83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff #70: A.J. Francis on Conquering Wrestling

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

Eric Bischoff has the week off, but the business of the business rolls on! Jon Alba discusses Mercedes Mone's AEW debut, WWE partnering with Bloodsport, and then speaks with A.J. Francis about how he's putting his WWE release in the rearview mirror and aiming to conquer the wrestling world as himself! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Double J. Jeff Jarrett, here to tell you a little bit about the nonstop savings happening over here at save with Conrad.com. Are high credit card balances holding you down on the card? If you're looking to give a guitar shot your credit card debt or give your home the push it deserves with some upgrades and remodeling, you need to go to save with conrad.com. That's right, save with conrad.com. Conrad and his team are routinely helping my world listeners save five, six, seven, even $800 a month.

Oh, did I mention you get to skip your next two house payments? Take a cue from the last outlaw, because if anybody knows how to get the bag, it's me. Stret on over to savewithconrad.com today and see how much money you can save for free. That's right, it's save withconrad.com. NMLS number 32416, equal housing lender. SavewithConrad.com. how's it going everyone it's time for strictly business here on the ad free shows and podcast heat networks i am john alba normally i'm joined by the man of the hours i like to call

him mr eric bischoff but eric had traveled this week that unfortunately held him up but i did not want to go without getting you an episode of strictly business at least delivering some new content i know this show is one of the most listened to in all of the professional wrestling industry for podcasts we're so appreciative of that and i want to make sure that we got to talk a little bit about the business of the business plus give you a super fun interview in just a little bit you're going to hear a one-on-one with top dala dala a j francis whatever you want to call you him he's killing it right now in the wrestling industry now normally when people get released from

wwe or a w they talk about reinventing but instead we're going to talk with a j about what it's like presenting yourself authentically in the same character that you were in wwee and trying to prove to the world that there is money to be made off of that it's a really great conversation i hope you stick around for it i did though want to talk about some of the happenings going on in the pro wrestling world. Of course, the biggest piece of news as far as the business of the business is concerned, that being AW big business, the debut, the official debut after months of speculation of Mercedes Monet, the former Sasha Banks. She opened up this show at the TD Garden. As you recall, AW took the CM Punk approach with promoting this show, never quite

directly referencing that she would be appearing. They did not advertiser. her officially, even if there were many, many hints that Mercedes would be debuting here. About three, four hours before Showtime, they were around 7,300 tickets or so, but she put out a post on X, teasing it directly about three hours or so before the gates opened, and AW ended up pushing an extra 2,000 tickets off of that. So per Russell, Ticks and Dave Meltzer, they had about 9,400, 9,500 fans in the building. One of the higher attendances for Dynamite to date so far. They sold well merchandise-wise, but the show did deliver viewership-wise numbers that were

slightly disappointing for what I think they were hoping for. The show was up slightly from last week's episode of Dynamite, average 801,000 viewers. It did a 0.27 demo, which was the same. as last week at Mercedes quarter not that you can base everything off the quarter hours of course but Mercedes quarter did draw about a million viewers which was in its own right it was a good number but throughout the course of the show things did change so we did see a drop from her and from the show where she was no longer appearing I think people get caught up in the semantics of the quarterly sometimes and maybe not fully understanding they are

complicated we're looking at memes we're looking at averages of total viewership over that particular quarter it doesn't necessarily mean this was the peak this was the valley it's a little deeper than that but i was surprised more than anything and this is something that eric and i have talked a lot about is show structure right and a few weeks ago we were we were very compliment entry of AW and how they did it with the young bucks looking for sting during his final dynamite. And they started the show right near the top with it. And multiple times throughout the night, they established this was the A story. You're going to go back and revisit it until we got the payoff in the main event.

And they're teasing throughout the night that's leading towards something in the main event. Whereas with this, Mercedes comes out. She cuts this, I thought it was a pretty good promo to start the show. And she announces the women's main event between Rio and. willow nightingale and there's essentially no tease that she's going to be involved now if you're familiar with the formula of watching pro wrestling you probably figured she might show up but the general audience didn't evidently and there was a significant drop from when the show started to the actual main event and they missed mercedes mona coming back and helping willow nightingale

fight off the heels in sky blue and julia hart at the end of this show uh i really would have loved to have seen mercedes mona backstage a couple times throughout the night they're clearly trying to present her as a big star she had the ceo chance in her entrance i caught on pretty quickly but let's see her interacting with female talent let's get some teases of potential feuds that you're going to see i'd go even a step further i'd have her interacting with some of the men bigwigs throw her out there in the back with brian danielsen or John Moxley, tell your audience that she is on the same level and the same playing field as a lot of these top guys in the company. I think that really would have established a lot of

equity for Mercedes Monet. I think it may have kept some viewers to see if she was going to be part of the main event or interfere at some point in some juncture, or even at the end of that first promo, have her say, I'm going to be watching that main event closely. It's simple, retainership of viewers and giving them breadcrumbs of what they're going to see. I admire the idea in wrestling that we want surprises. I think that's great. Surprises always make wrestling more fun. But I just don't believe that the Mercedes Monet name, and I mean that specific name, has the same established equity as Sasha Banks per se. I think people still look at her through the vehicle of the Sasha Banks moniker and the general scheme here.

