83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Episode 442: AEW ALL IN Reaction

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

On this special special LIVE edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff, Eric and Conrad deliver their hot takes on AEW ALL IN 2026! What did Eric think of the show? Who were the stand outs and who had Eric scratching his head? You won't believe what Eric has to say about the main event. All that plus, this week in nWo history brings us the arrival of Ted DiBiase and the nWo takeover that gave viewers chills.        THIS WEEKS SPONSORS CASH APP - Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/j5ojws30  #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card.  Savings provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. BLUECHEW - When you buy two months of BlueChew Gold, you get the third FREE with promo code 83WEEKS. You will also receive an additional 10% OFF + Free overnight shipping on your first order. Visit http://BlueChew.com  for more details and important safety information ULTRA - Don't sleep on @ultrapouches. New customers get 15% Off with code 83WEEKS at http://takeultra.com ! #UltraPouches #ad DRAFT KINGS - New DraftKings customers, sign up with code 83WEEKS spend $5 to get $200 in rewards within 21 days - includes all markets. That's code 83WEEKS. In Partnership with DraftKings. The Crown Is Yours. 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. PODCAST HEAT - Want to grow your business with the power of podcast advertising? Reach loyal, engaged audiences through trusted host endorsements across the Podcast Heat network. Learn more at PodcastHeat.com

Today's episode comes to you from the Blue Chew Studio. When you buy two months of Blue Chew Gold, you get the third for free with promo code 83 weeks. You'll also receive an additional 10% off plus free overnight shipping on your first order at bluechew.com. We are live at 83 weeks.com. We greatly appreciate all of you joining us. I am your host, Conrad Thompson.

And of course, we couldn't do it without the Hall of Famer. ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Eric Bischoff, and we are just moments after AEW All In. It was quite a super show for AEW. They were live at Wembley Stadium, and we are live here with you now. If you've got questions for Eric Bischoff, we would love to hear those questions.

We are going to be talking about All In. We'll also be talking about all the news that is fit to print this week. But of course, what the entire wrestling world is wanting to talk about is what we just saw AEW all in. I guess it's sort of the AEW equivalent to WrestleMania. Eric will just start right at the top. Can we just agree?

We like these matinee shows as opposed to a late night paper review. Sign me up for more of this. Abs of freaking lootly. I think, I don't know where it started or when it started, but I like it. Of course, it is a condition of, I guess, just the time change. you know, the time zones of being what they are. I kind of like the idea of airing these shows in the afternoon. I know they kept that theme last year when they were in Texas.

This time they're in Wembley Stadium. It'll be close to 50,000 people there, 13 matches, all told, but we now have a new AEW world champion. Will Osprey beating Kenny Omega and quite the main event. Love to hear your feedback. If you've got any thoughts or questions, please share them with us now. we will be taking your questions live. Eric, we're going to talk about some of the actual, you know,

breakdowns of the show, but you saw a bunch of it. What stood out the most to you? What was the biggest impression that you walked away from Alley in 2026 with? I think just the spectacle of it all. I think AEW did a great job of capturing that big match feel. You know, you likened it to, you know, AEW's version of WrestleMania. And I think that's a fair analogy in the sense of,

the pageantry of it all. I don't think that, you know, this event necessarily lived up to a WrestleMania level production, but it was damn close, and it was really great. It was great to see such a massive audience. The production values were really good.

For the most part, I liked what AEW did with entrances. I was a little, the staging was a little funky, that metal, whatever it was right in the center, of the staging. So you had your two walls where you had great images

and then you had graphics in the middle but this whatever it was, staging was kind of positioned in front of it. So unless the camera swooped in down low and took a shot going up the ramp so you could see square with the graphics, it was obstructed

by whatever that staging was. And a couple times, the first time I noticed it is when Takashita came out. Takashita. Whatever. whatever, Takeshita. Everybody tries to speak with the Japanese exit

when they say his name. But the graphics said, take shit. You couldn't see the first part and you couldn't see the end of it. It just said, take shit. And I thought, why would they do that? Oh, I get it because the camera moved a little bit and you can see the full graphic. So other than that little just funkiness, I thought the interests were really spectacular. I think a lot of effort and money went into creating.

that opening spectacle. And I think for the most part, they did a really good job. There were a couple that I saw that it kind of made me scratch my head. But for the most part, I think they did a really, really good job creating that big event feel. Yeah, I think they absolutely nailed it. You know, it did have a big fight feel presentation. You know, I saw some comparisons for WrestleMania and production and all that sort of thing. Set WWE aside, like the idea that if we're not making a comparison, what an overwhelming

spectacle this is, especially when you think back to, say, eight years ago, the idea that something this size, this scope, that there would be another company besides WWE, someone outside of the tent, so to speak, that could do a show like this is really remarkable. And I know people are going to say, yeah, but they do this in New Japan with Tokyo Dome. I get that. But again, we're talking about a, you know, 50 year old company or whatever it is. What was the last time? The point is for a startup that was like seven years ago.

I still feel like, man, this is, what a, what a celebration for AEW for all the critiques, for all the criticisms. I think it should be high fives all around. I think Mike Mansoury and his team over there did a fantastic job of making the show feel bigger. And I think that, you know, a stadium show is something that is all the rage for these big SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, WrestleMania. Well, I think AEW more than held their own tonight. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments below. I can't wait to see your feedback.

I thought the show was good. I did feel like I would have liked to have seen some of the matches have a little bit more time, but I understand, you know, you can't have every match be a main event. But let's do talk about the main event, Eric. Will Osprey beats Kenny Omega. Kenny Omega, of course, has had so many incredible matches in New Japan.

I think almost everybody immediately makes the Okada comparison because they had a fabulous trilogy. And this feels like a little bit of a passing of the torch. Whereas Okada and Omega were then, Will Osprey is now. What did you think of the presentation, the new Japan style with, I hesitate to call it Dojo, but they both had corners. It felt like a new Japan main event. I really dug it.

What did you think? It was different. Therefore, I liked it. You know, I lean into anything that's a little unique and a little different, a little touch to add. some drama or some intensity. It was a cool device to have those corner people in there. You see that a lot, the UFC.

You see it in Real American Freestyle, where a lot of, you know, crossover athletes, some guys that fight in MMA, but also, you know, wrestle real American freestyle will often have, you know, their corners, much like boxing will. And typically, you know, not typically, but occasionally, as we've seen in UFC

and in Real American Freestyle, those corners kind of get involved, right? And it just brings the energy. up a little bit, brings attention up just a little bit. In that sense, I think it was a really nice touch. It added. It didn't take away. I enjoyed the entrance and the presentation for Will Osprey.

I know that that probably was something that is going to get your attention, not just the fabulous video and the VO from his mom. I thought if you're looking to pull those emotional levers, boy, they kind of nailed that. And then the walk, you know, where we see him coming to the ring, but it's through the backstage area. And you see all these people that he's met through his journey. I mean, if you wanted to make sure that everyone knew, this is the crowning of the new face of AEW,

the new world champion, him fulfilling his dream, the first British man to win the world title on British soil. It had a big fight feel. And I know that you probably love that presentation of the whole video package and then walking through the backstage area. It added, I don't know, ceremony to it. It added a lot of weight, I feel like, the main of it. It had a drama and anticipation. It created. You're just, you know, looking forward to seeing him get out there and they milked it.

