83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 400: Ask Eric Anything

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad hand over the keys to the show for a special Ask Eric Anything edition! For nearly three hours, Eric answers your questions on anything and everything. He tackles topics like whether TKO will erase Vince McMahon's legacy, if he could ever work under Triple H in today's WWE, and what the future might hold for Chris Jericho as he plans the next chapter of his legendary career. All that and so much more on this fan-powered episode of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff! MARS MEN - Get 60% off FOR LIFE AND 2 Free Gifts at Mars Men when you use 83WEEKS at http://Mengotomars.com  CHUBBIES - Your Holiday wardrobe awaits! Get 20% off @chubbies with the code eric at https://www.chubbiesshorts.com/eric  #chubbiespod THE PERFECT JEAN - F*%k your khakis and get The Perfect Jean 15% off with the code 83WEEKS15 at theperfectjean.nyc/83WEEKS15#theperfectjeanpod TECHOVAS  - Get 10% off at tecovas.com/83WEEKS when you sign up for email and texts. RIDGE - Upgrade your wallet today! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code 83WEEKS at https://www.Ridge.com/83WEEKS ! #Ridgepod STEVEN SINGER JEWELER - NO ONE DOES REAL DIAMOND JEWELRY BETTER. EXPERIENCE THE DIFFERENCE AT STEVEN SINGER JEWELERS. ONLINE AT IHATESTEVENSINGER.COM. ALWAYS WITH FAST AND FREE SHIPPING. THAT'S HTTP://IHATESTEVENSINGER.COM  HARRY'S PLUS - Get the Harry's Plus Trial Set for only $10 at https://harrys.com/83WEEKS #Harryspod BLUECHEW - Visit https://bluechew.com  and try your first month of BlueChew FREE when you use promo code 83WEEKS -- just pay $5 shipping. QUINCE - Layer up this fall with pieces that feel as good as they look. Go to http://Quince.com/83WEEKS  for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing money away by paying those high interest rates on your credit card. Roll them into one low monthly payment and on top of that, skip your next two house payments. Go to https://www.savewithconrad.com  to learn more.  

Hey, hey, it's Conrad, the mortgage guy, and you're listening to 83 weeks with Eric Fish Off, Eric. What's going on, man? How are you? And the crowd. There's no crowd. What am I kidding? I'm doing great, man. Chad, Brassey and my partner and I were in Miami, taking care of some business.

And I was supposed to, you know, flying to Detroit tomorrow morning. So I thought I got two days. I can either sit in a hotel room in Detroit or I can sit in a hotel room in Miami. or I could buzz up to Tampa and spend a day and a half with my grandson and my son and his wife, my daughter-in-law. So that's what I'm doing. And I actually rented a room like a half a mile from their place just to do this podcast. I'm at a holiday end, $234 a night this time of year, at a holiday and two queen beds. A decent room, not bad. But they have Wi-Fi and that's what I needed because there's no way I could do this show from their house. It's just with a four-year-old who

thinks I'm pretty fun. It's just not doable. So here I am. Well, we're excited that you're with us and we have got a fun show planned for you today. We're going to throw you guys the listeners, the keys of the program. We're going to do what we call Ask Eric Anything. But before we do, I want to ask you a question that everybody's been talking about for the past week or so. The TKO president, Mark Shapiro has said that he wants to move past popular PLEs and that got everybody's attention. Here's the exact quote. He said something along the lines of. Right now, a lot of our PLEs were created by Vince McMahon. We need to get in the business of taking that torch and moving past that. And Nick Con and Triple H created Russell Paloosa,

which was the launch event for our new ESPN deal, which did incredibly well and may turn into a super franchise. Not to mention from a merch standpoint, I do not need to tell you securing the IP rights and then selling merch at Russell Paloza, let's just say it was a real winner. So listen, I'm excited that they're trying new things and they've sold ESPN on this being a new idea. But in many of everybody's radar went up and people started to panic and think,

does that mean they're getting rid of Royal Rumble? Does that mean that there's no more SummerSlam or WrestleMania? Of course, they've clarified. No, those aren't going anywhere. But I think some people maybe took offense or wondered, Hey, what does this mean? I'm really struggling to get a read on the IWC's reaction to this because it feels like so many people were like, wait, no, we can't get rid of those.

But some of those same people are, let's erase Vince McMahon from WWB history. What, where do you land on this? What do you make of Shapiro's words here, Eric? Well, first of all, you know, when a guy like Mark Shapiro talks about the business of the sports entertainment business, I'm really interested in what he is. has to say because this is one very smart, very successful, lengthy track record of success. And with someone like that who's on the cutting edge of how that business is evolving, and that's the thing that, I mean, I think about this every day, Conrad, this industry,

the entertainment industry, but what formerly known as television, is changing so fast that we haven't even really caught up to it emotionally, meaning we have been conditioned for generations now on television, right? And television was always appointment television, an appointment viewing. And I'm not going to go through the whole history of television, but the difference between where television was, even as late as the mid-90s, you know, friends was, you know, the definition of what was referred to in the television and industry as appointment television. I think appointment television became a term in the industry because of France, because people actually planned their life around that stuff.

And then everybody tried to become appointment television. Well, Nitro and Raw became appointment television. But all of that is, all those strategies, all those tactics to get there are kind of gone now, right? Or they've evolved so much. My point in all this is there are certain people in the, in the industry at a very, very high level that have a great, a 2020 view into what's coming next. So when guys like Mark Shapiro are going, time to move beyond, what I'm hearing is traditional branded events, not taking away from, but adding to something that's culturally maybe a little bit more relevant outside the distinct sports entertainment box,

they're going to grow their business. They're going to modify their presentation. They're going to attract a slightly different audience with essentially the same ingredients. It's really smart. I want to ask you, you know, we all know that Shapiro is a brilliant operator, but this is something that he's done recently with the UFC side of things.

I'm saying about getting fans worked up. concerned. In August, after the UFC had signed a new $7 billion deal with Paramount, he referred to pay-per-views as being dead. And he said, paper views are dead. It's an antiquated model and it no longer works. And I'm sure he meant that here in the United States, but it left Dana White in a position where he had to then clearly communicate to fans in Canada, Australia, and the UK that, hey, the UFC still sells pay-per-view in your area, So it's not dead in your world yet. It does make me wonder, you know, Shapiro clearly knows more about business

and has forgotten more about business perhaps than you and I would ever know. But as far as messaging to the core fan base, do you think that should be left up to Dana White and Triple H? Because the hard cores, they're going to hang on every word. And it feels like usually when Shapiro is communicating messages, it's to an investment group, not the hardcore fans, if that makes sense. oh, this is going to be an unpopular reaction, but who gives a shit? I mean, I would imagine when Mark Shapiro is speaking and talking about the business of TCO's business and WWE's business,

I don't think it really matters what the Internet wrestling community thinks or how they react. He's not speaking to them. The messaging is going to the industry. The message is business to business as much as it is business to consumer. Well, hang on, hang on. Businesses aren't buying the U.S. aren't buying pay-per-views, Eric. So I'm saying if I was a, if I'm a UFC fan and I live in the UK, and I hear the top

dog say, paper views are dead. It's an antiquated model. We're not doing that anymore. Wouldn't I also think, well, that must mean that there's no more UFC pay-per-view? Like, only if I was a one-dimensional thinker, not to be a jerk, but. If that was my go-to, oh my gosh, you're going to be out of the pay-per-view business. I'm never going to be able to see it again. They don't care about me.

If that's my go-to emotional reaction, it's not surprising that, you know, I'm part of that internet wrestling community. But if you're a rational thinker, even just a modicum of critical thinking instinct, you might just say, wait a minute, they're saying that pay-p reviews are antiquated and they're not going to do them anymore. what are they going to do next? I can't wait to find out. Or at least leave the door open for an option and alternative.

But if you go to is, oh, my gosh, the sky's falling. Whatever. To be clear, as far as I know, Paramount is not available in all of those territories. So when there was all this, I guess the point I'm trying to make is these guys now have a global audience. And receiving the content is not one. one size fits all. Like we know, the rest of the world gets PLEs on Netflix.

But a lot of other people for the last year or so, they still had to get them on peacock. And I know the UFC is going to have a similar circumstance where if you're here in America, then you can get the Paramount app and you'll be able to watch your pay-per-views that way. But if you're abroad and maybe you're in a territory that does not have that Paramount app, I do think this could lead to some confusion.

I only bring this up because Double J. always says, and I think this is a great rule of thumb as a promoter, if you confuse them, you lose them. And like, you know, when you've come out and explained how to watch real American freestyle, one of the natural responses that you're getting is, hey, how do I watch it in my area of the world outside of the United States? I do think that, you know, there's so much movement right now to try to be a super fan of WWE.

Like, you know, we've all kind of been raised on the idea that Saturday night's main event is on NBC, but they were back in the 80s and the 90s and hell even earlier this year, but they won't be for John Cena's last match. And I'm just wondering, it feels like we've got some mixed messaging that could be confusing, but you disagree. No, I'm not disagreeing. It's confusing, but it's just what's the solution? Is the solution to, you know, frame your corporate message and, you know, the reason you're

talking to the, to the press at all? Are you going to tailor that for like the interest of 2% of the audience? The internet wrestling community is going to be confused, discerved, angry, upset. They're going to lose their shit over just about anything that any decision is made, whether it's AEW or WW or whatever. I mean, it's just, that's what everybody's there for. So I just, my whole point of this is I don't think it matters. I agree with you that it is confusing because of the distribution worldwide.

Light is confusing. And it's not one size fits all. Let me tell you an example. This is not recent because I haven't done any television business in Japan recently. But last time I did, cable television was kind of like a real problem in Japan. There's just no, there's no way to put the cable into the ground or to wire you for cable. So pay-per-view was a real problem. You have some people that had satellite dishes and things like that.

Now, again, this was a while ago, so I'm sure the technology has changed, but it was one of the reasons why the pay-per-view business model really didn't work in Japan, like it did here in the United States, you know, on its peak in the 80s and the 90s, right? It was just, you know, it was a cash printing machine opportunity. But in Japan, it wasn't because they didn't have access to the technology. So now, with Streaming and. whatever new technology is out there that I'm frankly couldn't even begin to explain or understand for that matter there's a lot more opportunities now but it's not one-size-fits-all every country

has its own issues and and by the way regulations in some cases the the i remember the german version of our FCC um we had a real problem with professional wrestling. I didn't care about adults having sex on camera in prime time as long as it was tasteful, that's fine. But if you hit somebody with a chair, you're getting, they'll cut that right out of the show, which is actually what they did a lot of times. The show that you would watch in Europe was completely different than the show you would watch in the United States because it was all chopped up in there to get all the good stuff out. I want to mention, you know, the phrasing about Vince McMahon got a lot of people's.

attention when when he said that right now a lot of our PLEs were created by Vince McMahon. We need to get in the business of taking the torch and moving past that. I know that we're splitting hairs here, but I think everybody agrees that if you're maintaining summer slam and Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, you're keeping that foundation and you're adding to it. How much of that messaging, though, do you think is just TCO trying to present some distance between themselves and Vince McMahon? I mean, he's still involved in a, to say the least, a very unpleasant public lawsuit.

But it's not like you're going to be able to totally remove Vince McMahon's DNA, so to speak, from WWE. Like his fingerprints are all over this thing forever, right? It's unavoidable. I agree with you. What I think you were saying there. There was no real business purpose for that comment. I mean, it wasn't a transactionally. based kind of thing to say, didn't have a real purpose.

Right. It other than to draw a line that distinguishes between them and now. And I think they do want, based on that comment, because I can't think of another reason why you would say it. Unless Mark Shapiro's got a personal thing with Vince and just wanted to ding him, you know, I would do that, given situation. Maybe that was it. I doubt it.

but to me it seems more like we just want to make sure everybody knows kind of thing it's interesting because it's not the first wrestle paloosa either i like the idea of viewing using the name i remember when eccw did it back in the mid to late 90s and i think even way back in 91 uh married with children and as i understand the creators of that show we're we're big fans of professional wrestling and that's even why al bundy is named al bundy because uh the writer, I guess, the creator loved King Kong Bundy. So King Kong Bundy actually had an appearance on married with children. And I guess maybe they were spoofing WrestleMania, but they called it Russell Paloosa.

Hey, hey, Conrad, who is the actor that Piedel Bundy? Uh, Ed O'Neill. Ed O'Neill, I think is a black belt, Brazilian jesus suit. Correct. He is. And I think a former wrestler, I think. I don't know. Anyway, interesting.

