83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 409: TNA on AMC Live Reaction!

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

On this weeks episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad are joined by hall of famer John Layfield to give their LIVE reactions to TNA's debut on AMC. The team is also joined by Wrestling News Update contributor Raj Giri to deep dive into all the latest news and notes happening in professional wrestling.  SIGNOS - Visit http://SIGNOS.com  and get 25% off select plans with code 83WEEKS.  STEVEN SINGER JEWELER - No one does real diamond jewelry better. Experience the difference at Steven Singer Jewelers. Go online to IHateStevenSinger.com today! Always fast and FREE shipping is waiting for you. BETTER WILD - Right now, Betterwild is offering our listeners up to 40% off your order at http://betterwild.com/BISCHOFF  POLICY GENIUS - Head to http://policygenius.com/83WEEKS  to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save. JCW LUNACY - Juggalo Championship Wrestling drops BRAND NEW episodes of Lunacy every Thursday at 7pm ET exclusively on their YouTube channel http://youtube.com/@psychopathic_records check it out! 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! MANDO - Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code 83WEEKS at http://shopmando.com  ! #mandopod 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, it's Conrad the Mortgage Guy, and we are live at 83 Weeks.com immediately following the debut of TNA on AMC, and we want to hear from you. Let us know in the comments below what you thought of the show. Give us a thumbs up, a thumbs down. We can't wait to hear from you. And without further ado, let's invite him in. The master of ceremonies around these parts, the Hall of Famer, the only man to beat Vince McMahon, not once, not twice, but 83%. three weeks in a row. He knows a thing or two about big wrestling debuts,

ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Eric Bishop. Eric, how are you, man? I am great, and I'm really grateful that, uh,

you invited me to, to do this wash along or not watch along, but a recap, if you will, of this first episode. It's really, really interesting and I'm looking forward to doing it. Uh,

we are excited to be here with you. We are going to be taking your questions live. We want to know what you thought about the debut of TNA on AMC. I got to tell you. Eric, when I took to Twitter just to see what everybody else was thinking, I made a few posts and some of those posts were things like, hey, do you plan to watch next week? And hey, we're halfway through the show. Eric Mischoff likes to say that you need to be better than, less than, or different than. It was overwhelmingly less than. And it was overwhelmingly no, I'm not

going to watch next week. Eric, what did you think about the debut episode of Impact on on TNA. Overall disappointed because it was such a big opportunity. This is a giant step forward for Carlos, TNA, all the talent and everybody associated with the company. This is a big, big opportunity. And anybody that knows me well personally knows that I hate when people miss big opportunities, including myself and I have.

That's why I hate it so much because I know, I know how it feels when you realize that you had a great opportunity and for whatever reason, you didn't maximize it. And that's what this felt like to me overall. Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. It did feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. I tuned in really,

really excited, much like I did on the first episode of Nitro or the first episode of ECW on TNN and the first episode of Dynamite. this felt more like the ECW on TNN debut. This was not exactly what I was hoping for. Maybe I'm in the minority. I can't wait to hear from you guys though. But over on Twitter, I want to get my facts right.

12.6% said they felt like this show was better than. Love to meet those people. 24.9% felt this show was different than, which is not bad. But 62.5% to use an Eric Bischoff phrase felt like this show was less than. I also want to ask what Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield thought of the show. John, what did you think of the TNA debut on AMC? You know, I'm excited for TNA. That's such a great product, just like Eric said.

And I do want to say this while I'm here because I heard so many great things about RAF this weekend. I know we're not discussing that, but congratulations to Eric. My friend, good friend, Gerald Briscoe was there and just raved about how great the show was. So very happy for Eric. we're talking about TNA, terrific product, you know, and a terrific company. I thought they did a great job of showing the company's history. And, you know, you got some incredible talent there as far as the show. You know, I thought you had some nice high spots. And, you know, I don't know what people were expecting.

So I don't know what was missed or not missed. Well, that's interesting. I can't wait for us to get to some of the live comments. We do want to hear from you. What did you think of the show? I want to be careful in my criticism. here because I like you, John,

think a lot of a lot of the people who work there. There's a lot of fabulous people who work there, a lot of great talent who worked there, but it does feel like a missed opportunity. You know, there's an old, a well-worn cliche. And by the way, cliche sometimes become a thing because there's facts in there,

uh, that you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. And I feel like a lot of people were going to give this a shot and check it out and see what they thought. Then they made their decision of, hey, have I seen enough TNA or do I, can I not wait to see what happens next week.

And this did not make me want to watch next week. And I don't think there was a cliffhanger. Eric, is that what they were missing? Some sort of a surprise, the Sarsa formula you often talk about? Look, I like Carlos.

I stay in touch with Carlos. I'm supportive of TNA because as I've been saying for months, I think I even predicted, you know, six or eight months ago that, you know, if they found a television platform, they could easily find themselves as a number two

promotion because Carlos and team have been making such they've been making incremental improvements but steady consistent incremental improvements and growth and maybe that's why I'm a little let down but for me I mean I came into this excited because I love to see the business thrive and people in it thrive and take advantage of big opportunities because they're few and far between And when you do get one, you have to be careful with it. And I also heard before the show that there were some visa issues. That's part of life when you're dealing with talent from other countries. I will say if I was just consulting and somebody asked me to kind of run down and give them a list of things that I would focus on right away.

On the admin side, yeah, don't book people if you don't have visas in your pocket ready to go. Because this kind of thing will happen. And it's just a question of how often, if you don't plan for it, number one. But my bigger issues were really with the format of the show. The open was great. The open had me by the throat. I love the open until I started not loving it as much. It went 20, 30 seconds too long.

With an open like that, when you're creating that drama, when you're creating anticipation, when you're getting your audience emotionally kind of set up to really dig it and have fun, leave them wanting more. Don't do it to death. And they went about 30 seconds too long with that. Had they shortened that up just a little bit and left the audience really digging it instead of going, okay, I got it, now what? It would have gotten a much, much better reaction.

They went from that, and I couldn't take notes because I still can't see. I just had my cataract surgery on both eyes over the last two days. So my vision isn't quite good enough to take notes yet. But I think they went right from that open to AJ, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Okay. That I kind of got. I understood the why of it all.

I don't think it was really as well scripted as it could have been. It wasn't as well delivered as it could have been. It was okay. But AJ is capable of so much. more. But then they went from AJ into another package and open, I guess. And then they went from that into the Elijah entrance and intro. And what they ended up, so when you sit back and you look at the first however many minutes I'm covering here, maybe eight minutes, 10 minutes. It's like you get the audience right where you want them. And then you kind of, you lose them a little bit

because you went too long. And then you get them back and you've got AJ, but the AJ promo is, it's okay. It's not bad. It's just okay. And then we go into another open. Now you lost me. Momentum-wise, psychology-wise, John, it's no different than in the ring.

And knowing when to call what, when, and how, and letting it breathe and feeling that, that audience. Well, the same thing happens with a television format. You've got to, and you have to predict it a little. little bit, but you've got to manage the emotion of the audience, especially for the first 15 minutes. You want to hook them. You want to get them to buy into your show within the first couple of minutes, because if you could satisfy them and get them excited, the first five or 10 minutes, it's a lot easier to hold on to them later on when things get a little tire. But they just, the format itself was just really not very well. It wasn't well produced.

I don't know who's writing their show, who's producing their show, who's direct. their show, all of them have some work to do. You know, director, whoever decided to post those celebrities in the one corner of the building where there were no freaking people. There were people everywhere else around that building. Cameras caught it. But for some reason, they wanted to showcase the celebrities to get a little bit of that mainstream rub, which I dig.

You get what you can get when you can get it. But they put those guys, they look like Debronies. He had a shot of Eric Young, for what reason? I don't know. but Eric Young looked like some guy that walked in off the street, snuck in and grabbed the first chair he could sit by himself looking around hoping nobody caught him. I mean, what was that? And it's little things like that. Television is nothing but the little details laid out in a way that captures the audience's imagination and holds on to it.

These shots, the way the director called him, the ring looks like you could fit it in my kitchen. I don't know how big that ring is, but on camera it looked like it was 16, and not even a 16. It might have been a 16 by 16, right? The overhead shot that they used made it look like a posted stamp. I would never use that shot again if they're going to keep that same ring. So there's just a lot of the, and it's really production stuff. I'm not even going to address the creative or anything like that,

but the production itself was so poor that that's where I think they missed it. That's why you're getting the reaction you're getting from the, the audience. Frankie Cazarian, Mike Santana, had a great match. It would have been even later had it ended about five minutes sooner because they were so gas towards the very end because they worked their asses off for so long and so fast and so well. I was so impressed. Still on with Frankie. I don't want this to sound like I'm bagging on the match. I'm just saying, in my opinion, it was a seven and a half or an eight out of ten, as is. it could have been a 9.8 out of scale of 1 to 10.

If it would have been just a little shorter, it would have looked a little bit better. Just in its little things. There was no big thing, except for that. Who is it Perez-Hilton? That's a big thing. What the fuck?

Come on. But the rest of it was just a lot of little things. It could have been so much better. It would have been produced a little bit better. I do want to get JBL's take. But Eric, before I do, I want to ask you, if you were formatting this show, Would you have one of the AJ styles appearance to be a surprise, or did you like that they advertised it?

Like, I understand why you would feel like you need to advertise some things to get some people to tune in who may not normally tune in or to try to sell tickets. But I do feel like if it was a total surprise and they hit that old theme, man, maybe there could have been a much bigger reaction. Am I face on that? No. I mean, look, big real surprises always get the reaction you want them to get. And I think it would have definitely happened with AJ in a massive way. Oh, by the way, I felt bad for Dixie Carter. I forgot to mention that.

From where I was sitting, now I can't see that well tonight, but I could hear pretty well. It sounded like a lot of booze. I don't think she expected that. And I felt bad for it because she doesn't deserve that. She doesn't deserve it. I'll leave it at that. If they could have done it. Yeah, I understand they also wanted to sell tickets.

