83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Wise Choices: AEW fans victory lap

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

On this episode of Wise Choices, Eric is joined by YouTube expert Ant Evans to discuss the process of posting 83Weeks and Wise Choices clips on the channel. Eric also responds to the continuous barrage from AEW and Dave Meltzer fans reacting to a social media clip taken out of context. Eric also brings up a question he has regarding Meltzer's possible stake in AEW's success. BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code WRESTLEBIZ at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s BlueChew.com, promo code WRESTLEBIZ to receive your first month FREE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Are you ready to have some fun? Because I am. I think you will too. It's going to be a little bit of a different show. Usually when I do these pop-up wise choices show, I've got something on my mind. And half the time it's a rant, go off on a tangent.

Some of it makes sense. Most of it doesn't. But I always feel better when I'm done. So I do them more for me than anything else. But this is a little different. And I'm going to take a little different approach to this one. Now, if you've been following social media post-announcement of the AW-AW Warner Brothers deal, you might notice that a lot of AEW fans led by Dave Meltzer have are just basking in the glow.

It's like they've been validated. And the need for that validation, which usually comes from people who are incredibly insecure and desperately need that. validation to feel like they're part of something. And the harder they try, the more desperate they appear. And Dave is like the king. And so when the announcement finally came, after, I don't know how long it's been, they've been telling us it's imminent and the deal is going to be announced for, I don't know, year, year and a half, two years, I don't even know.

And of course, we've been commenting on that along the way. and I did make a comment, and we're going to show you the clip so you can hear and see exactly what I said. But what's interesting is despite what I said, Dave Meltzer, in his desperate need for validation. And part of it I understand, first of all, he's a funky look of the little dude anyway. Perfect radio face. He should never see the front. You should never see the green light of the camera. And that's not his fault.

Just, you know, it is what it is. But when I saw him on his YouTube, he calls it a radio show, I don't know if it's a radio show or a YouTube show or what the fuck it is, but he calls it radio. And just watched him calling out people like me, podcasters, referring to us as dipshits. And he said, he's been telling us all along, that this deal is going to get done and it's going to make them profitable.

And he warned us we were going to look stupid and on and on and on and on. And again, that's Dave's need to be right. And the reason I understand it so much is because Dave is wrong so often and has been proven to be such a prolific liar. And it's not just me doing it. It's not just Bruce Pritchard doing it. It's not just Jim Cornett doing it. the general audience for wrestling are doing it on a daily basis.

The man has zero credibility. He positions himself as a journalist. And that's one of the things I want to keep in mind here. It's one of my big bitches with Dave is positioning yourself as a journalist and having that credibility, but yet acting like a surrogate, advocate, little baby brother to Tony Kahn with regard to his reporting on AEW. But let's get back to the point at hand. The point in hand is I did a podcast recently, and we're going to listen to the clip together.

It's only three minutes. I'm not going to drag you through the whole show. The relevant three minutes are easy to understand. And then we're going to go to the clip or the thumbnail, as it's referred to, in the social media world. And we're going to discuss that. And I'm going to bring in Aunt Evans, who is our Sherpa guidesman here at 83 weeks, and the man who is helping us navigate YouTube, and who is really, really responsible for an explosive growth in our YouTube audience over the last 10 or 12 months.

Less than that, actually. So we're going to get to all that. But before I bring Ante in, Super Dave, could you run that three-minute clip where everybody can hear and see what I exactly said so that when we show the thumbnail and Dave's response, it all kind of makes sense? so listen we do want to talk about this TV deal you know there's been a report out that you know they're getting really really close and Tony con had this to say this is the most important and exciting time in AEW's history in addition to what's happening in the ring there are so many exciting things happening behind the scenes at AEW right now we're on the verge of the most important announcements

in the history of AEW there are multiple aspects the arrival of those announcements is imminent. We'll have big news that could come at any time. Isn't that the best kind of wrestling surprise when you know something is coming and you won and it's exciting, but you're not sure when it's going to happen. You have that feeling that it's going to happen. And in this case, I have more than a feeling, to paraphrase Boston. I've been working on this for a long time.