So could you look back in hindsight and say, yeah, you know, they probably should have promoted this ahead of time or just announced that she's going to be there. A lot of the smart fans know she's going to be there. Try to put it out there into the ether that Mercedes Monet is going to appear. Maybe you move more tickets. Maybe more people are tuned in throughout the course of the show. It's easy to say those things in hindsight, of course. I think the circumstances were different with CM Punk back in 2021.

We were talking about someone who had a seven-year layoff in wrestling. Fans were just coming back. This was off the end of the pandemic days where I think only three, four weeks earlier, AW had its first dynamite back with fans. So they run Rampage. It's only the second episode ever. They fill out the United Center with it. So things have just changed in that sense, right?

It's not apples to apples. And while Mercedes-Money is a big star, I do truly believe that she can bring eyes to the women's division in AEW. I think there's an opportunity to collect on that value. Maybe you can argue that it was not capitalized on in the best way here. But now you play the waiting game, right? You play the long game. You see, are people going to be interested? Are people going to now see that she's there?

Are you going to get some of those Mercedes-Mone, Sasha Banks fans, who maybe weren't totally on the pulse that she'd be on this episode. Will they follow her? That's yet to be seen. But she's going to be prominently featured on this program. I wouldn't be surprised if she's in the first female pay-per-view main event spot at some point for AEW. And we will find out what happens from there. Again, probably would have advertised her, even going into this before we knew what the viewership numbers are.

I think they were kind of banking on her to have the same brand value. value as CM Punk and Sasha Banks name maybe does, but the Mercedes Monet name, especially with her missing 10 months of action, probably just doesn't. So you live and learn and we will see what happens. I thought there was some good stuff on this episode of Dynamite, but I do worry too about one of my biggest constructive pieces of feedback for storytelling in AW is so many times they'll get someone hot they'll heat someone up and they just never quite ride them all the way and we saw them with ward low once again getting the opportunity i mean the match really never had a quality near fall where it painted him as a believable contender um but on the positive side i mean will

osprey just looked absolutely phenomenal in his promo segment came off as a big time player big time star gonna have to see if that's followed up on as well i feel like that's what we hear about all the time with a w how will they follow up on it um and and again show structure play so much into that and the way the show was structured i think is a big reason why we didn't see a great number for this at least a number that they were anticipating uh now it does a mediocre number or a bad number or a great number should that influence your enjoyment of a product no i don't believe that i believe if you enjoy a product you enjoy a product stories are being told it's just a matter these stories compelling to you or not that's what eric and i always debate you know a lot of times he'll say

oh there's no story being told and my argument's always going to be there are stories if you're watching this program stories are being told it's just a matter of do you find the story compelling or not do you find how these characters are positioned to be compelling or not and there are plenty of arguments to go both ways with all of that but i am curious to see how mercedes is position going forward, how she is promoted going forward. And if we see more threading, I mean, it paid off in that Sting Darby episode where the bucks were looking for them all episode long. They threaded that needle throughout the course of the show. And hopefully we will see that followed more closely in the upcoming weeks as far as Mercedes Monet is concerned.

I'm going to have a few WWE notes on the other side of our interview with AJ Francis. I'm I'm really excited for you to check this one out. For those of you who don't remember, AJ was part of Hit Row. He was released from WW twice. He's been crushing it right now with TNA, doing some work with MLW on the Indies, GCW, former NFL player who is now trying to leverage his name value, and he believes he's bringing brand value and opportunities to these other promotions. So without further ado, please enjoy my chat with AJ Francis.

So this is an interview that we've wanted to have here on. Strictly Business for a while now. We had him ready to come, and then this big lawsuit that some of you have probably heard about at some point broke. So we had to push some things back. But finally, able to bring A.J. Francis back on to Strictly Business. Dala, just crushing it all around, man. How you doing?

I'm good, man. Blessed. Got a lot of opportunities. A lot of people want to work with Dala, man. And it's cool because I went from being the ugly girl to dance to the pretty girl in college, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, now I'm out here and everybody's inviting me to their fratformals and, you know, there are all these, all these events and, you know, I used to, I couldn't even get an invite to the Sandy Hawkins dance, you know what I'm saying?

