83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 422: Good vs Bad Controversy

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson aren't holding anything back as they tackle some of the most talked about topics in professional wrestling today. Eric shares his blunt take on Darby Allin as AEW World Champion, explaining why he doesn't believe Darby looks like the face of a major company, and why the decision to put the title on him could be bad for business. The guys also discuss whether AEW and WWE would benefit from reintroducing a cruiserweight division in today's landscape.  Plus, Eric breaks down why Roman Reigns' recent social media promo and why it hit on a different level and what made it resonate so strongly with fans. And in classic 83 Weeks fashion, Eric counts down his Top 5 WrestleMania matches, offering insight and perspective only he can deliver. HARRY'S PLUS - Get the Harry's Plus Trial Set for only $10 at https://harrys.com/83WEEKS #Harryspod STEVEN SINGER JEWELERS - Celebrate the mons who make every sunrise possible. Steven Singer's new Sunrise Rose is just $89. Exclusively and only available at www.ihatestevensinger.com CHUBBIES - Chubbies is here to keep you comfy and looking good year-round. Get 20% off with code 83weeks at https://www.chubbiesshorts.com/83weeks  ! #chubbiespod INDACLOUD - If you're 21 or older, get 40% OFF your first order @IndaCloud with code 83WEEKS at https://inda.shop/83WEEKS ! #indacloudpod BLUECHEW - Right now, when you buy two months of BlueChew Gold, you get the third for FREE with promo code 83WEEKS. Visit http://BlueChew.com  for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast. ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to http://RocketMoney.com/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.

Today's episode comes to you from the Blue Chew Studio right now. When you buy two months of Blue Chew Gold, you get the third for free with promo code 83 weeks at bluechew.com. 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 doing great. And I'm in Philadelphia, beautiful hotel right downtown Philadelphia.

Summer day here. It's like in the 90s. It's awesome. and have a big weekend coming up. It is WrestleMania weekend. It is Power Slap weekend. And it's real American freestyle weekend. Before we talk about what's to come,

let's talk about last week. We tried something a little different here on the channel, Eric, for years and years, you and I have been chatting it up about the old days of WCW. And of course, talking about the current product. But last week, we tried something a little different.

We actually recorded this in late January. Maybe it was early February. I think it was the very first few days of February. You and I found ourselves in Atlanta and we went to AFX Studios, hooked you back up with Andre, got the band back together. And I thought it was a really, really cool look behind the curtain,

how the sausage was made creatively when it came to the visual effects of WCW. That was a really fun episode, man. What did you think? No, it was fun. You know, it was certainly fun for me, excuse me, to connect with Andre.

again because it had been a long, long time, and he hasn't changed a bit, really. But it also gave people insight into just how much work goes into some of the stunts and the things that they see on television that, you know, you don't really think about it. You just enjoy it. You don't sit there and, you know, try to figure out how it's done. But Andre did a great job of taking us through the process and the art, conception, production, and then the execution. So I thought it was very interesting.

Check it out in the archives. We talk about the Big Gold Belt. We talk about Wildcat Willie. We talked about Hogan's Head Sculp from the build. That was weird. That was weird. It is. I mean,

it was so lifelike. And given what's happened in the last year, it had to be even more surreal for you, right? Yeah, it really, really was. When I first walked in, truth be known,

I didn't say this to anybody that day. But, you know, when I first walked in, I saw the finished product sitting there. It's like, yeah, I can't look at that. You know, it was too weird. It was too weird. But, you know, after being there for a little while, it was easier.

But yeah, it was because it was so lifelike. I mean, it's weird. Check it out. It's a tour of a place that a lot of wrestling fans have heard about, but they've never actually gotten to see or gotten to know, Andre. And we were excited that he was able to make an appearance here on 83 weeks with us. we're going to talk about what's been happening in wrestling in the last week, and we're also going to talk about what's to come this weekend,

and we're even going to be breaking down some of Eric's most classic and favorite WrestleMania moments. It is WrestleMania weekend. Let us know in the comments below what some of your favorite WrestleMania moments have been through the years, whether it's a match or maybe there's just a famous shot or some sort of moment. That's what WrestleMania has become about. We'll be talking about all of that today, but hey,

let's talk about why you're in Philadelphia, real American freestyle on the docket again. It feels like you guys just had an incredible show in Tampa and now you're back at it again in Philly. And this is really loaded with some pretty recognizable names from the MMA community and certainly a who's who of Rasslin chat us up about the card this Saturday at Real American Freestyle. It's going to be a big night.

And I, you know, there's a lot of great matches on the card. I'm not going to walk people through all the matches, but a couple key ones that I'm looking for, performances, that is, Real Woods. Real Woods was one of the athletes that early on I kind of suspected was going to be really, if not the face of Real American Freestyle, certainly one of the leading stars on the roster. And he's a phenomenal wrestler, but he's had some tough matchups, and he really needs to get a win in order to have any kind of momentum and a chance for a title here at Real America freestyle. So I'm looking for a big performance out of real woods. I'm hoping for a big

performance, I should say, out of real woods. Kyle Snyder, now this is the only second time we've seen Kyle Snyder, of course, gold medal winner. A great, great athlete, great guy, too, by the way. I want to see more out of him. I mean, like, I want to enjoy watching him wrestle more and compete more because he's really a phenomenal athlete. We've got a big surprise. You know, I love surprises, right? We've got a major announcement that's going to take place on the show. And I think it's going to stir up quite a bit of interest.

So a lot of great things to look forward to, and it's going to be a fun night. Our eighth event already, you know, we're looking at Dallas next month, St. Louis after that. We've got some big, big announcements that are going to come during the course of the week in terms of growth for Real American Free Style. So it's hard to keep up with, to be honest with you. It's really fast-paced growth and development, and we're excited about it. You'll see the entire card at real American Freestyle.com. That's also where you can pick up a ticket. There's still a handful of tickets remaining or do what I'm going to do and be watching on

the Fox Nation app. You know, listen, let's be honest. I know WrestleMania is on the same night, but we also know, WrestleMania is going to have a lot of dead time between the matches. So I'm going to be doing a split screen experience at my house. And I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this. If you've missed a real American freestyle, the good news is, if you go sign up for Fox Nation right now,

for just a few bucks a month, not only can you see the Real American Freestyle event, R-A-F-O-8 this weekend, but you can also see the first seven, all available for you right now on the Fox Nation app. You can hit that QR code, or we'll have a link in the description for today's show. But it is loaded, man, one way or another.

everybody's talking about wrestling this weekend. Before we talk about WrestleMania, we are, as you and I are recording, we're lunchtime on a Thursday. Last night, we crowned a brand new AEW champion. Darby Allen,

and what a lot of people would have to believe is an upset. Ficked up a very quick victory over a worst for wear MJF. MJF and Kenny Omega push up to the limit. I think they wrestled nearly 50 minutes on Sunday night. One of the more hard-hitting matches you'll see of MJF's career. As the story goes, he showed up to the building yesterday and had no idea that Sunday, the announcement was made that Darby Allen following his win over Andrade

El Edelow was going to cash in his title opportunity. He wanted this title shot, not at the pay-per-view in Queens, not at all in and Wembley. He wanted it in his hometown of Everett, Washington, where he first trained to be a wrestler, friends and family in the front row, Max was caught off guard, wasn't prepared. And after four coffin drops, Darby Allen is your champ. They brought out a welcoming committee. All the baby faces from the locker room come out to celebrate with Darby. And then who else is there?

The man who gave the pregame speech to Darby moments before, his mentor, his former tag team partner, it's Sting. So Sting and all of the baby faces anointing one of the pillars of AEW. Darby Allen's first world title win. I guess it's been a little controversial, more so than I expected. What did you think? I guess I get it on paper, but it didn't come off well. I mean, I'm trying hard not to be critical.

It's not something I would have done. I don't think it's something that the audience appreciates. I looked at some of the commentary on AEW's social media feed, not somebody who's critical of AEW or a talking head in the internet wrestling community like me. I'm talking about the AEW social media site and the feedback based on that announcement suggests to me that it might not have been the best decision. And Darby, look, he's a great performer in many ways. He's fun to watch.

He's obviously very committed. but he weighs about a buck 45 and just doesn't look like a heavyweight world champion. And at some point, casting matters. This is an entertainment property. This isn't a real sport. This is entertainment we're talking about here. And just like any movie or television series, you need to cast it properly. And this is really, really bad casting to squash MJF, regardless of,

what you think about him. I just, good luck with it. It's all I can say, good luck. I hope it works out. I hope it's a better move than I think it is. I hope it's a better move than a lot of the audience, at least those who responded to social media,

which are always the most negative and the loudest. But again, these are the sickos that are gagging on this stuff. So let's see where it goes. You know, you never know. It could be a brilliant move. So brilliant that none of us can make sense of it. Initially, and only those that are operating at a higher level of enlightenment can see this as being something that makes sense. Well, it does feel a little bit like long-term storytelling.

I think these guys have wrestled three times now. MJF won the first two with the exact same hole that Darby won with. So I do think this continues the story. As a reminder, MJF is from Long Island. the next AEW pay-per-view is in Queens. So it does feel like we're going to have a rematch. This match, of course, took place in Darby's. I guess we'll call it hometown.

I think that's probably where they're headed for the May pay-per-view. But there's a report immediately after the show last night that says MJF is expected to film at least one movie after he dropped the AEW World Championship to Darby Allen on last night's dynamite. So I guess Hollywood calls. And we're hoping that he'll be back sooner rather than last. later to sort of see where this story goes, but not everybody was in favor of it. Road Dog, who almost never comments on AEW stuff, well, now he's outside of the tent of WWV.

And he quote tweeted a discussion on social media this morning about, hey, what did you think? And what Road Dog had to say was, there is no right or wrong. They did it. It was the decision made by the decision maker. I feel it should have been someone else, but I don't know the intricacies of the business slash life situation of the talent involved. That's important context that I think a lot of times we gloss over.

