Make plans to join us right here. I do want to ask, you know, as we're early on a Friday morning, have you had a chance to catch up on any of the WW ESPN news this week? And I wanted to get your take. Well, of course, been following it.

You know, like everybody else, it's hearing about it, reading about it, through social media and coverage. I think it's just, it's overwhelming the pace of WWE's growth and their reach is just continuing to. expand in such an amazing way over such a short period of time now you just step back and you look at the wwee footprint globally of course Netflix and in terms of cable i mean ESPN it's the reach is just it's it's incredible i mean nick con is you might have been one of the best assets W.W.E ever acquired.

No doubt. Nikon is just an amazing individual. I don't know how much Somerslam you had a chance to catch. I know for sure that you caught the John Cena main event. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but I couldn't help but be impressed

with the way WWE has figured out all the different ways WW has figured out how to monetize their platform. Every match had a sponsor, every replay had a sponsor, every dash report. I mean, they were running commercials between commercials. Some of it was done to make it look and feel like it was a part of the show. Other times, it was very apparent. This was an ad.

But I just feel like, hey, if we're talking about maximizing our revenue, I think they figured that out. And of course, we know that what WWE is all about is delivering shareholder value. Who better to be at the helm than Nick Kahn. He has negotiated some unbelievable deals. As a reminder, for the past several years, we've all been watching here in a America, we've been watching the WWPLEs and their archival content like old nitros and WCW Saturday night and things like that for NBC Universal's Peacock. Now, Peacock had struggled to find an identity prior to WWE coming on board. They had never made money.

I don't know that that's changed. Netflix has still been the real leader in streaming. And for a long time, they were kind of puffing their chest out. They were the only streaming service that was profitable. Well, Peacock was paying a hundred. $180 million a year for these WWPLEs, and it was guaranteed. And at the time, that felt like a mind-boggling great deal. As you'll recall, once upon a time, they were trying to hoof it on their own,

maintain and manage the WWE network for 99. And I think they moved that price point around a little bit. But it never really got the adoption that we expected. Ultimately, Michelle Wilson and George Ferrios, I think, would see things differently than Vince. And they wound up leaving the company. And a lot of people pointed. to the WWA network as a result of that.

I know nobody's really talking about that right now, Eric, but do you remember or did you hear any inside knowledge about the WWE network with regard to Michelle Wilson and George Barrios way back with? I never really did. I never had any visibility into that side of WWE's business, and although I obviously knew Michelle and George had very little, if any, interaction with them other than social ones, you know, in and out of the office.

But no, I had no real visibility into any. of that? Well, it is interesting to see how that was certainly Vince's vision. You know, he wanted to own the content and own the distribution. And I think long term, that's where everybody's going to want to be one day. But in the meantime, the dealmaker, Nick Con, he swooped in and he took the $180 that he got for $180 million that he got from Peacock. And he flipped it into a deal with ESPN for $325 million. $325 a year. And he got for $180 million. $325 a year. for five years it's a boatload of cash and Nick Kine has been speaking about this doing a bit of a media tour will the subs follow the product to whatever the new

platform is I think we've demonstrated a peacock our subs will follow they certainly all followed from the WWE network and that expanded that subscribership extensively with peacock and there's obviously other product of peacock to watch which our fans subscribe primarily for us for able to sample. The same will be the case with ESPN. Now, of course, you didn't just have to subscribe to peacock. A lot of people, if they had

certain cable packages, I think Comcast or whatever they're called these days, Xfinity, they maybe actually allowed you to see those PLEs as part of your package. You didn't have to actually go out and buy peacock. And we know the rest of the world, they were still able to see some of those

premium live events through Netflix. But this was a big deal. because all of a sudden a lot of people assumed, hey, they're going to be selling ESPN Plus, and that's what they did once in a fun of time with UFC and a lot of other content. And a lot of fans seemingly were upset about a potential price increase. But it looks like there's been more data come out and more to the story that maybe ESPN intentionally didn't reveal right up top. Maybe you don't have to have ESPN plus. Maybe it's not a new $30 if you already have a cable package like YouTube TV or what have you.

when you have ESPN, in theory, you're going to get to see some of the larger WWV events. And man, you want to talk about just a total about face from what I think the original vision was. I mean, we were trying to escape pay-per-view and deliver a subscription base, but now everybody who has ESPN might be able to see it. Like, this feels like a really doggone big deal if you're talking about expanding the audience, beyond the diehards and into the more casual fans, what do you make of this, Eric? You know, I was a little confused on the pricing situation

and what was available and not, and still a little cloudy, but I haven't really had time to dig into it and read as much as I should to comment on it. But if indeed the WWEPLEs are going to be available to current ESPN subscribers without additional cost, it's almost hard to comment. comprehend.

Look at the pay-per-view model. Keep in mind before the OTT over-the-top network, before the streaming platforms, pay-per-view, when things are going great, was roughly 25% of the revenues of WWE. It certainly was WCW. And when you think how much that part of the business has changed, it's really no longer a revenue stream because of the way the PLEs have migrated to the streaming platforms and now at ESPN, it's absolutely amazing to me from a business perspective, just the evolution of that massive part of the overall WWE revenue stream. And what you touched on briefly is reach

into the mainstream. We've been talking, I've been talking at least, about how impressed I am at how mainstream WWE has become over the last several years and this just pushes it further into the mainstream and I think the exciting part of it for me is the guy who's more interested in the business of the wrestling business than I am what goes on inside of the ring

I think this move not only isn't going to reach more people but I think it's for those holdovers those people in the advertising industry that are still somewhat reluctant get into the WWE business or to market towards that

WWE audience that shit's going to change fast. And I think what you'll see in addition to more people

having access to the product more people watching the product watch for advertising rates to increase. Watch what happens

and read what happens to their advertising revenues when they file their SEC quarterly I would imagine revenues on the ad side revenue sponsorship is going to jump significantly

it's just my guess without doing a deep dive that's going to be the that's going to be the big advantage in this new strategy well listen I know that for a lot of people hearing that they're going to say oh that can't possibly be the case because they've already got so many ads you couldn't cram another one in and that is correct however they can charge more for those ads if more people are watching like all advertising is based on how many people are watching and now man you've expanded that potential footprint to a ridiculous degree and as a reminder it's it's deals like this that make the logan paul partnership and the jelly roll partnership and the bad bunny partnership that's what really drives this engine because now the casuals who may not because i know

for a long time people have thought well i know they're a big star but i guess it makes sense because maybe someone will check it out. I don't know how many people actually went into their wallet and bought a pay-per-view to check it out if it wasn't Mike Tyson. But if it's just on ESPN and I can just flip it over, boy, that feels like that is a much different opportunity. And let's be real, ESPN has been looking for a win. ESPN has had a viewership problem because once upon a time, man, when I was growing up, Eric, I watched, I think most kids my age, watch Sports Center every morning before they went to school. Like it was a big part of a our life. We don't have to wait and go find a television show to see what

happened. We're watching it on our phones in real time now. So it's just become a lot of talking heads through the years. And don't get me wrong, they've made it very, very entertaining. But as all of the rights fees for these different sports are moving, and you've just seen like the big monumental move the NBA made, moving away from T&T after all that time, it does feel like ESPN was looking for a hit. And WWE has had proof of performance, if nothing. else with Peacock, I think with benefit of hindsight, we'll look back at that peacock deal and say, hey, if this was an athlete, that was Nick Conn's rookie contract, because boy,

he got double on the renewal. I can't wait to see what's next for WWE. Whether you're a WWE fan or not, this is awfully exciting for the business and what it means to the business. And I know a lot of people were upset this week, Eric, they're thinking, well, I'm out. I'm not paying $30 a month. This is bull. I want to remind everybody, the people who are saying that now,

not that long ago, pretty routinely paid $30 a month for pay-per-view. Now it's going to be free on ESPN. I think ticket prices are going to keep going up because the fan base is going to continue to expand. I can't wait to see what's next for WWE, but it's hard for me to think this is a negative for anybody, Eric. This is a win for wrestling companies, the wrestling industry, the workers within it. And I think it's a win for fans. It's like, my dad, I don't think ever watched a WWE event on Peacock.

He'll watch them on ESPN. It is. It's hard to really even comprehend how much of an impact this move is going to make on WWE over the next three to five years other than just it's going to be monumental. And it is good for the business. It's more opportunity. The proof of concept that WWE has delivered can help other wrestling companies. because the business is more legitimate in the eyes of those who are not necessarily wrestling fans,

but you cannot deny the appetite for the product and the loyalty. And Nick Kahn talked about that in that quote that you read. It's really interesting why you're reading that. I thought of Ted Turner. Because Ted Turner, if you go back and read anything about Ted, one of the reasons that Ted was so loyal to professional wrestling and WCW and why he wanted his own wrestling company. It's because Ted's philosophy at the time,

and at the time it was completely, people thought he was nuts. But Ted's philosophy was, only content, own the distribution, which was a novel idea at the time. It's just not the way the entertainment business was built. But Ted believed that.

