83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 406: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly of 2025

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

On this LIVE edition of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad look back at 2025 and break down the year's biggest GOOD and BAD moments in professional wrestling. What did Eric see as a major miss — and how does he think it could have been avoided? Eric also shares his thoughts on the WWE Archives leaving Peacock at the end of the year. Plus, what about the nWo silver? Eric gives his unfiltered hot take on the final breaths of the legendary faction he helped create. It's a candid, opinionated, and must-watch edition of 83 Weeks! BETTER WILD - Save up to 40% off your order at http://betterwild.com/BISCHOFF  BLUECHEW - Get 10% off your first month of BlueChew Gold with code 83WEEKS at http://BlueChew.com  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. 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! 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.

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Make it happen today at savewithconrad.com. In my lesson number 212, non-equal housing lender. Hey, it's Conrad Thompson, and you're listening to 83 weeks, and we are live at 83 weeks.com, and we hope you and yours had a very merry Christmas. Let's start with old man winter himself, Eric Bischoff. Eric, how are you, man? I'm good. I almost feel guilty, though.

It's been like 50, 55 degrees here in Cody over Christmas. It's nicer here than it is in L.A. right now. So, you know, it's awesome. My daughter's here. Montana is here with Lori and I. And she'll be here until Sunday. So just chilling and enjoying some time with my daughter. Well, we're glad to hear it.

And we are greatly appreciative of you guys hanging out with us all of 20205. Eric and I had a blast doing 83 weeks. Greatly appreciate you joining us and hanging out this year and spending some time with us. But Eric, before we talk about 2026, I do want to talk about what just happened. you just finished Real American Freestyle 04. This was a show that we previewed recently, but man, we saw some things that I'll admit,

I didn't expect. I think you had sort of sold me. I was thinking why Hendrickson was going to be the man and you had sort of sold me on Mason Paris. In the end, Hendrickson gets the dub. What'd you think of Real American Freestyle 04? I'm so excited about it.

You know, I've been excited about each one of them. but it seems to build, you know, where you can feel the momentum. You can feel the, even the athletes themselves are starting to galvanize around the brand now. They understand that we're looking for a little bit more showmanship than they might typically see out on an Olympic map, for example, or in an NCAA tournament of some sort or dual meet. So the audience is beginning to catch on the athletes themselves. are really to catch on and start to really enjoy that aspect of it.

And that's just the part that builds. Once the talent, when I say talent, you know, been in the pro wrestling business too long, but when the athletes, not only can go out there and perform at a high level, but realize it's okay to have fun while they're doing it, you get a different product and you get a different reaction from the audience and that's where the momentum comes from and the growth. we're experiencing some ridiculous growth across a lot of the data points that we can measure. Obviously, we don't see the streaming numbers,

so that we don't get a look at. We hear anecdotal type of information, all of it, you know, obviously putting us in a really good spot with Fox. But by all the things that we can count, our collectible cars were introduced. I don't know if you saw Jeremy Pedeware, I was there from JazzWares.

he was there he's he's now a part owner in real american freestyle and is guiding that part of our business the licensing and merchandising site so just a lot of great stuff going on a lot of great stuff at real american freestyle o four you can catch the replay and you can watch all the previous rafs on fox nation just a few bucks a month you get one two three and four and before you know it five is going to be here before we talk about five though about Kennedy blayette man you called it long before the very first event you said this young lady is going to be a star and a star was star she was uh 10 and oh in this one just absolute domination we talked a little bit about yel romero last week and how excited both you and i were to see him compete i think he's like

oh man he's he's he is let's talk about kennedy then we'll talk about you all because you all's a special cat i want to talk about you all but kennedy i wish everybody here's my Christmas wish. I wish that everybody that has the opportunity to meet Kennedy Blades in person takes that opportunity. And you'll be, and you can thank me after, after you do. She's just one of those people that she's an incredible athlete. That part of it speaks for itself. And you can see that on, you know, real American freestyle or if you see her in other competitions like the Olympics, for example. But when you're in a room with her, you feel different. You feel an energy because she's such a positive person and such a nice human being, a grounded person. And I've never been

around anybody that smiles as much as that young lady smiles. She's awesome. And man, we just talked about him last week. We knew he was going to be a star. We were pulling for him. Yol is just unbelievable dude. He picked up a win over Pat Downey 10 and 0. And from what I understand, he's cruising against Bo Nickel at Real American Freestyle 05. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. So yeah, there was a tech.

Uh, once you, you hit 10 points, you're had 10 points is considered a tough to fall, but Pat, let's, Pat Downey is tough as hell. Pat Downey is a bad ass. he may be a couple years out of, you know, NCAAs and worlds, but he is young, and he is, he's a unique individual. So for Yuel to go out there and dominate the way he did, now there was a couple spots. If you go back and you look at that match, I'm sure Pat,

we may have him on the show at some point to talk about this. In fact, maybe next week. But there was a point at match where you all scored a couple of points that pet didn't think he should have got. It doesn't matter. You all dominated that match in a way that I think surprised even his biggest fans. And there's another guy.

I didn't know. I knew who Yol Romero was. I'd heard the name. But like Kennedy Blades, this is a cat one. He just, he's different, man. He vibes so much different. He's frightening. I mean, if you look at him,

he looks like, you know, the killer machine, right? But he's the sweetest guy you'll ever meet in your life. Like you see, I mean, you don't know whether to hide from him or take him home to meet your friends and family. It's just, he's got such cool character. He's going to be taking out Bonnacle. That's a big one.

Of course, well known throughout freestyle wrestling, amateur wrestling, collegiate wrestling, as well as in the UFC, just coming off of a head kick for a win in his last, UFC about here a couple weeks ago, a month or two ago. So, yeah, Bo Deco will be taking on UL Romero. and I can't wait. I can't wait.

And it's, you know, UL's hometown, Miami. So we fully expect to see a lot of support for UL Romero. And I'll be cheering them on, man. Jordan Oliver is going to be in competition with Real Woods on that card. Bo Bassett is going to be on the card. Colby Covington and Luke Rockhold, a couple of UFC icons are going to be there. Real American Freestyle 05 coming to your way before you know it. Is this January 10th?

Do I have that right? January 10th. My luggage is still over there in a corner. I don't even unpacked yet. But yeah, it's January 10th. I want to talk about Real Woods, though, and I promise I'll get off Real American Freestyle. Real Woods has got some stuff to prove on January 10th. Real Woods came in.

