83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 411: The Rumble Before The Rumble

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson break down all things Royal Rumble. Eric shares his thoughts on the massive PLE taking place outside the United States and what that could mean for potential surprises in the Rumble match itself. The guys are also joined by 83 Weeks contributor Raj Giri to discuss TNA's surprising ratings following week two of TNA Impact, the jaw-dropping logistics of building a Royal Rumble stadium in just a couple of weeks, and what the future may hold for AJ Styles. It's a timely, news-heavy, and insight packed edition of 83 Weeks you won't want to miss. UTLRA - Don't sleep on @ultrapouches. New customers get 15% Off with code http://83WEEKS  at takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad STEVEN SINGER JEWELER - No one does real diamond jewelry better. Experience the difference at Steven Singer Jewelers. Go online to http://IHateStevenSinger.com  today! Always fast and FREE shipping is waiting for you. ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to http://RocketMoney.com/83WEEKS  CASH APP - Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/j5ojws30 #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct deposit and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. 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! SIGNOS - Visit http://SIGNOS.com  and get 25% off select plans with code 83WEEKS.  SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing money away by paying those high interest rates on your credit card. Roll them into one low monthly payment and on top of that, skip your next two house payments. Go to https://www.savewithconrad.com  to learn more.  

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Or send me an email, Conrad at savewithconrad. Hey, hey, it's Conrad the Mortgage Guy, and you're listening to 83 weeks with Eric fish off. Eric, what's going on, man? How are you? I'm great. I'm in beautiful downtown McDonough, Georgia, just south of the great city of Atlanta, looking forward to a spectacular weekend. I'm doing great.

In case you missed it, over at adfreeshows.com, we've been promoting something that we call Eric Bischoff's power plant. And you might be asking yourself, self, why is it called that? Well, because you had your chance to get in the ring with Sarge.

That's right. The guy who trained everybody of the power plant, he's going to be with us. You get to step between the ropes, run the ropes, take some bumps. And we've got a very special guest. One of my favorite things of the weekend,

though, tonight as folks are listening to this, Eric. We're doing promo class with Tony Chivani, Jeff Jarrett, and David Crockett. I brought my TBS set that we used to recreate the old JCP look for Rick Claire's last match. I've got Tony and David Crockett and their JCP Blazers. The Big Gold Belt, yes, the actual Big Gold Belt will be there. And these guys are going to tell you what they think goes into making a great promo.

They'll show us some examples. And then fans will have a chance to cut a promo and it'll be professionally filmed with Tony Chivani and David Crockett holding the microphone. This is like fantasy camp for wrestling fans. And then, of course, on Saturday, not only do we have the power plant and a live taping of 83 weeks, but we've also got the Royal Rumble. That's right. We're going to do a watch-along.

It's the top guy rumble. It's the game event from Ephron. And Eric, somebody might win $10,000. How crazy is this? That sounds awesome. And Effort is so much fun. I mean, Effron is one of those guys, one of those people. when you walk into a room,

you can kind of walk in and be in a shitty mood. You know, somebody cuts you off in traffic. You're kind of growling at everybody. When you walk to the room, you see effort and within about 30 seconds, you just feel better about life. He's just got a positive energy.

And he's really good at what he does. Very fun to be a part of his show. I can't wait. I can't wait to see what happens. You know, we've got a big grand prize. I mean, $10,000 is what somebody could walk away with. But everybody's going to walk away with.

But everybody's going to walk away, having survived Eric Bishop's power plant. And you're going to give them a little tour of WCW in Atlanta. We've got some special surprises. I know you're in the loop on. Looking forward to that, JBL is going to debut his brand new podcast. It's called Curtain Jerkers. It's a comedy show. You'll see it before anybody else.

You'll see the pilot episodes. We're going to be filming some in person as well. You'll also see Jeff Jarrett's new documentary before anybody else. We're going to be doing this again soon. You don't want to miss it. Make plans to join us. wish you were with us this weekend and ad-free shows.com, but Atlanta and Eric Bischoff just kind of go hand in hand, don't they? Eric. Yeah. I mean, you know, I wasn't really excited

about moving here, but I was really excited about the job back in 91 or whatever it was. Kind of learn to love Atlanta, though. There's, there's, there's, there's a, it's so many great memories here. You know, I'm looking forward to, you know, taking a ride through the old neighborhood with DDP and, and seeing what it looks like. And just, living some of those experiences and memories. Because to be honest, I haven't been back to that house that I linked in down to street from page since I left in whatever year that was, 2000. So it's been a minute.

It'll be fun to kind of revisit memories and places and people. It's going to be a fun weekend. It is going to be a fun weekend. We're going to finish it off with some live action. If you've been sleeping on it, I want to introduce you to 1FW. That's one fall wrestling owned by QT Marshall. You've probably seen him in AEW or ring. of honor. He's done a fabulous job. He's got a great group of guys and gals there working their

butts off. And somehow, Eric, I found myself becoming the world's worst color commentator, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it. So all the matters is you have fun. If you have fun, you'll be good. Tell that to people all the time. If announcers have fun, the people listening will have fun. And that's really what it's all about. I, uh, I can't wait for you to see some of the great talent that QT's been working with down there. They've, got, they've got something special. And you can watch it right now for free on Triller. I think he's even posting them on YouTube. So check it out one FW. Of course, you guys will be able to see it live this weekend. Of course, what everybody's going to be paying attention to this weekend is the

Royal Rumble. We're going to spend a lot of time talking about Royal Rumble. Of course, we're going to spend a lot of time talking about AJ Styles today, a lot of conjecture about that. But one of the things I wanted to ask you right up front, and I feel like I know the answer, Eric, but I feel like once upon a time, you, You gave AEW shot and I don't know that you're a regular weekly watcher. So I got just got to ask, did you watch last night? As we're recording, did you watch this week's dynamite? Did you watch last night?

I did not. I want to challenge you if you get free time. I know that's not going to happen. But if you did, I think you would have dug last night's episode. It had a lot of elements that you would have really appreciated. It felt like a bit of a paradigm shift. My phone blew up from my wrestling friends, not guys who were in the business, but just guys who like wrestling like I do.

And we all kind of agreed, man, that was one of the best dynamites in a long time. And I almost never do this. But I went out of my way to say, man, this was a fantastic show. And I think it was enough of a Sarsa. You know, we saw Tomaso Champa. We'll talk about that a little later.

There was an unexpected win in the main event, at least by me and a lot of others. But the show went off the air with, I don't know, an interesting closing scene. It was reminiscent of the way I used to like my Monday night wrestling. I think you would have liked this week's dynamite, Eric.

I'll go back and look at it. You know, I'm hoping to see improvements. You know, I haven't gone back and watched TMA either just because I haven't had the that it is really all that it is. But I love seeing changes in effort and improvement. So I'll check it out. One of the things I think you'll dig is, uh, it feels like the, the emphasis right now on the program is who's going to win the world title?