So now it feels good. Well, for what it's worth, I never thought you were the ugly girl at the dance, but that is a really interesting analogy to make because I want to dive into that and how you go about making yourself that attracted person that people want part of their brand, people want part of their shows, and how you maintain those open options and do things on your own terms. Because I feel like that's where any form of this like independent contracting freelancing work is, it's doing things on your own term. So how liberating has that been since your recent WWE departure to kind of blaze your own

path and do things the way you want to? It's great, man. I'm doing what I always knew I could do. I intentionally have not changed my wrestling gear. I have not changed my entrance attire. I have not changed the way that I talk. I'm doing everything exactly how I was doing it at that three-letter company in the sky. And I'm doing that intentionally because I want to prove that it could have worked if I had a chance. And the thing is, it's like on top of that, like, WWE doesn't need. me to get them exposure, right? Like, WWE can call the NFL or the Big 12 or Pat McAfee or whoever else they want to get whatever exposure they want whenever they wanted. They're the biggest, one of the biggest brands in the world. But the thing is, it's like the level of access that I have to a lot of different things, like Super Bowl Media Row, like the Pat McAfee show, you know, like Scott Van Pell show on ESPN, like my ability to be on ABC NBC, like when I.

I hosted the cheese and citrus bowl, right? Like, you know, like all of those things, other companies absolutely need that level of access. They need that level of exposure. They need someone to put their brand out there. So, like, you know, I was just at a charity basketball game in my hometown where Gillian Wallow, two of the biggest, you know, names of hip-hop and one of the biggest podcasts in the world,

the million dollars worth of a game podcast, you know, they hosted the game. Lou Young, crazy internet celebrity was there, you know. Indio Champ, crazy and the internet celebrity was there. You know, the list goes on and on. People like 3O Black, people like a funny salesman. People, like some of the biggest names in the music industry and our internet personalities were all at the event,

and we were able to give brand exposure to TNA because of that. And, you know, like I said, TNA needs that level of exposure. NWA needs that level of exposure. exposure, MLW needs that level exposure, GCW needs that level exposure, CCW needs that level exposure. I can go on and on and on. So, you know, when I bring my former NFL teammate and four-time pro bowler whose jersey is hanging right here behind me, this is backwards, yeah, right here behind me, right? Brent Grimes to CCW an independent wrestling show. People think I'm crazy.

When they're like, how do you do that? When DJ Who Kid pulls up in a Lamborghini to GCW in Tampa, people are like, why is DJ Who Kid? here. They're there because of me. You see what I'm saying? So it's like, I'm able to bring a different level of access and celebrity and ability to these companies that don't really get it all the time. And because of that, that makes me that much more of a valuable asset. Like I said, WW doesn't need that. Like, WWE doesn't need me to get Snoop Dog and Loseyvert to come to WrestleMania. Like, they just don't, right? That's just a matter of fact. But me being able to use my connections helps every other company in the world. Sure. And,

And I guess the natural follow-up to that, that is, why is that important to you? Because, like, and I mean this very respectfully, but also, to put it bluntly, you don't need pro wrestling. You had an NFL career. You've put your foot in a bunch of different toes within the sports media landscape. So why is it worth it for you to try and make these companies that you're doing work for, have more of a platform, get bigger? Because as you just said with WWE, one day, you might not.

not be needed for that sort of thing. Because I love wrestling. Like, I grew up loving wrestling. And I loved wrestling before I was a wrestler. I went to five WrestleMania as a fan. I've been to Royal Rumble as a fan. You know, I've been to Survivor Series. I've been to every major show as a fan except money in the bank.

And technically, I was at last year's money in the bank in the back, not doing anything. So I was a fan then, too. you know so like uh i love wrestling i love it and i always have and anyone who watch the show most running treasures knows that anyone who knows me in real life knows that um i've replaced watching every single wrestling show every week with being a wrestler it's still a massive part of my life um and there's no feeling like being inside that ring uh there isn't i played on Thursday night football, Thanksgiving night, 10 million people watching at home versus the New York Giants made a TFL in order for us to win the games that doesn't compare to being in the

ring. It doesn't. To me, it doesn't compare. Like, I've done everything you can imagine in sports. I've been all over the world. The most fun I ever have is when I'm in that ring in front of that crowd. And people who have done it understand that. You know, and I, I, I, am at a point now we're like, I was never in wrestling for the money. Like, yeah, WWB paid me great, but I was never in wrestling to get paid. I was in wrestling because I love it. I don't need the money. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm here because I give a damn. And now, because of how it ended in WWU last time, it's like, you don't think you can use me? You don't think you got something for me? Okay, I'm going to show you exactly how well somebody can use me that they actually give me a chance.

now you see me on T&A doing the exact same things I was doing and trying to do at least at W&B. And people were like, wow, I love this new version of A.J. Francis. I'm like, this is the same A.J. Francis. This is just A.J. Francis with a microphone, bro. It's no different. What's so interesting about this to me, though, AJ, is that whereas a lot of people, when they leave a company

or they get fired or whatever it may be, they talk about, oh, I got to reinvent myself. You're not taking that approach. you are very matter-of-fact about trying to be your most authentic self and putting that on TV. Why is that so important to you? Because it's important to me because I know I'm good enough. I don't have to reinvent anything. I don't have to change how I talk or change what I do.