So you've got your serving two masters there. I think, though, again, this will sound like such a little thing. But even if they would have announced him, if you go back and look at his entrance, his graphic was up on the screen a minute before he came out. So it was like, if he would have crashed into the scene, even though he had been advertised, the energy would have been so much different as opposed to there's his graphic. Well, we know what's coming up next.

Hey, he's coming out next. Whoa. You can't tell that guy over there. AJ Styles is coming. And then he comes out. You just don't get the same reaction the way that entrance was laid out. So it was just, like I said, it's a bunch of little things. I can't wait to get JBL's take real fast.

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That's SIG-N-O-S.com. Get 25% off select plans when you use our code 83 weeks. That's Signos. dot com when you use the promo code 83 weeks you'll get 25% off select plans john i want to ask you you know we started with uh j styles front and center right behind that we saw eliza and then we saw jeff hardy i get the idea of leaning on stars did this feel a little bit like wb like to you as a result of that though because there were so many well-worn stars from w b no i think stars are stars and i don't think uh well-worn or not i think it matters i think

stars are stars and you had some incredible stars there. Look, the Hardy's won their first title for me and Ron, good Lord, almost, almost 30 years ago. And they're just as big now as they were then or bigger now. It's unbelievable the run they've had. I thought they fire hosed a lot of incredible stars. Eric knows television. He knows television as well as anybody in the world.

And I'm not going to dispute anything that Eric said about this. Because Eric's been right a lot more than he's been wrong. That's why he's so successful. But they find it. I just thought they fire hosed a lot of stars. I thought that was good. It felt like a big open. You know, it felt like you had AJ styles there who I thought was just fantastic,

who I think is fantastic at whether promo, you know, you could, you can argue about what, what he could have said or could have not said. I thought it was great. And then he had the Hardys. I think you have something that you start this show. I thought it was as, I thought that the opening was pretty good. And, and I felt like something big was going to happen. I thought the whole show felt like it was, uh, something big was happening.

with a real legacy product. And I agree with Eric about you've got two incredible stars at the end with Kazarian and Santana having a heck of a match. And there's a lot of great pieces here. And then you throw in Dolph Zedger, Nick Nimeth. I mean, you've got some incredible stars. And whether they're well worn or not, it doesn't matter. They're stars.

It's hard to get stars. And it's hard to get guys that are over, no matter what they're age. Whether they're brand new or whether they're old, it's hard to do that. And I think you've got the pieces there. for an incredible product. And I like the fact I can't even know even know where her name is. I'm Sonia DeVille. I'm a big fan of her.

So I think she's terrific. I saw with her return, I think it's great. You know, I want to jump in on that, John, because I know I was picking apart the flam out of the production. And I feel strongly about that.

But let's talk about some of the highlights. And whatever her new character name was like, I'm sorry, I don't remember it. But Sonia, what a fantastic keel. can be. Yeah. She's, she is, at first I was kind of, eh, I'm not so sure. And I, you know, I've interacted with her a little bit. She's really a nice woman and a great talent, but I never really

saw her dig in and perform like she did tonight. She's really, really good. She's got timing. She's feeling the character. She's not out there. She didn't memorize any of that. If she did, She's a better actress than anybody gives her credit for because she really delivered her character in an authentic way that I can just, you can start banking the heat. You'll be able to put that heat to bank pretty quick with her if she gets the opportunity. Mike Santana, I can't say enough good stuff about not only is entering stuff, but even some of the, the little bit of stuff that he did in his promos. He's very believable. Yes. He's not like a guy out there acting or performing like he thinks a wrestler should perform.

He's feeling that character. He's not stretching at all. And it's really, it connects. It's really authentic and it connects with the audience. Again, Frankie, he's amazing. I mean, he didn't look. When did I last see Frankie? 11 years ago?

He hasn't aged a minute. He looks awesome. And he moves great. Hats off to you, Frankie. He did a fantastic job. I love this story. There was a lot of controversy about Frankie beating Santana. What was it six, eight weeks ago?

And here we are. And he gets it back. So I don't know if they planned this or if it took advantage of the opportunity, sometimes time it creates. But I thought that was excellent. It was set up, excellent. It was promoted throughout the show, the way a main event should be promoted throughout the entire freaking show. I hope some other people take notes on that because it made the main event. feel as important as a main event should.

Remember people, the goal, at least it used to be, the goal is to start here and end here with your audience, builds your audience throughout the hour. That's what makes program executives get really excited about your shit, is when you start here and you end here. They fall in love with you when that crap happens. But the way you do that is by booking a main event, as they did tonight,

and promote it throughout the night, as they did tonight. So that's one format element that they really did a great job on. Eric, you were giving some love to the former Sonia DeVille. Our correct producer here, Dave Silver reminds us her TNA name is Daria Ray. So shout out. I'll remember that. You know, I am with names. You know, I do want to take a minute and talk about Santana, John. You're a former main vendor yourself by God. The wrestling God himself is with us here. I think Santana probably has the most upside in this T&A main event scene. To me, it feels like he should be the face of TNA.

No disrespect to Frankie Cazarian. I'm like Eric, super fan of his, but it does feel like he did everything he could to make Santana feel like he's the next guy. Did you get that impression, John? Yeah, I did. And I know that, you know, that they've wanted Santana for some time because of that. I think Cazarian's awesome, by the way. You've got to have this nemesis out there.

and Kazarin is perfect in that. He's a terrific character. He's a terrific heel. He's a great worker. But I think Santana, look, I think either one of them can carry that title. I don't think Cazarian did a great job of it. The stuff he did around with carrying the title, I thought was fantastic. I don't think there's a downside to either one.

I think Santana is fantastic as the champion. And I think he's vulnerable. I think his life story, he's out there. I think, you know, he's just an open book. And that's kind of what you want out of this. And I think people get behind him because of that. I think he's got great fire. I think he's got terrific athlete.

I think that Santana's going to do a great job as champion. But I think Kanzarian has also got, you know, I don't know who the top heels are. You know, AJ's maybe, but that Kassarian, he's a really talented guy. I'm a big fan of Frankie Kizarian. And Sonny DeVille, you know, when I was in W.B, I think I was doing commentary at the time. She'd always come talk to me, but how do you be, you know,

How do you be this? I get that she's a really smart person and she's really good at what she does. She really wants to be a great character. I'm really excited to see her back. John, what, AJ and Frankie, did they plan a seed there with that little confrontation in the beginning? And then AJ Telly Santana, take him out. Was that just take him out tonight or was that planning a seed for an AJ Kazarian run, do you think? I hope we see that.

You know, I've said all ever since I saw the AJ Stiles come in. And I was actually talking about a heel, the big guy, the big AJ, the Francis that was a heel. But AJ Stiles to me is he's this generation, Sean Michaels. I mean, I, that AJ, I've seen him, I called so many of his matches. I've never seen him have a bad match. He's just that freaking good at everything he does. And I hope we see that. I hope we see because they're in AJ Stiles.

And I thought the same thing, Eric, when I saw that, I hope that's the senior planting, because that's what I want to see grow into something, because I think that's just going to be a hell of a program if they do that. And an example, John, of what you were saying earlier on when Conrad pointed out, you know, the, you know, guys that have been around for a long time and have been out of WWE and did that, you know, throw the show off balance. I agree with you 100%. You can look at, and this, this idea of, you know, wrestlers aging out, it's, it's, it's comical because it's generational. Guys in the 60s were saying about guys from the 50s.

He said, you know, the way around, right? Guys from the 76s. When I, you know, started in the 80s, it was the same thing. And it's still going on today. But I was, I watched the crowd. The crowd tells me who's over. The crowd tells you who you should book. And whether it's the Hardee's or AJ or Frankie, right?

Or it doesn't matter how old you are. And generally, it's the guys who have been around long enough that have the equity with the audience that have gotten over long enough that you could almost bank on positive reactions from. They're going to get the audience where you want the audience to be because they have the experience that they've been around. So hats off, Frankie, AJ now. He's been around a minute. And they're the guys that can deliver the most excitement to that show, the guys that know, and girls that know how to manage the audience. You know, and it's hard to learn this business. you know, it's hard to get over.

It's hard to learn how to get a crowd reaction that you want and take them on the roller coaster that you want. And guys that do that are rare. They're rare in any generation. You know, it's like, I remember, you know, somebody will say, man, we need like 15 Sean Michaels. We didn't have 15. We had one.

We had one. You don't have a great wrestlers like a 15, 20 in every generation. You have a few. And those guys that learn how to get over, a guy like AJ Styles, that doesn't change. I don't care if he's 70. or 80 years old. He's always going to be able to get over. He may not be able to work like he does now that he's, you know, he's not a young man anymore. He certainly works like a young man, though. But I've always thought that, you know, these guys that come back, some of the young guys that always have that,

I see the same thing when I broke into that just like you're talking about, oh, you need to get rid of the old guys. Well, if you were over, you wouldn't have the old guys. And that's, that's the key point for these guys to know. I just thought it was interesting. You know, I think a lot of people assumed myself included that WW may have been more involved in TNA than we actually saw tonight. I mean, when you start the show with a WWE performer, it felt like, okay, maybe he's going to have some physicality.

I'm with you. It does make sense now that Frankie's dropped the belt. Maybe he is going to do something with AJ. I think they would be fantastic. But I kind of didn't understand why we started the show with the W. I felt like that should have been later in the show. Maybe I'm off base.

But he is a superstar. There's no doubt about that. But this did not feel like it had a heavy WWE influence to me at all, Eric. Would you agree with that? Not only would I agree with that statement, but I would disagree with your position on AJ being a WWE star in that open. He's currently in WAAWE.