We have a great team here. The future of AEW is very bright. And of course, a lot of people are taking this to me. He's talking about the TV deal. perhaps the Australia deal and the Dallas deal there's been a lot of discussion and you've been talking a little bit about it

on your YouTube channel at 83 weeks.com with your program wise choices what do you make of this tease about the new TV deal Eric? It's the same thing. How long have we been hearing about this? I mean I watched a clip yesterday I think on social media

where Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez are on their radio show and Dave Meltzer is basically saying the deal is done. It's going to be announced. It's imminent. It's going to be announced at the up front. Just clear as a bell. Like he had the, he had the information. He did his rest, Dave did his thorough research because, you know, he's a journalist at all. It's bullshit. It's all bullshit. That's what I mean. I can't believe anything. I don't think that Tony Kahn is intentionally misleading people. And there's a fine line between great promotion and

misleading, right? You've got to be careful. But again, it's the boy that has cried wolf so many times and failed to show up with even a poodle, a puppy. You can only cry wolf so many times and then show up with stray dogs and expect people to get excited about your shit. That's the, you know, Bill Goldberg was talking about the similarities between Tony Khan and Dixie Carter. And, you know, Bill hasn't really worked with either one of them. But you don't have to spend a lot of time with either one of them to know what motivates

them. And it's attention. That's the one thing that Dixie Carter and Tony Khan really have in common. And it's a dominant, you know, it's a dominant part of their personality, at least when they're, you know, in their wrestling environment, is that. The need for attention supersedes the need for logic. So, whatever, TV, look, I think they'll probably get one. I've never been of the mindset that, you know, they're done.

They're never going to get another TV deal with Warner Brothers. I've never, ever said that. I challenge anybody to find even a clip of me saying something like that within, within the context of the conversation. Why do people attribute that to you? because any time this conversation comes up, I see a lot of people tagging you like, well,

well Eric say then after he said it's never coming. And I'm thinking, I'm pretty sure I did most of these shows with you. And I never remember you saying that. No, I've never said it. Dave Meltzer has said that I've said it. But you didn't.

No, I never have. So that was the relevant portion of the clip that Dave has been referring to. in his desperate need for validation and trying to hold on to what's ever left of the credibility that's been absolutely trashed over the last several years because of podcasters like me and Bruce Pritchard and Jim Cornett and many, many others as well as, you know, the tens of thousands or more of people on social media. So with that being said, let me bring in the Sherpa Guidesman, the man who was leading the charge

and our takeover of the YouTube, well, I don't know if it's a takeover, but you know what I'm saying. Aunt Evans, Ann, how are you today, man? How you doing, Eric? I'm going to be on Twitter today. Oh, it's been fun, and it's going to get a lot more fun because, you know, the last couple of days I've been really busy. I've had another major distraction in my life, a really, really good one. But as a result, I haven't really spent in the last 24, 36 hours,

much time on social media until this morning when I got a phone call and Conrad said, man, this is getting out of control. What do we want to do about this? And I thought, he brought me up to speed. I looked at a couple things. I thought, I know what we do with this. We have fun with it because that's what we do here in wise choices. That's saying controversy creates opportunity.

And that's what this is. This is an opportunity to clarify all this nonsense and really highlight what I think is some of the things that are wrong with the way things are reported in social meetings. That being said, let's give everybody a little bit of a lesson just in the process. and just in the process of how these thumbnails that, in fact, let us, oh, hold on, give us a little bit of an idea of how the process works. When I do a podcast with Conrad, walk us through the steps that lead us to a thumbnail and then a clip. Sure. So after you guys finish your entire show, obviously sometimes it's an hour.

45, two hours, three hours sometimes. And it's hard to come up with a thumbnail and then a title, which is the text you see immediately below the thumbnail. And then underneath there's a description, or some people call it metadata. For a three hour show, you guys get from a lot and there's some great quotes in there. There's some fun. You think, Christ, now how do I encapsulate in one thumbnail? And on thumbnails, you can only really have three or four words before the algorithm will not reward you for anymore. I've seen thumbnails of like 17 words. It's like that's terrible.

