83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #53: Eric is Thankful

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

On this episode of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba discuss the top things they're most thankful for in the wrestling business right now! Plus, thoughts on AEW's new position listing, WWE and the Big 12's partnership, and more! Special thanks to this week's sponsors! BlueChew- Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code WRESTLEBIZ at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Strictly Business. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with Strictly Business. #WWE #AEW Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson from Save WithConrad.com. Heads up, homeowners, all of a sudden your house is worth more than ever these last few years. But what are we going to do with that newfound equity? No, I'm not suggesting you sell your house or go buy something else. But didn't we all make this decision when we bought a house where we said, hey, someday we'd like to, and one day it would be nice if, maybe it's the dream kitchen, maybe it's an in-ground pool. cave. But you've got this newfound equity and I think we should use some of that equity

to turn your house into your dream home with no money out of pocket. But even better than that, we're routinely helping folks do this and they wind up with a cheaper monthly payment. So if you got the dream house you always want with no money out of pocket and your payments went down, how easy is that? Find out how easy it is to turn your house into your dream home with no money out of pocket right now at save with conrad.com. We can't wait to hear about your projects. Tell us what your dream is. We're going to help you make it happen at save withconrad.com. NMLS number 65084 Equal Healthy Lender. Woo! What's going on, everyone?

It's time for another edition of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff. Right here on the ad-free shows and podcast heat networks. I am John Alba, joined as I am every single week by the man of the hour. Mr. Eric Bischoff, how are you, my friend? My pageant wave. I love it. Every single week. I love it.

How you doing? I'm good, bud. I'm really good. Beautiful day out here in Iraq. Mountains. You can see off my deck right up into Yellowstone. Great weather, man, middle of November, and I'm out running around in a sweatshirt. It's awesome. Very nice. Very nice. Love to hear that. I really loved our episode last week with Mike Johnson from PW Insider, talking about the NXT and CW acquisition and the Vlad documentary. Did you get a chance to watch the Vlad documentary?

We're going to talk about that a minute. Okay. All right. Well, I look forward to getting into that. in just a minute then here i do want to remind everyone who is watching we are just a week away i can't believe it's just a week away but we are a week away from wrestlecade wrestlecade dot com's where you want to get your tickets for that easy e is going to be there live and in living color he's going to be signing autographs doing meet and greets eric bischoff is one of the best meet and greet options for all of pro wrestling because he does genuinely like to care and take the time to talk to you three-day family-friendly convention, November 24th through the 26th in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on the Friday night after the GCW show. Matt Hardy and I are going to be doing

a live show about the creation of the broken Matt Hardy character. Eric, this is going to be one of the best conventions of the year. I know I just said you love talking to people. What is it that you really, really enjoy about conventions? And we're going to talk about that in just a few moments but because this is our Thanksgiving themed episode and John and I are going to be sharing the five things that we're each most thankful for in the world of wrestling and we're going to talk about all that in a minute but going back to Russellcade I'm going to be bringing a copy of my book right here yes there it is right there it is right there if you don't have your copy yet that's that's my dog Stevie on the cover I took that shot with an iPhone by the way

Well, I was on horseback riding. But, yeah, we're going to have copies of Grateful, but I'll be happy to sign and just get to hang out with the fans. It's going to be a good time. I'm looking forward to it. RussellKade.com is where you want to get your tickets for that. It's going to be an absolute blast. They have tickets for the individual.

Stage shows, the live podcast, the wrestling events, and, of course, the actual convention, Winston-Salem at the Ben Convention Center. It's going to be a great time. And as Eric said, we are going to talk about, We're grateful for in pro wrestling this year as we approach Thanksgiving. Next week's episode is going to be an Ask Eric episode, as we like to try to do every single month here on Strictly Business.

So let's not waste any more time, Eric, because I know there are a few things that you would like to discuss. We can start on the WWE end because we did get some big news on Thursday morning as we record this. The Big 12th, one of the premier power conferences in all the NCAA. announced a collaboration with WWE for the upcoming 2023 Dr. Pepper Big 12 football championship on December 2nd held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. There's going to be a custom-made championship title belt for this year's MVP of the game.

It's going to be presented by a WWE superstar, and there's going to be a co-branded WWE and Big 12 logo that's going to be featured throughout the venue and on the field. This is amazing collaboration here, Eric. and it reeks of Nick Kahn, as far as I see it, what say you? Yeah, I don't know where it came from, but it's pretty obvious as of late that we're seeing so many things that are outside of the typical, you know, WWE business strategies happening all at once. We're talking about live events now over in Paris.

We're looking at this Big 12 relationship and co-promotion. I think all of it speaks to, obviously, a change in vision, at least on the business side in leadership, and I would presume that's Nick Kahn with his deep ties in the world of sports and entertainment. And I think more than anything, a really thorough knowledge of an entire world of opportunity out there that perhaps wasn't viewed the same previously. Maybe the opportunities weren't just clear previously, or just the priorities weren't the same. Regardless of that, These are all really, really great signs for the health and stability of the industry. You know, it's one thing for everybody to be rocket and rolling when things are hot,

but everything is cyclical. And in wrestling, although it's been so stable as a television property since really the mid-50s, you know, long before cable and then after cable, you know, wrestling was like one of the top, you know, shows in cable and pay-per-view. It became one of the top draws in pay-per-view and the digital world. world. Wrestling is still one of the bigger digital footprints out there in a world of entertainment. But you need stability because all of those business units fluctuate with the economy, with pop culture, with a lot of things. And the more stable you are, the more diversified you are, the better off you are in a long term. And that's what this feels like to me,