It was interesting because when you, you know, I only, I was only familiar with him as the Al Bundy character. That's not the guy you would look at and go, oh, it looks like he probably works out. You especially wouldn't go,

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That's men go to Mars.com and use code 83 weeks at checkout after you purchase. They're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Eric, it's hard to believe, but it's been 20 years since we lost Eddie Guerrero. What an anniversary. You got to spend quite a bit of time with Eddie. He was in WCW from 1995 to 2000, and it was a special era in pro wrestling and Monday night Nitro and cruiserweight history and obviously for Eddie Guerrero as well.

He made a name for himself in front of an American audience with names like Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit and really, I think Eddie, helped introduce a new style to the American television wrestling fan. You know, that fast-paced, athletic, hybrid, Lucha Libre style helped reshape, man, I guess Saturday night and Nitro and Thunder and even professional wrestling today. What do you think Eddie's legacy will be all these years later? I think Eddie's legacy is living inside of the ring in prime time all around the world. every week. You know, when you when you look at the impact that Eddie, not by himself,

Eddie Dean, Chris, Chris Jericho, the lucidors, all of them from, you know, obviously with Ray Mysterio, who is still one of the biggest stars in the industry today, probably many, you know, ways to view that or measure that. I think I say this all the time and every time I I think I don't say it strongly enough. The Cruiserweight Division in WCW, it's not the idea of it. I'm not trying to put myself over, but the people that came into a high-profile primetime position at one of the peaks in decades in the industry, certainly in television, beyond compare.

More people watching wrestling on Monday nights at any time in history. before or since or probably forever. But the people that made that Cruiserweight division so successful, each one of those wrestlers, has changed the world, the wrestling world, in the sense that the people that are watching wrestling today, I'm talking about 18, 22, 24, 26 years old, It weren't even around when Ray was really, you know, coming on strong as almost a rook. Well, he was never a rookie.

I think he started wrestling when he was four or something crazy like that. Some Mexican stuff. He was wrestling in the street corner where he was five years old or something. But you know what I mean? He started at such a young age. But back, you know, a lot of those people weren't even alive back then. But they've become very familiar with the high-flying, fast-paced, luchador, influence. Obviously, it's a lot of, you know, it's an influence. It's not a completely

luchador style presentation, but so much of the athleticism and just the visual dynamics of what takes place on the stage ring is so greatly influenced by the stuff that Chris and Eddie and Dean and Ray and so many of them did. It's actually one of the things I feel most proud of. And even though I really didn't have that much to do with it other than, you know, cracking the door open. But I just think it's such an understated impact on the industry today. And Eddie is right there, you know, at the top of it, looking down, smiling, do I know he agrees with me? Do you think, I mean, listen, we all know that eventually he grew frustrated with maybe a glass ceiling or maybe his creative or he was hoping to move up the cards or whatever it was.

but for years and years, it felt like you knew you could count on Eddie Guerrero to give a great match no matter who his opponent was. Because he could work the Ray Mysterio style. He could also have a pay-per-view match with Rick Claire and literally anything in between. Obviously, those are two all-time workers, but he could help elevate some other performers

who weren't as established to that audience. I mean, just super talented. But sometimes when we hear about guys who get that reputation of being able to do that, you kind of can't help as a promoter or a booker at some point to maybe abuse them a little bit accidentally. A more common modern name that comes to mind is Dolf Sigler. I know everyone with a microphone is said,

man, this guy's criminally underrated. Maybe by an audience of one who made sure that Dolf Ziegler was the guy to help get everybody else over. Do you think if Eddie Guerrero would have hung around WCW long term? and in this alternate timeline, WCW wins the war against WWE. Would he have had a glass ceiling and sort of been where he was, would he have been respectfully, Dolf Zieglerd,

or would he have been given an opportunity to become world champion in WCW, like he did in WWE, and for however brief a time it was, would that opportunity have been there eventually, do you think in WCW, or was it just not ever going to happen? Define eventually. I think eventually.

Four years later, he wanted no four. So, you know. Or later, to be honest, no. Okay. I think the culture creatively and I mean, it's almost like ideology. You know, it's like it's a belief in something that isn't really, in this case, necessarily defined by a list of rules. But there is, there was a general kind of consensus among.

even, you know, disparate personalities. Like, even if you had guys that don't really get along, don't hang out, but they pretty much still agree on the basics of the industry. And at that time, there was still too many people. And, you know, I was one of them. So I'm not fading any heat here, folks. But I think the prevailing, you know, your instinct, your gut, you don't have any piece of paper that's going to tell you you're right or you're wrong.

You can't do any research. You know, you can pretend you can, but you can't. It comes down to instinct, and sometimes your instincts are right on the money, and sometimes they're not. And I think the prevailing instinct among the people in control, you know, I'm talking about, now, obviously, I was the president of company, but still, let's be honest, there are people who had a lot of influence, right, because you're managing personalities. You have to kind of, you know, bring people into the tent, so to speak, And you compromise along the way when you do sometimes.

And everybody has and everybody always will, by the way. But at that time, that influence would have not, it would have taken them longer than four years to open their eyes, frankly. Mine too. Mine too. It's interesting to think about what if and what could have been. Because on some level, almost see Eddie Guerrero, like I've heard the story, I think, of Ray Mysterio's first match in WCW.

And I guess he came in with some buzz and a lot of people were like, look at this. Look at this. They felt like, oh, this quote unquote little guy. This isn't going to work. This isn't legitimate. Oh, yeah. I remember those conversations because I was like, are we watching the same shit? I think when he comes through the curtain the first time and he shows off what he can do,

My point is, I think looks can be deceiving. And people would take a look at a Ray Mysterio and think, I don't see him being the world heavyweight champion. And we know later we did. But I think Eddie Guerrero could kind of fall into that. I guess the reason I was asking specifically about Eddie is we know in January of 2000, it didn't last long. It lasted exactly one day.

But they did try to put the big gold belt on Chris Benoit. And it takes until 2004 before Benoit and Eddie, Guerrero both become champs in the WWF. So I thought it might be interesting to have a hypothetical discussion of could any have gotten there faster in WCW since seemingly been wanted? Or was that more about in your opinion, because he's not here to tell us, was that about Kevin Sullivan trying to prove a point that I'm not going to punish you, whatever's happened in the past is water under the bridge?

In fact, I'm going to let you respectfully beat a much bigger guy and Sid for the big gold belt. And that didn't quell the fears. We know the radicals still jump. They still went to the WWE. You weren't there at the time. But did Kevin really think that Benoit and Eddie Guerrero and these guys could have been the future at that point or was it more about placating unhappy talent and making

them sticky to WCW? No, I think Kevin saw it coming. You know, and I was thinking, gosh, I hate to fall on that four-year swerg. as badly as I did because I'd like to think that I would have seen that train coming sooner than four years. But I'm sure Kevin did. Absolutely solid that Kevin did. Because here's why I'm, first of all, because I knew Kevin pretty well.

And I think I'm capable of making a pretty good guess when it comes to his creative judgment. Spent a lot of time with it. But also, you know, I used to be in business with a guy who, I'm not going to drop names, but massive success in the entertainment business as an executive. And he always used to tell me, Eric, that's unagreed. When you're forced to make a decision and trying to make a judgment, you're kind of looking at who's doing what and why, look for the greed.

And when you find the greed, you know, you'll know what your next move is. and Kevin Kevin he was a smaller guy he was one of them I think from a I don't want to say greedy it's not why I was tying that in but deep down inside I think Kevin more than anything

wanted it to prove that you don't have to be 6-6 and 280 to be a star because that's what he struggled with his whole life professional life I think that probably had more to do with it than anything that's my guess you know, I'll be honest. We've talked about this a lot before,

but never did I ever imagine that the reason Kevin was pushing Chris Benoit was less about I want to I want to prove to you as a, I don't know, to demonstrate to you that I'm committed to you and that I'm not going,

I'm going to position you, you know, with real opportunity. I'm going to put the big belt on you. I'm going to put the big gold belt on you. You're going to beat seven, nearly seven foot psycho Sid. but no, it was really rooted in, hey, he's the best, he's great, he deserves it, and I want to afford him opportunity that I didn't receive based on a preconceived notion that's just a fallacy. People will believe that when they see it.

Or, and that's, you know, that's kind of like trying to, you know, ascribe certain, you know, psychological, you know, insight into something that may, may have, it may have been both things. It may have been, part of it may have been. because Kevin saw it, because he wanted to prove it, you know, they're not like separate things, right? Right.

It could be more than one reason, but if you look at it from Kevin's perspective, he did see value in those guys. He pushed a lot of people that were in that category of smaller, but faster, more dynamic people. You know, he loved the ECW influence, right?

So Kevin was trying, I think wanted in part to prove that you don't have to be six foot eight and 300 pounds because those people are hard to find. If you're a booker and your job is to create content, 52 weeks a year, you know, whatever, 300 hours a year, whatever you do it, you need talent. And there's just not enough big six foot, I'm talking now as a producer, not as a wrestling fan, not as a Booker, well, as a Booker, because, you know, as a writer, that's what a Booker is, really. It's a writer.

You are part of the production team. They can't produce what you don't write and vice versa. So I can understand why, just from a resource point of view, you'd want to take the emphasis off, big guys, and put it on small guys. You've got more to work with. And they're more fun to watch in some respects. You know, it's why I wanted the Cruiserweight Division, because we had a lot of big guys. but the pace in a big guy match is kind of always the same. The blues are different.

Well, not really that much. It's just the order in which they come matching. But the pace, the presentation, the psychology of the match is very, very cookie cutter. With the cruiser weights and the style, so fast pace is so different that it always felt fresh. Sorry, I can't stop talking about the cruise weight division. I'm sorry, you got ourselves off track. Well, something you won't be able to stop talking about. Or Chubbies, fellas, if you want to look sharp in time to meet the family this holiday,

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That's chubbyshorts.com. That's C-U-H-B-B-I-E-S-H-O-R-T-S dot com. Chubbieshorts.com. and don't forget that promo code, Eric. So listen, I wanted to ask you about something else that got some attention this week that I'll admit caught me a little off guard and it made me go, hmm, maybe it will you too, Eric. Chris Jericho has a podcast, of course.

Talk is Jericho and everybody's been speculating what's next for Jericho. But he talked about TNA's recent pay-per-view event bound for glory and how he felt it looked on TV. He said, quote, that crowd looked huge. It looked huge. It was a WWE level crowd. That place was packed.

I was watching this and not saying anything out of school here, but comparing it to watching Dynamite when they were at the ECW Arena, which looked like a Tony Condello taping. Sorry, it did. TNA looked like the second biggest company in the world, and that was amazing. The presentation was amazing. was amazing.

Well, this is the same fellow who not that long ago in the scheme of things was saying, hey, dynamite ratings are going to pass Monday Night Raw. You had to bring that up. He's going to hate you for that. All of a sudden, this does not feel like we're doing the same amount of home cooking. You know he's going to hate you for that. Well, what did I say that wasn't true? That's why he's going to hate you.

Okay. I'm not trying to beat him to hate me, but when you read that, that does not sound like a guy who's sticking around to AEW. It sounds like a guy who knows, and I don't guess that's a secret. He's gone. He's going to WWE, right? I don't know if it's right or not.

Here's the fun thing about Chris. I've been watching this. I've been watching, I've been watching the prequel to all this for about a year and a half. I've seen this train coming. I didn't, you know, go public and predict it, but I can assure you, I've been watching Chris what he does, what he doesn't do, how he looks, how he doesn't look, what he says, what he doesn't say,

because he's such an interesting cat. I agree. Chris is constantly playing chess, in my opinion. I don't want to profess to know Chris really. well. I like Chris. I will say that. I respect the hell out of them, probably because what I'm about to say. And maybe, you know, none of us true and I've bought into an illusion. But I kind of think I see what he's doing. And I think he's brilliant. And I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he's gone. I think it's a foregone conclusion that he's going to be a lot more

interesting and valuable to whoever he's going to end up working with. Because this is kind of organic natural controversy creates cash story what do we have now we've already got anticipation it's already here we're experiencing one of the most important parts of the sarsa formula we're anticipating now what's when is chris's contract up conred you know uh later this year i i don't know but i've heard over and over towards the end of the year so hypothetically speaking. Let's say the 7301 his contract stuff. He's going to be,

this shit is already going on, right? It's going to heighten. There's going to be more speculation. You know why? Because Chris is going to create it. Because he's smart. He's raising his stock value. And guess what? If he stays with AEW, he's more valuable than he was six months ago.

And if he's not going to stay with AEW, he has value that he didn't have six months ago. And That's where he starts from in WWE. But Chris is smart enough to see that, plan it. What do I mean by plan? I don't know. Have you seen the condition that Chris Jericho has got himself in recently?