I know that I was always good enough. I know that when giving the opportunity with a microphone, there's nobody on earth that can stand six feet away from me and overpower me. I know that. And if anybody has a problem with me saying it, I dare you to try, right? You notice all these guys that I've ever been, I've had the promo segment with Joe Hendry. I've had the promo segments with LA9. I've had these promo segments or all these people get to talk.

But guess who doesn't get to talk back? There's a reason for that. There are intentions behind that. There are reasons why that doesn't happen. It's because I would embarrass them. Everyone knows it. That's why no one ever says anything back when I say, say things like this. I will embarrass anybody on the microphone, and I don't give a damn who you are.

And if I'm wrong, prove to me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me you think you can do it. Give me the opportunity to promo with you and see what happens. But it never happens. You want to know why? Because I know that I'm good enough. I know that my ability is God-given that I didn't work for. It was just given to me. And because of that, I don't have to sit here and pretend that it's not worthy of all the praise in the world because he gave it to me. So if anybody has a problem with anything I say, say it.

I don't ever hear nobody say nothing. I'm good enough as I am. I don't have to make. Top dollar was a name, but it wasn't, it was just me. Like, I would come out and cut promos out of a rap. Like, I was rapping before I was wrestling.

So it's like, I don't have to change up anything. When they say, they call me the Cheezer Champion on TNA, yeah, because cheese it dropped a bag on my head because they believe in everything that I do like come on man that's why I'm the cheezer champion y'all wish I was the cheezer champion you wish you could get a bag from cheezing man so like stop pretending I'm not him yeah no it's a really unique situation too because so many times we see an indie wrestler get signed they try to bring their indie character to WW to AW to wherever they end up, right?

But you're in a situation, and we're starting to see this a little more. We saw it with Cardona even, where you're embracing this role of being the WWE jerk, for lack of better terms, coming in and bringing that larger-than-life character, which is very authentic to you, into the Indies and almost serving as like an antithesis to what an indie wrestler is. Have you found that to be successful for you? And what is your methodology with that? I mean, yeah, I found it to be successful, but I'm not actively trying to do that.

That's just who I am. There's no indie wrestler that can get on the Pat McAbee show other than me, period. There's no indie wrestler that Cheez-in and ABC are going to drop a bag on your head for you to stand there and hold a title belt, but me. There's no indie wrestler that can get access to Super Bowl Media Row. But me. Sure. Like, so it's like, there's, they don't, those people don't exist.

There's no other indie wrestler would have been invited to Gillian Wallow's charity basketball game list past weekend, but me. Like, those people don't exist. I'm that person. So when I bring that larger than life persona to a show, it's because I'm that person. I'm not having to act like I'm larger than life. I'm larger than life. Let's do some math.

1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of high school football players play in the NFL. 1% of wrestlers make it to WWE. Top 1% of wealth on earth right now. 1 in 4 black men graduate college. 1 in 3 black men go to jail. I'm on the right side of all those statistics. I'm one of one. That's a fact.

Yeah. So it's like, and then of the one in four black men that graduate college, like one in five of those black men get a master's degree. I'm at a different level on this planet than every other person walking around. And that's not me being an asshole. That's me stating a fact. Look at the numbers. Yeah.

Do the math, right? What I've always admired about you, and most people probably, I don't even knows, but I first met you, what, six years ago now when you were training at the... You were my first wrestling interview ever. That's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah, Team 3D Academy in Orlando when I was a reporter... I had just stopped playing in the NFL.

I just started training. You were my first ever media interview in wrestling. That's a fact. Wow. And I was just working for the local news outlet there. And I saw your story and I just thought it was so interesting. But what I was going to say is when I met you... Oh, before you get to your...

question you got me some heat too i got you heat yeah you got me heat because they were told that you were coming to do a story about the school and then when you showed up and heard about me and saw me the story became about me being at the school so i got i got a little heat i got a little heat bro the character is more interesting than the environment sorry like that's the reality of it and believe me i did plenty of stories with the team 3d academy they they Devon got his fill with me. Including multiple people who went on to get signed by WWU, which was very cool, Dawkins kid, which was really cool.

And there were a few others, too. But I was going to ask you, when I met you, you just exuded this confidence where it's noticeable that a lot of people around you can learn from something like that. How does confidence help a pro wrestler stand out in the space and get opportunities beyond wrestling in a ring a couple times a week on TV because I think that's something a lot of people who listen to this who are in the industry would crave to have more knowledge and insight on.