But if we know that MJF is leaving to do a movie and we know that maybe some of the other talent already have a long-term storyline in place, maybe it makes sense to slide it in here. We'll see. We'll see how it plays out. But even Dave Meltzer, who at times has been framed as the number one AEW defender,

to the point that a lot of people speculate he's on the payroll, and he's not. Here's what they've had to say. When you say Darby's the right guy, I completely disagree. As far as doing a title change on a Wednesday TV, that's fine. To me, the world champion should be the top guy, but certainly top three or four in your company, and he's not. Now, I think this is interesting because he's talking about being an in-ring performer and saying that he's not in the top three or four.

We know how Meltzer felt about Hulk Hogan. I don't think he would ever rate him as one of the top three or four. But I do feel like maybe Dave is of the opinion that, hey, if we're saying this is where the best wrestle, then it needs to be Kenny Omega or Will Osprey or Okada or Takesha. I don't know. It does feel like the Darby story would have been one that I thought you would get behind, Eric.

I mean, it doesn't look like a wrestler. I mean, that's been a consistent problem with AEW in cases. And not across the board, but generally speaking, you look at that roster and that one, very few of them look like they could possibly be mistaken

for a professional wrestler. There is a presentation. There is an aesthetic. There is a larger than life component to successful professional wrestling. And Darby Allen, you know, he got great makeup, no doubt about it. Makeup is top, top game.

But come on. Is there any believability in this? Is there even an attempt to make it look believable? And I'm sorry, Darby Allen is just not a believable, heavyweight professional wrestler. You should be in a cruiserweight division somewhere. I don't know, but nobody's buying it. Nobody's buying it.

It's just, it's bad casting. Just so I'm clear, do you believe that Ray Mysterio should have ever been the world champion? Or do you think that was a mistake as well? I don't think anybody bought it. I think Ray Mysterio had established himself long enough with the audience. They loved Ray and accepted him for years before he became a world champion. That allowed him, you know, the opportunity to slide in there for a cup of coffee. but it didn't have any legs.

It couldn't have any legs because it's not believable. Sure, you can pull it off and you can get a short-term pop, and it's kind of a bridge position for a guy like Ray. But, first of all, AEW's not nearly in the kind of condition that WWE was in when they made Ray Champion, number one. AEW is kind of in a fragile state right now with regard to its relationship with its audience. It's still, they've been picking up some, some ratings since the Nielsen numbers shifted. So I guess that matters.

I don't know how ticket sales. I'm assuming ticket sales are up proportionately. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that because I don't know. But if they are indeed, if it's more than just a perception that they're growing, why in the world would you make a change like this right now? There's just not, there's zero logic to it. The only logic I can see is, oh, he's in his hometown and his family's here, and it's a feel-good moment. And if that's the extent of the thinking, then, you know, you got what you plan for.

I just don't think it has any legs. I don't think the audience is buying it. I don't think it's a good setup for another story. I just think it was a bad choice, creative choice, and we can dress it up and talk about it and analyze it and project what we hope is going on behind the scenes. I just think it was a flat out bad decision. I'm fascinated by you saying you feel like he should be a part of the cruiserweight division. Of course we know, AW doesn't have a cruiserweight division.

And in fact, WWE abandoned their cruiserweight title back in 2022. Do you think that's missing in modern wrestling? Obviously, we know what a highlight it was of Nitro. And the WWF, specifically Vince McMahon's regime, they never really embraced the cruiserweight or what they different times referred to as the light heavyweight division. Do you think that that is a blind spot in professional wrestling now? Or since you have so many lucha talent on the shows, whether it's AAA in WWB or CMLL and AEW,

is that sufficient or do you think that there should be a cruiserweight championship or a cruiserweight division specifically? I think it's a huge, huge opportunity. And I do think WWE is missing the boat by a mile. You know, if you look at the impact that the Cruiserweight Division in WCW has had on the entire freaking industry now for, what, 27 years, all you have to do is look at what has happened as a result of and since we created the Cruiserweight Division. if you look at that and you're objective enough to see the impact that that had, why would you not create a Cruiserweight Division to take advantage of so many more these athletes who came into the business as a result of the success of the Cruiserweight Division?

It opened up way more doors for a lot of these athletes. Well, here, why not take advantage of it and make those athletes feel as special as they are? Their style should be different, can be different, is different. Let's just focus on it, accentuate it, put a spotlight on it, call it the cruising weight division, and create more opportunities. To me, I don't understand it. Every other combat sport has weight divisions. Why is professional wrestling different? because nobody's wrapped their head around it.

And nobody has been able to wrap their head around it. And it's not math. It's not hard. It's not physics. It's pretty simple. And it worked. So why wouldn't we do it again? For crying out loud, we repeat shit that doesn't work.

Why not repeat something that does? I do want to ask you about the timing of this. We know that they had a pretty awesome pay-per-view, or at least I really enjoyed it on Sunday night, the AEW show. dynasty. Monday night was the go home episode of Monday Night Raw. Of course, Tuesday was NXT on a big WrestleMania weekend. And then last night, AEW Dynamite, we see a world title switch. As you and I are recording later tonight, collision will air. It was actually

taped last night. And then Friday night is the go home episode of Smackdown and the Hall of Fame. And then we roll right into WrestleMania. Do you think it was a good strategy by A.E. to capitalize on this week. I know that sometimes we get so far in the bubble in the internet wrestling community that we sort of can't see the forest for the trees. But you do have more folks in the mainstream and more interest in the general population talking about wrestling right now this week than you would any other week of the year. So do you think that it was a good strategy, it was chest not checkers,

to have an AEW pay-per-view the week before and then do a title. switch, just to get people talking about AW in a time when we know that professional wrestling on a larger scale is being discussed much more often this week. Well, I don't know that professional wrestling on a larger scale is. I know WWE is certainly getting a lot more conversation. I don't think anybody is talking about anything other than WWE for the most part any differently than they normally would. Do I think that having the pay-per-view this close to WrestleMania is any kind of strategy or chess?

No, I really don't. I don't think it was intended to have any kind of impact. I think it was probably, more than anything else, a scheduling issue, a venue availability. It just coincided. You're not going to skip a pay-per-view, but I don't think the timing was strategic or there's any chess going on there. In terms of the title switch and hoping that it gets more attention because more people are thinking about wrestling, I think that's wishful thinking at best. Delusional is probably more appropriate. And the talking, the additional conversation about AEW right now is not the conversation you want taking place on WrestleMania Week.

Well, I think you're the guy to ask about these things because I remember back, you know, when you had the W. WWF on the ropes, you know, we're talking March of 97, you run a fabulous uncensored pay-per-view, and you've got Dennis Freaking Rodman there, and you actually got more pay-per-view buys for uncensored, which historically in 95 and 96 was one of the worst performing WCW paperviews, uncensored, with the appearance from Dennis Rodman, actually sold more buys than WrestleMania 13 the very same month. So it does feel like you leaned into some controversy, not comparing Dennis Rodman to a title switch, but you saw this as an potential opportunity of,

hey, they're going to be talking about WrestleMania. Wait until they get a load of this. Here comes. Yeah, but that wasn't the thinking, honestly. It's kind of projecting a little bit as to what may be going on in Tony

Kahn's mind. But for me, that wasn't the thought process at all. The thought process was we need another paper view. We're going to do it in March. I know, got a WrestleMania, we don't have any choice. We're going to do another pay-per-view. It was more of a revenue decision than it was anything else. And that was it. There was no more strategy behind it

than that. It wasn't chess. It was like, shit, we need another pay-per-view. Let's give it a new name. Let's make it feel a little different. Let's try to come up with some ideas that makes it feel distinguishable from the other pay-per-views from a branding perspective and see what happens. that was all there was to it. You didn't think by loading Dennis Rodman up on pay-per-view on the same month as WrestleMania, would have a negative effect on WrestleMania boss? I don't know that I even thought about that.

Wow. It just wasn't the calculus because I wasn't competing against WWE. It wasn't, and take some of the shit I may have said as a promoter and as a character on a show, set that aside from a purely a, business point of view, I don't even know that I thought about the impact that it would have, if any. In fact, you saying that we sold more buys than WW or than WrestleMania, I was shocked to hear you say that just now. I didn't even know. Or if I did, I didn't care.

That's how much I thought about positioning uncensored against WrestleMania in the same month. I gave it zero thought. I think if I thought anything kind of. I thought anything kind of. I was open shit. I hope this doesn't hurt us. That's it. Let's talk about the finger poke of doom. You know, famously that happens right at the same night where you know there's going to be a title change on the other channel. Is that an example of you trying to create some controversy helping that controversy creates cash? Like you know that there's another title change on the other channel. So let's counter program with our own controversy. I'm just wondering. I wonder if AEW. you knew that there would be this debate about whether or not.

I think you're giving us way too much credit, Conrad. You want so badly, people that are supportive of AW, want so badly to find logic in an illogical situation. No, the finger poke of doom had nothing to do with counter programming. At that point, I think I've said this, I don't know, a couple million times. I wasn't paying attention to WW. If you weren't paying attention, why do you have Tony Chivani tell people what happens on the other channel? If you're not counter-prosurating.

Look, Conradt, you're trying to compare apples to bricks. We were running head-to-head. Yes, and there were times because we were head-to-head, I took advantage of the opportunity to do any number of things from day one, doing any number of things that I could do to not necessarily. counter program segment by segment, but to pick a fight with the bully. That's what we did. That's what we went head to head. When I went live, when I was giving away their finishes, when I started the show two minutes

before they did, you know, when I started doing the overruns before anybody else had ever thought of it, all those things were designed to give us a competitive edge in a head-to-head environment where we knew we were splitting the audience. but that didn't extend to creative necessarily. Very often is probably more accurate. Occasionally, perhaps, but it wasn't like I was watching WWE so closely that I would counter-program them creatively,

certainly in the case of the Fingerbook of Doom, that had nothing to do with what was going on with the other channel. Now, Tony Schavani, you know, giving away a finish, sure, that was a one-off. That's not something that we did all the time. it was a one-off and it backfire, you know, spectacularly, by the way. But it wasn't like anybody sat in a room and went, hmm, how can we prong a program? What do you think Raw is going to do this week?