a diversification of strengths into markets that will support in the short term, but provide consistency in the business in a long term. I think it's a great thing. And it's a great thing for everybody. You know, very few businesses are willing to be the first ever to do something. But when they do, there's a whole bunch of people lined up to do something very similar because somebody else has already proven it works and taken the risk out of it. I think it's going to be better for everybody long term. Yeah, here's the logo that you're going to be seeing on the field there. It's going to be the WWE on top of the. Man, that's pretty awesome. how impressive is that and that's at jerry world you know a stadium that wwe has basically christened as

its own with their two giant wrestlingas that they've held there in recent years a wwe superstar being on that stage presenting the MVP with a championship belt branding opportunity this is a win-win for all sides as far as i see you know on the business side of things uh because that's what we're we're doing here man it's all about the business of the business of the wethlin business baby um sometimes stuff just pouring out of i've often talked about when i've been questioned why'd you go to sturgis you let all those people in for free you only did it because you like motorcycles no we did it because i wanted to brand our our company against the backdrop of advertising

and sponsors that had been spending tens of millions of dollars of the Sturgis event and the culture that goes along with it. Motor oil, beer, all kinds of great 18-49-year-old demo advertisers converge upon Sturgis and you see their billboards and advertising everywhere. I wanted to be in that, Nix, because I knew that in a long term, it would help break down whatever barriers may exist with some of those advertisers when they see WCW back then at an event, a big event, a televised event with a lot of celebrities involved. When they saw WCW there, it made it easier for them to align themselves with us and take advantage of the audience we had.

That is a big challenge. We've talked about, you know, Lachlan Murdoch coming out and saying that, look, we just couldn't afford WWE at Smackdown based on what we could get for us. advertising. That's part of that challenge to break down those advertising barriers. And I think what WWE has done here is not only going to, in the short term, create more awareness, elevate, create buzz, get people like you and I talking about it. That's the immediate term, short term. But in the long term, it's just another very large, very sophisticated and high profile step into becoming more of a mainstream product for advertisers to get comfortable with.

That's where I think the biggest impact this opportunity will provide WWE. Certainly doesn't hurt too. You got that association with TKO and Endeavor. It's just so many more opportunities for crossover and we will talk about that in a little bit. Speaking of crossover, Eric and WWE, did you catch Becky Lynch on celebrity Jeopardy this week. No, I missed that one. So Becky Lynch made some history, Eric, and it wasn't the good kind of history.

She became the first player to give zero correct answers out of the 60 clues during the field round. Now, it wasn't that she didn't get everything right per se, or it got everything, it wasn't that she got everything wrong. I think because of how jeopardy you word the questions, you know, you have to say, what is, or who is, whatever, I think there might have been a barrier with, you know, where she comes from. And I think she incorrectly worded some of the things for that reason.

But this was written up and by Fightful specifically where they mentioned that she made history and she took it in stride, Eric. The tweet said, Becky Lynch makes history on Jeopardy is the first player to give zero correct answers out of 60 clues. And she said, I never stopped making history. I love her. I love her. I don't really know her, but I love her anyway.

you know one of the things that i really um becky lynch first showed up on my radar probably early 2019 late 2018 and not because i saw her on television it's she kept popping up in my social media feed and i love the way she used social media now that that worked in her previous character um probably not worked quite as well now because she's presented so much differently she was just like a tough red-headed Scottish lass that can whip your ass, you know, she was just a tough blue collar kind of, you know, woman competitor. And now she's kind of glitz and glamour. So, but in the beginning, when she really first started emerging and getting hot, man, she was using social

media in such a great way to establish her character. And I felt like I got to know her character by following her on social media first. And because of her social media. media i went you know consciously i think i'm going to check her out and see see what this is all about and i did and i loved it um so yeah i'm i've been a big fan of becky lynch for a long time i think they're trying to get her back to that man character and she's had a bit of a mean streak lately in a good way and i'm hoping to see more and more of that out of her hey takes a lot of guts to go on jeopardy is that something you'd ever be interested in no because i think i'm so smart i really do i mean i i have a very high opinion of my intellect and tension of history and

information and pop culture and current events and i'd probably just go out there and embarrass myself like i could make becky lynch look good in an environment like that i don't test well that's always been my challenge i've never i've never tested well got a funny story to share here real quick before we transitioned so one of my best friends was on jeopardy last summer he's a teacher in the first round he did not do well he was in third place going into double jeopardy somehow some way he swept a category about vampire literature we had no idea he knew anything about vampires but he did and and he got himself in a position where going into final jeopardy the leader had 20,000 my friend ben had 10,000 and the person on third was far out so in

theory eric all he had to do was bet double and if the leader didn't bet anything or bet one dollar he'd have a chance to win. My friend Ben was the only one who got Final Jeopardy right. The leader bet a dollar. So he went down to 19,99. All my friend had to do was bet double, the obvious bet, the most obvious bet in the history of Final Jeopardy. And my friend bet $3,000.

So even though he... So hopefully he didn't teach math. He doesn't, he's a history teacher. So even though he... got Final Jeopardy right, and he would have won. Who knows, Eric, who's to say? He could have gone out of 70 match winery. He could have been Goldberg.

He could have been the Goldberg of Jeopardy. We would have had no idea, but because he got scared, he didn't go for it. You got to go for it in life, and he didn't go for it. And I felt terrible because I tagged him on Twitter beforehand. I was like, hey, everyone, tune in, watch my friend, because we had no idea how he did. He wouldn't tell us. He couldn't tell us. Then I got hundreds of very angry Jeopardy fans tweeting at me being like,

What an idiot. How did he do this? How did he not see? CNN wrote an article about it being the worst Jeopardy bed of all time. And then you asked me why I wouldn't go on Jeopardy. I saw you posting the video of you doing that TEDx talk. That was kind of cool. Yeah, that was really funny. You know, last week or this week as we record this a couple days ago, I'm seeing, you know, rock video, rock running for president, rock on Joe Rogan talking about running for president. And I'm thinking, wow, I remember this TEDx talk I did back in 2019, I think it was. It was four years ago. And I probably have talked about this TEDx talk because I had a whole thing laid out.