It feels like everybody's gunning for the world title. And I can say myself as a fan, I like, like that suspension of disbelief. I want to believe. Um, but listen, let's go ahead and get you pissed off good and early today. I, uh, before I went to bed last night, I saw a clip that was kind of going viral, uh, yesterday. And I, I didn't see it until last night when I had a chance to finish, uh, with all my work for the day. But I guess Dave Meltzer was chatting with, um, with Brian Alvarez about Billy Gunn. I guess Billy Gunn recently did an interview and I'll admit, I didn't watch it. I didn't hear it. But I think he was critical of the younger generation saying

something along the lines of they don't know how to work. Now, of course, I know that pisses a lot of people off and it rubs people the wrong way, but it kind of, I hate to pull my best Bill Clinton, but how do you define work? What does that really mean? And I know that's different for everybody. But I was kind of surprised that I took issue with it and quote tweeted it and it kind of blew up a little bit. The gist was, though, Dave Meltzer said, Billy Gunn on his best day is half the wrestler Kyle Fletcher is today. Kyle Fletcher legitimately might be top five to seven in the world, but do you think Billy Gunn was ever in the top 200? He went on from there, but that's really the gist of what he was saying, and that's actually a quote from the wrestling observer Twitter account,

and they played the clip, which is about a minute long, and I quote tweeted it. And I said, I love Dave's work, but this is just wildly out of pocket. I've never met anybody in the business who talks like this. Saying he wasn't one of your 200 favorites is fair, even if disrespectful. But to say that objectively, based on what metric put some respect on Billy's name, I was kind of just surprised that a guy who, I mean, I know that you don't hold him in high regard, but I value Dave's opinion. And I like his opinion.

I want to hear his opinion. I seek his opinion out. But I feel like we're conflating his opinion. opinion and fact here. And I don't think that's necessarily fair. Like, by what metric are we saying he's not top 200? I never was. Like, that's just like your opinion, man, to quote the Big Lobowski.

Where do you land on that? Dave's an idiot. Dave is in a relevant idiot, a social misfit, and completely out of touch. And if there's ever been any doubt as to how out of touch. Dave Meltzer is. That comment should take care of it. It's about the business of the wrestling business. Kyle Fletcher couldn't draw flies if he had a main event in a fucking barnyard. He's athletic as hell. And maybe, you know, he has a lot of potential. But to make a statement like that for a guy that literally could walk through the lobby of this Marriott

hotel that I'm in in McDowda, Georgia. And I would bet you if there's 50 people downstairs right now, 49 of them wouldn't know who he is. And probably would, you know, would ask him to point them to a good restaurant or come and take care of a mess in their room. It's a sense of the dumbest statement, but it's typical Dave. And, you know, look, he's got his own following of social misfits, just like him.

People really don't have anything going on in their life other than to pretend they know a lot about the wrestling business. And that's, look, Dave is the king of that. He has convinced everybody, including you, that he's got a unique perspective on the wrestling business. And he really doesn't. He's very knowledgeable about the history of it. But in terms of what makes wrestling work, what makes it successful. What makes people watch? What makes people tune in?

He's as clueless as anybody I've ever talked to. Well, I know you're just trying to make a point, but I want to stand up for Kyle Fletcher. I think Kyle Fletcher is going to be one of the best that ever did it. I think he's got unlimited potential. I totally see him as the type guy, but I don't see the point in comparing two performers. That's the issue I have is it's like, well, I mean, by doing this, I feel like you just

create divide and you diminish a guy. And normally people do this because it's a, it's a tribalism of WWE versus AEW. But in this particular case, they both work for AEW. Like, I don't know. It just feels like, you know, do we know exactly, you know, first of all, I think we can all acknowledge the business has changed. The way people work and wrestle and market wrestling is totally different now than it was

when Billy first started. But to diminish his Hall of Fame career, make no doubt about it. I feel like Gunn is a Hall of Famer. And to just immediately say, oh, he wasn't one of the best. 200 says who says you and other but like there's no objective it's not football you can't compare stats like oh well his completion percentage blah blah blah that's not a real thing the only real objective stats is drawing money and i'm not even trying to have that conversation but i'm saying everything else about wrestling is just kind of subjective i'm going to give you an example

when we have the conversation with with almost anyone about hey who are who are the best tag teams of all time. Inevitably, we hear some of the same names, whether it's the Road Warriors, or the Rock and Roll Express, or the Midnight Express, or FTR, the Young Box, whatever you think. My buddy Cassio Kid would tell you, the Bushwhackers. Now, that doesn't mean that his opinion isn't valid. He's just really like the Bushwhackers. It pulled the nostalgia lever for him as a kid. And if there's a Bushwhackers segment on TV today or on YouTube today, he's going to watch it because he likes the Bushwhackers. But that doesn't mean the Bushwhackers are the best in-ring or or the worst entering.

This is just a matter of opinion. I don't know. I feel like the issue with Dave is when he puts a statement out like that, that really is just his opinion. But he says it as if it's absolute fact. He creates a bigger problem in dialogue. And I think that if there is any anti-AEW pushback online, I think it statements like that that don't help that.

They heard it. Listen, I've said this before. I'll say it again. I think Dave Meltzer single-handedly is as responsible for the negativity in the AEW. is anything that happens in AEW. He's toxic. His opinions, his perspective,

the way he covers the business is freaking toxic. It's like if this guy's a fan of something, I'm going to go the other way. That's how bad he is. And if I was Tony Donne, whatever ties there may or may not be to Dave Meltzer, I would sever them. I would keep as much distance as I possibly could

because I really truly believe that Dave Meltzer as an individual is actually hurting that brand because of his platform and because he's such an idiot. And the thing is, in defense that Dave, I don't even think he knows he's doing it. I think he's oblivious to the fact that he's a social misfit. He's just, he's a misfit. He lives in his basement. He's a social misfit. He's just, hey, he's Dave Meltzer. If people enjoy spending 15 bucks a month, they listen to that.

that idiot because they walk around feeling like they know more about a business. Have that. But here's a clue. You don't because the guy you're listening to is as clueless as anybody that's covering the business today. He has no idea what really makes the wrestling business work. He just thinks he does. Well, somebody who does have their finger on the pulse right now is MJF. There's been a lot of talk about tribalism.

This feels like as good a time of any to point this out. MGF recently took to Twitter and said there's no bad blood between wrestlers and different companies. Quote, As far as Adam Copeland, John Moxley, C.M. Punk, Cody Rhodes, these guys aren't turning around and saying, F, that other company. They're not in real life. I'm sorry. They're just looking for a place to hang their hat.

And then you have certain guys who feel very passionate about the company they're in, and they would never want to leave, you know? Everyone's different. Everyone's looking at professional wrestling different. Some people look at it as, I love professional wrestling, but I love money more, so I'm going to go to this place. Some people care more about the creative side of things and feeling free as both an entertainer and artist and a professional athlete.

What I will say is, there's no bad blood between the boys and the company. It just doesn't exist. And this is from a Rolling Stone interview for Australia. I thought that was spot on. Eric, was that your experience in working in WCW that even though there was a perceived Monday night war, the guys didn't really hate each other. Of course not. Of course not. I mean, that was like the perfect example of that is when DX invaded, what was it, Roanoke or wherever we were when they showed up and crashed the party.

You know, it's like, oh, man, what would have happened if they would have got in? And it's like, I don't know, they would have probably asked, where's the beer? Let's have a couple cold ones. And it's, no, trust me. the people that are in the professional wrestlers in the professional wrestling business they all know at some point there's a good chance they're going to be working either in the same company or they'll be working together somewhere down the road there's not that kind of tribal bullshit heat with with talent it's not in my experience All right, real quick, I want to brag a little bit about these new ultra pouches. I got to admit a lot of people in my life, they were using the nicotine pouches, but I didn't want nicotine. But man, I wanted to feel that buzz.

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the code 83 weeks after you purchase they're going to ask you where you heard about them please support our show and tell them we sent you it's time for the wrestling news update with raj geary well let's welcome into the program right now the one and only raj geary he's got all the news that's fit to print and a whole lot more raj welcome to the program what's going on today man how are you i'm doing good how are you guys doing man we're excited to be here it's royal rumble week this is uh Probably my favorite week is a wrestling fan. I know that a lot of wrestling fans really prefer WrestleMania and don't get me wrong. It's a big deal and it's something to get excited about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the anticipation for Royal Rumble is off the charts for me every year. It's the pay-per-view I look forward to the most. What news do you have for us this week about the Royal Rumble? Well, it's insane. That stadium that they built for this show, specifically for this show, was built in less than in a month. So, you know, I know, I think it was in December when we were talking about Royal Rumble ticket, Royal Rumble tickets sales. And we were saying how like no venue had been announced, well, now we know why.