Oh, they've got a title match. Well, maybe we should do this. It's a juvenile way of approaching it. I was focused on our show. I was focused on trying to create the best show that we could. And quite frankly, not to be a. dick, but by 1997, they were so far in my rearview mirror. I did not give two shits about what they were doing, which is why I didn't pay attention

to it. There was no need to pay attention to it. There was nothing I was going to do that would improve my show based on thinking about what WWE was doing at that time. So I know the tendency is to go, well, you were doing that. So do you think maybe that's what Tony's doing? I think you're giving Tony Con way too much credit and working too close. hard to apply logic to a guy that doesn't really have a logical booking approach.

He books what he likes to see. That's it. That's the booking strategy. I love you, Eric. When you make your mind up, you've just got your mind made up. It's kind of fun. I can't wait for somebody to change it,

but I don't see anything to suggest that that's going to happen anytime soon. Well, something that is going to happen pretty soon. you're all going to try Harry's Plus and you're going to fall in love with it. You're going to see why Eric and I have decided. $30 for eight refills is a total scam. That's what they're trying to pull down at your corner drugstore. You need to switch to Harry's Plus.

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cartridge, a two-ounce foaming, shave gel, and a travel cover to protect your blades on the go. Let's head on over right now to harrys.com slash 83 weeks to claim this offer. After you purchase, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them, we sent you. So, Eric, I know you're down on the AEW program, if I'm honest with you. I'm surprised you actually even watched it. I didn't watch the whole thing. I watched parts of it.

I saw a lot of it on social media, but I did not see the whole show. And I'm not criticizing the whole show. I know people like, especially that, you know, listen to podcasts and live in the internet wrestling community 24 hours a day, like to frame my responses as being anti Tony con or anti. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. You can't just walk back what you just said. Before I did the Harry's commercial, you said Tony con books for himself.

He books what he likes. And now the next sentence, I'm not being critical. of the whole show. Weren't you just critical of the whole show? No, I was critical of a booking decision. We were talking specifically about a title change and a match with MJF and Darby. That's what I was talking about.

You, I guess, were talking about the entire show, but that's not what I was talking about before the Harry's commercial. So what did you like on the show last night, Eric? Haven't seen enough of it to pick anything out. Hey, Conrad, guess my ass. If you're trying to turn this around and try to, not undermine, but dismantle my position on a booking decision between Darby Allen and MJF and turn that around us to, well, you didn't watch the whole show so you don't have the right to be critical. I didn't say that. You asked me about them.

Okay, Conrad. Nice. No, I didn't say that at all. No. I said you weren't high on the program and you said that's not true. So then I asked, okay, well, what did you like? I said I didn't watch the whole program. Why would you ask me what I liked?

I watched that match. I dropped in on a few segments of it. I've seen what I've seen on social media. I didn't see anything that I liked or disliked other than it. And it's not that I even disliked it. You're asking my opinion of it. My opinion of the Darby Allen, MJF match, was that it was bad for business. For all the reasons I talked about, that has nothing to do.

I like Tony Con or I like AEW or I dislike Tony Con or I dislike AEW. I think that match was a poor booking decision, which is reflective on a lot of matches that we see. I've seen over the years we've all seen that make zero sense from a business perspective. From Tony Con's personal perspective as a sicko, I guess it's cool. And there's a certain segment of the audience that agrees with him. Hurrah. Let's hope there's enough of them to survive on. My personal opinion, in the big scheme of things, Tony's booking decision between MJF and Darby Allen, which was the subject of what we've talked about so far, I thought sucked. It didn't do, it didn't make any sense. There would have been a way to make it

make sense for a five-minute splash match, four coffin drops in the center of the ring, a headlock, has some creative shit there. Yeah, I don't think you're alone. I mean, that's why I think we're discussing it now. I mean, Dave Meltzer, as we said, who's maybe been framed as the biggest A.W ally on the internet wrestling community, he was against it. So was Road Dog,

one of the former headwriters from WWB. So it's not a surprise that you too are not for it. I think that this is the reason we're talking about it today. And I kind of thought you may actually respect the balls to make a choice like this because it does get people talking. The alternative would have been to just turn in a paint by numbers AEW show that may or may not create any sort of online discussion or discourse and just let WWE own the week because it is WrestleMania Week.

Or you can take a shot at something and try something crazy. And if it's shitty, you can fix it next week on Dynamite. I just thought, you know what? Eric's probably going to like this because it's controversial and it's got people talking. When normally on WrestleMania Week, respect. I don't know how many people otherwise would be talking about AEW. So whether we agree or disagree, he made a choice and it's got some chatter.

I just thought controversy creates cash. This is up Eric's alley. Maybe not someone. There's, you know, I run up against opportunities to create controversy even here in a real American freestyle. Of course,

we're a legitimate sport. It's a different scenario. We're not creating fiction here. We're covering a real sport. It's different. But there's still. opportunities to do controversial things. And I find myself explaining sometimes that controversy for the sake of controversy,

getting people talking is half of the equation, getting people talking about you or about what you're doing in the way you want them to talk about you, is the other half of the equation. Yeah, a lot of people are talking about AEW right now. And none of them have a good taste in her mouth. Is that what you want? It's not what you want. You want the opposite of that.

I think for me, no, this is hindsight. Everybody can be a genius, you know, after the fact. But if they felt to your point that this might be a good opportunity to launch another story, having them having wrestled twice already, there's a way to do that. I've talked about this before. Three-act structure. Your opening act is one of, your opening and your closing act are the two most important. How does it start?

How does it end? Yes, you've got to have meat in the middle to keep everybody excited and take them out an emotional roller coaster. But if you're, I can give you some other examples when we start talking about WWE, because they've done the same thing, essentially. But if you start out quarterly, if your first foray into Act 1 has the audience kind of confused, disappointed, or in this case, MJF and Darby, pissed off. The chances of that being a good story in the end, it's almost nil. And they started this story off if indeed it's a story and not just a hot shot because, hey, we're in his hometown.

Let's be good to Darby because we love Darby. Yay! His family's in the front row. Make sure we get on my camera because it's a feel good moment. I get all that. I'm making it sound like I'm just missing it. Those are valuable devices. and can be used effectively.

But here, now, that match, really, really poor choice for the opening act. Now, had they shot an angle, had we started that story with something hot that would build anticipation and make us want to see Darby and MJF continuing that new story, I'd have been all about it.

But a squash man, a five-minute squash match with your world heavyweight champion. who just battled Kenny Omega, which I didn't see that either. I was flying, but evidently a lot of people loved it. And why would you go from that to a five-minute squash match with a guy that weighs about 145 pounds? Cool makeup, does some crazy shit, likes to throw himself through glass. Yay! But that match just, I don't know.

Like I said, I just, I don't get it from a business perspective. aesthetically people may have watched and go wow it's really cool i love watching tarpey do that crazy shit hats off to you 10 out of 10 crazy shit but storytelling wise business wise creatively i'm just for me it's a big miss i want to get your take on uh something else that we've seen a e w do i saw this on social and i actually tagged you when i quote tweeted it i don't know if you saw it but i suggested when fans started snapping pictures of the package claims in Las Vegas where you can see the advertising for AEW dynamite,

I thought, boy, this feels like a page out of EasyE's book to go ahead. You know there's going to be a captive wrestling audience. And, you know, the WWE is a heritage brand. Everybody is familiar with WWE, but all that EW fans know about WWE, but I don't think the inverse of that is true. There's so many fans who are coming in for WrestleMania who maybe don't. even know that AEW exists. I kind of like this idea of, hey, let's advertise where we know wrestling fans are going

to be. I know Tony Cohen long ago made a decision. We're not going to run AEW shows and piggyback WrestleMania like every other promotion in the world does. But getting your messaging out there where you know those wrestling fans are, that's about as captive of an audience as you can get, don't you think? Definitely. And I think the other thing that happens.

And this is, you know, it's hard to put a dollar value on it, right? It doesn't necessarily make sense financially. But it's just one of those things that you could do that helps create the energy. And I know that sounds weird. Why would billboards in an airport create energy for an event that's coming in a couple of days? It's because it sets a tone. If you're talent, if you're on the AEW roster and you've flown across country and you're landing in at the airport, you're going down to baggage claim, which is the worst part of travelers,

waiting for your bag, for me anyway. But you come down there and you see the company's promoting you and promoting your event. It kind of changes the way you feel about baggage claim, right? And it changes your energy as a performer or as a crew member to know that the company really is behind this event. It makes it feel important. Therefore, you feel important as an individual who's part of the team.

And for that reason alone, I think it's a great idea. Do I think that people that were flying into Vegas for a weekend of whatever Vegas fund saw that AEW billboards and all the advertisement went, you know what? We were going to go see a show, but I'm going to go watch AEW and said, I think there may be a couple people, perhaps. I think most of the AEW fans that flew into Vegas were flying in for the event. And even for those people who had already made the decision to part with a significant amount of cash between your airfare, your hotels and tickets to the event. It's kind of an investment, right? But even those people will have a heightened sense of, I don't know if it will make them enjoy the show,

but it will make them believe they're getting value for their money. And that's just as important. Well, what else is important, especially WrestleMania Week, is getting people interested. And boy, are they interested in the main event on Sunday, Roman and C. and Punk. Yes, we're going to talk about Cody and Pat McAfee and all that that entails. Stay tuned for that.

But Eric, we're going to take a quick break. But when we come back, I'm going to play for you a promo that was posted on Roman Raines social media today that I think is the tone and tenor that is exactly what wrestling and specifically this WrestleMania needs. I can't wait for you to see it and get your reaction. But first, I want to tell you about a reaction you're going to want in time for Mother's Day thanks to my friend Stephen Singer. I hate Stephen Singer.