He posted on his 55th birthday. A phenomenal selfie. Yeah, he shredded. And if you would have seen him a year ago, I did. I went, whoa, Chris. Anybody remind you you, you're taking your shirt off when you go? get out there and get in a ring. Have you seen a mirror lately?

You know, not to be cruel, but, you know, when you're out there in your underwear, you kind of got to be aware of what you look like, I guess. And it didn't appear that Chris Carrick. Look at them now. And the reason I noticed it is because I also know that Chris is smart enough to use that, just like a lot of actors do, who lose a lot of weight or gain a lot of weight, whatever it may be to really get into the character. But what it really is is drawing,

you're drawing attention to your commitment to whatever it is you're about to do next, is what it really is, I think, at least in the sports entertainment business. So I've been watching Chris play this fiddle now for a while, and now everybody's starting to pay attention to the music. It's kind of fun. Well,

I would say, you know, you might be crazy like the Fox, because if he does wind up sticking around AEW, you know he's going to get a, a hellified contract. I don't know if that's true that he's going to stay, but just the idea that he could,

that he might, and that he could use all of this negativity and controversy to create a more compelling storyline. Like, we want to believe. That's what I want to believe. Honestly, Conrad, not to cut you off, I apologize. But I feel passionate about this. I really, really hope I'm right.

I really hope that, you know, this is Chris making a move so that he has more value to AEW. Not that I don't want to see him in WWE, I would, just like, you know, in a different way. You know, I mean, I'm really loving the John Cena ride right now just because, I don't know, a little piece of me can kind of live vicariously through him in a way just because I can imagine what the feeling is like because I got kind of close enough to get an idea for real. but you know I feel the same way about Chris I'd love to see Chris have a great set off in WW because number one because I think he deserves it and and what much we're

talking about with any Guerrero what he's really contributed to the industry is significant so I'd like to see that for him but I think for the business of the business side of me I'd like to see him raise a stock and make him make it matter in AEW we want to know from you guys what do you think is going to happen? Do you think Chris Jericho winds up in the WW? Does he wind up in AW? Is there another play? Let us know in the comments below

where you think Jericho is going to be in 2026. I know this. If Chris Jericho is going to show up in TV anywhere, he's probably going to return wearing jeans. Is there a particular type of jeans that you would recommend he show up in if he's going to do any physical activity, Eric? Absolutely. There's only one. There's only, as a former martial artist, I pay attention to things like this.

You want to be flexible. You want to be comfortable. You may never know when you need to throw a kick to the head. Perfect jeans. Absolutely. There's only one. The four-way dynamic stretch means that you can have seconds, thirds, or even the whole pie without popping a button in front of the in-laws. that's all for Thanksgiving, but if you're Y2J, you can hit a code breaker, you could hit the lion tamer, who knows what all you can do. Here's what we know about the perfect gene. They've got reinforced stitching and YKK zippers, so there's no rips, there's no embarrassing crotch blowouts. Rock Lesnar needed these once. I'm just saying, the perfect gene has six fits from skinny to the best-selling athletic to thick, thick for us big boys. They serve the

humble man with no tailor required, but a huge range of sizes. You can go from 26 to 52 on the waist and 26 to 38 on the links, whether you're a short king or a big boy and, well, everybody in between, they got you. I should also mention style-wise, man, you can take your pick with the perfect gene. They've got 18 different washes that go with everything. You got basic blues to grays and whites and whatever you're looking for. It's going to look great at Thanksgiving dinner. As a reminder, if you've seen any real American freestyle, or any appearances that Eric's made the last year or so. He was rocking the perfect gene.

Same with double J when he's on TV. Same with good old J.R. I'm just telling you, everybody who tries the perfect gene doesn't go back. Hell, I even saw DDP doing DDPY on his back balcony at his beach house, staying in Panama City. Yeah, he's doing his whole workout in the perfect gene.

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Save today. and stay perfect. I want to mention too, Eric, they've got buttery soft teas and a lot of other stuff. It's not just the jeans, but the genes are like a staple in the Bischoff household now, aren't they? You know, when I first received my pair,

because the company loves us to try out the product and really either believe in it or let them know we don't before we talk about it. And sometimes, as you know, we get sample products and it's like, I don't really want to, yeah, I don't think so. So I got a pair, no, I'm old school, right? I used to go to the store, the retail outlet.

I could pick the jeans up. I could feel them with my fingers. I could kind of, you know, I could try them on. You know, because jeans are special, man. They got to fit right, or you just end up, you don't wear it. You get a stack of jeans in your closet. You just don't wear it because they just don't feel quite right and comfortable enough. So I'm a little skeptical when I get a little.

a pair of jeans in the mail. I didn't get to touch them first. I didn't get to try them on first. I don't know how they're going to look on me. Yeah. Yeah. I put those things out and say, whoa. Lori, check it out.

You know what I mean? And now I wear them every day. And they're my go-toes. I'm going to jump on a plane. I'm wearing perfect jeans because they really are almost like, you know, leisure wear. It's that comfortable. Imagine being that comfortable.

looking short. You got to check out the perfect gene. Use that promo code. You'll be glad you did. All right, Eric, let's talk about our topic today. I'm pretty excited about this. We don't do this every week. We don't even do it all that often, but a little ask Eric anything. I love these. Paul has a great question for us. He says, of all the gimmick matches, TLC, Hell and a Cell, Royal Rumble, Triple Threat. Which one is the greatest and why is it war games? Were you as high on war games as Paul is?

No. I liked it. Thematically, it was kind of cool. It had an edge. It was dangerous. It took the perceived danger of a cage match to like another level beyond, which is kind of because cage matches were so overused, right? It's like, yeah, I give two shits if I see a cage match ever again in my life.

Because most of the time there's no reason for them. It's just, well, watch us. We're going to wrestle this week. We're going to use a cage. And it may get bloody. It's just, eh. But war games had, war games had a format to it that made it interesting.

There was the mechanics. When I say format, I mean the mechanics of how it worked. I think Royal Rumble, in my opinion, absolutely, absolutely the, just the best format for a gimmick match ever, because it's served. purpose and it had drama. It had story. It was built on anticipation, right? Reality, we're going to let that one go, right? But it was structured enough. Let me take that back.

There was enough structure and framework to it that made it feel more real. Because, you know, so much of what we see in professional wrestling is kind of semi-random and supposedly against the rules, but never is. But this had a real distinct form. that allows you to kind of get sucked into the moment, therefore check the reality box. It was inherently, there's surprises right and left. That's what it's built on. And the action takes care of itself. So I mean, fundamentally from my perspective as a producer, it checked all the boxes.

I got to agree. I think the Royal Rumble is the greatest gimmick match of all time. It gets everyone over. It builds that anticipation, like a whole lottery component of it. I think it's number one. We want to know from you guys, though, what is your favorite gimmick match? Let us know in the comments below. What's the greatest gimmick match of them all?

Is it TLC? Is it hell in the cell? Is it something else? I don't know. I think Royal Rumble might be it. Carl Hayes is with us and he says if you were starting a wrestling company, let's forget talent. If you have a TV network contract and you have to hire current wrestlers to work

backstage and on the business side. So like more promotion and negotiating. Who are a few you think you would hire and in what roles? Again, not in ring roles. But that's interesting. Who do you think has a skill set that translates backstage, Eric? Oh, so many. So many.

It's kind of hard to, to process that question and think about an answer. You know, Chavo Guerrero is a, he's a, he's a very unappreciated asset. that can cover a lot of ground, wear a lot of hats, that's what I mean. He's one. Terry Taylor is another. I'd have a conversation with Terry.

There's probably, you know, I like Robert Rood a lot. I like Robert Rood. You know, he's cut, he's a little bit an introvert in my experience with him at least maybe not classical you know clinical introvert but it's pretty quiet guy doesn't really have a lot to say unless it's urgent but he's a very smart guy and he's very smart and he's he's got a good perspective of things so i that would probably

one of my top five calls, maybe top three calls. Beyond that, there's so many of them. I actually have to sit down and think about it because I wouldn't want to offend anybody or miss out on a good choice. You know, I know that we're talking about, you know, hybrid. Kurt would be there, by the way. Kurt would definitely be there. Okay.

Kurt's a good teacher. Kurt has reached that point in his life, in my opinion. And I'm not that close to Kurt. We don't hang and talk and, you know, invite each other over for holidays and stuff like that. But I got a feel for Kurt. And a lot of times athletes, they hold on to what was and have a hard time letting that go. And while they're still kind of holding on to it, and I'm talking about producers in WWE or in sports entertainment, probably in WWE or even AEW for that man. I don't know who's back there, but I'm not casting judgment on any one person,

but just the people who were former wrestlers, especially at a high level, who make that transition into a producer. Some of them absolutely shine in that role because in their hearts that they want to teach. It's a passion, and they get enjoyment. They get a dopamine hit out of training. Greg Gagne was that way, as much as I think he's a dick in so many other ways. in this respect, he was one of the best. He got so passionate about it,

and he enjoyed teaching the psychology and the art of it so much, that he had a good feel for that. Terry Taylor, same thing. Now, each one of them had their own things, and some of them I were, you know, I may have perceived them or they may have been more real than I thought, but it doesn't matter. Their skill sets were such that there are certain producers out there

that could be really great, but there's a lot of them that can't let go of what was. Right? They're still, they don't know it. They don't mean it. They wish it didn't exist, but there's a little bit of resentment. I didn't get a chance to make that big money when I was your age, when I was coming up. Nobody guaranteed me anything, blah, blah, blah. And it's all true.

I'm not dismissing it. And it's not that it's not valid. But at the same time, man, you got to adjust. And a lot of guys can't let that baggage go until, later on their life. And sometimes by them it's too late. It's interesting to think about this question because you named a name that I don't think we've ever talked about this before,

but someone who has inside knowledge of WWE and to be clear, it's not Bruce who told me this, but someone said, because they mentioned Bruce, that Bobby Rood will, will inherit the seat that Bobby, that Bruce occupies one day. Oh, really?

The first time I heard that, I thought, what? But that same person also said, yeah, and do you want to know who's next for Michael Hayes? Like, who's going to sit in Michael Hayes seat? And I was like, okay, I'm kind of waiting with faded breath. And they didn't hesitate and said Jamie Noble. The idea that those two guys who I as a fan know they're from an in-ring perspective, like I was fortunate enough to be able to help Jamie Noble with a, of the mortgage years ago, but I mean, I don't really know him, know him.

And certainly Bobby Rood, outside of shaking his hand once or twice, I don't know him at all. But the idea that someone who has knowledge of the inner workings of WWE would say, oh, yeah, those are the two natural heirs based on their skill sets. That totally caught me off card. I would have never imagined it. So when you said Bobby Rood, it was like, wait a minute, I've heard that before. And I think a lot of wrestling fans would probably be surprised to hear that the air appearance for the Bruce and Mike.

Michael Hayes roles might be Bobby Rude and Jamie Noble. Don't judge a book by their cover. I guess I had a preconceived notion of both of those guys. Not that they couldn't do it, but I just didn't know that they possessed that skill set. You know what I mean? You know who gave Jamie Noble his first shot in the business? This guy named Eric Bischoff, I think.

Yeah, it's really Chris Canyon. But yeah. Yeah. And it's the same thing with Jamie. You go backstage, you know, I show up once every year, every other year do something on TV for WWE or whatever and you see Jamie he's there he's working but he's just he's a little bit like Bobby Rood Robert Rood you know he's he's very quiet

it's not drawing attention to himself he's just getting the work done and he's good at his job I don't know I don't have a feel for Jamie as much as I do for for Robert because I've worked closely with Robert in in TNA several times over long periods of time and really respected what I saw back then and he's gotten you know a Harvard education since that so not surprised somebody else I'm glad somebody else saw it means it could happen he deserves it speaking about behind the scenes in WWE I know you've been traveling this week but you didn't by chance happen to listen to Stephanie McMahon's podcast where Paul Heyman

was a guest, did you? No, but I'm going to. I saw it. I was like flipping through stuff on a plane or on my way to the airport or something. I saw it. Well, I got to listen to that. So I put a heart by it. So I go back and watch it. There's a comment in there. I wanted to get your take on. It just really was curious to see if you ever saw this. And I'll let you get the full context when you listen to it. But the gist is, I think we've all heard through the years that at different times, Paul Heyman and Stephanie McMahon did not get along when they worked on the writing team behind the scenes. but what they shared with the audience is that once upon a time they sort of settled that and the way they settled it is they realized that Vince McMahon had pitt them boast against each other. I guess Vince allegedly told Paul, hey, I want you to come in here and be the disruptor, challenge her.