Yeah, the arena hadn't been, the stadium hadn't been erected yet. So, yeah, so they built the stadium specifically for the Royal Rumble. They've got these crazy graphics and these, uh, giant things bearing the wrestlers' likeness coming in. So I have a feeling this, as far as the spectacle is going to go, it's going to be the wildest Royal Rumble that we've ever seen. Eric, did you see this? They threw together an entire stadium in three weeks.

I saw that. It's kind of amazing. Hopefully they've done one of those videos where you can see the whole thing coming together. Time lapse. Yeah, time lapse. I forgot that word. that phrase. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty amazing. Clearly, there's no unions or issues that we face here in the U.S. because that same building probably would have taken five years to complete here.

It is going to be interesting to see how this feels a little different than Raj. You know, for years and years, WWB never seemingly did international pay-per-views. Of course, the most famous one is SummerSlam 1992. In the more recent era, we have seen, respectfully, B-show. backlashes and things like that, money in the bank, take place overseas. But Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, WrestleMania, these are kind of the tent pole events of WWE and they've always largely been based in North America, certainly some in Canada, but primarily the United States. This is going to be different.

The Royal Rumble is in the afternoon. I'm going to be watching, I guess, in the central time zone, it's 1 o'clock and in the eastern time zone it's 2 o'clock. I know once upon a time, Raj, people made a big deal about that. But this is a different world. It's no longer a pay-per-view model. Now people are going to be, I guess it kind of is with ESPN, but the money's guaranteed.

What besides the time difference, what do you expect to be different this weekend with the Royal Rumble? It's interesting. You know, I feel like since they sold out the tickets so quickly and since this is in Saudi, it feels like they haven't felt the urge to necessarily hype this paper view up as much, right?

Like Brock Lesnar was just announced, yesterday on the Pat McAfee show. So as Monday's Raw, their biggest show, Roman Reins hadn't been announced. Brock Lesnar hadn't been announced. So, you know, again, it happened a day later. CM Punk, we don't know if he's wrestling or not. It seemed like they built a match with him and Finn Baller,

but nothing's been announced yet. So that sense of urgency to really get people to tune in doesn't feel there. But with that being said, you know, they're rolling out the big guns. They're doing a lot this week. And it will be interesting to see. I personally love the international pay-per-views when they're on a Saturday and overseas because it frees your night up. So you watch the pay-per-view during the day and then you have the rest of the evening to do whatever.

So, you know, it's a big, big thumbs up for me for these international shows. I agree, Raj. I'm far more likely to check something out if it's happening in the afternoon than I am, you know, planning my day around being up until 11 or 12 o'clock at night watching wrestling. But if it's in the afternoon, I'm far more likely to watch it. And it's interesting how times have changed because, you know, in my day, I hate to even say it that way, but 10, 15, 20 years ago, I don't think anybody would have considered having a pay-per-view on a Saturday afternoon.

Just, I think if you would have brought that up in a meeting, you would have gotten kicked out the door. But now it's actually working. And I arguably perhaps working better. I like it when AEW does it. You know, their international pay-per-views like all in that they've done in Wembley. They obviously do it in the afternoon and that's when it airs here in America. I thought that was awesome.

And this year, of course, for this past year, WWE counter-programmed them with Goldberg's last match and Saturday night's main event. So they bumped the Texas all in to an afternoon start. I thought it was fantastic. It made for a double header. And we're kind of going to get that this weekend. Raj, it was announced that collision, I guess, is going to be live this week. There's a lot of really cool stuff announced, but maybe the thing that people are most excited about is Mark Briscoe defending his TNT title against TMaso Champa.

Champa, we just saw a couple of weeks ago post some sort of farewell saying that his contract was set to expire soon. I don't think people expected him to see him last night, but we did. We saw Champa debut on AEW Dynamite. I guess he's going by the new name Psycho Killer. I saw that was trademark. Maybe it came out last week or the week before. last, but did you expect Champa to come right into AW or were you shocked by that? I mean, that's when you get the maximum effect. So it didn't surprise me. You didn't hear

rumblings about it, but it didn't surprise me. And as far as him wrestling his first match in AEW this Saturday, I do think they need to do something. The last Saturday's episode of collision just did an awful number. And that was against Saturday night's main event. This will not be head to head with the Royal Rumble. It is on later in the later in the evening after the Royal Rumble airs. But traditionally when there's WWPL that day, the collision number is hurt anyway,

but I would think it wouldn't be hurt as much not being head to head last week. I mean, they did a 0.02, 18 to 49 rating, which is the lowest that they've ever done. And granted, I know we had a new Nielsen system that went into effect in late September, but even barring all that, it's just, these are really,

bad numbers that the show is doing. So I think seeing that rating, Tony knew he needed something big and to load the show up. Otherwise, it was going to, it was probably going to do another, you know, all-time low. Raj, I do want to ask you about this. You know, this is something that, you know, wasn't necessarily leaked. They did a great job keeping the Champa signing a secret. Why do you think it is that, you know, everybody in their brother knows the Powerhouse Hobbs has signed with WWE, but nobody knew Champa had signed with AW. Do you want to venture a guess? you know, I think

some people are sworn to some reporters might be sworn to secrecy on some things and not so much on others. So that's just my guess. That's what it seems like a lot of these times because it does seem like usually the spoils, you know, results and returns and things like that are spoiled more on one side than the other.

And maybe some of that is access, you know, it has its privilege. I do want to ask you, Eric, do you remember, because I know at different times you had decent relationships with internet journalists. Did you ever have off the record conversations or a good enough relationship with someone where you could say, hey, now don't spoil the surprise or off the record here or

anything like that. Did that exist in your time in WCW? Yes. Mike Johnson is the only person, PW Insider, that I would have off the record conversations with. Certainly wouldn't do that with anybody else. But Mike Johnson, to this day, in fact, Mike Johnson was,

Mike Johnson was the guy that called me the morning that Hulk Hogan died. And he called me because he said, look, I'm not going to report on this because I can't confirm it. That's who Mike Johnson is. But he said, I want you to be aware of this in case it's serious. So here's a guy that could have probably beat everybody to the punch. and talking about what was going on with Halt the day that he died. But he refrained because he couldn't confirm the news.

I don't know anybody else that would have done that. So, yeah, Mike Johnson, P.W. and Center, stand-up guy. All right, folks, now we've got something completely different, just in time for Valentine's Day here to make us all look good. My friend and yours, Stephen Singer. Stephen, how are you, man? Good afternoon. How are you?

It's so good to see you. I haven't seen you in a while and you look great. And I'm so happy to be back with your listeners and your fans. Man, I'm excited to have you on. You know, I grew up listening to Howard Stern and I feel like I knew you long before I actually met you. And I just love that you make us guys look really good just in time for Valentine's Day. But what is the hottest gift this Valentine's Day? Well, for us, there's three or four items. The number one gift is you so kindly mentioned. is our new sunset rose. And this is, in my opinion, one of the nicest, most unique roses we ever did

because it's what's called an ambri color where it shade goes from purple, pink, violet, orange, raspberry, all different colors. In the top, you can see, is a little different than the sides. And it looks like a sunset. We took pictures of the sunset in Hawaii, in Jamaica, St. Thomas, in California, in Florida. it and we took these sunset pictures and we tried to replicate it.