So I try and think of, well, okay, what's the juiciest thing that somebody will, you know, who didn't see this when we premiered it, we'll click on. And then for the clips, me and Super Day will, well, actually Super Day will go from and say, okay, these are the four or five or six best clips. And then what we'll do is the book stops with me is we'll come up with a thumbnail and a title and description for that specific part of the show.

Now, I'm going to repeat my apology to you that I said off air. This kind of controversy is kind of on me because I'm the one who put, you know, Eric Bishop, there is no deal in quotation marks. You know, you didn't say there is no deal full stop. What you were saying is that clearly showed is that you didn't think it was imminent. Now, I'm not going to try and lawyer myself here and say, well, at the time I put that title, it was accurate, but it was. But the job of a thumbnail is to see if you can get people to click immediately. Most people on YouTube, 60% plus, will make a decision whether they're going to give a video a shot just from the thumbnail alone.

Some people need a little bit more detail, a little bit like back in the, you know, you and I a little older, we used to go down to get a VHS or we used to go. a blockbuster to get like a DVD, you might, oh, that sounds cool, zombie apocalypse, I'll get it. Some people might flip it over and see who is in it, see what the plot might be, the description. Well, that's when I come up with a title and then a description. And the title, you know, was the title. And again, I shouldn't have put it in quotation marks. I should have left those out.

But the description immediately below that is Eric Bischoff believes A.E.W. will get a TV deal, but he doesn't believe it's any time soon. And it wasn't, it was, you know, it wasn't imminent, it wasn't immediate, it was 56 days after Tony Kahn gave that interview on the Brian Kenzie show. Yeah, I'm not to interrupt you, but we're dealing in many ways with some really smart people who follow us here. We've got literally, I'm not kidding you, rocket scientists who follow us here on YouTube. One of them has become a friend of mine.

I mean, this is a legitimate like Elon Musk type guy. We've got doctors, we've got lawyers who have argued cases in front of the Supreme Court. So when I make this statement, it certainly doesn't apply to everybody. But when you talk about social media and the people that are the loudest and most active, typically there's just not a lot of thought process going on. They're more, you know, I refer to it as bumper sticker mentality. Because if you can't fit it on a bumper sticker, they can't figure it out. And we've got a lot of those too.

So imminent for you people that have a hard time understanding concepts and don't read much, don't get out of the house much. Imminent suggests like momentarily, maybe within a day or two. I don't think there's a definition. Perhaps there is and I don't know it. But imminent at least in imminent at least implies in the absolute near term. Yeah. And this is when people don't have, they can't say the substance of what anyone says is wrong.

So they're like become grammar Nazis. Well, you didn't capitalize that. I mean, technically when Tony Kahn said it's any day now, I mean, yeah. I mean, any day could be in a thousand years time, but that would be a day. So technically you're not wrong, but we know what he meant.

He meant it was any day. Like it could be Monday, Tuesday, but it's in the next few days. We know what he meant when he said that, you know, and in fact, it was almost 60 days after that. And if you want to go back, the first time he started talking about this deal was February 8th of last year, 2003. Yeah, and I think Dave Nelson was coming in saying it's going to be a billion dollar deal. You know, I mean, the numbers that Dave was throwing around was just completely, I mean, it was humorous at that point. It was funny.

Yeah, I mean, even the billion dollars. I mean, look, was it wrong to put a headline in early July that Donald Trump is well ahead of Joe Biden is going to trance and guess? Is it accurate now? No, because, you know, Biden's not even in the race now. But you don't retroactively go back and say, say, what are you talking about? Joe Biden's not even the nominee. I'm like, what are we doing here?

