83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff - Wise Choices with special guest Konnan

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Eric is joined by longtime and lucha legend Konnan to discuss the WWE's last hire and how it will affect AEW. Send some love and support to Kevin Sullivan: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-wrestling-legend-kevin-sullivan-recover?qid=cde00d769f6d1018db8610f81883e69d MANDO - Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo WRESTLEBIZ at ShopMando.com! #mandopod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I love this. I was on my way to town, hit some errands to do. I get a text from Conrad. Conrad says, hey, breaking news. Big, big name. We just recently saw an AEW high profile match with one of the top women wrestlers in the world. Nine days later, she's working for WWE. Hey, there's a lot to know, so I can't think of anybody better to go to when you want to know anything about. Lucha Libre in general. Mexican wrestling for sure. My buddy. Conan. Conan, how are you, man?

Gary, glad that chop it up with you once again. It's always fun. I always learn something. You know, sometimes I used to chop it up with you and it was different. Right. And it was, well, it was just different. But no matter how heated it got or how frustrated I got,

I always learned something. So some things never changed. Right. So going to have big news. Stephanie Vakur. I just set it up. She just wrestled in AEW nine days ago. Mercedes-Bonae high-profile match.

She looked actually good. I think I commented on it that she really stood out to be in that match. But nine days later, she's in WWE. You know anything about the background on this, man? I don't know much about the background. I can tell you about her. if you want to know a little bit more about her. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let's start with that. So basically she's from Chile. She's not Mexican. And she basically came into the country about 10 years ago because she was dating a guy called Ricky Marvin. Now, Ricky Marvin was actually a guy I was going to recommend for WCW because he was incredible high flyer, incredible worker.

But CMLL convinced him to stay. Bro, do you remember the time that we had a meeting with the owner of Arena Mexico Paco Alonzo? Oh, of course. We had that meeting in Orlando. Right. And he showed up drunk. Yeah, it brought me some nice gifts, though.

Yeah. And so I got mega heat after that because he accused me of talking to you. Too bad he's passed away. But he accused me of telling you that I didn't want to work with CMLL. And I go, bro, I don't have that type of power, you know. But anyways, we had a lot of heat after that. because he was convinced that I somehow convinced you. And I thought to myself, well, maybe it probably didn't work to your benefit to show up drunk.

But anyways, so the thing with Stephanie Vacker is that she came here about 10 years ago. She was dating Ricky Marvin, who's a fantastic wrestler. Now, just so you know, CMLL is very old school. They don't really do a lot of run-ins. they don't really do a lot of like in rings they don't do a lot of storytelling it's just like straight wrestling right like they're very old school and so they a lot of great wrestlers come out of there so she went into a system where AAA is more about entertainment right I'd rather I always give this analogy and and bro do you remember when Jim Duggan would come out in WCW the pop that he would get Oh yeah It's usually the biggest of the night Yeah he didn't do much

He didn't have to do much And I look at the same way You can have a million great five star matches And like for a while I was into giving the public Like five and four star matches But that doesn't really draw You know what I'm saying

And so you got to give him a potpourri You know a hardcore match Ladies match You know a fucking championship match High Flyers match etc So our company is very different than CML. Like they're very old school. And so she went into that system where they trained people, you know, to wrestle, not to be entertainers. And so just a little backstory on her. So Ricky Marvin was one of her trainers who's excellent, excellent wrestler. And she had some other really good wrestlers like Ultimate Guerrero. I don't know if you remember him. He's a guy that showed up and they made him put on a mask that didn't fit. So she had really good training and really good wrestler.

And here's a problem I have a lot of times with girls that are short because she's really short, like maybe five, three. A lot of times I have problems with girls that are really short because they're not physical enough. You know, they're already small, but their physicality doesn't translate. She's very different. She's short, but her physicality translates, you know? Now, I'm thinking, I know that WWE for years has been talking about him for different reasons they haven't done it. I know that they're very interested in the Mexico market. They just haven't pulled the trigger for whatever reason yet.