Your, you know, your podcast is called 83 weeks. Well, this thought costs 83 weeks to get this right. I can't even tell you how long we did it, how many weeks we made this to get it to this thing. And now it's perfect. And these are all made by hand. And not to be funny, but it takes a whole year, 52 weeks to build these. It takes, we have three factories with artisans. They're all doing this by hand.

There's no machines involved with this. This is all done by hand to make all these roads. And to keep a real rose that lasts forever that has a lifetime guarantee at this price is, I mean, it's, it's awesome. It really is. And if you have kids, you have a wife, you have a sweetheart, a girlfriend, whatever, it's the greatest thing because I'll ask you a question. Do you know what you got your significant other six years ago for her birthday or for Valentine's Day or for Christmas?

No, for time. I mean, once in a while, you'll know something special. If you got her a coat, it's in the closet. You know, I mean, if you got her, you know, you went out to dinner, even you went on a trip. You had the memory, but it's gone. You can spend these roses. This particular one is $89, but they started only $69. And it's out like on your dining room table, in the bedroom, on her desk, in the living room.

They have these on display, 52 weeks a year, 365 days a year. It always says, I love you. And it's an easy thing. So for $89, you're a hero. and you get fed for it all year around. All right, guys, there it is. You're looking at it right now if you're watching on YouTube. This Rose is incredible.

I think he's crazy. I understand why the other jewelers hate him. You got to go see for yourself. I hate StevenSinger.com. He's going to make us look good just in time for Valentine's Day. Yes, you can place an order right now. It will make it in time and he'll do it with free shipping. It's just $89.

They even have some more affordable ones, but why not get the sunset one? Everybody loves this. I can't wait for you to see it in person. It's perfect for guys like us. Go check it out. It's a real rose dipped in 24-carat gold. Don't do the florist routine. Those roses are going to wind up in the trash in a few days.

But this is something she'll never forget. It's real gold and a real rose for your real love just in time for Valentine's Day. I hate Steven Singer.com. Eric, I do want to ask you about this booking. I'll admit as a wrestling fan, I'm a self-admitted Mark Briscoe, Mark. I think he's one of the most entertaining characters in wrestling. I mean, if I had a promotion, he would be on my short list of guys I would draft. I think that highly of him.

I think he can do anything from the silly to the serious. But he's the TNT champ. He's got a little bit of momentum right now. I don't want to see him drop the belt. But at the same time, I don't know if you bring chompa in and you establish him as a top guy and you beat him on his first night. Would you have done this? I mean, it is interesting.

I think historically AEW has not done super strong if they were in the second position. So meaning if there was a matinee pay-per-view and then they had to go later, whoever goes second, usually wrestling fans of sort of burnout, whoever's in the second position, I feel like there's just a burnout factor if I can only watch so much wrestling in a day. And I get that. But by putting Chompah there,

it does feel like the AEW diehards, they're going to be there. They want to see his first match in AEW because he's been in WWE for so long, but prior to that he had such a tear in NXT. I know that's technically WWE, but you know what I mean. And before that ring of honor,

From a booking standpoint, is this a risk to have one of your top guys challenging for a title? Are you damned if you do? Damned if you don't or do you see it differently? Well, they made a decision. They're going to bring in a new character from WW, which has historically been a big deal in AEW. If they do anything other than put the belt on him and put him on a rocket right away, they're shooting themselves and him in the foot.

It'll be another popcorn fart in church. like all like all the rest of them have been. So I hope, hopefully since they've already made the decision, they're going to go with them. Go all the way. Did you do anything else? It's just stupid.

Raj, I do want to ask you about AJ Styles. You know, Eric and I are going to spend a lot of time on today's show talking about AJ Styles. But earlier today, there was a report that came out that said that AJ had apparently went to trademark his P1 logo for the phenomenal one logo. And by applying for that trademark himself,

and not WWE doing it, I think it raised some eyebrows. A friend of a friend, not in the wrestling business, but someone who knows AJ personally was telling me a couple of weeks ago, yeah, AJ is going to stick around WWE. He's not going anywhere. But we did see him sort of have like an interesting glance on the TNA debut at Frankie Kazarian, and it made me think, hey, maybe they're going for something there.

But now with this new revelation today, trademarking the P1 logo, now people are wondering, Hey, is he going out on his own? Is he going to be in AEW? Is he going to work New Japan? Is he going to hit some T&A events? Was this the end of his WWE career, but he's not really retiring? What do you think is up with this?

Were you getting mixed messages on the trademark notice, Rush? Yeah, but I think that, you know, I think that's great. And, you know, with Tony Kahn, I think, you know, as far as the kind of coups you can still pull, I mean, that would be a pretty big one. I mean, if he can get AJN for one last run, AED, and have him finish his career there, that would be, that would show he's back in the fight,

you know, it's kind of been like AEW's kind of been getting pummeled by WWE for really years and years, ever since the punk debacle. And it would kind of show like they're, they're still fighting and they're still there. So I, I'd kind of like to see that.

Everything AJ has said for years has been like, this is kind of his retirement year, this is when he wants to leave. I mean, I'd love to see him in T. one more time since that is where he really became a name. But just my gut tells me that, you know, this, you know, when he retires, it's WWE, and then he goes on to, you know, work behind the scenes as either a coach or trainer, you know, in that capacity.

But I think it would be a great coup if Tony could pull that off. Hey, so let's talk a little bit about TNA. We've mentioned them a few times. Of course, we did a live reaction show after they debuted on AMC. And we talked about, hey, what to expect in week two, but now the ratings are in for week two. You've had a chance to take a look at those. Raj, what were the numbers?

And how do you think they did? Yeah, I was shocked. Really, I'm pleasantly surprised. It was 171,000 viewers. So only down 2,000 viewers from the premiere, which did 173,000. And then it did a 0.03, 18 to 49 rating. And that's a rating that, you know, collision, that's kind of their normal rating. And so second weekend, and it actually beat collision this past week,

you know, collision did a 0.02, impact during a 0.03. Collision did have more viewers with 253,000. But I thought it was a really, before we knew the first week numbers, I'd say this number was okay. But knowing the first week numbers and doing this in week two, when most shows suffer a big drop, I think is really good. Now, obviously, the lower your audiences, like with any poll, the fewer people you have, you know, the fewer, the more a fewer number of people mean.

And so the less accurate numbers get, the further, you know, the lower your numbers are. But, yeah, if they can stay at this level, I think it's a positive sign. If they hover around that 200,000 mark and then start building and going up from there, I think that's a really good sign. Eric, what do you think? Now that we know we got our arms around what the number is for T&A, do you think this is going to bode well for them long term? Is it still wait and see?

Where are you at now that you know the number from week too? No, I think this is their starting point. This is their opportunity to grow from here. I was disappointed in the debut. As I'm sitting here, I'm watching television with the sound off of watching Fox News and they're just running all kinds of promotion for Real American Freestyle. There's actually a special that Fox created

for Real American Freestyle called the R-EF Best Takedowns. It's available at Fox Nation. I just saw it on the way here. They did a phenomenal job. My point in saying that, other than self-promotion, of course, is that the network is really getting behind us. The fact that AMC hasn't really gotten behind TNA,

at least not in a real visible way, It's disappointing to me because I think the opportunity is there. I think TNA could be drawing three, four, five hundred thousand people if the network gets behind them, if they do some promotion outside of social media and the AMC network itself. They've got to reach out and tell the world that TNA is there. Hey man, let's talk about saving some money. Let's talk about rocket money. I absolutely love this product and you will too.

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From wild characters to, to, unforgettable rivalries. Don't miss a single moment. Tune in every Thursday night at 7 p.m. on YouTube. J.C.W. Lunacy. Well, we're going to have to keep an eye on it. I'm pulling for TNA and their success. I think all of us sort of agreed on the debut episode, but I'm really pleasantly surprised to hear that so many people stuck around. And I got to think, if AJ is in fact not done this weekend, we're going to see them in TNA. and that feels like that's going to be a shot in the arm.

