83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Wise Choices: John Cena Announces His Retirement

Episode Date: July 7, 2024

On this special edition of Wise Choices, Eric and joined by 83 Weeks host Conrad Thompson to discuss their reactions to WWE's Money In The Bank. The guys also share their thoughts on Joh Cena's retirement announcement and what his last year in the WWE will look like. ARENA CLUB - Whether you’re buying, selling, trading, or displaying—Arena Club is the card-collecting platform you have to check out. Get 10% off your first purchase at https://arenaclub.com/WRESTLEBIZ  BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code WRESTLEBIZ at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com/, promo code WRESTLEBIZ to receive your first month FREE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, hey, it's Conrad Thompson. And you're live right now at 83 weeks.com. And of course, we couldn't do it without the one and only Eric Bischoff. Eric, we are live just moments after Money in the Bank, 24 from Toronto. What did you think of the show? I love the first 15 minutes. And it just hit such a wall between the first 15 minutes and the last 20 minutes that it It was a, I mean, I'm glad I watched it, but it's not going to go down as one of the more exciting

pay-per-views I've seen out of WWE, that's for sure. Do you think it was because it was more domestic? I mean, I realize it was so technically international because it was Canada, but we've seen them in recent months going, you know, the corners of the world that don't normally get a lot of WWE. And I had multiple people message me during the show to say, man, this, this crowd sucks. I don't know if I agree that they suck, but it was a different crowd. What did you think of the crowd tonight?

The crowd was fine. I mean, they had a hot crowd. I just think the matches, I mean, the Damien priest, what was up with that? That was slow with Seth and Damien. It was slow. It was awkward. You know, I know Seth's been off for a while. He's coming back from an injury.

He kind of would expect the ring rust. But I think Seth actually looked barely sharp, considering how long he's been off. Damien just, eh, man, I don't know if he just had a bad night tonight or what. Or if the chemistry was, I don't know what it was, but that match was slow, plotting. It looked to me like Damien was unsure of himself a few times in the middle of the match. And I don't know what went on with that finish. Still can't figure it out. It looks to me, I went back and watched it on a phone.

It looks to me like, I mean, I don't know. I'm guessing priest forgot to kick out it too. That's the only thing that makes sense. to me yeah i don't know what that finish was but it that was like the beginning of the that match was the beginning for me of me going i think i'm going to go cook a steak it's and the women's match the money in a bank match true not not a stellar night it's and i if i had to sum it up like a couple short words it would be 10 pounds of shit

and a 5 pound bag it was just too much too many spots it's like the women's match the money in the bank we're trying so hard to kind of live up to kind of the level or whatever that the men's money to make match because that was you know it was pretty interesting I mean it was there was some great spots in there

believable spots not just spots for the sake of a spot there's some really good stuff in there very innovative stuff i think chat gab will deserve some kind of an award whatever they give just give them give them to give me a nobel pre-spice they're not worth shit anyway so just give him some of those he just is he deserves some some real accolades i think he did a great job really excited him ron breaker i excited as hell about him except for that gimmick what the you know come on that was crazy I was sitting next to Barat Sardrasian, who is a journalist. Yes, we actually have a journalist that I was watching a show with tonight from Australia,

but he was born and raised in India. And he's one of the most well-known cricket journalist in the world. And by the way, cricket's kind of a big damn deal. I'm learning a lot about cricket this weekend. But, you know, his gimmick, Barat's gimmick is he just like dresses like a rodeo clown. He dresses like Seth Rollins, actually. very very flamboyant very colorful and all that and uh and bratt said he looks like he's wearing something on to my wardrobe busting me up but the match was great brown is so so so good

he looked great he looked great losing that's how good he is i wish that match that match too kind of buzzed i don't know i don't know maybe i'm just feeling a little salty tonight i think sammy started selling way too soon, like he was, he was suddenly like he wasn't going to make it, you know, six minutes after that match started or five minutes after that match started. I would have, it would have been more interesting for me personally if he would have, if it would have been a little more back and forth until the end of the second act, you know, a little over halfway through that match, and, you know, then have them selling hard and make us believe it's not going to happen for him and then make that great comeback. but the way it was laid out he was selling for such a long period of time that there's no sympathy there's no empathy there's no come on you can do it you could do it because he's been selling for too long for me i'm not an expert i'm not a wrestler i'm just telling you what i like to watch that's all well we're glad that you guys like watching us here at 83 weeks dot com be sure to hit that

