83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 401: Eric Reacts To The Tony Khan Interview

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad rewind 30 years to revisit the very first time Sting went one-on-one with Hulk Hogan on WCW Monday Nitro! Was this match a glimpse into the future of the company? And did Hogan's all-black gear hint that he was already testing the waters of a heel turn? Eric breaks down the atmosphere, the intrigue, and the bizarre context of this moment in WCW history — long before the nWo was even an idea. If that's not enough, Eric gives his LIVE reaction to Tony Khan's interview on The Ariel Helwani Show. What did Eric think about Tony's comments on him, his influence, and his impact on Tony's own thought process and career? All that, plus so much more, on this jam-packed edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff! STEVEN SINGER JEWELERS - No one does real diamond jewelry better. Experience the difference at Steven Singer Jewelers. Go to  HTTP://IHATESTEVENSINGER.COM always with fast and FREE shipping.  SIGNOS - Go to signos.com, and get 25% off select plans with code 83WEEKS. BLUECHEW - Visit https://bluechew.com  and try your first month of BlueChew FREE when you use promo code 83WEEKS -- just pay $5 shipping. INDACLOUD - If you're 21 or older, get 40% OFF your first order + free shipping @IndaCloud with code 83WEEKS at https://inda.shop/83WEEKS  ! #indacloudpod PRIZE PICKS - Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/83WEEKS  and use code 83WEEKS to get $50 in lineups after you pay your first $5 lineup! CASH APP - Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/j5ojws30  #CashAppPod As a Cash App partner, I may earn a commission when you sign up for a Cash App account. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct Deposit, Overdraft Coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. 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. STOPBOX - Not only do you get 10% Off your entire order when you use code 83WEEKS10 at https://stopboxusa.com/83WEEKS10 , but they are also giving you Buy One Get One Free for their StopBox Pro. #stopboxpod HARRY'S PLUS - Get the Harry's Plus Trial Set for only $10 at https://harrys.com/83WEEKS #Harryspod 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, just in time for the holidays, what if you didn't have to worry about any of that credit card debt? If you're feeling stuck making the minimum payments and you don't want to have to put Christmas on a credit card, we can help at save withconrad.com. We routinely help our listeners save hundreds of dollars a month. Find out how much money you can save right now for free at save with conrad.com. Hey, hey, it's Conrad the mortgage guy, and we are live at 83 weeks.com. appreciate everyone checking in and hanging out with us. If you haven't already, hit the subscribe button.

Turn on your notifications bell. We have got a lot to cover today. Before we talk about what happened 30 years ago and what happened this last week, Eric, I want to talk about what's happening next Thursday. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. What's on the docket for you and Mrs. B this year for Turkey Day?

Well, this is going to be an unusual one because this will be the first Thanksgiving and my family's history where I will not be there for Thanksgiving. In fact, I'm going to be in Chicago for Real American Freestyle No. 3. The event is Saturday, November 29. But because of all the pre-production and the planning and pre-tapes and things that go into it, I arrive at Chicago on Tuesday night and I stay through Monday. So I'll be in Chicago flying solo for Thanksgiving. and Mrs. B will be here in Cody and she's got her sister and her family all coming over.

We have some local friends that Lori's become very familiar with and acquainted with. So Laura will have a Thanksgiving here in Montana and her significant other. We'll be having a Thanksgiving in Los Angeles. So the Bischoff clan is spread out throughout the North American continent. Is this the first time that everybody's separate ever on Thanksgiving? Yeah, that's weird. Because honestly, you know, I always say, oh, that's my favorite holiday. You know, like Fourth of July to me is really special for a lot of reasons.

I would say Christmas is its own unique holiday that brings with it so much more than just the holiday. But Thanksgiving has always kind of been my second favorite, really, because it's just family getting together in its food. There's no other, it's not gift giving. as the, you know, the dominant reason, you know, for the season, so to speak. It's just being thankful, being grateful, celebrating with close friends and family in a relaxed way. I love that, and I'm going to miss it. And, you know, for me and my, you know, growing up, you know, in November, you know, Thanksgiving was also associated very closely with honey season.

So a lot of times, you know, my friends and I or my family and I would get up early, early Thanksgiving. morning when it's still dark and it's still three feet of snow on the ground and go out pheasant hunting so that we had pheasins for Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, we did that. I'll miss certain aspects of that, but at the same time, I'll be 71 years old in May. I am blessed with the opportunity to be surrounded by a bunch of 30-somethings who are so passionate about what they're doing. And the whole team at Real American Freestyle, including all of the athletes, and everybody's on a mission. And for me, at this stage of my life,

to be invited to that party and be a part of that journey is just so freaking awesome that I don't actually mind giving up the Thanksgiving. Well, I'm excited for Real American Freestyle. If you're like me, and you're not going to be in the Chicago area, you can watch it on Fox Nation. It's a great app, and I've got to tell you,

it's a whole heck of a lot more affordable than I'm used to. Because it feels like you're getting, a PLE included with it. It's like seven or eight bucks. But tickets are on sale now. If you are in the Chicago area on next Saturday coming up to 29, it's going to be a pretty badass show. Tickets are on sale now at Real American Freestyle.com. And Eric, when I take a look at the lineup, it feels like there's more names and more celebrity attached to this event than either of the first two events. Is that fair to say? Well, it is. Certainly are two, you know, co-main events. rich in UFC

MMA history, Michael Chandler, Chad Mendez, that's going to be a tremendous matchup. Of course, both of them, you know, big names in the UFC,

lots of success in mixed martial arts in general, but like so many of the athletes, we talked about this from day one when you first interviewed me and you said, what are you excited about real American freestyle?

Why do you think it'll have a chance to succeed? When up until now, nobody that's ever tried making amateur wrestling or freestyle wrestling a successful television product. And I think I told you then, certainly shortly thereafter, that the opportunity I see here is, as the UFC has does such a phenomenal job of educating the audience, meaning if you, I use this analogy to pass, I'll go through it fast. If you walked into a bar 15 years ago, pulled 10 guys off the bar, said,

okay, I want you to come outside. I got $10,000 in cash in this bag. If any one of you can tell me what a rear naked choke is, I'll give you the cash. Chances are you'd walk out with your cash. Nobody could take it from him. Now you go into that same bar and pull 10 guys, 18 to 49 years old, off the back of a bar stool,

pull them outside. So here's 10 grand in this bag. You can tell me what a rear naked choke is. You can have the money in this bag. Not only would probably seven of those 10 guys be able to tell you what a rear naked choke is, four of them could execute it. That's what I mean by edutane. UFC has done a great job of that. And part of that edutainment is the audience realizing for the first time, really, that wrestling, freestyle wrestling, is such an important component of the entire MMA buffet.

if you will. Sure, there's striking. Sure, there's karate, there's jujitsu, there's variations of all of the above. There's a million different styles, right? Everybody's got to throw a little take on things. But at the very foundation, it comes down to your ability to physically control your opponent. And nothing, nothing lends itself to that aspect of MMA more than freestyle wrestling. So now that the audience is getting entertained and they see this emerging new sport, called Real American Freestyle.

Yeah, it's a combat sport, but it's different than, right? Different than, here we go again, UFC, or MMA in general. It's similar, but it's different than it. And it's interesting because it's a component of so much of what people love at MMA. So I just think it's a perfect storm, Conrad, the timing, you know, I don't believe in coincidence. We've been blessed with this opportunity. I know I have.

And I think we've been blessed with absolutely perfect timing. Well, I'm excited for Real American Freestyle Number 3. I'm a big UFC guy from way back. So when I saw so many names littered all over the card, I thought, this might actually be the biggest one. And of course, if you're a wrestling fan, you know, the traditional pro wrestling fan, that's the same day as Survivor Series and a lot of great football games. This is going to be the best Thanksgiving in a long time for guys. because not only do you get your fill of all your family favorites on Thursday,

but Friday, Saturday, Sunday, man, it's like a smorgasbord of sports all weekend, didn't it? It sure is. You know, we're talking a lot about, you know, the MMA involvement, the crossover between UFC and Real American Freestyle. But let's not forget, we're putting on some amazing, purely freestyle matches, but we know, with athlete, elite world class level athletes that haven't yet competed. or possibly never will compete in MMA or UFC in particular.

Kennedy Blades, she was supposed to be in our first event as of some obscure, you know, new NIL rules because she's part of the NCAA, we hit a little technical speed bump, so to speak, well, we've been able to overcome that, and Kennedy will be on the show. This young lady, 20-something years old, early 20s, college student, one of the most poised, athletically gifted human beings I've ever met.

And oh, by the way, she looks like she could walk off the cover of Vogue magazine. She's absolutely stunningly beautiful. And her gimmick is, because yeah, even freestyle wrestlers have gimmicks. Hers is throwing women on their head. She's known for her belly to back suplex. and she's got like long light. So when she decides she's going to hit you with a belly to back, it's a long ride.

It's not over quickly. It's like you're going up, you're going up. Oh my gosh, I had no idea. There was just many lights in that ceiling. Oh, there's a blue light. There's a yellow light. And then you finally hit the ground on your head. That's Kennedy Blades.

In fact, if you go back and you Google her, Google some images of her from the instance, CAA championships. I think there you'll find some of the most amazing belly to back suplex just action shots you'll ever find in freestyle wrestling. She's great. Bo Bassett.

Bo Bassett is, I think he's 18 now. He's 19. He's 19 now, right? Still in high school, we had to get his parents permission for him to compete as a professional. Is that awesome? He's unbelievable.

The kid is so, unbelievable and he's stepping into the ring with a seasoned vet, Darion Codwell, not only, you know, a phenomenal well-predential amateur wrestler, but again, a Bellator, you know, former UFC champion with a lot of scar tissue to go with it and fight experience and wisdom going against this 20, 19 year old freestyle wrestling phenom that I think probably is going to be one of the biggest names of freestyle wrestling decades to come. Man, I can hear the enthusiasm in your voice.

I mean, I remember, and this was not on the program, but you and I did a quick call about something else. But I could tell when I called you for whatever the purpose of my call was, you were in a good mood. And sometimes you can hear, as I like to say, people grinning through the phone. Like, you can't see them, but you just know there's a smile on their face. I can hear it in your voice. So I said, it sounds like you're in a good mood today. And you almost cut me off. And you never do that.

So I know you were excited. and you started rattling off how excited you were to have met and spent time with Kennedy Kennedy Blades. And I knew you had really seen a lot in her. You were excited for her to be on the first one. The idea that we're finally getting to see that now at Real American Freestyle 3, I just wanted to be clear to everybody. This is Eric being very genuine because these are private conversations.

He's not shilling or selling. You're just this enthusiastic about it. And I've never asked you this off air and I feel bad for asking you this on air. I know you were blessed to have a lot of fun and a lot of success in pro wrestling. But if this opportunity would have existed back then, this feels like it's more of your real personality, given your amateur sports background yourself. Do you think this would have been more fun? Like, if you could have been on the ground floor developing a UFC or an RAF or whatever

in 1991, instead of WCW, would that have appeal to you? No, I don't think so. I don't think so because what really appeal to me the most is learning, is just learning the business of the wrestling business and the television business, which is a part of obviously. But keep in mind, back then I didn't have any, I had no experience. I had no knowledge. And getting involved in wrestling gave me the opportunity over the course of time

to gain experience in just about every. facet of the wrestling business, whether it was, you know, initially as a salesperson. I was selling advertising, essentially. I was selling television. I was selling a television program, but I was selling it based on its ability to deliver ad sales to a network or to a station, independent station. So my first job was selling professional wrestling. And then I got into production just because I was curious. So after hours, I would hang around and learn how to do shit because to me it was magic. When I walked into Joe Tupac's edit bay, Polish Joe is referred to him.

