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Strictly for the Culture aims to 12 00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:47,680 build with like minded people and elevate their position in 13 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:53,760 the world through knowledge, self love and desire to unite. 14 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:59,160 So what are you waiting on? Visit strictlyfortheculture.ca. 15 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:02,680 Do it for the love, do it for the knowledge. 16 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:06,840 Most importantly, folks do it strictly for the culture. 17 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:13,800 You're locked in. This is what we have here, 18 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:15,600 folks. You're the only show that 19 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,120 matters. The Queen of the Crop, Duke 20 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:22,800 loves wrestling and there is no one that does it better than 21 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,560 your house. I have come here to chew bubble 22 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:29,600 gum and kick ass. Thank you. 23 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:39,040 And I'm all out of bother you. Hey, everybody, this is Eric 24 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:40,080 Bischoff. And you. 25 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:41,320 You. Yeah, you. 26 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:45,040 You're listening to Duke Loves Wrestling. 27 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:51,200 Brothers and sisters, the River City Wrestling Con was so 28 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:54,680 tremendous. It ended up being the most 29 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:58,680 successful pro wrestling convention in the history of the 30 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,240 state of Florida. And certainly many of you 31 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:03,320 listeners out there, you made that happen. 32 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:07,520 So thank you. And you were rewarded with some 33 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:10,880 of the biggest names in the history of pro wrestling and 34 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:14,760 certainly our guest on this episode is one of them that you 35 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:18,160 can't stop talking about. It was so cool for many of you 36 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,840 to meet this guy. And now we're here to talk about 37 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:23,520 a little bit. The one the only Mr. Eric 38 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:28,640 Bischoff, how you doing there? I am just living large, my 39 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:33,720 friend, living large out here in Cody, WY, heart of the rodeo 40 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:37,560 capital of Wyoming. They have a rodeo here every 41 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:38,480 night. It's awesome. 42 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:41,400 But the mountains are beautiful, the weather's beautiful, 43 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:43,880 tourists are pouring in, money is being made. 44 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,600 It's just a wonderful thing. I love it, I love it. 45 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:50,160 But before we get into that, 'cause I definitely want to ask 46 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:54,240 you about your connection to Cody and what that means to you 47 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:56,360 from a spiritual standpoint, 'cause I think there's a, 48 00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:58,400 there's a story to be told there. 49 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:02,000 The River City wrestling caught. I mean, just your, your 50 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,720 impression of this convention. I believe it was the first time 51 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:06,480 that you had personally been there. 52 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,600 What did you think? I was blown away to be honest 53 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:13,240 and and I've worked with a lot of great promoters around the 54 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,040 country, around the world. As a matter of fact, I just did 55 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:20,720 a tour of Australia a couple weeks ago and last fall did a 56 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:26,200 tour of was it Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, UK, 57 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:29,240 where else did I go? That's about it. 58 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:31,680 But I've I've toured all over the place and worked with some 59 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:35,800 really good promoters and I have not worked with a better 60 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,520 promoter, not been to a better run event. 61 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:42,760 It was so well put together. And the thing I loved about it 62 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:45,960 too was the venue, You know, the hotel, the Convention Center, 63 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:50,000 there was a lot of room. I mean, there was big crowds. 64 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,840 You had, you had a hell of a turn out and you had a lot of 65 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:59,440 talent, but it was easy to move around in it in, you know, I've 66 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:03,280 been to, I've been to conventions that man, it's just 67 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:05,960 our elbow to elbow. You can hardly move and you 68 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:08,440 can't, you don't even really get to see half of what you came to 69 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:12,840 see because it's so crowded. And this was laid out in such a 70 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:16,000 way that, you know, people could move around freely and get to 71 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,360 see everybody and do everything. And, you know, nice restaurant 72 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:22,720 in the in the hotel. So All in all, it was like a 73 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:25,520 scale of one to 10, brother. That was a 10 out of 10 for me. 74 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,080 And then on top of it, I'd never been to Saint Augustine. 75 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:32,280 I'd heard about it, never been there. 76 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:34,320 I've been to Florida about, I don't know, a million and 1/2 77 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:36,880 times never been to Saint Augustine. 78 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,680 So when I flew, I get in the night night early and I just 79 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:44,720 took an Uber 20 minute ride, walked around and was just 80 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,400 absolutely amazed. I can't wait to come back. 81 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:51,880 I saw at least a dozen restaurants that I have to go 82 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,800 back to. I mean really cool place. 83 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:00,120 Wow, high praise not only for the River City Wrestling Con, 84 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:02,440 but for Saint Augustine in general. 85 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:04,920 So shout out to the whole area there. 