And he knew that wrestling fans are incredibly loyal. At that time, they might not have been the biggest fan base that Ted could have hoped for, but they were the most loyal. And it was the same strategy that you referred to in that quote, is if you've got a product and you know you have a loyal audience that regardless are going to come every week, that's your opportunity to promote other content that they might not otherwise see. And Ted believed that WCW was a big part in professional wrestling in general, was a big part of the foundation for Turner Broadcasting. That's why he was so loyal to it. And then when it actually worked, and we proved that Ted was right,

it just continued to grow opportunity, not just for WCW, but for everybody else. So I think when you look at what Vince McMahon achieved, what he did in his vision, the strategy that Ted Turner had, and building his network based on the loyal fan base, in part, not completely, but in part on the loyal fan base that professional wrestling provides. That fact alone and the way it has manifest over the last 30 years creates more opportunity for AEW, for TNA, or for whoever else comes along and steps into the world of sports entertainment, professional wrestling.

and they've really led the way and created an opportunity for so many people. It's fun to at least have been a part of it and look back on it. Well, I can't wait for us to continue to talk about this because the big question is, what happens with the archives? Before we tackle that, I want to remind you that finding the perfect car, man, it feels like dating. You just hope you don't settle for good enough when you deserve something really great. But with car gurus, they take the guesswork out of car buying, real price analysis, vehicle

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how you want to shop with all the tools, information, and data-driven deal ratings that you could ever need. It's truly no wonder that similar web estimated traffic data shows that car gurus is the number one most visited car shopping site. Buy or sell your next car today with car gurus at car gurus.com. Go to car gurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's car gurus.com, C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S-com, dot com, car gurus.com. dot com Eric I know I'm pitching a fastball here I'm going to put you on the spot oh do you think

that we've seen the end of the the content that we have enjoyed from a nostalgia perspective previously we all had to go chase down old nitros on news groups or on YouTube or something like that and I assembled well my buddy Clint assembled multiple external hard drives I'm talking terabyte after terabyte after terabyte of old wrestling footage and when the network rolled around in 2014 we thought well this is kind of obsolete now it's all right there now we didn't know we would be frustrated but but them not licensing all the old music but that makes sense i get it but then when it migrated over to peacock i was frustrated with the way it navigated i just did not like the framework of the app if you will like why am i calling wrestlemania season three you know that

sort of stuff. Yeah, it was awkward. But now people are wondering, oh, no, is it going to ESPN? Where will it live? And I almost wonder, have they've been posting they being WWE pronouns, pal? Have they been posting so much archival content and calling it the WCW vault and the WWE vault? I think they're moving to YouTube. I think a lot of the old school stuff is going to get rolled out on YouTube and it could be yet another app that generates revenue and works almost as like a way to sort of have a storefront to casual or laps wrestling fans because I just mentioned a minute ago YouTube is now easily the number two largest search engine behind Google at least in my opinion everybody I know either Google something or the YouTube

something hey I need to build a deck hey how do you rewire so and so they just go to YouTube and it's like an institutional knowledge thing now I wonder do you think all this archival stuff lines up on YouTube or is Nick going to announce another deal or is it still going to be on Peacock? Do you think they move it over to Netflix? What's next? What do you expect if you had to bet? You know, it would be a random bet because I'd have to spend some time to really dig into that. But my gut tells me it's going to go to YouTube.

It's easy. It's profitable. I don't know what revenues are that YouTube is providing to WWE, but I know that they're significant. I know their WWE footprint on YouTube is massive. It only makes sense. I think YouTube is becoming the go-to for people like me. When I'm looking for something, and it's funny, I was a late adapter.

I didn't really get into YouTube at all until we started posting our stuff on YouTube and started learning a little bit about it through our partner, Aunt Evans, and really looking at just, it is massive. And I would imagine it makes sense that that archive will end up at YouTube.

it does that make sense to me. I can't see another licensing deal with another network or another streaming platform just for the older footage, nostalgia type footage, archival footage, but I could see it finding its way to YouTube. Absolutely. I mean, I've heard through the grapevine that the old WW network did not do numbers on the old stuff,

but it did on the current stuff. And respectfully, I think that's one of the reasons that Vince reached out to Bruce way back when because all of a sudden they were seeing spikes whenever Bruce and I would cover like Halloween Havoc 98 at the time they used to report like hey here's the most watched things on the top 10 for the last week for wb network and it would always include some old archival show that Bruce and I covered and I got to think the powers that they were like hey why is everybody randomly watching that it's not an anniversary no one there's no news that correlates to this why would it be now and ultimately we

know Bruce is back and having a blast with WWE but I'm saying all that to say I don't know that there's a ton of value in the in the archival stuff I think he really got to be a hardcore fan or perhaps a lapse fan so I think it makes a lot of sense to put it sort of out in front of a paywall and let anybody see at any time on YouTube because it could help perhaps set the hook I don't exactly I don't say that to be funny but how many times Eric do you and I hear and we're not trying to pat ourselves on the back but we'll talk to someone who will be like oh I just didn't watch wrestling. I just fell out of love with it. But then I started listening to your podcast. And now, man, I'm back in. I just watched AEW the other night. Like, we have helped

reintroduce through fans who didn't care about the modern show, but wanted to relive the nostalgia. And then slowly, but surely, they get back into the current product. That was my story. And I think a lot of fans are that same way. So I'm saying all that to say, I don't think it's an accident that a lot of us a few months ago were like, man, how cool is it out of nowhere? W.W.E just started posting stuff on YouTube. They were running the test, Eric. They were doing a sample to see. I mean, hey, why not? It doesn't cost anything. Throw something up. See what happens. I feel like they're getting a little momentum. And now they've got their number. They've made their decision. But I don't think them just randomly posting stuff earlier this year was a total accident. They were running tests. That makes sense to me. It's kind of a proof of concept. When you have the luxury and, And you can be patient and test out different strategies before you throw in, you know, all your effort behind it. It's a great opportunity.

And I think you're exactly right. It was a proof of concept opportunity. And everybody went, hmm, that works. Let's do more of that. And I don't expect you would know, but by chance, because you kind of a walking encyclopedia of statistical and financial information from time to time, you have any idea. you have any idea what the revenue is from youtube or wwee have you looked at that i don't i we could probably get anne evan zone and he could back into a number but i know it's got to be it's got to be fairly decent because you have to appreciate most of that footage they don't even

have to edit they've already got it ready to go because they've prepared it for the different networks so in theory it's a series of downloads uploads uploads descriptions and thumbnails i mean there's not much to do so it does feel like it's a relatively local cost lift and you know once you put those for sale signs up because that's kind of what these different thumbnails are and these different files are they can live there forever and ever amen so we'll see how they continue to sort of fund the feed as I might say and continue to upload data but what I was really and again I know we spent a lot of time talking about this but this is major news I was kind of taken aback at how fast peacock responded I don't

know if you saw the peacock on the heels of losing w v announced guess what prices are going up instead of 799 a month it's going to 1099 a month if you get premium plus that's going from 1399 to 1699 and your premium annual pricing goes from 7999 to 1099 and your premium plus annual goes from 139 to 169 price hikes all around the board peacock is preparing themselves for a mass exodus from WWE fans, and they're trying to mitigate that loss and reporting a really bad number. That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

What say you, Eric? Absolutely agree with you. It's going to be interesting six months or a year from now what their revenues look like and what those numbers look like, because if you're mitigating your loss, as you put it accurately, I agree, but if you're raising your prices

to mitigate the loss of one of the most popular forms of programming on your platform, I think the backlash is going to be interesting to watch. I mean, it's, hey, I got an idea. We're going to charge you more money for your meal, but you don't get any veggies. We're going to take out the veggies and just raise the price on the steak. It's like, what?

You're going to do what? I think there's a limit. I don't know what the limit is, but at some point people are going to have to draw a line because it is getting a little ridiculous. just I'm not looking at my own streaming bills and we've got them all pretty much all of them and they just creep up every few months once or twice a year you don't really notice it two dollars here three dollars there it's kind of irritating but when you go back and you

look at your your bill from the previous 12 months or 24 months you're spending a lot of money on entertainment and it's just continuing to go up I got to tell you I really dig that show on peacock poker face but if there's no WWE and poker face is not posting new episodes. My wife and I don't watch Peacock otherwise. I never watch it unless I'm doing something with you that requires me to go back and look at some old footage. Yeah.

And re-familiarize myself. It just doesn't, if Peacock just doesn't have anything to offer to me, really, that I'm that interested in. Well, we're going to stay tuned to see how that affects everything because my next question on this is,

you know, I'm not saying that this ended ugly. I mean, it was a business deal, contracts come to an end. It is what it is. But I, for one, have enjoyed some of these Saturday nights main events. And I do wonder, do you think that will continue? You know, post peacock. I mean, obviously that was an NBC property and an NBC opportunity. I've enjoyed the nostalgia of Saturday night's main event. But if WWE is sort of moving on from NBC Universal as a part of this

peacock deal, what do you think happens to Saturday night's main event? Will we finish that up with the John Cena last match at the end of the year? And that's, that's it for Saturday night's main event for a while. What do you think? I guess it's possible, but I think what will determine that is how successful Saturday night is. If it's delivering numbers and they're able to sell ads in that show, it's money talks and hurt feelings and egos and all of everything else goes out the window. If it's delivering from a financial perspective for NBC Universal, they won't be able to afford

to walk away from Saturday night because their feelings are hurt. It's all about the numbers. Well, I want to hear from you guys. Did you subscribe to Peacock? Are you going to keep your Peacock subscription? How do you feel about ESPN? We're live right now on YouTube. I want to hear your

feedback. And while you're letting us know, we do have some questions that have already come in, Eric. Let's hit some of these. How about this? A little, little love here from angry duckling who says ripping the damn urinal or the mirror off the wall in the bathroom as a weapon in wcw backstage assault was always my favorite eric god bless always eric and conrad he's getting ahead of our conversation next week about video games we called an audible today to just talk about the news and notes but in advance of us talking about video games next week eric did you ever play personally with garrett because i know garrett would have been

in the gaming age any of those old wcw games do you remember there being one in particular that he really was fond of and like I don't I don't I just you know I guess because of my age when video games were first becoming a big thing in wrestling I was kind of out of that market out of that demo so to speak I just didn't really have any interest and although my son did and obviously my son's friends played a lot of them that's all they talked about for a long time I just never really sat down still haven't sat down and actually played a video game I mean, I just never been my thing. Vegemite man says, Hey, Eric, what wrestler biopics would you be interested in

seeing and who would play Easy E in a biopic? I know once upon a time you had some conversation about doing the whole Kogan piece. I know you and I both kicked around, my gosh, almost six years ago, how great a Paterson bio would be. Have you thought about other potential interesting subjects? I mean, I think once upon a time you like sputton. Monroe maybe was there somebody else yeah the Sputnik Monroe project was something I was really hoping to get off the ground I was working with an actor by the name of

Nick Circe was a very successful actor he's a character actor we've seen him in a lot of stuff I first became really aware of Nick before I ever met him in a series with timothy Oliphon called Justified he was he was a co-star on that series it was just a great great character actor Of course, I've seen them in a million things since then because I'm more aware of him now. That would have been a great project because McEnroe and the story of Sputton & Monroe

was also, it was so significant because of its era and race relations and exposing a lot of things that was still back in the 60s, 50s and 60s was still a pretty big issue in the South when it comes to professional wrestling. and Sputton Monroe broke down a lot of walls in the professional wrestling business. So I think any story, first of all, I think if you look at most of the wrestlers that I've ever come into contact with at least, that had made it big.