And if you, I don't know if you saw on 2004, a previous live event, we did a really cool video package on Real Woods. He's talking about swagger because a dude has got swagger all day long. I mean, he looks like right out of central casting. His movie's dark quality looks. He carries himself. So, but he's got a little bit of a, just a bit of a chip on his shoulder, just a bit. and he took a loss he didn't expect to take last time. And if he wants to get his swagger back, the pressure is on.

And I heard he's going to have some kind of a special walkout. So I'm anxious to hear more about that. Well, let's, let's all plan to tune in. Fox Nation's going to have this, Real American Freestyle 05, be here before you know it. January 10th. It's available on the Fox Nation app. As a reminder, when you download the Fox Nation app and you sign up for Fox Nation,

you could go ahead and see one, two, three, and four, and you'll be subscribed just in time for five. Maybe one of the best values in sports entertainment, although this is shoot wrestling by God over at Real American Freestyle. If you find yourself in the Florida area and you want to attend, tickets are on sale now, real American freestyle.com. Eric, we are live and we are going to be taking fan questions. So if you've got a question that you've wanted to ask Eric Bischoff,

this is your chance. It's our last live episode of the year. year. We've had a lot of fun doing these lives in the last couple of years. We thought, hey, why not throw you guys the keys to the show? But I thought we should also cover some anniversaries. It's hard to believe, but the day after Starcade 1999 was an interesting day. I know you weren't technically with WCW you were watching from home, but I think everyone watching this knows that the biggest idea in the history of wrestling maybe and certainly your biggest idea in your tenure in wrestling was the NWO.

And I think the night after StarK99 is perhaps the forgotten NWO reunion. As a reminder, at StarKK99, Goldberg kicked Brett Hart's head into the third row. And all logic was devoid in that match to the point where Roddy Piper presented himself, I believe as the third referee, came in. And as soon as Brett Hart hooked on the sharpshooter, he called for the bell. Yes, another callback to the Montreal Street. job. But he picked up the big gold belt and walked up the ramp. Brett followed like, what the hell was that? And at the top of the ramp, he handed him the big gold belt. So the end

of the night was a cliffhanger. We didn't know what the hell was going on. We didn't understand it. In the very next night on Nitro, Kevin Nash came out and started cutting promos about how wrestlers need to unionize and we don't have pensions and they don't even pay our social security. And Roddy Piper gave a speech to the entire locker room about being a part of the part of of a union. But we kept hearing that the powers that B had a plan. And at the end of the night, it was Goldberg and Brett Hart. We were going to crown a definitive world champion. That, of course, is when we see Scott Hall and Kevin Nash come down with baseball bats. And we're all expecting they're going to hammer the hitman. But instead, it's a swerve, bro. We never saw

it coming. You can see Scott Hall there with a bent bat because everybody knows bats, bend in crazy positions. Either way, they took turns and Brett is going to leave with the title, even though technically Roddy Piper was on top of Goldberg when the referee made the count. Don't try to make sense of it. I was just going to say, bro, my brain is just starting to melt. So think about that. It's a whole coat, it's not a whole code.

And it's a Brett Hart Goldberg match. And the ref has bumped, Silverman. And so somehow Piper's trying to protect Goldberg. and the referee slides in and makes the count. And so now because Roddy Piper pinned Goldberg, Brett Hart is the champion. Yep, as all of us are here.

And then all of a sudden, Jeff Jarrett comes down. Roddy Piper had forgotten what he was supposed to do, I guess. So Jarrett has to stand him up on his knees, not all the way standing. And while Piper's up on his knees, having been knocked unconscious by multiple bat shots from three men,

now that he's on his knees, We got to get our... He had to hit him with his guitar. He had to hit him with the guitar. Oh, my God. All of this happened. I'm not making any of this up. This is how we reintroduced the NWO,

but now it's not the black and white, and it's not the red and black. It's the silver. Yeah, this is the band is back together. Kevin Nash said it on the microphone in the following week, of course. They had T-shirts. Now, this was supposed to be a vehicle for the NWO versus Goldberg. And I know you're thinking, well, I don't really remember that.

That's because three days after this Nitro, Goldberg punched the limo and he's out. He's gone. Like if it wasn't for bad luck, WCW would have had no luck at all. And they bastardized your NWO here because Brett Hart is concussed when this reunion starts. Their biggest rival, he's going to punch a hole through a window. the following week, Scott Hall's not even here. This is the forgotten NWO reunion and for good reason. Eric, when you,

when you hear about this, I don't even know if you were watching at the time. Not many people were. I wasn't. This is all new to me. They're bastardizing your baby here. Do you wish, with the benefit of hindsight,

you would have had a, I don't know, we'll call it a proper sendoff for the NWO storyline. Well, we'll keep it real. I had done a pretty good job of bastardizing the NWO under my watch. Let's be real, right? And obviously it wasn't intentional.

And I can make excuses. And it's not really excuses. And I can explain the reasons why I made certain decisions making it big. We covered all that stuff. So I'm not going to do it again. So when you lay this out to me, I don't look at it as though they bastardized my baby. I don't take it personally. In fact, the only thing that I think is.

I think I could classify as a personal reaction is one of gratitude. Because when we do these shows, you know, and we go back and I see some of the dumb shit that either I came up with or I let somebody else do if it was their idea, and I signed off on it. It might as well be my idea at that point. You know, I look back and I see some really stupid stuff and I, it is what it is. You know, you learn, right? Move on. to use that experience down the road. And all of that is true, by the way.

But it's nice to see something that is such an abomination. Like, you can't even explain it. There's so many moving pieces in it. And look, I'm all for three-dimensional finishes. I like when you think he was what Paterson was so good at. I mean, I coveted that guy. I wanted to hire him in every possible way I used Hulk to try to get to him. It wasn't going to happen.

But Paterson was really good at a well-structured, I call them three-dimensional finishes. There's probably other words for them. But, you know, not so much just to swerve, but when emotionally you're absolutely convinced, and you've had time to see where this is going. And you see exactly what's going to happen right before it happens. And then something subtly sometimes shifts. and it puts what you thought was going to happen in doubt. There's jeopardy.

Whoa. My hero was winning. Everything was going on my, now not. Psychology and wrestling, I guess, right? So when you can see a finish like that play out,

it's no different than going to a great feature film where the first two acts of the movie, you know, are there to kind of get you tuned into the characters and the story and make you feel certain ways at certain times. But, man, the last 8, 10, 15 minutes of the movie is what you remember. And probably the last five minutes is what you really remember.