86 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:08,600 You folks are doing something special when a a world traveler 87 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,400 like Eric Bischoff puts you over like that. 88 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:13,720 Wow. Well, I mean, I mean, I mean the 89 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:17,800 town, I'm a big, I love history. I'm always fascinated with 90 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:19,240 history. I always have that since I was a 91 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,480 little kid. It's the only, only thing in 92 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,520 school that really interested me was history. 93 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:28,560 But you know, the city has done such a great job of preserving 94 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,760 some of the original architecture and, and a few of 95 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,800 the original buildings and the rest of it, really, they've done 96 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:40,360 such a good job of maintaining it to keep its character and not 97 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:43,760 let it get overly commercialized, which is usually 98 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:46,520 what happens to a beautiful place like Saint Augustine over 99 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:47,960 time. It's just, it gets 100 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:51,640 overdeveloped. But the city and the state have 101 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,080 done such a great job of preserving the history. 102 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:57,640 It's fascinating, fascinating place with great restaurants on 103 00:05:57,640 --> 00:05:59,400 the beach. What more could one ask for? 104 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,640 I love it. That's that's a that's an and a 105 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:04,400 half right there. You better bottle that one up 106 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:05,880 there. Saint Augustine. 107 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:10,680 And certainly I want to give a special shout out to Sam Bate 108 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,120 and his son Nick Bate. You know, the folks that put on 109 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:15,200 the River City Wrestling Con each year. 110 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:18,280 That's a father and son duo family business. 111 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:23,560 From what I hear from so many different people, they do 112 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:26,200 business the right way. You know, they're they're not 113 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:27,520 out here trying to cheat anybody. 114 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:30,840 They're just trying to give great entertainment to the fans 115 00:06:30,840 --> 00:06:35,720 and put you legends in the wrestling in a position where 116 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:37,160 you know you have a great day's work. 117 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:39,960 And certainly the combination of the two is why this brand 118 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:43,040 continues to be successful. Very, very impressed. 119 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:45,520 Got to hang out with him. We went out to lunch the day 120 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,120 after the events and you got a chance to get to know him 121 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,840 because, you know, the day of an event, everybody's so busy and 122 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:53,600 there's a million things going on, so it's hard to really get 123 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:57,040 to know someone the day of. So we hung out at the hotel and 124 00:06:57,040 --> 00:06:59,360 grabbed a bite afterwards the next day. 125 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,160 And just cool too. You know what's fun for me, man, 126 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:04,040 I love seeing a father and son team. 127 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:08,480 I mean, it's to me one of the, you know, I got to work with my 128 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:10,880 son in the wrestling business for quite a long time. 129 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:16,080 And it's so special not only working together. 130 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:18,640 And I think in the case of Sam and Nick, definitely building up 131 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:20,720 a successful business, obviously. 132 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:25,520 But you know, just to have that thing in common with your son 133 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:29,680 for me as a dad. And I would think for, you know, 134 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:33,680 Nick having that relationship with his father and that thing 135 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:36,600 in that thing in common, this business in common and wrestling 136 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:39,640 in common, because they both love wrestling and they're both 137 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,360 very, very knowledgeable. But to have that kind of that 138 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:44,920 kind of a project to work on together is a very special 139 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,040 thing. So it made it even double cool 140 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:50,560 for me. I love that, you know, you're 141 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:53,200 that kind of guy, Eric, We, we were talking a little bit 142 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:57,480 offline about the fact that you're an educator. 143 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:03,160 You're, you're somebody who does a great job of expressing very 144 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:08,720 complex issues and breaking them down in a way that allows people 145 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:12,680 to digest it and understand it. And one of the things that I 146 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:15,440 picked up on about you through the years is the fact that 147 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:19,040 you're very, very tuned into family. 148 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:24,280 You never miss a moment to put over your son and talk about how 149 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:27,440 proud you are of him now he's raising his own family and what 150 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:29,920 have you. You're always putting over your 151 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,440 daughter and, and how great she's doing in her career and, 152 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:35,760 and building her own family now and what have you. 153 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:40,880 And you never miss an opportunity to put over your 154 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:45,880 lovely wife, Lori. And this isn't, you know, 155 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:50,480 because you have to or something that is even conscious, in my 156 00:08:50,560 --> 00:08:54,560 opinion, just listening. It's really a, a, a thing where 157 00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:57,640 this is your partner in life, not just your wife, but somebody 158 00:08:57,640 --> 00:09:03,520 who you legitimately have built an entire life, raised your kids 159 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:07,480 and somebody who you lean on because she's so important to 160 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:08,720 you. And, and vice versa. 