And I would assume that they don't really have any Mexican female wrestlers except for, remember that girl, and I think she's got some sort of ailment. I think her name is Raquel Rodriguez. yes the tall one that would do the Latin and she's about the only one and she wasn't trained in Mexico you know so I think that that that fits into the you know we want to go to Mexico and want to have Mexican stars we don't really have a female Mexican star that's what I'm thinking right and I just think that Stephanie Vacker probably got very good advice and there's nothing against Tony because anytime you say anything like about AEW, Hello? No, I'm here. And hey, brother, just want to let you know your cameras went dark. I don't know if you...

Okay, let me see what's going on here. Wait one second. I'm sorry. No, hey, don't worry. No, we'll talk a little bit more about the impact on AEW. And I wasn't even aware if, in fact, Tony Khan was even attempting to negotiate or wanting to negotiate. So this might not be a battle of that both companies wanted her and only one got her. And I don't mean to suggest that. right until we know more but it is interesting that i mean you can't not talk about the coincidence of nine days ago there she was working with the town woman on the card and now she's over here so here's here's the thing here's a thing and i don't know how much she followed a w i'm thinking because you don't you can't get a w in mexico i believe i think you have to like watch it on youtube i'm thinking somebody gave her very good advice so let's look at the let's look at the facts Okay. Can you still see me?

Oh, I can see you. I can hear you, and I'm waiting for facts. All right. Here's the facts. Brian Pilman Jr. is treated like a J. Broan. Okay, I remember in his own city, he got fucking dissed. I go, really, that's a real smart way to get this guy over. He was just basically dis, look how he's doing in NXT. Do you watch NXT or no? Occasionally.

Okay, they make them look like a star. They feature him. They give him a lot of promo time. Sean Spears, what did they do with him in NXT? Absolutely nothing. He went over there. Look at him now, right? Ethan Page, who I've always thought was a great performer

because I worked with him. I had a feud with him. Well, my group was called L-A-X, and they had a feud with him and this other guy, Josh Alexander, and I knew that he was very talented. What did they do while he was in AEW? Absolutely nothing.

Now look at him now. I think he just won the NXT championship, right? I shout out to Josh Alexander. I worked with him a couple different. times not with him necessarily in the ring but at the same events and he's a classy guy he's a great talent too great talent he is he is and so they were partners and so him and he didn't pay to recall like the north because they're from canada and then they had uh dragon lee who's rush's brother right you know they had rush beat him up they fucking took off his like they just

dropped them out and i remember uh so he went to fucking um What do you call this, to WWE? And now he's in the LWO with Ray Mysterio, right? Like, look at Jade Cargill, bro. Phenomenal talent. They didn't know what to do with her. She left. Everybody that's been picked up by WW from AW,

it's going way better than it was in AW. You know what growing out? It's interesting, and that's a great point. You've obviously thought through this quite well. But this morning, we were recording the podcast. with Conrad. And I said, hey, did you read that article, Sports article, Shad Khan, talking about how he's basically sending a message to his team, his coaching staff.

You know, things are going to have to change. You cannot rely on free agency anymore. And it made me think, I wonder if Tony's reading that and thinking, maybe I should apply that same logic. Because Tony's whole thing is signing, you know, WWE people. Well, those are the WWE people. No disrespect at all. But they've kind of rounded the curve in WWE, career-wise, health-wise, whatever. They're on their way out. Great. Stop at AEW. Make a fortune. Have some fun, work with some people you enjoy. Absolutely. God bless you. I'm jealous. But other than those,

there's a handful of those situations, small handful, the rest of the talent that comes from WWE to AEW is just getting. I mean, it's a career ender. And you're right, Descartes. Tony Rhodes going back started the started started Rhodes is another one C.M. Punk is another one. Bro, when CM Punk came in, my biggest argument was that, okay, so let's say Connor McGregor comes back to UFC, right? They had him in a match with Chandler, who's a star.