I mean, I can't teach you how to be confident. I can't teach you to believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, why the hell should anybody else? Like, I'm confident because everything I've ever wanted to do, I did. people told me I couldn't start in high school and I went to one of the best high schools in the world, Gonzaga. People told me I wouldn't get a college scholarship

and I got 25 of them and decided to go to Maryland. People told me I couldn't play in the NFL when I played six years in the NFL. People told me I couldn't get to WWE and I was there a year after leaving the NFL. So it's like, I don't care what people think. I have a supreme confidence in myself at all times and that's something you have to have

if you want to be successful in this business. like even guys like look at rick flair rick flair talks about losing his confidence but when he got his confidence back he was back to being rick flair you know what i'm saying like like people can lose their confidence in this business because this business is full of people that tell you you ain't shit and they'll tell you that you you'll never be nothing they tell you all the things that they think you should do but they couldn't do themselves right i don't care what anyone's opinion about what i do is some people lack in themselves. Not much that I can do there. Don't try to make me humble because I'm the only

person that's going to tell myself that I'm great. That's what Dame Dash said. So it's like, don't ever try to make me humble. Don't ever try to tell me what I shouldn't be confident about because on in low days when I need to dig myself out, I'm the only person that's there for me. And that's how they need to operate. When I got released from WWE, I was mad. But I sat there and I was literally, this is a true story, I was literally after Dan Ventrell, who good guy, he called me to let me know that I was being released, I was literally taking the shit in my bathroom, and as soon as he hung up, I just started laughing. I was like, okay, all right, this is what they think, huh?

We're going to see, and guess what? We done seeing, and we're going to keep seeing. I'm going to be, I told everybody during them 90 days when I couldn't go out and do nothing. I said, I'm going to be everywhere. I'm a man of my word. I've been everywhere. And I'm not stopping. We just getting started.

I don't even got a title on, no show yet. We just getting started. This thing is just kicking off. So, like, what I'm doing to TNA, what I'm doing, NWA, what I'm doing, NWA, what I'm doing to every other independent promotion, this is just getting started. We got a long way to go. And the crazy thing is, I'm not going to stop. And that's because I have the supreme confidence in myself.

I've believed in myself ever since day one. I had that confidence when you first met me back then, and I ain't know nothing. Do you want to know why I have a supreme confidence in myself, John, for real? When you met me, that day that you met me in Devon Dudley Academy, since that day, I use all the same moves. I use all the same catchphrases. I use all the same promo ideas.

Nobody's ever wrote a promo for me. Nobody's ever came up with a move for me that I had to do. And that was what? Five years ago? Six years ago. Six years ago. And nobody ever did shit for me in this whole industry, except for like, put a good word in. As far as we talk about writing promos, coming up with concepts for characters, wrestling matches, putting moves, coming up with cool ways to stick.

Nobody ever did nothing for me. So why would I give a damn what anybody say? and why would I not have supreme confidence in myself? Sure. The problem is these other guys, they listen to any and everything, and they get, oh, oh, oh, because, for example, I'll give you an example, and I'm going to say their names because I have nothing but the utmost respect for them, but they both have respect for me. Last week, it'll air today on T&A, but we had my match with Joe Hendry. and we were bouncing ideas off of people and I talked to Gail Kim and I talked to Lance Storm

both incredible performers right so like but they both had different ideas so it's like if you don't have that confidence in yourself to decipher what should we do you get stuck you get stuck in the middle and you don't do anything right so it's like like that That's not saying that Gail's idea was better or that Lance's idea was better.

It's just like my big thing, and I tell people this all the time, is like, if you are really a true professional wrestler, you're an artist. And when you get on that canvas, bars, right? When you get on that canvas, can't nobody tell you how to paint. They can tell you what to paint. They can say, this is the picture that we need. But if you listen to someone telling you how to paint, they need to just paint it. yeah let's take a pause because this episode of strictly business is sponsored by blue chew let's talk about sex gents remember the days when you're always ready to go now you can increase your performance to get that extra confidence in bed here's how you do it blue chew dot com blue chew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as by agra cealis and levitra but in chewable tablets and at a fraction of the cost you can take them any time day or

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try Bluetooth free when you use our promo code wrestle biz at checkout. Just pay $5 shipping. That's bluechew.com promo code wrestle biz, W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-I-Z, to receive your first month absolutely free. Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information, and we thank Bluechoo for sponsoring this podcast. No, I mean, that's a great way to look at it, too, especially when you can translate that art into tangible business, right?

Like that's, again, direct-to-consumer. you're creating that so i mean have you thought about how you monetize wrestling these days like other than just showing up and getting a payday from a company have you explored any other ideas with that uh yeah i i do merch numbers everywhere i go it's great also on top of that um you know the funny thing is like i leverage the things that i do in wrestling with the things that i do outside of wrestling like the reason why dj hookin comes to all has been to t and a and has been to gcw is because we have a song together like right so like my entrance song he's on it so like he's an integral part of what i'm doing outside of wrestling um bun b i was just at bun b's houston rodeo show in

houston i'm getting him involved in my wrestling um and it's because we have a special connection outside of wrestling um and because of that he wants to be involved with what i'm doing just like i'm going to be involved in what he's doing um all the things that i like when i hosted the WW's Most Wanted Treasures. Like, that is part of my real, right? Like, that's a huge part of my real. And it also establishes, like, funny thing is, like, I hosted TV shows for 10 years before that.