And yeah, he's a star. But I think that audience and everybody watching he's the he still is the face of TNA even though he's no longer there he's one of the biggest stars that TNA created and put on the map so yeah he may be a superstar in WWE but to that audience

he belongs to them so I I didn't get the WWE vibe at all from that appearance it was it was a footnote to me we want to know what you guys guys thought of the show. We actually did a poll here on YouTube. 40% of fans answering our poll said the show was me 28% said it was so-so 19 said it was good and 13% said it was a great show. We want to hear from you. What did you like? What didn't you like? I think all of us are

kind of a line that we enjoyed the main event. Eric, I want to get your take on the righteous. I don't know that they've been on your radar before, but the fellas in the white suits who came out and put a chain lock through Jeff Hardy's ear. What a, what a setup for that? What did you think of the righteous and the way they had a little post-match skirmish with the Hardys? I'm all for post-match skirmishes because the crowd loves them.

And if the crowd loves it, so do I. The ear thing I could have lived without. First of all, he was monkey fucking around with that lock for way too long. It's like, that was awkward. So it started off. bad and then just the idea of it it's not my thing but I understand how a lot of other people you know might have gone wow I've never seen that before that's cool and you got to satisfy the audience if they reacted well to it so be it it's just not my I wouldn't have done it

it's not my thing John what do you think of the Hardy's match the righteous Elijah that whole first segment I liked it and I like the Hardys you know I've always liked the Hardys and, you know, since they first came in the WWE, The Righteous, that was the first time I had seen them. I don't, you know, I don't watch just a ton of wrestling. So I thought, I really enjoy the characters. I agree with Eric about the ear gimmick. You know, sometimes you try stuff.

You don't know if it's going to work or not. And maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. I think it's just so much easier just to beat somebody's ass. You know, just beat them up. It's not hard. You know, it's like Murmach, I used to always say, you know, I call your mama name. You call my sister name, we five.

You know, people understand that. You know, people understand somebody getting, beat up. And sometimes you turn simple math into trigonometry and you don't have to. And I think that's what could have happened here. I don't know how the crowd would like that. I couldn't tell. But maybe they liked it. But to me, it's just a lot more simple just to beat

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Let's hit some of these. Corne Hicksl says, good show, but two WWEE-ish, in my opinion. Bulley's voice goes good with it. Hopefully he stays on commentary. John, you're one of the boys who did commentary. How do you think bully did tonight? I thought he did a great job. You know, the key is to get involved without making it about you.

The key is to have your ego in the product, not yourself. And I thought bully did a great job of doing that. You know, that's the whole key to commentary. And that's where guys mess up. You know, they get mess up because they put their ego and. ego in themselves and not in the product. And I thought Bully did a great job of that. You know, obviously he does a lot of talking with the Busted Open radio.

So he's good at it. And he's also a smart guy. I agree. He delivered a great performance. I think Bully could be the glue that could really keep that broadcast team together. And I hope he sticks around. Yeah, you know, another thing, Eric, is you can't ever replicate the experience. You know, like Tom Brady, is he the greatest commentator ever?

Probably not. you know, but he's won all the Super Bowl. So you add all of that credibility to it and it gives whatever he says. All of a sudden, you go, oh, my God, this guy's one of the ton of Super Bowl is one of the greatest pressure players of all the time. I want to list of this guy. Now, is he the best commentator ever? Probably not and maybe not yet. Bubba Dudley is the same way.

Bulley is the same way. He's won several world championships. He's won all these tag team championships. You've got to listen to this guy because that credibility is there. the credibility that comes by being in the ring like that. And you can't replace that. And so I think Bubba did a great job with it. And I'm not comparing him to Tom Brady as being not that great.

I think Bubba was great. But the credibility that it brings is what I'm comparing him to. And Bubba, you can't replicate that. It's like Bubba, you know, he takes the psychology that you need. You need it as a performer in the ring. But there's also a psychology to being a good color. analysts. And he's, to your point, he knows what his job is now. His job is to get what's going on in the ring over and get the talent over. And a little time, again, television is nothing but little

details. One of the things, and I really pay too close attention to commentary sometimes, I'm too critical about it. But a little thing that Bubba did in that commentary is at one point during the match, was later in the match, and he was talking about how exhausted the athletes were. And he saw Santana was on his back and he was breathing heavy and Bubba pointed that out look at him he's exhausted he's fighting until he mean he made it sound so dramatic that a guy was laying there breathing heavy it made it it it made it feel like you were sitting at ringside and that's what a good color commentators should do make you feel like you're there and and and give you insight into what's going on in that match that you're not going to get from anybody else no matter how

great they are as a commentator. If they haven't been there, if they haven't done that, they can't communicate it the same way. John, I want to ask you, you've been a part of a lot of different commentary booths. Do you prefer a two-man booth or a three-man booth is three more difficult? No, not always. It depends on the dynamic. You know, if you have a two-man booth and if you're a heel, you've got to have the play-by-play guy be somewhat of a baby face. And sometimes that's convenient. Sometimes that's not sometimes it's easier to have just a third person there. It depends on the dynamic.

I think if you got three good, you know what? It just if you got good people, it doesn't really matter to me. You got two good people. It's fantastic. If you got three good people, it's fantastic. We got two good people and one guy has no idea what he's doing. It sucks. You know, so it's just, it's just a matter of who you got out there.

It's just, commentary is just different, you know, and wrestling commentary is different. And I tell people this all the time, you know, it's a, it's not like sports commentary. It's wrestling, It's a work. So you're a step behind. You're not a step ahead. You don't want to be Tony Romo and go,

okay, the cornerback has manned up. That means that gives the strong side linebacker, the ability to blitz because you're going manned out on the corner. You're giving away the play that adds to people's intrigue. But if you're doing commentary and you're going, oh my goodness, look behind that pillar. It's sting or it's Undertaker. You're giving away something that you want people to recognize first.

That's why the commentator will say stuff like, oh, who is that? You know who it is. But sometimes you've got to be a step behind instead of a step ahead. It's just commentary is just a little bit different in wrestling. And then if you have, whether you have two or three, it doesn't matter as long as those two or three or three talented guys, in my opinion. Talented and have chemistry.

You know, I mean, if you've got, if those three people or two, if, but if it's a three band team, the hard part about a three man team is it's a little harder to nail the chemistry when you've got three people that it is to two people, right? But if you're fortunate to find three people with chemistry and they get the reps in so they get a feel for each other, and it's kind of like they know where they're going to go before they get there, because they also have to carry the narrative. They're not only calling the action, they're telling the story that needs to be told outside of the brain. So you're calling action, you're managing the narrative, and you've got to have great chemistry with whoever you're in there with.

It's a little tougher with three people than it is with two, but it doesn't matter, like you said, John, when you have it, It's great commentary can really save a marginal show and can make a great show stellar. Let's do some more questions here. Matthew Hutchinson has a question. Eric will go to you on this one. Do you guys think T&A would be a good fit for Chris Jericho in 2026? It gives TNA another big name. And for Chris, he could be this legend wrestler working with a lot of great young talent.

Thanks, guys. Did you go to me first? Yes, sir. Well, I get another question that I'm going to have to be honest about. I wanted to see Chris make a big entrance today because I wanted that kind of a semi-lex Lugar moment, you know, because that would have been a big moment. It would have been really cool. But based on what I saw tonight, if I was Chris's manager, I would have suggested not.

It's, they're not ready for that yet in my opinion. What about you, John? Do you think there's a chance we'll see Jericho and TNA in 2026? I don't know. You know, I think it's an interesting question. But I'm with Eric on this. I think W.B. is probably the better fit, you know, because that's where he was for so long.

And that's where he made, you know, he comes in. He becomes the undisputed champion in one night, the beating Stone Cold and the Rock, you know, and he just, he's got this incredible night. Wherever he debuts, uh, if he stays with AEW or whether he comes to W, which apparently is, is the gossip out there. I have no idea. I have no insight either way.

it's going to be huge and it's going to be a lot of fun and uh, Chris, I will do the terrific job with it. Get another one here from Tyler Balmer who says, I want TNA to succeed, but this was a miss in my opinion. I would have rather seen storylines progress and their star showcase rather than seeing them in the crowd. Two matches in 90 minutes was tough. Eric, the name of the company is total nonstop action.

Do you think they should have had more action tonight? No, they say change the name of the company is what they should do. I've been saying that since the day I walked into that company, T&A, my God. Here we go. I just got to be honest again. It's not too much talk if it's really well done. If those backstage segments, if those in-ring segments, create drama, create tension, launch stories, advanced stories,

whatever and they're really well produced, I think the whole argument over, you know, action versus not action is silly. If it's great entertainment and it builds audience, I really care if it's action or narrative. I could care less. I do care about the numbers. So when it works, it works and it works great. I will say if I was consulting for Carlos and I am basically for free here, is you've got to find producers that know how to produce those segments.

If you're going to put talent out there live in front of a live audience, and that talent is not very experienced, which most of them aren't, especially at live interviews, you need somebody that knows how to produce them. And what I saw tonight was a lot of narrative that was really, really poorly produced and poorly directed. And those people are out there. They're at your fingertips, Carlos.

They're not hard to find. And they're not super expensive. They're people with experience that know how to produce those backstate segments. Seek them out because that was a glaring need if you want to match the opportunity and grow the brand. John, I want to ask you a commentary question. This one comes to us from SUDS media. I guess not commentary, but more of a voiceover. I really enjoyed the injury report segment.

Should all companies do that? I love that they got that in for a sponsor. Maybe it was weird to do on the first show, but you want to talk about a sponsorable piece of business. I like that. What did you think, John? Yeah, I, if it works for the show, you know, so many times an injury, you want to, you may want to hide an injury, you know, it's, it's, if it works for the show, the injury doesn't have to be legit. You know, the injury can be whatever it won't because it's a work, you know, it's,

I always said, you know, I'm a fake, uh, I'm a fake announcer calling a fake sport with a fake name, you know, it was like, I was a commentator. So it, whether it's legit or not, it doesn't really matter. But the injury report, yes, I think that stuff like that works. I think, I think all it works. And I go back to what Eric just. I completely agree. It's all about quality. Nobody cares. Nobody cares if you got a promo that's 30 minutes if the thing is incredibly entertaining or if you got a match that goes 60 minutes if it's incredibly entertaining. And producers today, they're the most important thing in wrestling. Eric's 100% right about that because you don't have as much repetition now in live events and house shows, what we used to call house shows. And so producers have become so much more important in wrestling. But it's As far as the injury report, I mean, yeah, I think anything you can do that's entertaining that gives you an insight that makes you feel like it's, you know, part of something that you're involved in, I like.