And I think the, you know, when he lost the first two or three fall match with his, you know, robe backstage, I was kind of wondering if they really needed that on camera. But it was live and it is what it is. But once he got that robe on and he started walking out, it felt very serious and dramatic. And that's what you want going into a match like this. interested to hear what you guys think we asked and 70% of our viewers here live at 83 weeks.com think the main event lived up to the hype. It is something I think a lot of people were talking about ahead of time.

I know I was chatting about that with my friends, like the expectations for this match from a smart mark, a Meltzer, a page match.net perspective, people were expecting this to be maybe one of the greatest matches of all time, Not just a five-star match, not just the match of the night, but a match that was bigger than. And Kenny Omega has done interviews for years saying, hey, if you're wanting me to be 2017 Kenny Omega, I'm not that guy anymore. I can't be that guy anymore. Not even close. They went with a bloody graphic, violent.

It wasn't the same style of match we saw with him and Okada. They went more violent. What did you think of that pivot? And is that more about the evolution of a performer or was it necessary? Where do you land on this version of Kenny Omega here as he passes the torch? Well, I think both of them, I didn't like the match at all. And I know, you know, people are going to push off such a hater. Look, for those who like the AEW style of wrestling, it was fine.

You got what you wanted. You got what you paid for. And it met or exceeded your expectations. And I'm happy for you. For me personally, subjectively, based on what I enjoy out of professional wrestling, it was like watching a nasty boys match. It was a hardcore, slow-paced match. And yes, it was bloody and there were great spots.

But that's my one, my overriding critique throughout most of the matches. The entrances were by and large range from really, really good to, eh, okay. The majority of them fell in a really, really good category. But the matches were, they were okay, but there was nothing special. There was a lot of garbage in there. There was a lot of stuff that you could see through. Timing was off in a number of matches.

And a number of them just looks sloppy. So, yeah, I know everybody's into it with the best wrestle and the wrestling is so good. and Dave Meltzer is going to give it so many stars. That's great for the audience that really likes the AEW style. For someone who likes a match to tell a story, a real story, not a spot story, I mean, that's what most of this was tonight, was just, if it's a 12-minute match, it's you get six minutes of high spots and I get six minutes of high spots. We're just going to take turns.

That's the match. And then you get your holy shits and you get all your, this is awesoms, and a crowd reacts because that's what they're there for. They're there for the high spots and you're getting what they paid for, which is, it's a good thing, not being critical of it. It's a great thing.

They put 50,000 asses and seats. It's a great thing. But for me personally, the matches were just okay. Boy, you just melted my brain when you compared Will Osprey and Kenny Omega to a nasty boys match. Well,

you know what I mean? It was like a hardcore, anything goes. No rules. They'll bring a weapon. You know, I didn't see a kitchen sink in there. But, you know, for the most part, it was anything goes. You had a referee that might as well not even been there.

So there's no structure. It's just two guys getting into the ring and exchanging high spots until one of them starts bleeding. I mean, look, two minutes into that match, they look like they were 58 minutes into a 60 minute Broadway. It just, it's not what I expected out of those two. Certainly the way they've been billed, certainly Osprey. I didn't expect Kenny to go out and beat Kenny Omega from 2017. He's being honest about that. I like that.

But I expected so much more of Osprey than just, you know, getting his ass kicked for 18 minutes and then making a comeback. Well, respectfully, I'm going to disagree with you. And I think that's why I enjoy doing this show with you because I feel like, first of all, shout out to you for being a good sport and sent down and watching more wrestling today than you have in a long, long time. So I appreciate that. Yeah, like four months. Yeah, I really appreciate that. But I do think if you're a regular at EW viewer,

you do have some context to some of the things that maybe you, since you haven't been watching every week, maybe it would have missed. Yep. And I think that's possible that some of it is, hey, if you're just viewing it in a vacuum, that may be your takeaway.

But if you've been watching the entire story, maybe there's more to it. We want to hear from you guys. What did you think of the main event? What did you think of Kenny Omega and Will Osprey? I know everybody is going to have an opinion about you comparing it to an Asty Boys match. And by the way, yeah, I just, I'm imagining the headlines tomorrow when we wake up. But you know what?

I'm looking forward to the discussion. I'm looking forward to the chatter. Before I transition, I do want to ask, what did you think of the Sting cameo tonight? We saw his son, Steve Borden, come to the aid of Darby Allen. try to save the day and then of course he gets in a bad spot the lights go off and then here comes the stinger and then he finds himself climbing the ladder and he goes face to face with his son and then he says you know what i think i'm going to let my young and have this one really cool touching moment listen i know uh at times you uh you've been critical of a w but that moment by god

you had to love that one i did i enjoyed it i enjoyed it for steve i enjoyed it for his son I have a sense of how much fun that was for Steve Sting. You know, I'm going to be careful what I say here because Sting was very supportive of my son Garrett when Garrett broke into the business and I don't want to sound like I'm unsupportive. But my concern, and I say this as a friend, my concern is that they're they're pushing stings on a little too early he's not ready for the positions that he's being put into he barely knows his way around the ring and now he's doing high spots like he did i would just love to see him take a little more time before he's thrust into the kind of limelight he's being thrust into because if he's not ready you'll end up in the same position as a eric watts for example of getting the push, getting the visibility, getting the highlights, or the spot, but not really having the experience.

And that's all it is is reps. It's all it is is reps and confidence that comes with it to really showcase himself out there and not look unprepared. He's been working a lot of dark matches. They have been kind of strategic. I know he's been working a lot with Dustin Rhodes and Texas getting ready for a match. This wasn't really a match. It was more of a cameo in a moment.

What did you guys think about Sting and his son being on camera? We want to hear from you. I think it was a cool little callback, a little tip of the cap. And that's one of the things I love about wrestling is we get to, especially in AEW, it feels like whenever they can, they try to give a nod to the stars of yesteryear.

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Sutton Debit Flex card, and Bank Corp Debit Flex card. Savings provided by Cash App, a Block Inc. brand. Visit cash. Dot app slash legal slash podcast for full disclosures. Okay, Eric, let me ask you. Did you like anything on the show at all? I've told you what I like, right from a get-go. You're making me sound more negative than I truly am.

No wonder these idiots. I think all I do is hate on I'm at the EW. I told you right from the fucking get-go what I thought was great, what I thought was good, what excited me about the show. I just didn't think the wrestling was as good

as it's always made out to be. I thought it was very average. You didn't like John Moxley and Nigel McGinnis? Actually, no. That was probably, that's probably, and here's what did it for me in that match. When I see wrestling, And Mocci does this all the time.

And every time I see it, it bores me just a little bit more. When they stand there in exchange elbows, look, I get it. They're recreating that scene where Don Fry, whoever he was in the ring with back and prior to you, Taki, um, right? I mean, that was a classic, right? You see, and you still see it in social media. I still get that stuff on my feet. You know, it was a big moment, whatever happened, early 2000, sometimes 2001,

whatever it was, but it's still a really big moment. And of course, you know, sports entertainment being what sports entertainment is, we try to adopt some things that we see that work. And now we're doing them in the ring all the freaking time. And everybody does it and everybody looks like a clown when they do it. Because you can see through that shit. It's not believable. It's not dynamic.