But, like, I did that, and, like, it's a huge thing because it was such a big hit show, right? So, like, there's ways to leverage things outside of wrestling. But the funny thing is, like, people are more cared about, wrestlers care more about drop down leapfrog arm drank than they do anything i just told you so how do you get that mentality then to change in the industry i know that's not like paramount for you to change the perception within the industry i know you're very focused on maximizing your abilities and talents but i mean do you think that's something that can change

within the industry uh yeah but i don't think it'll change in my lifetime i think the people that run the industry have a very focused idea of what wrestling is. And, you know, I'll give you a perfect example. When I was in WWE, I don't know if I ever told you this story, but when I was in WWE, we were, when I first came back, we started this little angle with Legato de Fantasma and the Viking Raiders. And hit row, we were baby faces, which was a terrible. idea. We should have been heels from the jump.

But we were baby faces, and we kept getting jumped. Legato jumped us to debut. Viking Raiders jumped us to come back. They kept jumping us, kept kicking our ass, right? So I pitched this idea of an idea that would have gotten so much mainstream attention to Smackdown on the hip-hop and sports initiative. The idea, and I had all the people were involved. So it just so happened that we were coming up on a show in Buffalo.

And I have homeboys that I played with in high school, college, and the NFL that are on the bills. And I also am cool with West Side Gunn and Conway the Machine, Griselda, who are famously from Buffalo. And the idea was, we keep getting sneak attack jumped. So have the Viking Raiders and Legato have a match in the middle of the ring. and during the match, Hit Row comes out to crowd and they look at each other in the ring

like, we don't have to fight each other, let's all jump them. But as soon as they go to do that, the Buffalo Bills jump over the barricade. And then Griselda jumps over the barricade. And now we have, in Buffalo, as baby faces, the backup of Griselda, the biggest music thing that's ever come out of Buffalo,

and of the Buffalo Bills, who are the most beloved team in Buffalo, right? And then we would all be standing there, and because the heels are in the ring, they would powder out and go to the ramp, and then we would take the ring with the Buffalo Bills and Griselda and have a victorious moment

without ever having to bump anybody or do anything. It would have been perfect. World Star hip-hip-hop would have covered that. B-E-T would have covered that. ESPN would have covered that. All the sports outlets would have covered that. It would have been huge.

we weren't even booked on that show. They still made sure to use my friends from the bills. They still reached out, are your friends still coming to the show? They still made sure, go back and watch that show if I'm lying. Go watch it. Go watch it if I'm lying, right?

So, like, these are the ideas that I've been trying to push wrestling forward. I've been trying to do that. Every other hip-hop act ever in the history, other than our truth and even our truth said himself he don't like to involve his hip hop he told me himself he don't like to involve his hip hop in his character because his character is not the kind of hip hop artist that he actually is right makes sense i hit row was the first hip hop act that wasn't like yo yo hey what's up man it's hip hop yeah it wasn't a stereotype it was very real it was very authentic it was real bfab literally went on tour with juicy jay i literally

had three albums. Like, you know what I said? Like, it was real. It was real. And that was the problem. I genuinely believe that was the problem is that every other hip-hop act ever in wrestling, the way that it's digested is, yo, yo, I'm rapping like, yo, and it's not, that's just not real hip-hop. So it's like when you try to give something to people that don't understand and appreciate what you're doing, they're not going to accept it. right which is fine we didn't want them to accept it we wanted that would made us better heels but we never got the bike there's a microphone in the middle of the hit row logo and we never got the mic so it's like how can you be a rapper without a mic that's why i don't know if you've noticed

but like now i don't even drop put my rap videos out anymore no you have only the only thing i put out rap is my actual rap singles i cut promos now because i'm tired of people who don't understand that rap is promo just a harder promo because it rhymes on a beat all of my rap videos were in character like I'm tired of people pretending I couldn't promo because all they see me do is rap so now all I do is promo and now you have no excuse so what's the end goal here is the end goal sticking around in wrestling for the foreseeable future you've done so many things you i mean college game day spots like like what is the idea here do you want to try and transcend pro wrestling is full-time sports media in the future for you because you have so much

versatility in your background that you could offer in that sense uh yeah i mean i never felt the need to stop doing any of them um there's a reason why as soon as my as soon as i got released from wb you saw me everywhere doing everything it's because i've always had the ability to go on these shows and do these things. The only reason I haven't done it is because I didn't want to ruffle any feathers in WWE. Like, you have to, you have to ask for permission to do everything in WW. I don't need permission no more. Like, if I want to do, you know, a big noon kickoff on Fox for the Maryland game, I just show up. I don't have to ask one person who asks another person to get approved from another person or for them to be like, oh, well, no, we don't want you to do

that. And then now I can't do a big opportunity because we're going to. what you see what i'm saying like i am at the point now we're like wrestling is one of the many things that i do right and wrestling is something that i love doing and i'm not going to stop wrestling anytime soon um now where i wrestle is determined by who cuts the check and i was just backstage at raw literally on monday um like i was in town for Bunby's Houston Rodeo. Bunby invited me to his show, so I pulled up because that's my OG. And while I was at the rental car place, the guy who was giving me my car was a fan,

and he said, yo, top dollar, you coming back tonight? And I was like, what the hell are you talking about? He's like, Raw's in Houston. I was like, what? He's like, yeah, Raw is in Houston. So I just happened to be in Houston I text Triple H I said, yo, I'm just trying to come back and see the guys