subscribe button and turn on the notifications bill if you haven't already want to give a shout out to quincy charles who's just signed up he's a new member appreciate you throw running up the two sweet your way rinaldo rodriguez says this money in the bank was freaking wild and crazy the six-man tag team match stole the show in my opinion so we see a different opinion there they like the main event i watch with some casual wrestling fans tonight and a lot of people were asking hey who's that guy again and who's that guy again and i think the announcers and and everyone is in a great job trying to give some credibility to jacob to, and I was thrilled to see him in the main event tonight, but they are still trying to

establish some new faces and perhaps solo as a top guy. How do you think they did with that tonight, Eric? Well, I was going to ask you, Carter, I didn't, because, you know, my studio is out in the bunk house, which is a walk from my house. So I actually left before the finish of the main event. So what was the finish, actually? I didn't see it. The bloodline retains solo was able to pin Cody Rhodes in the six-man.

Where did the rep come from? The ref was magically relieved. Yeah, see, that's, I knew that was going to happen. As soon as I saw that ref take the second bump, I told Barat and Sid, his friend, Sadat, also a journalist from India, from Goa, India, actually. We've been having so much fun. I've been learning a shit ton. It's fun.

I love learning new stuff. But when I saw that referee take the second bump, it's like, okay, he's done. So if they, they're going to either have to bring out another referee or we're going to go off without a finish because I never thought that they'd try to revive them after that bump. That was a bad choice creatively. Bruce, you listening? That was a bad choice. I can't wait to ask you about the choice to announce John Sina retiring. But before we do, I want to mention we ran a poll here at 83 weeks.com.

What are your thoughts on the PLE overall? Did you think it was great? I got 37% of the vote. did you think it was good? Well, that got 40% of the vote. Did you think it was fine? Well, that was 15% of the vote. And coming in at 8%,

only 8% were disappointed. Would you think that the show was great, good, fine, or were you disappointed tonight, Eric? I'd be in the fine category. Like, you know, I'm not mad that I spent a couple hours watching it. And some of it was really interesting

and I really enjoyed watching. Randy Owen, again, clinic. He's just putting on a clinic. every time he steps into the ring, there is nobody better. I was emotionally invested in Kevin because I know what's going on in his personal life. And I know Kevin a little bit. We've actually pretty good friends and stay in touch occasionally.

He's a very family-oriented guy. So I was feeling for him a little bit a lot. And that's why I was interested in it as well. I was interested to see what kind of reaction Cody was going to get, just from my own personal observations. And what else was I interested in going in? That was pretty much it. As far as the things that piqued my interest.

But I'm glad I watched it. I'm not angry. I don't feel like I waste it any time. I was entertained by a couple of things. The first 15 minutes of that show were awesome. The way they use their graphics to explain and set up money in the bank and, you know, the animation. It's just there.

From a production perspective, notwithstanding the actual content part of the show, from a production standpoint, the WWE has just said an entire, they're just in their own universe, no pun intended. They don't even look like professional wrestling. They're so far ahead of anything that I used to do or even WWE used to do back in the 90s. It's just, they're blowing it away. They're so innovative, so innovative, and I just love watching that. To be honest with you, I'm going to take it to a good just because of that. The production was so good on the show, and I'm still seeing things that are innovative.

And that's one of the things as I've said to you, Conrad, I don't watch wrestling for the same reason. Other people watch it. I'm watching it to see where it's going, not where necessarily it is. And to see a show like tonight and consistently see shows like we saw tonight, where you're seeing such innovative production and creative outside of the creative of the matches, It's just really, really cool. It's amazing. I'm amazed, really.

I just flabbergasted how good they've become. Yeah, my house actually remarked on some of the camera work. There was a really tight shot that was over Kevin Owen's shoulder when he was in the corner. You could see the cameraman was on the stairs, but you could really get a really tight shot over his shoulder, like what it would look like if you were his tag team partner. I thought that was a really great shot. So glad to see they're continuing to evolve there.