You go back and learn their story and retrace their footsteps and how they broke into the business and the things that they went through. I've never heard a story yet that wasn't fascinating to some of them more. so but i haven't really thought about doing another biopic on uh are doing a biopic i should say on another wrestler just there's so many of them you know i'm so many of these wrestlers i'd love to learn more about uh dj n says he can't wait for the video game uh episode next week dj says yes i will cancel peacock after seeing his last match on saturday night's main event and i will not subscribe to ESPN, I wonder if DJ has cable. I think a lot of people that are my age still

maintain some sort of cable so they can watch their local news. And I know you can get your local news from your local stations, Facebook and all that stuff. But I don't know. I still keep it for weather and news and information locally. Travis Fowler says, hey, they have the NBA coming to Peacock and NFL Sunday night football. But outside of that, I don't know if I'd keep Peacock. Okay, Listen, if they got NBA and NFL Sunday night football, and that's the only place to watch is on Peacock, turns out I'll be keeping Peacog during this season. Yeah, that's Sunday night football play. No, I don't, I'm not a big fan. I don't really against the NBA, but I'm just never been a really big NBA fan.

Until the playoffs, then I get interested. I guess because there's just so many games, it's just hard for me to invest emotionally or, you know, really care about 80% of the season. It only gets interesting towards the end, but obviously there's a huge NBA audience. But that NFL Sunday night football, that's your anchor, that's your foundation. Eric, um, wrestling fans have been notorious for thrilling things, trash and so forth. So we're talking about, you know, Hulk Hogan's infamous turn, bash at the beach, 1996, and just a parade of trash coming into the ring. It became part for the course for the NWO.

for a while. I want to be clear. I'm not advocating for that. I'm not suggesting that you do that. It's dangerous. You will get in trouble. You might get banned from all future events. You'll certainly get banned from that arena. You may face criminal charges. It's a bad idea. Don't do it. That being said, and I don't want to say the word because we're live on YouTube here. But I'm sure you've seen the WNBA over the past week or so has had an issue with marital AIDS being thrown. I was wondering what I was wondering what you were going to use Marital AIDS is a good one.

That's as good as I can come up with as I'm freestine here. I have to admit, I'm kind of surprised because in ECW and we've seen so many crazy, offensive things that have happened in wrestling. It's almost like you're trying to find the threshold of good taste and at times tiptoe over it.

But the WNBA with these marital AIDS, there's been more betting volume on whether or not one of those will be thrown on the court than the actual game itself. I'm not advocating for this. I'm not trying to speak it into existence. But somebody's going to throw one inside the ring during a ladies match. It's only a matter of time it feels like. Can you believe this is even something we have to discuss or be worried about Eric in 2025? It's bizarre. Yes. It's just bizarre. I think it's a,

Here's another example. And this is, like, across social media, people just want attention. Whatever they can do to get attention. And I saw a picture that, I guess there's some kid that got busted the other day that threw one into the NBA or the WNBA floor. He's just, to me, just looking at him as like the stereotypical social media. Please, I need attention kind of guy. It's bizarre. And now I think it was Clay Travis I was reading this morning, actually.

And from what I understand, there are people now betting on the color of Merrillades that are going to be tossed into the ring. It's just bizarre. But I know this sounds crazy, but I think there's somebody in the WNBA that's actually privately going. Yeah. Because now people are going to start watching the WNBA just to say. see if there's going to be things tossed out onto the floor and then have the ability to bet on the color. I mean, it's absolutely insane, but it's bizarre, man.

It's really bizarre. If you don't mind, will you remind us the name of your first book? Controversity creates cash. Was that it? Yeah. How true that is. Wow. What are you going with?

You going green, purple? What color are you picking next? Hmm. I think they're going to have to move into something flat. something neon colored maybe I don't know let's go with purple next purple's a good color happened last night Eric purple I did yeah purple wow in this wild this is I mean this is the craziest conversation of all time and I don't know that you've seen but a couple of nights ago the WNBA instituted a policy no purses or large bags you're going to have to sneak it in

the old-fashioned way, like Christopher walking with the watch and Pulp Fiction. See this watch? Your father. All right. And True Classic, it's never just about the fit of the fabric. It's about helping guys show up with confidence and purpose every single day. Their clothes fit where they should. They feel incredible.

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If you've got one, we want to hear from you. Lots of fun. comments in the group chat. I see Paul Warwick saying, thank God for YouTube and being able to watch old WCW pay-per-views. Burner is joining us from India this morning. We greatly appreciate that. We also see that we've got some reminders about over across the pond. CRT TV says, I'm in the UK and I have Netflix and I wish I had WCW content on there. Eric made WCW the best thing ever back in the 90s. Thank you so much, Eric. Rest and peace. Cogan lots of folks well wishing Hulk Cogan here and we are going to be talking about

Hulk Cogan momentarily but we want to keep those questions coming if you've got a question about what's going on with WWE specifically I don't know if you saw this interview but I thought it was kind of interesting where when they were discussing the first ever two-night summer slam we know there's been a two-night WrestleMania you and I have predicted there will be a two-night Royal Rumble and there will be a two-night money in the bank I think that will prove out. But what I loved about this conversation, I think it was with Triple H,

is the analogy he made to, hey, it's like taking your family to Disney. You don't go to Orlando or to Disney parks for the day. You're going to make a weekend out of it. You're going to make a three-day weekend out of it. So they're trying to really load up these weekends and make them a destination. So you'll have a Friday night Smackdown,

a Saturday night PLE, a Sunday night PLE, but you'll have matinee shows. Maybe on one day you'll have, have an NXT show on another day you'll have a AAA show or a TNA show or I mean gosh, a WWID show but you can also have live podcasts like they've had with Dead Man talking or whatever they're calling the Undertaker live podcast.

But then they've got the super store. So they've made it a real destination. So it's not just we're going to town to watch one event. It's a full thing and they figured out a way to, you know, monetize you every which way. And when you talk about economic impact, that's what they're really driving at because that's really going to be the leader because a lot of these big venues they're not paying for these big stadiums

and maybe in fact not only are they getting the stadium free they're going to get a huge tax break and maybe even a subsidy from the city from the community because they want all that tourism there I just think it's inevitable that we're going to start with these two two night events we're going to expand it to four and I don't think it'll be long before it's happening every weekend but just different parts of the country maybe two nights in Paris or two nights in London and every part of the every corner of the world will get there two night weekend or their three day weekend of WWE what do you make of this report air

it's amazing to me and at first I was kind of two nights man it's just too much I was just looking at it from a consumer perspective it's expensive it's too much but when you step back and you know take a look at the big picture and the right fees that some of these cities are paying to have WWE come in, those fees are only going to increase because the economic impact is going to be extended over really three days. Truth be known, because you come in on a Friday for a Saturday and a Sunday show. So you've got three days of activities that people are coming from all over the world to experience. And it is like a traveling theme park, isn't it?

Because there's so much to do. There's so many offerings, different types of wrestling. the you know the WWE stores you put out all the different you know the autographs the meet and greets there's just so much to do that are going to keep people busy and keep them spending money and all that money benefits the local community which means WWE is going to be making even more money on their rights fees for their events it's it's fascinating I do want to ask you know the entire internet wrestling community has been talking about WWE Unreal over the last couple of the weeks. I think it loaded

at the beginning of last week, but I know you've been traveling left and right. We've had a lot of big irons in the fire. You've lost one of your closest friends. Have you had a chance to catch any of WWE Unreal? And what do you think? I have not yet. I will. It's a very

interesting move to me, and it's one that I fully support, by the way, just to throw my opinion out there. I think the more people, look, people have always been intrigued. you know, how do they really pull this off? But I think when you get behind the curtain and you learn the process,

it makes you more interested in the final product. Now, not everybody's the same. Some people don't want to know how the sausage is made, for example. But if you look at, just look at the NFL. Back when they, what was at HBO and they started doing the preseason kind of reality, shows, the doc follows, that show you the inside of what it takes to make the team, what that process looks like, it informs you and entertains you. I coined the phrase, edutainment, because that's the way we're approaching real American

freestyle. We know that freestyle wrestling, for example, is a sport that most people are aware of. It comes around every four years in the Olympics. And, of course, once a year you've got the big NCAA finals that are on ESPN, and people get exposed to it. If you're obviously an amateur wrestler, a friend and family of an amateur wrestler, you know what freestyle wrestling is, but you don't know much about it. And I think the more we can educate the audience and help the mainstream audience, who isn't a part of one of those groups, and it's pretty familiar with it, the more interesting it's going to be, just like it was

with the NFL. I think the HBO, the doc follow that was going, I can't remember the name of it. It just, it educates, it entertains, and connects the audience to the product even. Look at another, here's a better example, much better example. The reality show that UFC put together, I think was the turning point for UFC because you learned more about the sport than you would simply watching a UFC pay-per-view. And I think the same thing is going to be true with wrestling. I think if you've got people who are kind of on the fence, not really a fan, maybe watch WrestleMania once or twice a year, but now that you're going to let them behind the scenes

and they're going to learn more about the process, they'll become more engaged in the brand. And I really think that was the strategy. Obviously, I wasn't a part of any of those discussions. But it makes sense to me that any way you can engage. gauge the audience or a potential audience, the more likely your brand is going to get bigger, faster, stronger. That's what I expect to see. I think it's a fascinating idea.

I haven't seen it yet. I'll be really curious about the authenticity of it, because shows like that don't work if they're not authentic. But while you're being authentic, you're going to have to really show people what goes on behind the scene. So I'm excited to learn more about it. I will watch it when I get home. I've been on the road for basically 14 of the last 16 days and a little bit,

a little bit busy during that time. So I just haven't had time to sit down and relax and watch something I'm curious about. But I am curious about that. I look forward to getting home Monday and checking it out. I think it's interesting, too, you know, you and I are over it at this point, but I know a lot of fans feel the need to sort of defend wrestling. Oh, aren't you, you know, a little too old for that? That stuff's fake.

sort of takes those tomatoes that are being thrown at you as being a wrestling fan who's maybe embarrassed for watching it and says oh yeah we know it if there's a whole show about it like like what none of us are confused about the nature for wrestling it's a performance art like it is uh you know acting with stunts i mean that's what it is these guys are professional in ring physical actors and i think that we're getting a peek behind the curtain for that sort of opens it up to less scrutiny and more intrigue, but Paul Heyman is a guy who's on record of saying he kind of struggles with it. He says, it's the reality of the industry today that I have to accept.