You're supposed to get 15 minutes or 18 minutes, whatever it is. So the goal is trying to hit your time, which I love doing anyway. That's the TV side of me. I think I'm particularly good at it. But I had this whole thing laid out because the producers of TEDx wanted a script. before I went out. I said, sure,

I'll bring one with me. So I had it on the plane. I tweeted a little bit on the flight to Chicago is where I was flying to. And I fell asleep on a plane. It was on my iPad. My iPad was in the front pocket. I fell asleep on a plane. It was like one o'clock in the morning when I landed in Chicago.

And a plane touched out. I come, oh, man, I woke up. You grabbed my bag, walked off the plane, got to the hotel room, opened my bag,

and went, oh, no. I left my iPad on the plane. My script, my speed, everything was there. So I was beat. I went to bed, woke up the next morning.

I went, you know what? I'm just going to wing it. I'm just going to wing it because I have no choice. I can't sit down and recreate something that took me a week to create anyway. So I just won it. And I started, I wanted to talk about how. And back then, again, politics has always been current events has been my thing. But I want to draw the correlation between how cable news in particular,

but network news now as well. has morphed into, has morphed from this platform where as a culture, as a country, we've always gone to for our daily, nightly, local national news. And you'd always, back in the day, theoretically get both sides of the coin. And that's not the case anymore. You know, news used to previously been created and had the responsibility of informing the public so that the public could make an informed decision. That is not the case anymore.

Now, news and media is all become infotainment, and as the entertainment part of infotainment, it's all designed to make you feel, and usually it's angry or fearful. And I think that's one of the things that culturally has changed so much between social media and just the deterioration of news as a legitimate source of information that you can trust, which has gone across the board, but it's all because in the competitive nature of television and competitive environment, news, which is the most profitable division

in most television networks, many of them only survived because of the profitability of their news divisions. They're competing, and the only way they can compete is fear, hate, anger, dissension, all that. That's what when you watch cable news, you see people presumably arguing it. It's a work, brother. They got their heel for their audience. They got their baby face for the audience.

They know what they're going to argue about. They know what the finish is going to be. It's just silly. But I was making that comparison between television news and politics and political culture and how professional wrestling is designed to make you feel. and by making you feel certain ways, they motivate you to buy a ticket. News motivates you to vote.

You know, it's so similar. But I drew a parallel about politics and professional wrestling. And I went all the way back to Abraham Lincoln, because Abraham Lincoln was a professional wrestler before he became a lawyer. And I just wanted to tie that all together. And I brought up, you know, Linda McMahon at the time working, or previously had been working on the Trump administration. And, you know, there were other.

examples and at the very end of it I said and don't be surprised if someday you're not voting for professional wrestler and it was like four years ago and then of course we had the clip of rock and Joe Rogan so it was kind of a fun tweet how many five-star matches you think Abraham Lincoln got back in the day God I don't know this is great what an interesting way to look at that it's very important Well, I ask you about that because we know Tony Khan loves his five-star matches and he is active right now, very active with looking for new talent and not just in the ring, Eric, but also outside of the ring. Because AW this week posted a position for a vice president of people and culture. Now, the listing says that the vice president of people and culture is responsible for driving and executing talent management, including recruitment and retention, employee relations, succession.

planning compensation design total rewards training executive coaching and people development the vice president of people and culture will also be responsible for collaborating with the CEO so tony con and leadership team to shape and refine the culture and employee experience uh i hear you chuckling over there what do you make of this uh uh did he did he get that idea from watching tictock i mean Vice President of People in Culture, I've never heard of that job classification. I've heard of human resources. I get that. But Vice President of People and Culture.

You know, you can't disagree with the need. There's obviously a cultural challenge, backstage, you know. but that usually kind of thing falls under human resources. Well, hey, whatever, you know, try it, try it. Who knows? Maybe it'll work. Maybe it'll make a big difference. Maybe it'll make it a better place to work and be more efficient and be more productive

in every way. So I'm not crapping on it. I find it woke as fuck, but whatever could work. I don't have an issue per se with the idea of tackling. I don't have an issue for say with the idea of tackling culture, because workplace culture, even if you look at it in the sports realm, too, what's the first thing that when a new coach is hired, they talk about in a press conference. We got to improve the culture. We got to get the culture right. So if you're making a conscious effort to improve workplace culture by putting someone in charge of it, who their sole job is to make sure that down the the ladder, you are getting more in line with it and trying to create an environment where people want to be there, especially when we've had these months. And it has been going on for months now with all this ridiculous drama that's been going on in AW. It seems like having someone to

be the sheep herder makes a lot of sense, especially with all the things that we know Tony Khan has on his plate, much of which is his own doing. Having someone who is specifically in charge of wrangling everyone, it doesn't seem like the worst idea in the world to me. Yeah, it's not the worst idea in the world, but in all fairness, that shit starts at the top, bro. Culture absolutely comes up of top. You know, if there's going to be classes on leadership, I think Tony should be the first one at that class. Because that's what this is all about. And this is what it's been about.