So even like, you know Dave Meltz as a buddy of mine, but like when he was saying a billion dollars, you know, that was when A.E.W. was having 500, 600,000 more viewers. Maybe if they cut the deal that day, maybe a billion dollars would be... Yeah, I'm not even buying that, brother. Because he's a buddy, that shit won't fly on this boat. It ain't going to happen here. So let's stay focused a little bit. So everybody has just heard my commentary. You've described the thumbnail process, including the caption underneath that says right there in front of you I believe that there will be a deal

likely be a deal I never have ever ever said and you mucker fathers that are dying to doubt me and prove me wrong you bitches saddle up your horse there's 600 freaking hours of my stuff available to you I challenge any of you

to find a clip within context of me saying they won't get a deal. I'll fly you out to Wyoming first class and buy you a beer. But the truth is, I ain't going to have to put up with any of you dumb sum of bitches because you're never going to find it. It's never been said. I have always taken the position. In fact, even back when I was doing strictly business with John Elba,

the subject came up quite a bit. And we discussed it quite a bit back when these conversations, first started percolating. And I told John, I think in all likelihood, they will get a new deal because wrestling is, relatively speaking, always has been and certainly is now very, very inexpensive programming and content with relation to the other options and alternatives. So the idea that Dave Meltzer, you fucking clown, or anybody else would try to put the words in my mouth to suggest that I've taken a position subconsciously,

verbally or otherwise that AEW will never get a deal is lying to your audience and they're lying to themselves because of their desperate need for validation and credibility because it never fucking happened. That's it. People, you've heard the clip. You've heard the explanation of the thumbnail. Now, here's where I'm going to take some responsibility. And I very much appreciate you, man and up, because most people don't. Most people are trying to avoid subjects like this or fade the heat and blame it on somebody else. You took responsibility. But guess what?

The real responsibility is right here because it's my freaking shut. It's got my name on it. And if there's anybody who dropped the ball on this issue, it would be me. That being said, after having now seen the thumbnail, knowing the context of what I said and what was in the, the clip that it was attached to, I'm not sure I would have flagged it because it's all, it was all bullshit the, it's happening imminently. Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez is a little twit talking about, oh, it's going to get announced at the up fronts.

One of the upfronts, I think, back in May, didn't get announced then either, people. You said it would, you're a journalist, you didn't say it may. You didn't say it has been reported or suggested. You said it will be. You lied to your audience, Dave. You're a con artist, you're a fraud, you're everything you accuse other people to be. Because that's what people like Dave Meltzer do. They project their inadequacies and their failures and their insufficiencies in life,

generally speaking, on everybody else around them so you don't put it on them. It's unbelievable. And this is a perfect example of what I've been saying, what Jim Cornett's been saying, what Bruce Pritchers would have been saying just about anybody that's really knowledgeable in the wrestling business has been saying all along is that Dave Meltzer is full of shit he makes stuff up and this is a perfect and fun example I'm getting a little fired up more fired up that I wanted to because I want to continue this conversation in a more enlightening fashion I have no need to to release frustration and anger here because I think it's funny as luck but

to continue. One of my issues, and I know your friends with Dave, how many times have you seen him, anytime somebody calls him out on any of the bullshit that he writes, what's his favorite response? Oh, it's one of my favorites too, Alan from name. It's reading as your friend, basically read the full context and everything I wrote about it.

Great saying. It's a great saying. And again, it proves my point. Dave likes to, when he hears something he doesn't want to hear, when people respond in a way that calls him out, he projects, well, you didn't read, but you're just not capable of understanding because I study this stuff.

I'm a student, I have an insatiable desire to study the business of a wrestling business, and he's a fucking clown. But the minute you challenge him, he comes back at you with reading would be your friend. And then he cancels you and blocks you. I need to get you guys the guy around alive, you know.

We can show it on their channel. We show it on our channel. Yeah, it's ever going to happen. Never, never going to happen. I have way too much fun destroying his credibility to be distracted with his nonsense. So we'll stick to what we've got here. Now, Dave, as I said earlier, calls himself a journalist. I want to pull up the clip, and I forgot the numbers already,

but the clip that suggested Super Dave that was posted. today that perhaps Dave Meltzer has equity in AEW. Can we take a look at that? This is not the one I was talking to, but here's a good, this is a good one. Bischoff said the deal was fake recently. Hey, Dave, man the fuck up if it's possible and show me where I said that. Let's see a clip of that. When have I ever, Dave?

said that the deal was fake. You lying piece of shit. Pull that back up there again. I'm not done having fun with the shit. What the fuck? As for the others, let me know when any of them said AEW was fixing to be profitable. Now he's from Alabama.