I'm not used to being so open and transparent about the inner workings and the secrecy. I'm always going to be shocked when I see a camera behind the scenes because I'm still not used to it. I'm going to have to get used to it because the train is leaving the station. He's probably not alone in that. I mean, he's got to feel there's got to be a lot of people in w i haven't talked to bruce or michael hayes or any of my friends in w wb about that but it does feel like some of those guys being so old school or like are you sure about that because forever it felt like a no-no to even take a photo in gorilla and now we're just filming the whole damn it's it's a different thing in it it is and i'd be curious if i was in that writing room

to constantly be aware in the back of your mind that everything you say is being recorded and might end up on television, I just wonder if that's going to inhibit creativity. I wonder if that's going to affect just the process and the openness because a creative process can get really, it can get intense. And when I say intense, meaning it can get ugly, you know, when you're really battling it out for your idea or the best way to execute an idea.

But I wonder what that process is going to feel like, Not what it looks like on camera. I wonder what it's going to feel like to the people in that room and how hard it's going to be to adjust. I have talked to a couple of people that are in that room. And my impression, we didn't talk about it in great detail, but my impression is that initially it's really awkward, you're somewhat inhibited,

but fairly quickly you forget that those cameras are there. And if that's the case and people get so used to it, I won't say comfortable with it. But if they become so used to the fact that these cameras are around that they begin to forget about it, then I think you're going to get some great content. But if it does kind of weigh on you when you're sitting in that room, you are going to be somewhat inhibited.

It is going to affect the way you present your ideas or react to other people's ideas. In a process, I can sometimes be a little ugly. And that's where the authenticity comes in. So if people can get comfortable with those cameras, I don't know if I could or not. I guess I'd have to really think about that or experience it to know for sure.

For me, it would inhibit me. I would be so aware of that camera that it would affect the way I communicate. Hopefully that's not the case. And you'll get some real authentic reactions, some knock-down, drag-out kind of battling of ideas because that's what would make great TV. That's what would make that show interesting

is if it's really authentic and not a performance. it's going to be a slippery slope i know that people are going to be upset when i point this out but it's a reality show so it's going to come down to the edit in a reality show you need people to pull for you need people to root against you're going to have you know things that people have to overcome like even if you're trying to tell a positive story you're going to have to overcome some negativity and so in this bubble that is the internet wrestling community at times people can get pretty polarizing and pretty defiant in their opinions because they saw a snippet. So I'm just going to say I was aware of there being some things that were edited that certainly frame or slant narratives one way or another.

And like we've been getting comments in our live chat right now. I've heard Unreal is a work. And it's like, well, listen, we've all heard about the phrase and I hate to use these industry terms like this, but you worked yourself into a shoot, brother. Like they're going, we will see storylines. play out on TV that were specifically implemented from Unreal because they want to show you that unfold and I think chief among them is the Seth Rollins story this past weekend. We're going to talk about that here in a few moments and we are going to talk about Hulk Hogan's amazing celebration

of life this past week. So hang with us. If you've got questions for Eric, we certainly want to hear from you. I am curious though when you think about reality shows, Eric, you've produced a lot of those. And I'm not going to say that they're all BS, but I am going to say, I understand that they're entertainment. And I don't know that this has happened, but if and when they ever get to a place where they feel the need to recreate something because the cameras weren't there,

now it feels like it's bull. I don't think that'll happen with the interview. I really don't think that'll happen. I, with reality, in the reality shows that Jason Hervey and I produced together, and I think this is probably, at least it was true,

when we were producing reality. Reality shows have changed a lot. They've morphed quite a bit over the years. They tend to be more doc follows, documentary type of shows than they are the structured reality that was so popular 10, 15, 20 years ago where you're specifically creating an environment or you're creating a situation

that you know is going to get a reaction. That's the structured part of reality shows that we produce, Jason and I produce. I don't know that that's the case now. I think the tendency for successful non-scripted shows or reality shows, if you prefer, is more of the Doc Follow style. And that is a much less structured format than what most people think of when they think of reality shows. By the way, it's interesting to hear what people's opinions are.

Veggimate Man, shout out to you. Appreciate your hanging this from Australia. he says like how Michael Hayes was all calm because of the camera I think the perception of Michael Hayes for Mr. Vegemite man is that he's just this crazy out of control character he was when he was a member of the the road circus known as the freebirds but he's not a like the idea that that's the perception of Michael Hayes like that couldn't be further from reality of Michael Hayes well when you see Michael Hayes your first impression you're going to go, wow, that guy's got to be half-nots, just because the way he's wrong.

Well, he is half-none. That's true. Yes. But when you watch him work, and I've had a chance to work with Michael in WWE on the creative side of things, he's a very level-headed. He's not nearly as emotional and over-the-top as you would expect just seeing him walk down the street, right? He looked over-the-top, but he's really pretty professional and, maintains a pretty civil decorum, a professional decorum, when he's behind the scene. So I think it's, like you pointed out, it's one of those things that you see, you hear about stories,

and you assume that that guy is, Michael Hayes is the same way he was 30 years ago when he was out there, you know, wrestling, and you've heard all those stories, you assume that he's the same way 24 hours a day, and he's not. He's very professional, understated with a strong opinion, and just a wealth of experience, which is why he's still there. He's not there because people just like hanging out with him. He's there because he's a very valuable part of that team. But he's a much more professional than people would suspect he is. Paul Warwick is with us here live. And he says, would Eric have done this if WCW survived?

So let's, in an alternate timeline now, WCW wins the war. WWE goes down. And now in an effort to keep fans engaged, you've got an opportunity to do WCW Unreal. You're going to show what's happening behind the curtain with Mike Graham and Kevin Sullivan and everybody else who's there. Would you have allowed this? Do you think?

Would this have been something you would have been in favor of? I'm not saying in 2001. I'm saying now in 2025 if WCW is still taking it. Absolutely. For the same reason, as I explained with UFC and the ultimate fighter, here's an example. If 20 years ago, you were to walk into a sports bar and you pulled 10 guys off their bar stool,

took them outside, and say, look, I've got $1,000 in my pocket for any one of you who can explain to me what a rear naked choke is. I may have used this before on the show. 20 years ago, you would have gone home with that money in your pocket, right? Now, today, if you go into a bar and you put sports bar and you pull 10 guys off their bar stools,

take them outside, and say, okay, I got $1,000 in my pocket for any one of you who can tell me what a rear naked choke is. I would say those 10 guys, probably seven of them, would not only be able to tell you what a rear naked choke is, they would be able to demonstrate it for you. And that's the power of that behind the scenes, edutainment format. And that was a turning point.

If you go back and you look at UFC's success, The pivot point was the ultimate fighter for the same reason is you are exposing the audience, you're educating the audience, and you're entertaining the audience all at the same time, you're engaging the audience, and then you're converting that audience through that engagement from one format to the other format. And I've always believed that. I've leaned into that type of thing my entire career, and I'm absolutely certain I would have been excited about that.

opportunity. Well, something I'm excited about, Eric, is we're all smelling better. Thanks to Mando. I know you're traveling right now. You're in Pittsburgh. I can see your bag in the background, not that bag. And I know for sure that in there is the Mando 4 and 1 acidified cleansing bar. It's an easy, ease go to when he's traveling because he can handle his shampoo, his face wash, his body wash, and his deodorant all in one bar. And I guess it technically works as a shaving lather. So maybe that makes it five in one. one. What I know for sure is Eric likes that it simplifies his entire hygiene routine. It's going to save space in his bag. And it also really works. Have I mentioned this is a brand new take here, Mando's sweat control deodorant stick. Listen, we've been talking about their deodorant stick. But now with sweat control and you're talking double whammy. You see, it stops odor before it starts. Again, this is under your underarms. Everybody's familiar with using the stick. But it's all day odor blocking. Not just masking with fragrance, like what you grew up with.

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Mando's got you covered, protect your fits, and smell great doing it. Hey, so we're talking a little bit about WWE Unreal, and just momentarily we're going to be talking about SummerSlam, specifically night one, and then, of course, we're going to talk about night two. But Nathan 93 Baker wants to know, is K-Fabe dead? Like, I know that feels kind of even silly to even. talk about, but I think a lot of people with Unreal, they wonder, is K-Fave dead? And I would argue, oh, you just saw what happened with Seth Rollins.

It's not dead. In fact, I would think WWE Unreal, I feel like they're going to try harder than ever to K-Fab us and keep big secrets, because that makes for entertaining television on the behind-the-scenes show. I think I would argue that K-Fabe is somehow now going to be even more protected, as far as the secrecy of the big surprises there. Absolutely. 100% guarantee with that.

It's going to provide a different opportunity to exploit the concept of K-Fabe because you're going to allow the audience to think one thing and be absolutely sure they know what's going to happen because they're engaged in the process. Going back to why I think this is a good idea, and that will only provide more opportunity to shift gears and to exploit the fact that the audience is 100% confident they know what's going to happen because they were exposed to it and surprise them with something completely different. I think it's going to enhance opportunities to take advantage of the concept of KFAB that don't currently exist. and you're absolutely on the money referring to the Seth Rollins thing.

I mean, they swirved everybody on that one. It was an excellent example. And I think you're going to see more of it. Now, I know there's going to be some smart ass out there, Eric, who's going to say, well, they didn't fool me. I always knew he was cashing in. Because you know what the end of the movie is, doesn't make it a bad movie. For instance, I don't know if you heard, but Titanic did quite well at the box office.

and nobody had a different ending in mind. They all knew that boat was going down at the end, but they wanted to see it. And I think that's what we were looking for with the CM Punk, Seth Rollins story. They've been planting these seeds again, even inside of Unreal. See and Punk is talking about how, hey, Seth Rollins reminds me of me in 2013. But our story doesn't start there. Back when he was first trying to get in the business, he wanted me to train him for free. The entitlement on this kid, blah, blah, blah.

and then of course we see he comes out after seeing punk 30 minutes after a brutal match with gunther one that was fairly polarizing i don't know that you had a chance to see that match i know you saw some of night too did you see punk and gunther i did not i did not well i don't know if you've seen any of the controversy online but i saw some people saying it was a terrible main event and punk is washed and yeah yeah and then the other side like dave melzer he gave it four and a half stars in the observer like he was a big fan of the match and thought it was a great match that's just everyone's opinion. It is what it is. What is not debatable is it was a viral moment that everyone was talking about.