That's what you feel when you walk out the door and you tell your friends about that movie. You're telling them really about the last five minutes. That, to me, is a finish, the type of finish guy that I really, really wanted to have, which is the opposite of what we just heard. That was just such a cluster. There are so many moving pieces. And, you know, hearing it, I can almost tell you how it happened. You know, with those personalities at that point in their respective lives,

laying that out, particularly at that point in time when there was real, there was no leadership, there was no accountability, there was nothing. The closest thing to it was Brad Siegel and he wouldn't get within 10 miles of a live show. So it was a mess. And then you take those personalities and say, okay, we got to figure out a finish. I'm so glad I wasn't there for that one. Bill Goldberg might have been a bunch of a hole through my head,

but instead of the wall, that would have been horrible. We are live. We are not pre-recorded, Mark Fusion. If you got some questions, let's keep them coming. I want to remind you before we get going, though, that Eric, I didn't even know that me and you've talked about this, but did you know that I have a third dog at my house now?

Don't I did not know. What did you get? Well, I came home from, I was out of town. When I came home, Megan had a dog that fits in the palm of my hand. And I wish I was making this up, but she has named the dog little daddy. That's L-I-L-A-A-postrophe daddy. You know how much I love ginger. You know how much I love baby.

And I know how much you love Nikki. And if you love your dog, let me just go ahead and tell you that better wild allergy relief soft chews have been a game changer in my household. I have to admit, I just thought it was a thing that my dogs enjoyed doing, licking their paws, shaking their head, eating grass, maybe scratching at their ears. No, man, these are not normal dog behaviors. They're actually signs of allergies. Allergies flare up in your dog whenever bad bacteria takes over the gut because 90% of your dog's immune system actually, lives in the gut. You see, dogs are like humans. You know, we all need probiotics or good bacteria to strengthen your gut health and calm your overactive immune system. That's why Megan and I started

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that you can truly feel great about. And right now, BetterWild is offering our listeners up to 40% off at BetterWild.com slash fish off. that's betterwild.com slash bischoff or up to 40% off your order betterwild.com slash bischoff. That's a great product, by the way. And I'm so glad to see that there are products like that coming out, targeting pet owners, because as you know, the rabbit hole that my wife and I live in,

it's so much of the issues that we suffer and have to do with, especially as we get older, are related to the gut and the health of the gut. gut. Same is true with dogs, maybe even more so because of the limited kind of food that they generally are fed. And to have a product like this out there that you give your dog that's easy that affects that gut health, it could add a lot of life to your dog and a lot of active life to your dog. So I'm happy to see that. Happy that we're, we're promoting it. Betterwild.com slash fish off. You're going to love it. Eric, something else I'm going to love picking your brain about. I can't believe this is real.

but a few days from now it would be the 34 year anniversary of Starcade 1991. This would be pretty early on into Eric's run in the WCW organization. It went down December 29th, 1991 in Norfolk. This is the lethal lottery, the battle bowl, if you will. And what we got was a crazy series of matches to say the least. How about this? Marcus Bagwell teamed with Jimmy Garvin against Michael Hayes and Tracy Smothers. Steve Austin and Rick Rude teamed up against Van Hammer and Big Josh.

Dustin Rhodes and Richard Morton wrestled Eligante and Larry's Obisco. Bill Casmar and Juschen Liger have never been in a sentence together, but yet they were tag match together against Diamond Dallas Page and Mike Graham. Lex Lugar teamed with Arne Anderson to take on Terrence Taylor and the Z-Man. Ricky Steamboat was tagging with Todd Champion to wrestle Cactus Jack and Buddy Lee Parker. Sting was supposed to be a tag team partner with Abdul the butcher to take on Brian Philman and Bobby Eaton. We had the Nightstalker teaming with Rick Steiner to take on Big Van Vader and Mr. Hughes. Scott Steiner was in there with Firebreaker Chief against Arakna Man and Johnny Bebad.

And Ron Simmons tagged with Thomas Rich against Steve Armstrong and Pian News. and of course all the winners got together in the battle bowl. Sting is your winner, last eliminating Lex Lugar. I know that Dusty really liked the idea of having, you know, Dusty as a reminder had come back into WCW at the beginning of 91. He liked the idea of having a championship ring and he's a football guy. So he liked the idea of having a bowl when it was football bowl season. But this to me,

this is one of the worst pay-per-view ideas and concepts of all time. Is it not battle bowl? Yeah, but I didn't have it. Obviously didn't have anything to do with this one. I was, I think I was probably an announcer on that show. It was a state squad announcer, yes. Okay.

So this isn't me deflecting or whatever, but Dusty was, Dusty was a victim of his own vision sometimes. And by that, I mean, he had such a big, sometimes complicated vision, meaning the vision that he saw in his head was awesome. And I think a battle bowl would have played out in the ring the way it did in his head.

We probably will be talking about something different. But unfortunately, people, and I'm also one of those people. I've fallen victim of this myself, and I've had a couple of people grab me right before I fell off the ledge to remind me where I was going. But I'm also aware of the fact that sometimes you can fall in love with your own ideas, so much so that you're blind to a lot of things or you just look past it. You may know it, but you're so focused on the bigger picture that you just compromise or don't pay attention to it or don't service it the way it needs to be serviced, whatever that is. and I think that's probably the case here.

I think Dusty, you know, he knew Dusty was always big, right? Dusty was a larger-than-life character in the ring. And creatively, I know from the time I spent around him, not as much as many, but quite a bit, including out here hunting up in the mountains in Wyoming. I kind of knew how Dusty thought and where most of his ideas come from or came from. and they all came from a really big spectacle kind of vision.

Didn't execute. In some cases, it would be hard to execute, given the budgets that WCW had to work with. And besides the vision, sometimes the Dusty had. That's where the compromise comes in. And that's where the fail to execute comes. That's where you're always let down. But I would say this is a situation where Dusty really was a victim of his own vision.

Let's talk about Starcade a few years later. you're firmly in control of not only WCW, but many would argue the wrestling world when Starcade 95 rolls around. You're a few months into the Monday Nitro era. And we all remember the rather regrettable StarCade 94, which also took place in Nashville. That time it was against the butcher and Hulk Cogan. That's right.