But you know what I love? moms. Think about it. Before morning coffee and chaos, before the day even starts, there's mom. The one who wakes up at sunrise, packs the lunches, drives carpools, and somehow keeps everything together. She's the sunrise of the family. That's why Stephen Singer created something special this Mother's Day. His brand new sunrise 24-carat gold-dipped rose. This exclusive rose captures the colors of the morning sunrise with sparkling blue that fades to a pinkish purple to a warm golden yellow. It's stunning. Steven's gold dipped roses are a real rose, dipped and preserved in real gold,

guaranteed to last a lifetime, just like a mother's love. They arrive in a beautiful gift box, their ship for free with your own personalized message. Steven's new sunrise rose is just 89 bucks exclusively and only available. And I hate stevensinger.com. Celebrate the moms who make every sunrise possible. Steven Singer Jewelers. That's I Hate Stevensinger.com. You're facing. I don't understand what this place looks like sometimes, but I know, I know my instincts, and I know pro wrestling, and I know what it looks like when there's a

fighting champion. There's somebody who cares and police, and that's what you're going to get Ben and see him on the way and wrestling. You defended the title three times. You've had it one. The whole year. You're not a fighting champion. You're not even a fighter. We've seen how that went... Coddled by management?

Because I'm money. And they've known that since the beginning I told them? I'm an unsigned billion dollar check. Go back and find it. It's in the archives. You don't have that type of confidence because you're not the type of man I am. You're not cut from the same fabric as me.

It blows my mind. mind that you think we're fucking equals. And which way? It's only going to tell you the first couple of minutes for the whole world to see. There's no way we could ever be on the same level. We're coddled. The whole industry coddles you just by having you in it. You talk about the old times.

Those were tough guys. We've seen what happens when you try to be a tough guy. We put our whole reputation, the whole art form on the line for you, because what? A hundred thousand internet marks love you from the beginning? Let's go back to your journey days when you're on the Indies. It was the shits. An embarrassment. There's not a legend in my family that respects you.

You're the reason we don't let marks in the business. Keep my fucking name out your mouth on Sunday. It is for you. How about that promo right there, Mr. Bischoff? I didn't like. I just, when he said, keep my name out, the Will Smith line just kind of

took the edge off of it for me. Now, I know it's probably, it's Roman's authentic voice. It's a coincidence. I don't think he was trying to lift that line from the Will Smith incident. I don't want to suggest that. It was just coincidence,

but it came off like that. And it just made me go, oh, not that. But look, I thought it was such a cool way. I mean, how many times have we talked on this show about how to use social media effectively? Boy, did they knock this one out of the park. You know, it was authentic. It felt, here's what I'm having a hard time articulating this.

One of the hardest things, hardest things as a producer now, when you're trying to capture that fly on the wall kind of, you know, camera, you know, the talent doesn't really know the cameras there. That's really hard to explain a way to an audience, right? But acknowledging this, acknowledging meaning clearly there's somebody riding along with Roman that wanted to get his thoughts on this promo that punk put out, right? So it's easily digestible, meaning as a viewer, well, of course, you know, that makes sense. We see that all the time in social media.

People do it all the time. record themselves while they're driving or somebody's recording them while they're driving or while they're a passenger. We see that all the time. So now we can accept that, well, that's a usual. That's a candid moment. We've been conditioned to accept a shot like that as a candid shot. It's important because now it's believable. If it could be true, it's more likely to be believable. And this could be true because we're conditioned to accept it as a candid moment. I know I keep harping on that, but it's really really important because once once you buy into the the moment meaning you believe it it could be really this could be roman he can be sharing his real this isn't the tv roman this is the real roman this is the

real roman that's what you just knocked it out of the park yeah you just knocked it out of the park if you can get to that psychological threshold where you've convinced the audience subconsciously that what they're watching is real that other stuff we see roman do that's on tv This is the guy. And he's sharing it with me. That is such a home run. That is such an effective way of using social media. And it all starts with it's believable.

It could be true. We're not sure. How much of that interview was a shoot? 10%, 80%, you'll know when you watch, when you tune into the match, when you watch WrestleMania, and when you see them in the ring together, you'll have an idea. But that interview, whatever that was, that scene, if you will, social media bite,

made that match way more interesting than anything they could have done on television, realistically. Because it's different. It just hit different. It made you believe. and so much of what we see on TV as great as it is, you're watching it with your guard up, right? You're not dropping your hands and leaning into the story

because it's really not, it's entertaining. You got me. But do I believe it? Do I think there's real emotion there? Do I think there is an opportunity for disaster to happen? Meaning this shit gets out of control? Yeah. I do.

I think there's a chance. Because I'm not 100% sure that that that promo wasn't 90% shoot. Or 60%. There's some truth to it. So the fact that there's some truth in there somewhere on both their parts, I find it that's the part of wrestling that I get sucked into. The belief, when you can do something that makes me not sure, 35 years in the business.

Produced a couple of TV shows. Kind of get the program, right? I understand it pretty well. And as I sit here talking to you right now, I don't know how much of that promo was intended or how much of it is real. That's the magic. And look, we've seen it before.

It's not like this is the first time it's ever happened. But when it's done well, it's magic. Flair and I did it pretty well. because it was all real for Rick. Rick was just professional enough to make it work from a business point of view, but there was nothing that came out of Rick's mouth when he was cutting promos on me that he didn't believe 100% and the audience knew it. That's the magic.

That's what made them do this. And there's been many others. But just one, I had first hand experience it. I love it. I think it's great. Jeff Deerre has said for years that he feels like wrestling today is by and large following your old Nitro formula. And the format really hasn't changed. And he said that wrestling desperately needs a change.

I think wrestling should be more like that. Not high production. It felt very real. Like what Roman is doing there felt like what I guess the kids would call IRL in real life streaming. because that's what, you know, all of these guys that are getting invited for six-man tags at WrestleMania, that's the reason they're there. They're courting all this attention because it feels real. And there is some sort of a connection.

And I think that's what we like. We wondered right there, is that the Roman reigns character or is that Joe? And I'm curious, do you agree with Jeff that the format, wrestling desperately needs a format change by and large, they're just following the old Nitro formula to this day? It depends what Jeff meant by format change. I think in the larger sense, when I think of format, I don't think the format needs to change necessarily, and there's not a lot of room to change the format

because of the way that at least Smackdown is structured with commercial breaks. But Raw is a little different, obviously. But from my perspective, it's not that it needs a format change, but the elements within that format, we talked about on this show, backstage interviews, they're just flat out horrible. They're never good.

They never really advance a story. All they do is remind the audience of something you want to remind them of and stay in the front of their minds necessarily. But they suck. The performances are generally piss poor at best. And these are talented people. I'm not criticizing the talent.

It's just the nature of that standpoint. up interview is just so old and tired and nobody watch it nobody does things like that anymore right you don't you don't see those except for in wrestling sometimes um so there are elements with in the format absolutely need to change i'll give you an example what i'm doing so it's not just be talking shit right i'm not selling real american freestyle here if you watch a show you watch a show and you'll know what I'm talking about. I just got off the phone 10 minutes before I jumped on this podcast with David Sahati, who is producing some of our segments for the show.

And I wanted these 30, 45 seconds, maybe up to a minute, essentially sound bites on camera, shots with talent as they're prepping. And I said, shoot them on your phone. Do not use a camera. shoot them on your fault. Now, some of them we will, some of them we won't, depending on what the purpose of that bumper, as I refer to them, happens to be. But even my production team here at Real American Freestyle, I'm challenging them to look for ways to produce things that don't feel expected.

We expect to see in a typical, you know, combat sports format, you know, we know what to expect when it comes to interviews. Well, I want to do something. something different than that, including shooting them on the phone. And the purpose for that is people now are, I mean, they're going to their phones for everything, everything. And it opens the door up to, again, as Roman did, to do things outside the arena, outside the venue, to keep the story going, right? There are so many of those opportunities. We see them so often that by including some of that in the show, it gives it more, what am I trying to say? A sense of urgency and reality. Just because you're shooting it out a different format. Format also refers to the type of cameras

you use and things like that. So I agree with Jeff, depending on his definition of format. Are you going to start, is it going to become half talk show, half wrestling, that we know that won't work, right? Are we going to take all the connective tissue, meaning what is currently backstage, segments and interviews and in rings. I know people pitch about in rings because oftentimes they're just kind of placeholders too. They're just there for because they need to be there. They're not necessarily great moments in television, but you need them to keep the narrative

going, to keep the story flowing, right? They're necessary. But if you can find a different way to do that within the format, I think that's worth exploring. I want to hear from you guys. What do you think? Do you want more promos like what we saw in the back of a car from Roman Raines? Does wrestling as a whole need a format change?

Hey, why not? chime in. What do you think of Darby Allen winning the AEW title? Let us know in the comments below. We're going to be running some polls as well. Participate. We want your feedback. Let us know what you're thinking.

Go hit the subscribe button. Turn on the notifications bell at 83 weeks.com. Here's what I know you're going to be thinking. why don't I get these chubbies before? Chubbys is a game changer, especially this time of year. I got to tell you, I look forward to not wearing regular pants anytime soon.

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a time. Chubbies is giving our viewers 20% off your order with our code 83 weeks at chubby shorts.com. That's code 83 weeks at chubby shorts.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Don't blend in with the crowd. Stand out with Chubbies. It's time for the wrestling news update with Raj Geary. All right. Let's welcome him in. Raj Geary. Welcome to 83 weeks. Man, we just saw a big announcement. Forbidden Door has a weekend. And I was surprised when I looked at the calendar, AEW Forbidden Door and T&A Slam Anniversary. Those are two monster shows.

Are they head to head right now, Rush? Yeah, as of right now, they are head to head. Forbidden Door is taking place at the SAP Center on Sunday, June 28th. And Climberstery will also be taking place that day at the Agonis Arena in Boston. So TNA had announced the date last week, forbidden door obviously was announced this week, whether or not the same day as a coincidence, I mean, that's hard to know for sure.

You know, there has been some bad blood back and forth between TNA and AEW. TNA, obviously, pulling some wrestlers from this weekend, some indie events from this weekend that were scheduled to face AEW talent. And there were some rumors that Carlos Silva didn't like Tony Khan putting collision up against, I'm sorry, putting, yeah, putting collision up against impact. And so, you know, you would think that for AEW to act that quickly

to put their event against Slam Reversery, you would think it would take more time. And so it definitely could be a coincidence, but that's not to say it definitely is. I mean, Forbidden Door usually does take place that weekend. Slam reversory is usually a few weeks earlier. So it could be a coincidence, but then again, you never know. I mean, Tony Kahn did announce the signing of the Rastels who were on the Impact's most popular acts. The night before, Impact debuted on AMC. He seemingly hired the inspiration just because they were TNA tag team champion.