It's, you know, a large part of it is creative vision. And look, for the last two years, I've been critical of the things that I've seen from my experience, good and bad. that I've called out, AEW on. And in the beginning, it was like, oh, you're just a hater, he's the old man screaming at the clouds, oh, Tony wouldn't give a job. Ironically, not ironically, interestingly,

a lot of that critique or criticism, or as AEW trolls would respond, hatred that I got from making some of those, pointing out some of the flaws that I saw, and mistakes that I saw, we're all for the last two years have been going on and on and on and on and I predicted two years ago

AEW's got to grow their audience and they're not going to do it by programming to the internet and to Twitter it's not going to work everybody criticized that oh you're just a hater well now here we are 850,000 viewers dynamite with a loaded roster

a loaded roster It's leadership and vision are the two things that company needs. And Tony needs to be the first one in the class, to be honest. I don't mean it to be disrespectful, but it is what it is. You can bring in a vice president of culture and people and a vice president of thought process and a vice president of warm and fuzzy. You can bring in all kinds of people underneath the leader to try. try to fix the problem, but it starts at the top. Tony has to participate in that process.

We are headed into full gear for AW this weekend. They did 823,000 viewers for Dynamite this week. They announced that there will be, they announce an announcement of a signing at full gear. So there will be a big full gear signing. Tony Kahn has said that it is a major talent that AW fans respect and appreciate. for their work you have any thoughts on this any guesses the reports out there from andrew zarian

who we've had on this podcast indicate that it's going to be will osprey you have any general feelings about it um it seems like that would make sense right because tony's specifically said and he but we shouldn't read too much into this but what i just heard you read is tony's saying that the a e w aew audience will respect well that you know that points to maybe a couple people that are really hot on the quote-unquote indie scene or in New Japan. And if Will Osprey is the guy, number one, I'm excited because I enjoy watching him. He's a different level kind of talent, and he's very interesting. So I think the choice would be a great one, but here we are coming off the announcement of

announcement that tickets are going on sale and the letdown and the collective groan that we heard across the boards as a result of it, I think it diminishes it, right? I don't think the announcement of an announcement of a new talent that everybody expects and respects or that everybody respects. It just didn't have a lot of steam on it because it's, man, we've cried wolf way too many times for it to have the impact it should and deserves yeah i mean it is a major signing for them will osprey is probably the top talent in the world for a situation like this that you can bring in w w we had heavy interest in him it's been reported and why wouldn't they he had been on the record for several years saying he didn't want to move to the united states and that was a big reason why he

wouldn't sign a contract with a company in the united states but it seems like he's going to be give an AEW a shot here if he comes in I would hope that he's presented as a top guy we've seen what he can do with the top guys in AW and he will certainly be a great where does he work last or what big event has he worked last or where is he working primarily new japan okay new japan yep yeah and look there are plenty of quote unquote dream matches on the table for him in any of the companies right in w there'd be a ton with him in a w there'd be a ton with him he's one of the more explosive talents in pro wrestling and i mean for a guy like you for him to capture your attention and stand out to you i think that's quite a compliment to what he brings to the table here in

twenty twenty three going into twenty four so he'll be coming in it seems like him maybe it's not him maybe there's someone else maybe it's a red herring who's to say but they will be doing that eric just on the heels of announcing the w continental classic i'm not sure if you saw this but A.W announced a round-robin tournament, the Continental Classic that's going to begin on next week's Dynamite, and it's going to conclude at the World's End pay-per-view in December, and it is essentially set up like the G-1 in New Japan. What are your general thoughts on tournaments in wrestling? Because we've heard over the years that Vince really never was a big fan of tournaments.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. I was pivotal. I was, pivotal. probably my idea directly in coming up with the Bound for Glory series, which would be weeks leading up to the T&A Bound for Glory pay-per-view. I didn't come up with that probably until the last two or three years of my time, maybe two years in T&A. And it was an attempt to create structure that people could find,

follow along with and use actual one-loss records and create a real tournament where the wins and the losses and the ties, all of those things factored in and were absolutely legitimate. And my reason for wanting to do it was that the structure, a tournament structure, the idea of it can really be effective if you reverse engineer it effectively so that what you're really doing is telling stories that are focused on an end zone in this case bound for glory series and while it fits within the framework of a tournament structure that people understand because we've all followed them, March Madness and all that kind of stuff that's out there in our face every day. But the challenge was how do we really keep track of the wins,

the losses, the ties, tie breaker, all that stuff so that it can't be picked apart, but you're still telling the exact stories you wanted to tell going into it the way you would otherwise. In effect, the tournament format actually enhanced our ability to do that because it required focus. It wasn't as easy to go, hey, I got a better idea. Let's do this instead, right? In the middle of creating an art. So it forced us to focus. It forced us to really work in detail backwards so that the action and the results all made sense to the viewer. And I really enjoyed doing that. I really, really enjoyed that entire process. I think it can be something that if it was done well, and again, it's all about the story. Random matches, because here's the

downside. A tournament also gives you the ability to have absolutely zero focus and make up your mind or make up your mind 20 minutes before the match happens, what you decide you want to do. I mean, it can be a disaster, meaning that there's just no story, there's no arc, there's no anticipation, there's no reality, there's nothing, right? It's just there. It's an excuse to have matches. But done properly, and with great care and discipline, it can be a great tool that Tony could do every year, much like, you know, everybody's looking forward to the Royal Rumble

because we know that format, and that format provides a different level of excitement. right a different kind of excitement something different and fresh this could do the same thing for tony if it's done well if it's not one done well and it's just kind of random and haphazard and there's really no stories within the tournament it'll come and go and it won't matter what i just like about tournaments in general are they they are easy understandable stakes for matches there there are stakes to the story being told it's easy for for people to get invested in something like that. I didn't know your depth of involvement

of the Bound for Glory series because I think the Bound for Glory series is one of the more unique tournaments in wrestling when all of a sudden done. Yeah, that was my idea. And there was, oh, I can't remember Matt's last name. Matt, oh, I'm so embarrassed. I can't remember Matt's name.