And the way they did that, too, I liked it as well because it's an opportunity to tell some backstory, to make you more interested, the way they touched on, I think it was Santana. They talked about his, I think it was his arm being injured, if I'm not mistaken. that was a little nuance that made me go, hmm, it's funny that they would put that in there. He's in a main event. Maybe that's an issue. It made me lean in and pay attention. It worked.

I leaned in and I paid attention where I otherwise wouldn't to a sponsored event. So I like it. I hope they keep it up and, and utilize it to, to its potential. Eric, I'm going to put our buddy John on the spot here. John, I got to ask, are you going to be on the injury report?

I was scrolling social media this past weekend, and I saw something that I don't know that Eric has seen a clip. That's the first bump I've taken in 16 years. And what I found out was taking the bump was easy. Getting up was damn near impossible. I had to speed it up. And I think somebody used some AI on that thing and gave me a big belly and made me look slow. I'm not sure he did that, but it had to be AI.

Well, John, do you want to tell us where this is all leading? I mean, here we are. We see you running the ropes. We see you taking a bump. I mean, some guys play golf. What the hell are you doing? John, where's this? You know, Conrad, I'm telling you, I'm just, I'm just having fun. I'm having a ball. I was down in the OVW with the Jody Malenko, you know, who's Carl Gotts, number one student. And we were down there doing some training with some clubs and Persian clubs like the old Sheik used to do. I love the training stuff. I just couldn't resist to get the ring and and do something. I've been wanting to get in there for a while. After taking the bump, though, I may, uh, it may be another 16 years before I get in

again. Well, something that I know it's not going to take 16 years for. And I'm excited for us to announce here today because lots of people have been wondering since somebody took their podcast back. Hey, when's JBL coming back to podcasting? And I'm excited to announce. It's happening later this month. Hit the subscribe button right now. Have more. Money Now.com. That's where you need to go. Have more money.com. It's the name of John's bestselling book. Now, John and myself are going to be catching up each and every week. And we're excited to talk about all things finance. Maybe you've got questions about credit or saving money or investing or how to make your money work for you or how to get into business. And one of the themes we're going to have is we're

going to have regular guests who used to be in the wrestling business, but then had a second act with the new business they created for themselves. We're going to talk about the challenges of being a business owner, how they came up with this idea and maybe what their origin story is. And our very first guest, who better than Diamond Dallas Page. Go check it out. Have More Money Now.com. Hit the subscribe button anywhere you enjoy podcast.

The feed is already up for you to go hit the button. John, welcome back to podcasting. This is going to be a lot of fun, is it not? Yeah, that bastard Bruce Pritchard stole the podcast. podcast back. I was sure I stole it from him, but apparently he got it back. So, and I'm excited about this. Conrad, you know, this is an idea that you and I both had. And I think, you know, I'd love to have Eric on to talk about business. He's done so many great things, but I was talking to Butterby, you know, the big, uh, greatest four round fighter ever, you know,

and he was telling me just a few months ago, you need to buy a silver. And he has a safe full of silver bars. And he showed me pictures of, you know, and it was like 30 bucks. It's 90 bucks today. And I just thought that's a pretty cool thing. A lot of these guys out there are really sharp guys who do really good things with some have real estate, some have businesses, some have a lot of different stuff. We're going to tell people how they got into it and what they're doing. And these are some pretty entertaining characters we have. What I heard about this today, Conrad told me about this afternoon.

I'm really excited for this show. I mean, as I told Conrad, this is perfectly cast, John. And I look forward to watching you on Fox business all the time. Anytime you're on Fox, you know, for your financial take. Conrad, I just, I think the world of Conrad and his knowledge and his ability to communicate that knowledge and help people and teach people how to make smart decisions. I think he's one of the best. So I think YouTube, particularly with, you know, the wrestling kind of backstory as the premise, I think it's going to be a fantastic show. you guys are perfect for this.

We've already got the entire year's schedule mapped out. We're going to go deep into the archives and pull some names that you may have wondered a long time ago. Hey, whatever happened to. So it's going to be a little bit about, hey, where are they now and an origin story for their second act? So if you've been thinking about trying to up your financial game in 2026, go hit the subscribe button right now. Anywhere you enjoy podcasts, have more money now. And John, there's rumor in innuendo that you may be working. working on another project that we've got some words on pretty soon.

Is that fair to say? Hey, we've got the best project ever. We've got a couple of great comedians, been on SNL and world class comedians. We've got the Yukon Rad and some several people. We got a great show, a curtain jerkers, which is a great name. And we've got, it is completely different from anything you've seen in the podcast world. It is a lot of fun. It's got man on the street, stop stuff.

So we do have some interviews, but there's going to be some recreations. there's going to be some incredible stories, but it's a complete different way to look at wrestling, the wrestling business, and the people that are in it. We've had a lot of fun already filming a bunch of this stuff. You guys have so much fun. This is awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing that. Well, John, we appreciate all the time tonight, man. This was fantastic. I love talking about TNA with you before we let you go. At the end of the night, I'm going to put you on the spot. thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle. What do you think about the TNA debut?

I'm going to give it a thumbs up because the people that are there. And the legacy of that, you know, which has a great thing to do with Eric as well. And I agree with him about the comments about the Dixie Carter. I mean, there's some incredible talent there. And there's some incredible characters there. And I think they're going to, I think you're going to do a great job with it. And then I thought they had a pretty good start tonight. And there's some rough stuff.

You know, people are going to pick it apart. But when you have talent like that, it's kind of. hard to fail. And by the way, I'm going to be on, uh, I believe it is, uh, AAA this weekend, uh, doing commentary for, uh, the AAA show that, uh, we're going to be emanating from down in Mexico, fun group. How about that? Check out AAA. And John, I don't know if you saw, but I saw a blurb today. Triple A is going to be live on Fox in Mexico, like once every three weeks. That's coming pretty soon, right? It is. Yes. Yeah, it's going to be live and, uh, they got a great TV contract down there. They're hitting on all cylinders down there.

I mean, I just, look, I cannot tell you how great Jeremy Borash and Undertaker are doing a job down there. That last show that they had was one of the best shows I've seen in years. I just thought it was fantastic. You have such incredible talent in Lucha. It's like the sleeping giant. You always say one day it's going to awaken. Brother, it has awakened. You've got incredible talent down there and they've given them structure around the WB type structure of product,

the developing, the production quality and the things that go with it. these guys are responding like crazy. It is a fun, fun show. That Vikingo, he is a fun heel to watch. But there's so many guys down there that are fun to watch. It's a, it's a terrific product. It's John doing his thing for AAA and don't you dare miss it. Have More Money Now.com coming your way sooner rather than later.

But right now, we want to talk about Better Wild. You know, recently my wife brought home a third dog. And in advance of that, we started doing a little research. And it turns out, man, I've not been the best dog dad. I just thought my dog Ginger, who is, by the way, the official dog of 83 weeks. I don't care what Eric says. I just thought she liked to lick her paws. I thought she liked to scratch your ears.

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All right, let's welcome him into the program, Raj Geary. I hope to hear exactly what you thought. What did you think of the big show tonight, man, TNA's debut on AMC? Yeah, I think I echo a lot of the sentiments you guys said earlier. You know, it needs work. There were a lot of things,

a lot of force mistakes, you know, having the celebrities seated in the giant, you know, with the huge amounts of empty seats behind them. I was surprised that that went through. Having Perez Hilton on the show, again, I thought when it was announced, I thought that was a miss. A lot of talking, and like you guys were saying earlier, talking is fine if it's good. You know, you can have, you know, one of my favorite episodes of Nitro was, you know, when they were backstage and, you know, when Kevin Nash threw. Raymond stereo into the trailer. I mean, that whole scene took a lot of the

episode, but you were you know, you were on your heels the whole time just watching that. It was you know, and I just felt like we didn't get that with impact. But the crowd was into it. It wasn't different than, it felt less than. I feel like they need to move more to the different than Dixie Carter

was a cool surprise, you know, having Cora Jade out there, Elena Black, you know, it was cool that they were throwing some surprises out there. So a mixed bag, definitely needs some work. We've got a comment here from PJ Taints, who's a member here at 83weeks. Greatly appreciate your support. He says, we all know first impressions matter, but that's over. What would you do on weekend, too, if you're running things based on today? Eric, um, the comeback episode. What would you do differently next week on AMC? I would just tighten up the format.

I would tighten it up. Reduce the amount of backstage promos because they don't have that many people who are that good at it, nor do they have producers that don't want to produce it apparently. So if you don't have those resources, and that's fine, you'll get there, hopefully. But if you can't do it well, don't do it. Better, better, better, to do something else. And I would keep as much of the action in the ring as I could. I'd keep the show flowing. I would continue to do what they did do well,

which is keep the focus on the main event throughout the show in various ways and forms. Again, they did a great job, continue to do that. But mostly, I would just tighten up that format. And look for ways to minimize weaknesses and enhance the strength of your talent. Flowers die in three days. Matching underwear from Miandis?

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slash comfort code comfort. That's meundies.com slash comfort code comfort. Raj, what do you think? You know, if you were, this is actually a question from RATRU says, Eric, how do you feel AMC executives felt about the show tonight? To me, it seemed like it was very low budget from lighting, ring, announcer's desk, etc. Do you think AMC expected more? Raj, I want to go to you first on that one. I don't often watch wrestling during the live show. My wife is not a huge wrestling fan. Surprise. And I watch TV with my wife. But tonight I said,

hey, I'm doing a live reaction. We have to watch it. And a few minutes in, she said, this feels kind of small. It feels like an independent show. She's seen me do commentary for 1FW, QT Marshall's fabulous independent promotion in the suburbs of Atlanta. And she said, this looks like the show you do commentary on.