If you ever met him, you'd know why. Polish Joe would walk into the room. His nose had been there for about four minutes before he showed up. But he would walk in that room and he would sit down in his edit suite and he would start making magic with all these multicolored buttons. That's how I looked at production. That's how a little experience I had. I had never been in an edit bay before.

So to me, it was all magic. And I got to learn that, just a little bit here, a little bit there, you know, over time. Got to learn how to run a camera. Got to learn how to produce interviews just by watching Vernon Gregg do it. Right? Got to learn how to do color and play by play. I was taught by one of the very best in the history of it in Verganya. It was somehow from Greg Gagne and Mike Shields and others,

but coached into a very aspect, a very important aspect of the professional wrestling business. And then on and on and on and on until eventually I became president. And the reason I'm telling you all this is because the opportunity that I have right now at Real American Freestyle, I wouldn't have been able to contribute anything were it not for all of the experience that I aimed at WCW. I would have nothing to offer. I would be another guy that loved amateur wrestling that thought it would be really cool to see it on TV, but I wouldn't understand how to help make it happen

unless I would have had the experience that I gained. So I'm so, I am absolutely 100% grateful for the opportunity that I have right now, and I would have wanted it to come at a different time of my life. Be sure to check out Kennedy Blades. She's going to be challenging for the featherweight championship. That's 150 pounds against Alejandro Rivera. You got a 22-year-old from America versus a 23-year-old from Mexico.

The featherweight title for the men will be up for grabs with Real Woods. He's a 25-year-old here from America against Jordan Oliver, who's a 35-year-old from Pennsylvania. Frank Mears' daughter, Bella Mear, is going to be making her debut at 150 pounds for Real American Freestyle. Old school UFC fans will be familiar with Clay Guida. he's representing Izzy style wrestling at 43 years old against a young buck at 24 years old Caden Henshiel by the way check out Caden Hensel go over to Instagram check out his stuff Caden Hensel is unbelievable and he's got social media by the you know what man he's doing a great job the big main event though Chad Mendez Michael Chandler both UFC stars 175 pounds the title

is on the line, Real American Freestyle happening next Saturday. Tickets on sale at Real American Freestyle.com. And of course, you can check it out on Fox Nation. That's what I'm going to do. And you should too. Speaking of something else you should do, is you should go check out our friends that I hate Steven Singer.

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if you're looking for someone who's a man of their word, if you want the best deal and you don't want to have to sharpen up your negotiation skills, I mean, leave all that haggling at the car lot. Go get a good deal for your sweetie and I hate Steven Singer. Get the peace of mind of knowing she's got the right kind of safety back so she won't lose them and the best guarantee. Who else gives you 100 full day 100% no hassle money back guarantee? Who else gives you full trade in value?

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I've got to admit, I've been listening to Howard Stern for like 30. years and I used to hear him all the time on there with Howard. And Howard would always say at the other corner, he's giving like physical directions of how to go see Steven Singer and the idea that he's on our program with the same reputation, with the same guarantee all these years later. It makes it a no-brainer for guys around Christmas, doesn't it? You know what's cool about this? I've never met Steven Singer and I hope to meet him someday because he really is the kind

of an entrepreneur that I would like to meet. But I bet you I'm 100% confident that Steve. Stephen Singer goes to bed every night and is proud of what he's built and proud of his business. Not necessarily because he made a fortune in the process, which maybe he has, maybe he hasn't. I don't know. I would assume he's done okay. But how many times Conrad have you and I both heard and been guilty of making major purchases based on emotion? Everybody does, yeah.

And we both know you in particular because you're a pro, you're a financial pro. You help people with their financial futures in many respects in your mortgage business. So you know what a bad idea it is to make emotional decisions, but we still do it anyway. Yes. Stephen Singer isn't in that game where most people that are selling, let's face it, the fact that you're buying jewelry, you're walking in the door with love all over you. You love somebody because you're going in there to buy a gift representing that. So you're already in that emotional state.

A lot of jewelers will play off of that. They'll take advantage of that. Steven Singer's in a business. It's all numbers. He's going to give you the absolute best price. There's no gamesmanship. There's no illusion of getting a good deal. There's the knowledge and the reality that you're getting the best deal you can get

on the piece of jewelry you're looking for with no nonsense. And I bet you that helps him sleep at night. Go check it out. I hate Stephen Singer, dot com. You're going to be as impressed and happy as Eric and I have been. We've both made purchases from Steven Singer. He's been with us for a long time and you'll find out why when you go check him out and I hate Steven Singer.com. Eric, I want to talk about something that I don't know that you and I've ever spent any time talking about, but the legendary Bob Cottle passed away.

Thankfully, it was peacefully in his sleep overnight and he leaves behind quite a legacy. He spent like nearly half a century speaking directly to wrestling fans. And he was like our beloved television uncle. So many people listening to this podcast grew up with him being one of the voices of their childhood. He used to introduce the program saying something like, hello wrestling fans. And of course his signature sign off on the other end,

the book end of the program. So long for now. He was a news guy. You know, he used to do the weather and a children's show. show and then he was recruited in to do television studio wrestling and before you know it he became truly the voice of men atlantic championship wrestling and he did it before we fell in love with tony shivani or jim ross but even rick flair if you're watching with us over at eighty three

weeks dot com he immediately took to twitter when he found out that bob had passed and he credited him for allowing him to sharpen his interview skills and helping him become a better promo. And for as long as I've been alive, people have been saying that Rick Flair was one of, if not the best talker in the business. And when that guy gives a tip of the cap saying, hey, this guy really helped me develop that, what a legacy he leaves behind. Tony Chivani did a fabulous tribute to him on Dynamite and suggested that, that if there's ever a Hall of Fame for wrestling announcers, Bob Cottle should probably go in first.

It was Tony Chivani's hero, and most everybody listening to this knows that Tony Chivani was effectively the voice of WCW. But this is the guy who inspired Tony Chivani to want to be Tony Chivani. What a legacy. Tell us what your experience was with Bob Cottle. You know, I really did get you know Bob at all. I never worked with Bob. We probably crossed paths once or twice in WCW informally. But I never really got to know him.

I know of him for decades. I've been hearing of him from people like Tony and Jim Ross and others in Rick Flair and others from that era, that NWA Crockett promotions, pre-WCWCW era, Florida Championship wrestling. the whole southeastern part of the United States. Anybody that was in that territory has told me at one point or another, they're experienced with or respect for Bob Cottle. So I think if you can spend as many years, 50 years,

being the voice of a genre in a generation or two at that point. And when your time comes and you go peacefully with your family, surrounded by a legacy of people who loved you and respected you for your work, I think you've lived a really good life. Shout out to Mr. Bob Cottle and so long for now. Let's talk about some other news that I saw this past week, and I'm sure a lot of people are wanting to pick your brain about this. And it wasn't just a social media post.

It wasn't just TMZ. Even People magazine picked this up, Tony. I guess Nick Balea, who some people, may refer to as nasty Nick Hogan or whatever the hulkster used to call him. Might be entertaining the idea of professional wrestling. I saw he posted something on social earlier this week in front of a wrestling ring and thanking people for helping him with a great workout. And everybody sort of stroked their hypothetical Fu Manchu and went,

hmm, what can you tell us, if anything, about Nick Hogan, entertaining the idea of doing a little pro wrestling. It puts a smile on my face. A little known fact. Nick put his toe in the water with Garrett, with my son. They were both going to Rikishi School in Southern California at the same time. They trained together. I don't remember what year that was anymore.

It was a while back, like 2006 or seven maybe, so I don't remember the date, But it was a while back. And Nick got hurt, took a nasty bump on his shoulder, did some damage, and that kind of derailed him. And, of course, life got in the way and all that. I think Nick is going to be in the process of finding out who Nick Belaya really is in a very positive way over the next year or two. I think Nick is going to find a lane that he's really truly comfortable in

and is going to pursue for no other reason that he wants to pursue it. Not that he should pursue it, which I think was the case when he put his toe in the water previously. Not that Hulk was not pressuring him, trust me. He supported him, but he was not pushing him in that direction. If anything, he was probably subtly trying to push him away from it, but much like Garrett Nick was committed, right? But I don't know at that time if he was committed for the right reasons.

I think there's a chance now. Nick's a little more mature. He's got some wisdom under his belt now that he didn't have then. And I'm excited for him. I don't want to say I hope he does pursue it, suggesting that I would put any pressure on him even in a fun way to do that. I wouldn't, but if he pursues it, I'll support him anyway I can because I think, look, it's easy to have an opinion of Nick because he's a public figure. Everybody bases their assumption on someone based on what they see in social media.

And it's a dirty, dark, evil, cruel place most of the time. And you don't really get to know people the way you think you do because your impression is shaped by social media. him. I think Nick is, Nick's putting on some size. He has been for a couple of years. He's been training off and I'm pretty seriously. He trains with Garrett down in Florida. Um, so I know he's been training for quite a while. Last time I saw him, he was looking and he looks healthy, strong, not not artificially strong, if you know what I'm saying. He looks like he's been pushing the weight. So I, I hope so. I hope so in my own way. Or I hope that he pursues it and then decides, you know what, I put my toe in the water,

I've decided that it's not right for me. Either way, it's a win. I don't even know that he, I mean, listen, I want him to do exactly what he wants to do. I'm with you. But even if he doesn't decide to pursue a full-time wrestling career, a one-off or maybe just, you know, one angle that we play out over the course of three months or something,

like I could see that being something that would attract, a lot of mainstream eyeballs. You know, look, mainstream or it doesn't really need the money, right? No. I got to figure out how to pay the bills. It's not that. It's fine. And for Nick, if he gets to the point where he's confident enough in his abilities,

can you imagine the fun that he could have on the indie circuit? No doubt, dude. I mean, and Nick's all about a good time. Nick likes to be surrounded by people that are having. fun. That's why, you know, he does this DJ thing, not because he needs the cash, but because he loves doing it. He loves the energy. So I think for that reason, that's one of the parallels I see with Nick and Hulk, is that Hulk was kind of addicted to the energy, the crowd, the environment, that reaction. Nick's got some of that same vibe in him, right? The same triggers. So if Nick can

harness that and if it ends up playing itself out in a ring, I just imagine. And, you know, him going out once or twice a month having the time of his life and picking up a check and bring him home too. He was quoted as saying it makes me feel so much closer to dad being around the business and being kind of around that environment. I have a lot of love for it. And like I said, it's in the blood. He referred to WWV as being family. And he even made sure to say, I'm in pretty good shape right now. I'm cool, not saying too much, just trying to stay in shape.