They didn't have them against fucking, you know, Conrad Thompson. You know what I'm saying? Same thing. When CM Punk went in there, bro, one of his first feud was against Lee Mori, R. I was like, I was like, what? And people, I would lose my shit when I would see that stuff. And I could, I say, because there's a punk's not moving any needles here. There's nothing happening here.

And everybody's, oh, he hates, he hates, see a punk. Oh, he hates AEW. No, I'm pointing on a fucking fact that you bring somebody in like CM Punk. And he's basically putting over jobbers. Right. Okay, that's a little harsh. You know what I mean. Right.

And it wasn't just him. It was a whole bunch of guys. And then he threw out this little thing. He goes, well, you know, I wanted to come back to work with the midcard guys. That sounds like something Tony convinced him to do. Why would you be coming? Because I want to help the young talent. That's not money, dude.

You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I just think that everybody from punk, the roads, that everybody I just mentioned, it's gotten way better. And if you're a wrestler, you've got to be thinking, where do I want to go here, where careers go to flounder for the most part? Or do I want to go over here where they're using people right? You know what I'm saying? And, yeah, I mean, you get the quick payday at AEW, no doubt about it.

Right. If that's your jam and that's all you really want, make that decision. But if you want to see how far you can go, that's not the place to do it. You work there, bro. You know how it is. So, bro, here's the problem, bro. They're hardcore fan base, which is very basically fanatical,

you know, fucking nerd geek, beta males. You know, everything they do is right. And if, like, if you or me or anybody else, the old heads, as they refer to us, yeah, well, these old heads have done something and they've learned something. Maybe you could partake of their wisdom and get better. but no, oh, they're trying to be relevant.

They're trying to get a legends contract. Those are tired tropes. But I don't really, you know, I read it because it's on my timeline. But I don't really listen to all that white nose, Eric, because they're the minority. They're hardcore fans who are watching this every day and their whole life revolves around it, right? Yep.

The majority doesn't get into that shit. They don't give about that shit. And that's what matters. You've got to serve the majority. What I think, Tony, one of the big of mistakes is he's overserved his hard courts to keep them happy. Okay, that's cool. How about the rest of the people? You know what I'm saying?

No, I do. And the numbers bear it out. You know, Brandon Thurston over at WrestleManiaomics really, really can't say enough great things about Brandon. His analysis of the business in terms of, you know, ratings and attendance and actual numbers. he's credible as hell he puts his information out there he doesn't spin it he doesn't editorialize it he doesn't use it to prove his

point he just gives you the information and you make up your own conclusions and I respect a hell out of people that do that because even in mainstream news that's very hard to find and Brandon does a great job

but the numbers that I saw go ahead go ahead I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry go ahead finish your job I just say the numbers a brand have put out there are definitive. AEW is overserving their hardcore audience, completely ignoring. I don't know that they're ignoring them, but they just don't know how to attract them. I think it's probably

more of the latter. But they're overseeing that hardcore audience because that's all they know how to do. And the rest of the audience is shun them. And they're not even able to hold on to the hardcore audience they do have because those numbers, according to Brandon Thurston's research,

are deteriorating year over year over year. So let me see. if I got this right. Eric Bishop, the only guy to ever beat Vince McMahon 83 weeks, the name of your show. In a row. There's nothing you could learn

from him. Absolutely nothing you could learn from him. He's just tired, washed over, a husband. There's nothing you can learn from him. Bro. I'll give you an example. Like, do you follow any sports, Eric? I follow football, particularly the Steelers. I'm getting into cricket. Believe it

or not. I love cricket. All right. So I'm going to give you a Steelers name, Terry Bradshaw. Yes, I was living in Pittsburgh his rookie year. All right. So Terry, I actually met him. I used to live in Miami when they would go to the Orange Bowl. I worked in the Orange Bowl and I would go out and wait for them after the,