Like, Eric, if you were trying to look for a star who could maybe pop a number for TNA, it's got to be AJ wrestling a match, right? I think there's, uh, I don't want to presume or make it sound like I know AJ real well, but I know I know I know well enough. I, I don't see him going to AEW. I don't think he needs the money. He's done really, really well in WWE for a long time. I think if AJ decides he's going to continue to wrestle, he's going to follow his heart.

And his heart is probably in T&A. I think the little glance between AJ and Frankie was indicative of what may be to come. And I think that would be more fun for AJ. I just don't know what kind of real fun, for lack of any other term, he could AJ could possibly have an AEW I could see him going you know doing an independent tour

internationally but he kind of already wrote that off didn't he in Japan didn't he say goodbye to the Japanese audience and yeah kind of make it clear he wasn't planning on coming back no he also said you know WWE as well so maybe there's a Japan run

in his future but I think he would enjoy that but I really think he's going to end up and TNA. I hope he does because going to AW right now is a money play, which is nothing wrong with that at all. It's a good financial decision. I just

don't know how rewarding it would be to end your career there. Ross, let's talk a little more about the Royal Rumble and then we'll let you get out of here unless you have anything else. Let's talk about surprises. You know, there's been lots of speculation. Will Chris Jericho be in the Rumble? Will Powerhouse Hobbs be in the Rumble?

Will Evil be in the Rumble? Evil, of course, is from New and his contract recently finished. And New Japan actually released the information that he was not returning to New Japan. And I think everyone just naturally assumes he's going to WWE. Do you have any sense of what the potential spoilers or surprises could be this weekend? Have you heard anything?

I guess these aren't, it's not a surprise. Pat McAfee said he was going to be in. I do think Chris Jericho will be in. The one thing you got to remember about the Saudi audience is most of the, you know, these fans are WWE fans and not necessarily all are wrestling. So I don't know how much of an impact, how much of a reaction of Powerhouse Hobbs or evil would get. So I don't know if it's the right spot to do it.

But I definitely feel like we'll be seeing Chris Jericho there. I agree. I agree. I was kind of like, you know, Chris is interesting because he's so damn smart. And he makes good decisions. But I said this several months ago when he started really getting himself in shape and leaning out, because let's be honest. And I like Chris a lot. You know, we're friends.

But he started looking pretty dumping there for a while. And to see him get into the kind of shape that he's in right now, that's got WWE written all over it. I think it'll be a tremendous reaction. It will be exactly what Chris would want, I would imagine, in terms of the way you want to end your career. You want to end your career on the biggest note possible, on the biggest stage possible in front of as many people as possible. And of course, you want to make a couple of bucks in the process. But I think him showing up in Saudi is going to check all those boxes. Eric, let me ask you about that because, you know, what's interesting is if you go over to the

AEW roster page right now, Chris Jericho's listed. I'm not saying that necessarily means anything, but I'm just pointing out that it feels like the very moment that Hobbs gave notice, W. Or A.W. And he finished up. And it was everywhere. You know, Hobbs is finished up and he's expected in WWE eminently. We haven't seen those reports from the quote unquote dirt sheets this time.

And I know that Jericho was good at keeping things quiet, but I don't think that Hobbs was picking up the phone and calling everybody. So that almost feels like that information would have been fed to the dirt sheets or the different news sites, whatever you want to call them directly from AEW. Why wouldn't they be doing that for Jericho now? Why are they? Because by not doing it, you make the surprise even bigger. What's the point in doing that? What's the strategy, Eric?

What am I missing? Speculation, pure speculation. But again, knowing Chris just a little bit, he's a classy guy, he's a pro. My guess is at some point he and Tony had a conversation. And Chris explained what he was going to do and why he was going to do it. And he did it professionally and with respect to Tony and with respect to AEW. and probably asked if we could just keep our business between us. And my guess is Tony is going along with that because Chris handled it the way it should be handled.

That's just a guess. Well, shout out to those guys, if that's the way it is, because I'll tell you, even though I just asked, hey, what are those surprises this week? I want to be surprised. I think we all want to be surprised. Raj, is there anything else on your doc that you want to hit this week? You know, I'll just bring up NXT ratings right now, just because ratings across the board have just been so bad.

Smackdown, it's been under a million viewers for the past three weeks. NXT ratings just came out. It did 674,000 viewers. 0.08, 1849, that's what it's kind of been doing. But that 674,000, that's their biggest viewership since October, since October 14th. So a little positive news on the ratings front for wrestling,

so I thought I'd bring that up. But yeah, I think that's about it. It'll be a, I think it'll be a really fun weekend, so I'm looking forward to it. Well, Raj, we always appreciate you jumping on and chopping it up with us. Tell everybody how they can keep up with what you're doing every week. Yeah, you can just follow me on Twitter or X

at D.Raj Geary, and yeah, on here when I pop up. Keep checking it out and I appreciate it. No, thank you, man. We appreciate you. Thanks, Josh. Thank you very much.

Hey, take care. Eric, let's talk a little bit about the Royal Rumble this weekend. You know, there's a lot more than just the actual Rumble matches, but I just want to briefly run through, you know, some of the odds. But, you know, you can bet on resting now, which I think is fascinating. And the betting favorite for the last entrant in the Royal Rumble is Chris Jericho at minus 500. So if you're a betting novice, let me explain that.

In order to win $100, you would need to bet $500. That's how confident the internet seems that Jericho is going last. Behind that, it would be Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, Cody Rhodes, but the betting favorite is that number 30 will be Chris Jericho. Now, when it comes to who's going to win the men's Royal Rumble, the overwhelming favorite is Roman Rings. He's plus 175. So the idea being you would bet $100 to win $175.

And then it kind of falls off the cliff after that. Sammy Zane comes in at plus 400. Brian Breaker at plus 450. Cody Rhodes at plus 450 and LA Knight at plus 650. This is all, of course, from betonline.com. I just think that's interesting, though, that we seemingly have Roman Raines winning the Royal Rumble, I guess that makes sense in Saudi. Is that the way you would book it or would you do something different?

I'm not sure. It's kind of a challenge because you're booking for the live crowd, which as you pointed out, it's a different crowd. It's a different audience. This is why I think Chris is such as shoe in for Saudi and why it's going to work so well if he does show up. because that Saudi audience is probably more interested in all things that were WWE 15 years ago than necessarily they are with what's going on today.

At least that was the case a few years ago. They like the legends. They like the older talent. I think I told you the story. When I was there back in 2019, the Saudis were asking for people that had passed away six, seven years ago. So they weren't really in real time, so to speak. speak. Now that perhaps has changed as WWE has become more consistent in Saudi, but I do think

the reaction that they would get with Chris is going to be great. The part of me that from a creative point of view that I'd have to know pun intended wrestle with is it's such a great opportunity to really get somebody over because the crowd is going to be, the spectacle, as you had talked about earlier, it's going to be phenomenal. And if you really really want to elevate somebody. The match is obviously important. The opponent is important. The story is important.

But the backdrop. The scene is also very important. And if it were me, without, you know, knowing what's going on creatively, necessarily in WWE, just looking at the names that you rattled off, man, I'd put it on. I don't know. It's tough. I hate to.

I hate to speculate like this. I'm looking for. I just get the guy over. Get somebody over. Does Roman need that? Is Roman going to get any more over with the win at Royal Rumble? Probably not. Now, could it lead to WrestleMania?