I didn't agree with that necessarily, but I valued her take and her input because she's not a diehard fan. do you think AMC executives got what they were expecting tonight, Ron? Well, I mean, they had to have watched the previous episodes on Access, you know, before making this deal. And so it's not like this was that much different from the Access shows. So in that regard, I would think it's probably about what they expected. Now, there were certain parts that probably felt a little more minor league than you'd want for a debut episode on a

on a network like AMC but um hey i got to think like they knew ahead of time of what the product was so i don't think it was a big negative i did think there were a lot of people tuning in for the first time uh that were probably laps fans i probably watched tna back in the day when they're on spike or um you know i'd been hearing about it online and i felt like they should have done more wrestler profiles of the current talent you know that that fans might not be as familiar with, as opposed to, you know, doing the history of the TNA world title and the knockout championship and the X-Division championship, which was more focusing on people that were no longer with the company and try to focus more on, you know, who some of these current stars are. I mean,

everyone knows the Hardee's, but do they know, you know, the guys that were agent, you know, or, you know, some of the guys that were in that first segment. So, and I'm really introducing fans to some of the talent on that show. But I think AMC probably knew what they were getting into based on the other episodes on Access. I think that's a good point. I don't know who these executives were. I may or may not know them, probably don't.

But if they are like 90% of any television executives that have ever come to their very first wrestling event, I bet you they left excited as hell because they're not used to being around what do you think what kind of attendance they have four or five thousand six thousand three thousand and change three thousand all right well look good on tv by the way they made three thousand people look good um that energy because it was still good energy in that crowd the the the execs weren't seeing what we were seeing they would they didn't see the flaws that we saw and the warts and the pimples and, you know, all the little things that I'm, you know,

pointing out. They just saw and felt action and crowd reaction. And they'll make up their minds tomorrow when the ratings come in how they really feel. That's, that's really all that'll matter. But I bet they left the building pretty excited. Eric, we were alive here when this happened, but T&A has tweeted out. There was drama following the conclusion of TNA impact as Nick Namath looked to call his shot in a big Genesis world title match was made official. So the pay-per-view is this weekend and they announced the match for the world title

with Nick Nimeth and Mike Santana after the TV show ended. I'll let you try to make sense of that for us, Eric. I'm going to give some grace here because of what I heard earlier about having to rewrite the show due to visa issues. And it sounds like,

that should have been easy to figure out. But when you produce your packages, you've got your graphics built, you're ready to go with one product, and then you have to under pressure, oh, by the way, we're debuting with our new television partner, and we just crap the bed. And that puts a lot of pressure on you, and you're not doing your best work creatively. And there may be other reasons why they did it. I don't know. But I'm going to give them some grace on that one, because it's too obvious.

obvious if they were able to have done that, they would have. They would have had time in this show to, to, to do that properly. The reason they didn't was probably due to something out of their control. That's my guess. Josh Henney, a longtime friend of the show. He's with us. He's been a member for 22 months. Greatly appreciate his support.

He's like a day one guy with us over there. He says, with TNA and J.CW on Thursday nights, who would you watch weekly if you had to overall t and a did well they will get better with time you know listen i think that uh that's probably the right attitude to have i appreciate that mr henny is glass half full you know if we're really a diehard wrestling fan we will give them another chance we will check it out again in the future but let's just be honest here for a minute eric when was the last time you sat down and watched a full episode of t and i before tonight 2014 i see i i feel like there's a lot of people who are like that self included. I've caught a few paper views. I was actually fortunate enough a few years ago to see

it live. And let me just tell you this. Seeing the show live and watching it on TV are two totally different experiences. Even my dad, who's a non- Wrestling fan, had an absolute blast in person. So I'm saying all that to say, if TNA is coming to a market near you, open your wallet, go buy a ticket, you won't regret it. You will have a blast. It's a fantastic show. Everybody works hard. It's a fun environment. But I don't know that it always translates to TV. And I got a lot of comments from Twitter post tonight, Raj, where I wasn't critical to the show. I just asked people what they thought. But I did see one that stood out to me, LOLTNA, then now forever. We talk about it a little bit with Jeff every now and again, Raj. Do you think TNA has a consumer confidence problem at this point?

I do. And you know, that LOLTNA, that's kind of stuck with them for a long time. And, you know, they say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And, I wish they would have come out of the gate stronger, but this wasn't like a disaster or anything like that. I just felt like, you know, there were a lot of, there were flaws, a lot of them that can be easily fixed. Some of the stuff, you know, like Eric pointed out earlier, it's stuff you can't do well, then don't do it.

Some of the production issues, things like that. So, you know, I wish they would have come out stronger. I wish they wouldn't have had some of the flaws that some of them you could see coming. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I think, you know, the people that hate TNA have wanted to fail. And, you know, you have those wrestling fans out there that they're so tribalistic that it's not enough for one company to be successful. You want the others to fail, which is just so weird. But you have that. And so the people that are anti-TNA that are like that, it gives them, you know, more fuel for that.

but I didn't think it was that bad. Well, and you said something, Rajah, I agree with. They're going to get better. I mean, look, this was, tonight was a bad night. It wasn't, tonight was, tonight was an okay night for them. It was just okay. We all wanted it to be a great night for them. Let's face it.

I'm feeling a little bit disappointed because I really had high hoax for them. But I also, even though, you know, it didn't go quite as well as I hoped it would have, they have the resources. And when I say resources, I'm talking first and foremost talent. They have talent there that you can build a great product around. They also have a strategic partner that has a lot of resources that could really help with some of the format issues that I just ranted and raped about because there were really big issues to me. It affected the way you felt about the show.

The reason people are feeling meh about the show has very much to do with the format. And that's something that could be so easily addressed with a little bit of consulting with your strategic partner who would probably be glad to help you out, particularly if their talent are going to be seen on your show from time to time. Now they've got a vested interest in your show being a quality show. So tap into those resources. Carlos, please tap into some of those resources. resources and fix some of those things that you can easily fix.

These are not hard. You just have to be aware of them and see a formula that makes sense for you, and it will improve the quality of the show vastly. So I'm still, while I'm, I guess, critical, I'm hoping that it's coming off constructive and not in an angry or negative way. I still think within a matter of six to eight months, TNA is going to be the number two wrestling company in the world or in the country because of the resources that they have if they take advantage of them.

Eric, I would put the odds of that near zero. I want to talk about that with Raj, but first I need to brag about our friends over policy genius. You know, listen, we all have our stuff that we have. have to deal with in life. I know I've got my share. But this past Christmas Eve, I had a living room full of friends and family all opening their gifts. And I don't know. It just got all over me that you know what? This is what's really important. It's in this room right now. And I want you to start the new year with clarity and security. Lock in your life insurance today. Policy genius is an online

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That's policygenius.com slash 83 weeks. Raj, I want to ask you, Frank Mitzi Koradz says, do you think T&A will surpass AEW as the number two wrestling brand at times, Raj, because of your back and forth online with Dave Meltzer. Some people see you as an AEW hater. I know the internet is convinced that Eric is. I don't think either one of you are. Raj, we heard from Eric.

He thinks TNA still has a chance to pass AEW. I say no shot. What do you say, Raj? Well, I think, I mean, what they would need is upgraded production. I mean, you know, you look at AEW. might and you look at tonight's impact and you know it's it's a big difference and so the production you know because you know Tony has had five years where he could lose money and still you know present a top notch production you know top notch production quality and also sign a lot

of stars you know they've had over the years Jericho punk you know all these stars that came in to you know raise the profile of AEW edge. You know, TNA, the biggest stars on the show are the Hardies. And so I think that's, they really need star power on that show. And when you have the, you know, the, the pocketbook that Tony Khan has, and then what W.W.E has any, you know, major stars probably going to go one of those directions. So it's going to be difficult. I don't see it happening anytime soon, hit it eventually. You know, if WWE is really serious about helping TNA out, you know,

stranger things have happened, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Let me qualify my statement about TNA being able to be number two. I'm talking about from a television viewership perspective, not so much from a revenue perspective. But I think from a television viewership position, look, Tony, AWW is doing maybe 500,000 viewers. They're going to be down to 400,000 by spring once NBA starts taking off and it starts heating up during the playoffs. It gets tougher anyway.

And they're losing 20% of their audience on average. And they have been for a long time and nothing's going to change. If you look at their numbers this week, I would, yes, I wouldn't bet money necessarily because I don't track it close enough. But I'm pretty safe in saying that they probably lost, I don't know, they've kind of leveled out at the bottom. So I don't know, they're probably 5, 10, 15% less than average. But for the year, they're probably close to 18% year over year less than where they were. And that's consistent. At that rate, they're going to be hovering around 400,000 by the middle or end of this year.

That's not that harder number for TNA to beat if they do some of the things we've been talking about. And I do think it's possible. It's just not that hard. yes Tony's had five years and he's spending a lot of money on production. The difference in the production could be easily addressed. And it's not going to, there's going to have to be some upgrade. And it's going to come in personnel, to be honest. I don't know who directed that show, but it was, it was okay, but it could have been so much better.

But I think they can do it from a television. And I do think, you know, TNA can probably look at. that collision as kind of like that first step, you know, collision last week did 271,000 viewers. And people will be like, well, is that an NFL game? Well, they've been under 300,000 viewers for the last several months in a row for its regular time slot. So this is kind of where it's at. So if they can, I mean, if they're able to get to the point where they're beating that number regularly, then yeah, then you can set your sights on trying to beat dynamite regularly, you know.