You know what I'm saying? It's not that big deal Like I'm not out here trying to like Yo bring me back right now Like I'm not doing that I'm just trying to see the guys right That's all All my friends all my people I work with

And he set it up You know And I was able to go backstage And everybody that I saw From Paul Hey Huso to Triple H To road dog to You know to Becky Lynch, to Cody Rhodes, to Seth Rollins, to Maso Champa, you know, Finn Baller, everybody,

Jenner Mahal, Drew McIntyre, everybody that saw me, it was nothing but love. It was nothing but I'm so happy for you. You're killing it. I hope to see you back here soon. Paul Heyman literally came up and gave me a hug. He said, my day has been made, seeing that you're here. So it's like, it's like, I know that. the people there that I worked with know

how talented I am and how good I am and that I should still be there. But through no fault of my own, I'm not. And here's the thing. That's cool. Do your thing. You don't, the WWE does not need me. It don't need nobody. It's a well-oed-old machine.

I'm one spoke on the wheel. The wheel going to keep turning. Shout out CM Punk, right? But like, that's another example right there. CM Punk is back there too. So it's like, you never know with the future holds. But what I know is that I'm not waiting around for that either. Well, that's exactly it.

It's like you just got that recognition on your own terms. Like those people came up to you and they're like, man, like you're doing things how you want to do it. And it's funny, AJ, when I started working in pro wrestling full time after being in TV news for so long, I was like, this is so great. It's so great. And then, you know, the industry kind of twists and turn you a little bit. and I don't want to say you become jaded, but you're like, you definitely become jaded.

I was trying to be more complimentary to the people around me, but like you, you start craving like, oh man, what if I could do some of those other things to and still have this? So now where I'm back in the realm of being able to kind of do everything and wrestling is part of it, that almost has made me love wrestling even more

that it's just a small part of what I do. Do you feel that now that you're able to do more, more things to? No, honestly, it's funny is like wrestling is wrestling has always been one of the things

than I do. It was never, even when I was in WWE, I was, when I was in WWE, I would,

this is my weekly schedule. On Monday, I would go to open ring at the PC. Tuesday I'd work out, Wednesday I'd work out, Thursday I would work out

and fly to whatever city we're going to be in. Friday I would do Smackdown Saturday I would fly home and Sunday I would just chill and then I would start over there I was really only other than

Mondays and Thursday Friday when I'm on the road like a lot of times I wasn't doing the road loops I wasn't on raw so like I was only doing like realistically two three days a week was all I was doing wrestling and every other week I was every other day

I'm making music, shooting music videos doing sports podcast talking to my friend playing video games like so like now wrestling and now that i'm on the independence wrestling is actually a more active part of my life because because now every thursday i'm traveling friday i got a show saturday i got a show most sundays i have a show and then monday i go home so like you know uh and then like today's are what today's thursday and i'm doing media with you because i like you but normally i would tell people kick rocks you know what you're Well, for those not aware, my stream yard here that we're recording with has crashed like five times during the course of this.

So, AJ really must like me and Eric Bischoff specifically. So I appreciate that. Hey, listen, man, soon you're going to be doing conventions where you'll be doing lines five times Eric Bischoff's size, you know? I don't know if I don't know if I ever get five times Eric Bischoff, but I ain't going to lie. My lines at these conventions be good. I got a convention coming up Saturday. I'm at the big event in New York. So it's like.

But that's a whole other way to monetize, too, that you. who never had a chance to do before, right? No, well, I did do it because when we got released a previous time and brought back nine months later. So that nine months, I definitely, I did wrestle con and we did astronomical numbers. And that's why I'm excited for wrestle con

and all these convictions, because, like, we was doing crazy numbers and I was splitting that with Tihudy and Bree. And now it's just dollar. Every dollar goes to the dollar. but there is something really special too about connecting with the fans at that level like you are going to have some wild and wacky fans for sure who are there to give you shit but you know it's funny it's crazy it's like i tell people this all the time it's the truth it's crazy like i played six years in the NFL um i was in wb for three years top dollar obviously member of hit row um and i get recognized for that damn most won the treasure show more than anything. Wow. People love to tell me about most wanted treasures.

I'm telling you, the perfect demographic for most wanted treasures is TSA agents. I get stopped by TSA agents for that damn show so much. And a lot of times, you know, I'm pretty good at getting to the airport with time to spare because I'd rather be an hour early than one minute late. But, you know, so I usually take my time out. But sometimes things happen outside my control, and I don't want to have this conversation with you about, you know, Bob Backman put me in a chicken wing in his basement

when I got to hurry up to make this flight. So, you know, but, you know, it's really crazy, the different way that fans interact with me when I meet him. And I'm very much looking forward to keep doing it. That's great. Well, I'm really proud of you, man. And, you know, it's funny. You've always been someone to draw attention to yourself.