It's not fun to look at. It's not interesting. It's just two guys beating a fuck out of each with their elbows. and it looks horrible. So, yeah, when you say, well, what about the Moxley match? He's like, you know, a Stone Cold Steve Austin wannabe. And yeah, he does a lot of the same things. He carries himself the same way,

he tipping himself in the head with the waters. He's coming out, all that stone cold Steve Austin kind of esk stuff. But inside of the ring, I get his style. He's got that rugged, rough street fighter brawler style. But, man, when they start exchanging elbows like that, just takes me completely out, completely out. Respectfully, it doesn't sound like you like much modern wrestling. Maybe that's the issue.

I love modern wrestling when it's good. My, my, again, this is completely subjective, just because I don't like high spots for the sake of high spots or 10 minutes of them. That's one style of wrestling. And a lot of people like it. 50,000 of them parted with real hard dollars or pounds to go and watch a lot. So there is a market for it. I'm just not one of them.

I tend to like matches that tell a story. I like matches where it's one-on-one, where there's a personal issue. I like matches where there are easily identifiable stakes, not nuanced kind of hidden meaning stakes, that your announcers have to continually try to get over because it's not getting over in the ring. I like a match that tells a real story. And one of the telltale sides here is, you know, you start out with like a trio's battle royale. I'm sorry. That's just a car crash.

And it's a messy one of that with so many people in the ring. The guys can't really do much. They're stepping over each other, trying to get their shit in. I just think it's a visually unappealing presentation when you've got that many people in a match. And there's no real personal issues going on, none that play themselves out really in the ring. In fairness, you're way out. face because you're not a regular AEW viewer. And I know that you're watching it in a vacuum, but I'm saying the story,

the reason I thought you would like Nigel McGinnis and John Knoxley and that's all me is because that match was so heavy on story. But in fairness, you saw the last chapter you haven't seen the rest of the story. Nigel McGinnis, who has been, you know, obviously, if you know, Nigel's story, he is one of the guys who for whatever reason, life through a curveball too, and he never got to really realize his full in-ring potential because of some medical stuff. And he became a fabulous announcer.

He's done a great job on color content. I agree with that. He's one of my favorite announcers, by the way. But when he decides to throw his name in this tournament, because that's what you saw today, he has battled through this tournament and somehow, some way, with an injury, made his way to the finals.

And he's on what's left. of a foot and the entire match was around. Here's the former AEW world champion. The biggest bully in AEW. He's kind of the big boss at the end of a video game. That's kind of the John Moxley character, if you will. And can Nigel McGinnis step up to the plate and prove that he can beat the Continental champ, the big bully in the yard, John Moxley, on an injured foot.

And since the entire match was not really based around high spots, set aside the elbow thing. I know you don't like it. Or the forearm thing. I know a lot of fans don't like that. I get that. But the rest of the time, really trying to unwrap the tape and work on it and work a body part.

It felt so old school. It was totally different from the high spot fest that you would describe in other matches. I just thought, man, Eric's going to love the story in this one because here's this guy of, can he do it one last time? And then he falls short in front of his hometown and our home country. And the whole crowd goes to their feet.

I just thought it was very emotional. Now, again, I'm a huge Nigel fan. I've kept up with him through Ring of Honor and all of his stuff from 20 years ago. But I also watched this tournament. And it felt like a fantastic way to blow it off. But again, I was watching the entire story. So I understand what you're saying. If you're watching it in a vacuum and you're sitting down.

But I think if you had seen the entire tournament, you might feel differently because that story that you always talk about, the story inside a match, it was there. You just. you can't jump in the last chapter maybe so it's unfair for me to ask you that I guess that's a good point and I can see that knowledge that without reading you know the first 10 chapters the last chapter might not make any sense and that's a very very good point and that is perspective from which I watched that match I watched the match and I watched the entire show and by the way I don't think I missed more than a couple minutes of it just dealing with phone calls

and messages like that. So I did watch the entire show for the most part. Yeah, I would have probably felt differently about it had I been engaged in the story going forward. I too am a Nigel fan. With Nigel and TNA, very well aware of some of the issues that he had, you know, as far as being dealt a bad hand early on in his career when he was at TNA. And I love his work on commentary.

I think he's one of the best, actually. and hope he pursues that. But for the most part, I've yet to see a John Moxley Mass that I really enjoyed watching. I think he is the big bully, the big heel. And I just love that story of the guy, the hometown guy, trying to rise to the occasion one last time. And it didn't happen. But then I love the idea that, you know, Nigel showers off, suits up, and then is back out there in a wheelchair calling the main event.

Just I'm, maybe I'm a huge Nigel Mark and I'm exposing myself here, but I love the story. I love the match and I can't wait to hear what you guys thought. I did want to ask you about the following match because we saw Okada, Kyle Fletcher, and Takesha, and I know that you were a big fan of the New Japan style presentation and entrances going way back to the WCW days. But the Takesha entrance and the presentation with his gear and the mask and the whole thing, that felt like kind of a modern great mood of style interest. I thought for sure you'd be into that.

And I know you did like the entrances. What did you think of the match though, Okada, Kyle Fletcher and Takesha? A lot of great high spots. Don't know what the backstory was. Certainly the announcers didn't help me out much. They called the action, but there was no backstory. There was no narrative that helped me understand why I'm watching this. And I think that's a good note for the announcers as well,

is your narrative, your announcers get more camera time than anybody. They're out there for three hours. Their job is to educate people like me, to engage people like me who may not be familiar with all of the backstory. That's what a pay-per-view is for. That's what the pregame is for, is to set up that backstory, help people who are just dropping in to the paperview. Because there's a lot of them, by the way.

obviously you know eW does pretty well on her pay-per-view so there's a lot of people who are going to tune into the pay-per-view who may not be watching may not be one of the five or six or seven hundred people that watch the show during the week so it's important that that narrative flows through all the way up until and including the last match in the pay-per-view didn't get a lot of help from announcers in that regard so that would be a note as a producer that I would talk to my announcers about is keep that narrative keep the audience reminded as to what the stakes really are. In the case of Nigel and Moxley, don't be afraid to go back and tell me from the beginning, you know, where this, how it started

and why we're here tonight. All those are tools that you can use to, again, bring people like me, whether I have been watching the show or not, to engage me more in what's going on, to make me pay more attention to what the stakes are, or to care more about the stakes. I didn't get any of that. Got a lot of, you know, called the action. Made some interesting comments, but nobody really told me much of a story. Yeah, I think I may have, uh, I may have actually put you at a disadvantage here to let you watch these shows sort of in a vacuum and then say, hey, what did you think?

Because if you don't know the whole backstory, I get why there's a piece missing. Something that is going to be very, I can't wait to hear what you thought of this. What did you think of the debut of the former new, day. Now they're going by the name New Level. We know them as Coffey Kingston and Xavier Woods. They're now a part of AEW. I guess they're going to call them Austin Creed and Kofi. My apologies. But New Level is the name of the team. They're now the trios champions along with Swerf Strickland. What a presentation. They licensed the song, New Level, which is an actual hip-hop song. Did this click for you? What do you think of them making the

switch. It felt like a vibe in the arena. Fans were digging it. What did you think of the new level version of new day? Look, those guys bring so much energy to the party. It's just inevitable and it's great to see. I loved it. I'm happy for them. Two great guys. Happy that they've got an opportunity to continue to do what they love to do and wish

them nothing but the best. But what was my impression? They bought a ton of fresh energy, a ton of fresh energy. I was happy to see it. we're seeing quite a few fans in the chat saying it is the announced team's job to explain stories for fans who don't see the weekly show. And I know that this show in particular is one because it is sort of the AEW WrestleMania, if you will, because I know that when I've got a lot of, we'll call them

lapsed fans in my life, they'll still order WrestleMania. They'll still watch the Royal Rumble. So maybe they haven't been watching Raw or Smack, but they will watch the big show. I think this is probably the same thing happening on AEW side. Like maybe you don't watch Raw. I mean, Dynamite. Maybe you don't watch collision, but you wanted to watch the show. Maybe that's a pretty good note that you're sharing here.