161 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:12,680 Talk to me about this whole notion of family and and how 162 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,600 you're so rooted in it and and therefore able to express it so 163 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:21,240 freely. You know, I, I, I, I, well, 164 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:25,560 first of all, to me and I've and my wife and I've been together. 165 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,560 We've been married for 40 year. It'll be 40 years in August. 166 00:09:28,560 --> 00:09:30,800 We were together two years before that. 167 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:35,280 So we've been, we've been together for a long time and 168 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:37,320 certainly have gotten to know each other very, very well. 169 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:39,760 And she probably knows me better than I know myself, as the 170 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,200 saying goes, but it's true. It's true. 171 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:47,800 But you know, she's always been very supportive and, and really 172 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:53,880 more of a, a motivator or, or, or inspiration than anything 173 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:56,560 else. Because we both love, we, we 174 00:09:56,560 --> 00:09:59,400 have passion for work, we have passion for our family, we have 175 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:02,440 passion for creating opportunities for our family. 176 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:06,480 And it's one of the things that I've learned in my, my, the ups 177 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:11,320 and downs of my career, both financial and otherwise, is I've 178 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:15,000 learned to value things much differently than I did when I 179 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:18,040 was in my 30s and 40s and even my 50s. 180 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:22,520 You know, I, I made the mistake I think a lot of people make, 181 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:28,800 especially people like myself who came into a lot of money at 182 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:33,120 a fairly young age without having ever had any experience 183 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:36,840 with that, that kind of financial responsibility. 184 00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:41,600 And it's so easy to to fill your life with things. 185 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:46,720 And I filled my life with lots of things, you know, Porsches 186 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:51,080 and Corvettes and airplanes, you name it. 187 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:53,440 Anything but a boat. I never bought a boat. 188 00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:56,840 But over time you learn that those things don't really, I've 189 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,160 learned, I shouldn't say you. I've learned that those things 190 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:01,160 do not make me happy at all. They're fun. 191 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:04,800 Don't get me wrong. Not knocking it by any stretch, 192 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:07,520 But there's a difference between fun and happy. 193 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:10,200 There's a difference between fun and joy. 194 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:15,240 There's a massive difference. And I've learned over time that 195 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:19,600 family is the most valuable thing to me because it is what 196 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:23,240 brings me most joy and happiness. 197 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:26,760 But you know, boats can't make, you can't bring. 198 00:11:26,760 --> 00:11:29,880 You can't bring me joy. Airplanes didn't bring me joy. 199 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:32,960 I got my pilot's license. I flew all over the country. 200 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:36,920 I got my instrument rating, I got certified to fly high 201 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:43,320 performance complex aircraft. I had a blast, but it didn't 202 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:44,880 fulfill me. It was just fun. 203 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,480 But family, family fulfills me and it's it's what I do 204 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:50,840 everything for. It's why I work. 205 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:52,880 It's why I always, I'll work till the day I die. 206 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:58,760 I'll never retire ever, because as long as I'm capable of 207 00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:03,280 helping to create opportunity for my wife and my kids, I will 208 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:06,520 do that till I draw my last breath because it's the most 209 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:09,720 important thing to me. Wow, what a what a response 210 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:13,000 there. How does Cody WY factor into 211 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,680 this? Because you literally could live 212 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:18,640 anywhere in the world and you've lived in in various places 213 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:23,400 throughout your career here. But Cody WY, what has drawn you 214 00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:25,760 there to the point where it's like, you know what, this is my 215 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:27,560 home. This is where we're going to set 216 00:12:27,560 --> 00:12:35,640 up shop and be till the end too. I grew up in Detroit in in the 217 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,280 50s and the 60s on the east side of Detroit. 218 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:42,960 Eminem's, what was it, Eight Mile? 219 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:45,040 What was the name of the Eminem movie? 220 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:47,880 I lived on 10 Mile. He lived. 221 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:49,520 He was talking about Eight Mile and Gratian. 222 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:52,040 I went, I lived at 10 Mile and Gratian, 2 miles from there. 223 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:54,920 Actually, Eminem and I went to the same elementary school, 224 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:58,040 believe it or not. Different, different times, 225 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:04,000 obviously. But yeah, so I, I mean, and as a 226 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:08,880 kid growing up in Detroit in a very lower, lower middle income 227 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:13,840 environment, I dreamt of seeing mountains. 