Whether you loved it or you hated it, you were talking about the Seth Rollins reveal where he drops the crutches, takes off the knee brace. And I know some fans hated it, but I do think from a CN Punk storytelling perspective, how can he be the underdog, the voice of the voiceless and all these things if he's also the champ? I would argue that the money for CM Punk at this point in his career from a storytelling perspective is in the chase. What do you make of that, Eric? I agree. I mean, the money is always in the chase, in my opinion, especially with a guy like CM Punk.

While we're talking about CM Punk, I'm going to shout out to CM Punk. Classy guy. Classy guy. I had a chance to meet him for the very first time at Monday Night Ralph when I was there for the tribute. And we had a couple conversations. but I'll just leave it at that 100% classic individual and really glad I had an opportunity to talk to him. Well, hang on, hang on.

I do want to talk more about Seth Rollins, but you can't listen. You've been on this program for years being very critical and making it very clear that you were not a fan of seeing punk. And then he had lots of shots coming your way too. And you guys see each other in person and just let bygones be bygones. Was it the gravity of losing an icon like whole code? that made you both sort of push your swords down or how does this happen eric i don't think it was that i think it was you know again here's a guy that i never met in person up until that point okay

and i'll just tell you what i said saying man it's a pleasure to meet you i've said some pretty stupid shit just want you to know i'm glad to have an opportunity to meet you in person i'll give you my half of the conversation and i'll he can do with that what he what he on his his reaction the approach um the honesty is is what made me a cmp punk fan he's a very honest guy well i've always listen i know he's a polarizing figure i can only speak for my experience uh we had a wonderful time working together at starcast back in 2019 that was kind of his first foray back into wrestling before he did w back stage before he came back to w and you know Listen, I had heard what everybody else would say, oh, he's difficult to work with and yada,

yada, yada. That was not my experience at all. He was a delight. Fans loved him. It was easy, peasy. I really enjoyed my time with the real life Phil Brooks. And I'm glad you got to meet him as well because it did feel like, you know, on some level, you guys probably have more in common than you think.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the big reveal, Seth Rollins. I know you said you didn't get to see the whole match, but I'm sure you saw the reveal. he's been walking around on crutches. Becky Lynch was posting it to social. You know, there was a lot of whispers around about is this a real injury or not. And I think they may have gotten Mike Johnson because Mike was like, hey, it's disrespectful to the injury.

You should be more respectful to Seth. He's sacrificed his body, whatever he said. So Mike was advocating for, hey, let's, you know, respect the guy in his recovery. And then it's revealed when he drops those crutches and takes the knee brace off, it was the ruse of the century is what they're calling it. And of course, most people remember like a. 11 years ago at WrestleMania, he cashed in on that main event where fans certainly didn't want Roman Reigns and they didn't want Brock Lesner.

Seth walks out with the world title, swinging the belt over his head. We recreate that moment, but now with almost a faction, because he's got Braun Breaker with him and he's got Paul Heyman with him and he's got Bronson Reed with him. This is interesting. I don't know that I'm all the way bought in on the faction just yet, but I'm becoming a larger Seth Rollins fan with each passing day, I think there's an argument to be made that he's one of the

MVP's of the entire business right now. Would you think of the execution of this angle and this story that C.M. Punk in the building where he felt like he should have made a evented way back in 2013, but old helicopter rock came in and took that match from him. He gets quote unquote stuck with

the undertaker, not the main event. He doesn't get his dream. Now he finally writes the wrong. He's main event at a WrestleMania. Now he's won a world title in that building and five minutes later he's no longer champion i like the story what'd you i love the story i love the callback you know that the the the the nod to history setting this whole thing up i think it kind of completes the story in a very unique way when you have an ending like that that is a direct call call back as you just laid out to something that happened 11 years ago

that's the kind of detail and continuity that makes a good story a great story. I absolutely loved it, just structurally as a story. Take the players' names out of it, it doesn't matter. The way that story was set up, the way it's structured, the callback, because fans remember it, just like you did. It's the nuance and detail in a story that makes, like I said, a good story. and great story. Paul Warwick is with us here live and he says,

agree with Conrad. I hated punk losing, but that shows it works. The chase is the way. AQ Talk says, I met seeing Punk and make a wish in 2011 while I was interning for La Prince a newspaper, which is a bilingual newspaper in Texas. He was a nice guy

and he took pictures with the kids at the hospital. It's interesting, man. I feel like there's more good people in wrestling than not. But sometimes we get so caught up in our own little bubble and we decide, well, this guy's a bad guy or that guy's a bad guy. But when you see some of the kindness that has been shown in the past few weeks, and we're going to talk about Hulk Hogan's Celebration of Life, and it really proves

there's a lot of really great people in and around this space. Don't you think, Eric? Absolutely. And that's the part, you know, I said this to somebody to text last night. I just wish, like, I got a chance to, you know, I got to know, see him up. Certainly that's not the case. But I got a pretty good feel for him and what he's about. And I think when you actually get to know the person behind the character, you'd be surprised at just how solid some of these athletes are.

They're solid human beings. You've got some that aren't clearly, but that's true in any business, in any profession, in any walk of life. But I think in wrestling, maybe because of the nature of the business and how difficult it is, the common that evolves over time you see a I see a lot more really cool people than I don't let's put it that way we're live here if you've got a question for Eric Bischoff we're talking all things summer slam of course we touched on the main event I also want to touch on the fact that Nick Hogan was there hmm I was so excited to see this you and I have talked privately now for I don't know several weeks about my

hope that Nick Hogan would become more visible at wrestling events. And we saw he was at the Monday tribute to his dad, but I was so delighted to see him at SummerSlam, not just one night, but both nights. Like, hey, man, that's kind of cool. It really is, for lack of a better word, his birthright to be at a WWE show. And, and I appreciate that he was able to attend those.

I know that I had to make you smile, knowing that for all these years, he was sort of outside the tent and now, seemingly it feels like he's comfortable going to w w w e shows i thought that was cool i thought it was amazing i'm first of i was going to say i'm so proud of nick you know i've known nick since he was five or whatever he was just a little kid so i feel like i've known him his whole life for the most part i have and to see nick grow into such a level-headed mature composed individual after everything that he's been through and the way he grew up

up. You grew up in a bubble. Let's face it. And he was Hulk Hogan's son. The world that they lived in was not a world that most people, you know, have the ability to experience. But Nick is a grounded, level-headed young man. And I talked to Nick Monday at the Monday Night Rawl where he and I were together. And he thanked me for being up there with him because he said, you know, whenever, and I don't think Nick would mind if I shared this. I try not to share personal stuff too much, but he said, Eric, just, I'm glad you were here because every time I've been to a WWA event, I've always been there as Hulk Hogan's son. Yeah.

I've never been to an event without my dad. This is the first time. And obviously, the circumstances were extraordinary. He said, but I'm really glad I'm here. These people make me feel bad. better about coming to an event, meaning the audience. The love that he got from that audience was something that he probably really needed. He might not have known he needed it, but he felt it, and he was so grateful to be there.

So I suspect we'll be seeing more of Nick at WWE events, but really, really happy to see how he's handled the situation and just how mature and level-headed he is. I was delighted to see him at the show I hope he continues to make more public appearances on behalf of the Hogan family I mean his his family has been such a big part of wrestling for so long and I know that you know when when he was really coming of age his dad was kind of winding down his on screen

in ring performance stuff but I'm glad that that he was there also wanted to mention carrying cross a guy that you and I think a lot of uh i don't think we're betraying confidence as he put a book out with his real name but the real life heaven is a great guy i mean he's a mixed martial artist but he also understands character he's a student of the game he absolutely loves professional wrestling uh and and when when i had an opportunity to book my one and only match or show ever i jumped at the chance to have him there and i could not believe he was no longer under contract to w e so he wrestled

at our rick flair's last match on a sunday and he was back on tv on a friday i'm not thing I had anything to do with that. I'm just like I got timing right because if I would have ran the event one week later, I may not have had an opportunity to have him. So I'm a big fan of him in real life and I know that he's got a groundswell of support behind him. I don't know if you saw, but there was a post match presser, I guess it was a post show is what they're calling him and the entire crowd was chanting for him. His merch has been flying off the shelves. I mean, he has used social media and his character work in a way that I don't think a lot of people in his position in wrestling have done.

So he's got this ground swell of support. Now, he's not without his critics. There's a certain corner of the internet that doesn't like his in-ring work and says old Bruce Richardism, like, oh, and then the bell rang. But I suggested in our post-Summer slam recap that we did last Sunday night with Derek Sabato over at podcast Heat Wrestling, I said, hey, maybe he's got to find the buddy Roberts to his Michael Hayes. Because I think Michael Hayes would admit, hey, I wasn't a Brian Danielson in the ring.

bell to bell, but he knew how to draw money. He knew how to make people care. He knew how to pull those emotional levers. I'm here for whatever is next for carrying cross. There's a lot of reports out there that, you know, he's re-signed. He did an interview yesterday saying, no, I didn't. Don't believe everything you're seeing right now. There's lots of people who are wondering what's next.

And I do think if this is going to be a part of the WWE Unreal opportunity, is this a chance to do some Brian Pillman-Lose Cannon stuff? have him show up next week at triple mania have him show up at a t and a show have him show up at a gcw show because they're in the wwe id partner program it feels like they could do something that they're not normally doing on their programming leveraging some of these other wdh adjacent properties i'm interested to see what's next for him what would you wish for the real life carrying cross first of all i i really like him on a personal level we've had a couple different conversations over the years and exchange texts and that type of thing. I'm not going

out, had dinner with him or, you know, had a glass of wine with him or anything like that. But what I know of him, very, very impressed. What I'm seeing he's doing, you know, you mentioned his use of social media. I'm a big fan of anybody that uses social media in a new, convincing way that feels authentic that gets their character over. I talked all the time over the years about Becky Lynch, back in 2018, 2019. She was one of the first WWE performers that I noticed that was really using social media to develop her character, and it worked. Her social media was so good back in 18 and 19 in terms of getting her character over.

carrying cross is doing the same thing in a very authentic real way so that to me kind of it shows me that somebody's thinking they're thinking differently than everybody else and i i'm always excited about that i i think the guy's fantastic i'd be shocked if he's not back in wwe because he's just too big of a character and too talented of a guy talented of a guy not to do something big with. So I'm like you, I'm pretty sure he's going to end up back. Like I said, Chuck, if he didn't, but your point on the, you know,

kind of a Brian Pilman-type story, given the access now that WWE has to all these different organizations and the ability to kind of tell a really good story, like a Brian Pilman story, for example, I think it's a great idea. If there's anything on the boards, I hope that's it. Because that's a cool idea, and it wouldn't be so effective.