Eric, we want to hear from you guys. What did you think of the show? And I also wanted to ask, Eric, what do you think of Edge and Christian? I'm sorry, Adam Copeland and Christian against the Young Buck. Afterwards, we see kind of a tag team bonanza. We see Motor City machine guns come out. We saw FTR come out. We saw a new level come out.

I mean, it feels like I don't know where this is headed, but whereas right now in this very moment, it feels like WW is sort of de-emphasizing tag teams. It was like there's a lot of emphasis on tag team wrestling and AEW. Where are you at on tag team wrestling? Do you like the, the WWE way of things? Do you think that is a cool niche that AEW can exploit? Do you have an opinion about tag team wrestling in 2026? Yes, the same as it was in 1994.

It's inefficient. It's for the most part ineffective. It's very, very expensive. It's twice as expensive to put on a tag team match as it is a singles match. And then it makes it even harder to tell a really good story. So, I mean, good for AW if they think that, you know, loading up the tag teams is going to create, you know, more interest for them, good for them, because there's going to be a lot of them available.

The reason WWE is de-emphasizing tag teams is the same reason that I publicly stated I was doing it in 1994. It doesn't make financial sense. Now, if you don't care that it doesn't make financial sense, then it's nice to have a deep tag team roster because you can fill a lot of time with it. What do you guys think? Do you like tag team wrestling? Is it pass A now? you still enjoyed tag team wrestling let us know in the comments below i'm sure you're going to get a lot of people stirred up today and people are going to think that you've got a hard on for a ew but i know

that's not true uh you gave a lot of compliments oh look at there we're jumping the gun here today's episode is sponsored by blue chew remember when you were young and well getting hard was easy you could look at a page of good housekeeping or a shapely tree stump and be ready to go well blue chew brings that back blue shoe is better sex and a tablet that combined four ingredients into one powerful solution. You've got two ingredients to get you ready physically and two to support arousal and desire in the brain. It works fast and it lasts and now guys can have a complete experience in the bedroom with

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Plus free overnight shipping on your first order. Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Blue Chew for sponsoring today's pod and the bedroom. Stay tuned. We are going to be talking about the 30 year anniversary of the NWO, but let's quickly get to some of our questions that we've got here. Wolfpack Basketball 7890 is with us here live. And he wants to know, Eric,

is it difficult to create new branding for recognizing talent, or is it smart to use a derivative of their WWE brand? Undisputed Kingdom, Hurt Syndicate, New Level, are more familiar than they are original. That's interesting. You know, we saw the Hurt business in WW. We moved to AEW. Now it's called the Hurt Syndicate. They were new day there.

Their new level here. Do you like leaning into that because it's familiar? Or would you rather see them try something completely different? I would rather try something completely different. I know why they're doing it, and there's an argument for that. There's probably some logic to it that we can't totally dismiss, but it's like a hangover that won't go away. I think breaking clean from a previous character

and establishing a new character, in this case, characters with new level. is a smarter long-term approach than hanging on to the past, which is what they're doing. They're trying to draft off of the equity that the former New Day had in WWE, which I understand it. I'm not criticizing it. I completely understand it from a business perspective. I prefer not to have to do that. So given a choice, if I think I have the option of creating something really new and unique

and powerful or effective at least, I would opt to do that before I would take the easy way out, the cheap way out, and try to come up with something that's a derivative. People don't like derivatives. They like authenticity. They like originals. When you have to be a derivative, it suggests that you don't know how to become unique. That's interesting because I know before I even look at the comments, a lot of people are going to cite WCW examples of guys who came over and had a very similar sounding name.

But respectfully, most of those, if we're honest, didn't really work out to be all that great like IRS or, you know, when the big boss man comes over and he's the guardian or earthquake comes over and he's avalanche or whatever. But there are. Absolutely. And it's like when I'm when I say these things, some of it is based on experience. Yes. Some of it is actually based on the fact that I fuck that shit up. Right. And I learned from it.

You would think other people would learn from it too. And learn from what other people do and have success with or don't have success with. So yeah, I've done it. And I've learned the hard way. It doesn't work. There's a better way. I think in this particular case, new level is a hit just because Tony was willing to spend the money to license that song.

and it's not lost on me that those guys hate to talk about private business but it's been reported everywhere they were asked to take a pay cut for 50 percent opted to say nope no thank you switch gears go to the other channel probably making more money than they were probably have more freedom when the titles on their first night license a song a popular hip-hop song called new level i think this may be one of those hey it works in this particular instance moments. We'll find out. Yeah, we will find out.

I want to know what you guys think. What do you think of the name, new level? Let us know in the comments below. I thought it was a vibe. I really dug it. I would have been shocked if they didn't try to do something to capitalize on New Day. I mean,

New Day was such a franchise over there. It would feel like if all of a sudden, I'm not making a comparison here, but if Hulk Hogan said, hey, let's switch it up instead of red and yellow, let's do something totally different. When he made the jump to WCW,

it would have felt like, I don't know. And so I appreciate that they're leaning into it a little bit, but it's not the new day. So let's try to make it a little more edgy, modernize it a little bit. I like new level. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments below. We've got some more questions here.

Hey, you know what? This is a great point. Short-term booking says, Britt Baker just come back. How would you book someone who just showed up? I'll admit, of all the people that I thought we would see make a surprise return tonight, Britt Baker was not on the list. Now, it's not lost on me that they are doing a tribute to Rebel, who we know is in the fight of her life right now with ALS.

And they're doing a tribute show for her in Athens, Georgia, not this coming Wednesday, but the following Wednesday, September 9th. And of course, longtime AEW fans know that Rebel and Britt Baker were fabulous on-screen pairing way back in the OG days, the very beginning of AEW. So I'm glad to see that she's back, if nothing else. else for that. Were you surprised to see Britt Baker return? Because it kind of felt like she was never coming back. Yeah, I was surprised. Happy to see her. I like Brett. She's a fun person to be

around. I don't know her really well, but you know, got to hang with her a few times when I put my foot in the water at AEW. And she's a fun person to be around. She's got a great energy. And she's obviously a very intelligent woman. And she's good in the ring. So hopefully she'll be back. and we'll be able to either pursue her career or ended in a way that is satisfying for her. Ephrains with us. We love us some Ephraun. He says he loves steaks. Just absolutely loves them.

Real number nine says tag team wrestling has always been a part of wrestling. You can never really eliminate it. A wrestling historian says shout out to Davey boy Smith. Anytime we talk about Wembley, I think we all, long time wrestling fans, we all think about SummerSlam 1992 way back when. and for the life of me, and granted, I know that, you know, there's probably a reason.