Is it part of a story? And Saudi's more or less a stepping stone creatively. Then it might make sense. but give me somebody fresh and new. It's time. We need somebody fresh and new to be at the top of the pile. All right, man, let's talk about our kids and let's talk about money. You know, when I was a kid, I thought you could just write an IOU.

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Well, make no mistake, the Royal Rumble won't be their last chance. Coming up right after that, February 28th, so what, like just four weeks almost of the day, you'll see Elimination Chamber coming to us from Chicago. And the winner of the Men's Elimination Chamber and the Women's will also get title shots. So we know we've got two big belts lined up, and I guess Royal Rumble will decide one title shot, and Elimination Chamber decides the other title shot. But I'm perhaps most excited about this weekend with the Royal Rumble is, there's stakes for all the matches.

You know, we've got the women's Royal Rumble, we've got the men's Royal Rumble, a lot of intrigue in both of those. But when it comes to the other matches, Drew McIntyre defending his title against Sammy Zane. In Saudi Arabia, a place where a lot of people thought they'd never see Sammy Zane. I think that could be really, really interesting.

Because hypothetically, and I even listed him earlier, if Drew were to beat Sammy Zane, and it looks like, he lost his chance at the world title. It's not going to happen. What if he gets in the rumble and he earns another shot? So if he let the fans down, but then he goes in the rumble, he wins another shot. Man, I think that would be a really feel good moment in Saudi Arabia.

Maybe I'm wrong. No, I agree with you. It is intriguing. There's a lot of interesting possibilities there. And maybe that's what I like most about the Gunther A.J. Stiles match. As a reminder, there's a lot of stakes here. Now, Gunther is laid out. If he wins, AJ has to retire.

AJ's putting his career on the line. However, if AJ wins, he gets Gunther's spot in the Royal Rumble. So hear me out. What if AJ somehow wins, gets a shot in the Rumble, wins that, and then goes on to main event, his first and last WrestleMania. That could be fucking awesome to me. I mean, that kind of stuff is fun. I mean, the audience would rally around.

that. That's a, that's a fun, it's a fun idea that could actually work quite well. And it's interesting that, you know, all these trademark moves because the internet, you know, loves keeping track of that stuff. That could just be a red herring. I mean, if you really want to, you know, pay fave the audience, you really want to add to the surprise, make everybody think you're going in one direction and go in a different direction without it ever happening even on the show. All of this is just speculation in social media because of the trademark application. Perhaps that's just part of the promotion. It'll be interesting to see.

Unreal season three. I mean, season two was the ruse of the century with Seth Rollins not really being injured. As soon as I saw the P1 logo, I was like, wait a minute, there's no way. WWE is letting him have that. Now, maybe they are. But I, just like you thought, this is part of Unreal season three. He's going to keep it going. And I think it would be really cool if he does finish up at WrestleMania.

I'm not ready for AJ to wrestle his last match. But that's certainly the way people have been talking that, hey, we saw him wrestle his last match on Monday Night Raw. And if this really was it, then it does feel like it's a totally different approach to a farewell tour. With John Cena, we knew well in advance and we got to appreciate it every step of the way. We had some phenomenal matches over this last year with AJ Styles. I just don't think any of us knew until recently. Wait a minute.

We've been watching his retirement tour. And we didn't even realize it. So I want to spend some time and talk about AJ with you. You know, at this point, I think it's a well-worn staff that people have heard and are familiar with. He's actually had more matches in WWE and he had in TNA and New Japan combined. But try as I might. I still don't think of AJ as a WVE guy. I still think of him as a TNA guy.

Do you think of him as more of a WVE guy or a TNA guy, Eric? Yeah. You know, he's a TNA guy to me. And that's just because that's where I first met him. And that's, you know, he spent a long time there. He was really the face of that company. He was that company's identity. And he'll always be that company's identity in my mind,

even though he's had more matches of WWE. I know that a lot of people say that he is this, his generation's Sean Michaels. And I think that's probably hard to argue. I heard Jim Ross famously say he's never seen Sean Michaels by. I think a lot of people who grew up watching AJ would say the same thing. AJ could make almost any match or any scenario better. But in the same way that so many people would say that Rick Flair was

synonymous with Jim Crockett promotions and Hulk Hogan was synonymous with the WWF, I kind of feel like AJ's that guy for TNA even now, don't you? I do, which is why, again, I think as far as AJ's career going forward, regardless of what happens in WWV at the rubble, I still think there's a chance that we're going to see the rest of the year play out with AJ in WWE. But if I'm wrong, which I could easily be, then I think, like I said earlier, I think TNA is where AJ would be headed because that's where his heart would be hard. He also feels, I think, something special for TNA, even though he's been in WWE for as long as he has.

He'll always have a soft spot there. And there's guys there that he can work with and have fun with. it. That's the other part of it. What I love about this is they've done a good job keeping things quiet. We don't know that Hobbs is going to be there this weekend. We don't know that Chris Jericho is going to be there this weekend. We don't know where this Sammy Zane and AJ style stories are taking us. But I'm excited.

This may be the most anticipated wrestling pay-per-view for me in quite a while. But isn't it fun not knowing? Isn't it fun having all those possibilities? is you're going to tune in just to see if you were right, if your instincts were right, or that's the way wrestling should be. That's how it's most enjoyable is when you don't know, and you don't have all the information sitting in front of you in a freaking dirt sheet, just so you can pick it apart.

It's going to be a fun weekend. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to drop in and check it out. We've seen a rush of promotion on ESPN. You heard earlier, Raj Gehry announced that, Rock Lesnar just declared he was going in the Royal Rumble right on EFPN on Pat MacCity show, which is cool. But Triple H was on Get Up on ESPN, and he says this year is going to be no different. There's a lot of surprises in store, but also it's one of the most star-studded rumbles that I can recall.

I think everybody is looking forward to this. I think we'll see some NXT fans or folks. I think we'll see some AAA folks and lots of new debuts and maybe a couple of callbacks. I'm excited to see what that looks like. but we've talked about who may win the thing, who may not win the other thing. The big other stat that people are going to brag about is who has the most eliminations.

So I guess there's a well-waring cliche in wrestling. It's not who goes over, but who gets over. Well, the other, besides winning the thing, the two other ways to get over with the audience are who lasted the longest and who had the most eliminations. So let's focus on eliminations.

You mentioned earlier, Braun Breaker, maybe Braun or Bronson Reed or perhaps Obafeming. Who do you think will have the most eliminations this weekend, Eric, if you had to guess. Bron. Hmm. No, the Oba Finney, is that his name? Yes.

I've seen, I've seen social media on him. Absolutely impressive. So that could surprise a lot of people, but I think it's Bronn. it would make sense to me logically it would be brought i gotta tell you too i'm not sure what to expect but the women's royal rumble saudi arabia it's a different culture or different expectations they're gonna have 30 women and i think they all may be dressed a little differently than we're used to seeing here in america it's gonna be a little weird but it's going to be interesting to say to yeah there's not going to be any they ain't going to be any sizzle on that

steak that's for sure let's uh let's spend just just a minute and talk about Nakamura. I don't know if you had a chance to see his phenomenal match with AJ Styles. It was last weekend on Saturday Night's main event. I thought it was one of the better Nakamura matches we've seen in a long time. For whatever reason, it appears he's fallen out of favor with WWE. He just hasn't been as featured. But perhaps as a request to AJ, he wanted to wrestle him. I thought it was great. They had some fun homages to their previous matches. But Nakamura took social media and posted a really long heartfelt message about AJ. And again, this is why I think this has got to be part of the unreal thing. This has got to be a swerve because Nakamura wrote, I asked him, when are you going to retire? And he answered the Royal Rumble. I've already decided. And that was posted a week before the doggone event. So to me, it just feels like you're not going to have one of your promoters. You're not going to have him come out one of your, one of your performers come out and spoil a big story like that unless they're intentionally planting the seed, don't you think?