when football wasn't that big in the 70s and, you know, all security rushed them to the fucking bus. Like they actually walked out and walked to the bus, right? like high school right exactly and so i met terry at the super bowl and he was really cool and i took a picture of them which i still have but anyways if terry was doing a podcast right you wouldn't be telling him hey you don't know what the fuck you're talking about you're retired go fuck yourself you know what i'm saying it's like super disrespectful but anyways um so let me go back to uh stephanie backer so i don't know if you knew this

but she was dating a guy from AAA even though she was in CMLL right and they got into this was huge in Mexico this probably happened last year but they got into a fight he was messing around right which is like you know and he he grabbed he grabbed he grabbed her by the throat right and she had marks on her throat and it was a real big deal and he actually went to to jail and he's still in jail you know and then it turned into this thing where all his all the people that were on his side were saying oh she actually put her own fingers because you can they measured it or some shit and she and she made this up and then arena Mexico backed her up because in Mexico as you can imagine very corrupt they put money so he couldn't get out of jail

and he even had his people like people believed in his version of the story doing marches bro that he was innocent like it was a real big deal wow yeah yeah you can you can look that up but yeah he's been in jail so i mean so she's still got the wrong kind of heat in mexico yeah no she doesn't i with the people that believe his story yeah he's a woman there's there's people walking around that don't want her to be walking around right right yeah but she's a she's she's she's a great wrestler bro she's got a good look her she's It looks very real, and that stands apart from a lot of the girls that you see that aren't trained right, are still green and they're on TV. And I'm like, bro, why would you put, for example, an AEW, why would you put any girl on TV that isn't ready when you have rampage and collision?

Let them go there, get their reps, and then when they're ready, you bring them to AEW. Kind of logical, right? Kind of logical. Right. Kind of a lot. And how do you think, any one of them, but Stephanie in particular, how hard of adjustment do you think it will be for her to transition to the the WWE culture? Well, I'll give you a good example.

And I'm going to use myself and Ray Mysterio and the luchadores as an example. So when we came to the United States, we really didn't know how to wrestle American style because there's no reason to, you know, we were in Mexico wrestling Lucha Libre. so you kind of had to be deprogrammed one of the best things that they ever did is especially in race case because i got kind of thrown to the wolves but especially in race case you know he had dean malenko and chris jericho and eddie guerrero that were showing him and training him but he had the d b d program because it's a whole different style and mentality and psychology you know what i'm saying like i really didn't have a lot of people that have helped me they you know

like i remember wrestling one-man gang and he was very very very uncooperative you know what i'm saying especially because he had lost the u.s title to me and he's probably thinking who the fuck is this guy you know what i'm saying nobody had ever really heard of me you know so yeah she'll she'll take a but you know that place is so professional and they'll put her in the ring with the right people you know and so yeah it'll take a little while to kind of get deep programmed and learn that style the good thing is that unlike before where mexicans just wrestled mexican style and americans just wrestled american style and this kind of started in the 90s you know now there's a hybrid style where everybody knows a little japanese a little lucha a little american style yeah so she'll

go in there and she'll know that international style and i don't think it'll take her that that long to fit in. What would you do? Would you put her in an NXT first or would you, do you think she's ready to transition to main roster? Yeah, I would put her in the NXT so she can learn what style they want to do. And I don't even, I don't know if she speaks English, you know. That was going to be my next question because that's obviously, in terms of it,

when I say adjusting to the culture, not only the style of wrestling, but as you know, going to work for WWE is like going to work for a telecommunications company. I mean, it's very corporate, there are protocols and processes and procedures, and there's still, you know, it's still wrestling. There's still a little bit of a culture there socially. And on top of that, shouldn't speak English or maybe doesn't, that would be really hard, don't you think? I wonder if they'd put her with, like, an assistant of sorts to kind of get her familiar and help her with her English. I mean, you can't just take somebody that doesn't speak the language, throw them into that process and expect them to, you know, swim upstream dude it's ridiculous because every person that ever went to the

United States I told them learn English get a fucking tutor something online and learn English and 95% of them didn't but if you've noticed the guys that did English like I'll give you an example phantasma he speaks really good English you know and that helps him get a push you know so she'll have to go in there and learn the language if she doesn't already know because I'm not sure she speaks English. I don't know why she would if she lives in Chile. But, um, and that's going to be part of the process of her, how they use her. You know what I'm saying? But all the in ring stuff, how she looks, she's money.