I just don't know what it is. Why do you think we've never seen Davey Boyd Jr. at any of these Wembley shows? Like Tom Billington, Tommy Billington, the nephew of Dynamite Kid is actually under contract A.W. He wasn't on the show tonight. I don't know why. I know my business. But I do think it's interesting to wonder,

even if it's just for tonight as a pop, if they just played the old bulldog theme and out comes the nephew of dynamite and the actual son of Davy Boy, it just feels like that would have been a great hometown moment. But they've ran this show three times now. It hasn't happened. Are you surprised by that? Not really. I mean,

it's a nice little spot. You're right. It would be kind of a feel good moment briefly for them to just, even if they just came out and, you know, wave to the crowd and nodded and acknowledge the crowd. route and and the respect that they're getting or the father's got. Um, I think that would have been a nice touch, but it's not a,

not a big part of the show would have just been, it would have been nice garnish on the plate, so to speak. Uh, bond bonds 2021 says, let's talk about new level in three months and see if they still have some relevance. Boy, that's a criticism I hadn't heard, but if we're honest, I have seen that criticism before that a lot of the WWE guys who make the switch over, that come into a lot of pomp and circumstance, but the roster is so heavy right now with talent

that not everybody can get television time. Like Motor City Machine Guns, you know, we saw them debut a while back, but we haven't really seen them again until tonight. Do you think that the AEW roster is too crowded to really capitalize on new level or because they had so much success in WWE, they're going to be able to ride this one for a while?

Can't say. You know, so much of it has to do with creative, what Tony's willing to commit to long-term or even mid-term, short-term. If all you're going to do is pop the guys out there a couple of times because they're the, you know, the bright, new shiny objects that you get to play with, and they come out. As we've seen in the past, this is the pattern for former WWE stars when they make the transition is they show up. It's a big damn deal. Everybody's excited. And three months later, they're in a witness protection program. So it just depends if they get truly integrated into the show and into storylines and

their meaningful storylines. If we get a chance to see what new level is all about and they establish it themselves, then I can see it absolutely working because they bring so much energy to the dance. And they're great inside of the ring. It could be really good. But pattern that's been established for the last six or seven years has been, let's just wait and see what happens. Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about some other headlines from the past week.

One of the things I wanted to ask you about was an interview that we had with Chad Gable. He was talking about The Undertaker, and I thought this was a fascinating quote he gave here. He says, I've credited Undertaker a ton of times throughout this follow-up on that mask versus mask match for pulling that out of me. The ability, the willingness to just go out there and feel it and not worry so much. I don't want a volunteer undertaker for anything, but man, he could give that same speech that he gave to me.

I really can't even use the words he used and some of the speeches he gave to me to pull it out of me. But if he could give that to the main roster and really get through to people, we'd see a revolution. It's been great. I think this is fascinating to me. the idea that we're hearing from Chad Gable, who a lot of people believe is maybe finally getting his just do,

he's giving so much credit to Undertaker here. And we've talked about this before. But now he's even suggesting, boy, if he could kind of do this raw, raw speech for the main roster, what it could pull out of them. I did not have it on my bingo card that the real life Mark Calloway

was going to be such a motivational speaker for the locker room. But I guess it makes sense. You know, we heard for years and years that he was sort of the godfather of the locker room, if you will. What do you think of this? I'm guessing, obviously, because I wasn't part of the conversation, I didn't over here any stretch, but just based on Chad's comments that you read, I'm guessing that a lot of what Mark had to say or share with Chad had a lot to do with psychology, a lot to do with

psychology. And that was probably refreshing to hear someone from taker's generation, which obviously at this point is an older generation, where psychology still mattered, particularly with a character like Undertaker, even more so. I mean, character matters to every performer that's out there. If you don't have a really well-defined character that the audience has learned to relate to and has created expectations for. You have to have that character, but if you're a character like The Undertaker, a highly animated human cartoon, that character in a psychology that goes with it is even more important. I'm guessing, because Chad's probably not going to learn too much from Undertaker

about the technical aspects of wrestling. I think Chad's got that down. I do think what probably felt like a fresh set of eyes, so to speak, to Chad, was Mark talking about psychology. Where is your head an hour before you walk into the rig? Where is your head while you're making that entrance? And obviously, where's your head when you're in the match? So I guess that Chad was reacting to psychology in hearing a fresh perspective. that perhaps he hadn't heard in a long time. Meanwhile, there's another quote I want to get your take on.

This is from MJF talking about veterans. He did an interview with Bleacher report earlier this week in advance of the big all-in pay-per-view from Wembley Stadium. And MJF had this to say. He said, in all sincerity, I think one of the biggest issues that young people in the industry make is that a lot of guys are busy walking around trying to find veterans in the locker room.

Here's the deal and the God's honest truth. Not all of them, but 99% of the veterans in the locker room, they don't have your best interest. They don't want you to beat them. They don't want you to be better at talking than them or better at wrestling than them because if you're better than they are,

that's taking food off their plate. The only person you can trust in this industry is yourself. Now, obviously, we're not making a comparison to what Undertaker said. He's no longer in the locker room. And if he is, he's doing a rah-rah, but he's not an active in-ring competitor. What do you make of this?

Because this is something that I've heard a lot of young wrestlers say, but I've never heard anybody say publicly. But the idea that the young guy going over to the old bull in the locker room, who they're going to wrestle at some point, or they're on the same roster and they're competing for the same spot, that guy's not your friend. What do you make of this? I understand it.

I think it's probably true in some. Maybe even most cases, but I don't think it's a general rule. I've seen, listen to veterans really try to help younger talent, especially younger talent that is potential. I've seen it, I've experienced it. So I don't think what MJF is saying is totally wrong. But it's not correct 100% of the time. And he said, you know, 99% of them, I think it's fewer than that.

I think there's probably 50, 60% of the wrestlers who would rather not be bothered necessarily or if you're going to bother them, they probably don't have your best interest in mind. They have theirs. Give you an example. Now, this is going to support MJF's position, not argue it. but when Bill Goldberg came along, immediately talent started walking to him, surrounding him, because they knew at some point or hoped they were going to end up working with Bill. So they wanted to establish their relationship with Bill.

One of the challenges that I think, I've never talked to Bill about this, and he may disagree with me. I don't know. Just an observation from a distance. But I think in the very beginning it was very confusing for Bill because he was being pulled in a lot of different directions. And I'm not even saying that he was being pulled in wrong directions, but he was given, you know, wrestler A, who's a veteran who's, you know, making seven figures is going to come in and he's going to tell you what he thinks

is best for your character. Maybe what he thinks is best for your character is also pretty good for him. And then another one's going to come from over here. He's going to see an hour later. And this person's also a veteran, also at the top of the food chain. He's going to give you his perspective of what you should do to improve your position, especially if it improves his. So there is that, I don't want to call it manipulation, but manipulation in some cases with some people.

But I've also sat and listened to guys spend a lot. of time trying to help younger wrestlers who have the potential. So I don't think there's a flat answer across the board on that. I wanted to ask you about another thing that popped up this week. We're talking about Tony Kahn doing media and he was asked about Johnson's retirement. And this has become a topic because they interviewed Adam Copeland recently and now they had follow-up questions for Tony Kahn as to whether or not he would have approved the idea of quote-unquote Edge wrestling John Sino one last time before John Sina retired. Of course, we all know that that was one of the more iconic and classic feuds from 20 years

ago, and it did seem like Sain was doing a bit of a farewell tour. I think a lot of people would have liked to have seen Edge and John Sina one last time. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible or was it? Because Tony was asked and he says, I was never asked. But as far as I know, Adam was never asked, so it's hard to say. but when there have been opportunities to collaborate, I have been collaborative in the past. I never got asked.