Curtis Beefcake and Hulk Hogan and the main event in a Starcade. We all wish it happened, but it did. But the next year, man, this feels like an Eric Bischoff show. And for whatever reason, Polk Hogan was not on the card, but it's almost positioned as like a WCW versus New Japan card.

The first match that we saw on the show is Jushin Liger versus Crispinois. That feels like a different WCW. That's not what you were seeing in the WWF. Then we had Kanamoto and Alex Wright, Lex Lugar and Masahiro Chono, Johnny Be Bad and Masa Saido, Otani and Eddie Guerrero.

O'Tani and Eddie Guerrero, 30 years ago. Randy Savage in Tenzon, Sting and Sasaki. Then it was Flair getting a win over Sting and Lex Lugar, and then Flair ultimately getting a win over Randy Savage. He leaves as the world champ. This is probably more in line with your vision of a big super show, WCW versus New Japan with some of the best in-ring performers of the year. That's probably more Eric Bischoff's speed 30 years ago this week,

don't you think? Very much so. Very much so. And we worked, you know, it didn't just happen overnight. We had to work, Sunny and I, you know, hands off to Sunny. You know, sometimes he gets footnoted in these conversations. But, you know, Sunny and Brad Ringens were the two people that really facilitated a rebuilding of a bridge between WCW and New Japan. So yeah, you're seeing that here in 95, but that's that relationship. I had to start working on that one back in 93. So it took a while. But by. this point, you know, we had definitely a good working relationship. In fact, we'd go beyond that, become friends, and they flew my wife and kids over at one point just to be a part of everything. So that was, that's how the relationship ended. But this is really where it started. And it was important that we put our best foot forward. I mean, it wasn't WCW typically, one of the bigger

issues with New Japan prior to me was, you know, the Japanese didn't want their big stars coming over here and taking a loss on television. And, you know, it wasn't as big of a deal to WCW because, you know, this was before Internet and all the, so you weren't really seeing it over here. So, you know, Sting goes over and does a job. The dirt sheets get it. Big deal. Who cares? It doesn't matter. But for the Japanese, the nature of their business was a little different. They were far more sensitive to their guys coming over here and losing, I guess, because we typically get more press here, I guess. I don't know.

But it was always a challenge. But by this point, we had a pretty good creative working relationship where you could put these guys together in these big shows and know that you're not only going to do business tonight, but we're going to work off of this. and do a version of it in Japan at six months or three months or whatever the case may be. That part of the relationship was really starting to take off at this point. And that's the part I'm most proud of from a business perspective is not creating that relationship, but resurrecting it from the garbage heap.

I wanted to ask you to the go home episode of Nitro for that particular Starcade aired on Christmas. It was a Monday night on Christmas night. and of course one of the hallmarks of Nitro was we're always live, we're never taped. But I'm sure when you're promoting and figuring that out and trying to book venues, you guys had to circle like, oh shit, what are we going to do on Christmas?

So in fact, what you did is you taped that episode the week before. And I know that that was a rule of yours. You always wanted to be live. But on Christmas, you kind of got to do what you got to do, right? Well, it's that.

I mean, you've got to be human, you know, especially it, you know, turn of broadcasting the people. people that work for WCW in particular, but I think even Turner in general, yes, it was a huge company, big publicly held corporation, but it was at least in our group, kind of a family

environment. You know, we had bring your kid to work days and we had employees, including, you know, my daughter, we had employees that would bring their kids in. So, you know, Christmas cookies or Gold Skull Skull cookies and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, you can't tell your, your place that, oh, by the way, you're going to work on Christmas Day, but oh, guess what? You get to leave Christmas Eve. So you're going to miss them both. It's not a popular thing. But here's the other part.

It doesn't matter because no one's watching wrestling on Christmas night anyway. It really, it's a throwaway show. Yeah, you want to put a show on the schedule. You need to service your audience. But you're not going to put, or you shouldn't, I should say, if you're live, put anything that really matters too much on a Christmas night show because it's probably one of the least watch shows of the year if you happen to fall on Christmas. The only thing that might be worse is Fourth of July.

I don't know. I can actually go the other way. I mean, my family and we were, I mean, I know that, you know, this is probably a different example, but we all know that Netflix just paid through the freaking nose to have NFL football on Christmas Day. And there's so much demand for those. rights fees for sports on that day. I could see in a few years,

WWE, I mean, I know AEW air taped shows, but I can see they're being a Jake Paul like fight on Netflix. Oh, I know. That's a different thing. I agree with you.

I agree. But that's one show. That's not a weekly show that happens. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. But I know, I think the night from a viewership perspective,

it's a perfect night. I mean, you've been eating and drinking. I'll just use my family. We have been eating by Christmas, we'd been eating and drinking for three solid days. Yeah.

You know, got out of the house. You just want to do that stuff anymore. You just sit down and watch old movies. Yeah. Or something really cool like this. Yeah. Well,

I got to wonder, is WWE, is AEW, is TKO, it's UFC, somebody's going to do something on Christmas night. I mean, I guess what made me even think of that,

is the debate that we had at my house yesterday because I don't know if you saw Eric but 40 years ago yesterday Sylvester Stallone I'm sorry Rocky Bobo ended the cold war for us when he defeated that mean nasty heel Ivan Drago and Rocky four on Christmas night in Russia that happened no on Christmas night in 1985 so I started to think you know what that could be really big if someone did a big one-off event a big special pay-per-view because I think people all over the globe would be tuned in on Christmas night. Maybe I'm wrong. No, I think if you could crew it, you know, find it because you could certainly find a venue. And I do agree. People will come out to participate live because they've been sitting around all day.

And yes, it would be great television if you can get it crude. And I think a big event like the Jake Paul event we just saw with Anthony Joshua, that was awesome. Real American Freestyle. That would be awesome. Just kidding, guys. Just kidding. uh, WWE certainly. UFC maybe. Who knows? Well, I want to give you guys a heads up.

By the way, uh, we've got a lot of questions coming in. Keep those coming. We're going to get to as many as we can. But first, I want to brag about cash app. This was actually a topic at my house over Christmas dinner.

Somebody in my family. I won't say who. This is my sister. She, uh, she got taken advantage of this year. And I had to smarten her up about cash app. But cash up just released a new status program for,

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Cash App Green, overdraft coverage, borrow, cashback offers, and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block Inc brand. Visit cash.app slash legal slash podcast for full disclosures. So, Eric, we're going to be recapping a little bit about the good, the bad, the ugly of 2025. We're also going to make some predictions for 2026. And one of the things we talked about last week was the ability to try to recreate the magic that was the NWO.