Matt was, Matt started out in TNA, I believe as a writer's assistant, almost an intern under Rousseau. And then came in and worked with Rousseau. and was working with him when I first got to T&A. And I zeroed in on Matt immediately. He was really good. Now, Matt at that time wasn't necessarily as good.

And hopefully you're looking them up, John, because I want to give him credit. Matt at that time, because he was young, right? And he hadn't really worked in wrestling at all. He was a wrestling fan, but he never worked in it. He wasn't really the guy that I would lean on or look towards for that big idea. But if you put an idea on the table,

Matt had the ability to break it down and kind of a reverse engineering process to make sure all of the components of an idea flowed. It's an arc. Matt was great at that. He was also great with numbers. And we would sit down and go, okay, what's the story we want to tell going into

the finals. Who do we want in the finals? What do we want that finish to be and why? Okay, now let's book backwards. How do we get there? What do we do in the semifinals that's going to create drama and conflict and story and anticipation and surprise? What can we do in the semifinals to achieve that? And we just kept working backwards and breaking it down that way. And we'd plug the names into the tournament the way we wanted them to play out. and the stories within them. And then Matt would make sure every single week that we checked every single box in every single match

to make sure the outcome was designed perfectly to fit the story. We could have never pulled that off had it not been for Matt because my brain doesn't work that way. I just ain't happening. Rousseau certainly wouldn't have been able to do it. He's worse than I am. It was Matt. He made that work.

with the attention of the detail that he gave it, a discipline. Was it a Matt Conway you're referring to? Matt Conway. Let's have a big round of applause for Matt Conway, everybody. Yay, Matt. No, he really was so, so good. He would be somebody, I don't know what Matt's doing today, but if I were ever in a position again,

and there was a gun to my head, and I needed a team that I could really count on, that would be about my second or third call. it sounds like he'd be a good guess for strictly business he met doesn't like attention he's he's intentionally stayed low stayed out of the line he i don't think matt would be interested but he was brilliant and a nice guy really and i'm sure whatever he's doing he's very successful at it always down to give people their flowers it's great stuff to hear from you there i'll tell you what man if this tournament ends up being a vehicle for will osprey

there's going to be a whole lot of wrestling fans who are going to be looking like they just popped the blue chew after seeing all those matches. Good job, John. Good job. Because quite frankly, how could you not be blown away by the performance he has in the ring? Let's talk about the performance that you're going to have out of the ring. This episode Strictly Business is brought to you by Blue Choo.

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Tuesday morning at about 6 a.m. And we're going to drive to Minneapolis. I'll spend Thanksgiving there and a day after Thanksgiving, jump on a plane, go to Charlotte. But when I get back, we're going to stick around Minneapolis for a while. Mrs. B. and I are going to have the house to ourselves. And I never leave home when I'm with Mrs. B without my blue chute, man. It's in my, it's in my go bag already there.

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okay Eric we promised everyone we were going to talk about what we're thankful for in the world of professional wrestling a nice way to approach our bow tie for the year now about a month's time Eric you and I are going to do year end awards for 2023 for the business of the business and I'm very excited for that so let's give some more flowers right now and talk about our top five things that each of us are grateful for in the world of pro wrestling I figure we'll trade them off one by one so please Eric throw us your first one well you asked me early on when we first you know got on the air you were talking about Russellcade and what I like most about about going to events like that and it's funny because I've been on this journey for and I don't want to I mean I didn't intend to go on this journey but things have happened to me over the last few years that have really made me realize for the first time in my life how important What I was able to be a part of is to so many people. And it started with a young lady named Amanda.

You've all heard that story. She's in the book, by the way. There's a whole chapter, part of it about Amanda. And an interview with her, because if you get the book, this is one of the interesting things about this. We're going to probably go over today, so I hope everybody's cool for that. But at the end of each chapter, there's a QR code. and you can go on and see the interview or an interview about one of the people that were critical

or we focused on in that chapter. But Amanda was part of a kind of an eye-opening, and this happened several years ago. And there were a number of other things, and it started making me realize how blessed I am, how fortunate I am, to have been in the business that I've been in for, or wasn't, in for so many years because during that period of time that I was active, I didn't really think about it. It didn't occur to me. It was transactional.

It was how I made my money. It was how I had my fun. It's what I did. And I never thought about it beyond that. But as time is going on and I go to events like Russellcade and I meet so many fans and I hear from them because I genuinely love hearing these stories that makes me feel so much. good, these stories about how wrestling has affected people's lives and relationships. I mean, you look at the ad-free shows community.

You know, there are thousands of people here now that are part of this family, and many of them who didn't know each other before they became ad-free shows members, are now very close friends that travel all over the country together and go to wrestling events and have become very close friends as a result of this thing. that we all enjoy called professional wrestling. I didn't appreciate any of that until the last couple of years. And that leads me to, I guess, part B

of one of the things I'm most grateful for. And that was having Mike Johnson on last week from PW Insider. You and I talked about, it was your idea to bring Mike on it, I want to thank you for that. I'm grateful for that. But we were going to talk about, I don't know what we were going to talk about. CW. Right. Let's get my con because he's, you know, he broke the story. He's following in detail. He's credible. Let's get my con. And I thought,

okay, we're going to talk about CW. But Mike spent more time talking about the Vlad documentary than we did talking about CW. And I'm so grateful for that because he inspired me to watch it. Now, I said, and I meant it when I said it, unfortunately life took over, that I was going to immediately watch it and get back to Mike and give him my thoughts. And I didn't get to watch it until last night. And within the first 10 minutes, I fell in love with Vlad. Are you a diehard Packers fan?