But if I had been presented a plan and the dates and the information on what was going on, yeah, I would have supported it. And you shocked people a couple of years ago when you said, Tony should have volunteered to allow Dustin Rhodes

to appear at WrestleMania when his brother Cody Rhodes was challenging Roman for the title. I don't think it was ever discussed. Do you remember there being a moment like this when you were in the big seat in WCW where it would have made sense for some sort of an olive branch. Obviously it didn't happen here and that's WWE's prerogative. I think Adam would have liked it. I think wrestling fans would have liked it. Tony, of course,

whether he would have approved it or not, that doesn't matter now. So why not come out and say that, hey, I would have approved it because you're a baby face. But was there anything a circumstance like that in your WCW days that you can think of that would have presented itself like this? Not at the top of my head, you know, we weren't really doing Hall of Fame. I mean, we had the Slambery Legends Hall of Fame kind of. But other than that, there was really no scenario where something like that would have made sense. So no, I don't think I don't think I ever had the opportunity to make a good or bad decision in that

be here. Would have been interesting. What do you guys think? Would you have been excited about the idea of a wrestler crossing streams, so to speak, like all of a sudden an AEW wrestler is on WW programming? It would have been a while. Now,

I know we saw it once upon a time in TNA with Christian, but that was, I don't know, it didn't feel like it had the same weight as a John Cena farewell for. It was a different thing. But we'll see. I am curious what you guys think of that possibility,

though. John Sina and Ed. What could have been? Didn't didn't, didn't TNA let Rick Flair do a W.W.E. Yeah, that's exactly. That's exactly. That was the Christian circumstance.

They TNA allowed Rick Flair to go be a part of the four horseman induction while it was. So Flair went into the Hall of Fame in 08, but it passed forward a few years and the Hall of Fame is going to now call all of the horsemen in. So not just Flair individually, but the whole group. But at the time, Flair was under contract.

So as the story goes, I guess Dixie wanted a talent trade and she requested Christian, which I thought was interesting. If we think long enough and hard enough, maybe we'll come up with some other examples. Maybe what we need is some Ultra. I'm a big fan of Ultra. I think you will be too. You've got to try it. It's instant focus in a pouch.

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bottom, please support our show and tell them we sent you. We're celebrating 30 years of the NWO right now. And I love that we get to talk about the NWO because I can't believe it's been 30 years. Let's go back to August 26th, 1996. We're in Palmetto, Florida. Let's take a look at some of the matches that day. We've got Hovintoo Guerrera and Billy Kidman. This is Hovintood's surprise debut against Billy Kidman.

Guerrero is going to get the win in three minutes and 40 seconds. we know that Hovintude is going to take Lucha Libre in America to another level him along with psychosis and Ray Mysterio and they were absolutely tearing it up here at 96 and I know that Hoovintuioch later would become its own talking point but when Hovintude first came into WCW you had to be impressed with his style and speed

and what do you remember about Hovintude's debut way back when? He was fun to be around. He, he, this is going to sound corny as hell, but he wrestled with joy. He had so much fun out there. And you could see, you could see it in his face before he went out back when he was in a locker room getting ready. You could see it in his face when he came back. He loved to perform.

That's really my first impression of him. And the impression I choose to hang on to, he had his shoes towards the end. But he was fun. when he first got to WCW, he was really fun. He was an important part of the Cruze Away Division. I think he was a very important part of, and one of the reasons why Lucha is as successful in the United States as it is because of him and Ray Miserieu,

and a lot of the other Lichita doors that came over as a part of the Cruiserweight Division. Next up, we've got a promo. It's Glacier is Coming. We're continuing to see more and more of these. This is obviously an interesting time because, you have spent a lot of time and effort and energy on this concept. We've talked about this for years. But by the time it actually makes it to the screen,

the NWO is maybe a 180 from this presentation, whereas this is landing into the fantasy, video game, Mortal Kombat culture, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are sobering black and white realism on top of realism. This idea, if it was a couple of years earlier,

I mean, like, this is a 1994 debut. Maybe it could have been more successful. Is this just bad timing, do you think, in retrospect? Horrible timing. Horrible timing. It would have been a great idea in 94, 93, 94. It was a horrible idea in 96. Just, I mean, you look at, I mean, NWO is the obvious thing,

but the shift from teen and pre-teens. characters. The WCW was doing, by the way, WCW was nothing but a cheap imitation derivative, if you will, of WWE. We just didn't have the budget or the

expertise to develop characters the same way that WWE did. They did a great job. They were a factory. That's why so many people got over so quickly back in early 80s and even into the late 80s and 90s.

because WWE was a character-building machine and they were able to get people over. Unfortunately, the overly animated teen and pre-teen cartoonish-type characters that dominated the scene both in WWE and in WCW because we were trying to do what they're doing, not we, not me, those before me, when I made the decision to go after the 18 to 49 year old demo instead of the teen and preteen demo and shift towards a more reality-based storyline, that was right smack damn in the middle, not even in the middle, it was the end of the glacier character development. I mean, the vignettes were all done. Staging was done.

The lighting had been done. I mean, we had done all of the work for three, four, five, six months leading up to the debut. So by the time it debuted, it was already a year too late. I think, like you said, if the timing would have been different, if it would have come out a year, maybe two years sooner, I think there was a chance that could have gotten over, at least better than it did. And it ran head on into a kind of a cultural brick wall, if you will, creatively.

Yeah, WCW is definitely shifting gears. And you can feel it even in the next segment. It's Kevin Sullivan and Big Bubba against Marcus Bagwell and Jim Powers. Now, this did feel like WCW in 1995 where the Dungeon of Doom was running roughshod, but boy, that is not where we are now. We're going very real. Hulk Hogan and the NWO are here to destroy WCW. They're going to do more damage than the Dungeon of Doom ever could.

It was like we're shifting gears and winding down some of the Dungeon of Doom talk. And now we're going to make allegiances, which is what Sting and Lex Lugar are here for. They're talking about war games. As you'll recall, they have stepped up the prior week and said that they want to join Rick Flair and Arne Anderson as the representatives inside of war games. So it's good guys and bad guys all on the same side because we got to pull together as WCW to stop the NWO. But this is easier said than done.

There's a lot of tension here. Can we trust each other? I mean, how many times has Rick Flair turned on Sting at this point? It feels like a thousand. That's what made this story, I think, so great. is, hey, who can trust too? You know, can we get along? And I know it's become a trope in wrestling where if you see two guys who are going

to be wrestling at a big, like let's say it's Cody and Punk at WrestleMania. Well, a week or two before, we're going to see if they can coexist as tag team partners. That's not what this is. It's like, hey, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. You get where I'm going. I love that little layer of good guys and bad guys getting together against the NW. It's different, right? It's like, oh my gosh, this must be real.

Why would they be doing that? Right. It was just another thing to kind of shock the audience into paying attention. It was our way creatively of saying, hey, over here, it's called WCW. We got some cool shit going on. But we had to do something. We had to change something in order to get their attention. And what we changed was finding those moments that allowed people to suspend their disbelief

by projecting or presenting something that was a different. They're not used to seeing it, which is why it got their attention, and led them into a frame of mind where they thought, well, that's not supposed to happen, therefore this must be real. It jumped to that conclusion, either consciously or most of the time, subconsciously, but sometimes even consciously. And that was the goal, and it worked. next up we see Chavo Guerrero pick up a win over Mike Enos.