Conan, thank you so much for joining us. I know I called you, you know, two hours ago and said, Hey, yeah, I'm good on with me. And you're cool enough to, to join us. I appreciate it. Because there's nobody that, you know, knows that world in Mexico and Lucia in general and what's happening than you in this country and i appreciate your time my brother anytime my friend remember we still on my bucket list is for us to go fishing it's right down the road bro you know what i saw bro how far is this from where you live i saw a picture of p ditty rafting like in something hole wyoming that's jackson hole that's about 180 miles from here all right all right okay i just was wondering but conier west conier west used to have a ranch right down the

the road. Really? We didn't get Pete Ditty, but we got Kanye. Yeah, well, he's gone now. He could take it. He was gone after about two years. He's just as crazy. All right. We're going to wrap this up, Conan. Thank you, brother. Be cool, my friend. Thank you. And we're going to wrap up a couple of questions here because we got a bunch of them. Thank you, Conan, for joining us. And I really did. When that news broke, I was driving down the road. I was, okay, I'm going to pull over. I pulled over. Conrad said, oh, what can we get Conan? And I had already been thinking, how do I reach out to Conan? I of his number. And Conrad had it. So I called him right from the side of the road. He said, dropped it right. Absolutely happy to be there. Drop everything I'm doing. And he did. That's

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Russell, use the code wrestle biz at shopmando.com. All right, Super Dave, what do we got for questions? Shoo, doggie. All right, from Eddie, another W guest on the show. Much love to everyone. Looking forward to Triple Manania, Conan. Yeah, Triple Mania. I've never been there, Eddie. I'm going to have to tap into my old buddy, Cohn, and see if I get a ticket. What do we got next? Jim Cohn, Jim Cohn, 1479. In 1997, WCW was building up that tag division, especially the signers, who I thought would win the belts at Hogwild.

Any reason you went in a different direction. Jim, I've got two choices in life. I either tell the truth or make shit up. And not that I've ever not made shit. it up. I was in a wrestling business for crying out loud. But I've learned the hard way for all these years that when in doubt, just tell the truth. And I'm not sure that I remember talking about going into the direction or why or what the thinking was behind it. And that's the truth. I just don't remember. It was like 25 fucking years ago. Dude, come on. He's up on me.

I'm just kidding. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. What are we got, Super Day, pro-Rustle clips. Tony Kahn has Camille and Megan Baines sitting at home being paid since 2023 for nothing. Come on now. It's not going to be the pot calling some kettle black on that one. Truth is the truth. Vacker was more over than Monet.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm sorry, I'm reading slow. Vacker was more over than Monet and is going to the big types. Absolutely. And I said that. I think I covered that show. In fact, I know we did, and I pointed out, I'm going to go back and listen to my own comments, but I did make a mental note, and I think I did point out that I thought she looked really good

because I had never seen her before. And now that you pointed out, I don't want to say she looked better than Mercedes, but I think the expectation was a little higher for Mercedes, obviously. And perhaps Stephanie exceeded hers, and perhaps Mercedes didn't. That's my take on it. you know how that's going to play oh my god i can't wait to see my twitter feed tomorrow hell tonight it's going to light up and if it gets to tony because this is tony tony has a pattern when it comes to social media if you notice he'll stay real low he'll do the

oh tune in tonight super show it's going to be the greatest show we've ever done oh tbs loves us our dear leader david zasloff loves me oh we have such a great relationship still no deal yet not saying you're not going to get one they probably will but on record for saying that for a long time there's no way anybody's going to know until it happens place a bet to save my life but it doesn't matter does it because just because it gets into the contract doesn't mean the show is going to get any better by the time the next contract runs out my youtube channel will be getting higher ratings than dynamite all right sorry i'm going off a rant i do that every once in a while.