So whether or not he would do this on purpose remains to be seen. But as of right now, they are head-to-head. Rick, you've told us before that buildings are often booked months in advance, and that was even a particular challenge when you guys first started rolling with real American freestyle. I would think this probably leans more in the coincidence column. What would you say? If I had to bet money, I would bet it's a coincidence. Yeah.

As opposed to a tactic. For that reason alone, I mean, I know for us, I mean, still, we're finishing up getting the rest of the year booked, but it's tough because there's always something going on and a lot of these venues, you know, you look at, and I don't know what AEW's production requirements are, but, or the writer, in terms of what they need in that venue, but just the staging and the lighting grid

and all the things you absolutely have to have to produce a television show, particularly when it comes to the lighting grid, there's a lot of really cool venues that just can't hold the show. Right. Real America Preistyle. There's a lot of venues we love to play

but we just can't. The building doesn't have the infrastructure for it. That makes the available buildings for a company like AEW or TNA or whomever, WWE, it really narrows the scope. And there's a lot of people booking those buildings. There's always something going on in those markets. So it's tough. And because of that, I would say it's coincidence.

I do want to ask, Eric, you know, when you're taking a look at, you know, going head to head like this on a pay-per-view, I know that's something that you always tried to avoid in WCW, but I think if I remember right, those decisions were kind of made for you by the pay-per-view providers where they didn't want you to overlap and kind of cannibalize each other. Do I have that wrong or when do you? No, you're 100% right.

Now, again, the world was different than the paper view revenue model was way different than it is now. But back then, yeah, your pay-per-view providers didn't want to split the audience. they didn't want to miss out. They would rather have 100% of a WWE audience and 100% of a WCW audience than see the two go head to head and split the audience.

So they were a big factor. Is that a factor in today's world? I don't know. I'm not in the pay-per-view business anymore. I'm in the streaming business. But I would imagine it's not as big of a deal right now as it used to be. Raj, I want to ask you,

is there any way to know what, if any sort of overlap exists between an AEW pay-a-view customer and a T&A paper-view customer? Is there any data out there like that? Not really. I mean, you did have collision and impact go head-to-head a couple weeks ago. And when that happened, you saw the impact audience down by like 22% from the week before. It was one of the lowest audiences they'd had, you know, since their third week. But their 18 to 49 number was still strong. It was still tied with the best that they've been doing, which is tied with several other episodes.

So it took a little bit of a hit, but you've just got to think, you know, the AEW pay-per-view numbers have got to be a lot bigger than TNA. It probably is in their best interest to move it if they can, whether it's just to the night before, move it to Saturday or, you know, or pick another weekend.

But, you know, I just wonder, like, and I guess that's a great question for Eric. should T&A move the night for business purposes, even though it's kind of getting a little egg on their face, it's kind of making them look like they're backing down, even though AEW has done the same. Anytime WWE now has a big PLE, they'll move collision from that Saturday to, you know,

usually like a Thursday. I mean, even last year, the big AEW pay-per-view, their big stadium show all in. It was supposed to be an evening show, but they scheduled Saturday night's main event and Goldberg's last match that night. So AEW moved to be a matinee show. And as somebody who went to the show, I enjoy matinee shows more.

Like I'm old. It's hard to stay up on a Sunday night until, you know, past midnight watching wrestling. It's much easier to just block off a Sunday afternoon. Eric, if you were TNA, did you acquiesce the evening to AEW and make your show a matinee show? Or move it. Yeah. I mean, at this stage, again, TNA is in a very fragile position. right now, you know, they're kind of an emerging, they're not a startup. I mean, they've been

around for a long time, but they might as well be a startup, and they just can't afford a big hit right now. I'd rather, you know, take the PR hit amongst the internet wrestling community fan base, which isn't going to matter because they're going to watch anyway. You know, they'll continue watching to the extent that they were before. It's not like if Carlos makes this move, people are going to abandon, you know, stop watching TNA. They won't. Yes, it's a little embarrassing yeah you're taking the the you're giving AW the dominant nod there in position but it's okay better that then forget about the money that you're probably gonna lose it's just a it's a kick in the balls to the talent right kick in the

teeth let's say females on the card but it's a kick in a teeth but you get over it quick I wouldn't move it Let's talk a little bit about the TV ratings. I know that we've been discussing ratings for quite a bit. I don't think anybody has benefited from this more than impact. Chat me up a little bit about what you're seeing with NXT and Dynamite and specifically T&A rating. Well, it was a weird one last week where TNA impact last week was number one in the demo in the, and not the demo, but the males 12 to 17 and teens to 1217 to 17.

It was number one for the night on cable in prime time last week. That's the first time that TNA has been number one in the demo on cable. Probably, I mean, at least since the Spike TV days, if not ever. Granted, it's not the 1849 demo. But in the teens demo, and especially with males, it beat both NXT and Dynamite. It beat dynamite among male teens by 300%. And among all teens, 12 to 17 by 60%. and it beat NXT with male teens by 129% and all teens 12 to 17 by 100%.

That's again, if you're just looking at the Nielsen ratings, this obviously doesn't account for Mats or any streaming or anything like that. But just off into the Nielsen numbers, and obviously Nielsen numbers have been all over the place over the past year. They haven't shown, I mean, I've always taken them with a grain of salt, but especially in the last year they've kind of shown why. but if you go by the Nielsen numbers, it beat both those shows handily in those dynamics.

What do you think it is? Well, one thing with NXT is that they didn't get the bump when Nielsen changed their methodology in late January. That was mostly for cable networks, so NXT didn't get that bump. Their numbers mostly stayed the same. And even though NXT is on broadcast, I do believe because of how Nielsen has tweaked their methodology,

even with the same amount of viewers, if they're on USA with the same amount of viewers, their ratings would probably be higher than what they are on CW right now. I mean, we talked about this a few weeks ago with collision. When Nielsen changed their methodology, they jumped up 250% in the demo in one week. It just benefited table shows greatly.

NXT hasn't had that bump. Dynamite, you could argue, because it's such a younger demo that more of those viewers are probably watching on Max, but as far as just the TV numbers, you know, again, does it make sense? I mean, I don't know if that passes this, you know, the sniff test that is beating those shows by that much. But I think that's, again, more of a Nielsen issue. But impact has shown that it is more popular among younger viewers than it is with older ones.

Eric, what's your takeaway from that? The T&A viewer skewing younger than the other programs. hard to explain. Don't know that I've got a good feel for that. I think sometimes your distribution has an impact. The distribution, meaning the type of the network that it's on and the type of audience that network typically attracts in a market, those are all different.

So it could just be because their distribution is different, different types of a younger audience watching in general. so it's reflected in TNA's numbers. It could be because of the way they produce the product and the way it's presented. Hard to say. Eric, I know what's one of the time, you know,

the WWF during the golden era, their bread and butter was kids. And I know that WCW at different times tried to lean into that to expand licensing to action figures and things like that. We know now, you know, action figures have become more collectibles for adults. But I'm curious.

do you think there is perhaps a hole in the market with AEW certainly skewing older, you know, really young men. And AWE historically has been over the last 10 or 15 years, an older viewer, you know, average age around that 50 year mark. Is there an opportunity for someone, TNA or someone, to cater to kids? Maybe, but I wouldn't put a lot of calories behind that strategy. just because there doesn't seem to be a focus on youth programming anyway, outside of Cartoon Network and some of the streaming platforms that my grandson watches,

it seems like programmers, advertisers, networks that are focused on kids are doing so outside of cable and network. So for that reason, I just don't think that it's a viable strategy long term. I think you can skew. I mean, look, we talk about the WWE viewer being average 50 plus. There's still a significant number of teens and preteens in that demo. Sure. Not like it used to be.

The teen and preteen audience for WWE now, we're going back to the 80s, early 90s, was predominantly, I believe, teen and preteen. That was their goal. That was their targeting. And if you remember, back then, there were a lot of networks, Fox Kids Channel. Fox Network had its own network dedicated towards creating and distributing kids programming on Saturday mornings. It's one of the first shows I ever sold was to Fox Kids Network. Molly Miles was the president of the division at the time.

Went on to work at Universal. But that doesn't exist anymore. But you can still, if you're TNA or if you're WWE or if you're AEW, you can make a decision strategically to go, you know what? We need to shore up our teen and preteen audience because it's an underserved market. If you're correct, Conrad, I think you might be. If that we've identified an underserved market or category in our demo, let's beef that up by doing some things within our program specifically for that part. of the audience.

Sure you can't. But I don't think a purely teen and preteen strategy would be effective anymore. Let's talk a little bit about WrestleMania. You know, there's been a lot of discussion as we head into this year's WrestleMania rise that ticket sales are not where WWB expected. Where are ticket sales now and what do you expect the final numbers to be? Well, so first off, at the beginning of the month, they had about 30, thousand sold for night one and forty thousand sold for night two and here we are a couple weeks later

pat mackafee on smackdown this past uh friday he gave a a discount code just for night one not for night two and that did seem to work a little bit night one uh had two thousand extra tickets sold uh as opposed to 600 for night two so where we're at right now um at russomania as of yesterday via Russell Ticks. We're at 42,715 for night one and 43,394 for night two. Now, there was a report by the Sports Business Journal saying that WW said ticket sales have surged in recent weeks and projected that the event remains headed towards one of the top dates in WWE history. Now, as far as the surge in ticket sales, it's been an increase, but, you know, since the beginning of the month, We're talking 11% up for night one, 9% up for night two.

So I don't think I'd call that a surge, but they are up. As far as it being one of the top gates in WWE history, I think it goes without saying it will be one of the top of, you know, but it won't be the top. Last year, the top was 66 million, which insane over the two nights. The year before it was 39 million. So I can see it beating that 39 million. It probably will. So that would make it the second biggest WrestleMania gate of all. all the time behind last year.