They've gotten a lot of kudos. props recently. Hey, can I throw you a curveball? Yeah. I'm sorry to do this to you because you get on a roll like I do. Don't want to take the, don't want to take the train off the tracks. But what's going on with Kevin Sullivan? Well, I'm glad you mentioned that. We were going to get to that tonight. Kevin Sullivan is in a bad way and he's going to need a little bit of our help. So we're actually going to have a go fund me link in the description for this episode. So be sure to click that see that donate button and give where you can. He sure has entertained a lot of people for a long, long time.

And as you've probably heard from a lot of these folks who we've done podcasts with over the years, there's not exactly the typical retirement plan for professional wrestling. So all those benefits and things like that, those costs just continue to pile up. And well, he needs a little help right now. So we're glad to lend a little support. He's a family member of what we're doing over at adfreeshows.com. And we're just glad to have him on the team and glad to know him. and if you've ever had a chance to meet him at a meet and greet or a convention or something like that,

I'm sure you had a great experience too. Let's come through for the taskmaster. He's come through for us. Let me throw one more at you. Superdiv, can you get a, there you go. See that picture behind me?

I do. That's a one of a kind. It's an oil painting. It's been hanging to my office now for, I don't know, six months. People've seen it all over the world. And we're going to put it up. for auction with the proceeds going to Kevin how about that I love that so we're starting that right now boom we'll figure out all the logistics of it because we'll be promoting this now for

because I want to raise some money here folks Kevin's a good dude so we're going to raise some money you know one of my favorite card collecting memories as a kid were those trading card binders that everybody had we'd soup them up deck them out stickers pictures pictures the cards on them, but inside, well, it was like a whole playground marketplace. Displaying, trading, judging each other's collections. It was really fun, and it changed all the time. Well, collecting has come a long way since then, but now there's a new way to buy, sell, and trade cards.

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the last match was boring they're making new guys way too strong overall not impressed the money in the bank matches were the attention for me i mean i think you got to make guys i think they they did a nice step in making those guys isn't that funny got right it's like oh they're pushing these guys now there's too many young guys are making them look too strong now the flip side of that is they're not getting any new guys over they're just sticking with the same top guys it's like wrestling fans got a love well here's what we do love about wrestling fans some of you know what a good t-shirt looks like and eric can i give you a compliment that's a fine looking shirt that you got it's available now look how good at least my tinslow com look at that there that's the real

easy e right there that's going to be a gif on twitter by the time i wake up in the morning uh michael stettler says good evening eric and conrad did you feel the matches were over booked it seems like there were more missed spots than usual for a WWE show. I don't know about missed spots, but I did feel like during the main event, and at least in the household I was watching in, everyone was like, we're kind of waiting for something else to happen,

and then it never did. And I think we all saw that something was off in the Damien Priest finish. Did you think there were a lot of missed spots? Well, I, you know, again, I was watching it with friends, so I don't normally call,

I don't usually point out things like that. what i'm just watching by myself but especially in a women's mass there was it that was yeah that was that was way overbooked it's kind of what i said about the 10 pounds of shit the five pound bag yeah yeah just so overbooked 20 guys just too much too much and too much that the women weren't necessarily all that great app like you know how you're going to get great at that we're going to do it once a year twice a year no He's kind of hard to get your reps in a messes like that. Come on in.

We're going to have Brad and Sid jump into frame here just to say hello. You can pull up a chair. Say hello to the team. All right. How's it going? We got Sid in the back. They're here. Listen, they came all away.

Now, Sid lives in Sidd, lives in Goa, which is in a southern part of India. He's a cricket journalist. and Parat lives in, I got that right, that time. Yeah, we've been working on that. Lives in Adelaide, Australia, but originally from India. They both travel all over the world covering cricket, and they were in Barbados for the World Cup. Here, why don't you tell them?

Oh, yeah, we were in, hey, Conrad, good to see you. Hey, buddy, good to see you. Yeah, and so we were in Barbados, like, we were all around the Caribbean, and then we'd plan to come to Cody and spend 4th of July with Eric. And then the hurricane hit. And then we were stuck in Baburros for a couple of days. So our flights got canceled and we said we have to make it.