And of course we talked about, you know, a big monumental turn like Hulk Hogan. Could that happen and have the follow through that we all enjoyed in that era? Could something like that happen in wrestling in 2026? Now that came about because I think we were all, we would all probably agree that the John Cena heel turn, although it started great and we were all excited about it,

it probably is going to get lumped into the bad of the good, the bad and the ugly of 2025. But the question was thrown out there. Is there a baby face out there right now that could make a shocking heel turn? Who could make the most shocking turn in 2026? We want to hear from you guys live with us here at 83 weeks.com. Who do you think could make the most shocking turn next year?

Maybe it's a prediction. Maybe it's just a guess. But what say you, Eric, is there somebody out there that you think this guy? he could crush it with the right turn. Nobody comes to mind, you know, as you were talking, laying it out, I knew you was going to get the question. So it was kind of rifling through in my mind, you know,

first name that comes to mind. Obviously, Cody Rose, but then he's not on that list because it's obvious, right? I don't think anybody's going to be surprised if and when that happens, because that's the natural evolution of a character and, you know, the length of time before something significant happens to hit the refresh button. So, you know, I think Cody's probably next up at some point. But as far as who would surprise us that would have a big impact?

I'd have to, I'd have to really give that some thought. We're seeing in the, uh, in the live chat here, uh, there was a suggestion that says Randy Orton, another that said a few that say Cody. One suggests punk, uh, cool. video search. This is one I wouldn't have ever thought. Joe Hendry could make an insane turn. A heel Joe Hendry I did not see. I was going to go with Jay Uso. I feel like Jay Uso. Fans love him, kids love him. Everybody, I mean, all the little boys I know, like all my guy friends who have little boys, they all have wanted to be Jay Uso, either this Halloween or

last Halloween. I think Jay Uso basically telling the little kids to stick it, brother, could be awesome. Has he ever worked as a heel? Yeah, you know, when he was part of the bloodline, I guess they were a heel, but it was more of an ensemble thing, but him turning, I think, could be good. LA night is another suggestion from the live chat. There's some interesting names on the list. Yeah, I would like if I was, you know, in the room, I'd want to talk about Jay a little bit

because I think for all the reasons you stated, absolutely checks a lot of boxes. He's the, he's the type of guy, though. I would have to go around the room. get everybody to think about this one. Do you think the fans, you'll get a Pavlov dog reaction. If he does something he'll get a certain amount. But do you think the fans will ever see him as a heel?

Do you think he could pull that off? That's the question. The idea is a solid idea, but could that individual, could that human being, does he have the instinct and the desire to really make people hate him? If he does,

that would be awesome. I'm just not sure he's got that. And that's not a criticism. I just think that he's playing into his strength right now. He's just a genuinely lovable guy. He's a fun person. It's like Kennedy Blades. You just feel better when you're in the same room.

He's that guy. Sometimes it's hard to get that guy who's that guy in real life to be the kind of heel that need to be for the audience to really buy it and not just do what they're supposed to do when the red lights are. Adam Arpin says, I don't think this will be a shocking heel turn, but I could see 2026 being the year. Dominic Maserio turns face and that will be huge. I don't know that I would do it next year, Eric. What do you think?

Is it time to make Dom a baby face? I think he's got a few more years left as a heap. I was going to say this falls into the, is it broke? Right. If it is, yeah, cool, awesome. Let's talk about it. But I don't see any signs that it's anywhere near being broke. I think he's picking up steam.

I mean, it takes so long for the audience. They'll buy into you short term in a storyline. But for your character to really be over to have so much hard-earned equity with that audience that you're a walking, talking bank, that just takes time. And Dominic's continuing to build. Why would you want to interrupt that bill? That would be the question. Somebody threw it out to me.

Okay, cool. Is there a reason why we want to interrupt our current trajectory? By the way, what is our current trajectory? Oh, there's many T-shirts. Oh, whatever other data you have. Oh, okay, so we want to fix that? Or should we just let it play itself out? Let that equity continue to build until we see the return on the investment isn't quite what it was six months ago.

Now let's start looking at that and make a decision that way. That's to me probably we're done since. Well, we're going to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of professional wrestling in 2025. Let us know what you think qualifies as the good, the bad, and the ugly right here live at 83 weeks.com. While you're letting us know what you thought about 2025, we'll start hitting some questions here. AOTV productions always bring some great questions. He said, hey, Eric, Brett Hart, says he has no intention of forgiving Phil Goldberg for ending his career. what do you think of this situation?

By the way, Eric, I don't know if you've picked up on this, but Brett's having a lot of fun trolling people. He realizes when you do that. Brett's that excuse is him covering his ass because even the people around him have got to probably say, Brett, you know, lighten up. You know, trolling gets some kind of a positive response. This is, this is just bitter Brett. He's not trolling anybody.

He's been this way for since I've known him. so yeah this is this is Brett being Brett I'm just saying when you read it in print you don't always get context and if there's one thing we know on this show Eric it's that I've I've heard him say the same thing in interviews ITR for example he does a lot of those Q&As and you hear the same thing so is he trolling then too yes but that's what I'm saying that's what I was getting I was hoping you were going to say context is king because in those clips if you watch the clips as he says it a huge smile creeps across his face i think he knows hey i'm having fun i'm just going to throw it out there and here we go well maybe maybe you know what

maybe you're right and i honestly i hope that's the case yeah because i just you know i've said this a million times about brett he's got so much to be proud of and happy for and grateful for why do you spend so much time wallowing in the muck and if if the The answer is, I get a kick out of it. Cool. Good for you. I do it too sometimes when I'm bored. If I'm on a plane, I'll screw with people on social media.

Just entertain myself because it's so easy. A. Carl's 517 says, How did you find the contract negotiation process of your first WWE contract? Was the room to negotiate or did they make it a take it or leave it thing, Eric? It was neither. I know this. Nobody's going to believe me.

when I say this, don't really care about it. I didn't need the money. The money was not an issue for me. When I took the call from Vince McMahon, which I knew was coming because Kevin asked smart me up the day before, I talked to Vince for about five minutes or less. And about halfway through that five minutes, I had already made up my mind. I was going to go. Because before I took the call, I had time to think about it. And it's like, Like, I can either keep doing what I'm doing. And by the way, what I was doing was building a production company in Los Angeles that was hugely successful. I was making way more money doing that than I had ever made in wrestling, even as president of WCW.