But when you say gate, are you talking about bodies or dollars? Dollars. Yeah, this is just specifically dollars. Okay. Yeah, we're a ways away from the most attended. And I know that there's been a lot of discussion about ticket prices. I know I'm in the minority, but I don't think that was it necessarily on this one. I mean, respectfully, Pat McAfee, as a heel, cutting a promo in the ring, offering a discount

for tickets. was a little crazy to me, but also too, too little too late. Like 25% off of a $150 ticket is not going to make or break my decision to travel to Las Vegas. You know, you just put the math to that. And what are we talking about? $40? Like, oh, man, it's just too expensive to go to WrestleMania. It's just too expensive to go to Las Vegas.

Oh, well, if you're cutting $40 off, turn the car around. We're headed that way. Like, that's not a real motivator. I think if anything, there may have been some burnout to going back to the exact same town. And, I mean, let's be real. Nobody left night two last year, really thrilled with the way that main event went down with John Sina, Cody Rhodes, and Travis Scott. And I almost wonder how much of this has fooled me twice.

When it's all said and done, Eric will, will the story of this show, will the teachable moment, Will the lesson that we learn here be, that this will probably be the last time we see back-to-back WrestleMania is in the same host city? Maybe, maybe not. We may see WrestleMania back there again soon. Look, the other part of the, the other variable that was just left out of the equation,

which I think is kind of important, is that Vegas as a destination is getting crushed. Their business is down. If you just, what was it? two, three days ago, I was reading a story about hotels around Vegas. And I'm not talking about WrestleMania weekend. I'm just starting to year round. Are offering, you know, crazy incentive packages and reducing prices,

trying to get people to come back to Vegas. I think as much as we want to blame last year's finish or ticket prices or bad booking by Paul VAC, whatever. That's the easy go-to kind of, let's talk about those things. But I think you've also got to look at the city and the state of the economy and the fact that the entire city, everybody, every show in Vegas is having a hard time. Not every show, I shouldn't say that. Most shows in Vegas are having a hard time selling tickets because nobody's going to, not as many people are going to Vegas as a destination. You know, think about it.

Here's what I was thinking about while I was listening to Raj. It's like how many wrestling fans live within 200 miles of Vegas? Well, you probably, of all the wrestling fans that live within 200 mile drive of Vegas, realistically, you probably have 100% of those people who are interested in going to WrestleMania. Now, maybe there's some local stragglers who aren't flying in, who aren't driving in, who happen to live in the market that haven't been able to buy a ticket. Will that $40 off make a difference to them? It might.

There might be enough of those people to call you. I'm going to go. It's an incentive. It's not going to be a life-changing incentive. They're not going to be able to make a double house payment because of the money they saved on a WrestleMania ticket. But it's an incentive. And I think it's targeted towards a local market.

Because to your point, Conrad, I know you were kind of making a joke in a way, but nobody was willing to fly into that. save $40. I think that's the issue. I think they're trying to make sure they squeeze all of the juice out of the local women. I hope they do. I hope it continues to be hugely successful for everybody. I mean, if WrestleMania and WWE is successful,

it's good for the entire industry. So I know tribalism sometimes overtakes us, but the entire industry should hope that this is another record year. Raj, I want to put you on the spot. I want you to give us your presentation. prediction for the main events of night one and night two is it going to be Cody or Randy and on night two will it be punk or Roman? I'm going to go Randy with night one and I'm going to go Roman with night two.

I think they need to make stuff up on raw a little bit so I'm going to go I'm going to go with Roman. Well there we go. Raj tell everybody where we can keep up with you weekend we count. Yeah, just follow me on Twitter at the Rajge Gehry and I'll be tweeting along during WrestleMania this weekend. I had missed it last year due to a wedding, but I'm pumped to be, I'm excited for it coming up this weekend. So just follow me on there and I appreciate you guys. Thanks again. Thanks. Thank you, man. Of course, it's going to be a big WrestleMania weekend for all

of us on the 18th and 19th. And what about Monday? It's 420. It's time for into cloud. You know, half the internet's talking about spring cleaning. The other half already planning this Monday, 420. But 420 coming up, a lot of people are thinking, exactly that. That's where IndyCloud fits in. Indy Cloud is your fully legal online cannabis dispensary for gummies, exotic flour, premium

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WrestleMania 43 is still going to happen in Saudi Arabia. There's been lots of rumors lately that the event could be called off or rescheduled because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. But Nick Kahn says, nay, nay, the show will go on. He added that the criticism surrounding Saudi PLEs largely comes from what he described as a vocal minority, emphasizing that WWE's decisions are driven by ratings, revenue, an overall relevance. This all comes from an interview he did with the Sporting Tribune.

But I love this quote, Eric. I have never read X or Twitter as it relates to our business, and I've certainly never read it regarding me. That is a vocal minority. Boy, it feels like you and him are singing from the same sheet music today, huh? Well, it's true. Yeah. It's not like we have unique personality traits that just happen to be parallel.

it is a fact. And, you know, it's hard to remember that from time to time. Even to this day, I'll see something that, you know, I give much more attention to that I really should because these, it's just there's small voices in a little bubble that really don't matter in a big scheme of things. Let's talk about something else that everybody's talking about. Pat McAfee, of course, you have really made a name for yourself in WCW with the great use of outside celebrity. We already referenced at the top of the show, the Dennis Rodman piece,

but you really did a really great job with that that was ahead of its time, and I think paved the way for WWE to do something with Mike Tyson. But this is a horse of a different color this year with Pat McAfee. It seems like no one, and I mean no one is in favor of this. So they're going to turn it into a storyline or so, it seems. Cody Road and C and Punk have been doing lots of mainstream media, pulling no punches, and really going to, Going invited and maybe the most interesting way of all to sell WrestleMania.

Cody Rhodes being quoted as saying this is the worst angle in the history of wrestling while he's doing mainstream media. He said, so outside forces, you could look at this year and say, hey, here's Pat McAfee. You could look at the year before and say, here's Travis Scott. You could look at the year before and say, here's the rock. But if you're Cody Rhodes fan during WrestleMania season, it's a choice. We deal with outside forces. We deal with, hey, they want to be apart. where about it? And I can say this. It's a spot I always wanted. If you're going to be in the big

moments, you have to be ready for the big jobs. Pat being a part of ESPN and the fact that WWE WrestleMania is on ESPN for the first time ever is actually a natural fit. Does it fit in a 20-year student, wrestler, teacher, mentor, all of that? No, but Pat sure does think it does. And now Pat has the title so we can tell that story another time. That story has also already been told. Let's figure out how this one unfolds. He says all this on the Rich Eisen's show, and then Punk goes out of his way on the, uh, all the smoke pod to touch on Pat McAfee, who has nothing to do in theory with his show. Of course, Pat McAfee is focused on Saturday, not Sunday, where Roman and Punk will be wrestling, but I felt the need to come out and do a

work shoot promo, if you will, on Pat McAfee. And, well, Well, Pat responded. So now, punk is doing the media saying, wrestling has always, I think, sometimes through a fault, embraced people that we believe can get eyeballs on our product. Eyeballs on our product and people actually investing and buying tickets are two wildly different things. I think Pat was a wrestling fan who became famous outside the bubble

and was afforded an opportunity to be invited in. And somewhere along the line, he forgot that he's a tourist. and to me the invite can be easily rescinded. Pat's great at what he does, but Pat is not great at what we do. And when he disrespects the business and he says things out of pocket, he's going to get checked and he's going to get checked by me. You can't be running your mouth about ticket sales and all this other stuff

when you've never sold a ticket in your life. I don't know, man. It's got everybody talking. It feels like this is an Eric Bischoff dream period of fandom where we are blurring the line. a little bit and we've got some shoot promos and we're wondering what's real and what's not. This is perhaps the most head-scratching way I've ever seen in WrestleMania be sold, Eric. Definitely.

I mean, again, I don't want to always bring everything back to NWO and WCW or me, for that matter. But the parallels are kind of hard to miss here. They're walking, WWE is walking right up to a very, very, very, fine line. It's high risk. What they're doing with Pat McAfee is strategic. It's tactical. It's tactical. Meaning it's a series of moves specifically to promote WrestleMania and ticket sales. This is not a broader long-term strategy. This is a tactic for one event. And I think what they're doing, because of ESPN, because this is the first time WW is going to be on ESPN, exactly what Cody said.

They're doing everything they can to ensure that it's going to elevate the business. And by including Pat, who is an ESPN guy, by including that in this story, you're going to get some crossover. You're going to get some new audience that typically is, you know, watches Pat on ESPN that haven't really checked out wrestling. They're hoping that they can bring some of that ESPN audience, new audience, over to, over to, WrestleMania. I'm sure it's going to work to what extent I don't know. But the way they're going about it is really, really risky because a week from today, you and I are either going to be talking about how brilliant this marketing strategy was and how well this story actually played out because it didn't start out good. Going back to what I talked about with a bad first act,

when we were talking about MJF and Darby, just like the Cody Rhodes. story last year had a stutter step with Travis and the rock and now it's this is a little bit of a stutter step. It's an, you know, injecting pat macfew. It doesn't make any sense on paper. There's zero connective tissue there. There's zero backstory.

They might as well have dropped them out of a helicopter and landed them in the middle of the ring in a main event. It makes no sense. However, it could work. And if it works, they're going to look brilliant. If it doesn't, they're going to piss them people off. They're going to be living with this for a while.

But I like the risk. I don't know that I would take it. It doesn't mean it's not a good risk to take, but it's going to be interesting as hell because it doesn't make any sense. But I'm not so sure that it matters because it doesn't need to make sense if they can attract enough, make enough noise over an ESPN

to get some crossover to increase the WrestleMania performance, it was worth it. I think it's going to come together in the end. Call me a delusional optimist, but I think people are going to be really, really happy with what they see this weekend. I think sometimes the key to life is managing expectations, and I think people have decided that this WrestleMania suck,

but when you actually look at the card, it might be one of the stronger cards than recent memories. As far as in-ring matches go, this may be one of the best of all time, and I think people have decided they hate the story so much, but they're going to be pleasantly surprised. I have no inside information. I don't know what's coming,

but I do know that Pat McAfee is now saying that Roman Raines is also going to save the business. Quote, once he saves the business and becomes the 15-time world champion on Saturday night, Roman Raines on Sunday is going to hammer home the point. There's going to be two nails in the coffin of bad business, and then all of a sudden, guess what? Guess what's back?