Bernard, would you guys agree that the demise of Vince McMahon brought upon the end of AEW? You know, I've read about psilocybin. It can be a good thing. It can be a good thing. Compared to Triple H's creative, Tony is outgun. That's absolutely true. And I don't think, but I get your point.

I'm having fun with you with the psilocybin comment because I was just reading an article right before we started doing the show. look, if Vince McMahon could go back in time and none of the things that we've been reading about for the last year or so ever took place, nothing would have changed. Vince would have been in the position he's in, and Tony would not be doing any better. And WWE, in any meaningful way, would not be doing any worse. They would have been what they've been. and there's such a gap between Tony Kahn's vision of what professional wrestling is and how to produce a professional wrestling television show

and what's needed in the marketplace that, you know, Vince leaving didn't have any negative impact. AEW was going to go where they're going to go. If there was no wrestling, if WWE evaporated into thin air, If a frickin UFO was hovering above Stanford, Connecticut, and in a giant bluish white light that was so bright, you could barely look at it, yet you still could all the way from Kansas City, Missouri. That UFO would come down and just suck up at WWE headquarters and everybody associated with it.

WW would be gone. AEW would not do any better. There's a point of view. for you. And I think I'm probably right. Wow. Next. I crack myself up sometimes. And I don't even know why because I'm not funny. For Bash at the Beach 2000, you had your idea. Russo had his. What was Russo's pitch? Was Booker T involved? He did what he pitched. He just added in the commentary about Hulk Hogan to get himself over with the dirt sheets. Why did Dave Meltzer to like him?

So we cut a promo in Hulk Hogan because that's so fucking easy to do and always has been. Low-hanging fruit. And it's the same reason why when Siam Punk made his debut in AEW and the first thing he does, one of the first things he does in his promo was Rip on Hulk Hogan. Someone he's never met, doesn't know if he did meet him in a convention or something, doesn't know him at all, and never worked with him. And because that's how punk knew he could get himself over with that hardcore dirt sheet

internet audience. It's low-hanging fruit. And when people go right after the low-hanging fruit, I lose respect for them. I expect more of them. I expect talent that reaches a certain level to not reach out for the fruit that's convenient, but to push themselves, expand their own horizons, get a greater reach, become more entertaining. But when you don't, it's, yeah, yeah, it's just cheapy, off on a tangent.

That's why I like the show. Like there's nobody to tell me I can't do whatever I want to do. Not that Conrad tells me what I can do or can't do, but you know we've only got a certain amount of time we've got ads we've got all kinds of things we're doing here we're just having fun at least i am all right a few more questions here we should probably go jacob schwartz eric that's me i believe your understanding i believe your understanding story building is underrated thank you for that in AEW i believe they either lacked inciting incidents somebody googled storylines or jump too quickly to the finale i'm kidding what's the silver bullet

for them to make successful stories. First of all, Jacob, you're absolutely right. In that, in fact, if you listen to a lot of the commentary from AEW diehards, as Kodin was referring to them, they're very loud, they're very noisy, they're very, very firm, and what they think they know about professional wrestling. And what they see on TV, they consider that a storyline. But a storyline has elements. It has ingredients.

It's no different than a cake. There's a combination of ingredients and a process called baking, and you have to have the right measurements. And in some cases, put them in at the right time based on the cooking process, the baking process, in order to bake a world-class cake. It's a process with ingredients. It's not the sauce of flour in a bowl and all these are really cool. eggs. These are Japanese eggs. Guaranteed five-star Meltzer eggs. Let's just crack those babies.