And he's got momentum behind him. There are a lot of people that are pulling for him right now in the chase, so to speak. So I, I'd love to see it happen. Getting a lot of support here, Terry M saying Triple H dropped the ball with Carrying Cross. I disagree. I mean, merch is flying off the shelves.

Fans are chanting. I don't think they've dropped anything. I think they're just now getting going. He also points out, Carrying Cross does a great impression of Jesse the body Ventura. I heard that. I just saw that about a bottom. A month ago, I did it a long time ago, and I was just like blown away.

It was so good. I mean, this is a guy who can not only do great impressions, but he's also breaking bats, you know, with his body, uh, just submitting them, you know. I mean, he is a legitimate athlete and a legitimate great mind for the business. I can't wait to see what's next. I don't think we've seen. I don't think he's reached his peak potential yet, but I think we're on our way right now, don't you think, Eric? Absolutely 100%.

And the exciting thing is, I agree with you. I don't think he's reached his peak. I think we'll be on that ride with him here for the next year or 18 months because I just have to believe that they're going to do something big with Kerry and Cross. Maybe it's because I want them to do it is why I believe it so strongly because I want it so badly, but I think I'm right. When we sort of freestyled earlier this week with JBL about,

hey, if he was to have like a group or a tag team or what have you, and he's looking for a buddy. Roberts to his Michael Hayes who could it be and one of the suggestions from the live chat was Austin Theory and I don't know if you saw but even Cove is with us here live says what are your thoughts on the Austin theory rumors the rumor is he's been removed from the WWE's internal roster and it makes me wonder I just don't think they're abandoning ship and cutting bait on on Austin theory I could be wrong but I hope that that becomes a story with carrying cross and

they're doing stuff sort of outside the tent, I don't know, sign me up. I don't know what's next, but I'm excited to see what's next because I'm hopeful. It's funny, you know, I mean, talking about when you ask me this, you think Kay Fab is dead. And here's another example of how easy it is becoming for WWE to exploit the concept of KFabe. All he had to do is take Austin Theory off the active roster. yeah isn't that what happens when you get injured well what's great to do is they said it was

the internal so they didn't even pull him off the website there was a report that he's off the internal right it's just there you go and that that that one seemingly nothing move is now stirred up a lot of controversy it's engaged the audience it's encouraged people to share their opinions on social media and you've got people talking about a character that they may not have not seen on television in a long time. Isn't that a great way to reintroduce that character? Get the controversy going. Get social media fired up.

Get people arguing throwing hand grenades back and forth, you know, digitally. And boom, you've got the premise for a story, or at least you've got the foundation for a good premise of a story. Nintendo Ninja is with us, and he wants to know when we're talking about the WCWN64 games. Next week, we have called an audible today. we are going to be talking about video games and licensing next week. There's so much news to print this week.

We're just going with the headlines. But the headline right now is that summer is here. There's more sun. There's more light. There's more times to do all the things that make summer so special. And the number one thing you don't want to be doing the rest of summer, spending hours, cooking inside, and that's where Factor comes in. Factor, chef crafted, dietitian approved meals are ready in just two minutes,

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Eric and I have tried all the different meal delivery kits through the years. I mean, we've had several advertise with us, but even when factors not advertising with us, the Thompson household's reordering. Because as JR would say, it's restaurant quality. And if you want me to eat it, it better taste good. And it does.

Man, I don't even miss Megan's home cooking when I got factored. Don't tell her I said that. But I'd oftentimes hear her say, hey, I can cook so-and-so or I've got a factor meal. I don't hesitate. And I make it her idea. I say, honey, don't you skip cooking the night. You've had a long day.

I'll take factor. The reality is I like the factor better. Go get started right now at factormills.com slash 83 weeks, 50 off. Use the code 83 weeks, 50 off and you'll get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. That's code 83 weeks 50 off at factor meals.com slash 83 weeks, 50 off. For 50% off plus free shipping, factor meals.com slash 83 weeks, 50 off. So let's talk about night two. This is what everybody was wanting to talk about.

Your lasting impression of SummerSlam was night one with Seth Rylins with the Roos of the Century. And night two, Brock Lesnar's back. Now, before we talk about Brock Lesnar and the controversy about his return, I want to ask you about the story. And Lord, I'm not trying to pile on and be negative here.

But when it first happened back in Elimination Chamber, we heard all the comparisons. Oh, this is the biggest heel turn since Hulk Hogan turned heel. Oh, this is the most excellent. This is the biggest angle in the history of wrestling. Oh, it went nowhere. On Friday night, John Sina came out and said, just two nights before his main event on pay-per-view at SummerSlam.

My bad, pretend nothing that happened in the last six months happened. I love you guys. I fell for something from somebody else. But the champ is here, and I'm John Sina, and I'm your hero. here we go so i love the entrance we start with the black and just white letters john seen like he's been doing the heel work and then all of a sudden it kicks in now we get the familiar music and graphics and here he comes and i thought the main event was terrific i was critical of the russomania main event i told you that i felt like john had lost a step you were

a little bit offended when i said that at the time i think but this was a russomania main event I would argue that this match was better than what we saw at WrestleMania, and I think everyone would agree with that. I even would say I enjoyed SummerSlam because of those two big angles that closed both shows better than I did WrestleMania. So this checked every box for me. I heard Brian Alvarez say this was probably John Cena's best match in over a decade. I don't think anyone can argue with that.

An incredible performance with Cody. But then the big swerve at the end that nobody saw coming, just a couple of weeks after we heard Daniel Cormier slip up and say, oh, Brock Lesnar is on the band list by T.K. And here he comes. People melted down. We'll talk about Brock in just a moment. But what did you think of the execution and maybe the about face of the

Sina he'll turn? And I know you got to see the main event. What did you think of John Sina and Cody Rhodes closing out SummerSlam? Mixed emotions. I sat in. watched that match on a big screen at a bar, Hogan's Hangout, and it was odd to me because I was, he's a huge screen. On one screen, I'm watching the main event on another screen right next to it, equally large

screen, same size. I'm watching, I don't know, it was Hulk Hogan, somebody might have been, might have been Andre, I don't know. and I was really paying closer attention to the pace of both of those matches. The way the match was laid out in the ring, the way the performance was executed in the ring, however you want to say it. And it was a little distracting because I was constantly going back and forth.

I guess I didn't feel as strongly about it as you do. I'm not going to critique it, but it didn't work for me until, the end. And once the end hit, I was all in. And I can't even explain why. I can't tell you why it just didn't really register with me until the end. There was something about it to me that felt awkward. And maybe it's the whole heel, baby face, baby face heel back and forth, the fact that I never really bought into the heel turn as strongly as I wished I would have to be about fair about it to be honest about it but once the finish came once brock made his his

appearance then it kind of all made sense to me and it was a lot easier for me to enjoy but only because of the swerve at the end i really enjoyed the uh the match itself i um i think i had realistic expectations based on the summers of the ressalmania performance and seeing john on unreal i know you haven't had a chance to see that yet but john half joking but half serious said so he was taking photos and he did the you can't see anything and he said you know you're getting old when even this hurts your s i that's awesome when i saw that i thought man lord bless him for continuing to put his body on the line and and i know that the brock lesnar return is is where we're going next and there's a lot of discussion about that because immediately

afterwards, uh, conveniently, WWE canceled their presser format, which by the way, they took some criticism for online, but I often wondered, does any good ever come from this? I know it's a sponsorable thing for them and they can sell sponsorships, but they can do that for the post show too, but why would you take away the spotlight in the headline of whatever you just put on with your major event, which otherwise would be the headline and instead it can become a gotcha moment for someone else's website why would you not want the lasting impression the final word on your event to be a carefully crafted message from you

you can't go set records and then go to a firing squad and that's what it felt like it was going to be uh so they made the audible they made the decision and we know why now for certain on this event well they didn't want to deal with the brock lesner stuff well triple h almost felt like he was saying it to me in the post show when he said something along the lines of this is john stena's wish list it's him writing the last chapter of his book and i think people saw a conversation with us where he said we'd have to screw it up pretty badly to ruin his career but it's not about that for me it's not it's about john being able to get out go out the way he wants to go out to write his chapter i know what that's like as a performer i know what that's like for everybody to feel

that and i think for john to be able to do what he wants to do one of the very first things said to him is who do you want and how and we're working through that that almost feels like he's saying hey guys this is who john seen him want it now john comes out the next day and says i've been saying the same thing for 25 years they deal them i play them you know i'm just really excited we got like 12 of these things left i think somerslam is an indication from the audience where everybody kind of knows what we're close that we're closing our book and just because i close my book in December, that doesn't mean WWE closes its books. They got to continue

their programming going forward. So they're just going to try to make the most exciting shows for the fans. A dozen of them I got left. They deal them, I play them. So no matter whose idea it was or how it happened, Dave Meltzer has revealed that three or four weeks ago,

WWE's legal department essentially cleared the return of Brock Lesner. Now, smarter people than I would say, well, that means they think they're going to arbitration and none of this will affect Brock Lesnar as a reminder. Brock has not been sued. He's not been charged. There's no criminal charges involved,

but his name is mentioned in a lawsuit against WWE and against Vince McMahon. So a lot of people just assumed nothing's going to happen until that lawsuit is complete. Instead, Brock Lesnar is back. A, were you surprised he's back? And B,

were you surprised with the online? response. Something positive, but a lot of negative about Brock Lesnar being back. I'll tackle the last question first. I'm never surprised anymore over the direct that I see on social media and the negativity and people who so desperately want to appear to be knowledgeable and have inside information. Nothing surprises me anymore. It's, it's especially the internet wrestling community is, it's a cesspool. So I expect the negativity. You have to.