And we booked one flight which went through the Cayman Islands. And guess what? Who also came to the Cayman Islands? The hurricane. Oh, wow. And we were stuck at the Cayman Islands airport for, what, 14 hours, just waiting. And it was so dramatic, Conrad of our flight took off at 5.30 p.m. 6 p.m. the airport was shut

so we could well have it could have been the repeat of the terminal the movie so what did you think overall it was 9 out of 10 for me after the first two matches gone on that I thought the first two matches

the intro was I mean the WW are making movies these days it's like they're no longer producing wrestling like they're producing movies and I was mind blown by the first two matches and I was hooked I wanted to watch every bit of it just Chad Gable walking out and just looking over his shoulder.

All the little intricacies were great. And then it almost felt like Frisch Stratas. I don't know what she contributed to the show. It just fell flat every time she was on camera. She was, I felt this like, we talked about it. It was like, I don't think Trish is used to being a host. I think she's used to being the guest and the star. And it is a little bit of a different role.

And I just, to me, and she just almost felt awkward. She did. And then she introduces John Sina and I think the crowd was confused, we were confused, because initially he gets all emotional and he says, this is the last time. And like, okay, is he retiring right now? And then he says, no, there's a retirement tour. After that, after that, after that's his farewell tour that started in 1979. One year retirement. Yeah, it's like John Farnham in Australia. He never retires, but he keeps retiring. And then he says, no, but I'll be back in Canada as well. Hang on, what's the

point of this? Like, what are you saying to us, John? And you thought there'll be a run-in or some sort. It's kind of just like, yeah, the Damon Priest match, both Eric and I and Sid, like, does he understand his character? Like, what is his gimmick? Like, is he wrestling as a big guy? Is he wrestling as a monster? Is he, he just looks confused. And I think that really came through today. And then the whole distraction with Drew and they kept looking over their shoulder.

And I get it. Eventually, it felt like the title match, the world title match was just a set up for Drew versus CM Punk. I think they ended up wasting this whole CM Punk ruining Drew's moment on this match. A, the match was not great, then B, we had the two count, which is, was it a two count? Was it a shoulder just in, yeah, and there's so much confusion. And I would have, and if you know wrestling, if you tease something that hardly happens. Now, we have been, we have been teased with this from the moment that Drew tweeted. through the two through the match where they're just looking towards the and then it happens

i'm not surprised it happens give me a surprise yeah it was too telegraph like at the moment and if if he had one i would still be okay if drew had one i would still be okay but again see mpong coming and i just knew he he called he called it before the show started yeah at the moment like damon free's got the thing we're like okay we know what's going to happen see because you can't end a PLE these days or have a PLE without CM Punk. So he had to come. Now the only way he was going to come is if Drew, maybe you're just journalists conrad. Like we're too cynical. That's our fault. All right. You're journalists. Get the hell out of here. Thank you. I'm going to kill my live here. Journalists on the show for God's sake. You're going to start taking this shit seriously

pretty soon. Thanks guys. We're live here at 83 weeks.com. If you've got a question for Eric Bischoff, you can hit it now. David Hernandez is with us and he says for some reason money in the bank wasn't as interesting as forbidden door i think it's because i went with low expectations for forbidden door like eric mentioned he did as well what do you think what did you prefer eric six days ago you watched forbidden door tonight you watched w w w which show did you enjoy more oh there's no comparison is this i guess you know i'm surprised i'm saying it because i didn't feel disappointed when i left to come out here but as disappointed as I am because I set very high expectations for WWE

because they generally live up to it. I was disappointed in the show. It didn't meet my expectations. But that being said, I would watch this five times before I watched one replay of Forbidden Door. There's no comparison. As average as this was, in my opinion, it was light years ahead of AW.

There are some great matches in the EW. I don't want to make a blanket statement like that. There were some high spots and some really cool things in Forbidden Door. But overall, given a choice of how I wanted to spend either five and a half hours of my life or two and a half hours of my life or whatever it was, three, I'm watching money in the bank. We got another question here from Robert Anthony. He says, Eric, if you could pick a topic for Vice or a documentary, any type show like who killed wcw what would you like to see covered or a deep dive on we've

gotten variations of this question eric have you had a chance to think about that about what you might like to see them do next no i i i haven't given that any thought and there's really nothing that stands out in my mind i mean i love history i love the tales of the territories concept I love hearing about the business from back in the 40s pre-television and certainly the impact that television had on it. So I would almost like to hear from a season television executive and that would be a historian. And I know the recreations would be tough and all that.