If she thinks it's her place to manage you, then damn it, she's going to have to learn how to manage you. So be the contrarian voice and opinion. And Stephanie would ask her dad, hey, I want to work with Haman on this. and he would say, no, absolutely not. He thinks this is his company, and you've got to put a stop for that. You need to speak up. Don't let him push you up.

So he's pitting them against each other. And then I guess they had some sort of late night exchange, and they realized when one of them asked the other, why the F are you doing this to me? Because your dad asked me to. Really? Yeah, he told me to rein you in. Well, he told me to put you in your plate.

So he created that. And that's an interesting case study in the psychology of Vince McMahon. and peering into the mind of a madman. Did you ever see anything like that where he was hitting two people against each other just to see what would happen? No, I can't say that I did, but I can say that I absolutely 100% based on things I did see, not necessarily this kind of a scenario, but the quirky things that I experienced in the four short months that I reported directly to Vince McMahon, I'm not going to, it left a mark,

right? And I've often thought about, like, why did he do that? What? Why did he even bring me in? That was like my first question. Well, why the hell am I even here, right? And I think part of it is what we're seeing here and reading here. I think it was like, let's bring this guy in and shake shit up. If he does, great, if he doesn't, he's out the door. I think it was maybe that simple in my case, but I certainly can, I will buy into that story 100%. I believe it to be true.

Because that is, I think it's indicative of Vince's proclivity to control people. manipulate people, which is what made them a great storyteller. That's what great writers do. That's what great directors do. That's what great actors and actresses do. They manipulate your emotions to get you to do what they want you to do. And as part, it's not a bad thing. I'm not making it sound like a bad thing.

But it's his nature. It was his nature. It probably still is his nature, as it is with all creative people. And this was just another manifestation of it. This is another example of, working the boys, so to speak, or whatever. And it's also in a weird way, and I've talked to other people who have experienced versions of this

in a corporate environment, it's also to see how fast the cream can rise to the top. Who wins? Let's figure out who should be doing what. I know how. Let's make them compete and sit back and watch and see what attributes you like and where you think strengths are

and where you think they're not based on an intense kind of competition. I know it sounds kind of cruel, but it's really effective. Well, I'll tell you what else is effective. And those are those Tacovus boots. Eric's got a pair. I got a pair. Hell, Eric's got several pair.

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I've told the story before, but it bears repeating. I got dad a pair of Ticovas boots for his birthday. That's December 16th. He loved it so much. I rushed ordered another pair. They were here in time for Christmas. So dad had not one, but two pair. Fast forward to early in this year.

It was either January, February, somewhere in there. A parent had a pipe burst in their house. They had a ton of water damage. This is real. When the insurance adjuster came to his house and he's saying, all right, we're going to replace the carpet. We're going to replace the sheetrock. We're going to have to pick that tile up.

He pointed to the boots and says, are those to Kovas? And dad said, yeah, I just got them for Christmas. The adjuster said, oh, we got to get you reimburse for those. because I know those are good boots. Everybody knows Tecovas. That's a real story. By the way, don't tell Allstate,

but Dad cleaned up the boots and he kept rocking them and he got another pair. So dad's added to the collection. You'll recognize quality when you see it. You'll love it when you feel it. Right now get 10% off at Tacovus.com slash 83 weeks. When you sign up for email and text, you get 10% off at tocovus.com slash 83 weeks. That's 10% off at Tocovus.

T-E-C-O-V-A-S dot com slash 83 weeks. Tocovus.com slash 83 weeks. See site for details. Decovus. Point your toes west. Does that like the most badass Christmas present ever right here, Eric? Dude, your dad, Larry, he should be a spokesperson for Tukovus boots. Because as you're telling that story, I can see Larry.

Yes. And first of all, like I live in Wyoming, Cowboys everywhere. Those guys know their boots. But Larry? Not so much. No, I think you've done. Larry's the kind of, because look, what do you need to know? You need to know if they're comfortable.

Yes, that's right. That's all you need to know. Do they look good? Are they comfortable? That's it. And Larry would tell you, I would say Larry, those look like the most comfortable boots in the world. If they were not the most comfortable boots in the world, you would hear about it.

Oh, yeah. That's true. Okay. Well, you nailed it with my dad. Yes. And if they were the most comfortable boots in the world, guess what? You're going to hear about it. That's true. They should reach out to learn. He knows. Tocobus.com slash 83 weeks. My dad loves them. Your dad will too. Let's do a question from Heather Whitley. Heather, of course, we're so glad you're here with us. I mean, I just want to give you a round of applause.

Like, we're up to 3% female audience here, Eric. We're fired up at 83 weeks. breaking the glass ceiling. This is, I think you called it before a testicle festival. It's more like a plywood ceiling. Yeah, something like that. Heather says, you've done just about everything in the wrestling and entertainment business. Hindsight being what it is, what is there, is there one thing you would change about your career? So the one thing, if you're going to go back and make one adjustment, maybe not even a major adjustment, maybe it could be a tiny two millimeter adjustment.

If you're going to make one in your career, what would it be? This is going to sound so cheesy, but it's true. I mean, I am so grateful to be where I am right now in this moment with the skills that I have, the experience I've gained, including all the bad stuff that people would think I should want to go back and change, but I don't because it's like all of it added together got me to where I am right now. And leaving out some of those ingredients, just like when you're baking a cake,

you may not end up with what you really wanted in the end. And I'm still great, and I say that only because, and it's not true, trust me, I still screw some stuff up, or miss opportunities even. But I'm better equipped now than I've ever been in my life to go out and do some pretty cool, big stuff.

and I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't have just gone through all of the muck. So I wouldn't change the thing. I've been blessed. I'm good. All right. Let me pick your brain because I got one question. I've always wanted to ask them. We've never really talked about it here.

We've established that when the WWE brought the NWO over, those guys continued to get a royalty for the NWO. You did not. I'm curious, hypothetically, we've never talked about this. When you were on camera for WCW, did you have a separate performer contract? Nope. Do you regret? Let me take that back.

Technically, I think I may have in one of my contracts, because my contracts were typically two-year contracts, I think. And I had several of them. And each one of them kind of changed as my responsibilities changed with. them and they got to a certain point somewhere early on like when I think I got promoted the senior vice president it was like I was still on camera because remember I started it as an announcer so I started my initial salary I don't remember what it was like 125 grand a year or something like that when I first started and I went up to 175 and then when I got promoted as an officer of the

company as an executive, between the amount of money that I had been making as an announcer and the kind of corporate threshold that existed for my particular position, I was like exceeding that. So they had to, in order for accounting, Turner accounting, it's not unusual, but in order to help balance the scale, so to speak, technically there was a talent contribution to my executive contract, but it was kind of creative and not only lasted, I think, for about a year or two and then morphed into something else. But no, I never got pay. I never got, I never got royalties. I never got any of that stuff. I just got a salary. It does feel like, you know,

you should have been paid when you were running the promotion and then you're the voice of nitro that should have been another contract. And then when you become an on screen character, because as you know, you had a ton of heat and they were. times where you would appear as often as any of the top guys on the show would you were out for multiple segments i think you could have very well justified not only you know a performer contract but perhaps if you could have made one little tiny adjustment oh i'm going to get a percentage of n w o merch too since i did technically create it that feels like that would have been a worthwhile pivot yeah but that now you're getting into man if i would have gone to that 7-11 on that weekend i would

have bought that lottery ticket and I could have won that lottery. You know what I mean? There's a certain point where, you know, and I love thinking about what ifs. I really do, but I don't get lost at it, right? Because I don't know. I, if I would have had a crystal ball, of course I would have negotiated for all those things. But you know what?

Here's my, I don't regret this. But one of the things I've noticed about my life is I never watch out for myself. I never have. I've always believed enough of myself to know deep down inside it doesn't matter because I'm going to end up okay. And that allows me to take some pretty big risks and put myself in bad situations or not even put myself in a bad situation, not exploit the good situation to the maximum potential. I settle. I've always settled for the opportunity and the chance to prove a point or build something.

and that's just a different version of believing in yourself and betting on yourself. But when I was at Turner, if I allow myself to think, because I've had agents talk to me about this many times, even back that, I didn't make that much money in professional wrestling. There's people who don't realize that. Now, I had a good year or two, probably three, but I was making respect good money. Not good. I was making. You weren't making life-changing money in restaurants.

No, I was, you know, I'm hesitating because I don't want it to sound like bragging. And it probably doesn't anymore in today's economy. But now, back in, you know, 96, I'm making $450, $500, maybe. By 97, 98, I think it was up to $6.50, and there was some really easy incentives, benchmarks that were almost automatic. I could hit. Then, of course, I got some, you know, stock option money and all that kind of stuff. That was the heyday.

But my salary probably never exceeded 500 grand a year on average over three years. And I'm, you know, in the meantime, I'm making everybody else, you know, millions, sometimes tens of millions of dollars. But I never got lost in that. I never, I don't care what other people make. I really don't care. what I care about is feeling like I'm actually contributing something and I'm getting paid what I feel it's worth and I don't compare it to other people. I love that attitude. Jay Martin's got a question and says,

what's your favorite WCW pay-per-view that you produced? Once upon a time, Eric, you landed on Halloween Heavoc 96. Has that answer changed over the years? No, it's the same answer because it's such a sentimental answer. There's no reason why I feel this way. I can't point to the math. I can't point to the bi-rate, you know, math. I can't point to a match that was like so outstanding that it represents that night.

I just loved that show. I had so much fun producing it. We had so much fun creating it. I had so much fun producing that show because that was before, this was, here's exactly why. 95, ooh, with a new kid on the block, Everybody expected us to fail. Hey, we didn't fail.

We're competitive. Here we go. And that was fun. That was really fun. It validated WCW in a significant way. But in 96, when the NWO came along, that's when everything changed. So from 96 until about 90, end of 97. So for about a year, almost two years.

here and a half. Everybody was like, I can't believe it. We made it. We're here. This is so much fun. You're not embarrassed because there's only 2,500 people in a 10,000 seat arena, which is really freaking depressing as a performer, just so you know. And the smaller of the crowd gets the more depressing the environment is.

It's horrible as a performer on your head. It's no fun. You hate it. You're embarrassed. Or you should be, at least. But we had gotten, that's what WCW wrestlers were used to. That was the environment that they, that's how they felt. And now all of a sudden we're selling out arenas.

People are actually buying freaking merchandise. We're hearing about six-figure gates, which had never happened before, really, consistently in WCW. So the morale was exceptionally high during that short window. And then after a certain period, people start getting used to it. All of a sudden, it's like, well, I really like a little more. And yeah, I don't care so much about the crowds. I want to, you know, do my thing.

I don't really want to do personal appearances if I don't have to. And all the good things that come with success. But there for a while, man, it was fun. And that, that Halloween havoc, it probably was the peak of that. I love that show, too. Every down again, I'll throw it on just for fun. And Chris has a great question here. Did you ever contemplate giving Vern Ganya a position on or off screen in WCW?

That's interesting. We know Greg was there. Was there ever any interest from Vern's side? I mean, it feels like if Vern would have called you and asked for a job, he would have got one, right? I would have been very, very uncomfortable because I,

to this day, I, you know when I say I love Verne I I love what Vern did for my family yes that's how I love Vern what would burn the opportunity that Vern gave me and it really didn't it came through Mike Shields in all fairness to to the truth but it wouldn't have happened even with Mike shields were not for Byrne and I really not only respect him for that and I always will under any circumstances. But I became friends with him.

I looked up to him as a businessman because of the business he built with the AWA as a young entrepreneur who just happened to get thrust into an opportunity he never dreamt could happen or would happen or was even interested in for that point at any point. But to be thrust into that in such a cool way

and then learn, you know, Vern Gagnu taught me along with others, Mike Shields included and Greg Gagnett, the basics and the fundamentals of being a good professional wrestling play-by-play person. And that education served me really well because it was the foundation, it was the psychology. It was the art of the illusion using your voice as a play-by-play person to create emotion and connect the audience to what's going on and just engage, right? There is an art to good play-by-play. And I'm not suggesting I ever learned it, by the way, but I was at least exposed to some of the teaching of it. And it served me well because I could apply the same

fundamentals to other elements of the production. You know, the same elements that make great play-by-play storytelling good. Well, okay, let's convert that to what we see on the screen. How do we do that? How do we apply this stuff? You know, how do we make it fit? So I still think about it to this day. So, yeah, there's a lot of reasons why I love Verganya.