I am hoping. I am so hoping that's the case. We're all staying tuned to see what's going on with AJ and what's going to happen this weekend. I think this is one of the more anticipated paper views in recent memory. But one of the things that I think we've glossed over today is the ticket queue. You know, when tickets first went on sale for this, we know it was almost an immediate sellout. But if you'll recall back when tickets first went on sale, me, you and rise were all chatting. here that there were like 800,000 people in the queue or something.

Now, I'm sure there's got to be a lot of bots and all that. But that to me feels like, especially when you look at the financial commitment that Saudi made where they built a fucking stadium just for this one show. We're going to see this. I know for a lot of fans online who are saying, oh, this is an American thing. They're taking it from us. They're ruining it. They shouldn't be doing this.

I think this is the new norm. If you got that sort of ticket demand and they're willing to build a freaking stadium you know the rights are out of this world i think this is the new way this is sort of getting us ready for the saudi russomania next year don't you think it's so interesting if if you and i could imagine 10 years ago sitting down over a beard of pizza and and talking about what wrestling could look like in the future if either one of us would have suggested, yeah, but I think someday a country is going to want WWE so badly, they're going to build a stadium just to showcase a WWE event. We would think we were both nuts. It would have

made any sense to us. But here we are. Saudi Arabia built a stadium for an event in three weeks, which is even crazier. It just shows you how far it's common. And there's a lot of always going to be that feeling of, you know, these big PLEs shouldn't take place outside of the country. They should be here in the United States for the U.S. fan base. And I get that. But I'm so excited to see how WWE in particular, but you know, AW as well and other promotions are doing so well internationally. It makes my heart feel good. It puts a smile on my face.

Eric, I know we can't play the clip here, but since we've been recording. I ran across something that just tickled me. So I'll have Silva throw up some pictures and posts. But 25 years ago today, as you and I are recording, something crazy happened. AJ Stiles made his WCW television debut. And he wasn't as an in-ring performer that was a skit where DDP was signing autographs on his new book, positively page. And there's a really obnoxious wrestling fan there. waiting in line to meet DDP. That is a young

AJ Stiles before we ever knew it. I'll be honest. I knew that he and Air Paris had a couple of matches right at the very tail end of WCW in 2001. I did not realize that he debuted as a fan in a DDP skit. Did you know that?

I did not know that. That's super fun. I love the full circle. And speaking of full circle, this past week, we saw that there's been a a decision made. 2K is going back to the Monday Night Wars

and you're on the freaking cover representing all of the WCW folks. I just think it's cool that the Monday Night Wars are now taking over the damn thing. And, I mean, 2K was such a big deal for a lot of wrestling fans when they were growing up and like my daughter grew up playing it and all that.

But I think it's really interesting that on the WBE side of things, you've got Stone Cold, you've got the Rock, you've got The Undertaker, you've got Triple-A, you've got Kurt Angle, and I'll admit, I was surprised they threw China on there. But on the WCW side of things, there's Hulk Hogan, Scott Hawke, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, Booker T, and Eric Bischoff, Randy Savage, nowhere on here, Rick Flair's not on there, Sting's not on there, we understand that, they're under contract somewhere else. But what a cool little tip of the cap that is for you. Vince McMahon's not on this.

thing, but Eric Bischoff is, did you know this was coming? And what was your reaction when you saw? I'm on the cover to the fucking video game. I didn't know it was coming. Nobody gave you called and gave me a heads up. And I just thought, well, can't wait to see that next quarterly check. It'd be awesome. Don't mean to make light of it. It's a cool thing to have that period of time still so prominent in the marketplace and doing so well. Let's face it, WW. We wouldn't have put that out if they weren't convinced that it was going to sell a lot of product. And the fact that the Monday Night Wars, because it really was such a pivot point, I think in wrestling, it changed so much.

I've said it before. I'm like to say it probably every time we do one of these shows and talk about this type of thing. Had it not been for the Monday Night Wars, I don't think we'd be watching the WWE that we're watching today because it turned WWE's business around. They were flailing, they were losing money, they were having. They were taking the water coolers out of the office because they couldn't afford to service them any longer. And then Vince McMahon made the decision to abandon his teen and preteen formula and follow in Nitro's footsteps and go after the 18 to 49 year old audience.

And that blew WWE up. Had it not been for the Monday night wars, had it not been for the financial pressure that WCW put on WWE. I can't imagine anybody really believing that Vince McMahon would have decided on his own to abandon the formula that worked for him so well for so long and go after the 18 to 49-year-old demo. I think the Monday Night Wars changed the rest. You know, this is, everybody says this. It's become meaningless because everybody takes credit for it. But I really do think that the Monday Night Wars in particular changed wrestling for the better. And WWE in particular is a company that exists today

that's entirely different than the company that would have existed had there not been a WW, excuse me, a Monday Night War, so at WCW Nitro. I can't wait to see what this game looks like. I hope that that means we're going to double down and we're going to see some cool nitro sets and some cool thunder sets and some cool Eric Bischoff and EZE. maybe they'll have you in your crown and your motorcycle.

It's going to have, they're going to have me get my ass kicked. I guarantee it. I'll be taking bumps. I'll be getting embarrassed. I'll be all kinds of fun. None of the cool shit will be in there. I sincerely doubt me calling out Vince McMahon,

uh, is going to be in there. But you never know. You know, I think the, the butt hurt factor. Uh, I think this probably finally after all these years gone away.

So maybe who knows? I got to tell you, would be fun to play as Kevin Nash and power bomb your ass off the stage. That'd be fun. Yeah, it would be fun. But I did it. Wouldn't want to do it again, but I did it then. All right. So by now you've heard Eric bragging about Cignos. If you've taken a look at Eric lately, he's in better shape than ever, and he gives a ton of the credit to Cignos. You know, a lot of us, we read things and we learn some best practices and we see what people are saying on social media. And, oh, here's what you should do to get control of your weight. And here's how you can feel better.

what if you had real time insights into what's happening in your body? Cynos is making it happen. What you do is you're going to use a continuous glucose monitor and it's going to pair with their AI app. We're talking Cynos. And now we've got an idea of exactly how our body responds to all of our decisions. Do we sleep differently? Do we exercise differently?

Do we feel tired and lack energy based on the food we're eating? You're going to get real time almost immediate impact. You see, when you eat the wrong carbs for your body, your blood, sugar rises. So your body releases insulin to shudder that sugar into the cells for energy in the form of fat. Too much of this over time leads to weight gain and for some insulin resistance. And that makes it even harder to lose weight. It turns out like 88% of Americans are now classified as metabolically unhealthy. I want you to try Cygnos. I think you're going to love it. You're going to learn a lot about your different eating habits and things that you thought were good for you. Maybe they

weren't so good for you personally. Everybody is different. And this is the first time you'll have real-time insights into what's going on in your body. I think you'll sleep better. I think you'll feel better. I think you'll have more energy. And it won't feel like you're sacrificing. It's not a crash diet.

You're just learning what works best with your body. All of our bodies are unique. And the idea that you get real-time insights, really cool. By the way, the key features include incorporating exercise. Sickness will say, hey, man, you need to move around a little bit. bit. Let's get some more steps or hey, maybe try going to bed a little earlier or night. Whatever's going on in your body, you're going to get that real-time insight. There's also a really cool community inside the app on Cynos. You get personalized

tips and insights, but most importantly, the idea that you've got access to a dietitian and a community of other people who are learning about their body, man, it really is cool. I hope you'll check it out. You know, as humans, we all make about 227 different food decisions a day. But imagine how much easier that would be if those decisions could be personalized with data guiding you. It's your data. I'm a big believer in this. I want you to claim your fresh start with Cignos. Right now, Cignos has an exclusive offer for all of our listeners. Go to Cignos.com. That's SIGNOS.com. That's Cignaus.com. The promo code is 83 weeks and you'll get 25% off select plans today. Take a look at it.