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Subscribe to the Packernet podcast today and never miss a beat. I just felt something. I felt a connection to that man, and I may have met him at ringside, maybe not, but I felt like, wow, that's part of me. I get that. But to the extent that wrestling is such a big part of his life, that was such an emotional journey for me watching that documentary. The last 15 minutes of it, I cried like a baby.

I mean, you know, Mrs. B. was out. I was home alone and wasn't embarrassed, you know, because nobody could see me. But I just weeped. And not out of sadness, but just out of being grateful that, first of all, that that documentary is out there. Now I get it. I get why Mike was so passionate about wanting that and probably won't take any credit for it publicly, but at least partially responsible for it making the schedule on Peacock. I get it now. From my perspective, I was so happy to see it because I think it helps people who are not wrestling fans see that this thing called professional wrestling means more to the audience than meets the eye if you're not a fan. Because if you're

not a fan, you look at professional wrestling and it's over the top, it's crazy. It is what it is. But when you see people who develop relationships because of their passion for this form of entertainment, whatever that may be, but you see how it manifests in such a powerful way and becomes contagious. It's just awesome. The documentary is just awesome. When hats off to the producers, the guys who were on the ground, the guys were laying it out, obviously Kevin Don and in WWE deserve a lot of credit for green lighting it and eventually getting it on Peacock. But man, the guys on the ground did such a great job. Whoever edited that, there's so many aspects of that documentary, forget that it's about professional wrestling and this amazing

human being called Vlad. Forget about that. Just look at the documentary and the way it was produced and the emotion that it created. It's got to be one of the best ones I've seen in a long time. Granted, the subject material grabbed me, you know, pretty hard, but just the way it was produced it was done so well. Yeah, big shout out to John Carlo Didimo, who put that together. He's with AEW now. WW, he was part of it. Oh, he's gold. He's gold. Yeah. No, he's platinum. Yeah. He's double platinum. Yeah. He's amazing. He's amazing way he does. Can't believe WW we cut him voluntarily a couple years ago? I mean, he is amazing at what he does. So glad he's doing great work over there in AEW right now. And the documentary was fantastic. So great stuff. And I would total agreement with

you, Eric. Very grateful we had Mike on last week and that he shared his past. passion for Vlad. And I'm glad you got to watch it because it was really, really well done. And best wishes to Vlad, because I know he's been going through it lately. So we're sending our best here on Strictly Business to Vlad. I'm going to go in my first one, Eric. I'm grateful that we are in the best era of celebrities in pro wrestling. Because it gives you an entirely different element of the game to be excited.

about. Just think this year, Eric, let's talk about two celebrities in particular. Bad Bunny and Logan Paul. What those two guys did this year in wrestling, Bad Bunny with that extreme rules match that he had with Damien Priest, that street fight, and Logan Paul, now the United States champion, they are such a positive brand, they are positive brand ambassadors for not just but the industry as a whole and help change that perception of wrestling for the masses because these are two guys who are unbelievably popular and famous shedding positive light on wrestling and saying it's cool to like wrestling it's cool to be in that and I think that's just so great what do you think about that I was hoping I would get a chance to comment on that I think you'd knocked

it out of the park with that choice for your first one because again much like the big 12 announcement these are the types of moves that matter how many times have we heard people say oh yeah we've got to make wrestling cool again but oh how do you do that that's how you do that you know bad bunny logan paul the involvement you know big 12 obviously big deal and it's new but for a long time now wwe's been sending championship belts to to winning championship teams right whatever it is. And those guys are in their parade for winning, whether it's the World Series or the Super Bowl or whatever it is,

and they're riding up the street in a parade and they're holding their WWE belt, you know. That's how you make wrestling cool. And obviously, Logan Paul and Bad Bunny have taken that basic concept of how, and they've taken it to another level. And I'm with you, brother. It's good for the business. And I'm for anything that in the long,

run is good for the business. I mean, you got Joel. M.B. last year's NBA MVP doing the DX crotch chop and eating a $10,000 suspension because he thinks it's worth it. And AAA gets on social media and says, come on over to WrestleMania when it's in Philly this year. You're already there. Come on over. And you better believe if he's there and the Sixers are home or they're not playing, Joel Embed should be at WrestleMania this year because that's the type of crossover you're looking for and I think it's just so great it's so fantastic for the public awareness and perception of pro wrestling what's your next one Eric my next one and this just occurred recently and it kind of goes hand in hand with my my feelings about doing events like wrestlecade

but I did a tour um September and October over in uh UK Scotland Ireland Northern Ireland. And it was just the most rewarding and fun experience I've had in the wrestling business in decades. Decades. And it was made so because of the audience and because of the team of the people that brought me over there. Kenny McIntosh heading it up. But he's got a great team of people that have become friends now and are actually talking about coming out and visiting us in Wyoming.

And both Lori and I are so excited about that because Lori was with me, which also made the trip so much more fun for me. But that trip, a couple days before I left, I told Kenny, I said, this is going to be the last tour I do in terms of UK in Ireland and Scotland, this is going to be the last one. And I made that decision before I left, before I knew how much fun I was going to have. I made that decision for a couple of reasons. And as I wind my career down, not to suggest that I'm going to be packing it in tomorrow,

but there are certain parts of what I've been doing for years that I'm probably not going to do as much of any longer. And traveling overseas and doing events overseas there. But I made it my mind. I said, this is going to be the last time I'm going to go on a tour. I'll be there for maybe a one-off event or something. But as far as being there for an extended period of time and traveling around, I want to make this one my last one, and I hope it's a good one. And that was my goal is I was going to do everything that I could to make sure it was the best

tour I've ever been on. And it's so far exceeded my expectations. And again, it's really because of Kenny and his team. And the fact that my wife was there to enjoy it with me. I'm really grateful for that. And it is going to be my last tour because I never want to do another tour in that area again. That doesn't live up to those realizations. And I don't think it could ever live up to it again.