It feels like he might do something. And that leads me down my favorite road, one you hate to travel, the hypothetical what if fantasy booking, because we know that Sting's son has just recently made his in ring debut. And I just, I don't know. It feels like it's right there. We've got Goldberg's kid who's in college football right now,

but he may have some interest in doing something on the other side. And we know that Rick Steiner's kid is, is tearing it up and, WWE, it feels like maybe there could be something like, what if there was a hypothetical match with both of Sting's sons against Garrett and Nick? Like that could be fun. I don't know.

I love the idea of, you know, the second generation. Oh, yeah. You could have, you could have Gary Bischoff's in at rings and I'm supporting his buddy, Nick and have to make a save. I don't think Garrett sees himself getting into the ring on any consistent basis. but a Hogan Bischoff angle to watch a story would not be a bad idea.

A lot of fun. Can't wait to see what happens. I hope those guys continue to have fun. Is there, do you think that there's any chance that Brooke Hogan would want to be involved in wrestling at all on any level? You know, I haven't talked to Brooklyn so long that I couldn't begin to suggest. I know what she would think.

Look, there was at one point in time, she was very serious about it when she was in the middle of her angle with a bully. Yeah. That whole storyline, which, by the way, it was an incredible storyline. I mean, it really was. And you talked to bully. It was one of his favorite storylines in terms of its depth and execution. It might not have been for everybody, you know, your hardcore wrestling fan. It was probably a little too soap opera-ish for, you know, the hospital.

hardcore fan, but the general audience really, really enjoyed that. And it did well in a ratings and sold tickets to live events that it was associated with. But at that point in time, she was very interested. I think I saw her even working out in the ring, taking a little coaching from some of the girls that were in teen A at the time, the ladies that were in TNAe at the time. So I know there was interest then, but who knows now? I mean, her life's changed a lot, right? She's She got two kids. Husband kind of settled down, has somewhat of a normal life, at least from the outside looking in.

So I don't see it, but hey, you know, that ring, that crowd, even though Brooke only got a little taste of it in TNA, and she certainly got a little taste of it as a performer, as a musician. She knows that connection to a live audience. And once you get that needle in your arm, it's a bitch to get it out really is i don't know i kind of like the idea of seeing her maybe she's not wrestling but if you introduce her into a story then bully can slide in and he can kind of be the ring general with some of these other younger cats ooh now we're booking a

great indie show we should see this for like the 30th the 31st anniversary of nitro put it on at the mall of america let me just put the put a bug in your year right now eric next July is the 30 year anniversary of Hulk Pogan turning heel. We should do it. We should do a show. We should do an indie show. You and I, the team,

not you and I, but the team of all of us as the promoters and we'll put that on. And, what if we could put it on at the Mall of America? I mean, what if we could put it on at the fucking Daytona Center? and we can put it on YouTube.

I'm just saying July 7th will be here before you know it. Hypothetically. Isn't that interesting? I'm in. I'm in to give it a push and see if it's something we really want to do. Let's dig into it and put pencil to paper and start doing math and shit. The part that's not that much fun talking about. But let's get through the fun part because we see what that could be.

Let's get through the pencil part. See if it actually makes any kind of sense. If we can get through the pencil part, let's do it. Hypothetically, Eric, do you remember the date when Hulk Hogan dropped the leg and joined the NWO? Do you remember the date? Was it the sixth? July 7th. 7th.

July 7th in 2026 is on a Tuesday. So that means Saturday is the 4th of July. Hypothetically, maybe there could be a pre-year. premium live event for YouTube on July 5th, two days before the 30 year anniversary. I don't know. We'll have to have some fun. Let's get the pencils out. Well, by the way, if we do that, I don't know that everybody's going to want to make

sure that they are TV ready. And our friends at Signos can really help you do that. I know Silva is quick to show us the graphic and we're going to talk about all of their offerings. But I wanted just a minute here, Eric, we want to go back to you on a full screen. and tell us how Cignos has helped you. I mean, you just mentioned next year you'll be 71. And you did a reveal earlier this year and people got to see what you've been up to,

just really changing your body. And you kind of thought you were on top of it. You and Ms. B have had a passion for this for a long time. But Cignos has really helped you up your game. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, and I won't make this like a two-hour, you know, health podcast. But I thought, as you mentioned, Mrs. B and I have been very, you know, nutrition has been our hobby for really a long time,

particularly Mrs. B. She's actually studied it. She's, she's gone to holistic nutritional schools and gotten degrees and certificates and all kinds of things. She's really done the deep dive in it. But I thought I had things under pretty much control. I was on my carnivore diet. I thought I was being fairly strict, and was according to a traditional carnivore diet plan, but then I got my signals, my blood glucose monitor from signals. And I thought, man, I've been hearing so much about these things. I know what my blood, my blood glucose is good. I know I'm not pre-diabetic.

I don't have any issues. But when you're managing, I don't just manage my weight. I manage my energy. Losing weight in the process is a byproduct of managing my energy, but what I truly focus on is managing my energy. And one of the things that I've learned over the course of years is how certain foods dramatically affect not only my energy, but my moods. Now, I was never able to really draw direct line connections to the specific foods that I would eat and how they would make me feel. I had a good idea, but I couldn't dial it in.

Anyway, signals comes into my life. Now I've got on my phone, I've got a. I've got a real-time device that can tell me in any given second what my blood sugar is. Now, why is that important for somebody who's generally healthy and doesn't have any health issues, right? For me, I notice that, for example, when I would eat three or four ounces of cheese, which is part of the carnivore diet plan, I didn't go off the reservation, but for whatever reason, cheese, because of my individual metabolism really spiked my blood glucose, still within a healthy range. But here's what happens. It spikes my blood glucose. That's no problem. I still feel great.

And then it drops. I get foggy. I lose energy. I'm just not as excited and motivated to go do the next thing, whatever the next thing is. I'm kind of in that funk for about a half an hour, 45 minutes. I don't like funk. I'm an anti-funk kind of person when it comes to funk like that. No funk in my life, please. Even if it comes in the form of three or four ounces of cheese, that according to my carnivore diet plan I can have. So what the Cynos Blood Glucos Monitor has allowed me to do

is fine-tune with laser-like precision what I eat during the day so that I can manage my energy so it's at optimal levels from about 6 o'clock in the morning until about 8 o'clock at night. And oh, by the way, in the process, I'm dropping weight like crazy. Not because I'm trying to drop weight because I'm managing my energy because I have the ability throughout the day to know when I need to manage it. It's awesome. I will never not have one. Cignos has taken the guesswork out of managing our way and giving you personalized insights into how your body works with an AI powered app and the biosensor. Signos helps you build healthier habits and stick with them. And right now, Cignos has an exclusive offer for our listeners.

Go right now to SIGNOS.com. That's Cignos.com at SIGNS.com. And you can get $10 off select plans when you use the code 83 weeks. that's signos.com. The code is 83 weeks and you'll get $10 off select plans today. Hey, so Eric, I'm excited for us to talk about, I can't believe this is real, but 30 years ago this week, Sting faced Hulk Hogan in the main event of Monday Nitro. I don't know what you're saying to yourself.

You're saying to yourself, self. That was 1997, Conrad. It happened to 95. And somehow, some way. Cogan was in black and white and Sting was in red and yellow. Huh? But it happened two years before the big NWO angle came to a head at StarCade 97. This is late 1995.

We're heading into World War III. The company is pushing some new ideas. Take a look at what we're seeing here with Hulk Hogan. Not only is he wearing black and white, not only is he sans facial hair, but he's got like a black mask. How would you describe the mask that Hogan's wearing right there, Eric? I don't have words for that. It must have been a reason for it.

Like, did he get punched in the nose? Well, he was trying different stuff. If you remember, he wore a helmet with a fist on it once in the WWF. He was just trying new gimmicks, brother. But this is when the Dungeon of Doom or after Hulk Hogan, they've taken his world title, the big show. The insanity of Dungeon, of doom pushed him over the edge.

The dark side of Hulkomania, brother, is what we're trying to battle here. But this is an episode of Nitro from making freaking Georgia. And you've got Hulk Hogan and Stink, two of WCW's absolute tippy top baby faces. And they're positioned in a match, not on pay-per-view, but on freaking Nitro. And I just think this is super cool that we're able to see this. It went down on November 20th, 1995, as folks are listening to this, yesterday was the 30-year anniversary. But even just the irony of Stings in there in the red and yellow and Hogan's in the black and white,

like little did we know. Don't get me wrong. This is a badass main event. Lots of people were curious, sort of the face of WCW versus the face of the WWF. But this is before the NWO even existed. How fun is this? to just take a look at it. I mean, it's happened. You know, you could, you could get into a spiritual conversation about this. Like, was this kind of like, hey, guys, over here, I'm giving you a sign here.

I got an idea for you. Just throwing it out there. Um, or just the sheer coincidence of it. Either way, it's, it's fun to go back and look, look at this. And there was a point I was going to make. Oh, the point was, I would imagine, now you haven't referenced what, you know, the internet wrestling community had to say about this. But I remember specifically getting a shitload of heat for giving away pay-per-view quality matches on free TV. Like this was at the time, people were predicting the end of my career because of things like this. And man, did they turn out to be wrong? Now we're seeing, you know, big stars on television on a regular basis. But it's just fun. It's fun to go back can look at the stuff. I, I, if somebody was said, I bet you had $10,000 that you had Hogan

dressed up in black and white and sting dressed up in red and yellow when they face each other on nitro, I would have taken that bet all day long, sober. I would have taken that bet. I never bet sober ever. I'd take that bet sober and I would have lost. It's awesome. It's fantastic. I wish we would have bet your hair for the third time. No, I would not have done that. My wife would have come flying down those stairs. She would have had something to say about that we just had a conversation about that the other day i'm watching this guy doing an infomercial right and he's got this gimmick where he shaves his head just bald as a cue as a cue ball and it makes it look so easy i said honey i'm like because that's the only reason i like doing my head because then i got to

shave my head every day and so pain and yeah i'm like shaving my face every day as you can tell so i thought but man with one of those razors i can keep that shit shiny like stone cold steve austin no fly zone brother no fly zone that ain't happen I just think it's funny. Even back then, as a reminder, you know, this is the dark side of Hulkomania. That's what Jimmy Hart has been saying that he's trying to expose with Kevin Sullivan's help. So, you know, Hulk Hogan's out here in all black, even wearing a mask. I don't know if he's on his way to see Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise or what. But Sting had kind of been WCW's moral compass.

I mean, at this point, he's never been a bad guy in WCW. And maybe he's trying to pull the Hulk sure out of it. But yeah, here we are in a pretty relative. new show. You know, this thing kicks off in late August. And now here we are in November. And not only are we live, unlike Monday Night Raw every week, but now we're giving away big matches. And it got no bigger than Hulk Hogan sting. As you see, of course, there's a big shmaws, but I mean, him attempting a sting or splash on Hulk Hogan. I mean, this is cool. And as you see here, if you're watching with us at 83 weeks.com, here comes the dungeon

to doom. And after the run-in, we get the stair down. No hostility, but some unresolved tension. I just think this is cool. Two of the absolute biggest acts, biggest baby faces that you've got, little did we know that they're going to be on a collision course that would really start a year later, but pay off two years after this. And even take a look, you know, the seeds of what's to come. Here's the macho man trying to make the safe. He too dressed in all black and white. getting a choke slam from the giant who's going to play both sides of the fence and the WCW versus NWO stuff. I don't know.