I know there's a lot of reasons why my idea isn't a good idea. But for me personally, as a consumer, I would love a really, really well done maybe three-part series on the history and evolution of professional wrestling and television because it's a fascinating story. It's one of the huge, other than news, it's one of the original genres of programming

that still exists today in game shows. That was it. News, wrestling, and game shows, for the most part was the beginning of television time. And wrestling had a big play in that, a big part of that. So I'd like to learn more about that. I want to learn more about what you think of this John Cena announcement.

And I've got some news about what's been said at the press conference afterwards. But first, we should acknowledge Jake from the Windy City, who says, Eric, I thought your Vince Austin-style feud with Sina in 2005 was a really underrated and fun. You both had great chemistry. Congrats to John. We got the announcement tonight, much like we did, I guess last November, that Sting was going to retire. Well, now we know that John Sina is going to retire.

He announced that next year's elimination. chamber would be his last and next year's WrestleMania would be his last and he's actually clarified at the press conference tonight Eric that he's wrestling the entire calendar year next year. So next year is his last year in wrestling but that doesn't mean WrestleMania will be

the last show. It'll be January to December. So one year of John Cena uncensored on Netflix. What do you think of that news? John's a smart dude and he's finally going to be able to buy that Ferrari collection. He's been hoping at some point by the way check out the easy e mugs you got to get you got to get with

it folks come on get real get the mug get the shirt fly it with pride you'd be glad you did i think it's great for john great business great for great for great for wwe and tkl it's going to be he's going to be printing money you know especially you know you're announcing it a year in advance you've got all these events between now and then every one of them is going to be special. Every one of them is going to have collector merchandise. I'm sure that Mattel and all the other licensees that are associated currently with WWE are going to be investing heavily in John Sina retirement collectible product. And it's just going to be a money making festival over to TKL and WWE. No doubt about it. I made the analogy about this,

I guess several months ago. So like Cody, retirement tour or Kobe retirement tour like when Kobe Bryant was retiring like every arena he went to hey this is the last time you'll see Kobe in Atlanta you know and so they sold tickets and they sold merch so I'm sure that's coming for Sina we got a live poll here we just did what kind of opponent should see to get at WrestleMania should it be someone from his own era that got 47% of the vote a young talent was 17% of the vote not sure but he should win at 22% and not sure but he should lose got 13% and of course in the live chat we're

asking hey who do you think it'll be and some people are suggesting names like kurt angle or the rock or randy orton if you had to book john sinna's last russomania match fresh off of this idea that you just heard that he's got one left who would you pick i don't know but i would pick someone who falls into the category of not a brawn breaker bond's a good example i would start out with people from john's past that's where i'd start for the nostalgia right and and and to let the story and the momentum and the whole idea of John Sina's retirement continued to build. And once I got through, however, you know, because not, you know, I don't even know if

Kirk can wrestle again. Maybe he can, maybe he can. I don't know. But those people that have been involved with John in the ring in the past, if there's any of them around, it would be great to start there. And then you start working into the younger, hungrier, up-and-coming talent and let John have them all, build that momentum, build that momentum, and then whoever the next big deal is going to be, Ron Breaker, just going right out there and predicting it again. By this time next year, Brown Baker's, Brown Breaker is not going to be, if he's not the guy, he'll be the top of three guys.

I'd let Braun beat him, have John put him over, one, two, three. And knowing John is probably what he'll want to do. whether it's Ron or somebody else he's not going to want to go out with a win i guarantee fucking to you sorry she's not supposed to swear i was thinking night night two next year at russomania rock and roman night one cody and sana who two ultimate baby faces passing of the torch cody's already got the torch what's he passing the legendary status I guess same thing he'd be passed into brawn I guess

yeah that could be with us here live and she says hey Eric what would you have done differently with the women's money in the bank match most of the night to me was disappointing drinking a beer buying my newly built fire pit was better well first of all drinking a beer next to a newly built fire pit is better than most things in life, so careful how we judge

here. Here's what I would do with the women's match. If I would have been producing it, I would take out about a third of the spots. And then it probably would have flowed better. I mean, I love the Chelsea Green comedy stuff, you know, her being afraid of heights and all that.