So I'm really grateful to Kenny and his entire team for that opportunity because it really meant a lot to me. It still does. I've got a picture I took with the team and I'm having it framed as we speak. it'll be up on that wall behind me soon man i i love seeing your joy doing those things i've seen you at these conventions you and i got to do two live shows this year we went out to fresno we did the fan jam you really do enjoy connecting with fans like that and it's very cool to see and you know what's funny john is i never it's not that i didn't well i didn't enjoy it i did it and i was good at it. I was always polite to people. I was, you know, I was never grumpy and crappy to

people, because I've seen other people do that. And it's very disappointing. I've seen a disappointment in people's face when they go up to get an autograph from somebody and they're looking down and they sign the autograph and they hand it to them and they sign the next autograph. I've seen the disappointment people's faces. So, so I've always been cognizant of, you know, not making people feel bad. But I've never been on the receiving end of all the good shit that comes with doing this stuff and talking to people and loosening them up because everybody walks up to you and they're kind of not everybody but many are they're polite and respectful number one but they're a little inhibited isn't that quite sure what to do and

and when I see those people like if I look at a line and I see somebody four or five people deep in the back and I can tell they're nervous I can't wait to get to them because my goal is to make them laugh to make them have fun to make them feel good about themselves more than anything make eye contact but i get so much back from doing that that i'm making myself feel way better than i'm making them feel that's the truth and that didn't really start happening until the last couple of years i'm grateful for our girl at the fresno grizzlies who threw out the better first pitch than you you know that was uh it was a pretty significant why would you bring that up like i said it wasn't we're in the middle of a feel fucking good theme here i'm

grateful for her. And you've got to rub my nose in the fact that I don't even throw like a woman. It wasn't the first time that you came in second place. It's cool. It's cool, man. All right, let's keep going here. My next one, I am really, really grateful, Eric, that right now there are more places for people in the industry to work and make money than ever. And I think that is so healthy for everybody.

am I talking about? I'm talking about you can go to WW and you can make really good money. You can go to AEW and you can make really good money. You could go to TNA and you could make a solid living. You could go to the NWA and get television exposure. You could go to MLW and get television exposure. Indies right now, indie rates for independent wrestlers are higher than they've ever been because of streaming properties like Fight and IWTV and premier streaming. There are more places to work with more exposure than ever. And I think that is a great thing for everyone. And fans win with that too. So I'm very grateful for that. Any thoughts there? Yeah. Well, you just stole some of my thunder. And actually, I'm not going to get to five because I've combined a couple of these.

So this is going to be my last one. But it's very consistent with what you just said is I'm very, very grateful for the state of the industry across the board like you. You know, I'm not active in the industry anymore, but I'm sitting on the outside looking in and doing podcasts with you and doing podcasts with Conrad and traveling around the world, doing personal appearances and signing autographs. Why do you think that is happening? That's happening because of the state of the industry. How fortunate am I at this stage of my life? I mean, I'm young. I'm 68, but I'm 38 in terms of my health and ability to move around and all that stuff. But at this point in time, I live, in a part of the world that people from all over the world come to visit because of the beauty of

it. I live in a beautiful home on 20 acres, exactly where I want to live. I look up off my deck. I'm looking into Yellowstone Park. Why do I get to do all that? I get to do all that because of the professional wrestling industry. And as a result of being grateful for everything that I have and everything that my children have enjoyed and my wife has been able to share, none of it would happen if it were not for the wrestling industry. So I, even though I'm not in it and I'm on the periphery, I want to see it grow and succeed. And the state of the industry today is so strong that I'm just grateful for that. You know, otherwise you and I wouldn't be talking here. I wouldn't have a podcast with Conrad. I'd be bored stiff. It'd just be me and my dog and my wife.

and she gets tired of hearing me, so it's just me and my dog, life would be shitty. So I'm good with it, brother. I'm grateful for all of it. And lastly, because I know we're running a little bit long here, I got a ton. Really grateful for this audience. I love doing 83 weeks with Conrad. It is in some respects, many respects often, the most fun I have every week. And I look forward to the challenge of trying to stay.

fresh and trying to find new ways to have fun in the show and new ways to support our advertisers. All of that is a creative process that I still get to play in and on a limited basis. But I love it. So I'm grateful to the audience for supporting 83 weeks. And this show, which is fast becoming, is listened to as 83 weeks. So very, very grateful to that. And to you for your efforts, because you. do, you know, you take it seriously.

You don't just show up. You come up with ideas. You come up with guests like Mike Johnson. You come up with subject material and it keeps it fresh. And you have a different perspective than I do on certain things. And I'm grateful for that because otherwise there's nothing to talk about. You sit here and agreeing with each other. It's fucking boring.

Well, we know that wouldn't happen because I'm too woke for you to use your own words. I'm not too woke, but you're definitely on the woke meter. You're pegging the needle a lot more than I am. it's good fun we have in listen i'll tell you i'll start rattling off the rest of mine then one i was going to say was for all these podcasts that exist in the industry because i think for so long eric fans have craved and craved and craved to hear these amazing stories from people who have lived in so many different sectors of the wrestling industry i mean you alone have so many different perspectives the perspective you give here is different than the perspective you give on

83 weeks. And just think about all the different storytellers we have within this industry and to have access to their brains and their minds and their words. I think is so amazing. So very grateful for that. I echo all the sentiments you said about our show. I got two more for you. Ready for this? And I'd love to hear thoughts on each of them. Number one, I am grateful that we are fully entrenched in the Triple H era of WWE creative. For as Thankful as I am for WWE existing as the institution that is because of Vince McMahon. The WWE product has not felt as fresh to me as it does now in a very long time, where there are stars of tomorrow being built in real time before our eyes.