This is the era where we're trying to elevate Chavo. He's cutting a promo about DDP. DDP starting to get a lot of momentum. Again, this is late August 1996. We know when you fast forward to 1997, he's going to have maybe the feud of the year with Randy Savage. That all really gets kicked off in a big way when he turns down the NWO. When did you start to lean in and see that,

hey, your friend, the real life Dallas page was resonating with the audience. And he was no longer just going to be curtain jerking paper views with Mark Mero. Hey, we're going to get some steam on him. He's starting to heat up. Was it this era? Was there a specific match or moment or promo?

Do you recall what it was where you're like, okay, I got to go with him now. I you know it's so hard 30 years after the fact to go oh I remember the moment you know no I don't and nobody does they remember fragments and bits and pieces of conversations or different things that happened you know over the course of a you know two month or three month window where things start coming together and and 30 years later it all kinds of blends together but to answer your question the best I can there was a point in time and it was almost out of frustration because

I was close to page personally and page as you know is relentless he was then he is now he will be forever relentless once he gets his mindset on something it is he he's he's like a dog on a bone and I have been watching and I worked with Paige since AWA so it sounds like I didn't know it I knew him pretty well by the time we worked together in WCW. And he was the king of gimmicks. We've talked about this before. It'd be a little, he'd be dusty Rhodes, Jesse the Body Ventura, six or seven other characters all kind of wrapped up.

And, you know, he was like a walking talking gimmick, not just one gimmick. He had everybody's gimmick trying to get over. Women. Boas, cigars, old John glasses, whatever, you know, and none of it was working and not the way he wanted it to. I remember having a conversation with him and it was out of almost frustration from what I recall. And I said something to him like, dude, you've got to lose all the gimmicks. No cigars, no glasses, no rhinestone gimmicks, no boas, no.

women, just you. Be a blue-collar guy because that's really who you are. You're not Jesse the Body Venture. Don't try to be Jesse the Body of Nature. Be who you are because that's who the audience is. Be one of them. Don't be one of people that you're imitating on TV. Don't be that. And he embraced that. And it was, I think, the first time when he lost all his, you know, came out, I think it was a jean jacket or something. You know, it looked like he walked in off the street. But he came down through the crowd. I'm pretty sure it was in Macon, Georgia.

Could be wrong, but I think it wasn't Macon. And came down through the crowd. No, it wasn't Macon. It wasn't Macon. It might have been Gainesville, Georgia. Came down through the crowd. It was in a syndicated taping. It wasn't even a Saturday night show.

It was a syndicated show worldwide, I think. And he came down through the crowd. And I expected to get a reaction. I expected the crowd to kind of dig that because I haven't seen that before. It's excited when wrestlers come down through the seas or get near them at the barricade, whatever. That's what they're there for. They want to interact, right? So I thought, well, you'll probably get a positive reaction coming down through the crowd.

He got way more than a positive reaction. it really, really clicked. And from that point forward, I didn't have to talk to him about losing his gimmicks. I didn't have to talk to him about his character. He figured it out in that moment and improved upon continually. But he stayed true to that blue collar character for quite a while. And then he started leaning back into the previous Diamond Ellis page, you know, towards the end at WCW. but for that period of time when he really got over,

when he was really ascending as a character, he was just, he's one of them. He was authentic about it. And that's what worked for him. Speaking of ascending, so is Rasslin on Nitro. How about the Lucha style?

The cruiserweight style is here to stay. About 14 minutes on TV for Ray Mysterio versus Mr. JL. Now, little did we know. This is Jerry Lynn. What a banger this was. a lot of times you're seeing very quick television matches. You gave them 14 minutes here.

This is one of the things that I think made WCW so special and it stood out from what you were seeing on the other channel. But we're not done because now we've got the NWO attacking the production truck. Now we're right back heavy into the story. This is one of those small segments that I think still makes the NWO angle work. The NWO isn't satisfied with just attacking wrestlers. they're going after WCW themselves. They actually spray paint the TV production truck in WO.

So now they're vandalizing the equipment responsible for putting Nitro on TV in the first place. I think this is cool because what's implied here is we can get anywhere. The locker room, the arena, the production area, the broadcast booth. Nothing belongs exclusively to WCW anymore. I've always enjoyed this. I don't know why. silly thing in the scheme of things, who cares? But boy, it does add a lot of realism like they're taken over, right? It did. I know it seems like a little thing, right? But I keep repeating myself,

but we kept doing things that had never been done before. And it weren't always big things. They were little things like this. You know, spray painting and production truck. It doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but since people had never seen it before. Yes. And it looked like something that you could go to jail for, you know, at the very least get fired for. It, again, authenticity. This must be real. My God, if this couldn't be part of a script, they wouldn't do that, but they, I don't think so.

It must be real. That was the psychology behind doing it, and it obviously clicked. Binwai and Mongo aren't happy. They want to be involved in the war. games and aren't sure if we can really trust Flair and his decision making with regards to Sting and Lex Lugar. They want to be in the spot, which makes sense. Randy Savage is losing his mind with mean Gene.

He is obsessed with Hulk Hogan. He's still furious over what happened at Bash at the Beach. He's pissed that Hogan has the title and he's furious with the giant for losing the belt. And he's promised that he is going to get an eventual rematch with Hogan that will be a nightmare. course, we're talking about Halloween havoc 1996. But before we get there, of course, he's got business with the giant. Speaking of the giant, he's going to make short work of Jim Dugget, four and a half minutes. But that's not what's important about this match.

It's about the man who shows up in the arena. Ted DiBiase shows up. We last saw him three months prior into May, finishing up at In Your House Beware a Dog. that was his last televised appearance with the WWF, and now he's here. Now, Ted DiBiase doesn't come down the ramp. He actually walks through the crowd.

He doesn't jump the barricade. He's not cutting a big wrestling promo. He just simply takes a seat and starts watching. And when the camera finds him and he knows the camera's locked in on him once he's seated, he looks right towards the camera and he starts counting his fingers. Three, then four, then five. Hogan has been talking about the NWO adding additional members,

and now all of a sudden Ted DiBiase, he's here. We don't really know why. WCW doesn't explain why, but the implication is obvious. The NWO is growing. Chat me up about DeViopi debuting and the way he debuts here. I mean,

I love that, again, we're adding to the realism. He's not getting a wrestling promo. He's on the other side of the barricade, and he knows the camera's looking. So this is really great stuff, man. It is good. It is good.

I met Ted Barry Bloom introduced me to Ted. I had high hopes for Ted. He was a great talker, a great voice, loved his voice. I really wanted a strong, powerful, credible voice to be a spokesperson, if you will, for the NWL. And on paper, at least, it was a perfect fit. Ted looked to be the perfect person on paper, but it just, the chemistry wasn't right. I don't think he had a real feel for the NWO, and I don't think from a character perspective, he was the right guy.

Just because he was Ted DBS, he was the million-dollar man. People associated that character, associated Ted with that character, that character, that overly animated million-dollar man character, just didn't fit the reality of the NWO story. It was bad casting. It had nothing to do with Ted. Ted was great. Ted was great talent. Nothing to do with that.

It was bad casting. And that happens sometimes. You could put great actors in the wrong movie with the wrong director or a wrong co-star and the chemistry is just not there. And that's all it was with Ted. It was a great idea on paper, but the chemistry just wasn't right. Bill Broadway over on Twitter when I mentioned that we would be covering this on the next 83 weeks. He was not happy with it.