But I do think collision as kind of the starting point because their numbers are really low. It's something I do think, especially if they have NXT working with them heavily. I think they really need to lean on NXT early on because I think outside of that, they don't have the star power right now really to compete. And I do believe for strategic reasons, and they're legitimate as hell, but purely strategic reasons, WWE wants TNA to succeed. With no respect to putting pressure on AEW,

WWE wants TNTNA to succeed and be supportive of them because they're competitive. It helps position them in the future to avoid antitrust lawsuits. I firmly believe that. I believe they're going to get the support they need. And with that support, I think they can be successful. Raj, I want to put you on the spot here. All right, everybody's going to be talking about what this

number is. What do you expect the rating to be for the debut episode of T&A on AMC? Maybe he'll do a little under 300,000, maybe like 260, 270, somewhere in there. I don't think the promotion for it was that strong. I mean, it was, I don't, I don't, I don't. I did see some commercials for it here and there on CNN, CNBC of all places. I saw several times on there, but I didn't think the promotion was that strong to be, you know, are really out of this world number. So I'm going to go with like a 270,000 viewers. Yeah, I got on AI this morning in anticipation of the show. And I think I said last week, we talked about it, that I'll be able to tell early on how much promotion off network. AMC gives this launch, and I didn't see anything.

Now, I don't surf a lot. You know, I don't watch a lot of television, but I will tell you that if they ended up with a spot on CNBC, CNBC, CNM, CSA, whatever it is, NBC, must have been giving away ad time. That's called a remnant time. It's like buy one, get 10 free time, because otherwise that buy made no sense at all.

Yeah, it seemed like a YouTube TV remnant. an ad like it was through YouTube TV because that's I was watching it through YouTube TV. So it definitely didn't seem like a targeted ad on those shows. But what I got what I got on the AI this morning was very little social media. But you know, it's only so effective. It can be very effective. But you know, limited social media, a couple of press releases, that type of thing. That's minimal promotion.

That's bare minimal promotion. And that was a little disappointing to me. So I think for me, I don't know what the average audience for the network is, but I think in this case there'll be a lot of tune in of people who normally don't watch. A lot of people are like me. I had to look it up and find out where it was. I didn't know what channel it was on DirecTV. I'm thinking it'll do 350, 375.

400 would be caused for celebration. Does it fall off a cliff next week, Eric? sure sure they always do WW you know Smackdown did when it moved to Fox dramatically just about everything loses audience pretty consistently and it's the same is true by the way for you know drama comedies other forms of entertainment premieres always score significantly higher

and then there's a there's a drop off hopefully it only lasts for two, three episodes and then settles in. But, you know, you can have a case where, you know, AEW's been dropping since five years ago consistently. That's that's what you don't want. But if you, if you drop a week or two or even three and then start to level out, you've done well. Eric, I think tonight was a disaster for wrestling as a whole. just my opinion because I think well I don't think this is going to be well received I think the ratings are going to fall off of cliff next week I don't think it was ever really a good fit with AMC I do want to talk to you about that but you know I was really ambitious and I actually called this on Jeff Jarrett's podcast and I think on your podcast a few weeks ago I said this was probably the most important show of 2026 because if TNA came out and blew the doors off of everybody and they couldn't wait to see it again. again next week, man, we could have real intrigue for not only what's next for TNA,

but maybe there would be interest from other networks. But I think if TNA winds up shooting the bed on this TNA deal, on this AMC deal, that's going to be bad for wrestling products everywhere, not named WWE. I think it could obliterate any leverage that AEW may have, not saying that AEW is in that stage where they need to negotiate their next contract. but, you know, obviously you can take AMC off the board. But I think everybody is looking at the success WVE has and says, boy, if we can get in on some of that,

because you look at the makeup of AMC, at least when I think about AMC, I think of the walking dead or breaking bad or madmen. And respectfully, TNA does not fit with those programs. And I think that's the reason I almost want to compare it to ECW on TN. ECW felt so different than everything else on TNN that it didn't make sense. for them to spend a lot of marketing dollars, marketing to that audience because they knew

that our regular viewers, they're not going to watch it. So we got to go bring them from outside in, and I think they're looking for those new eyeballs. And I don't know that that was an effective marketing strategy, and I don't know that it'll work. And if it's not successful, it does make me wonder,

are all the other networks going to be hesitant to take a chance on this? I bring this up to you because you used to run the biggest wrestling company in the world who enjoyed more success than everyone. And then some executive, Jamie Kellner, said, doesn't fit with our brand image anymore. We're going to do away with wrestling. Is that not a real threat?

Do you think, Eric? Not anymore. Okay. Not as much as it once was. Because networks don't brand for programming anymore. I mean, look at the history channel. I mean, you could argue that there's some thematically, there's some shows that are based, there are good shows that are based on history.

But there's also other types of programming on the history channel that has nothing. nothing to do with history. Same is true with Discovery Channel. Look at MTV. MTV is the best example I could give you. MTV, the music television, there's no music on MTV. So because of the state of television, linear television, cable television, because they're losing their ass so bad, they're so desperate, you're point is well taken and I'm not going to minimize it or minimize it by saying I don't think that's going to be an issue it sure it will be an issue but it's not as bad as it used to be because networks are desperate you know what it's going to take it's going to take somebody

that's going to be able to come in with a story and talk about how successful wrestling can be and provided a solution to people that have tried it and failed, including Tony. So if this would have been 10 years ago, I would absolutely agree with you, maybe even five years ago. But in today's environment, listening to the conversations that I hear, some that I have with the appetite and attitude of programming executives when it comes to buying television, it's not as big a deal as you think.

Well, we're going to see in the coming months and weeks. I can't wait to see what's next for T&A on AMC. I hope they have a monster rating. I hope it's a hugely successful pay-per-view, and I hope they set a record next week. I just don't know how many fans like myself who checked it out for the first time in a long time tonight. We'll be back next week.

We are going to be back answering more of your questions. I see we've got some banking right now. If you've got a question for Eric or Raj, hit them right now. I want to quickly talk about prize picks. You know, they are knee deep in the NFL playoffs and everybody in my office is talking about prize picks and we're having an absolute blast.

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that's code 83 weeks to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, it's good to be right. Let's do some questions and comments here. Crooked Club wants to know, was there live. It was a fun show. Dixie got roasted. Eric, what are your thoughts?

I know you touched on it earlier in the show. I was disappointed that fans booed Dixie. I would have liked to have seen a little more respect thrown her way. And I don't know that you noticed this, Eric, but in all those packages we saw tonight about the incredible history of TNA, we had exactly zero references for Jeff Jarrett. What did you think of that? I didn't even notice.

I was looking for, you know, shots. of me and Hulk, you know, Aces and Ates and all that stuff. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Yeah, I did notice that. If you're going to tell the history, tell the history, tell the story. I mean, Jeff, you can't tell the TNA's story without kind of starting it off with Jeff and Jerry Jarrett.

Yeah. I mean, what, come on. And that, that's that kind of stuff, that pissing kind of stuff bugs me because it took away from the moment. It took away from that open. It took away from those history packages. It should have been linear. If we're going to, if we're going to talk history, let's tell us, let's tell the story, not just throw a chapter over here and a chapter over here and a chapter over here because they were cool. Let's tell that story because there's a story there to tell. Damn, a good story. So yeah, I think it was a miss, not to include Jeff and Jerry.

I did feel bad for Dixie. Dixie is a wonderful human being. She, first of all, her funding partner was her parents. And they didn't really want to do it in the first place. And she had brothers who had stronger opinions about how smart it was to invest $35 million into TNA, whatever the number was. I think that was a number. So it was family. It was family with strong opinions. It was Dixie in a new business that much of it she knew nothing about.

She knew just enough about the entertainment business that she felt that she could figure it out. But come on, it's a unique business to just step in and figure out. and she got run over and she was in the middle of the intersection getting run over by one side and then the other and I she still fought though she wanted to make it work

and I saw her do things for people that was a great reflection of who she is as a human and her husband by the way Serge they're very very good people and I think Dixie just deserved a little bit more respect from that crowd on that night

than she got. Raj, I want to get this question to you. What are your thoughts on TNA being on AMC? And is it good for TNA? That comes to us from Jim Malaya, 1, 2, 3, 4. I mean, it's definitely good for TNA. And just kind of to that last point, I just got to just remind people that TNA would not be here

if it weren't for Jeff Jarrett, Jared, Jerry, Jared, and Dixie Carter. You know, the show tonight would not have happened if it weren't for, you know, Dixie Carter, Dixie Carter funding it all those years, and Jeff Jarrett founding it and keeping live. So, you know, at some point, you just got to show some respect. But yeah, it's a great thing for TNA now.

Now that they got this deal, they just got to perform. And, you know, we were talking about numbers for next week. Normally what you see is that 30 to 40% drop in week two when you have a big premiere and then 20 to 30% week three. I kind of expect the show to kind of fall in that. So I wouldn't be too scared to see those numbers drop like that. And then you kind of see it settle in week four. And so, you know, I think AMC, you know, as long as it's above 200,000, that's kind of their regular station average, if they're doing well above that, they're going to be thrilled.

So it's a great opportunity for TNA. It's a tough atmosphere because there is so much wrestling on and so much wrestling. and a lot of it is just not important. And it's just adding more hours of wrestling. I know it technically has been there with access, but now on a much larger scale, it's a tough go. But it's a wonderful opportunity for sure.

I wonder if we're going to get to the point, guys, where each show has its own audience, loyal audience. and that audience, because what is, the goals for cable outlets now are so low. I mean, when you're hoping to break 200,000, just hearing you say that makes me go, what happened to the business I used to be at? Well, the fact is, the business I used to be it no longer exists, and neither do the goals or the standards that used to exist. And it just seems to me that a company like AEW, for example, they've got 500,000 viewers on average right now.

To me, that's just unbelievably low. But that's based on a business that I used to know. And when networks are satisfied with two or 300,000 or 300,000 viewers, it suggests to me that we may get to a point where AEW is going to have four or 500,000 loyal. AEW fans who do not care what else is on during the week, maybe not quite that far. And that TNA is going to have its loyal fan base that will be large enough for it to sustain itself on AMC for an extended period of time and then perhaps grow because of the partnership with WWE.