So I already had a great career and great income. So the reason I took the job wasn't because of the money. I took the job because I convinced myself before I actually answered the phone, that this could be my opportunity to write the final chapter of my wrestling story. I didn't like the way the last one ended, not being able to purchase WCW and all the drama that, you know, proceeded that. It was not exactly the way I'd want to end my wrestling story. And getting the opportunity to work on camera in WWE, I knew would be my ability to end my career the way I wanted to, instead of somebody else ending it the way they wanted to in terms of what I was going to accomplish.

So once I made up my mind, honestly, the number came out. I didn't even think to counter because it wasn't my issue. There were other things that were my issue, like I wanted to fly first class, a little, you know, bitty shit like that. But yeah, I didn't, I didn't even try to negotiate. I wasn't interested in that. I was interested in the number of days because I also had this other thing going on. The number of days, you know, am I at a pay-per-view every month?

Do I have to do any house shows? You know, are there anything outside of Monday Night Raw that I'm going to be asked to do? Because if so, I need to know about it. I'm not sitting in a home waiting for the phone to ring. So we negotiated certain things like that, but that was it. Catherine Summers, shout out to you. Appreciate you being a member here, too sweet for you. says when it comes to WCW and sponsors,

do you think that sponsors really cared about what you were doing or were standards and practices just looking for ways to help bring WCW down? Okay. So standards and practices, that may or may not have been, you know, part of the conspiracy to do what they could, to drain WCW.

So the Time Warner executives and the AOL executives that wanted it off the catalog could finally get their way. That is, especially after reading Guy Evans, series of books now, WCW Nitro, and talking to, you know, Turner Financial guys like, oh, I don't know, Dick Cheatham, who oversaw the Braves and WCW and Hawks and all that, and listening from Dick Cheatham's perspective, how there was indeed a conspiracy within AOL Time Warner to do whatever they could do to financially grind WCW to a hole.

So that's a possibility. but I think it's probably remote because they were so effective in other ways of grinding us to a halt that that would have been that would have been a little bit obvious. Now what I will say, though, is there is, there was from the first day, my first day in a job in AWA at 1987, one of the first things I learned about was the relationship between. advertisers and the product they're willing to advertise in, advertise it when I was selling AWA syndication, which is where I got my, you know, whatever you want to call education about Neil. We actually had representatives from Nielsen and Chicago come to Minneapolis because Vern wasn't a W or excuse me, A. Nielsen, he did have a subscription. He used the service. So service. So they sent a couple of people up from Chicago to sit down with me and Mike Shields and kind of

walk us through, how they accumulate the data, how the data relates to advertisers, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I've got my first grade education there when it came to advertising. Beyond that, it was just not being on the street knocking on doors, boots on the ground, talking to the stations, listening to the stations tell me, we really would like to put wrestling on our show because we know people watch it, but we can't get any of our local advertisers to advertise it. because they don't like wrestling, whatever.

They didn't feel like it was their audience, whatever the reasons were. They just shied away from it. So there is truth to the, that lies in part of that question about, you know, advertisers and sponsors caring about the product. They very, very much did still do to this day.

Well, we, we're going to see what 2026 looks like. And it's going to be here before you know it. Coming up, though, I'm going to get Eric's answers on the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2025. Let us know in the comments below what you think qualify as the good, the bad, and the ugly. By the way, if you think you're good at picking things, I want to remind you, this episode is brought to you by prize picks. It's the holiday season, the best time of year for sports.

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It's good to be right. So let's talk about it, Eric. The good, the bad, and the ugly of professional wrestling in 2025. You know, I would say one of the goods is I thought it was cool that we got WWB on Netflix. I would put that in the good column. What's a good thing that you enjoyed in wrestling in 2025? Well, as I've said so many times in the show, I love to see, I love to see growth in the industry.

I love to watch the industry continue to evolve. That is my fandom, much more so than what's going on storyline-wise in the ring. I'm a fan of the business of the wrestling business. So I'm skewed, right? I've got a bias. Just, yes, the Netflix deal was the cherry on top of just a tremendous amount of, of incredibly rapid growth for WWE and TKL. And just seeing the international expansion,

because it'll take a while, but when those markets begin to mature a little bit, the amount of revenue that's going to be generated in some of those markets that's going to be, in addition to what they're already doing, it's going to be phenomenal. And it's just fun to watch that kind of growth. another thing I would lump in the good category was the night it happened,

the elimination chamber, the John Cena turn itself felt really good to me. But when it came to the execution, I would probably put that in the bad category. So the night of was good, but the follow up for me, Eric, was bad. What was something that you would classify as bad in the year 2025?

off. And nothing really stands out. And I hate to say that, but I really admit I don't watch hours of wrestling every week. I do kind of go back and watch things that I read about or hear about. I'll go back and find it and look it up. Certainly social media gives me an ability to kind of at least be aware of what's going on, not necessarily studying it. Oh, my God's sake, doesn't require a lot of study, folks.

I'm just going to be playing off of what you said, but maybe my reason for it is a little different. Yeah, the heel turn was definitely a disappointment. And I think what disappointed me specifically was the lack of buildup towards that moment. Just that freeze that moment with the hug and looking over the shoulder, that moment right there. That was kind of cool. I liked it. I would have freaking loved it if something would have had happened. happened along that journey to that point, that would have the least nurtured my interest

at seeing something happened. I want to sense something's different, but I don't know what I don't want to know what it is. I just want to feel something that's noticeable. It could have been the way John started walking to the ring. Excuse me. It could have been any number of little things that the announcers could have built on. It could have, you know, helped create the story a little bit about to something so subtle that not to the point where you're tipping your hand and that's where the art comes in this is not a science there's not a math formula you just got to have to kind of feel it but if they could have found that line and built up to that on top of that killer moment i don't know maybe things would have ultimately been different i just think the whole

thing from the get-go for something that big for there not to have been a better act one to this day confuses me because they have people there to do it they know what to do well i mean you had you know the rock doing the whole throat slash thing and then he comes back a few months later and he and he counts to three and that goes nowhere like i don't know it just was like the follow through wasn't there so that would count maybe as something in the bad category but when it comes to the ugly i think it's for me it's probably Travis scott's involvement That's a disaster. Yeah, I don't know how we start something and it never goes anywhere and then he just poof

disappears. I think Travis Scott's probably in my ugly category this year. What say you? I think he's pretty gutless. I think he was one of those celebrities that, you know, or anybody who's not familiar with the product and doesn't really understand what goes into it at a high level. And things that, well, I see guys do it on TV. I can do that.