Wrestling. Now, allegedly the April, or I guess the backlash, as we're going to call it now, the backlash paper of the main event is going to be, and again, this is the report. We don't know if this is true or not, but allegedly it's going to be Randy Orton teaming with Pat McAfee to take on Cody Rhodes and Jelly Roll. Now, if you're thinking about stuff that's going to get outside attention and sell some tickets and keep the media hype going, being on ESPN every day with one of the biggest musical acts

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And we thank Blu for sponsoring today's podcast. You know, there's lots to talk about for this year's WrestleMania, and we are going to briefly run through the card. But before we do, I thought we would talk about some of Eric's favorite WrestleMania matches. Let's take a look at Eric's top five. Five, four, three, two, one. It's time to count down the top five.

Brought to you by SavewithConrad.com. Coming in at number five on EasyE's Top Five WrestleMania moments. What a moment it was. WrestleMania 24. Sean Michaels, retiring, old yeller, Rick Blair. What a story. These guys go back a long, long time.

Of course, we all know that once upon a time, Sean Michaels drew inspiration from Rick Claire, taking photos in middle school and high school, dressing like his favorite wrestler. It meant a lot, Sean, when Rick selected him to be his last opponent. And there may not have been a dry eye in all of the Carolina that night. Why does it come in at number five? for you, Eric.

Just had all the elements of what I personally like in professional wrestling, the art of it, that being the story, the emotion, had a great backstory, as you pointed out. And part of it is knowing Rick as well as I do and having worked with Rick, the emotion that we watched as viewers was as real as real can be. and I think when you when you connect with that kind of emotion as a viewer and a fan even if you're not a fan of Rick Flair

you can't deny the emotion it's palpable and for that reason alone just the emotion that we saw in that match out of Rick and Sean when Sean looked at him from across the ring and said I love you that was that's a movie moment man

I mean, I'll always remember that moment. And of course, Rick in Rick's performance. So that's why it does it for me. Just perfect story. Perfect story executed so well. It was great. It was also great what you picked for number four on Eric's list of the top five WrestleMania matches.

Brett the Hitman Heart and Stone Cold Steve Austin, WrestleMania 13. we referenced it earlier. This is the same month where you introduced Dennis Rodman to pay-per-view with uncensored. It was a down year for ticket sales and revenue for that WrestleMania, but critically, it was the first match immortalized in the WWE Hall of Fame. Why is it number four on your list, Eric? Believability.

Again, it's going to be the common denominator, I think, in some of these. It was just, I believe, to finish. you know, Austin, you know, not willing to tap out, never giving up. I mean, I'm not a big fan of blood, but here's a situation where I, it fit the moment. It was just so believable. You know, the performers, obviously, it takes two to tango. Both Brett and Steve did such a phenomenal job. There was a real commitment to each other in that ring, meaning to make

each other look as good as you possibly can. It was evident because they both look phenomenal. Coming in at number three is Cody Rhodes' favorite match of all time. He says it is the best match of all time. And Eric Bischoff has it at number three on his top five WrestleMania moments. WrestleMania 18, arguably should have been the main event, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, the icon, against the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, the rock. I mean, before they even hooked up, They're just staring at each other. And the crowd is going banana, Eric. You know what?

Hull talked to me about this match beforehand, right? And what everybody else was expecting was going to happen once they stepped into the ring together. And he told me this before the match. He said, I think people are going to be surprised. I hope they're ready for it. And what happened as it played out in that match was Brock had to shift gears because of the crowd reaction to Hogan. That wasn't planned.

And watching Hulk react to that and kind of take over in terms of calling that match, or at least directing a lot of it, was pretty interesting to me. And again, I probably wouldn't feel as strongly about it had I not known the backstory before even seeing the match. and then, of course, seeing the way it played out, just made it kind of extra special for me. An unbelievable match, an incredible performance. And we'll continue on Eric's top five WrestleMania list.

Coming in at number two, a moment that all of us will remember forever, the ninth of streak ended, Brock Lesner, The Undertaker, WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans. I was lucky enough to be in the crowd for this one, Eric. And when the bell rang, I think there was a hushed silence.

You could have heard a pin drop in the building because we all just thought they made a mistake. Something's wrong. We're going to have to restart the match. How will they get out of this? Then the graphic pops up on the screen, 21 and 1, and you're like, oh, my God, they did the unthinkable. Comes in at number two on your list of the top five WrestleMania moments,

Eric. Yeah, and it could have easily been number one because it was history. And it was the anticipation, story, anticipation, reality, surprise, and action. They killed the anticipation part of it. I mean, in a good way. They blew anticipation up. Everybody tuned in to see if it was possible. What would they do?

Who would walk away the winner? There was probably a more intense interest in the actual outcome of the match than there probably has been for anything before. Well, I'll be careful with that. For very few things before or since. It was just done. It was executed so well. And it was history.

And for that reason alone. I think it's worthy to be in either with number one or number two. Well, without further ado, Eric Bischoff's number one most important WrestleMania match, Polkogen and Andre the Giant from WrestleMania 3. I know it wasn't the very first WrestleMania, but it was the main event that made WrestleMania a household word. I think people still talk about WrestleMania 3 with reverence

as if it were the biggest WrestleMania of all time. and there have been shows since that sold more tickets or sold more pay-per-views or had a high or grossing gate or certainly had more sponsorship dollars, but perhaps none more important than Hogan Andre at WrestleMania 3. It's easy to see why that's your number one, right, Eric? That, you know, said it's, it's the, that match, you know, made WrestleMania 3, but I think it also made Hulk, or made WrestleMania, but it also made Hulk Hogan. and in all the years that I knew Hulk,

I'd have to remind myself that he's not with us any longer, but in all the years, in just the hours and hours and hours, I spent listening to Hulk tell stories to other people while I was there. He loved to talk about matches with Randy Savage or anybody. He loved to talk about the great matches he had. But whenever he talked about this match, it was with a reverence for Andre. Because Hogg knew, Andre made him that night.

Andre, in Hulk's mind, really passed the torch that night to him. That's the way he felt, whether it was true or not. That's the way he felt. And he carried that with him to the day he died, I'm sure of it. He loved Andre. He loved what Andre did for him. I think he didn't know going into that match, if Andre was going to play or not. It was pretty much up to Andre to do whatever Andre wanted to do,

and that's the way Hulk felt, whether it was true or not, that's what he was feeling. He told me that a hundred times or more. He wasn't really sure. So that when it finally happened, it had a major impact on Hulk. I know it did. And I think that match not only really made WrestleMania,

it also made Hulk Cogan. What an incredible list you've got here, Eric. You know, number five, Sean Michaels and Rick Flair and Flair's retirement. Number four, Brett in Austin, it made Stone Cold the most famous double turn in history in the first match in the WWE Hall of Fame. And then Rock and Hogan from WrestleMania 18. I mean, Cody Rhodes, the top dog today says this is the greatest match of all time.

The Undertaker became Mr. WrestleMania with the street. And when it ended, it comes in at number two for you. But the macdady of them all, Hogan Andre, Eric, I got to tell you, I've talked to everybody, whether it's Tony Chivani or Jim Ross or JBL or Jeff Jared. I've talked to so many people this week about their favorite WrestleMania moments. I think you've got the most solid list of all.

And I think what I love about it is it's so consistent. These were major moments. These were magical, important moments in the history of fandom. You know, one made Stone Cold, one made Hulkomania, one ended the streak, one ended Rick Claire, I mean, it's what an incredible list. We want to know from you. Let us know below what's in your top five WrestleMania moments. I mean, there's so many other great matches that are out there.

You can get into ladder matches and, you know, Sean and Taker and so many others. And I love Eric's list. I think you're probably most aligned with me in your list. And if you're looking to get aligned at home, I want to recommend Rocket Money. You know, I have to admit a few years ago when I was starting the Jeff Jarrett podcast, I was filing my taxes around the same time, and I got my year-end printoff for some of my credit cards. I'll be honest, I was kind of overwhelmed with some of the stuff

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It's going to work as almost like a push to drive traffic. to ESPN Unlimited. I'm sure as we're talking on Thursday, the ESPN coverage is going to continue to be through the roof. But the two matches that are on ESPN2 on Saturday are two of the biggest influencers in all of wrestling. Logan Paul

teaming with I Show Speed and Austin Theory. So you got the tag champs and I show speed on one side. The Usos on L.A. Knight on the other. If you had to pick a winner in this one, Eric, who would you pick? I'm going to go with Logan to see you on this one.

I think that's a fair bet. Let's take a look at the other match on ESPN2. I think this will be the show stealer of night one. Jacob Potu and Drew McIntyre in an unsanctioned match live on ESPN2. If this is the match they close with, I think they pull out all the stops. I think we'll see some crazy stunts. I think we'll see some over-the-top violence. What do you see getting their hand raised in this one, Eric?

I don't know, man. There's a great case for either. than one of these guys. This is going to be a brutal match, brutal in a sense of physicality. These are two beasts, and they are definitely going to be in beast mode. I think Fatu's half crazy to begin with. He just, that's where he starts from. He starts from half crazy when he gets up out of bed in the morning. And I think McIntyre's got something to prove. So you take two physically tough, capable guys, throw him in the ring. You got one guy that's half nuts, it's on a mission, and the other guy that's just on a flat-out mission to prove

something, it's going to be a great match. It's going to be an incredible match. Then the regular ESPN unlimited broadcast will begin. I think we're going to have a women's four-way for the tag titles, Nia Jacks, and Lash Legend defending against Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, and Bailey and Lyra and the Bella Twins. I think Flair and Alexa may walk away with some new hardware here. What do you expect. That's where I put my money. No doubt about it. It's just all the horsepowers on that side of the equation. For the women's intercontinental title, it's AJ Lee against Becky Lynch, once upon a time this would have been considered a dream match. Now it's happening at WrestleMania. And for the women's intercontinental, do you see the man leaving with the belt or is it AJ's time?