I thought that was fun. That's entertaining. It's okay. Not everything has to be deadly serious. And I thought that was great kind of comedic relief in that match. It made sense. It established it. but there just seemed to be just way too many spots in that match and they were difficult to execute because it is what it is that water matches are tough so there were too many spots they were too difficult and took too much time to set up it just became awkward feeling and and then the execution once they were being set up was less than stellar we talked about two you know, about spot. There was two back to back in that women's match.

I can't isolate the spot exactly, but it was when, you know, when the ladder is in a corner and somebody was bumping somebody on the table and they miss or they miss the ladder the first time and one of them hit their head on the edge of the ladder. It's just, it's just too clunky. Yeah,

clunky is a good word. Talk to me a little bit about, you know, this John's scene opportunity because the more I think about this, the more I want to circle back to oh yeah he's a 16 time world champion so there's probably a story to be told that if he wins one more title then in theory he's won more world titles and he's the most decorated world champion in wrestling history i could see them wanting to make that part of the story

i guess the question would be would you use that to establish the new raw belt or would you use that for the big belt that cody has You're asking tough questions. I'm a nostalgia guy, so I'm going to go with the big gold belt. Yeah. We need at least one belt that has a relatively unbroken lineage in the professional wrestling industry. And that's what the big gold belt is. So I would pour my, I would pour my, I would pour my,

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RussellBiz at checkout and all you got to do is pay $5 for shipping. That's it, five bucks, and you're back in the game. Bigger, better, faster, and stronger than perhaps you ever thought you would be. That's bluechuk.com promo code wrestlebiz to receive your first month free. Visit bluechoo.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Blu for their own. ongoing support of everything we do. If they were to go that way, the quest for John Sina's,

I mean, because he said one last time or whatever the word he used last was, it makes me think, hey, they might try to do that. Like, hey, here's my motivation to win this year's Royal Rumble. Hey, here's my motivation to win the elimination chamber. I mean, if that's really the direction we're going to go, and he could still win it at WrestleMania and it not be obvious that, okay, he's going to win it, but turn around. and drop it because he's going back to Hollywood, especially if he's already planted

the seed. Oh, no, I'm here through next December. I could see you there. Yeah, and it would be a fun build. That's what I love about, you know, a long-term plan like that is it makes it so much easier. You know, okay, you know what the end date is. It's not ambiguous. It's not like maybe December, maybe February, we'll kind of figure it out as we go. That's, you know, that's always a set up for failure. But when you know it when it's going to end, then you just got to figure okay how do i want it to end is john going over is john passing the torch okay he's passing a torch who's going to pass the torch too and that's where it gets a little more complicated or just trickier because you've got more things to consider but that would be a fun i'd just love to

be a fly on a wall and watch that build it'd be fun to watch be a part of history really i mean think about the hype videos you could get just comparing and contrasting all the guys who've held it 14 times and 15 times and then 16 it's just him and flare that could be cool and then you can get you know you could you can get some comments you know i'm not suggesting get rick out there in a ring or do anything silly like that i hope i don't see rick in the ring in an active role again because i think his status as an icon and as a legend is such that the closer he gets to doing anything physical in a ring the harder it is to to really to really embrace him is that icon that is. Nobody wants to see Babe Ruth go out there and try to swing a bat, right? Whatever. It's bad analogy, but you know what I mean? I'd like to see Rick kind of in that throne that he should be in and being recognized as such, but getting some comments from Rick about what it's meant to him to be a 16-time champion and get his take on John Sina and John Sina's impact on the wrestling business and contrast that with Rick Flair's, you know, experience.