Eric Bischoff. It works. It's easy. It's Cignos. Use that promo code 83 weeks. Well, somebody who's maybe thinking about getting in the wrestling business, we touched on last week. And I was surprised, some of my non- Wrestling friends pointed out that Westside Gun made a post about our show on 83 weeks last week, where we talked about the possibility of him buying T&A. He made a post. He says, I'm buying T&A. That's the rumor last year when we started throwing fourth rope shows. It was the biggest challenge ever of my career, but also the most fun I've ever had. I've met some of the best talent in the world who believe in the culture and vision and have been putting it out there with blood, sweat, and tears making our shows legendary. I've studied every big match sitting

front row for the past decade and created a whole new wave of energy for those who fell out of love for it or simply never watched. Every show we've thrown has been full of energy, the best merch, the best atmosphere, and we only believe in the forbidden door you, never know who's going to face who. I never believed in numbers and always cared for the art, the culture, and the message. And I truly believe the money will then come. Who cares who's one, two, three. Who cares who did it first? Just do you and love it. I know what I can do and can't do as well, but I know I could bring an energy that TNA has a hat in a long time. But in the meantime, Fourth Rope is about to show while we're top five promotions in just one year,

man, I got to tell you, we talked about this last week. I'm really excited about the idea of West Side Gun sort of converging hip-hop and wrestling together. That could be super fun for T&A, but in the meantime, I'm going to check out some Fourth Rope shows. What say you, Aaron? Absolutely. I mean, he's passionate and he's smart. He understands the entertainment business. He's got great relationships in the entertainment business. And I think his take on developing a promotion for the culture, so to speak, is right on the money. It, it, it, I'm shocked somebody hasn't done it yet, to be very honest with you.

And maybe what side's the guy to do it? I hope he is. He's cool, cool dude. I don't know that you, uh, saw the reports, but I guess there were some reports that, uh, Sting has been working dark matches for AEW. So I don't think they're being. filmed and if they are they're not posted anywhere but sting's son is maybe following in his footsteps getting some reps in before uh the cameras go live in a e w what do you think about

that i mean this is kind of cool you know we've seen uh rick flair's daughter obviously pursue wrestling and i think people wondered once upon a time would nick hogan get in there but now the son of sting is going to be there what do you think about little stinger i'm excited for Steve, Senior, Steve Jr. or Sting Senior, Sting Jr. It's a lot of pressure, though. I mean, I have mixed emotions about it. There's going to be, there's so much pressure on anybody that's going to step into this world and go out there and perform in your underwear. It's just, you know, it's a lot.

But when your dad is Sting, that's a whole different love. of pressure, different kind of pressure. So I don't envy either one of them, the pressure that they're both going to be under and the anxiety to a degree. But I am happy to see, you know, it just makes you feel good to see a father and a son, you know, our son following in his father's footsteps, so to speak, particularly in something as unique as professional wrestling. So I'm hoping for the absolute best and for both of them, actually.

but a little nervous for them both too. Me too, man. I hope it works out. I know the pressure has got to be just immense. And we've actually got a live question here that I wanted to ask you about. This is something I never even considered. We were talking a moment ago about the new WW2K game. Did you ever think there would be a day where you would be in a WW video game,

but Vince McMahon would not? No, that's bizarre, isn't it? It's weird. I mean, I thought about, I was in, I was at WWE. That was in the summertime, August sometime. I went there to

shoot some stuff. I can't remember who it was for anymore. I think. And I remember walking into the new office. It was the first time I'd been in the new offices. And I walked in there and I'm looking around. I was so impressed with just the facility itself. It's kind of overwhelmingly cool.

And the thought occurred to me that, how bizarre is it that I'm welcomed? into WCW headquarters and presumably it's probably a bigger issue for Vince just to go walking through the door right now. So it is weird. It's unfortunate. I don't take any joy in it, but it is odd when you think about it. Well, we're all thinking about this weekend in Atlanta.

I wish you guys were joining us. I can't tell you how fired up I am for Power Plant or your tour of Atlanta or promo class. And of course, the game event, somebody could win 10. thousand dollars this weekend. Make plans to join us at our next event. We're going to announce it this coming weekend when and where our next one will be.

We've got a lot of fun stuff planned. We hope that you'll make plans to join us. Eric, we get together with our family over at ad-free shows a couple times a year. And they've always been can't miss events. I know that everybody hates travel and all that jazz. But getting together like this, it kind of almost feels like a little half-ass family reunion of sorts. It is. It is. And I get the same vibe. Unfortunately, Lori isn't with me. Mrs. B isn't here. On this trip, she's in Tampa with our grandson. So I'm going to miss her being here. She's as much a part of the ad-free show's experience as anybody else. She has fun doing it. But it is a little bit like the annual kind of a family reunion. We've always talked about our ad-free shows family. And they have been. We've made some great friends,

long-term friends, people that we associate with away from, you know, wrestling related events. So I really am looking forward to it. You know, I fall into that category. I hate travel. I just, I'd rather two off my leg to get in a plane and go somewhere. But once I get there,

I have a blast. And I plan I'm having a blast this weekend. Let me just go ahead and tell you now, it's a bad day to be a light beer in McDonough, Georgia. If you've never seen Eric Bischoff go to work, buddy. I can't wait. We're going to have a blast. We hope you'll make plans to join us next time.

We're going to talk about the Royal Rumble. We'll even have some clips from this weekend. And we've got some really fun stuff in store. We're going to be filming some stuff. And I don't want to give any spoilers just yet. But to say that we've got some really fun curveballs coming up in the coming weeks here on the podcast will be an understatement. Don't you agree, Eric? I do.

you know what I think? I'm kind of, I'm hesitant, but I'm thinking, you know, I've never learned how to do a flat back bump. I've never learned. Nobody's never taught me how to take any kind of a bump. I've just said, sure, I'll do that, and going out and done it and hope for the best. Most of the time, that's worked out okay. I think it's time at the stage of my life, I should learn how to do a flat back bump. And if anybody can teach me, it would be serge.

So maybe we'll get that on tape. Depends how bad it is. Just so I'm clear, did I just hear you sign up to take your very first bump or first trained flatback bump at 70 years old? Yeah, I'll do that. I love Eric Bischoff. And I can't wait for us to talk about, hey, if Eric lives, we'll be back next week right here in 83 weeks.

Turn on the notifications bell. And if he doesn't, we'll put Silva in a wig and we'll do our best. But we greatly appreciate you guys hanging out with us. I hope you can tell how excited we are about our weekend and specifically the Royal Rumble. It's going to be a blast. It's a great time to be a wrestling fan. I hope you'll check out Collision as well. I want to give a cheap plug since we've been recording.

I just saw that it's official now. Kazukka Okada, arguably one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, is going to be wrestling. My great close personal friend, Adam Priest, and Adam's first title shot in AEW, live on collision, the same night that Damaso Champa is wrestling Mark Risco. this is going to be fun, man. I don't know that you've had a chance to hang out with Adam much, but the idea that he's wrestling, one of the biggest stars in the history of New Japan Pro Wrestling

for a title on AW, man, I'm fired up for this weekend. I can't wait. That's going to be fun. It'll be fun to watch it with you guys, too, so I'm looking forward to it. We love watching wrestling with you guys. We love talking wrestling with you guys, and we'll do more of it next week right here on 83 weeks.

With Eric Bischoff.