I just think the thresholds and the do-or-die numbers now are so significantly lower that there's a chance that the audience may, it's already very segmented and fragmented across the board. That's the problem with television right now, brought on by streaming and social media and all the stuff that's available outside of traditional television. But if those numbers get small enough and those audiences like AEW is a perfect example, that audience is loyal amongst other things, but you cannot argue they are loyal. And that may be enough. I don't know.

Things have changed so much. It's interesting. Eric, check our private chat. D Generation MC says, I can't believe they booed Dixie. So disrespectful for all she's done for the company. What was up with that? 40 characters left.

De Nietto says TNA spent too much time with educating new viewers with videos. Tyler Balmer, 92 says, Good main event. But at the end of the day, it's a TV show. and I thought it could have been so much better. A wrestling historian says live feed issues, too many commercial breaks, and the referee botched a three count. T and A needs to think long and hard for next week's episode

because they fails to deliver tonight after all that hype. Raj, this one's for you. Jake from Wendy City says, why is Perez Hilton still a thing? This guy is a sleazy vulture and he didn't even do shite on this show. That to me is like, I don't know. Is that, and I like Johnny Fairplay, but is this the Johnny Fairplay of 2020?

six, Rush? It seems like it. It just seems a little out of touch. It just seems like grasping at Strauss. It's like having Greg Brady on, you know. It's like, no one cares. It actually is a detriment to the show. It kind of makes you uncool

doing that. So I just thought that was a misfire. So I agree. I thought that was a bad move. My wife said it made it look like a carnival. that whole segment was really bad speaking about Andrew Martin we greatly appreciate you

watching the feed and and paying us for us to read your comment that we suck the way T and A can become the number two promotion is if guys like Eric Bischoff and other failed wrestling personalities talk about it nonstop on their podcast hey if you'd like to give Eric money to say shit to him that's what we're here for by all means he's in every wrestling hall of fame there is and he beat the most infamous, most famous wrestling promoter in history. Not once, not twice, but 83 weeks. Thanks for listening.

We appreciate your support. And the world has been listening every Thursday night to J.CW. Lunacy. Let's take a look. J.C.W. Lunacy. New episodes every Thursday night at 7 p.m. on YouTube. For over 25 years, J.C.W. has delivered the very best in pro wrestling entertainment,

bringing fans deep storytelling drama. gut-busting comedy and unbelievable in-ring action from wild characters to unforgettable rivalries don't miss a single moment tune in every thursday night at 7 p.m. on youtube jc w lunacy i uh eric you're smiling ear to ear you love the insane clown bossy i know and uh we're glad we're glad to have the sponsoring how about them you know promoting their youtube show rage all i hear is they're up week over week over week over week. Are you hearing the same thing? Yeah. And, you know, I used to have ICP CDs back in the day. And, you know, you want to talk about different then.

This is different then. So they're doing something that's different. I'm pulling for them. You know what I was thinking as I was watching at for Swah? It was just fun. And Raj said, you know, it's different than. These guys are taking themselves, they're taking themselves very seriously at what they do. Yes. and they don't give two shits about what the general, you know,

the internet wrestling community necessarily, they don't care what they, but they've got their own, as we were just talking about, their own unique fan base that are fans of JCW for a reason, and they can't find that satisfaction, or they can't find that reason anywhere else. They love that product.

And it's really interesting that they're doing it on, YouTube and I applaud them because you're in control of your own destiny on YouTube. And eventually if you build, if you have the patience and you know what you're doing, like, you know, our friend Aunt Evans does, you can build for in wrestling, you could build a viable audience on YouTube and not have to chase a cable deal. That's probably not going to pay you enough money to really make any anyway. So I applaud them and I bet you they do continue to grow primarily because they're on YouTube. Can't wait to see what's next for JCW.

I do want to talk to you, Raj, about what may be next for Powerhouse Hobbs. This is a crazy story. Allegedly, he's finished up with AEW. Lots of rumor in innuendo that he may be headed to WWE. But as we sit here today, we've yet to see him lose the AEW Trios championship. I believe they've already taped collision, but I think his contract is now up. So I'm guessing maybe we'll see a title switch on collision this

Saturday. I haven't read the spoilers, but do you expect powerhouse Hobbs to wind up in WWE and where do you think he'll land, Raj? Yeah, absolutely. That's apparently where he's headed. And you know, you kind of look at him, he just feels like he'd be a good fit for WWE. He just has a look, the charisma.

And, you know, he had kind of been, he kind of hit his ceiling in AEW. He's improved greatly over the years, but he hit that ceiling. And it is interesting because you mentioned that match tape for collision. It's tape Wednesday night. His contract expired, you know, that night at midnight. So, WWE, they technically could do a situation, almost like a Rick Rood, not exactly, where Powerhouse Hobbs appears on Smackdown on Friday in London. And then, you know, you see Hobbs on collision on Saturday losing the title.

I don't think WWP cares enough to do that, but you technically could do that. But yeah, yeah, he's he's WWE bound. And I think that's a, it's a really good get for the company. Eric, what do you think of this? This feels like a little bit like the Monday Night Wars and the respect that we would love to see guys switch companies. Now you're seeing a guy like Powerhouse Hobbs making the switch betting on himself. Allegedly, I don't, I don't know all the inside scoop, but allegedly he had a really, really handsome offer. Uh, I would guess it's probably more than what he's getting in

WWV. He wanted to bet on himself. What do you think that says about Powerhouse Hobbs and WWB and AEW? It says the likelihood of him being successful at WWW. We are pretty freaking high. with an attitude like that and having enough confidence in yourself that you'll walk away from money, probably a lot of it, in order to take a shot at being as big a star as you could potentially be,

that takes balls. And if he's going to WWE, first of all, with that attitude, because he's in this more, he's in it more than for the money. That's what that says to me. That's a guy I want him on my team. Absolutely.

So I think he's going to be hugely successful. As far as AEW goes, I don't know how often have we seen him wrestle in AEW. Is he been involved in any? Because I don't remember hearing his name for a long time. It's not that I watch a lot of AEW, but I do pay attention to what's going on in AEW is through social media and things that are on everybody's radar

end up on my timeline at some point during the week. And that's a name that I don't recall seeing in a long time. Yeah, he's kind of, I think he's where a lot of AW talent have been. He's been stuck a little bit. But he did wrestle quite a bit in the year 2025. I think he had, I don't know, 35 matches. That's a lot in modern standards. But he's been a part of a group faction, a trios, him and Samoa Joe,

and Shabata have been in a different times hook, have been the six-man champions. Once by the time, he was the T&T champion. Raj, I think a lot of people are wondering, do you think we'll see him on Raw, on Smackdown, on NXT? Will they debut at the Royal Rumble? Will it be elimination chamber? I mean, what do you expect?

What would you do, Raj? Well, I would try to, you know, kind of balance out the rosters. And you got a big powerhouse guy and Bronbreaker on Raw. also, you know, so for that reason, I'd probably pick him for Smackdown. So I think that's the best fit. We can't wait to see what's next for Hobbs. And there's a lot of other signing news that happened this week. It feels like AEW just picked up some talent right out of T&A.

Rascals have left TNA and it's been announced that they signed with AEW. What do you expect about Rascals in AEW, Raj? Well, I thought the interesting thing was that they announced, this on Wednesday night, the night before TNA debuted on AMC. And it kind of felt to me almost like a shot. You know, last week they had Cazarian and Mike Santana doing a promo where they kind of took some shots at AEW. And I know that that kind of stuff really gets under Tony Kahn's skin.

So I don't know, the signing and the announcement of it kind of felt like it was a little shot at TNA. or even kind of being like, you know, E&A is kind of like our competition now, kind of shifting away the focus from WWE because they haven't been close to WWE in a long time, not even, you know, close at all. And now with NXT, we don't know max numbers, of course, but on TV, NXT beats it every week in total viewers,

18 to 49, it's, you know, often beating it. So I don't know if it's kind of a way to kind of, shift that narrative to now TNA is our rival, but I did find it interesting the timing of that announcement. See, that's a war that would be fun to watch. Because they're kind of, you know, Tony's obviously got, you know, a big advantage right now, but that's a, you know, if we're going to see that back and forth kind of picking on each other throwing hand grenades every now and end, that's the place that should happen.

It'll make it fun. I think it's funny what they did. I think it was great, whether it was just, you know, because Tony wanted to get the last shot or whether, as you said, Raj, maybe this is going to be part of a competitive strategy. Either way, it was kind of funny. Yeah. And Rascals, really talented guys, Zachary Wentz, Trey Miguel,

Desmond Xavier, and Myron Reed. Xavier was Wesley and he was North American champion. He had a five-year run. He was North American champion in NXT, He had a five-year run there up until last July. Really talented guys. So it, you know, it adds, you know, a big spark to the mix in the AEW. So it's a good get for them.

But it'll be interesting to see. Prize, what I think most people are interested in right now is where's Chris Jericho going to land? There's been lots of speculation. People are thinking, hey, maybe he's going to show up on TNA. Maybe he'll be at the Rumble. They don't really know where to expect him. But people are waiting with baited breath. And I guess right now, as we're speaking,

He's still listed on the AEW roster page. Do you have any insight as to what we can expect and win, Roche? Well, I mean, technically Powerhouse Hobbs is still listed on the roster page too, but I'm sure they're going to remove him after Saturday. You know, I think that's the great thing about Chris, is he keeps these things close to the best and likes to keep people guessing, and that's part of his longevity. He knows how to play the audience,

and he knows how to play the internet and keep fans guessing. My guess is he shows up at the Rumble. Again, that's going to be in Saturday. Those kind of surprises are hard to do with an overseas event like that. But that still is my guess. That's that. Whoa, stop. I'm hearing this for the first time.

Roger, that's what it's going to happen. That is too good to be real. It is, believe you, if they want to sneak him into Saudi, they're going to sneak him into Saudi. Trust me on that. But if they do, it's going to be awesome. And I think Chris Jericho is already the best worker in the business for the last 30 years. And by worker, I mean smart.