However, I also knew how stubborn he was, and he wasn't leaving. the 70s not not in terms of his thoughts now he did have a good eye for talent mind you when i was running wcw bernagna called me and suggested i'd take a look at the young brock lesnar at the time i just didn't have the we didn't have a training facility there was no there was no real way to take advantage of that opportunity honestly um tied the kid up you know trying to man didn't work so i didn't take for enough by that opportunity. So Vernon and I were so close, but I would have never brought him in because he was, I was living in, you know, the late 90s and he's still living in 1973. Isn't it interesting to think about Brock Lesnar and WCW in the year 2000?

Yeah. And again, if we would have had the infrastructure, you know, the power plant was kind of like it wasn't as well developed of a program and a part of the company as it should have been. It was very, very fundamental. And it served its purpose. I'm not dismissing it at all. But in order for it to be a machine, much like NXT is, it had to be, it needed more infrastructure, it needed more process, it needed more attention than it was getting. We didn't have it.

So it would have been a waste for Brock. It would have been a poor decision. Well, something that's not a poor decision is getting rid of that big leather brick you're sitting on right now and picking up a Ridge. I heard Joe Rogan called this a front pocket wallet. Here's the reality. What you're going to call Ridge is the last wallet you'll ever need. You've probably already heard about Ridge.

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That's Ridge.com, the best sale of the year, 47% off at Ridge. dot com. Be sure to let them know you heard about them on 83 weeks. All right. Let's get ourselves in some trouble here. Let's stir it up. Oh, good. I love this part. This is my favorite part. Kylin, you're going to love this question too because you're going to have put your thinking cap on. Kyle says, do you think that you would have lasted your planned three years as executive director of Smackdown under Paul LeVec? So now you get you get this job? And on day one, the power switch happens.

Vince is out. Triple H is in control. And you've just been hired as the executive director of SmackDown. Could it have worked? Of course, we know that started what in like 2019. So 2020, 2020, 2021, 2022. Would that have worked? Would you have hung around for three years?

I wouldn't. There's no way I would have lasted three years under Vince. Right. No way. I'm surprised I got to four months. Here's, I'm going to, I'm going to, it's an interesting question. And I think I have two answers. Do I think, for example, if the, if I would have gotten there in 2019 and I got to work the next day and it was Paul Leveck, do I think I would have lasted three years under that?

Is that what you're asking? Is that the question? Like, if Paul Leveck would have been there. know the entire time. Like, would you, what I got there? Yeah.

So you, you show up in the very next day. Vince is out. Triple H is promoted. Do you make it? I got, I got the scenario. I don't think it would have.

And here's why. This is why two answers. I think it would today. I think if, if the circumstances were such and there was a reason for, for, for Paul to reach out to me, do I think Paul and I can work together today in a really

productive fun way? Absolutely. Do I think that would have happened in 2019? No, I don't. Because Paul's gone through a lot professionally. He's had to learn a lot. He's already, you know, forget about what he's done up until the last three years. But from a corporate kind of process managing what he's managing with the focus on creative, it is a massive job. And fortunately he had a lot of time to kind of learn the you know he built a good foundation right doing what he didn't call him a student of the game for nothing It was actually true But he also went through some personal stuff and Probably shifted his way of thinking in some respects as those situations do to anybody that experiences them I think Paul is probably better suited now to do what he's doing doing and it's going to be successful, but I think if the same scenario would have occurred in

2019, I don't think he would have been ready for it. I think he's ready now because of what he's had to learn and what he's had to go through personally, but I don't think in 2019. If I had to show up in the very next day, it was in that spot, I think he would have crashed and burned. Not immediately, not because he's not smart enough, but that's just too much to learn, too much to adjust to and a time in your life where you still haven't kind of learned the other stuff you need to learn. Timing is right right now for Paul. Carl is with us here and he says with all the recent mergers of streaming services like ESPN

and Fox, do you think we could be seeing a wrestling service in 2027 with AEW and TNA, among others, looking for greater exposure? Thank you and happy holidays to you and your family. You know, it's interesting. I mean, it's a great question. I appreciate it. But at what expense exposure? There's a certain point where you're so exposed, you become so diluted that nothing matters.

And that's kind of like one of the risks in today's environment, especially if you're starting out or you're launching a project and choosing a platform. It's like, can you become so available that you're not a destination for anyone or anything and you're just randomly hoping to pick up, you know, listeners or viewers or followers or whatever it may be? Or is it better to be really focused and try to plant your flag in a sector? One of the reasons I'm excited about Real American Freestyle on Fox Nation. Yes, I said Fox Nation. I'll say Fox Nation one more time.

Not that it's in my contract, but I'm very grateful to the people at Fox for the opportunity we have because we're proving a point in that there is an audience for this product. And if you can prove as an hour case at Real American Freestyle that there is an inherent audience for the product that can't find it anywhere else, they will gravitate towards you in en masse, right, in a large hurt. and it'll have a positive impact on your business. You know, sports entertainment is much the same way. The audience is extremely loyal. And the reason why I'm excited about what we're doing, which is the reason why I think, you know, new companies can evaluate these opportunities a little differently

is while streaming may not provide the headlines and even initially the cash. If you can build your audience and prove that you have your own audience and those people will migrate with you, you've got leverage in a negotiation. And I love the idea of building a television model for streaming because I think in a long term, that's where it's going to be. Why did I go into the weeds on that one? I'm sorry. No, not at all. We like going to the weeds.

Jay Wallace wants to know, how important do you find theme music to be as part of the presentation? for a performer. As a young fan, I was always drawn to the uniqueness of how the WWF, most notably Jim Johnson's themes, were really able to personify the character. I really think this is one area that WCW lacked that he's using a lot of Turner Music Library stock music for the most part with a couple of exceptions. Well, you know, now listen, we're all getting better. We're all learning as we go. What do you think about Jay in his assertion? Do you think that theme songs should have been a bigger priority in WCW? 100%.

100%. It's kind of one of the things that I it's like the light bulb went off of my head 15 years too late. That's not really true. Because I mean it's one of the reasons why I spent $100,000 to buy the rights to Jimmy Hendricks, Mootoo Child.

Because I believe that the music creates the mood and the mood creates the connection. It creates emotion. Food is emotion. But music is like the direct pipeline from your ears to your soul. And that's why it's such an important part of any major emotion picture. That's why the music industry exists because it affects the way people feel. It's your dopamine, it's your audio dopamine hit.

It's such an important part of it. And it's so much of a part of it that, you know, as a through the eyes of, I guess, a producer, whenever I'm watching anything, I'm listening carefully to what kind of music is used and when it's used and at what level it's used and how music is manipulated through the course of a television series or a movie in particular to heighten the emotional experiences trying to be presented on screen. It all ties together. Did I appreciate that? You know, back in, you know, mid to the late 90s? A little bit. My instinct did, hence Jimmy Hendricks.

Hence my own ring music from Desperado when I, when I wrestled Larry Zabisco. That music was right out of the album from the movie Desperado. So I knew then, but I didn't have a deep enough appreciation for it, nor did we commit to really taking advantage of music to help build characters. Let's do a question here from Aaron. He wants to know. Did Mrs. B struggle with some of the negative comments that have been said about you on

WW programming in the past? Obviously, a case of history being written by the victors, but you were unfairly villainized by them more than once. Was Mrs. B ever defensive on your behalf, do you think? I don't know. You'd have to ask her for sure, but I think she was just like, like, why would they say that? I mean, more confused, I guess. Um, and probably a little,

well, those bastards, why'd they say that? You know, that's probably more of that, right? Those bastards. Why would they say that? Yeah. Uh, that would have been her. But, you know, it would have been a fleeting moment. Hey, I, you know, listen, I, I'm defending. of you so I can only imagine that she is. Terrell Lewis wants to know as a fan. The WCW New Japan relationship was amazing as it allowed me to be exposed to talent I had only read about in magazines. Looking back,

was there anything you wished you had gotten more of out of that relationship like talent exchanges or joint pay per views? Do you think you could have done more with the New Japan relationship or did you get all that there was to get back then, Eric? I love this question because it just gives me a chance to kind of put that experience in a broader context. When I took over essentially WCW in management, I walked into a relationship between WCW and New Japan that had been so destroyed. Lack of trust, disrespect, everything that could have gone wrong in that relationship went wrong. financially and every other way.

But I wanted to resurrect it because I saw an opportunity that was really cool. So with no experience, no background, I knew nobody, well, I knew Masa Sayito, because I was an announcement in the AWA when Masa wrestled there occasionally. But beyond that connection,

which was superficial at best, no connection other than Brad Riggins who was kind of a high school post high school friend I thought man we got to make this work and we put that relationship back together and we did some really cool things

here in the United States that really added to the whole NW era and the vibe but in the process I also created one of the most successful wrestling angles in the history of Japan that being the NWOJJP bad angle. This is not my words. This is the words from a reporter at Tokyo Times to me a couple

years ago when he was interviewing me. That was his assertion on mine. So that's kind of freaking cool. And here's the one that really tops a list for me. And it's not necessarily because it moved the cash register needle, so to speak. But I got to be a part, an instrumental part, co-producing to an extent. Bringing Muhammad Ali not only to Japan, back to Japan, and reconnecting him with Anoki because Anoki didn't know how to figure that out or get to him.

But I got to go to North Korea, to Pyongyang, North Korea, and experience a two-night professional wrestling event that in aggregate drew over 350,000 people. Now, granted, they didn't get their tickets at ticket master. And I get that. And I don't mean to make light of that because it is what it is. So I'm not like comparing it and trying to measure that against anything else.

but to be in a venue with 180,000 people one night, 170,000 people the next night, and to experience all that that was, because it was so culturally 180 degrees from anything we would experience in the United States, we were on Mars in terms of cultures. We were on Mars. It was a totally government-controlled state,

a totally brainwashed population of people that have a worldview of history that is so different than anything anybody here in the United States could ever imagine and they believe every bit of it. So when you step into that environment in front of that big of a crowd, but you're in that same wrestling,

ring doing the same thing that you do in, I don't know, Balexie, Mississippi. It's a surreal experience, and I wouldn't have traded that experience for the world. Still one of the coolest things I ever did. So, yeah, there's nothing I look back at and want to go, yeah, I want to change that. And in the New Japan relationship in particular, there's nothing more I could have really gotten out of that relationship, either financially, but just because of the practicality of it. you know, they're on one side of the world. We're on the other side of the world. It costs a lot of money to fly people back and forth.

Oh, and then we have the visa issue that we got to dance with all the time. From a practical perspective, it would have been really just difficult to do any more than we did. I'm going to be honest with you. I think it would be difficult for Stephen Singer to be doing any more than he already is. There's a reason that other jewelers hate Stephen Singer. Why is that? Well, it's because Stephen Singer has the best real natural diamond stud earrings in America. Everybody knows that gold and diamond prices are crazy right now.

Gold is at its highest price in history. So high, I've even heard of some of the guys online like melting their old gold Rolexes. The gold is worth more than the doggone watches now. But luckily for you, Stephen Singer has locked in his diamond studs at the old prices. I don't even know how he's doing that. Stephen has diamond studs available from a quarter carrot all the way up to 10 carats total weight. That's the Brandy Rhodes weight right there.

All the same perfect prices last year, the same incredible value. There's no better time to get a pair of diamond studs from Stephen Singer jewelers. You see, this can't last forever, but each pair is eye flawless and near colorless. Beautiful stuff, man. They come with his safety silicon back. You never have to worry about losing them. And it's all at his unbeatable full value lifetime trade-in. So you know your diamonds are always worth what you paid.

Go try that at any other jeweler. You know what they're going to say? No thank you. Listen, seriously, we've all heard the old cliche about cars, right? Like it's worth less the minute you drive it off the lot. Well, that's the reason other jewelers hate Stephen Singer because he honors what he sold it to you at. How about that full trade-in value?

lifetime trade in value. Nobody's doing that. Steven Singer's the best man. That's why everybody in the jewelry business hates him. It's all backed up by the best guarantee in the jewelry business. Steven Singer offers you a full 100 day, 100% no hassle money back guarantee. And I should mention he's got fast and free shipping. Experience the difference at Steven Singer Jewelers.

Go check him out right now at I hate StevenSinger.com. That's I hate Stevenson. Singer.com. Eric, I think this guy, not only is he a hell of a businessman and a fantastic jeweler, we've seen all the awards. We know he's no gimmicks needed. He's like Mr. Chris Candido in that regard. But I hate Stephen Singer, just disrupting everything.

That's a guy who's got to have a special place in your heart, right? He's like the Elon Musk of the diamond business. He just comes in and reshapes the way everybody is going to have to do. do everything and he's leading the chart. I love that. There's, I think there's just a lot of similarities between Elon and Steven Singer. I was just going to change the way things work. I was going to say there's some similarities between Eric Bischoff.