Oh, this is how you can't cry. Japanese eggs are different now. You wouldn't understand unless you've studied eggs in Japan and stay Meltzer. And we're going to throw those eggs in and I don't know. Should we just put it out in the sun, let it cook? I don't know. Throw it in a microwave. How does a microwave work? Fuck, I don't know how microbeks just put it in the head of button. Now let's not do that. Let's put in the oven. How long should we put in the oven? Oh, fuck, I don't know. Let's throw it in the oven and put it on high. see what happens. That's how Tony Khan books wrestling. He's just throwing shit in a pot, put in the oven, hitting and going, going. There's no real ingredients. There's not the right

ingredients. A storyline needs to have a beginning and the middle and end. Okay, that's simple. Yes, you have to have that inciting incident. That one moment that takes the subject, your character, your hero, or anti-heroes, the case may be, and jerks them right out of their everyday existence and thrust them into a new one. And thus the journey begins. and then you've got to have jeopardy along the way. You've got to have a lot of other elements slash ingredients along the way in a storyline before you put the mucker father in the oven and cook it.

Let's continue. Thank you, Jacob. That was fun. Askebom, we've heard from Eskabombeam a couple times in the last couple of weeks, and I appreciate it very, very much as well as though I appreciate all of you who are members, exclusive members of 83 weeks. I was chastised by my boss yesterday in a very classy way because, well, he's British.

They can tell you to go screw yourself with that accent. You go, well, fine. I'll go do that. But anyway, I was chastised because it's been several weeks since I've sent out any exclusive videos to our exclusive members here in 83weeks.com. And I feel bad about that. And I'm going to start overcompensating maybe tonight. I was originally going to start today, but now with this show popping up in my face,

I may wait till tomorrow, so I have something interesting to say, because I'm saying it all right here, if you couldn't tell. But yeah, I'll be on my shit. You'll be getting your videos. I have no idea what I'm going to be talking about. Sometimes I'll be out walking my dog. A lot of times I'll be out walking my dog. It's when I do my best thinking.

But anyway, look for those. Okay, what do we got? Eric, you never called out Haku for suddenly leaving WCW with the hardcore title. Why not? What do you think? I mean, freaking Haku. Thank God. I was smart.

Because I still run into Hakku, Ming. I still run into Ming. Out on the convention circuit, and every time he sees me, he laughs, he smiles. He gives me a big old Samoan hug. Makes me feel good. Think of what would have happened. if I'd have been calling him out.

I'd have showed up at that convention. That would be bad, and I'm glad I didn't do that. Yeah, it's the truth. I just answer them truthfully. What do we got, Super Dave? The crazed haven. I almost said Raven, because I see a Raven. Should the insane clown posse be inducted in WWE Hall of Fame since

They've wrestled in like every major wrestling company in the United States. I love that idea. And I suggest here at 83 Weeks.com, we start a petition. We won insane clown posse in the WWE Hall of Fame. Hashtag 83weeks.com. We're going to start that right now because it's going to take a while. This is not an effort that's going to happen quick. But we can gain momentum because I've got.

a hell of a cult following to this day. And I run into them out on the convention circuit, too. And they are super great guys. I really, really enjoy being around them and respectful, amazingly talented. I love their energy. Bad shit crazy. And that's the part I love the most. I dig it.

Any memorable stories? I really, you know, other than just hiring them and obviously being a part, although I didn't direct them, I didn't produce them, you know, Kevin Sullivan and his team did. I didn't have any, you know, working. physical relationships in terms of television with them. But I enjoyed being around him, and I appreciated what they contributed. They brought an edge to our product. There was something wacky, cool, and different at the time.

And that's what Nitro was all about. They added a lot of that identity and helped brand us because they jumped on board and did their crazy, wacky shit. That was fun. All right, I'm going to wrap this baby up. My boss told me YouTube doesn't like long goodbye. So on three, two, one. Thank you, everybody.

Save with Conrad.com My name is Doug Gustafson, and we are from Columbus, Ohio. First learned of Conrad through his podcast network. I'm a big 83 weeks fan. Probably got into a little bit more credit card debt than what we wanted to during the course of the pandemic. We wanted to get rid of some of that. My wife and I had luckily bought the house many years ago

and had quite a bit of equity built up in that. We are looking to actually redo our best. room, things around the house that we wanted to do with the other equity that we have left over. We've been talking about refinancing forever, and I finally just took the plunge and called the number, got a hold of him, 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 bathrooms.

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