There are more spheres of influence than ever within the program itself, and there's a conscious effort being made to build towards the future and elevate people to levels that we haven't seen in a very long time. there's a greater attention detail in storytelling i really appreciate all those things and i think a lot of it is because now paulovic is allowed to focus in and do his job as the chief content officer what do you say about that absolutely great i would in fact i was thinking about it not not so much with regard to triple h but i was thinking about my buddy bruce richard and i know you know bruce and i became very tight when i first got to wwe because bruce was my producer um

And really was kind of my Sherpa Guidesman through the, through the WWE culture early on. And we've become such close friends over the years. He's one of my closest friends, to be honest. And I was thinking about Bruce the other day, part of the, yesterday, because of the PEC 12 announcement. And I'm just trying to imagine Bruce, who's been there really not from the beginning, but damn close, right, and seeing all of the, the transition, steroid trials, federal government, you know, indictment, the Monday Night

Wars and giving their ass kick for a couple of years and the stress that that put on everybody in WWE financially and otherwise. And the merger and the charges against all the stuff. And now Bruce Pritchard, who's been a soldier, a soldier on almost every level for WWE, and Vince McMahon, is able to enjoy the experience of this WWE version 2.0 under Ari Emanuel and Endeavor and Nick Con and all the changes that are coming with it and certainly recognize that this is the first time ever that anybody other than Vince has had the final say on creative. And it's so exciting to watch.

It really is. I was never close with Polovec. Obviously, we've known each other. He worked for me for a minute. We worked together in WWE, all that. But never really got to know him very well, but really happy for him because he's getting a chance. He spent a lot of time learning, brother.

He's been a long time under that learning tree. And to see him now get that opportunity and the people around him be able to enjoy the fact that he's got that opportunity awesome just awesome totally agree with you and my number one you know i have to go here i eric bischoff am so grateful that for the first time in years and i mean years we have a clear cut top baby face in professional wrestling in cody roads because i think eric bischoff that wrestling truthfully is only as good as its top baby face. So that's ultimately the end goal.

We all want a good guy to cheer for. Cody Rhodes is the closest thing to John Sina that WWE has had. He is able to represent the company in every way possible that you would want him to. He connects with fans at a level that nobody else has been able to since John Sina. And even though he got screwed at WrestleMania 39,

I'll maintain that till the day that I die. There are brighter days ahead. And I feel very confident, Eric Bischoff, that the true coronation of Cody Rhodes, where he will take the throne to his kingdom, is not far off. I know you're a big Cody Rhodes fan as a performer and a person. Anything you'd like to say on that?

Yeah, I think I may throw a little bit of a caution flag on your statement about a company being only as good is its top baby face because a top baby face is only as good is the heel is the top heel he works so we can debate which is more important in the big scheme of things until we're both long gone but one of i agree with you first of all and one of the reasons i agree is because i think it illustrates and evaporates, eviscerates this theory that heels and baby faces don't matter. Agreed. That it's the gray area.

Yep. That's some lazy shit. When you say, I don't know if he's a healer or baby face, let's let the fans decide. What the fuck? No. It's not how it's done. your head out of your ass you lazy bastards you've got to any form of entertainment has a heel and has a baby face and yes you can have anti-heroes and you can have heroes with flaws

and you can have heroes with an edge that may go to the dark side at any moment but while they're a heel they're asper excuse me while they're a baby face they're an aspirational character everybody wants to be that person because that person embodies the characteristics, the strengths, the abilities, the looks, all of it that you wished you had deep down inside of places you don't even visit, but they're there. That's a baby face, but you can't have a baby face without a heel. But guess what? If you don't have either one of them, all you got is a bunch of cold fucking bean soup.

And you get tired of it fast. Yeah, if you're hungry, you're starving. Okay, I'll settle for a bowl of cold bean soup. I don't care. But after the second or third bowl, a cold bean soup, you're looking for something else. That's what you get with the gray area. And I'm grateful that Cody's the baby face and the best baby face.

I agree with you since John Cena because he has the ability to look and represent the company in such a positive way. and he's a good human being, he doesn't have to fake it. I love it. Maybe it'll wake some people up. This gray area bullshit. Thank you, Cody, for proving my point.

Just excites me, man. It's exciting to be able to get behind someone. This is a character. Like, yeah, I want that guy to succeed. I want that guy to have that moment. It's like the best feeling in wrestling when you rally behind someone. It is.

is and it whether it's a team right or or or an individual player for whatever reason because the backstory and the connection you may have even if that player on that team isn't a player on your team love that great story you love look as twisted as this culture could be sometimes in fickle I think is a better way of saying it fickle because of all the input from all of different areas that we get our entertainment from the feeling of aspiration is part of human nature and a part of creating great anything that's designed to entertain people is creating that a vehicle for that aspiration whether it's a character or a story or whatever and i think Cody's very aspirational as a human being and as a performer.

I totally agree, man. Grateful for all of our fans here. Strictly Business, grateful for you. And next week, our episode will drop on Thanksgiving, but we are in advance wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving. And we are reiterating that we are thankful for all of you. And we're thankful for those who hop on board with us here on Strictly Business. Advertise with Eric.com is the place to do that.

Get your product out. your business out in front of thousands of listeners and viewers every single week. As Eric said, this is one of the most listened to podcasts in all of professional wrestling. We want you involved with it, advertised witheric.com. Anything else you want to add there, my friend? Nope. See you next week. This has been strictly business. We'll see you next time.