Oh, you're doing a tape show. I'm doing it live. Oh, you're not paying the eyes. I am. Like he has the best guarantee in the business. You were given the best guarantee contracts in the business. You were the disruptor. So is Stephen Singer.

Everybody on the opponents, man, we just talked about it. In the WWE, I hate Eric Bischoff. That's what they would say. Well, guess what? In the jewelry business, I hate Steven Singer, but you won't go right now to I hate StevenSinger.com. Well, we've got a fun question here because this is going to be one you got to put your thinking cap on.

Joe wants to know, just curious, what your top of mind answers would be to these questions. So, Eric, I don't want you to spend a ton of time thinking on it. give me a knee jerk reaction because you'll have some sort of visceral reaction. So let's not get two in the weeds. Bam, let's did it. Your best experience, your favorite experience you ever had in wrestling. What comes to mind immediately?

I think the first time I ever did a live interview. That was that was it for for burn, uh, ESPN, um, at ringside in front of a crowd. Because I always didn't that was it. Sorry, you wanted a one answer. No, I like it. What was the worst experience you had in wrestling? Oh, first thing you think of. I don't have blank.

All right. If I was to hit you with tonight, you're going to go do blank. And it would be the thing you had the least fun doing. I did not. You come through the curtain and you're like, I'll do it again if we have to, but I don't want to. Does that exist? No, man. Honestly, I just, I don't have anything like that.

I mean, working for Vince McMahon in 2019. Yeah, that was shitty. Most memorable moment you had in wrestling. And he suggests, is it North Korea? Is it Muhammad Ali? Is it something else? Is it riding the garbage trucks for sold out? No, honestly, I think the plane ride, and maybe because I just brought up the North Korean

trip and it's kind of fresh in my mind. but the moment, there's two. And they're both involved Muhammad Ali. Sitting on a plane with Muhammad Ali and having a personal one-on-long conversation was like such a surreal thing to the eight or nine-year-old kid that listened to Muhammad Ali fight some. He'd listen with his dad on the radio growing up in Detroit. Like we couldn't get on TV, so we listened to it on the radio.

that was and then now I'm on a plane with him after my father you know yeah it was pretty cool the next one though was in in Tokyo I think 97 or 98 I can't remember when it was but New Japan had invited me and my family they flew my family in first class the kids got to go and wanted us to come to the Tokyo Dome show for New Year's Eve. And I didn't know it. They didn't know one told me, but they also brought Muhammad in. So I got to the Egg dome, the arena, and it was a very, you know, first class affair. You know, men were wearing suits and sport coats and women were dressed up.

It's one of the things I used to love about going to those big, huge panchos back then. It's just like you were going to a serious prize fight, like old school Vegas kind of prize fight. Anyway, I got there and I saw Muhammad, and I was still kind of, you know, I don't even, I didn't, to be honest, I didn't know if he'd remember me. I didn't know what a state of mind was, and it's not like, you know, we became best friends or anything like that. I wasn't sure to even recognize me. And when he did, obviously, you know, I felt really good, and he motioned me over. to talk to him. We sat on the couch,

and I filled this story before, I'm not going to tell it again. But that moment on that couch with Bahamaham was special. And that's all because of wrestling, just because of wrestling. Why, I love it. So I still, you know, I don't necessarily love what I'm seeing on television

because I've seen it a million times, but I love the business of it. I love the reason for it. I love the psychology of it. and the growth and the different ways to to expand it. So it's just constantly fun. I've been a fan of it forever. I'm still a fan of it in that respect.

Let's do an interesting question here from Jay Archer. He says a lot of the Monday Night War generation has sadly passed away. If Eric could speak to one of them now, who would it be? And what would the conversation entail? Great question. Rather not think about this one too much because that'll get that'll turn. this into a different show. I wish I could have had a little bit more of a conversation with Rick Rood

because I think they could have understood the position I was in. Yeah, that'll probably be it. What a great answer. Wrestling Nestorian wants to know, did the Baywatch crew recording Bash at the Beach 95 make things more difficult for the WCW production team. I don't think we spent much time talking about that. Of course, Batchett the Beach 95 was done on the beach in Huntington Beach, California.

You guys had some cross-pollination there with Baywatch. Some of the WCW stars were appearing on that program, but we haven't spent any time talking about whether or not that complicated the production team for WCW. Really didn't. And it was largely because of a very young, incredible producer by the name of Kevin Beggs, B-E-G-G-S. Kevin, I don't know what his title was for

Schwartz Bonin, who is the production company that actually produced Baywatch. He may have been a senior producer, whatever he was, but he was really good at what he did. And he really coordinated with us and made it really, really simple. By the way, Kevin Beggs went on to become the president of Lionsgate television. So when I say he was really, really good back then, he was really, really good and became a very successful, uh, high level network TV executive. But he made it easy. You know, it was fun. Actually, he made it fun for everybody, talent and otherwise. So it was a positive experience.

Terrell Lewis says if you had this guy on your team, the Monday Night Wars may have had a different ending. Kevin Dunn or Paterson? Patterson. Wow. Not even close. Not that Kevin was, you know, Kevin was great. There's very few people that have had as much impact on television as Kevin Dunn has in his role as executive producer of WWE over the years. It's changed a lot of things, including what we're seeing in the NFL. Some of the camera shots you're seeing started, guess where? You know, with, with guys like Kevin Sullivan. So not taking anything away from from Kevin at all, but yeah.

We're not going to ask a wrestling question so much here as we're going to ask a life, a philosophical, a managerial question, but you're going to draw from your wrestling experience. William Sterling Jr. has a great question that I think a lot of our listeners could benefit from. And maybe they don't even think about it. but I know you've had to battle this, Eric, so it's a unique question. William says, Eric, I'm a supervisor at an automotive manufacturing plant.

I'm thought of as a bit of an oddity for humanizing the experience of labor and challenging employees on a cerebral level. I understand as a supervisor, I am here for problems. Some days I have my limits for how many problems and negative energy I can absorb. I don't want to be the assistant plant manager or the plant manager. I realize the higher up I go, the more. budget-driven things are. The human element is less of a part of the duties, and I'm passionate about people, not aluminum. I don't drink. I don't socialize. I'm divorced. On a personal level,

I'm happier than I've ever been. I love my team of people. I mean that. I was a Marine for eight years. I knew what it meant to look someone in the eye and know I would die for them. Now I choose to live for this group and whatever their problems may be. But how do I navigate the absorption of negativity thrown my way. Some days it can be incredibly challenging. Thank you. It's a great question, Eric. Wow.

It really is because that's such a challenge that we are. I relate to that question. I think about my version of that question throughout the day because we're constantly surrounded with negativity, so much so that sometimes we don't even realize it anymore. We've become brain numb to the negativity. because it's 360 degrees, 24-7 if you allow it to be. And I think that's what the question is.

How do you stop allowing it to affect you? How do you not give up the power of the way you feel? And that's kind of how I look at this. And there's actually a wrestling tie-in to this. You know, the fan asked the question, so here we go. Hulk Hogan was a very spiritual guy. And I think he was a whole struggle with his faith in his spirituality, struggled in the sense that he was constantly searching for it.

He never felt until later in his life than he did. But I think he was struggling to really, really, honestly, truly feel connected to his faith as opposed to professing it and why. wanting it, searching for it, but never really quite connecting to it. Right. And Hulk invited Lori and I to a church in Marina del Rey, and I, and I'm trying, it's called Agape. Agape.

And the minister there is a guy by the name of Dr. Michael Beckwith. And Michael Beckwith is a very, he's fairly well known in a, in a, in the, you know, spiritual kind of new age spiritual kind of environment but he's is very much a Christian-based minister so Hulk invited Lori and I to go to this particular service he was so excited but he couldn't wait to go to the service he couldn't wait to bring a Lori and I there he was so excited to share this because he had been there before and he was so excited to share us so we Lori and I finally showed up when we went. And to be honest, I've never been a regular church-going kind of believer, right?

I had bad experiences early on my life. I said, horrible experience, but I had uncomfortable experiences early on, and I just, and not for me, but I've always had kind of a longing and wanting to make a connection, and it worked on that throughout my life, and particularly in the last couple years. but you know we kind of dovetail in here and I went to that service even kind of against my will but I was really just doing it because Hulk was excited and one of the things that Michael Beck was talked about I'm going to butcher this and paraphrase the hell out of it but it was essentially

you know don't give people your power you know when you when you give someone the authority or the control over your emotions and you allow them to take you out of out of your element, out of your game, out of your positive thinking, off your track, whatever that may be, you're giving away power. You're giving away the keys to your car. Giving the way the keys to your house. Give it the way the keys to your mind. So don't do that.

Just hang out of your shit is the way I read it, right? So when I'm faced with negativity, my reaction to it isn't, uh-huh. We say, wait to say that. I don't react to it at all. I don't give it the power. I don't let it take me out of the way I'm thinking. If I'm thinking about going outside and play with my dog,

I'm not going to let something I read online piss me off to the point where I don't want to do that anymore. I'm giving somebody control over my happiness. I'm not doing that. And I know it sounds really easy and I'm making it sound that way. But if you apply it in little ways throughout the day, you find yourself just not giving a shit, but in a positive way. Not that you're throwing in the towel, in a positive way.

Another question here from Carl Hayes. This is interesting. It's January 2027. So, Eric, it's not two months from now. It's 14 months from now. Do AEW, TNA, MLW, and AAA all have U.S. television deals. Do you find television deal? Streaming or linear?

Um, or cable. I think he means a rights fee. Are they receiving a rights fee? Are they receiving a rights fee? Yeah, somewhere. YouTube? I mean, sure. Is there a way to make money, quote, unquote, on television in rights fees or other revenue?

Sure, there is. You know, now you have to get to the point where it becomes meaningful or not. You know, can you build a business on it? Can you sustain a business on it? Can AEW sustain itself on $100,000 an episode? I don't think so. Is that the market that they're looking at if they have to go out and sell that show somewhere else based on their current ratings, just based on performance? Not on what Dave Meltzer says.

Not on what the AEW fan base says. None of that shit matters. The only thing that matters is the math. And the math right now says that that show isn't worth $100,000 an episode in the open market. My take, maybe $150. Topps. Topps. can he survive on that?

I don't know. Probably you have to adjust a lot of things. But, you know, TNA, what's their upside? You know, the good news for TNA, and this is strictly strategic, you know, tactical kind of conversation, but they're already operating at probably a pretty low margin. So anything that's above and beyond

what they're doing right now is incremental growth. And I do think they've got enough of a story now because if you look at their live audience numbers and you put it on a graph, they've got an interesting story to tell. And that live attendance suggests potential success as a television platform. That's where it gets a little strategic. You know, you've got to be a little, you've got to think chess when you're selling stuff like this. but if I'm selling, if my job right now was to sell TNA, which it won't be ever in history, I'm not pitching a job, trust me, I'm not,

I've already got my hands full doing what I'm doing. But if I was an agent and I was representing TNA right now, I've got nothing to talk about as a television property because they really don't have a footprint that's really measurable or relevant to that matter. but what they do have is a great story to tell about what's happening with their live gate. It's significant. I think the last one was somewhere in a mid-300,000 dollars.

That is not an insignificant data point. And at least gives you the ability to sit down and talk with a potential television partner and present with confidence and not sound like a used car salesman, nothing area and sees cars salesmen, but with some credibility, sell potential. Because you're either selling performance or you're selling potential. When you go into sell a television show, you're either saying, here's what we're doing over here and guess what we can do for you, or you're saying, we're not doing it anywhere else,

but here's why we think it's going to work. And when you can point to an increase in ticket sales and you're drawn $350,000, you know, for a house, for a show, that's a story. And that story can sometimes get you across the finish line. I love hearing the way your brain works. I want to make a prediction. I don't know if this is true. I have no inside information, but I'm just going to venture a guess that on Wednesday nights

on CW in 2026, head to head with AEW, but on CW, AAA is going to debut a show or TNA. I'm going to say either. AAA or TNA will be Wednesday nights on CW. And I think both of them wind up with a TV deal next year. MLW, I do agree, is probably better suited for a streaming service. But I think that's the future for everything. You know, I don't know that me and you've ever talked about this, but I had conversations

with TNA back in 2022 and they asked just hypothetically, you know, what do you think we can do to get a better television deal? And I said, I don't think I would look for one at all. I think I would try to get a deal from YouTube, be the first global show. that was live on YouTube and pushing YouTube and focused that way because, you know, we saw the trajectory that YouTube was on and they've continued. Like YouTube is now the world's second biggest search engine behind Google. Google owns them both, by the way, but they're just going to make it easy to find.