I just think it's fun to look back at 95 and think, little did we know what's to come. Yeah, indeed. Indeed. When you take a look at this, I got to ask, you know, Hogan's at least flirting with the dark side of Hulkomania. was it ever even discussed? Was the subject ever even broached of what if we just leaned into this here? Because by 90, by late 95, some of the booze had started to show up for

Holcow. Not everybody was on board. And you've told us the story before of, hey, until you walk a mile in my boots, my yellow boots, you won't understand, that sort of thing. And he thanked you for coming and sort of shooed you out of the house. So we've talked about that conversation before. But here in 95,

when he's dressing in all black and he's facing sting. Is that Hogan trying to test the waters, in your opinion? Looking back at it today, I think what it was, was Hulk sensing the same thing all of us sensed, in terms of the reaction that he was getting, versus the reaction I think he was hoping to get. And I think this was Hulk maybe feeling things out, trying to get his bearings on where he wanted to go or what he wanted to do next,

I think as goofy and animated as the whole Dungeon of Doom creative was, it was really an 80s gimmick, maybe early 90s, but certainly not a mid-to-late 90s idea. The time for that kind of character had already passed us by, and we were just barely catching up to that. WWE hadn't even caught up to it yet, the reality-based kind of storylines of characters. We weren't there yet, and we led the way.

So I think this was Hulk reacting to the same things we all reacted to and trying to figure out where he wanted to go next with his character. I don't think Hulk looked at this as a serious direction. I think he looked at this as an operational. opportunity to test the waters with the character, but I don't think Hulk saw himself as a part of a dungeon of doom long-term storylike. As a reminder, Hulk's going to turn heel seven and a half months after this. So it's not that long.

It's really not. I mean, when you think about it, it's five minutes. Yes. I got to think that this guy at least warmed him up to the idea. And I guess the next question I want to ask. about that is when we see Hogan turn heel and drop the leg on the baby faces, he drops it on Savage. But he had had a feud with Savage for years going back to 1989. Don't get me wrong. At that point, Savage was certainly a good guy and well established as a good guy. And I've been on a

good guy run for a while. But he did have history with a heel Randy Savage. Nobody can armchair quarterback the NWO turn. I mean, it's the biggest thing in the history. of the business. However, could it have been even a little bit more effective that he was turning his back on WCW if he dropped the leg on Sting? Or did you not plan it that way?

Because you still weren't sure, will he do it? We need Sting just in case. Because Sting represented WCW, perhaps more he was the embodiment. No, that's a really, that's a really interesting what if. and I hesitated because I was trying to put myself back in my frame of mind in that period because the issue of Hogan showing up and committing or not was a real issue.

So being that it was a real concern, would I have also simultaneously planned for Hulk to actually go through with it and use Sting in the body of the match, which means I would have had to have been involved in laying that out all day long with Hulk, I don't see it happening. I don't think I would have done that. Even with the opportunity, as you just presented it, yeah, would have maybe meant more in a way, subjectively,

and maybe objectively. Maybe from a financial perspective, it would have been bigger. It's hard to imagine that. But even given that, I would have probably stuck to with what we did. And part of it would have been, this is the other, the reality of it. Again, Hulk had laid that finish out. Halk had talked to Randy. Everybody knew what was going to happen once Hogan actually walked through the curtain. That had all been

worked out. I don't know how we could have changed that and worked out those details and still pulled this off under those circumstances. So I was stuck with the plan. I got to tell you, I'm fascinated by that because we know that ultimately the big payoff is going to be Hogan versus Sting. So I would have liked to have shown from the very beginning he was dropping the leg on the face of WCW. And we know along the way, Randy Savage was certainly representing WCW here, but he soon too would join the NWO. I think it could have been even as crazy as this is. It's the most successful storyline in history. But if we are going to critique one little thing, I think having him drop the leg on Sting may have

have been bigger. So, but you know what? And of all things would have been perfect, if there would not have been a will he or won't he issue, if I wouldn't have had to sequester him for two days and hide him from people that were going to talk him out of doing what he agreed to do, which is why I had to sequester him with Kevin Sullivan to protect him from all of the people around him who, you know, they're just there to help, brother. What they're really there to do is create doubt and anxiety. So Hulk kept them within the circle and they got like, you know, free shit and sushi dinners and got to hang out and go for boat rides because that group

of people were always around Hulk. Hulk liked to be surrounded by people and like to hear other people's opinions. Well, to a large degree, Hulk surrounded himself with people that were always giving Hulk advice that was in his best interest as much it was in their best interest. that's the reason for sequestration, right? Had none of that existed and all things were easy and equal, absolutely. I think the idea, as you laid it out,

would have made a great idea even greater, no doubt. Well, the greatest idea we've had in a long time is bragging about our friends at Bluetooth. If you haven't already, what are you waiting for? You got to try it, because you can enter the room, do it first. Blue Chew's not just a tablet. Think of it as like a cheat code for your crotch.

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Pop one of these blue chues before you go to the gym. Like if you want to impress yourself or anybody's standing around you, get a really good workout in with a blue shoe in you. You think you've had a pump before? You have no idea. But then when you come home, you can get a second pump. And you're ready for business. You're ready to go.

So you're saying blue chew and then lift and then after lift come home and do some cardio. Get your cardio in. It's time for the wrestling news update with Raj Geary. All right. It's time for my favorite segment on the show, easy for me to say. Welcome into the program. Mr. Raj Geary.

Raj, what's going on, man? How are you? I'm doing good. How about you guys? Man, we're excited that you're here. It's been a crazy week in wrestling. It's a paper. review week. There's lots of chatter.

I wanted to catch up with you and see what the latest headlines are. And it's been an insane week. Just a lot going on. A lot of stuff that's not really, probably at the forefront of most wrestling fans thought process. You know, obviously it's a pay-per-view week and everything going on.

So they're more thinking about that. But this was the week where we had Paramount Netflix and Comcast submitting bids for WBD. They submitted the bids on Thursday. And, you know, the consequences of this of whichever company eventually ends up getting WBD, if any of them do, just because could have huge ripples on the wrestling industry, like gigantic. When I really sit back and think about it, it can be crazy. So right now, WBD stock is trading at over $23 a share.

It reached a high of a little over 24. Paramat had previously offered $2350 per share for the company. That was obviously turned down. So the bidding this week, it's been reported that the bids are a lot under what David Zazlov wants. Zazlab wants $30 per share, and bids are reportedly quite a bit under that. It's expected that nothing's going to probably come out of this rounded bidding. There's probably going to be two to three more rounds. So nothing is probably going to come out of this, but the process is started.

And Paramount's expected to bid up to $25 and probably won't go past $20. So Comcast and Netflix on the other hand, I think Paramount's confident that they can probably get it because Comcast and Netflix only want the studio part in HV, you know, the studio and HBO Max while Paramount wants the whole company. And with that, Paramount's offering nearly all cash with 80% of its bid. And there would be no leakage. So there's this tax leakage that happens when you, you know, sell part of the company. So with Netflix and Comcast, by just buying a chunk of. WBD, there would be costly tax consequences for WBD if those bids were selected. What do you make of all that, Eric?

It's so complicated. And to me, it's more, and I'm trying to follow this because this is the kind of thing that actually is the most interesting aspect of the wrestling business to me, because let's face it, in all sports, particularly in professional wrestling as we know it, television drives the business. If you don't have a solid television deal, you're not really in the professional wrestling business or any sport, for that matter.

So this is fascinating to me, but the vertical integration, the legal complexities associated with this, make it really fascinating to me, but it's something that I honestly can't track closely enough to get a feel for anymore. There's so much nuance to this. You know, my agent over a paradigm, Nick L'Piclo,

does a great job of tracking this, and he's really got his finger on the pulse. And I try to stay at top of it by following Nick because he's really that thorough and has good access to inside information. But even following Nick, man, it's hard to track. I think here's my gut. My gut, it's going to be Paramount.

just it makes the most sense. The only question is what is Paramount willing to pay for it? Or probably better stated, what is Zazlov willing to take for it? Because I think it's not a jewel. People are really hoping to add to the collection. It's a pit. And obviously, I think a big part of this is AEW. what happens with AEW. Now, if we were to assume, assume all the reports were correct,

it was $185 million that they got for this deal with WBD. Well, that $185 million is basically for five parts, right? It's collision on max, collision on TNT, dynamite on max, dynamite on TBS, and then the pay-per-view component, where they're, they're kind of the favored pay-per-view provider going, you know, with AEW. And so if any of these deals happen, Netflix, that deal happens, they're not taking the TBS and TNT parts. And so that automatically cuts the value of AEW in half, basically. Same as NBC Comcast. They're not looking at the linear channel.

So that cuts the value of AEW in half. Collision, obviously right now, their ratings have sunk since the deal was made. And this isn't just the change in the Nielsen ratings system. I had posted a couple days earlier. I had gotten the panel ratings days before it came out. And it was a 0.03 with the regular panel ratings, much less the new system. So it garnered this past Saturday. It's lowest 18 to 49 rating and show history tied with two other episodes.

And the audiences, it did 219,000 viewers last week. The audience has been under 300,000 for seven weeks in a row. So that show in the next. in the next round of negotiations is almost off the table. It doesn't have much value. And so you look at that pay-per-view component, is Netflix going to add a pay-per-view component to their service? I don't think so.

I don't even think Netflix would want WWE and AEW. Contcast, maybe they want to keep Saturday nights made event with AEW. I don't know. Would they add a pay-per-view component as possible? So, yeah, it does seem like Paramount would be the best spot for AEW. if a sale were to take place because they could take everything over, at least four components that I mentioned would still apply on the Paramount networks. But again, Paramount has a deep relationship with WWE, Ari Emanuel, David Ellison, who

owns Paramount Skydance, the CEO of Paramount Skydance. He said Ari Emanuel, the TKO president, he said that he's a mentor. So it does get dicey. And that's where it does get scary as far as the pro wrestling, you know. Well, I just think if you look at the math, you know, a while back, I sound like I'm bragging and I don't mean to. But, you know, what was it, a year and a half ago? I sat right where I'm sitting right now with a bottle of wine and a calculator and my computer and sat there and just said, okay, what is AEW? What has their performance been over the past three years, television performance?

And going off the top of my head, they were losing an average of 20% of their audience year, after year after year for like three to five years. So I sat down and went, okay, I'm going to take this same average because there's nothing to indicate that the bleeding has stopped. The loss of audience year over year hasn't slowed down significantly, enough to change the math. So I just sit down and said, okay, this is what's happened over the past three years. Apply this math to the current audience and tell me what the next three years is going to

look like. and that's how I came out and made the projection that I made a year and a half ago, which happens to be exactly right on the money today. It was a simple blast or two of wine and a calculator to figure it out. Well, when you talk about the value of AEW, and the value is whatever the market is willing to pay for it, that's the value of it. Now, you can sit down with your accountants

and you can figure out all kinds of valuation formulas based on financial protocols. You can do all that if you want. At the end of the day, none of that really matters. The only thing that really matters is what is someone willing to pay you for what you think you have and what you think it's worth. And if anybody in ad sales, whether it be for Paramount, for Turner, who is ever in the television business where ad sales or sponsorship is a factor,

is going to do the same thing I did with a glass of wine. They're going to sit down and go, okay, what are their numbers? It's just math. There's no magic. It's just math. You look at the numbers. This is where they've been. Based on where they've been, where are they going?