Was I surprised? Absolutely. More than anything, because Brock doesn't need this. I mean, when a guy like Brock Lesnar, I don't know what Brock Lesnar's worth, but it's got to be a ton. And he's happy on his farm. He likes to hunt. He likes to fish. He loves the outdoors.

He loves to be on his tractor, planting crops, harvesting crops. And to leave that to come back to, even in the best of situations, a grind. It is a grind. When you absolutely don't need it, I don't want to suggest that Brock doesn't love the business. People like to throw that term out a lot. I'm not suggesting he doesn't have a warm place in his heart for the business. but he doesn't need it. Some people need the business.

Some people need the connection to the crowd. Some people only feel valuable if they're getting a reaction from the crowd, whether it's in an arena or sitting in a bar. Brock's not that guy. Brock is the opposite of that guy with a massive amount of money. So that's the part that surprised me.

just getting on a plane and flying to get to wherever you have to get when you don't really need the money and you don't really need the attention. That's the part that surprised me. You know, the thing is, if you followed TKO, which is the parent company for WWE, you've seen how they allowed the UFC to be managed. UFC has not been without controversy, whether it's with some of their headline stars like John Jones, and his legal woes, Crona McGregor and his legal woes,

both of those guys still, you know, doing their thing with UFC for years and years, despite all of those situations. And there was even a very public and ugly situation with Dana White years ago. And nothing really ever happened. So I don't know that this should necessarily be a shock to wrestling fans because this is a company that is a for-profit business,

and if no, if someone is legally able to perform and they can add to the bottom line, it does feel like the TKO North Star is delivering shareholder value. And I know that, you know, Paul Heyman earlier this week was on Aero Hawani show. And he basically said something like there's always going to be critics of anything that we do. And very few people ever make it to the top in life without making mistakes or having skeletons in their closet. Obviously the decision was made. It's time to bring back Brock Lesner. Whatever that decision is based.

based on I respect it. If there are critics of it, get over it. He's here and he's going to be here and you ain't going to be able to cancel it. And I'm happy to have him back because the audience is happy to have him back. And if we brought him back and the audience were built against it, I wouldn't be happy to have him back. Now, when this first happened, Dave Meltzer suggested that this was almost like a stress test. Hey, if they put him out here and it's met with resounding booze, they can get their way out of it. But he came back. got a big shock pop now we have yet to see him after that surprise return and you and i have talked about this for years eric whether you're a good guy or a bad guy if you're a big star and

you return you're going to get a hero's welcome on your return now that's what happened i think the real test i would argue as when he starts making regular appearances on tv but even then will they say oh that's because he's a heel this is the desired effect either way Brock Lesnar is back and a lot of people are wondering well if this is what John Sina wanted does John Sina want Vince McMahon back and a lot of people are now curious

will Vince McMahon be at John Sina's last match or could we see him return to some sort of on camera and Melser even freestiled earlier in the week on Wrestling Observer Radio that perhaps if this Lesner thing goes well and the lawsuit gets sunset is there a universe where Vince McMahon is back in WWE? Could you say that happening here?

I've said this a hundred times, I think, in the last couple of years. Nothing ever surprises me when it comes to Vince McMahon. Yeah. And there is no such word as impossible when it comes to Vince McMahon. So is it possible? Of course, it's possible. Is it likely? That's a stretch to me.

I don't know. I don't know, man, but I wouldn't bet against it. Again, I'd be surprised in the sense that, It's not necessary. It's not like Vince McMahon is going to draw money for WWE. So from that perspective, I don't see it. But he is Vince McMahon. He has built WWE.

To erase him from WWE history because of this civil lawsuit, to me, makes no sense. So maybe the answer probably is somewhere in between. do I see him coming back could I see him on camera again in recognition for what he's done and what he's accomplished in building the WWE that we've

known today? Yes, I can see that happening. I just don't think we'd see him on a regular basis. It is going to be interesting to see what happens here, Eric. You know, everybody's talking about what's next for Vince McMahon and

everybody's waiting to hear what's next for Vince McMahon. But you and I, as strange as this is, I actually saw Vince McMahon earlier this week. We'll talk about that in just a minute. But right now I want to talk about something that I know you and I both think is important. We're talking about these data brokers that can steal your personal data. You see, delete me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough really to make everyone vulnerable.

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I know it's been a tough few weeks. As a reminder, I feel like I should get a plug in here before we get too deep. Real American freestyle is happening at the end of the month. I'm going to be there in Cleveland for the very first debut event. And behind the seats, you've been working very diligently to bring this thing to life. It's a new sport that people have never seen before with unique challenges because, well, you don't own any video. So we can't even really show.

anybody what it is and even though it is wrestling at a professional wrestler at a level it is not sports entertainment so you've had your work cut out for you and navigating through all of this and then right in the middle of it disaster strikes something that we all hoped would never happen we lose Hulk Hogan one of your very good friends for decades and one of the most influential people in the history of pro wrestling and sadly we laid him to rest this past week and celebrated his life in Tampa. I guess it was Largo, Florida, but we haven't spoken about it.

And I know that a lot of the internet wrestling community and people who cared about Holkogen and professional wrestling, they've really looked to you to get sort of insight and information about what's happening. And we've done our best the last few weeks here to try to celebrate the legacy of Polkogen. Tell us whatever you'd like to share with us about this past week in Largo. Look, it's been a tough two weeks. When I found out on I think it was the 24th that Hulk could pass literally in a real time,

I've told the story before I won't walk you through it again. But, you know, that was like getting kicked in the head by a horse, you know, emotionally. And obviously that had a big impact on a real American freestyle because so much of what we were going to do, promotionally speaking, was built around Hulk. Certainly, you know, Fox, our TV partner. was thrilled to death to be a business with Hulk and we're excited about. They had their own plans and yeah, right as we're, you know, about to enter the 30-day countdown to the event, Halk passes.

So it's been challenging to say the least, but we have a really good team, some quality people that are working really hard. and all of us are committed to succeed because of Hulk. And if anything, I think it's inspired us even more to pull this thing off and to make it successful and to make Hulk proud because Hulk was passionate about this. I talked to Hulk's wife, Sky, and this is one of the few things in a lot of couple years that Hulk has really been passionate about and it it almost surprised me because I didn't understand it at first why he felt so strongly about real American freestyle and why he

was so committed to it but Hulk saw he didn't hope was never an amateur wrestler so he didn't have that firsthand connection to the sport but he did have a firsthand connection to some of the wrestlers involved. Izzy Martinez, one of our partners being one of them. Hulk spent some time with a lot of amateur wrestlers that are a part of, you know, Izzy's community and Chad Bronsteen's community, and Chad was an amateur wrestler. Hulk got exposed to a lot of these wrestlers, and he saw something that really excited him, and it was the character.

I don't mean the descriptive character of these athletes, but they're real characters. They're real personalities. And more importantly, and this is what sold me, when Hulk called me and tagged me in, so to speak, to this project, because it was Hulk who convinced me to join the team. What sold me was when Hulk said to me, Eric, when you meet these athletes, when you get to know these people, their stories are so powerful that there is no way we cannot make these guys stars and gals. I hate the word gals, men and women, stars. He saw the potential in them to be mainstream, larger than life athletes based on just who they were and their stories and their commitment and their discipline. And if Hulk Hogan knew anything, it was how to build a star.

He had first-hand experience in that. and it's what sold me, and after getting to work with some of these athletes over the last couple weeks, months now, I absolutely see what Hawks saw. And like everybody else on our team, I am more committed today than I've ever been about this project and excited. And things are going well. We just started our promotion a couple days ago, a hard promotion, you know, locally and Fox Nation is going to start promoting nationally here short.

shortly. I'm excited. I, along with the rest of our team, we're going to make Hulk Hogan proud, very proud. I'm excited to be in Cleveland. I'm going to bring a band of friends, and we're going to have a blast. I can't wait and certainly appreciate you guys' efforts in building something totally new that people have never seen before. But when we think about Hulk Hogan in the celebration of life I don't know what I expected Eric you know

you and I talked beforehand and I felt weird about going I mean this is a weird sentence because nobody is but I'm not a funeral guy I just I don't do well with it and I don't know I just still struggle with the concept of death

like you know even with Hulk Hogan with as much influence as he had over you know the world and in his community and and on and on and on and you've got just a who's who who are there just knowing well a couple hours later when people leave the church it's like life goes on I still struggle with that and so I wasn't really looking forward to it and I kind of tried to weasel out and say I don't know I feel worried

about this Eric like I don't really know the family I mean I only talked to the guy like 30 times I don't know and I went and and I tried to be respectful of mine and your friendship and wanted to do the right thing and just pay respect but I mean I saw people there I never thought of Bill Shaw was there yeah yeah that somebody said hey that's Bill Shaw and I look and you're standing next to him and I'm like we've talked about this guy for years and years and I've seen him on TV before but like the idea that Bill Shaw's there to pay respects to the incredible Hulk Hogan I just thought how cool is this man it really did feel like a celebration of life it did it was a beautiful service i'm like you i'm very i just haven't learned how to handle

death and in funerals and maybe you never do maybe there's no way to really handle it well but i was a little concerned that i might crack to be honest with you i'm a fairly i cry at disney movies right like if there's if it's a disney movie and there's an animal involved You know, it's going to happen. I don't know why. There's just certain things that make me very emotional. And this was certainly one of them. But, you know, my wife was there.

Lori was there. My son Garrett, his wife, Mary Jane, and my daughter, Montana, were there with me. So that helped. And Jason Hervey was there with me. And seeing you there, knowing you were there, and by the way, I was the one that to encourage you to go. Yes. Because I know that Hulk would have wanted you to be there.

You've been a big supporter. And I've appreciated that. And I know Hulk has. Hulk did. So I was happy to see you there. And I held up pretty good. I didn't stick around long. But I stuck around long enough to see Bill Shaw standing off to the side.