whatever. I'll figure it out. Some guys can't. Some guys work really hard at it. Bad buddy Logan Paul. Dennis Rodman. Come alone. A lot of guys. Kevin Green. Some guys go, wow, this is an opportunity. I'm going to work really hard and do really well at it. Or at least put on a great show, do something you're proud of. And other people, just look at it as number one. It's really easy. And I can do that. And it's a big check. you found out the hard way. Let's brag on some other good things that happened in 2025. I think TNA,

when the story of TNA is told, 2025 will be considered a pivotal year. The year they announced the AMC deal. They set a record attendance. They've got the WWE partnership. It feels like TNA really leveled up in 2025. And so did CMLL. I don't know that you've been keeping up with their success,

but they've sold millions of, tickets this year. I mean, just an absolute sellout, weekend, week out at the Arena Mexico show. It feels like CMLL is having more success than ever and TNA too. So I know sometimes it's easy for us to be negative and spend a lot of time on the bad, but there is a lot of good that happened in 2025. Dom beating John Sina in San Diego, I think will be something. Don will sign autographs of that picture for the rest of his life, I think. Yeah. Good in 20. 2025 too. Yeah, I mean, I guess you can always pick things apart, especially something like wrestling

that's 52 weeks a year, but five hours a week, whatever it is, it's just, it's easy, there's always going to be something to pick apart. But if you just step back and look at the overall year and some of the great things that happens so far outweighs even the most internet wrestling community nonsense, it's a phenomenal year and everybody should be. You're talking about CMLL down of Mexico. You got TNA. It's a Canadian-based company, but it's basically here in the U.S.

AEWs, you know, hanging in there. And T&A, like I said, their opportunities are somebody that I know really close. I know we're going to talk about predictions. But I predicted this about a year ago, I think, maybe less than that, maybe eight, six, eight months ago. I think I came out and said, I predict. TNA is going to end up getting a television partner, and I predict within a year there'll be the number two wrestling company in the country, or something to that effect.

Somebody out there will find it. It was close to that. And I think that's probably going to come true in 2026, maybe sooner than later. A lot will be determined by their, what is their debut show, January 13th, 14th? I'm not sure. I'm not maybe 15th. Let me look.

Go ahead, filibuster. We're live. Yeah. So you look at what you look at whatever number they're going to get that night. January 15th, Thursday from 9 to 11 Eastern. Yeah, check, check it out and then look for, you know, the, the ratings to come out. What is it a day or two after now, whatever? That's going to tell us everything. If it gets the tune in, if there is a significant tune in factor, that means there's awareness. And if there's awareness and interest and it converts to a tune-in,

that will pretty much tell us what the future looks like for TNA. Because it probably will fall in line with WWE when it premiered out of Fox to whatever the number was. Was it 5.3 million or 4.8 or some massive number. And it was down to 2.5 within weeks. So you're going to, you know, if you're tune-in, is a 10 and you're able to hold a six, that's a win. The question is, what is there six? What is that number?

And that's what we'll find out. But you can pretty much predict it. My, uh, my biggest bad, I think, maybe it's ugly and we haven't even realized it yet, is as you and I are talking right now, we are five days away from Peacock removing the WWV archives. and I think we as a wrestling fan base have grown accustomed to this because since 2014, so for more than a decade now, we've all had the ability to log on to the WWE network or Peacock

and take a look at all the great archives. You want to watch every Royal Rumble, no problem. How about every Monday night raw? More importantly, what about every Halloween havoc, every Starcade, every Nitro? And Eric, we have access to all of those Nitro memories right now, but five days from now, we will not. There has not been a replacement announced for where these archives are going. I have always predicted that they would wind up on YouTube.

I still think that's probably where they wind up, and I can argue that that's the best place for them. But if Aunt Evans were here, our YouTube Sherpa Guidsman, he would probably tell us, it doesn't make sense to load the whole thing up, makes sense to drip it out over time and build some anticipation. but that means, Eric, that a lot of our favorite WCW stuff

that we've gone back and reviewed on this program, it's about to go away. And that, to me, as a wrestling fan, realize we've probably been taking that for granted. I'm going to put it in the bad category, but it might be ugly. Because right now, if I want to watch Bash of the Beach 94,

click, bam, there it is. We won't have that ability just one week from today, Eric, and that kind of sucks. Yeah, I've got mixed emotions, though. Because I think it's really, really freaking smart. That video obviously has tremendous value. But the only way you can increase its value is to make it more scarce.

Yes. And when you look at that formula over the next 10 or 15 or 20 years, it's going to be awesome. From a, from a WWE perspective, it's going to be awesome. And I know you'll say, well, what about the fans, the fans, the fans? Right, I get it, fans. Fans have also had the stuff at their fingertips for the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks. It's been out there forever. If you haven't seen it yet, if there may be new fans coming in that are in the video on demand, you know, subscription kind of model,

and they're seeing a lot of the stuff if they're in their teens or so. But I don't think there's a lot of people that really love. have access to this content who are not going to be able to get it. Now, there's going to be podcasters like you and I or others who want to talk about something and it's fun to go back and watch it before you talk about it or while you talk about it like we used to do, that's going to be sorely missed. But I get it. And it's just another example of growth. YouTube is becoming a chosen destination for the largest sports entertainment companies ever on the planet and with whatever they want at their fingertips they're choosing to put this valuable

content on YouTube. I'm intrigued by that decision. I want to know more. I mean, I think more people will have access to it. More lapsed fans are likely to just type it into. I mean, I know that people don't talk about this a lot, but YouTube is the world's second largest search engine behind Google. And of course, Google owns them. So it's going to it's going to be easy to find. I just don't think, and I'm seeing a lot of comments in our live chat saying, no, the WCWVVVVVVVE exists, guys. Yeah, but it's not all there. And I know they're in the process of loading it, but I'm saying, I think we've kind of as a fan base taken for granted. And I know like when they first made the transition from the network

to peacock, there were a lot of complaints that, oh, this is clunky. This is hard to navigate. Well, five years later, we all got used to it and not the best in the world, but hey, we're, we're making it work. And the idea that it might not just be so easy. It's a little disappointing, but things change, and that's why you need blue chew. Fellas, you already know what time it is. It's time to level up. Blue chew just dropped something crazy. I'm talking about next level championship belt gold-plated energy.