And if you look at where they're going in the next 36 months, there's absolutely less than no value there. You're giving up valuable beachfront property to not make any money. I just don't see that. don't see an end game there, unless there's consolidation on AEW's part, a better focus on the product, something to indicate to that ad sales division president that the outlook for this property is something different than the current math formula suggests that it will be. And I'm curious, Eric, how, you know, Tony Khan, you know, in the interview with Ariel Halwan,

And he once again said he doesn't know the HBO Max numbers. How do you negotiate, you know, when your deal is coming up, it's coming up here in a couple of years. How do you negotiate dynamite to say in Amazon Prime if you don't have those numbers? Then all the numbers that they can look at are your cable. If assuming it's true, all the numbers that they can look at are cable. I hope you're not in a hurry, but you've asked such an important question. I'm not in a hurry either, but I needed to run a time out.

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So, Eric, tell us where you land on this. How do you negotiate a better deal for your streaming if you don't know your current streaming numbers? And neither does the, so here's where we're at, Real American Freestyle. We've got an amazing deal with Fox and Fox Nation in particular. for a multi-episode deal with them. And we will be negotiating for a longer-term agreement with them once they get through their budget year. But in the meantime, I have to have a plan B.

I have to be prepared to go out and sell Real American Freestyle to another platform if for whatever reason Fox Nation doesn't come across the finish line because you just never know, right? It's silly to invest what we've invested and put everything we put into one basket, right? It's not smart business. Now, one of my biggest challenges is how do I go out and sell the success that Real American Freestyle has had at Fox Nation when I don't have the data to support it? Because guess what? I've asked for it.

And I'm not going to get it from anybody at Fox Nation. and I'm sure the same is true with most streaming platforms. They hold onto that data and they're not sharing it with anybody. Few executives that I've talked to at Fox have access to that data. But I'm the guy out selling, Chad Brostey, my partner and I, it's not a solo effort. Trust me, we're going to be sitting down with different television partners selling the success of Real American Freestyle Outpoxation, and by the way, it is successful. They called us 24 hours after our first event.

We only had a deal for two events. They called us 48 hours after our first event, asked us to fly to New York the next day and sign an extension. I won't say how many. It's not my business to discuss, but quite a few more episodes, right, based on the success. We know anecdotally, I'll be careful how I say it because I don't want to, to ruin relationships. But anecdotally, we know it is one of the most, if not the most subscribed event on Fox Nation this year.

But I can't sell that. That's not a data point I can sell. So here's the answer to your question. It's up to me, Chad, our team, to look for all of the data points that we can control, that we can show growth in, whether that's YouTube, whether that's social media, whether that's ticket sale growth.

In our case, we've got a good story to tell, believe it or not. Despite what Dave Belzer and the internet wrestling community would have you believe, we've got a very good, not a great story. We're only three events in, but we've got a positive story to tell. We've got a very positive story to tell, very positive story to tell, with regard to social media growth and engagement, more than anything, engagement. right our YouTube we've got over 10,000 subscribers and growing and we haven't even started promoting it yet so we've in the meantime we're going to start promoting all the things that we have control

over we have to show growth because growth shows potential and in many cases people are buying a product not only based on as performance but based on its future potential whether that's good potential or not good potential is up to people who can control the outcome of the things that are within their wheelhouse. And that's kind of where it gets iffy. Because you're talking about how you can sell Real American Freestyle. Well, with Tony with dynamite and collision, you have those data points. You have a set of data points that are out there with the cable numbers.

And I know Tony was on Ariel's show doing that interview, and he was saying that they were up, which is just categorically not true. I mean, from Q4 last year, their number went up in Q1. Their audience, not the P18 to 4, you know, not the 18 to 49 demo. But every quarter, you look at 2024 to 2025, every quarter dynamite is down substantially,

both total viewers and the 18 to 49 demo. So in Amazon Prime, if they can't, you know, they don't have access to these. HBO Max numbers, they have these other numbers that they can look at and they see these declines year over year. And I just, I don't know. I just feel like that's where it kind of gets scary, especially with the show like Pollition, which is doing almost nothing now. I go back to one of the first things I said when I got, you know, branded as a Tony con hater or an AEW hater and it wasn't hate. It was really good advice that I'm pretty

sure somebody wished they would have listened to at this point, is if you're not growing, you're dying. And there's no better illustration of that point that I made five or six years ago than where AEW is at right now based on the conversation we just had, because there is no data point they can point to that I'm aware of that would indicate potential growth. YouTube numbers, I don't know what they are, but I'm guessing they're flat or decreasing, unless they're making an effort that I'm unaware of to get those numbers up. Ticket sales? I don't know.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. That math doesn't math. Ratings, despite all of the stuff that Tony goes out and says, which I don't know why he says it, because people in the ad sales industry and the television industry, know that he's full of shit, know that it's a lie, which doesn't endear you to anybody at the, that side of the business when you're sitting out there publicly trying to paint a picture that doesn't exist. It's hard to have credibility when you're sitting in a room with people that know better.

The whole thing is kind of a mess. And it's all because they haven't been growing in any category other than the illusions that they create in their mind. Raj, I want to ask you, I don't know that you saw this, but Brandon Thurston put out a tweet this morning saying that he had some comments from the CEO of the media ratings council. Have you seen that? Is this the one from CW or? The MRC CEO and executive director, George W. Ivy, responded with a statement sent after the initial

publishing of this article. So he continues on. But the gist was there's been a big debate about the way wrestling ratings looked before and after. and there's some discrepancies. So he is quoted as saying, I haven't seen the figures you're quoting in your email, but we will definitely consider these as we evaluate the service going forward.

And I know that not everybody has been paying attention to this. Can you sort of shed some light on the way ratings were looked at before versus what's happening now and what discrepancies have been presented as it pertains to wrestling? Sure. So before the ratings were, you know, maybe like 40,000 households. So that's what they called a panel only. It was like 40,000 households,

and the ratings were based on a sample of that. Now they're counting, you know, smart TVs and things like that. So now you're, now they open that pool to tens of millions of devices. But they're also with those devices, you don't get demographic info, like, you know, how many people are watching the show,

things like that. So they kind of combine that with the panel data, which, you know, that data does, tell you how many people are watching and the demos and things like that. And so they're using that. And the NFL really wanted it. They felt like they were being undercounted.

A lot of sports leagues felt like they were being undercounted. And with this change in the system, they were. I mean, their numbers are through the roof. I mean, they're breaking records like every week. You're constantly saying, you know, World Series second highest in the last, you know, outside of last year, last 10 years. This NFL game was, you know, the best number. in the last 12 years.

So their numbers have improved. And that's why I don't see much changing because the big dogs are happy with this new rating system. But wrestling... Is there an explanation? Like, has anybody offered just a guess

as to why wrestling has fared so poorly compared to other programming? There has been this... So until Nielsen really comes out and says how there's calculating this, it's tough to say. There have been reports that wrestling, unless you change the channel, because it's not counted as sports, it's counted as entertainment. So every 30 minutes,

if you're not changing the channel, it doesn't count it, which doesn't make sense. Because every now and then when you do get quarter hours for a show, you don't see just big shifts every 30 minutes. It's been, you know, kind of the regular pattern that you've seen. But it is the 18 to 34 in particular is so low with this new system. And, you know, some of it, it's definitely got to be, because how low the numbers are, it just doesn't make sense, especially for a show like Smackdown, where you know, I mean, just the sniff test, you can see how many, you know, how many young people are in the crowd, the attendance and things like that.

but it you know it could just be that so many young people are watching on devices like iPads and phones that it's just not being tracked properly you know with this with this new system I don't want to go too far into the weeds in this but I wonder if there's two things you said there Raj that got me interested one is the classification of wrestling as either sports or entertainment

yeah that's always been kind of a functional space anyway when you're out selling advertising. If you, you know, you represent an agency or client and you're selling advertising, whether wrestling is a sport or entertainment is a subject of discussion and debate. And wrestling usually loses the sports debate when you're talking to people in the television industry. But I'm wondering if that classification somehow affects it. And here's the other thing I'm thinking. With the fast channel devices, which are primarily phones, right? I'm wondering back in the day, for example, Nielsen used to consider a household as 2.3 people. And the average age and composition of a U.S. family household was X.

So the formula at its at its foundation is based on an assumption. you're assuming on an average how many people are in a house watching television and what their ages are. Now, if they're metered and you're putting in the ages of people, that's a little bit different. But the calculation that's used to extrapolate the large number is based on a formula. And I'm wondering if that formula for television is the same as the basic formula for fast channel, Meaning if a fast channel is primarily this, which means you're at one viewer per household, so speak, this being a household or view, as opposed to 2.3, which is what it was, 2.2 or 2.3 at an average demo, I'm wondering if factoring in fast because of a different formula is affecting the overall number with regard to 18 to 34-year-olds. Yeah, and I also wonder, and real quick, a quick correction. It was 42,000 households before that were being calculated for the Nielsen panel rating.

And now it's 45 million plus devices, set top boxes, smart TVs. And, you know, a lot of it, you know, a lot of the new viewers is also counting out of home, out of home viewing. And so I always wondered how you do that because, like, if I'm at a. a Buffalo Wild Wings, right, watching football. It can't tell which game I'm watching. There's 70 screens going and, you know, most likely, obviously there's one featured game, but there's all these other screens, you know, playing, you know, different sports and everything. So I just don't get how they're able to calculate that out of home viewing for sports bars and things like that.

So it, and could that skew the wrestling ratings off? because, you know, usually when you go to a sports bar, you don't see wrestling, you know, but you do see NHL and things like that, which even if you're not a fan, it's on. So I don't know, you know, how that's being tracked. If that's just skewing it more heavily in favor of other sports, because you have seen a big increase with other sports with this new system. But this is the system. Nielsen and ratings have always been voodoo system.

Yeah. Look into the television business in 1987. it's still voodoo to this day, only now it's more complicated voodoo. And that's the thing, you know, when there are people out there who have been trying to make the case, you know, dynamites getting more viewers than raw, or they were making that case. But it's like the Netflix numbers are actually super accurate, right? Because it, they can track directly how many people are logging on and watching a show. It's not a sample size. It's not, you know, the theoretical.

It's the actual number of viewers, whereas as we've seen with Nielsen, it can vary so greatly depending on, you know, which methodology they want to use. So until you can get something, you know, and as everything is going to streaming, and as we just talked about earlier, they're keeping those numbers under lockdown, which makes it difficult for, you know, most people to see exactly how many people are watching these shows. But as you're going to more streaming, it gets easier and easier to get that data. You know, for WBD, they can quickly find out how many people watch the last dynamite. But with Nielsen, you're still stuck in their system, and they can't figure out which way to go. They changed it. It drastically changes. A television shows ratings.