And I was really excited to introduce Bill to you. Because Bill listens to our podcast. podcast. Oh, I had no idea. Yeah, he was asking me questions that I, you know, it's like I haven't seen Bill in person in 15 years, and it's not like we talk on the phone on a regular basis. So he's asking me questions about real American freestyle and a lot of things that we've talked about on this show. And when I said, hey, Bill, that's Conrad Thompson. He goes, oh, yeah, I know, he's your partner on the podcast. I said, well, Conrad, get over here. You've got to meet Bill Shaw. And Bill was, Bill had a lot of love and respect for Hall and was proud to be a massive

part. Look, Hall Cogan would have never made it to WCW if it were not for Bill Shaw. Right. I didn't have the ability to pitch Ted Turner the idea of bringing in Hulk Hogan. But I did report to Bill Shaw, who did have the opportunity and the ability to pitch it. If it wasn't for Bill, Hulk would have never made it to WCW. It was very much an important part of not only WCW and Holcogogne, but Bill Shaw was an incredibly big part of my life. And you and I wouldn't be talking today if it weren't for Bill Shaw. So I was really excited to see him there and to introduce him to you. It was a great moment.

It was, uh, it was interesting to see. I mean, it was like, um, it was an event. I don't know if this was your experience, but I managed to, uh, I stayed near the airport because I had the only nonstop I could get was first thing the next morning. Well, Jeff and Karen Jarrett were on their way to AW TV and they left two hours before I did. I think their flight was 5 a.m. Eastern. So he's on central time. So that means he had to be at the airport at four his time or his flight was. I mean, it's just it's crazy how early their flight was. So we're both staying right by the airport. So it's just less terrible to wake up at the track of dawn. I went still dark

outside and get out of there and then have a normal full day, a full night. But either way we had to like get clearance to get in the parking lot i mean there were dozens of police officers there and they had to check your name off the list and radio in before you could get in and then when you get there there's the tickets and here's where you're supposed to sit like i've never seen anything like this but the red and yellow flowers that were everywhere i was so it was so well done i was just kind of overwhelmed i mean it felt like you were walking into the the bar in star wars on some level like right in front of me to my left as Jeff and Karen Jarrett down from them was like Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman and then

right in front of me is Matt Riddle and his wife and right behind me are Dory and Marty Funk and I'm like how is this what a crazy collection of people I mean everyone from Rick Flair to Dennis Rodman to Theo Vaughn to Kid Rock Chuck Zito Dixie Carter Vince McMahon John Laurinitis like I had a great chat with with Dixie at search her husband yeah this was very very cool I really appreciated that. I know that Jeff and Karen did too. I mean, it was it was on some level like a family reunion. I mean, I said it last week on the program and it's not that big a deal, but it is interesting to think about. I think that's probably the first time that all the McMans have been together in the same place at the same time with, I mean, all of the office

from WWE was there and a lot of the wrestlers were there. And it was just really cool to see so many people paying respect. And I know we're probably oversharing some things and I don't mean to do that but I was so proud of Nick because I thought Nick did a wonderful speech and the way he closed it that's the first time I got a little choked up because I think everybody who has a relationship with their dad I mean man you know how I feel about my dad Eric and the idea that one day I'm going to lose Larry is just and I just get emotionally even thinking about it but when he finished with his dad's iconic say your prayers and train hard and blah blah but he finished with what you're going to do when my dad's watching over you i was like oh i was not ready for that i i was a

touching tribute there was a letter from don't know how many times there's been a letter from the president at a funeral like this for a professional wrestler jimmy heart man did your heart not break just before he even got to the podium i'm like i don't know that i can watch this because you could just feel the emotion pouring out of jimmy it was it was really touching to see the impact he had on so many people in that room. Indeed. And I'm looking up at this guy because somewhere in a room up above there's somebody drilling into something.

So if we have to cut this short because of the noise, I hope everybody understands. But it was a seeing Nick, I couldn't have done it. I was grateful that I wasn't asked to speak because I just, I couldn't have pulled it off. You know me. I mean, there was no way I could have got up there and held. it together. And the fact that Nick did, super impressive. And it goes to what I said earlier about Nick being a really composed, level-headed individual. And Vince McMahon. I mean, Vince did an amazing, I thought, an amazing tribute to Hulk, and I was really glad to see him

there. And some people are going to not understand that, but that's okay. I thought it was appropriate. And I know for a fact that Hulk would have loved it. Maybe that's why I loved it. Triple H, I thought, did an amazing job in his speech. It was very sincere, it was authentic, it's heartfelt. It touched me, let's put it that way. I was really impressed with Triple H. You know, the pastor at Hulk's Church, I thought, was just amazing and told some stories and gave us a look inside of, it gave us a look at Hulk Hogan that even people that knew him well probably didn't

really see or hear and I was so grateful for that I mean the whole thing was just amazing well I'm not going to say that's our buzzer but we're closing in on two hours and what's crazy is we didn't even get to our topic next week this time we will be getting together to talk about WCW video games and WCW licensing operations opportunities because that was WCW at their peak. But I knew that, you know, there have been a lot of reports about Hulk Hogan's memorial service,

but I felt like people would probably want to hear it from you. I have to admit, I kind of was surprised that people were posting pictures and things. I don't know. I just felt like it was kind of weird to be, here's a selfie of me with the casket. Like, man, I don't know.

That feels weird. But hey, to each their own. And I also want to say, respectfully, hey, don't believe everything you see on the internet. There's a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of people who have decided to

to leverage this opportunity and this moment and time for clicks. And I know that people, my critics and Eric's critics are going to say, yeah, but you guys have talked about him for three weeks. Yeah, but we've talked about the legacy and the memory and the happy stuff.

We're not doing the TMZ negativity. And I know I'm seeing even some comments, you know, in the live chat. Well, so and so said, hey, I don't care what so and so said. Like, that's not the kind of show we're going to do here today. And I don't know. It just feels dirty and less than. And so we're not going to do it. You can keep asking those questions in the chats if you'd like, but we're never going to

address those because it's just out of place and it feels, I don't know, less than. So Eric and I are going to take a pass on all that sort of discussion. But I will say there's a lot of stuff that's been reported that I know for a fact, it's not true and i'm not saying like i have some sort of inside information i'm just saying i was there so i know that some of the things you're you're hearing eric are just nonsense and i can only imagine how frustrating that is for you because on the one hand he kind of wanted to defend your friend but on the other hand he's no longer with us so that's just kind of giving them what they're looking for the attention they're looking right it is and probably one of the reasons

I feel as strongly about the internet wrestling community and social media in general. It's just such a negative, dark, ridiculous place. And I'm learning to not let these things bother me any longer. And I think over the last 10 or 12 days, I've developed a much thicker skin than I had previously because I just can't allow myself to let the negativity and the dirt, the bottom feeding parasites who feel the need. to somehow prop themselves up by digging into this and expressing opinions and throwing out conspiracy theories all to make themselves feel important and to get likes and reactions and all of that.

I just can't do it. And I not only won't participate, I won't even read that garbage anymore because it's just too negative. It is too negative and that's not the lasting legacy we want for Hulk Hogan and man, I can't believe that he's still not here. It just kind of feels like I even talked to Jerry Lawler who was there and we both sort of said the same thing at the same time. I kind of never thought this day would come.

Like, I think it's been a reminder for a lot of people. I know it has for Rick to think about his own mortality. Like on some level, you just, most of us have never known a world without Hulk Cogan. Maybe he's not on TV every week, but we know he's around and he's going to pop up and do here, there, and yon. but the idea that that's not going to happen, you know, I couldn't help,

but go out of my way to go shake Kevin Nash's hand because I just know, man, I guys been put through the ringer, you know, with Scott Hall and his son and now Hulk Hogan and, you know, the idea that that he's able to just keep putting one foot in front of the other, I hope that we'll continue to, we don't have to pray for the Hulkster, you know,

he's doing the big leg drop in the sky right now, as Jimmy Hart might say. the people who were still here who were missing him the most i'm going to pray for their peace and contentment specifically sky and nick and brook and all of the family even linda like anybody who's really known hulk in a material way over the last 30 40 50 60 years i can't imagine what their their grief must be like because he really was larger than life and he's going to leave many of us have a uh a Hulk hogan shaped hole in our heart and uh the idea that he's no longer with us is is awfully sad but seeing his life celebrated like that made me uh i don't

know it brought me a little bit of closure made me feel a little better about everything here and i guess that's the idea behind a funeral service is to create an opportunity for that closure i think i felt the same thing in a way because when i left that service uh i felt better than i did when i went in and i think that's the reason for them and it's certainly worked for me. It's still sinking in a little bit, but I've reconciled the reality of it. And now just look forward to making him proud and to be there for Nick or Brooke or anybody else in his family that just wants somebody to listen to or talk to.

Happy to be there for him. It did feel like on some level when I saw you, you know, because we didn't get to spend a ton of time, you know, hanging out because, you know, it's kind of an awkward situation and place to be and all that. But it felt like you were like a big ball attention. Like you were kind of like ready for it to be over. And I wasn't with you when you walked out of it. But I feel like when you pop down in Garrett's car or whatever your

transportation situation was, I can only imagine my buddy Eric going, the big exhale. I don't get over. How far off, Emma? No, you were right on the money. I was glad that I was there, but I was, I had to leave. And for no other reason that I just wanted it, I guess, in a way, I just wanted it to be behind me. Yeah.

I've been dealing with it for quite a while, and like a lot of people have, there's nothing special about me, but I was just so anxious for it to be over and just to get away and be by myself is what I was really looking forward to. No matter what you may believe, we know for sure what the real life Terry Belaya believed, and it was not lost on many of us. maybe Bamargera chief amongst us who went outside, looked to the sky, and saw something that just can't be an accident. I don't know if you saw this, Eric. Oh, boy, did I ever. Oh, my gosh. The cloud formation over Holcogen's service looked just like one of his iconic poses.

And you know, right now he's carrying on and telling stories with Andre and Johnny and Gotti Piper and so many of his other friends. Ladies and gentlemen, that'll bring our show to a close today. go be positive, celebrate the Hulkster. Think about the good times. We'll be back next week talking about WCW video games and licensing. Sorry about shifting gears, but we couldn't have done it without paying homage to the Hulkster one last time.

See you next week. Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson here to tell you a little more about what ad-free shows.com is all about. Get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcast every single week. starting at just nine bucks that's less than 20 cents an episode each month and yes you can listen to them all directly through apple podcasts or your regular podcast apps how easy is that ad free shows also has thousands of hours worth of bonus content and docu series like title chase eric fires back conversations with conrad and the insiders plus new series like the book with

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