He's fixing to do something. He's a journalist, you know. He's fixing to be profitable. Not second most profitable company in wrestling history. I know they wouldn't say that. Just wildly profitable with the next deal. Play me where they said that. Well, Dave, let's start out with you proving your point,

salvaging what's left of your credibility if there is any. And show me where I said the deal was fake. Otherwise, if you don't, Dave, you've been proven once again. I mean, this is getting ridiculous. to be a complete liar and a fraud. The same thing you accuse the people who criticize you of being because you can't handle the pressure. Now, I want to get to the wildly profitable part.

Nah, we're going to say that to the end because that's the good shit. This episode is brought to you by Blue Chute. Let's talk about sex. I mean, Conrad's favorite subject, but since Conrad's not here, Let's talk about it anyway. Guys, you remember the days when you were always ready to go, like if the wind changed direction or the temperature varied by two or three degrees,

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free. Visit bluechoo.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Bluechoo for their ongoing support of everything we do. There was another one, Dave. I think I sent to you this morning where somebody on social media suggested that Brandon Thurston had recently pointed out that Dave Meltzer owned secretly 3% equity in AEW. Dave, do you have that clip or am I imagining things? Ah, here it is. Now, I don't know Jim Anderson. He may just be some goof that's looking for credibility and attention, just like Dave. But here's, and I'm not saying I believe this. In fact, I find it really hard to believe and I responded accordingly. But I'm going to read it in case you're busy driving or working and

you can't take the time to take a look at this. It says it was revealed. revealed to me this morning from a very reliable source in AEW that Dave Melser secretly, now this is in quotes, that secretly owns a 3% stake in the company. An email was accidentally sent to Dave by a third party, hence revealing this information, unquote. And then it has Brandon Thurson, Russellomics, as the attributing source. Again, I don't believe any of the garbage that I read in social media. I don't believe any of the garbage that I see in mainstream news, let alone the cesspool that exists in social media,

and particularly the depths of the cesspool with regard to professional wrestling. So it begs the question, though, because Dave, Given his coverage and the fact that he positions himself as a journalist over and over, he'll tell you about all the words he's won, that he speaks at colleges, he'll try so hard to defend his credibility as a journalist, yet he says a lot of things that suggest that he's really just a cheerleader. So the fact that, and this is not just me, this is so many people that read his garbage in social media that are calling them out on this stuff, it forces me to ask the question.

Is it true? Dave, do you confirm or deny it? It's a simple yes or no. Doesn't need an explanation. Now, for the record, Brandon Thurston has come out and said he never said anything of the sort. And I have no reason to not believe Brandon Thurston. In fact, I enjoy his coverage. I find his, the information that he publishes. I don't listen to his YouTube show or his Patreon or I don't listen to any of his audio stuff. But I do watch very closely his reporting on data and performance because when I see it, I don't feel here, sense any emotion. I don't feel like he's advocating too much. He's just providing the information

and letting the viewer come to their own conclusions. And I really appreciate that kind of coverage very much. But I don't know Brandon personally. Maybe there's a reason why Brandon would come out right away and deny ever saying that. Perhaps. And I know this is a stretch, people, and I don't even want to believe it myself.

In fact, I'm not sure I do, but we're talking about not what's true and what's not true, but what may be true. What is possible when you look at the way Dave covers AEW and is like over the top support and making excuses for them and from day one, it begs the question, is there a chance there's more to the relationship between Tony Kahn and Dave Meltzer than meets the eye? And then even if it's, you know, some goof that's trying to connect dots that don't exist to throw out a number like 3%. It's a very small amount.