I think whoever dominates YouTube, man, they could be a step in the right direction, especially if it would have happened three years ago. I agree. I mean, it's, it, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, becoming more and more apparent now, but even in my case, it's like, why would you, you know, why would you want to do a deal with the Hulk Hogan movie, for example? When I was working on that with Scott Silver, the writer and Todd Phillips, the director, we're putting that deal together for Hulk and Netflix. Well, we originally put it together for Warner, you know,

because Todd was, I think he was under a contract with Warner at the time, and then they worked that out. We took it out on the street. Netflix came, came to, to the table and made that deal. I'm sorry, leave me into, why were we talking about this, but I bring this up? YouTube,

T&A. Oh, YouTube. And I remember when, you know, Scott Silver, call me, says,

Hey, Eric, you know, we're talking to our agents and instead of going to Warner features for, you know, movie release in the theaters, that's what I'm used to.

I'm proud of the 50s and the 60s, right? That's the big time. We think we're going to go to Netflix. And I'm thinking, Netflix, why would you not want to be in a movie theater and be on that? Because I didn't understand the business of that business any longer.

And it's the same thing, I think, to a degree with YouTube in that people think, oh, if I'm going to be successful, I've got to be on TV, got to be on cable, got to be on one of the major cable outlets. People know you're not going to get the network. But cable just doesn't mean as much as it used to. Find a streaming platform, YouTube being the biggest, to your point. in the best if you figure your shit out. And there's some people out there like Aunt Evans who can really help you figure your shit out.

Because it's about the algorithms. It's about the timing. It's about length. It's obviously about the content. But there's a lot of other things that you can control to accelerate your growth on YouTube that you can't do anywhere else. So I'm a big fan of YouTube, man. Something we're both a big fan of is Harry's. we want to brag on Harry's here. You may be familiar with Harry's, but did you know they just

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shot or formatted? Now, this could be a deep question. I mean, we could probably talk about this until next week. But I had a conversation with a friend of ours a couple of weeks ago. And he said something like, the format for wrestling on TV hasn't changed since. 1996. And he was saying that to give you credit for creating the nitro formula that by and large, almost all wrestling shows follow to this day. Have you ever given any thought to what

you would change today in 2025 to be different than the way it's been the last 29 years? I don't think so. I mean, because first of all, you're forced into some pretty severe limitations driven by commercial breaks, right? So you have these short segments of time to tell your story, and you have to tell individual stories, for the most part, in each one of those segments. So what's happened over time, because those commercial segments have expanded.

They used to be like two minutes and 30 seconds, and there were three minutes, then there were three minutes and 30 seconds, I don't know what they are anymore, but it's like they keep getting along, and longer because the economies of the television industry, meaning they're getting their asses kicked, requires they sell more commercial time in a given hour

than they ever have in the history of television. Well, what's the end result of that? There's still only 60 minutes in an hour, and if there's more commercial time, guess what? There's less programming time. So your ability to get too creative within the format is pretty difficult. Now lay over on top of that, And this is almost a good thing.

The audience today, the core audience for wrestling, the younger end of that spectrum has been conditioned, like wired in their brains to look for and get their dopamine hits in much shorter condensed periods of time. You're not going to watch six minutes to get your hit. you're going to it's going to get you within the first 20 seconds of you're gone that you know instantaneous kind of dopamine hit you know mobile phone you know the technology app technology all the things that are available to us now that has conditioned them rewired the brain to get that dopamine hit in shorter burst also lays into television because you're spending the majority of your time if you're like most people on your phone anyway that's what's driving you're driving you're in the your, you know, must-see TV mind.

There you go. We're going to tie it back to an earlier part of the show. Now your must-see-TV muscle is looking for, you know, 15, 20 times a minute, and you're only getting it off the phone. So when you do sit down and watch television, guess how you're going to want to consume it? Shorter burst. Well, that's good because we got way more commercial time than we ever have. All of that combines to leave you very little room to get too creative.

them because you just got to get your characters and your story as best you can tell it in a short story in a short match. You just got to keep getting them out there week after week after week and hopefully you advance the story. So it's a bigger challenge. We've got a question here from Ross Parks. Eric, do you think if the roles were reversed and WCW won the wars, would you have hired Vince and do you think knowing his personality it would have been a good fit? You know what's interesting about that question is one of the first things Vince McMahon said to me when he called me back in whenever it was 2001 or two, I don't remember. I think it was 2001. The first thing he said to me after he said hello was Eric, I would like to think if the roles were really.

verse that you would have given me an opportunity. That's the first thing he said to me. And when he said that, any reservation I had, and I'm not sure that I had any quite honest. I was in a different state of mind at that time, and it would have taken a lot to get me, you know, excited or unexcited about anything. I was pretty comfortable where I was in my mind. but when he said that, I was like, wow, now I want to work for him. Like, even if I would have been ambivalent about it, like I didn't care one way or the other, which is kind of where I really was. Once he said, what he said, I was like, oh, well, now I have to.

You know, okay, it was such a gracious thing. And it just flipped my switch in terms of, you know, whatever I was thinking about how I was going to feel, was gone. It was pretty cool. Now, do I think if the roles would have reversed? No. Number one, I don't think I would have. And if I did, I can't imagine a scenario where it would have worked.

Vince has a really, really strong personality. me, and as much as I can possibly emphasize that in any way, visual, audio, or otherwise, it's not even close to being able to describe how intense of a person he really is and focused in many respects. I am not nearly as intense as Vince. I readily admit that and grateful that I'm not, quite honestly. but I'm in the neighborhood. And you can't put two people like that in the same room

and expect something good to come out of it. Well, maybe, but only one of them will come out of it. So it just wasn't complimentary personalities. You know, it doesn't mean I can't work with or neither can convince work with. I'm sure we can both work with really strong personalities. But when you're strong and kind of the same, respects and unwilling to yield.

You can try it for a while and you can fake it till you make it, kind of, but you won't. And eventually just you either get tired of it and just don't want it anymore or, you know, you have a car wreck. David Baldini has a great question here. Eric, you've often spoke with the Sarsa formula and the goal of targeting the 18 to 49 male audience in WCW. but at the same time,

94-95 Hogan was really the same character he was in the WWF, which I would think would have made executing your goals more difficult, especially the reality part. Had Hulk ultimately not become the third man, do you think his character would have survived the NWO era? That's a great question. It's a great question, but it's kind of like interwoven kind of timelines there.

Hulk was red and yellow all the way up until 96. And yeah, the red and yellow wasn't really working, but I wasn't really applying or trying to apply necessarily the SARS. In fact, I know I wasn't. I didn't even have an insight into what that formula was in my own mind until the summer of 96 is when it kind of crystallized for me. Maybe the spring of 96. I think it was the spring. So, yeah, 94-95 Hogan had nothing to do with the Sarsal formula, number one. Number two, if Hulk Hogan would have stayed in that red and yellow,

WWE, WCW-E-CW-ish character, do I think it would have survived the NWO? Absolutely not. It wasn't going to survive without the NWO. And I, you know, I hesitate to say this because it may sound disrespectful to some, but I don't mean it to be. The stock value of the Hulk Hogan brand had been diminishing. We've, you know, Hulk felt it. He knew it when he'd go out, you know, to a TV tapering in front of a live crowd,

and he could feel that reaction. He was closer to it than anybody watching on television. All of us around him could feel that, yeah, when Hulk first came in, he had some serious steam on it. It was Al-Bogan and WCW. It was the moment. that moment only lasted about six months. And then it was kind of like, eh,

that's not what we thought we would feel kind of thing. I don't know why, but it was obvious, which is why I flew to Hulk's house and wanted to at least talk to him about turning heel when I did. In early 96, before he called and wanted to be a part of NWO. Maybe it could have even been a fall of 95. So we all knew it. But clearly it would not have survived what, you know,

the NWO became, how do you state in that same character? What a name this is, penis wrinkle wants to know. How do we, how do we go from such a deep conversation? A penis wrinkled. Going back in history,

a legacy of the business. we're talking about ripping kicks. What? Do you think a crossover with WWE during the Monday night Wars could have worked, but you have been willing to do it? Would Vince not allow that? We obviously realized that you tried a few times,

and they tried a few times to see what would happen. And it's like you guys were playing a game of chicken in 98, but in an alternate timeline, could you have come to a compromise? Do you think would that ever have happened? Or was there just no way? Oh, I would have done it in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat,

who had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Only an idiot would have said no to that deal, which is exactly why it would have never happened, despite the fact I would have wanted it to. Say hello to NBC St. Valentine's Day Massinger with Dennis Rodman divorcing his wife on live television, which I had sold to NBC, but the executive brain trusted Turner went,

no, we don't want to share. So, there you go. Sniping is fun, says, what was one wrestler you hoped to give the chance of pushing them, but in the end, never did.

Do you take a look at somebody and say, with the benefit of hindsight, I should have invested more time in this guy or that guy? Has anybody like that crossed your mind, Eric? Not, not in that respect. you know, but similarly, I think a lot, you know, I just think so much of Ernest Miller,

as, you know, he was such a great character and he took to it like just a fish to water. It was so natural and easy for him that I know what a great character he could have become had he come along about three years earlier. if we would have crossed past three years earlier, his entire life trajectory would have been changed in a positive way, at least financially. Maybe ultimately it would have been the best thing for him. But from a financial perspective, because he had it, you know, he had such little actual in-ring professional wrestling training,

you know, down at the power plant. but he had so much skill that he could kind of camouflage when you didn't know, you know, and he was learning and he's such a great athlete. He was willing to learn even more. But he just like popped up out of nowhere, it became a pretty cool star within a matter of minutes from a television perspective. But I wish we could have done more with him.

That's the only thing that it comes close to me regretting anything. Baddies of wrestling, I'm not going to Google that, says, what does Eric think about AI in the future of wrestling? I've been deep into AI for the past four months, and honestly, it's the first thing that's pulled me away from WWE in a long time.

I've been so busy creating music, videos, and content that I even dropped Netflix. AI and wrestling. What do you see, if anything, Eric? Gosh, I don't know, but so much. I mean, that world, I am so grateful to be alive and be a part of this. The next five years is going to be,

a carnival right in your mind of advancement in technology and the benefits of it in a relatively short period of time. You know, if you think about it, I was telling my wife the other day, when I was 14 years old, 13 years old, I left Detroit, 13 or 14, I left Detroit and we moved to Pittsburgh. And I had one really good friend, Tony Pessirelli. in Detroit. And I, you know, I immediately got a job when I moved to Pittsburgh, doing whatever I was in before I do whatever I did. And I would cash my money in and get a pocketful of quarters. And I would go to a payphone and pump, you know, 75 cents a minute into this payphone so that I could talk to my friend.

Now, if I explain that to somebody who was like 25 years old today, they would look at me like, what, you did what? You know, you pumped in how much? You know, it? You know, it's a lot. You know, It's an abstract thought. And there's just examples of that that are occurring to us every day. It's a fun time to be alive, man. Technology is going to change things so fast. Well, something that we don't have to worry about changing too fast as our friends over at Blue Chew. They got a formula that really works.

And I mean, every single time. So much so that Eric's now entering the room Dick first. You see, Blue Chew is not just a tablet. It's a cheat code for your crotch, stronger, harder, longer lasting. like somebody gave your downstairs a pep talk and a gym membership. Now you know that Blue Chew is the original brand offering chewable tablets, but I got a question for you. Have you ever tried to tuck in a submarine?

It ain't easy. Guys, we're not just talking about performance here. We're talking about your legacy, whereas Blue Chew might say your third leg. Let's see. Give her group chat something to talk about. You know when you lay it down, they're talking about how it gets up. And nothing makes you more of a legend than a little Blue Chew.

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It'll be a big thanks for sponsoring today's podcast. Wow, that was close. You may. I heard you go into that call to action. I'm going, man. this is going to be close, but I made it. Oh, doggy. By the way, uh, that, that fast bathroom break was brought to you by one of our

sponsors. Uh, great yard doom crew wants to know as someone from Minnesota who grew up on all star wrestling, do you think Vern if Vern Ganya hadn't been so stubborn and stuck in his ways, if he would have been willing to change with the times that somehow the AWA could have lasted into the 2000s? At a certain point in time, of course. And I think you could probably pinpoint, you know, Guy Evans would be the right guy to ask about this, author of WCW Nitro books.