And it just shows just how inaccurate Nielsen could be and probably was or is. Well, the formula is changing when it comes to ratings. but it's not changing with our friends over at price picks. If you haven't already checked out price picks, what are you waiting for now is a great time to do it? Not only can you have some fun with football, but basketball now too, come on, man.

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But now I heard a rumor, AMC, where does this come from? Yeah, that's wild because AMC has never had sports. You know, they're known for prestige TV like Madman and Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, better calls all, like shows like that. So, I mean, that would be a huge get for TNA. It's an interesting one. But, but yeah, you know, you're talking about TNA being on Access TV that as of a couple years ago was in 30,000 homes.

I'm sure that's a lot lower now, as opposed to now going to AMC, which is, you know, about 60 million homes, 61 million. So it's a big increase in, in terms of, you know, in terms of, you know, in, in terms of, of the strength of the network. And yeah, it would be a big get. So apparently they're looking to announce by the end of the year, Carlos Silva, the TNA president, he's been shopping the distribution rights around for a while.

And he said that he expects to get between $7 and $10 million for a TNA's TV right, which is, you know, is a really good deal. Like when you compare it to, you know, some of the other wrestling programming that's out there. So, yeah, it would be the best upgrade for TNA as far as a TV rights deal since they got on Spike TV. That's about $200,000 an episode for 52 episodes. So how much was production for each episode of impact when you were there? I wasn't involved in that.

So I couldn't tell you exactly. I had no access to those numbers. But I would imagine it was in the 250 range, two and a quarter to 250. But keep in mind, that was soundstage, not arenas, so everything was a little more expensive to take it on the road than it is to do it in a fixed base location. But here's the thing.

Technology has changed so much. in terms of the technology available to produce programming. What used to take 500 grand, you can do now for $3.350. What used to cost $250, you can do now for $200, under $200. My point in all this is not knowing anything at all about TNA's financial structure or where they're at, just looking at what's possible and knowing having a little bit of experiencing this, they can be making money at 200 grand an episode if the deal is structured correctly.

So I think Carlos is probably on the money because that's kind of like the threshold right now for a lot of these smaller platforms that are trying to find a way to regain audience. AMC is going the same way a lot of other networks have gone. They can't compete in the high-end movie business anymore. They used to be able to, you know, 10, 15 years ago, when they were breaking shows like Breaking Bad. Those shows have all gone to bigger, more well-funded streaming platforms. Those producers are making more money. Those actors and actresses are making more money on your larger platforms.

So your smaller cable outlets that used to be able to kind of own a reasonable share of that marketplace can no longer compete. So now they're looking at alternative programming. Wrestling has always been considered alternative programming. It's not comedy. It's not a drama. It's not sports, despite what Dave Meltzer tries to convince people. It's not any of those things. It's its own little thing called alternative programming.

And networks like AMC start looking at those opportunities as a means to shore up their audience. The good news for Carlos and company at TNA is wrestling in general has always been a pretty good bet when it comes to small to medium-sized audiences of men 18 to 49. I see AMC making this bet. As odd as it may seem, based on the way they programmed themselves previously, the fact that they're probably shifting their business strategy to a less expensive, more predictable audience makes TNA a logical choice and decision from my perspective.

If I put myself in the shoes of a programmer. I wanted to ask you, too, before we let you out of here, Raj, this John's seen a tournament. It feels like it's rounding the bases now. We've already seen some big surprises this past Monday in New York. Dolf Ziegler returned to WWE to a hero's welcome. People were really excited. Last Friday, a week ago, we saw Matt Cardona, the Indie God, show up on Smackdown. So it feels like a lot of the surprises are behind us.

It was John Sina Night on Monday Night Raw. We saw him in a six-man tag with Seamus and Ray Mysterio. We're sort of rounding the basis. We got two appearances left for Sina at one next weekend at Survivor Series. And then the final episode of Saturday night's main event for John Sina. It goes down on December 13th. Lots of speculation about what will happen and what should happen and who should get the nod. What's your take on on the scene of tournament?

Well, it looks like it's going to be Gunther. I personally, I personally didn't like the idea of the tournament. I'd rather have a big story leading to a big retirement match, kind of like you had with Sean and Sean Michaels and Rick Flair, something with the story, with the emotion headed into it as opposed to the winner of this tournament gets to face me. That's just me. But, you know, a lot of people are into this tournament. And they have done a good job of making it feel like a big deal. Me personally, I know John Cena, I mean, he got crushed by Brock Lesnar.

It doesn't look like it's going to be Brock Lesnar as his last match. I'd like to see Sina go out on top. You don't see that often in WWE where the Megastar wins his final match. But I think it would be a cool moment. I don't think he'll allow it. I think he really wants to go out on his back. But I'd like to see him win it. But all indications, if I were a betting man, I'd say it's Gunther beating Sina in his last match.

Gunther leaves the ring. Sina soaks in the crowd adulation. It's a cool moment, but Sina loses. And Gunther's a made man. Let's talk about Anna J, Raj. I don't know if you saw this, but overnight, it looks like everybody's chatting about what's next for ANOJ. I guess there's a report from Sean Ross Sapp that sources in AEW believe that Anna J's contract is expiring soon and I saw lots of debate. Is this someone who would stay with

AEW? Is this someone who would maybe explore opportunities in WW? Or is she someone who, you know, may make money outside of the business or outside of the big two and sort of go on excursion, if you will. Do you have any insight as to what's next for Anna-Jay? I know at different times she's been a really featured part of the program. I don't know that that's always been the case consistently, but I guess that's kind of always been an AEW problem. They have so much talent.

But we saw earlier this year, Mariah May made the big leap to WW. What do you think Anna-J may do? Well, if you look at, you know, if you look at Anna-J, she has kind of been treading water in AEW for a while. And she does have that, you know, she has a great look. She has that unique charisma that if she wants to explore other opportunities outside of wrestling, then WWE is kind of the right move. I mean, you see Lib Morgan getting these big movie roles now.

Jade Cargill recently, she just had that movie role. She's making her acting debut. So you get the, and the new administration with WWE, they're a lot more amenable to people doing. outside projects than Vince McMahon was. So it seems like WWE would be the right fit for someone like her because she does have a unique charisma

and things like that. Those things I feel like help you move up the ladder faster in WWE than perhaps it does in AEW. So I think a move would be the right the right call, even if she has to go to NXT for a while. I think

Mariah Mae, I think she's going to be a mega star here within a couple years. And I can see Anna J's stock going up if she were to leave. And you mentioned, you know, WWE and their support of athletes or members of the roster going out and expanding into acting. I mean,

you look what CM Punkson going on. Drew is in a movie. Again, Nick Lippico, my agent over a paradigm represents them, so I hear about it a lot. But Nick and WWE are working together pretty well, and there's a lot of those opportunities opening up to talent. I'm really happy to see it.

Really happy to see it. Well, Raj, we appreciate you, you giving us all the scoops this week. Is there anything else on your plate you want to cover? No, I think that's about it. We went a lot longer than I was expecting, but it has been a crazy week. And, you know, again, stuff outside the ring is sometimes way more interesting, the stuff inside the ring. Well, be sure to check out Raj over on Twitter.

He's always got an opinion, and we love him for that. It's at the Raj Geary on Twitter. And you even do a podcast. Tell everybody where they can hear it, Ron. Yeah, check out Massive Heat. We'll be doing our next episode after this, Survivor series, myself, Matt Morgan, and Jack Farmer. So check that out on the podcast, the podcast Heat Wrestling YouTube channel.

Thanks for all the time, Raj. We greatly appreciate it. Thanks, take care, guys. Eric, I need to tell our friends about cash out, but I can't wait to talk about war games with you. In the meantime, if you haven't already, I got to ask, why don't you already have cash out? It is an absolute no-brainer, especially if you're going to be doing meet and greets or on the circuit or even if you're just going to lunch with friends and you guys are going to

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He went on Ariel Hawani show, and once upon a time, those guys felt like they were sworn enemies, but that was not the case. Tony was actually in studio for Ariel. They had a great chat, but of course, anytime he's interviewed, your name comes up. So I thought, why don't we play some of that for you and let you have an opportunity to respond to some of that. Of course, he's doing that because Ariel Hawani has a great history with Tony Khan. We know he's a big wrestling fan.

And we know this weekend, as folks are listening to this, is the big AEW pay-per-view full gear in the Northeast. So it checked a lot of boxes and it made a lot of sense for these guys to mend fences and get back together. One of the things that came up was Ariel and Tony talking about how WWV has counter-programmed them. So I wanted to play that clip for you and just see what you thought. Here we go.

Something that I was really curious about, and I hadn't really heard you asked about this, so I would love to hear your thoughts. It is very clear to me as an outsider that when you're putting on a big show, WW tries to counter-program it. How do you react when this happens? Do you think this is being done on purpose? I do think it's done on purpose, and I understand it, and it's part of wrestling, and I think we've seen a lot of it,

but I think other wrestling promotions that have been the Challenger wrestling, brand in our lifetime, have seen a lot of it. Jim Crockett Promotions, which was the forerunner to WCW, saw a lot of this. And Jim Crockett Promotions ended up having to sell the company to Ted Turner, who then made a great run. It took a while. And really, if you look, Ted Turner took over at the start of 1989. And the strongest run came over six years later, almost seven years later, it started, really, when business peaked and took off their peak years. So it's interesting, because as a challenge of wrestling promotion, you've got a great opportunity, but it's really hard. It involves tons of investment to build up to be a true, strong challenger, and that's why we took

the risk with AEW when we did. I do think that we've seen that kind of counter-programming and those things, and I understand, and looking back at wrestling history, kind of expect that. Does it frustrate you? I think it's okay because for us, it's always worked out and we're in a great position. So it hasn't ever been a thing where it's cost us anything. And even when you do something like AEW all in Texas where we do the show in the afternoon, it really worked out for us great. And it was one of the best days in the history of the company. So you don't take it personally. You're not like, can you guys just leave me alone? Can I just have the day for myself? The one in Toronto, right? You put it earlier in the day because they had the ESPN debut. So I was just curious how

you react internally to this. Well, it's very interesting. I think that it's something that, is a part of the wrestling business and I definitely don't take it personally. I think it's no more personal to me than it was toward Jim Crockett or even maybe less so than it was with Ted Turner or similar amounts as with Ted Turner. But definitely, I think all of us have seen that kind of counter programming and could speak to that. And certainly with AEW, I'm very proud that we continue to really run strong and be that great challenger brand in pro wrestling. AEW is where the best wrestle. I really believe that. And I think we have the best roster in wrestling today and the best wrestlers and put on the best shows like this Saturday.

What do you think, Eric? I want to give Tony credit. He's trying. You know, he handled himself really well. Ariel was asking him some tough questions. And I think Tony handled them professionally. I don't think he was being as honest as perhaps he could. could have been. But I don't think necessarily being 100% honest and exposing your emotional perspective about things necessarily serves you. And he serves you well. Certainly hasn't served Tony well in the past. Typically, when Tony does an interview, it's a train wreck. This wasn't that. This Tony put himself and his company in a favorable light. I find, you know,

the Challenger brand designation continues to make me laugh. I don't know what they're challenging for necessarily. But it's a cool thing to say, and it, you know, it fits nice in an interview. In terms of the counter-programming, I was the king of it. I'm the one that went head-to-head. You know, it was Ted's decision, not Eric Bischoff's going to be that clear. But nonetheless, I embrace it and went, you know, we counter-programmed Vince McMahon,

not vice versa. Because we really were a challenger brand. And I really did want to become the number one wrestling company in the United States in the world. And we took actions to do it. So when Tony refers to himself as a challenger brand, it, you know, it brings a smile to my face. Well, Eric, your name came up when Ariel asked Tony about AEW critics. Let's take a listen. coming from Eric because Eric sat in the position and he was making a lot of great moves.