And the amount of money that he's been able to make during his career by being smart. And picking his shots and reinventing himself, a move to WWE and a debut in Saudi. And here's the other reason why I think this is going to happen is because, based on proximity at one point, I learned that the Saudis, the Saudi fans, really enjoy the early 2000 era wrestlers more than some of the current wrestlers because they've seen so much more of them. And that's what they grew up with. So when they get in up, it's why Bill Goldberg went over there. So that's why somebody, you know, they were asking for the Saudis. were asking for legends that had been dead for 10 years when I was there in 2019.

So that would give you a framework to look at what the Saudis like and what gets that audience excited. Chris Jericho, if there's a Richter scale in Saudi, he'll move it if he shows up in that audience. That's why I think it's perfect for him. It's probably what's going to happen because it is so perfect. one of the thing we got to talk about, Raj, we haven't touched on at all. And this is what a crazy week it's been. We have a new WWB champion last Friday afternoon.

Cody Rhodes dropped the title to Drew McIntyre. A lot of people didn't see this coming. It was an international show. So it aired in the afternoon. And, uh, yeah, Jacob Batu is back. He entered the cage match between Drew and Cody Rhodes. First attacking Drew and then Cody.

And once Jacob turned his attention to Cody, drew that cheap bastard that cheater he snuck out of the cage door and slid down to the floor and he's the new champ what do you think what do you think of the execution are you surprised they took the belt off of cody there's been rumor and innuendo from your personal best friend dave milzer that uh the russermanian plans changed last wednesday what are the new plans as far as you know rosh i i haven't heard that but uh i did think it was a good move i did feel like the world title reign on SmackDown, it needed a spark. You know, they've been running Cody and Drew over and over and over again.

I did feel like they needed to do something different. I felt like Drew has been doing some of his, the best work of his career over the last couple of years, and it just really mixes things up at the top. The rating for the show, they only did 990,000 viewers and a 0.26. And I think that shows you now that these international shows are shown live on Netflix and then air here later in the evening. So a lot of people are probably watching those shows on a VPN. Or you're just seeing the HD quality clips from the actual show, whereas back in the day when they had to tape show from Europe, you're still seeing the first airing in the evening. And not during the day.

So these international shows really take a hit on the TV ratings. but I thought it was really well done. Isn't that something, Eric, that the live shows do better than the tape shows. It feels like you figured that out about 30-something years ago. Yeah, I mean, it really did. That move to live wrestling every week had a more significant change on the industry as we know it today than most people think or no. it really did change everything.

For WWE, it certainly did. You know, for WCW, it did while we were around. And for every wrestling company that has launched since, live TV, live wrestling works. That's where the money is. Well, I'll tell you where the money is these days. There's Blue Chew and them there, Hills. They've got a brand new product I want to brag about.

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with the code 83 weeks. That's code 83 weeks. Visit BluC.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Blue Choo for sponsoring today's podcast. Raj, the entire wrestling world is going to be talking about TNA on AMC tonight. Overall, are you going to give this show

thumbs up, a thumbs down, a thumbs in the middle? Where are you at on it? Probably a thumbs in the middle, between a thumbs in the middle on a thumbs down. I just feel like, you know, again, the first impression that I didn't feel like they, I felt like they could have really used a home run here and didn't come close. But still, there was some positives. And again, it wasn't a disaster. I didn't think it was necessarily a really bad show, nothing that, you know, would hurt them long term.

So just I think the expectations were high. and just didn't live up to him. What about you, Eric? Thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle. Where are you out on the TNA on AMC debut? Again, with a nod to the challenge they had in rewriting the show right before the show, I'm going to give them a little grace. I'm going to give them a thumbs in the middle,

but I do believe they're going to have a much better show next week. And I am going to be watching because I do really hope that they're going to be successful. I'm really pulling for them too. I'm going to give it a thumbs down, though. I'm not encouraged to watch the show again next week, and I hate that. It's just not going to be a priority for me. T&A has been around for a long time, and it was something I was able to watch, but I thought, hey, man, they're going to put a new coat of paint on this,

and this is, I don't know, I feel like it's fooled me twice at this point. And I hate that because I know there's a lot of really great talented people over there. I just don't know that they have the right mix. I'm wondering, Eric, you know, at different times. we hear things like maybe it's time to make a change. You know, we often hear comparisons to Memphis where supposedly every six months,

Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett would switch things around. I think these days Hunter Johnson, who helped book Ring of Honor as delirious for years and years, and Tommy Dreamer, who we know has been booking since the ECW days. They're helping run creative. You pointed out at the top of the show, there were some visa issues.

I guess this debut snuck up on them. What do you expect? Do you think that we will see a shift in creative or is it not creative? Is it more formatting? Is it more production? Why did this not get five stars from you tonight, Eric? A combination of things about primarily production. When I say production, that's the format.

That's the formula. It's the recipe. What are the ingredients that you put into the show? How do you mix them up all together and when? And the format is the most important aspect. Obviously, the talent that's in that. format. But the flow of the show, the way the show is set up, the way the matches are promoted, the way you manage the audience's energy through the television show, the psychology of producing

television, all of that has to be addressed. And a lot of it was it tonight. The production values of the show, when I say production values, I'm just talking about particular camera angles that we should have never seen. No need to beat it up again. That was a rookie mistake. That was a mistake somebody that's never produced a television show before makes. And a cameraman, by the way, that should have been fired for doing it, just doing it. Even if he was told, he should have said, no, I'm not doing that. That's stupid. There should have been a fight over that.

But those kind of things can easily be fixed. They're not the type of things that will hurt long term. If they can tighten those things up. And I think that they will because they have the. resources. I want to love on their paper views. I have been able to catch a few TNA paper views. Man,

they're absolutely fantastic. And we've seen a lot of complaints that are similar to that online about AEW. I mean, I personally know AEW fans who don't watch the weekly TV, but they don't miss the paper view. And I think that's an interesting dynamic. I know there was some chatter online this week.

There's some people speculating that Eric Bischoff as maybe hit the nail in the head with Dave Meltzer. People are saying, and I don't believe this to be true, that Dave Meltzer is artificially inflating AWP pay-per-view numbers. I don't believe that because I know people personally who don't watch the weekly show, but don't miss the pay-per-view. And that's a dynamic I don't think I've ever even heard of with any other wrestling promotion, Eric.

Like, usually you have, well, back in the day, millions of people who watch the free show and hundreds of thousands of people who buy the pay-per-view. And that feels like it's kind of the inverse now, a much greater percentage of the television audience are now buying the pay-per-views when it comes to AEW. Well, I just want to give T&A some love. If you enjoyed tonight, or maybe you're kind of on the fence and you're not sure, go by the pay-per-view this weekend. You won't be disappointed.

They're really delivering on pay-per-view. At least that's been my experience. Eric, what do you make of the difference in, hey, people love the pay-per-view, but maybe not so much the TV? Have you even heard of that before this morning? Yeah. I mean, I, if you think, about it, a pay-per-view is more enjoyable than television. You don't have all those

freaking commercials, you know, silly segments. You have people that are generally getting in there and really wrestling, and you're seeing the ends of stories or the beginnings of stories. That's typically what at least should happen on most pay-per-views. And I think there's another I, there's a reason I don't do late-night shows because I really go into the weeds. But There's another phenomenon at play here, I think, and it's across the board. It's not just professional wrestling. People are craving live events in ways that is different than we've all experienced throughout our lives. The communal live experience for whatever reason, because of what our culture is going through with social media and being disconnected and you don't really work in an office anymore.

And, you know, you're kind of remote half the time. I mean, people have just kind of insulated themselves culturally in so many ways over the last 10 or 15 years that I think during that same period of time, you're seeing all kinds of live events doing better than they reasonably should. And I think, look at TNA, for example, overseas. I mean, that's a phenomenon. on. Nobody watches it on television, relatively speaking, but they do phenomenally well when they go over their live. That makes no, the math doesn't math, typical television math. That doesn't work. That formula, but it's completely inverse now. I think that's a part of it. So when there is a pay-per-view, you get to have the experience, the action, the tension, the drama, the ooze, and the

Oz and all the whatever, pyro, whatever you get on a paper view that you typically don't get on television, but you also get an extended without all the commercials and silly shit. So it's going to be a more enjoyable experience from just a consumer perspective, but also you've got the live experience and the energy you get being surrounded by five or 10 or 15,000 people that are all into the same shit you're into. That's the weird phenomenon that I think is becoming more valuable to people, which is why more people go to a pay-per-view when they perhaps don't even really watch on television all that much. And when you've got more people in the building and you wrestle that's ever

spent more than five minutes in the middle of a roster will tell you, it's a lot easier to go out and have a great match in front of an energetic live, big crowd than it is 250 people. So I think the combination of those variables, I think, is why we're seeing such a weird phenomenon. We just had some breaking news since we've been recording. That's come out that the former Iconics, they finished up tonight as the inspirations. We saw them drop the tag titles tonight. I guess that concludes their TNA experience.

Do you expect to see them in WWE and NXT and AEW? Or what do you think is next for these ladies? Yeah. I mean, I guess they signed an extension late last year. you know, they were the iconics in WWE. And under a different regime, I could see them going back, you know, Peyton Royce. And obviously you can have spouses in different companies, but she's married to Ty Dillinger, who's in NXT. So I could see them heading back for sure.

Well, I appreciate you making all the time for us tonight, Raj. This was a historic night for T&A. This is a day that they'll talk about for a long time. their debut on AMC. We've got a brand new world champion in Mike Santana and a fabulous main event and sort of mixed reviews from the crowd. Overall, I got to say, as far as the main event,

they over-delivered. I think we all agreed they started strong. Will they be able to maintain this renewed interest that they had tonight? The jury's still out on that. I'm sure we'll be talking about it next week. If you haven't already hit the subscribe button, turn on your notifications bell, and we'll see you next week right here.

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