It's more of a token gesture than it is anything else. It's like, oh, well, it sounds stupid and it sounds like garbage social media shit, but maybe that explains the way Dave covers AEW. So it begs the question, could it be true? Now, like I said, I want to be very fucking clear. I don't believe it myself, but I do believe perhaps there's a remote possibility, it's true, based primarily on the way Dave treats and covers AEW. Now, why would Brandon Thurson come out and deny it if he ever said it?

Because if you receive information, proprietary confidential information, in an email or otherwise, that was not intended for you, and you disclose that information, you are civilly and potentially criminally liable, meaning you get your ass suit off or maybe be looking at criminal penalties. Now, usually when it comes to the criminal part, it's like if you're revealing medical information with regard to the HIPAA Act, it's a federal law that provides absolute confidentiality when it comes to people's medical records and conditions and things like that. But it also includes trade secrets. Now, I know what I would do. If I got an email that wasn't intended for me, but I saw something that made me go, holy shit, and I told somebody else,

and then I found out, hey, man, you may be liable. I'd be denying that bitch all day long. I did. That's not what I said. You misunderstood me. Now, I'm not saying that happened. I'm not saying I'm 100% convinced it didn't happen, but I'm mostly convinced it didn't happen. But it does beg the question. Which leads me into the last part of this show. Dave, I want you, I think you should, not what I want, because you don't owe me, fuck, you hate my guts as much as I hate yours,

so that's not an issue. But I think you owe, because you positioned yourself as a journalist, you charge people $15 a month or whatever it is based on your credibility as a journalist and the veracity of your reporting, your experience. You charge people money for that. So I think it would be fair of you to, number one, either confirm or deny that you own 3%. However ridiculous that story may sound, I think you owe it to the audience to confirm or deny it so that it just goes away.

Otherwise, there's going to be an open question every time you report something that sounds as bizarre is 90% of the stuff that you cover for AEW. The other thing, though, that I want to dig into much more substantively is Dave camping out so hard on the fact that this deal is going to make AEW profitable. In fact, he's camped out so hard In that clip that we saw earlier, Dave is asking for the other podcasters to prove that they, too, knew that this company was going to be profitable.

How would Dave know that this deal is going to make AEW profitable? The only way Dave Meltzer would know that as a fact, as a journalist who's reporting a fact, not speculation not a it's been reported it's been suggested perhaps hopefully any other way that you could possibly phrase this to make it sound like an idea as opposed to a fact but dave is a journalist and he's stating a fact over and over and over again so it begs the question because that's what i'm doing now i'm begging for questions it begs the question how do you know that dave Do you have access to the complete financials? Because the only way you could possibly make a statement like that with any credibility at all is if you were looking at a P&L.

For most of you, that's a profit and loss statement that shows all your expenses against all your revenues in order to make a claim like that. either Dave has access to those financials and as a journalist he won't share it because he's actually an agent of AEW in the literal sense he's working for he's a surrogate he has information he's not sharing it or he's making shit up so let's assume i'm going to give Dave the benefit of the dough I'm going to assume because he is so adamant that this deal is going to make AEW profitable. Let's talk about, not talk about, let's ask a few questions about this deal that I believe Dave has visibility yet. Whether he is a 3% minority owner or whether he's just buddies with Tony Khan,

there's a reason why Dave keeps telling us this is going to make them profitable. Well, in fact, he's even giving numbers. I think I saw something shortly ago as I was prepping to do this that Dave is suggesting, I think I could be wrong on this. I might be attributing it to David. It was from someone else. But I think it was from Dave that in 2025, AEW is going to make $65 million in that range. The only way you'd be able to make a statement like that, even if you're a clown like Dave Meltzer,

is if you have something in front of you that, details how that's going to happen. So if Dave has access to that information and he's a journalist and he's charging people $15 a month, maybe just a thought. Tell us how you know that, Dave. You don't have to share specific details down to the dollars and cents, but tell us how you know the fact that you're reporting as opposed to just saying it. The other thing I'd like Dave to know, and here's a question I have, Dave.