And Eric had a run that is unbelievably successful when you look back at what he accomplished from 1995 to 1998. And it was unbelievable. And he still did some good things in those other years. And he did a lot. And it wasn't like everything he did in 1995 and 1998. was 100% perfect 52 weeks a year, but he did some really incredible things. And the sum of his accomplishments is unbelievable. And he still talked about it to this day. And 83 weeks is something that is synonymous with Eric and his brand. And it's a name of his show. It's incredibly

impressive. I also was one of the wrestling fans as a kid when I was like 11, 12, 13 years old, who was critical at times of some of the things Eric did, but also appreciative at times. And I was more balanced than other people, but I understand what it is to be a wrestling fan and to have certain things you want and expect out of a wrestling show. I think that Eric did a lot of those things. So he has a really good understanding of what it is to be on TBS and be on TNT and put on paper views and work with the executives at Turner. Even some of the people who've been there for 30 years have worked with both of us through different administrations, which is incredible. Wow. So I talked to him about that at times. So I do think for Eric, I respect.

Recently or no? It's been a while, but not that long. And I do, I respect his opinions. And I think he talks about AW a lot because AW's on every Wednesday night, every Saturday night. And then it gives them good content to talk about. So I think in his case, I think it's interesting because he spends a lot of time talking about AEW, but I think he's also cognizant that there were a lot of lot of media personalities and former wrestling promoters that had strong vocal opinions of him. And I'm not trying to say that I've done more than him or I think that one thing that was cool this year was when we accomplished, we hit a milestone that's not a round number, but episode 289 of Wednesday Night Dynamite is remembered as one of the best ones.

What do you think? I mean, I don't know what to think. he didn't really answer that he didn't really talk about my critique other than saying I talk about AEW a lot let me make something really clear I don't like talking about AEW I got a conversation with you six months ago or so where I said I just don't want to talk about it anymore there's nothing new to talk about so if I get asked the question in the course of doing my show I'm going to give an answer I'm not going to respond with oh I don't want to talk about that um not what I do

sound what the show is about. But at the same time, I don't spend much time thinking about AEW, and I try not to think about it unless I'm asked a question. My criticism towards Tony Con and AEW has been granted. It's probably a little salty. Probably drew blood once or twice. But my criticism is based in fact. It's based in experience.

It's based on what's going on today. and me being critical of what AEW has, Dave Meltzer calls stories, for example. I've been talking about the lack of story, and good story, actual story, the lack of it in AEW for five and a half years. I've been talking about the characters in the way they're presented,

and the way the wrestling is presented for the last five or six years. And in the process of talking about what's wrong and what could be better, I've also predicted what the outcome of AEW would be from a ratings perspective and an audience perspective if these things are not addressed. Like Booze Allen couldn't have come in and provided a much better internal audit from a creative and strategic perspective that I've been giving to AEW over the last five years for free. and if Tony would have listened to some of that, he might not be in the position that we were just discussing with Raj Gehri

about being in a situation where, yeah, you've got a TV contract that reportedly is worth $185 million a year for four or five different shows, whatever it is. First of all, I ain't buying it at $185 million. That's the face value of the agreement, including promotional consideration, which is a big chunk of that.

It's not all cash. I'm sure of that. But regardless of that, Tony's sitting here now going, wait a minute, I don't know who's going to have my rights. I don't know if they're even going to want my rights. And by the way, based on our conversation with Raj Gehry, I really don't have anywhere to go. Because I haven't been telling stories. I haven't been building characters the way they need to be built if you are indeed truly a challenger brand with the idea in mind of growing your business. So it was nice of him to say nice things about me.

I'm always happy to hear that. He didn't really say anything negative, so I don't have anything to react to other than I wish Tony would listen to criticism, whether it's for me or Jim Cornett, who I think is probably smarter than me in many respects. He's got a different feel than I do, but in terms of the wrestling product,

and it's a valuable perspective, you may not like the way it comes out. You may not like the package that that is. information is in, but the value of that information is nonetheless really important. And the same is true with my criticism or other people that criticize Tony, for much the same thing that I've been criticizing them for for six years now. Finally, everybody's kind of pointing it out. Like, oh, wow, just discovered it. If Tony would listen to the people, he's got people around him that can help him. I've said this for five or six years. He doesn't need to go out and

hire anybody. There's people already there. that can help. Let them help. So you're not in the position you're in. Whether it's my criticism and I've been in the chair and I've worked, none of that matters. What matters is there are people out there that actually have ideas that can really help you, Tony. And you may not like the package that it comes in. Just open up the package and take a look at it. It might be something that you find very valuable and could help you. Are you open to a TonyCon meeting? I'm not against it. I just don't know what the purpose would be.

But you know, you know me, you sit me down with a glass of wine and a steak. I'll talk to anybody. I don't care. You know, I mean, I'm,

I'm, yeah, yeah, sure. Over the phone is, I'm, I'm no better in person than I am over the phone. So we can do a Zoom call too.

That's fine. Well, I'm just thinking in my head, you know, he's traveling five days a week. You're traveling all the time. It feels. like eventually you guys are going to be in the same town for something. And I just thought,

you know, if I happen to be in the same town, maybe I could facilitate because I really like Tony and obviously I love you and I feel like, hey, we can get you guys on the same page and I don't know. It just feels like the right next step, maybe. I'm happy to meet with anybody, but there's no hard feelings. Let's put it that way. Tony has never done anything to me. I lost respect for him. Don't need to go into it again. Why? But that's not something that I carry around like, you know, scar tissue. It is what it is. But as far as me, he's never never said a negative about me that I, that I've heard or care about if he did. Well, we'll see if you still feel that way because we've got a couple more clips I want to show you,

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Eric, let's see how you like this conversation about the number of episodes of dynamite relative to nitro. Let's take a listen. Something I'm really proud of because it made us the longest running prime time pro wrestling show ever on PBS or TNT. And that includes the great shows. that they put on. And he gave you props for that.

He did. And it meant a lot to me. So I appreciated that. So thank you for bringing that up. I thought that was really cool. And so it's mixed opinions, right? And everybody's entitled to their opinion. But I also think Eric's in a unique position because he was in the chair.

And he did have to make a lot of decisions. And he also knows that you can't go backwards. You can only go forwards and you can only learn from the things you've done. So I'm very fortunate. I think about it all the time to still be in the chair because you can make a mistake. And if you make a series of mistakes and you go down a wrong path in pro wrestling, you can end up in a place that nobody comes back from. And look how many people in pro wrestling went down that door of making a mistake after mistake.

And then they were gone. And sometimes it's not their fault. It's due to extenuating circumstances you can't control. But I'm fortunate that if I make a mistake that I've always been able to go back and look at it or figure out what can we do to make the next show perfect or make sure I don't do that again because I really think that course correcting, making sure that we are always on point for the next show

is a really strong aspect of AEW. I think that's part of the consistency. And, you know, on the one hand, I could say I've only been a wrestling promoter for six and a half years and I've only been looking and producing wrestling shows for six and a half years. On the other hand, that's one of the longest runs anybody's ever had.

Sure. So I've been fortunate to learn a lot of things, and I'm fortunate that tomorrow I get to do another one, and Saturday I get to do another pay-per-view, and I'm never ungrateful for that. I'm always very grateful to the fans who watch the shows that we're still in this position. Yeah, so listen, I don't know,

but it feels like he's got more grace for you than we've seen in a while. What's your reaction? I don't have much of one. I mean, he didn't say, anything really to cause me to react. Acknowledging the success of WCW, that's nice. I appreciate that.

I think fans of WCW are the former employees of WCW enjoy hearing that. What else do I think about it? Look, Tony's in a unique position in that he's unaccountable. He doesn't have to be, he's not held an account financially. I was held, I was under a microscope financially, as well as from a performance perspective, in a ratings perspective, in an operational perspective, because WCW was owned by Turner Broadcasting. So the corporate environment that I had to live within is much different in terms of accountability

than where Tony gets to operate from. Tony's seat is really accountable to no one but Tony from a financial perspective. I didn't have that luxury. And when you can afford to pay for your seat, it's a lot easier to hold on to that seat. So I'd be careful about comparing yourself to other people who were quote, unquote, in that chair and your longevity as it relates to your accountability and the accountability of others who held that responsibility. There was a conversation.

I don't know if you saw it, but Matt Hardy, who we know has been with WW, T and A. and now he's back in TNA. He was recently quoted about TNA and WVE sort of working together and if that was an effort to try to hurt AEW. So when that came up on the conversation, here's what that looked like with Tony and Ariel. Matt and Jeff Hardy on in July.

And I asked them like, what do you make of this WWTNA partnership? And Matt said to me like, let's be honest, it's the hurt AEW. You view it that way as well? That's the way he put it. I really like Matt and Jeff a lot. I like Matt and Jeff a lot,

and I loved working with them when they were in AEW, and I still love Matt and Jeff very much. And I don't think it was malicious. I don't think at all, but do you think that that's the impetus? I respect that opinion a lot. I think you agree with it.

I think it's probably true, and I respect that Matt said it, honestly. Yeah. That's really cool. And I think Matt's a great guy. I think Jeff. What do you make of that? The fact that they're so tight now.

It's interesting. I think it's a very interesting collaboration, but I think Matt hit the nail in the head that it makes sense, and AEW is a very strong challenger brand, and it's not that unusual. You take it as a compliment. Yeah, absolutely.

Like, you know, I remember when WCW was starting to do better, and Smokey Mountain Wrestling was running shows in Georgia that Vince McBan called up Jim Cornett and sent a bunch of the WWF wrestlers to Smokey Mountain Wrestling to help. History repeating itself. compete with WCW. So I do think, like, when you have a strong challenger brand,

it's not that unusual to see the WWF collaborate with another company. We saw that with Smokey Mountain. there and in Memphis, I think, did some of the same things to compete with WCW shows. So it's not that unusual. And again, I don't take it personally at all. It makes sense looking at the wrestling playbook of the WWF. Buddy, I heard you say, as he's making the Smoky Mountain comparison, boy, how'd that work out? Of course, we know WCW thump that head.

But listen, I think that's interesting that it feels like he's taking it in a positive way. What say you? Of course he is because he's putting himself over because he's the challenger brand. So the fact that they're having to make these moves to hurt AEW suggests that they look at AEW as a viable challenger brand. That's a beautiful story to tell. This has got nothing to do with reality. It's cosplay. It's cosplay.