and the impact in the wrestling business. Those are the kind of stories that really freaking matter to people. Those are the kinds of stories that people get sucked into, like the Jeff Jarrett story, talking about Owen Hart. That's another perfect freaking example. It's a perfect example of the kind of storytelling that exists right under your nose, and if you just embrace it and maximize it,

because so much of it is real. Yes, you're going to weave some, some fiction into the framework of the story because the story is going to build over time and all that. And it has a purpose. But 75% of it's going to be real. And that part of it is what touches people's hearts. That portion of the brain that registers emotion fires up. It gets all excited. It starts sending messages to the frontal cortex because that's where your memories are. Right. They're all stored in the frontal cortex, the front part of your brain. Your amygdala down here, at the base of your spine, that's what processes and sends emotional signals to the rest of your

brain. That's how this works. And if you don't hit emotion, if you don't trigger that amygly and get those electrons flowing through your skull and triggering memories and emotions that you remember from similar situations, you don't really connect. You just don't. And it's right there. So I think, yes, tell the John Cena 16-time story. We hear from Rick Flair. We hear from so many other people that work with John. All of those stories would be, and you know how well, nobody does those types of stories better than WWE, not the NFL, not Major League Baseball, not Steven Spielberg. Nobody does them better. And it's been that way for a long, long time. And just think of all the great stories you could tell. I'm excited about this. Can you tell?

I can tell, and we actually did a poll here at 83 weeks.com. Would you be into Sina chasing one more title? Yes, give me that story. Got 53%. Nah, got 34%. And maybe, let me think, got 13%. I don't think that idea. I kind of dig it.

Let's do some questions here. Lord Harky wants to note, do you think Roman should have come back tonight, Eric? No. Agree. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. factor. It's a formula. It's right. It never fails. It's 100% accurate and effective when you use properly. So no, not yet. For what? This is a bridge pay-per-view to, by the way, I'm going to call it a

pay-per-view. I don't care what everybody else calls it. It's not a tent pole, right? It's just there. And it was good. It was better than fine, I guess, but not much better than fine. But they're not all going to be stellar pay-per-views, just like they're not all going to be stellar pay-per-views in AEW or T&A or anywhere else, but some of them are going to be the ones that you really expect to be stellar. And I don't think this isn't one of those pay-per-views. So I think it's served its purpose well. It advanced other stories very well. And that was really its purpose. Oh, yeah, by the way, they made a shit ton of money in the process. Speaking of a shit ton of money, shout out to Brian Anderson throwing us some cash here with a super sticker.

Appreciate you. Thanks for joining the club here at 83 weeks.com and throw it in. A long story short says, hey, maybe seen a versus a Russian. I've seen that story before. Robert Anthony says, question for both. Do you think the product quality will go up or down with the uncensored Netflix era that's coming up? could you see it becoming more like HBO style shows with drama and or more gimmicky yeah i mean listen that's probably worthy of its own show eric but i like the idea of being able to paint

outside the lines what about you yes short answer however just don't go too far just do we want to see it more uh edgy more mature maybe something more akin to some of the things that we saw back in the Nitro era, they call it the attitude era. Yeah, I mean, loosen up a little bit on language, but I don't want to hear F-bombs as much as I break the rules here even on YouTube, and I pretty much talk like a truck driver or a sailor, but when it comes to producing television, I'd be careful with that. you don't want to go too far

but I don't I don't think they're going to change it I don't think it's going to be that radically different because they still have even though they can get away with it because it's Netflix it's still the WWE brand and advertisers aren't going to sit back and distinguish between

what they saw on Raw and what they saw on USA Network whatever what they saw on Netflix and what they saw on USA Network they're not going to make that distinction they're going to associate what they read about in the trades, some of the issues that come up in terms of going a little bit more mature, shall we say, and then they're not going to care.

So I just hope they don't go too far. They've got such a good thing going right now. I mean, you know, tonight was and, but for the most part, they're damn near flawless when it comes to the way they produce. and the success that they're having. They're improving year over year ratings almost every week. And that's hard to do in today's environment. So I just hope they don't mess with that for you.

It's like if it's not broken, don't mess with it. Well, we're not messing with it here. We're glad that you guys are with us here live at 83 weeks.com. Encourage you to hit that subscribe button. Turn on the notifications bell. Anthony's with us here and says he just saw the John Cena press conference. he stated he's done with in ring action completely, not just WWE,

wants to do 30 to 40 appearances, and wants to be in WWE in a backstage presence for a long time. Andrew Culp says, either you or Nash were recently talking about great pizza places in Detroit. Was it you and do you remember what? I'm going to Detroit in a couple days in September and looking for suggestions. That's your old stomping ground, Eric.