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We thank Blue Chew for sponsoring the day's podcast. So we're talking a little bit about the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2025. We're also going to be talking about predictions for 2026. But first, let's do some more questions. Acost 517 says with Sina, AJ, and possibly Brock retiring and guys like Roman getting older, are you confident WWB is in a good place with the megastars they have? Are they a few years

away from having a problem? Oh, I don't think there's any shortage of stars in development. Obviously, they'll all be at different levels of development over the course of time, but I think over the next two or three years,

look at the pace of which we see Bronson Reed. Right, but not. Brian Soreed. Ron Brinker. Eric had some internet issues. He does live in the middle of the picture. But he's back, even if it means he's on a cell phone.

You were telling us a little bit about there's no shortage of stars in the WWE right now. Now, as I was watching my computer dancing in front of me, I said, Bronson Reda, I met Brabaker. Look at, look at Brown's trajectory. What's he's been now? He's been on the main roster, what, about 18 months? Yeah, maybe a little more than that, yeah.

Okay, let's call it, let's call it 20 months. And I think he could probably be ready to go just about any time he was called. The audience would accept it. He's got the equity. He's got credibility. He's an unbelievable performer. So there's a guy that's ready right now. L.A. night, you could, you could, you could get him polished up and ready to go within

six or eight weeks storyline was. And I'm sure there were, you know, we talked about J. Uso, you know, there's a, there's perhaps an angle there with him. Who could become a big star. So I don't know. I don't think there's any shortage of talent

at WWE. I don't think there is either. I think they are loaded for bear. Let's do a few more questions. We got one from AOTV productions who says, hey Eric, Kevin Nash said on the NWO documentary that the NWP pay-per-view sold out was the first huge blunder. What do you think?

I disagree. I mean, everybody has their opinion of that. What I've done some things differently, yes, but I think the idea was a solid idea. If I have any regret, it's that I deviated from plan. I think we should have doubled down on it. Think we should have stuck with it. Learn what we needed to learn to improve the things we need to improve, but that's, you know, you do that every week. Anyway, well, you're supposed to. But no, I don't, I don't feel the same way about as Kevin did.

We got another question here from AOTV productions. Hey, Eric, wrestlers have told stories over the years where they were more heels about fans threatening them and their families. Did that ever happen to you? Did you ever have a credible threat or even an incredible threat about you and your family? had a stalker once and FBI had to get involved. Well, that's, you can't just say that sentence and say that's it.

Is there anything else you could tell us about? No, I mean, look, it was a disturbed young woman. And this was like, it went on for years, like five or eight years. And, you know, she would mail stuff to the house and, you know, initially you eat something in the mail, you know, you read it, you look at it, you go, wow, that's crazy, and you throw it in garbage, and then you get another one, and you get another one, and you keep getting them, and then you start looking at them, and they get a little weirder and a little weirder and a little weirder. At that point, I turned them over to Turner Security for a variety of reasons, not that I'll go into here, but I decided it was time to get somebody else involved. I couldn't just throw them in the garbage and forget about it any longer. and Turner took it from there and ultimately the FBI got involved.

PJ Tanks says, hey Eric, Merry Christmas. I was curious if you could tell us anything about the potential of a real American freestyle weekly TV deal. I'll hashtag Halcania lives forever. Yeah, I mean, you know, Chad Bromstein, my partner, Izzy and I, I mean, it's paddle to the medal. there's only been like three weeks between events, but still, even at that breakneck pace, one of the things we're talking about when we're together is getting this weekly show off the ground. Full disclosure, I've had a couple meetings on the subject with different networks. We'll continue to have those conversations, but also, you know, we love Fox.

We love our partnership with the team over at Fox Nation. All of them, phenomenal people to work with. fully expect that we'll continue in business with them and hope to add the weekly show to the to the cattle and i think they'd like it too it's just a question of you know what's possible what's not possible strategically it just not might be the right time whatever but we're looking we're knocking on doors because you know we have a fiduciary responsibility to our investors to go out there and find what we can find little jimmy 97 says with the projection of everything do you think a Cody turn is in the cards for 2026?

I do. I do. I'm feeling a little bit when I see Cody come out and hear him in his promos. I just, I think it's time. Not right now. Not today. But sometime this year, I think it will almost become a natural evolution, which is the way it should, instead of the,

oh, I've come up with a dad. I like as I talked about with John and Rock and and all that. I really like a slow build. I want somebody to get me really sucked into the story before that happens. But I think it's time for Cody. I'm going to go the other way. I think if there is another turn, it's going to be Roman rains.

And I think it could happen as soon as Saudi Arabia. Eric, I had a lot of fun talking wrestling with you this. year in 2025. If there was one Christmas wish that you had for wrestling in 2026, maybe there's one thing that you would like to see happen, one thing you would hope that the companies would stop doing maybe, or maybe it's someone's return or a happy ending to a story or someone moves up has their first main event or world title or get some proper send off.

What would your one Christmas wish for wrestling in 2026, me? I think for me the one retirement tour that I want to see is Randy Orton I just I think so much of Randy as a performer he is such an unbelievable performer that I'd like to see him get the send off that he absolutely deserves how about that I didn't see that coming mine is for a I don't know, I would like to see a Chris Jericho farewell tour. I could get excited about Kevin Owen's return. I could get excited about AJ Stiles farewell tour. Let us know in the comments below. What is your one Christmas wish?

What's the thing you're looking forward to the most in 2026? Eric, we appreciate you making time out with all the family. Here we are live the day after Christmas. And of course, your darn computer decides not to play ball. But you're so damn resourceful. to persevere. There you go, brother. There you go. Hey, this was a great time today, Eric. Close us out with some nice words for our live studio audience. And we'll see you next week right here on 83 weeks. Well, I just want to thank everybody. I'm truly blessed to be able to do this. It's fun for me.

It gets me out of my day to day and talking about something that I can get really excited about. And Conrad, you're the best. Dave Silva. Love you guys. And thank everybody for being a part of the show. and we'll see you next year right here on 83 weeks with Eric Bischoff. Did you put Christmas on a credit card? Don't stress out about that extra holiday spending. Savewithconrad.com can help you consolidate all of your high interest rate credit cards into one much lower monthly payment. Savewithconrad.com has helped families just like yours.

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