And he said, oh, another fumble by Eric or something like that. And I said, what would you like to have seen different? And Bill said, anything is better than a half-baked introduction to the NWO with only a few months later Eric stepping in and duplicating the role. So then only a few months later, having Ted turned face could have leaned into his role more. He could have been Eric's corporate rival. Now I can argue that actually kind of makes sense. Like I understand if if we're going to have someone who has the end storyline, the financial wherewithal,

because we're seeing all these commercials like the following announcement has been paid for. Well, of course it's made about wink wink, a million dollar man or whatever it is. And I could have seen you guys as that role. But I think to your point, bad casting, it makes more sense because logically, how do these guys keep getting in unless you were,

on unless you were a dirty agent unless you were playing double duty right you're muted eric you're muted we can't hear you eric i was going to say sorry bill nice comment but it wouldn't have made any sense it it may sound good to you 30 years later but it had to be somebody from the inside it couldn't be somebody from the outside sorry to purse your bubble bill Go back to your day job, Bill. Oh, God, I love you for that. Hey, you know, one of the things I do like about the NWO and specifically this segment with Ted is as he's counting down, like we know, okay, all is one, Nash is two, Ogan is three. We would perceive that, hey, he's four.

Then he holds up the fifth finger and it makes you wonder, well, who the hell's fine? Yeah. And that's what I like is the whole, hey, who is it? Who's next? the intrigue. Like my wife and I love the show White Lotus on HBO. And this, you know the premise.

If you're not familiar with it, the idea is someone dies in every season. And it's kind of up to you to figure out who dies and who did it. Like how did they die? It's almost like clue, right? So it was frontal muster and library with a candlestick or whatever it is. But I think the intrigue of creating that water cooler talk, that's what we're talking about.

So it's not just a match. There's the curiosity. There's the cliffhanger of what is it? Who is it? Well, who is it? How about the giant? He's cutting a promo saying he wants Hulk Hogan. As a reminder, he just lost the title at Hog Wilde.

He wants his title back. And he's basically telling Savage, you're not my priority. Hulk Hogan is. Next up, we see something that feels like it's straight out of 1986, not 1996. Rick Blair and Arne Anderson against the Rock and Roll Express. Now this is obviously big box office 10 years prior, and I don't know why the, I don't know why,

but boy, the Rock and Roll Express here just feel out of their element. Like they, they feel old, but they're not old, but the gimmick feels very, very dated by 1996. Wouldn't you agree?

Yes. Yeah, and I love them both. They're great guys, but, we're way past the sell-by date. No doubt about it. We got Arne and Flair here warning the NWO.

Of course, they're reminding everybody where fall brawl is taking place. Winston, Salem, North Carolina, horseman country. Then we see a pretty major moment here. Historically significant, to say the least, Chris Jericho makes his Nitro debut.

He's against Alex Wright. This is the first time we've seen Chris Jericho on WCW programming. And I'll never forget him coming in. I remember watching this as a fan. I've never seen Chris Jericho had no idea who this was. I had just got back into wrestling the same month. And I'm like, all right, I don't know who this guy is, but he leaned against the rail

and yelled like, come on, baby. And then fans are, you know, it's like so white meat baby face against Alex Wright. Who would have ever imagined Chris Jericho would go on to become what he became? Who was the, who was the big advocate behind the scenes and the signing? of Chris Jericho in 1996. Well, me for sure. I sought him out. So I put myself at the front of that.

But I think Kevin Sullivan was right there with me. Yeah, I think it was just really myself and Kevin. There may have been somebody else involved. I just don't remember. But I did have to track him down. I did have to work a little bit at it to get in touch with him. So primarily it was me. Let's talk about the next match here.

we've got the Steiner brothers and the Blue Bloods, but then Sting and Lex Lugar against Chris Benoit and Steve Mongo, McMichael. This is interesting. We've set the stakes, you know, Steiner and, I'm sorry,

Sting and Lex, they want to team up with Flair and Orne, essentially taking Benoit and Mongo spot. Still, we've got WCW fighting WCW for the right to fight the NWO. I love it. I don't know that I would have bet that this storyline would hit, but I will tell you what I will be betting with.

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One non-withdrawable reward redeemable. Terms at dkng.com slash offer. Limited time offer. nationwide based on sports book predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability varies by state of course this match we're talking about sting and lex lugar against benoit and mongo this is wcw versus wcw so it's a perfect time for the nw o to attack as a reminder this is all about who gets the right to battle in war games against the nw o the nw o hits the rink hoagin scott hall kevin nash the match gets thrown out and here comes the spray paint. This is going to become the first time we see spray paint used on an individual like this on Nitro.

Of course, we saw Hogan defaced belt, but now here he is spray painting the horseman. Look at the streak that he's putting down Rick Flair's hair here. This becomes a real signature of the NWO, the spray paint. And then we see the NWO take over the broadcast booth. Perfect ending to Nitro. Nash and Hogan heading to the announced position. They've already left all of WCW laying.

They've spray painted the world champ. And here they are taking over the announced desk. They've ran the broadcasters away. Or even spray painting NWO across the front of the broadcast table. This is an amazing end to a Monday Nitro. We're talking about taking over WCW. We're talking about the battle for WCW, the battle for Nitro. not only do we see the debut of Hovintood and Chris Jericho,

but we see Ted DiBiase teasing, not just member four, but member five. And yeah, we're going to spray paint the production truck. Now we're going to spray paint Rick Flair's hair. And oh, yeah, take over the announced desk. This was a crazy-ass way to end Nitro. What do you remember about this? This is one of my core memories of the NWO takeover

because it felt so real, Eric. You're kicking the announcement. for the broadcast test. It did feel real, and I'm wondering if Palmetto, this event, was the event where we lost power for a period of time during the show.

I don't know if there's any way we'll be able to check that. Maybe for next week we can look into that, but I think it was in Palmetto, Florida. During the broadcast, we actually lost satellite for a period. We lost power, building lost power.

So we had to fire back up and rely on generators and all that kind of stuff. So it was an interesting night. I think the parts of it that feel real now, listening to you, you know, kind of recap the show. Little thing, spraying that production truck, taking over the announced set, you know, Ted DiBiase coming there, sitting there with, you know, counting the five on his fingers, all the nuance and the questions that that created, the mystery that that created

were all things that, you know, little things individually, but added together, made the show kind of stand out. So it sounds like it was well put together, a good format. I do think that you're thinking about when Nitro Lost power on February 5th, 1996. They were in Lakeland, Florida. Okay. If I recall, you were on TV, you were doing commentary at the time, and you said something

like, you alluded to the fact that someone else had something to do with that. Maybe you had to issue an apology. Oh, no, I blamed it on WWE. I got a letter about that. That's right. Now I remember. So I'm thinking that was the inspiration for this. Like you were sort of thing.

Yeah. Maybe. That's right. Now I remember. Yeah, I got a letter. Ted got a letter, I should say. Super fun stuff. Of course, we are knee deep in the NWO story.

They are continuing to grow. And we've seen the tease. Who is number five? We know it's going to be the giant. We'll talk about that next week here on the show. And of course, War Games is right around the corner. Can't wait to hear your questions. If you got a question for Eric and I,

leave them in the comments below, hit that subscribe button and tell a friend about 83 weeks with Eric Fish Off.