Here's why I think WWE is in business with TNA. The sole reason is to mitigate some of the potential. that may exist down the road when it comes to monopolizing the business. I think it's a strategic legal maneuver that had a very specific purpose. And the fact that, you know, T&A is somehow affected, yeah, maybe that's like garnish on the plate for somebody. Or AEW. Maybe that's garnish on the plate for WWE. By the way, we've achieved this great strategic success by entering into this relationship of TNA. And oh, by the way, it makes Tony scream.

That's kind of fun. But it's not the idea that WWE views AEW as a quote unquote challenger brand is just, it's entertaining. It's entertaining. It's also entertaining to get his take on the Chris Jericho speculation. You know, we just touched on this a few weeks ago where Jericho went on his podcast and said something along the lines of TNA looked like the second biggest company behind WWV. He's, of course, talking about their success of Bound for Glory, where they claim they had over 7,000 folks. And he compared that to the way the TV looked for AEW when they ran the ECW arena. And we both sort of agreed here that he's playing chess.

He's trying to create a little leverage, get a better deal for himself. But if it was a swerve bro for him to come back to AW, I think you and I both really like that idea. Of course, Jericho came up in this conversation with Ariel. Let's take a listen. What's the state of Chris Jericho's relationship with the company? Chris Jericho is somebody who's in AEW and has been with us from the very beginning. He's been away from us for a bit, but he's...

It's April, right? His last appearance was in April. Yeah, and he's somebody that's had even this year great matches with Bandito. somebody that's been a world champion for us and was really at the very beginning of AEW, absolutely as key and instrumental as any individual in the launch of AEW. And I love Chris personally and professionally. I just reached out and wished him a happy birthday recently. I'm very excited about everything Chris has done in AEW and he continues to be with us. And he's always welcome.

I can't speak to that, but I love having Chris in AEW. and he's always welcome. The door's always open for Chris to come in. What is the reason for his departure for now? It's a very good question, and some of it comes down to just working out the dates. Is this deal almost up? I would rather not get into that,

but also I respect you asking about it, and if I could give as much information as possible to try and keep a very constructive dialogue. Do you think we'll see him back in AW? I hope so. I absolutely hope we'll get Chris. back in and a star like Chris Jericho, you negotiate a certain number of dates. And Chris has always been really great about being one of those wrestlers in AEW that when he's in, he's all the way

in. And if you think he's always really been a full-time part of the show. Sure, sure. And at first, when we started, we talked about finding ways with Chris and Fossey and his band to keep him involved because he was such a central figure as the original AEW world champion, his late champion. So there were times where Chris would have videos in dynamite or make appearances. Even when he offered John Moxley, my dad's car, that was actually my dad's car, to join the inner circle in Jacksonville. Chris was actually on his way to the Tokyo Dome and we had filmed that over the holidays, knowing Chris was going to be going to Japan. So he filmed this video that we played for Mox to watch after the Mox versus Trent match in Jacksonville on New Year's Day. And then

Mach himself then left for Japan right after that. But it was Jericho was, wrestling Tanahashi and got over early to do media. And that was on the Tokyo Dome in 2020. And it's amazing to think, now here we are, almost six years later. And Chris has been the huge part of AEW from the very beginning. And we started out early, like, okay, how can we find ways to, you know, keep Chris involved if you needed a week or two off? And then pretty soon Chris was just here every week and wanted to be here every week.

And we love having him. So if we can work out all the dates and all the things, I would always love for him to be here. but he's one of my favorite wrestlers and certainly he's as instrumental to the launch of AEW as anybody. He's giving him his flowers in a big way and of course people are all speculating that

hey Jericho's a goner he's definitely going to WWV what do you think of the way he handled that question? I think Chris's financial planner is smiling from ear to ear right now. I think that's fair to say. He's negotiating. Chris is always

negotiating. You know, we've both known people that are just born salespeople, and it's always be closing. They're always closing something. They can ask you if you wanted a cup of coffee for breakfast, but there's a closing statement in there somewhere, right? Chris has always been negotiating. That's what Chris is doing. And he's going to, it's going to pay off for, it has paid off really well for him. Chris is one of the, somebody, Hulk Hogan said it to me, and he probably didn't originate it, but in Hogan's mind, when everybody said, whenever somebody would ask him, who's the, who's the best working the history of the business.

Hope would always say the one that made the most money. And Chris is right up there. So he's doing a great job. He is doing a great job. I wanted to show you this. I'm sure it's probably been a long time since you've seen it, but it was recently posted a Twitter by our buddy Allen. And it was the handwritten notice that Jericho gave you that he was leaving.

You want to read that to us, Eric? It's dated July 26, 1999. It's a handwritten letter from Chris Jericho to Eric Bischoff. What's it say there, Eric? Yeah, it says I just wanted to express my appreciation to you for giving me the opportunity to work for WCW. I'm having a hard time. I really enjoyed it. And I won't forget the favorable experiences I had within the company.

I hope I have the pleasure of working with you again in the future. All the best, Chris Jericho. I really appreciated that. Chris is a genuine guy. And he made the movie he had to make. He was determined. He knew when he got to WCW. that it was a stepping stone to WWE,

and he knew he had leverage, he was ready, and he lost all his patience. He wanted to go. He wanted to be in the main event, and he made the move, and I couldn't respect him more for doing it. Well,

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Not only do you get 10% off your entire order when you use the code 83 weeks 10 at stopbox USA.com, but they're also giving you a buy one, get one free with their stopbox pro. That's right, 10% off and a free stopbox pro when you use the code 83 weeks 10 at stopbox. box USA.com. Eric, we had so many questions that continue to pour in after last week's fabulous Ask Eric Anything. I thought, hey, let's do a few more. We've got a question here from Lopez, who wants to know, what is your most prized non-wrestling accomplishment or honor you've received in the

field of broadcasting? Is there anything you're particularly proud of in broadcasting that you've done in television outside of wrestling? Is there one thing you'd say, I'm pretty proud of that? Not in terms of an award. I mean, I'm pretty proud of the success that Jason Hurry and I had as an independent television production company in Hollywood during a period of time. Talking about early 2000s to about 2015, which was really the heyday for non-scripted entertainment, reality-type shows. And we became one of the probably the top four, five, six independent,

owned production companies in Hollywood. You know, we produced television, created like a bar napkin. It started off in a bar. But we'd create ideas. We'd develop those ideas. We'd present those ideas to networks. We'd sell those ideas to networks. And then we would actually physically produce the shows and deliver them.

So we were a real turnkey studio in that respect. And I'm proud of that because it was a very competitive business. and we had a lot of success in it, made a lot of money doing it, made more money doing that than I ever made professional wrestling, to be honest. So I'm proud of that, but I never got any awards for it. You know, I'll get a lot of awards for reality television. Brandon Crabb says when you were looking to purchase WCW circa 2001, was there any valuation provided as to the approximate worth of the tape library? As badly as Vincent Company botched the invasion storyline, that footage alone would have repaid the company's purchase price many times over. Now, that's 2001, but we know who was involved, you know, and what they had done with the classic sports footage.

Was there a valuation done that you recall at all about the tape library of WCW? I'm sure there was a valuation based on the current market value of that library at that time. Right. Because it wasn't like videotape libraries weren't worth anything. There was a lot of money being made, Coliseum Home Video, made a lot of money. So there was an established market for, wrestling videotape content, no one could have ever predicted that the market would be what it is today because no one in 2001 could have predicted OTT platforms and streaming platforms and all the

things that have come with it in the last 20 years. So given that nobody could have possibly predicted that scenario, that market, you couldn't have put a vet. valuation on that library reflecting that potential, right? So yeah, there was a valuation, but it was a smaller valuation based on what the market segment was worth at that time. Mark LaBelle says, Eric, you mentioned before that you wrote Scott Hall's debut promo. Are there any others that came from you? Do you remember writing any other promos or giving inspiration, rather, or you remember

it so fondly? Paul Cogan's NWO turn. Yeah. in a janitor's closet 20 minutes before he went out to do it so yeah that one but honestly so i there were so many i did so many i was involved in so many it was especially with hulk especially with the n w i would either have a large part in the process or a small part in the process or a medium-sized part in the process it's just all depends but my fingerprints were all over a lot of it.

None of it stands out other than the Hogan. He'll turn and obviously Scott Halls, because I remember sitting there actually writing it down because I had to give it to Scott. Scott was going to be in a different part of the building. I had to put it on a piece of paper, have Doug Dillinger get it over to him, so he had something to work off of.

Otherwise, it would have been verbal. Most of my direction was all just walking through it with the talent, rehearsing it together. play your role, you play my role, get familiar with it. Very little of it was actually scripted. Another great question here. Coach Rosie wants to know. I really like the way the lighting was done during the Nitro era. After reading the Nitro book, I learned about Jeff Bornstein.

What can the wrestling industry learn from Bornstein's lighting techniques? That's a great question because I was just watching wrestling with my buddy Bart from the meat mart down in south. And we were watching dynamite. And I said, I just love the way this. show is lit compared to WWE. And I always go back to something you said a few years ago that

WWE at times looks almost too polished and you made the comparison to Disney on ice. I think Nitro in the way it's lit certainly AEW has tried to use some of that because it does feel a little grittier. Tell us about Bornstein and his lighting

and what made it so special. It was different. You know, that's one of the things, the hallmark of everything that I did, starting in 95 with Nitro was to be different than WWE. Lighting was a big part of that. When I sat down with David Crockett and said, okay, I want the venue to look and feel different.

What do you want it to look and feel like, Eric? I want it to look like I'm at a party. I want the viewer at home, and I tell this to our staff at Real American Freestyle all the time, including our production team, I want the viewer at home to feel like they're watching a party that they wish they would have gone to. That's what I want it to feel like. Yes, the wrestling has got to be good.

Yes, you know, in the case of professional wrestling, the promos have got to be right. The finish, all that stuff has got to be right. But the feeling, the connectivity between the viewer and the television screen needs to be, damn, I wish I was there. And if you can create that connection, however you create it, you win as a producer, right? And Bornstein brought a different type of lighting. The other thing I wanted the viewer to feel is if they were in the building so they could almost smell the stale beer and the stale popcorn. So I wanted the grit, I wanted the light to be a little harsher and not blend as much in the crowd.

I wanted shadows where appropriate. I wanted light that was a little hotter than you would typically see in certain parts of the arena. But in totality, you felt like you were actually there. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't like you were watching wrestling on a movie screen and surround sound. You felt like you were in the $30 seats with a warm beer and a box of popcorn. And Jeff's lighting helped achieve that. great question we really appreciate all these great questions drop them below we'll try to

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We've got a big pay-per-view weekend for AEW this weekend. Next weekend, it's Survivor Series, but more importantly, Real American Freestyle Number 3. Tickets are on sale now at real American freestyle.com. You can also make plans to join us on the Fox Nation app. This is the most loaded card in Real American Freestyle history. It's primetime football. it's a big weekend. I can't wait, Eric, but we're going to do it again next week.

We are going to be here next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, even if it means we have to tape on the road. Isn't that right, Eric? That's a fact. But speaking about a road, I got to get out it. We'll see you next week right here on 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. All right, real quick, I want to remind everybody, especially this time of year. Did you know what's save with conred.com, you can skip your next two house payments? That's right. You'll get a cheaper monthly payment and no payments until next year. I bought a little Christmas vacation from house payments. That's right.

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