You got any pizza suggestions? Cloverleaf pizza. Right around 10 mile in Grashet. One of the best Detroit-style pizzas. If you want to hear a little history, Italian family come to Detroit to work in the automotive industry, like families from all over the world, all over, obviously the United States.

And they each found their own little neighborhoods that they kind of assimilated in. And you'd have an Italian neighborhood over on this part of town, and then you'd have the Polish neighborhood right next to that. And you have the German neighborhood over here. It was really cool, by the way. I loved living like that because I got exposed to a lot of really good food as a kid that I never had before. But they didn't have a lot of money back in the day.

They wanted to open up a pizzeria and they couldn't afford pizza pans. So they found out that if you go over to the River Rouge plant, which was one of the original Ford plants on the Rouge River in Detroit, there were a lot of oil pans that for whatever reason were flawed. there was something wrong with them, right? So they threw them out and discarded them, melted them back down and made more shit out of them. So these Italians would go in and snatch these oil pans because they were perfectly good and they were good for baking pizzas in.

That's how deep dish pizza was invented in Detroit. And then it spread to Chicago and in other places. But there you go. Cloverleaf pizza. Tell them Eric Bischoff sent you. And you can thank me. Take a couple pictures, send them my way in X. in, I'll post them for you.

10 miles grass rate, you'd be glad you did. Right down the road from the plumpet, which is one of the oldest head shops, it's not the plumpet anymore. It still looks like the plumpet, but it's one of the oldest head shops in America. Just saw a suggestion I thought you might get a kick out of. What if it's Randy Orton, who actually beats Cody Rhodes for the world title? And John Sina wins the Royal Rumble, and it becomes John Sina versus Randy Orton one last time at

WrestleMania for him to have the opportunity to beat Flair's record. But they got to be fun. It'll be fun as hell, but they've got to be Cody to do it. Well, that's a good call. It's one of those things when you're sitting around booking, you're going to go, yeah, it's a really good

idea. But what happens over here? But that's what makes booking fun when you're in a room with the right people. We asked live here, when should Roman Raines return? SummerSlam got 53% Survivor Series got 19% around Christmas was 7% and 22% voted with the Royal Rumble. How long would you keep Roman on the sidelines, Eric? Royal Rumble.

Because he's still alive. I mean, how many times have they referenced Roman Raines in tonight show? Every week, every day. They're keeping him alive. He's got a strong pulse and presence. And the more they do that, the larger the demand. And the absence that makes the heart grow fonder, that factor begins to factor up. And people want it more and more until he finally shows up.

And when he does, he is going to be a baby face to rival rock. Another prediction. I'm running about 98.6% right now. So I can throw, I can throw a hay, I can afford to throw a couple haymakers out there and still keep my dignity. Ask Obama is going to ask our last question. not here at 83 weeks.com as we're a home stretching here on our Money in the Bank live reaction show.

Askebum says, hey, here's a plot twist. Bischoff turns out to be the real leader of the bloodline. He's been funding solo's coup. I don't know why, but that makes me laugh. That'll be fun. Mowbrador says, if you could book Sain his last match, what is it?

You know, I know we're just off the cuff sort of fantasy booking stuff, but do you have a perfect opponent in mind, Derek? Mine would be brawn. I'd like to see, because I know he's going to be the next big deal. I'd love to see John C. to be the man that put him over the edge, pushed him over the edge in that direction. And the part of that is because, you know, I just talked to his dad a couple days ago.

So even I don't know, Braun, I'm sure I talked to him when he was a little kid, but it's not like I have a relationship with him. But I'm pretty tight with his dad. So that's probably why I'm pushing, you know, it's nepotism. it's just it's no i get it well listen we love nepotism and we love you guys thanks for joining us here live for a live reaction to money in the bank it was a good show not a great show we advanced the storyline and i think we're all fired up for summer slam we'll be there and you will too and we'll see you right back here at 83 weeks dot com merch get the merch get the merge save with conrad dot com

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And from start to finish, it was just fantastic. I had Diane within the day. The communication with her was fantastic. The process moved quicker than I could have ever hoped. My name is Doug Gustafen from Columbus, Ohio. I ended up saving $800 a month. It was saved with Conrad, and am able to also update our bathroom. NMLS number 32416, Equal Housing Lender, SavewithConrad.com.