AJ Styles, AJ Lee, threw me for a loop. No, it's Becky. I think it's Becky with serious heat. AJ's a sympathetic kind of sympathetic baby face. I see Becky getting more heat and walking away. Seth Rollins and Gunther, a lot of people assume Seth Rollins may be doing something with Logan Paul. Allegedly, we thought we may be getting a Gunther and Ray Mysterio. I think what we're getting instead may steal the show. Seth and Gunther, it's hard to call.

What would you pick? I would have to pick Gunther just because I think. think there's a long-term commitment there. But Seth is pretty versatile and as one of those players that you can throw into a spot and change direction pretty quickly with great story. It all depend on the finish, but I have to put my money down and put it on Goodther. Yeah, I would say Gunther's going to win. Maybe there's some outside interference in this one.

We'll see. Stephanie Becour is going to be defending against Liv Morgan. Is it Liv's night or does Stephanie retain? Sometimes I get these impressions based on the promotion and marketing and this is the volume of exposure I'm seeing. Now, I, granted, Liv probably gets a lot more social media exposure anyway, but I'm just with the way that WWE has positioned her over the last six weeks outside of the show, I'm putting my money on live. Yeah, I think I would too. The main event, Cody Rhodes is going to be taking on Pat McAfee. Randy Orton's going to be there too.

What do you think? I think they're going to have to, I think something special is going to happen here. I don't know what it is. I don't want to try to hint or suggest. I do. I'm not even sure what that would be. But I just feel like this match for a lot of reasons. And not just because of the stutter step, so to speak, creatively.

I just feel like Cody needs, that needs it a desperate way, but to reach the next level of whatever Cody Rhodes is going to be, something radical has to happen here. I don't know what it is, but I feel it. And I think Randy walks away with it, but I think we come out of it

with a slightly different Cody Rhodes. Buddy signed me up. I think it's going to be heavy on story. Can't wait to see it. and I'm ready to talk about Sunday, too. They're going to start that first hour again on ESPN 2 for free. How about starting with a ladder match? Penta, perhaps the hottest star in all of WWE internationally,

defending against Jvonne Evans, Dragon Lee, J.D. McDonough, Rusef, and Ray Mysterio. The legend himself, Ray Mysterio, returning. Rusef, going to do his best catcher all night, I suppose. This is going to be a car crash. It's going to be a spectacle. I'm glad they're getting. time on ESPN to show, I don't know, this crazy stunt show of an intercontinental title match, who do you think gets their hand raised, Derek?

I don't have any feel for this. Zero feel for this one. I'm just going to go out on a limb. Evans, I think either Evans or Penta. I don't think it'll be Ray. I don't think it'll be Rousseff. I'm really playing process of elimination here, but I think either Evans or Penta will get it. I'm going to pick Penta in that one as well. Here's the one everybody's talking about. Also on ESPN 2. What a move this is for ESPN. Brock Lesner and Oba Femi. Oba has more momentum heading into a Brock Lesnar match than anybody that I can recall in a long, long time, maybe ever. Will he keep it up or is it Lesnar's night? Damn. Oh, this is a tough one.

There's such a good rationale behind either one. I'm liking Ova. Maybe I'm hoping Ova or liking it. I mean, Brock is in a massive respect for Brock, but I just, I'm looking at this from a business perspective. And I just think some of the interviews I've heard from Brock, It's a different Brock. It's a more generous Brock.

I think Brock has convinced himself or accepted the fact that his role is a little different now than it has been up until this point and he's very comfortable with it, which is why I think I would bet on Oba. I do want to ask you, how long do you think the match goes? There's been a little discussion online about should they, keep this short or not. I know that Oba has had, you know, pay-per-view-style matches that were,

you know, 11, 13, 17 minutes. But we've also seen him since he's been on the main roster. Just mowing through guys, five minutes, three minutes, a minute. Would you make this, if you're going with Oba, would you have him beat Brock quickly like we saw Goldberg do a decade ago? Or did you do something different? I would want to do something different.

I would want to take advantage of the fact people are expecting. You talked about it earlier, managing expectations. If the expectations are that OMA doesn't really do long matches because he doesn't really have the tools in a toolbox play yet, if he's capable, it would be great to see a good 18, 20-minute match out of these two. But if it's not, I don't see it happening fast. I don't see it like Darby Allen, MJF squash match,

but I'd see it be in under 12 minutes, unless he's capable and he can pull it out and surprise a lot of people and over-deliver. I mean, that's the art of, you know, manage expectations so that you can over-deliver. There's another part of that, right? Yes, manage expectations so that you can over-deliver. And I think this is a case where by managing the expectations

and over-delivering for Oba, that will get him over as much as the finish itself. I kind of like both of these guys being bigger guys when they wrestle smaller guys. It really showcases the size difference and how big and powerful they are when they start throwing guys around. I'd like to see this one be short like a real heavyweight boxing match back in the day, like a Tyson fight. I would like if this was a couple of minutes. I'd be okay with that.

We'll see what they do. On the actual pay-per-view card itself on ESPN Unlimited, we've got United States. state's title on the line. Sammy Zane seems to be evolving as a character, and Trick Williams feels like the next big thing. I made the comparison earlier this week. This feels a little bit like when John Sina wrestled the big show for the U.S. title on his way to becoming world champion.

Do you expect this to be the anointing of Trick Williams, or does Sammy retain? Trick. Sammy's been in a long time. I think it's tricks. It's tricks time. It's also time that we've returned to the demon, Finn Baller. It's been quite a while since we've seen the demon,

and he's going to be taking on one of the hottest characters of the last five years in WWE, Dominic Mysterio. Of course, these are both OG Judgment Day guys. What do you expect here, Baller or Dominic? Dominic. Definitely, Dominic. So much equity in that character. They're not going to do anything to mess with it now. the women's title will be on the line and it looks like it's a poster from a superhero movie.

We all knew what happened eventually. Jade Cargill defending her title against Ria Ripley. Jade Cargill has been a star since she first debuted in WWE, but Ria Ripley has quietly become one of the more decorated women in WWE history. Is it Ria's night or is it still Jade at the end of the night? Ria. She's such a, there's something special about Ria. I don't know what it is, can't put my finger on it, but part of it is I just like her, so I'm biased a little bit. I set her up, I don't know if I told you this.

I had a friend who had a nephew who was mentally impaired, but a fan, wrestling fan, huge wrestling fan. In fact, that wrestling was the only thing that this kid really cared about, right? So my friend called me, and he's a very famous actor, actually. And he called me, he said, hey, told me the story. My nephew's a huge fan of Ria Ripley. Can you possibly get her on the phone just to say hello to him? It's a big ask.

And for me, I don't like asking those kinds of things. It's just, I just hate it. But in this case, I wanted to for the kid. So I called and set it up. And I was on the phone to introduce the kid to Ria. and I, you know, basically out. And I listened. And I listened to Ria,

talked to this young man for 15 minutes, somewhere in there. And she was so genuine and treated that kid so well that now, like, you know, I'm always going to be a Rhea guy. She's a, she was a classy person on that guy. I don't know what she's like outside of that phone call, but that phone call made me a fan for life. We're all pulling for Ria in that one.

The main event, Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton on night one, but night two, some people would argue the real main event is the night two. It's Roman Reigns in his 11th WrestleMania main event against C and Punk. In his second WrestleMania main event, of course, last year, punk was in the night one main event. People said, oh, it doesn't count. It wasn't night two. Well, it is this year, by God.

Is it punk or Roman come Sunday night? I don't know. I mean, it's hard to tell on a lot of these, but if I have to pick one, I'm going punk. I'm not sure I know why. It's just a feeling. But, damn, his promos, and I mean, look, that promo we saw in the show early on, unbelievable. Yeah.

But there's something slightly different about punk in the way he connects. and the momentum is behind him right now. Do I see WWE going in a different direction and going with Roman and punk in a story, you know, continuing down the road possibly, in which case all bets are off. But if I had to bet, I'd bet on punk.

I know one of your favorite events over WrestleMania weekend is the Hall of Fame. I quickly want to remind everybody it's happening Friday before Smackdown. Stephanie McMahon is your co-headliner. along with AJ Styles. The legacy inductee is Sid Vicious and Bad News Brown. The celebrity inductee is Dennis Rodman.

And unfortunately, here's a spoiler. Eric is in Philadelphia for Real American Freestyle. So he is not going to be the person to induct Rodzilla. The match they're putting in this year is Hogan and Andre from WrestleMania 3, an excellent follow up to last year's debut, which was the WrestleMania 13 match between Brett and Austin. but the two guys I think you're probably thinking about the most this weekend are demolition. Your old pal's Bill Eady and Barry Darso demolition, long time coming,

finally going into the WWE Hall of Fame. I know it's going to be crazy for you this week, but at some point when you get a chance, you're probably going to check out the Hall of Fame. It's your favorite event, right? I love the Hall of Fame. The emotions are real. You just see a different side of people often.

And I just love it. I just love it. The emotion is at its peak. I wish I could be there. And Dennis called me the other night. And if I could be there, I would. But I can't. But I'll be thinking about it and thinking about Dennis and everybody else. I would love to be there for it. I would love to see all of them in person enjoying their moment. Barry Darceau. My wife went to high school with Barry and they knew each other as teenagers. So there's, you know, I hired Barry's kid in TNA. I mean, we have a good relationship. with some of these people. And you like to see people you know, whether you have a relationship with them or not. You see people you know enjoying that moment. It is a special moment. And it's fun to live it vicariously through all of them.

Watch the Hall of Fame on ESPN Unlimited. That's on Friday. And on Saturday, hey man, just DVR, WrestleMania. And watch Real American Freestyle on the Fox Nation app. You want to talk about emotion. Go relive 1 through 7 right now for free. Box Nation. It's just a few bucks a month and not only can you watch the archives, because you can be a part this Saturday in Philadelphia. If you're in the area,

take it through on sale now, Real American Freestyle.com. Eric, hope you have a blast man. Can't wait to talk about WrestleMania and RFO8 next week right here. Looking forward to it. Thanks, buddy. Thank you. We'll see you next week on 83 weeks with Eric Fishoff.