I'm assuming that you have visibility into all this. You reported the deal, 170, 150, 185, whatever the fuck. The number's moving all over the place. There might be a reason for that, too. Which leads me to my question, how much of that deal, let's just say it's 185? That's what it was last time I saw. How much of that is cash? I've seen deals that have a total value of, let's say, $10.

But only five of it is cash. The rest of it is goods and services. I'm using $10 as an example because, well, not for our 83 weeks, viewers, listeners, members, because you are a rare breed of people who are enlightened, which is why you're here. I'm talking about some of our guests here are here to different. defend Dave because they're out there. I'd like to just a question. I'm not making a statement. I'm just, I'm confused. I'm curious. I'm intellectually curious. And it's always been a challenge for me because when people say things definitively, I want to know why or how. So I'd like to know,

Dave, as a journalist, you should be asking these questions. And so should other quote a quote, journalists who show up with the media scrums and want to get a cookie and a pat on the head and a little bit of acknowledgement. I get it. It's fun. But somebody should be asking questions like, of this $185 million deal, how much of it is cash? How much of it is, how do I refer to it as? Let's call it soft money, meaning value, but not cash. Now you would ask me, What's, Eric, what do you mean by soft dollars? I mean like promotion. Warner Brothers Discovery has a tremendous inventory of commercial time.

A lot of it goes unsold. That's not just Warner Brothers Discovery. Every television network has it. They use that typically for what they call make goods, meaning if you sold a million dollars worth of advertising to a client and you guaranteed them a certain amount of viewers, a cost per thousand per se. But based on the ratings of the show,

perhaps you under-delivered, well, then you give them additional commercials inside your commercial time for free, right, to make up for the loss. That commercial inventory, and every network has it, especially in today's environment, there's a lot of it out there. And a good portion of it is actually set aside

for make goods every year. because they know they're going to have to use it. But that commercial time, even though it is unsold, unused inventory, has a value. It's called a rate card. Does, and it's a question, not a statement, I have no visibility into anything. I'm just because of the way Dave has handled this. And this has got nothing to do with Tony. I wish Tony nothing but the best.

I got no dog in his hunt. Don't give a shit. Nothing Tony does is ever going to affect my life one way or the other. But I do like to challenge people who say stupid shit. And I think for Dave to come out and make these statements as fact, while he's positioning himself as a journalist and charging people $15 a month for his information based on his credibility, I think that's fraudulent when in fact he has no visibility

and doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. or if he does then I think he owes it to those people who he's been milking for the last 30 years to explain to us how he knows these things and and I think Dave should ask the question of Tony con of that 185 million dollars or whatever the number is hey they got a deal done I'm happy for him I really am I'm having fun with that I am of that how much of it if any because maybe it's not maybe it's all cash or maybe it's not Is it 50 million in cash and other valuable considerations, other considerations of equal value? Is it or not?

I'm just curious. I'm just somebody that was in the television business for a minute and I'm really interested in how wrestling deals come together. Particularly when you look at Dynamite and its poor performance and the fact that it's hemorrhaging and has been hemorrhaging audience for the last year, year and a half. why AEW would value dynamite and collision and rampage on the same level based on the $107, $185 million deal. They're putting it, really, they're looking at it in terms of parity the same way they would look at WWE. I don't get that. Dynamite has probably 30% of the audience of Monday Night Raw. or Smackdown, whatever the percentage is.

It's a small fraction, relatively speaking. Why would AEW pay a premium price for such a poor performing property? Perhaps they didn't. Perhaps that $185 million deal looks really exciting in a headline, but in fact isn't $185 million. Or maybe it is. I'd like to know. How about you all?

Shouldn't somebody ask the question? I think it would be fun. So, Dave, you got all the participation trophies. Try for 30 years to convince people you're a journalist. You tell every people at every opportunity that you're a student, that you study this business and you have an insatiable desire to learn. How about it? You're going to be a journalist and ask those questions?