And I think in pro wrestling, while there may be some people who look at that negatively, I think it's only paid dividends for you where you're creating opportunities. You're creating opportunities outside of pro wrestling. And now you're using it in a way where you can work with some other people. And they may get something out of it too. I really enjoyed your work with Joe Hendry and the stuff you're doing in TNA. And, you know, the possibilities are endless for you. So I'm wishing you nothing but the best. I'm super appreciative that you hopped on strictly business with me, especially with Eric off this week. Where can people find you coming up? any appearances that you want to plug or social stuff?

Yeah, you know, I'm going to be at a TNA in Philly next weekend. I want to be, I got my first cage match ever, CCW in April. I'm doing NWA, I'm doing MLW on the 29th. I'm doing the Square Circle Expo in Indianapolis. I'm doing a lot of different stuff, big and Y this weekend, big of it in New York this weekend. You know, ACW in Maryland this weekend is already sold out. So if you want to stand at the door and hear me tear the roof off the joint, you can.

You know, so it's going to be a good time, man. I'm just blessed, man. I'm traveling, having fun, and make it money. That's great, man. Really appreciate your time here on Strictly Business. He is A.J. Francis. You can find him at A.J. Francis 410 on The X. AJ, appreciate your time, man.

Appreciate you, brother. Great stuff from AJ. Really appreciative of his time. I had some major computer issues during the recording of that interview, but I'm glad we're able to work it out. I'm grateful for him for sticking it out. I think he's someone that a lot of people can learn from. I know he comes across with a lot of bravado and confidence, but I think confidence is key in wrestling and promoting yourself as an entity. So kudos to him.

Always enjoyed chatting with him and best luck to him, especially as he heads into a busy WrestleMania weekend. And speaking of WrestleMania weekend, a couple of WWE news I want to bring up here, for GCW Bloodsport, that's Josh Barnett's Bloodsport. Sean Rossap was first to report that WWE talent would be working on this show. And as we record this, Shana Bazelor has been announced for it, which is pretty wild to see this collaboration between WWE and Josh Barnett here. Shana Bazelner fits perfectly with Bloodsport.

We've seen instances of her there before. It's for those who don't know what Bloodsport is, it's an event where the ropes are taken off the ring and it's very like underground style fighting very cool event unique event speedball mike bailey versus nicknett the former dog ziggler is going to be on the show and sean said multiple talents we're going to be involved so uh let us know who you would like to see involved in a show like this i think this speaks to vince mcman being gone because i don't think you'd see a collaboration like this at all if vince were still involved but with him no longer being part of the equation,

maybe you'll see more exchanges like this, more opportunities for talent to get some reps, WrestleMania weekend, especially if they're not going to be on the WrestleMania card. And I think that's good for the industry, too. I think it brings more eyes to those indie promotions. I think it gives these WWE talents some different types of reps that they might not be getting otherwise.

To me, that's a good thing all the way around. And then the last thing that I want to get to here, did get news from front office sports brandon thurston our past guest part of this reporting here uh that w w president nick conn and ceo brad bloom were identified as corporate officers number one and two respectively in the sex trafficking lawsuit that had been filed by janelle grant and her lawyers against vince mcman uh stephan mcman was identified as corporate officer number three jeanelle grant's lawyer did confirm to front office sports that these were the individuals being referred to It is important to note that corporate officers number one, two, and three, none of them were accused of any sexual misconduct or violence.

However, they were accused of being parties that facilitated and covered up exploitation, rather, that would make the company liable under any potential federal trafficking laws. Again, these are all allegations, but those were the three names that did come up as listed on. officers for this. It does not exonerate anyone. You know, a lot of people have been talking about Paul Levick being involved in this. You know, as things stand, he's not someone involved in this. Does that mean in the future that there could be more developments that unveil anyone involved? Absolutely. This is clearly a story that is just subject to change as we're learning. We don't know who's involved in full. These are all allegations at this point. Nothing has gone to public discovery yet. So before anyone puts the cart before the horse, we don't know.

know anything. And I know there were a lot of people jumping to conclusions based off this report. All we know is that Janelle Grant's lawyer confirmed that those were the people identified as the previously unidentified officers. So that is still subject to change. We're anticipating Eric to be back next week and we'll be back to business here on the business of the business, of course, on strictly business. I'd love for you guys to be part of this show. Again, as I said, it's one of the top shows in all the pro wrestling industry. for podcast, advertise witheric.com is going to be the place to be for that. Get your business, get your product out in front of thousands of listeners every single week. Right here on Strictly Business. I'm John Alba. That does it for us here on Strictly Business Week. We'll see you next time.