He's got a new one coming out about Hulk Hogan. Can't say enough good things about Guy. But he's like the historian when it comes to this kind of stuff. But I think if you go back and you look at the AWA when Hulk Hogan was there, and the reason that Halk Hogan left Vernegana, my understanding, I don't know the facts, was Vince or Vern being stubborn and not sharing what Hul Cogan or Terry Balea felt was a fair amount for his T-shirt suit. He got into an argument over a merchandising deal.

had Vern acquiesced on merchandise, had he not been so greedy and stubborn, told you, had he made that deal in compromise with Hulk, Hulk would have stated in Minnesota because he didn't want to go back to New York. He preferred Minnesota. His words to me, because the schedule was easier. He was making more money than he ever made.

He didn't have to work as much as he did. in the weekly territories down in the southeast and things like that made more money worked less had a good life um he'd have stayed that would have changed and and had that changed meaning would have been less stubborn and could have been less stubborn and could verne have seen the future of television and wrestling that's the part i don't think he would have let go up Byrne and Bill Watts were very similar in that respect. And I understand now, why, better than I did then, because now I'm kind of in their shoes in a way, right? I have that life experience.

But burn and Bill both when they were still in, you know, power kind of positions in their 40s and their 50s as executives, they were relying on their base of experience. What worked for them when they were in? in that business. As one does in any line of work, we all do that, right? But much like I was, you know, babbling about technology a few moments ago, when the technology happens so much faster and people's habits, consumer habits, change along with them really, really fast.

But as a creator, you're still stuck in a certain time warp. if you're not changing creatively with the technology and the culture, because it changes along with technology, you get stuck. And that's where Bill Watts and Berg-Ga-Ga-you're stuck. That's the part that I don't think would have ever changed with Byrne. He was so stubborn. I can't imagine a scenario unless you drug him kicking and streaming, which would have been difficult, into that equation. he just never would have agreed to it. Conrad from Huntsville wants to know.

Eric, did you see John Cena win the Intercontinental title on Monday night in Boston? I did not. That seems like it's the last box to check. It was a hero's welcome. It's his hometown. He made real wrestling history. That was the only title that it alluded him. He's won all the others.

But now this coming Monday is going to be his final in-ring appearance in New York city. So it's obviously a big deal. And we got lots of questions about John Sina winding it down. Jacob Alton wants to know. Eric, do you plan on making the trip to Washington, D.C., to see John Sina's last match? No, I don't. I don't, but I'll be thinking about it. I just, John and I just exchanged sex a little while ago. I'll be thinking about it because I'm kind of in my, just because I feel a little bit connected to John. I just, respect him and got to work with him a little bit and got to see kind of what he's really all about, you know, behind the scenes and the way he treats people. So I've always had a lot of respect

for him. So I'm kind of along for his ride in a small, tiny way because I can kind of imagine what it feels like for him, having been on the outside kind of. But no, I won't, I won't make that. I'm just not a big crowd kind of guy. It takes a lot. We got another question here from J.M. Wagner, who wants to know, would you have John Cena lose his last match? Would you have Sina quit or tap out because Sina never gives up so whoever his final opponent is can say he made the goat quit?

Interesting question. What do you think? No, I wouldn't go feel good on this one. I think it's silly to build up emotion and goodwill and that feeling. that everybody wants to experience at the end of a great Disney movie, right? You want to just feel good. And that's what this, to me, that's what this story is. And I can't imagine not delivering on that expectation.

I'm sure if they decide to it's going to be entertaining as hell, and I'll be really fascinated to look at that. But to me, it just feels like this glide path is so well established. There's no reason to change it. Just it's too good. why mess it up? So are you suggesting now that we know he's the intercontinental champion, he retires with the intercontinental title?

And then they hold a tournament or something after? Yeah, why not? Okay. As opposed to, yeah. Otherwise, I feel like, I feel like it's not a creative decision. It's more of a, I'm going to make a statement to the business decision.

You know, stick to the, the tradition and there's, look, there's value to that storyline. If they're going to approach this like, no, here's, you know, John, you know, and he really is a traditional guy in many respects. He wants to leave the business better. He wants to, you know, pass the torch is the colloquial way of saying it at IWC. But do the right thing.

And in that case, you could probably tell a really good story with that. If that's the focus of the story, and if that's the feel-good moment, isn't, you know, that somebody else won, it's that John Sina did the right thing. But you've got to shape that narrative. You've got to tell that story. If you want other people to tell it, if you want other people to see it, you want other people to feel it, you have to start the conversation, right? So that's the intent of John passing the torch.

Do a damn good job telling that story before somebody else. else does because somebody else will be telling him, you know, a whole different version of that story. And it'll take away from that. Anyway, sorry. No, listen. We like your detail. Uh, George A.

and I know you don't have necessarily that the information in front of you, but he posted it. So I'll try to share it with you as best I can. He says five years after nails lost a sting at Slambering, 1993, Eric signed him and paid him $244,000. He wrestled exactly one dark match. Did you sign him because he was from Minnesota? Or because he falsely accused vents of sexual assault and you admired his

grit. You know, I'll admit, I didn't know that was the case, but I am taking a look at the data. And I guess in the year, 1998, you paid him 144 grand. And in 99, you paid him 100 grand. Well, okay, that's different than, okay, 244 grand in total over the course of two years I'll buy that yeah that was good that was like entry level yes you've been on TV you've done some shit people know who you are I have your exclusive rights you don't

work for anybody else I know your licensing and merchandising we don't share any royalties here's your deal that was a pretty I mean entry level was the power plan the next level up was generally between 125 and 175 I guess the question was you never did anything with him. Why didn't you do anything with him? You know, just didn't come up with the right idea. Nah,

here's, I think what happens of people who've never been in the business, have never been, you know, faced with the challenge. But, you know, you've got to constantly keep an inventory of talent.

You've got your active talent, the people that are actually driving revenue. They're on TV every week. They're on your pay-per-views. They're in your house shows to whatever you set. You have those. They're your licensing and merchandising drivers. You know, they're your internet driver, whatever.

Your equity is in a certain level of talent. And then you've got another level where you're developing them so that they can be there to replace. But then you've got another level of talent. If you've got to keep handy in case you need somebody, kind of like a utility player. So there's also a level of talent that can just be there in a given moment if you need them. but guess what? You're not going to use them every week. And that's kind of where nails fell. If you're, you know, rocket scientists should be wrestling promoter, you know,

and you think there's a better way to do that. Maybe there is. But that was, that was, there was a lot of guys in that, in that bucket. And by the way, there were a lot of people in that bucket currently in WWE. And there were a lot of guys. There are probably a larger percentage of the guys. in that bucket in AEW. So it wasn't like it was unique to WCW or Eric Bishop.

Let's do one more that I want to talk about. And then we will take a quick break. But I've wanted to ask this for a while because it never fits in another show. But we've got a question here about the Savannah bananas. Have you seen any of the Savannah bananas promotions and games? They've been called the Harlem Globetrotters of minor league baseball. They've gained a huge following and played in larger stadiums across the country. I know this has to be on your radar.

You're talking about innovation. Like these guys have figured out how to do it different than. And that feels like the Savannah bananas. We've never really been able to talk about here on the show. Have you taken any of that for real American freestyle? Is it on your radar? Chat me up about the Savannah bananas. That's very much on my radar because my agent,

Nick is paradigm, who represents me right now personally, perhaps in a very near future, real American freestyle, but they also represent Savannah Banana. So I hear, you know, I don't know the inside of their business, but I certainly hear all the great things that they're accomplishing. And you talk about, you know, growth, just the speed, at which that company has grown and the success of the property is and it's across the board it's a lot like professional that's why I dig it so much you talk about better than less than different than if you

google you know savanna bananas take a look at those games it's like Harlem globetrotters meets major league baseball only way more fun right and engaging i mean you can literally hit a home run if you're the batter and if somebody in the fans catches it, you're out. So you talk about audience engagement. I mean, it's freaking awesome what they do. And it's an example of how sports, now it's an extreme example in this case, how sports needs to adapt to entertainment.

And to the point of the question, absolutely. I'm looking at real American freestyle. Now, granted, there are certain parameters there because we are a legitimate sport. There's nothing scripted about it. And you're dealing with real athletes and real competition. So the amount of creative latitude you have to help tell your stories is somewhat limited. But there's a lot of things that we're able to do to tell story, whether it's a Savannah bananas being way different than Major League Baseball or us just finding nuances to make free

how wrestling look really, really more entertaining and interesting, that's the magic. And Savannah bananas are killing it. They are killing it. I'm so excited for them. They're, you know, I don't want to say what I, and it's not anything proprietary, but it's not my place to talk about it, but they're going to be a very successful operation and an opportunity. I'm so excited because this is a perfect example of better than, less than, or different

than. they knocked it out of the park, pun intended. Well, if you're looking to be a little different than, can we recommend Quince? You know, as the weather cools, we're all swapping out pieces that actually get the job done. Eric zigzagging all over the country. He's got to prepare ahead of time. But now he knows how to get warm and durable and built to last. You see, Quince delivers every time with wardrobe staples that'll carry you through the season.

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Go to quince.com slash 83 weeks for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash 83 weeks. Quince.com slash 83 weeks. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E-D-C-E-D-C-E-D-C-E. slash 83 weeks free shipping and 365 days returns that's quince.com slash 83 weeks Eric will end it on a couple of fun ones here. If you were only going to grill one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Rib. And you didn't hesitate. Why do you prefer the rib I cut over everything else? The fats? I have become a steak. I don't want to see kind of sewer because that implies knowledge. but I'm just, I know what I like and I eat a lot of steak and I search for really, really good steak. Like research, look for it.

And I've found steak that I really love. And I've also distinguished between cons. For a long time, I was a New York strip guy. I just liked the texture and the density of a New York strip. But when I get into a rib eye, the marvellous. in a rib eye is so much so it's so evenly spread through the meat number one so there's a consistency but the flavor is so much just richer so I'm a dyed-in-the-wall hardcore ribby steak guy nothing wrong with that I do want to ask a question about nightlife we had a question here that said

what three cities had the best nightlife back in the day so we'll talk about your peak you know, Nitro era, you're celebrating, having some beers with boys, you're on the town. Where did you guys have the most fun? Well, that would be Las Vegas for obvious reasons. Yes. It's just the best place in the world to celebrate a live wrestling event after the show, providing it's a good show. If it sucks, it's bad, but no, there's nothing better in Vegas.

I like Chicago. I don't know why, just more because it kind of felt at home to me. Midwest, you know, I lived in Chicago for a while, so it was pretty familiar with it and all that. So I would say Chicago for me was the next best. And, you know, I don't think anything stands out after that. They were all good. Here's the truth, folks. It's not cool.

Every Marriott Bar back in the 90s looked exactly like every. other Marriott Bar anywhere in the country. And that's probably where we were 70% of the time when we're on the road. So they all look like. Well, I'll tell you what doesn't look like. And that's an ask Eric anything. We greatly appreciate you guys checking us out. Of course, we're home stretching it.

I can't believe this is real. But Survivor Series is right around the corner, full gears right around the corner, wrestlecade's right around the corner. But so is real American. freestyle. It's coming your way on November 29. Eric, what can what can fans expect for RAF number three? I'll tell you what, this was smoking. Tickets are really moving well and everybody's out there, you know, trying to project the success or failure of an organization based on ticket sales. But we're really, where ticket sales is doing well. A lot of interest,

a lot of buzz, you know, Chandler Mendez, you got crossovers here from UFC. They, you know, They come from a wrestling background. We've been talking about it. It's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about real American freestyle is because the MMA fans that know what, you know, MMA is all about and know what it takes to be successful in MAA. Know that wrestling is such an important part of the equation. It's not a discussion.

It's unequivocally true. And now we have a league, a professional league, that showcases that particular skill set within the MMA arsenal. and it's smoking. And now a lot of the MMA guys from, you know, other MMA organizations are reaching out to us wanting to bring their game to the mat. And that's what we've got in Chicago, November 29th. Fox Nation, if you can't be there live, tickets available, a ticketmaster if you're in the Chicago area. But if you're not, Fox Nation, it's going to be a hell of a card.

I'm not going to go through the whole card because I don't want this to be an infomercial for Real American Freestyle. But go to our website, Real American Freestyle.com. We've got a lot more crossover matches. Cabot Bassett, 18-year-old phenom still in high school, taking on Dary on Caldwell, former Bellator MMA champion. It's like the young gun, old gun. It's an amazing story. He really should check it out.

Real American Freestyle. Coming your way at the end of the month. Be here before you know it, November 29th, Chicago. Check them out, WinTrust Arena. It's going to be a blast. I'm going to be watching on the Fox Station app. You should, too, if you're not in Chicago. but we hope if nothing else,

you'll hit the subscribe button right now below and turn on the notifications bell. We've got some big things up our sleeves in the coming weeks here on 83 weeks and you don't want to miss a minute of it. But until next time, we'll see you right here with Eric Bischoff on 83 weeks.

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