Are you going to confirm or deny? that that ridiculous report that I even have a hard time believing because there's so much garbage on social media, including yours, Dave. People are just following your lead. You've set the pace, so to speak. There's so much garbage out there. I think you owe it to your subscribers, those who pay $15 a month for your bullshit, to confirm or deny it. And I think you also owe your audience because you're a journalist who charges people for your insight to

tell us how you know that AEW is going to be profitable in 2025. Because we're all curious, Dave, and you're the man. You're the man that can answer the questions. And thank you for being here. I appreciate it. I know this is probably a little uncomfortable for you, but, you know, come on, it's fun. You got to admit, it's fun, right? Oh, I can't hear you.

That's, no, you can't do that. I said plenty of my friends don't like each other. I think the toxicity comes from Tony Kahn when, you know, right now we're talking about the NXT rating. Yeah. Well, who originally, you know, WWE's doing a victory, fans, I should say, you're doing a victory lap. Well, who the heck started the victory laps when this, three years ago? I mean, there were people in Olympics was this, this summer. People only got one victory lap for Olympic gold medal.

Tony Kahn did 50 to be in the MXT. You know? And you know what? It's kind of like the Rolling Stones coming out. It's kind of like the Rolling Stones coming out and doing an encore.

Everybody gets excited about the encore. And then they walk off the stage. They come back and they do another encore. And they go back and they go to, then they come out and they do another one. And by 4 o'clock in the morning, the audience, going, fuck you. Go home.

Go. Let us leave. Yeah. All right, man. And I know this is a, and listen, hey, Conrad's friends with Dave. You know, I work with Derek Sabato, who's friends with Dave.

A lot of people are friends with Dave. I don't judge people by the company they keep too often. Anyway, thank you so much for being here and helping to bring some enlightenment to this process. I will, you know, pledge to all of the people that are members here and just follow us anyway and participate because this is so much fun. We'll tighten up our process just a little bit,

but I want to make it clear now that I've kind of gone through this with you and taking a look at the clip as well as a thumbnail. I think this is just a case of Dave Meltzer using something that he knew. He knew what he was doing when he did it. He was just trying to get some credibility and have his moment in the sun. And, you know, he's human like everybody else. But thanks, Ann, I appreciate it. Super Dave.

I appreciate you. And all of you who followed us here, I hope you had fun with this. love to hear from me if you're an 83 weeks member i got more shit coming at you i'm going to a high school football game today here in cody wyoming do you know what they have here aunt this is the craziest shit i live down the street i've been down the street i live down the highway from a small um school grades uh i think six or 12 something like that it's called the wapadip school woppity means elk in shoshone indian and they have grizzly bear drills like most schools have fire drills they have grizzly bear drills because there's grizzlies around here

what do you do you hide on the what do you do no well if you're outside like if somebody spots a grizzly right the the teacher who's ever in charge whoever sees it they get to a whistle they blow the whistle three times in rapid succession so if you're out playing on the playground and shit that you hear that three whistles you're back in the building now they do have fences that presumably will prevent a grizzly from getting into the schoolyard. But I think it's really cool to live in a place here in America where they have fucking grizzly bear drills.

And a grizzly's the worst ones or is that black bear? I'm asking like this. Now black bears eat berries and shit. They'll fight you if you corner them. But a grizzly will hunt you down and eat you. There's a difference. Grizzlies will hunt you. Black bears will only attack you if you're corner them or if they're really hungry and they've got

a cub. So yeah, that's fun. But I'm going to go to it. The advice says get inside. There's nothing else like that. I'm going to go to a high school football game today. First time I've been to a high school football game since our daughter was a cheerleader. We're going to go and just hang out and kind of absorb the vibes. And I'm going to do a

I'll do a quick wise choices from there. I'll update people under Cody Bronx and the score of the game. How's that? I mean, not to put you in danger, but it'll be a great thumbnail if we had you in the grizzly in the background, you know. Just speaking about the clicks here, Eric, you know. You know, I'm like on the line for a thumbnail here. aunt i may be old but i'm fast as fuck when there's a bear chasing me all right i gotta go thank you

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