228 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,240 I, you know, I, I grew up watching Bonanza and the 229 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:19,120 Virginia, no, westerns were really big back in the 50s and 230 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:21,240 the 60s. And I grew up watching, you 231 00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:23,520 know, Gunsmoke and, and all of them. 232 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:28,880 And to see those images of mountains and cattle and horses, 233 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:31,560 just as a young kid, it just fascinated me. 234 00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:35,400 And when I was 22 years old, a friend of mine invited me out. 235 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:38,080 He was going to be here anyway, and he invited me to come out. 236 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:41,240 I was living in Minneapolis at the time, had never been West of 237 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:46,120 Minnesota, believe it or not. And again, even at 22 years old, 238 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:51,960 had never seen mountains ever. So my buddy invited me out and I 239 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:54,600 said hell yeah. I jumped in my car and I drove 240 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:59,200 out from Minneapolis about 1000 miles, 1200 miles drove out. 241 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:04,920 And I remember pulling into Cody about 5:00 in the morning, maybe 242 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:10,320 4/30, 4:45 and I was pulling into Cody and it was, now this 243 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:13,240 is summertime and and Cody fills up a tourist in the summertime. 244 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:17,600 It's crazy fun, but at 5:00, 5/30 in the morning, it was 245 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:19,320 dead. There was no, nobody was moving. 246 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,480 The sun has just starting to come up. 247 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:25,400 It's very peaceful. And I pulled in and just as I 248 00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:30,720 parked my car and I got out to just look around, the sun's 249 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,400 coming up and it's hitting the mountains all around me. 250 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:37,080 And even though this was July, there was still snow on the 251 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:38,920 mountains. So you get the the golden 252 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:43,560 sunrise, kind of an orange, pinkish color, actually just a 253 00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:47,920 beautiful blue sky. But the sun is still that weird 254 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:50,560 color of pinkish orange and it's bouncing off the snow in the 255 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:51,880 mountains. And it was just so cool. 256 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:57,680 And I, I said to myself that moment, someday I'm going to 257 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:00,440 live here. Someday I'm going to live in 258 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:02,720 this town. No, I, I was 22. 259 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:07,440 I had like $104.00 in my pocket. I think I had a $200.00 limit on 260 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:10,760 my one MasterCard. So it's not like I had a, you 261 00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:13,400 know, a plan. But I just knew someday I wanted 262 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:17,120 to, to live here. And eventually, you know, I got 263 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:19,120 my wife out here and she fell in love with it. 264 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:22,600 And here we are. Built a house here in 90. 265 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:25,040 We started the house in 97, finished at 98. 266 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,160 That's awesome. And, and folks, definitely check 267 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:33,360 out Eric on social media, some of the most beautiful photos 268 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:36,840 you'll ever see. And, and this is his scenery. 269 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:41,000 This is on his deck. He looks out and and just as 270 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:44,160 Conrad Thompson would say you, you live in a postcard, Eric. 271 00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:50,880 Well, I live right outside of Yellowstone National Park, about 272 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:57,120 47 miles east or West of here, so I'm directly east. 273 00:15:57,120 --> 00:15:59,480 In fact, if you're sitting on my deck and you're looking to the 274 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:02,680 West, you're looking up into the valley that takes you right into 275 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:05,320 Yellowstone. So it is beautiful and millions 276 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:08,120 of people from all over the world come here every summer to 277 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:13,480 enjoy the scenery and all the things that you know this area 278 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:16,280 of Cody, WY has to offer. There's a great museum here. 279 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:20,120 One of the best natural museum, Natural History museums are 280 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:23,000 here. Buffalo Bill Cody Museum is 281 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,400 here. The Museum of the West. 282 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:27,360 There's, there's like 5 museums under wood roof. 283 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:30,600 There's a rodeo every night of the week from June 1st all the 284 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:34,480 way to September 1st I think, or September 3rd. 285 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:38,480 There's a rodeo every night and there's river rafting, horseback 286 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,040 riding, amazing world class trout fishing, you know, up and 287 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:43,840 down the rivers here coming out of Yellowstone. 288 00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,560 So there's a lot to be said for living here. 289 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:48,800 You, I, we give up a lot. You know, there's the 290 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:54,760 convenience. You know what I need to fly 291 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:56,600 somewhere. For example, tomorrow I'm flying 292 00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:00,040 to Fort Lauderdale, I've got to drive 2 hours to the airport, 293 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,120 you know, to, to make sure when I'm, you know, get on a flight 294 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:06,240 that's actually going to leave. So, you know, there's now a big 295 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:09,400 variety of restaurants and, and that kind of thing, which is why 296 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:11,599 when I go to a place like Saint Augustine, that's the first 297 00:17:11,599 --> 00:17:13,440 thing I do is start looking for good restaurants. 298 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:16,040 And like I said, Saint Augustine blew me away. 299 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,680 There was like, there's two French restaurants I want to try 300 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:21,960 and it's unbelievable. But you know, I do without a lot 301 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:24,359 of that stuff, but I make up for it in freedom. 302 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:29,280 And I live on 20 acres. I, all my neighbors are 15 or 20 303 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:31,800 acres, so we're spread out and on top of each other. 304 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:33,800 I look up into Yellowstone National Park. 305 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:37,080 The weather's beautiful here and it's all the stuff I like. 306 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:40,520 You know, I like to ride horses and hunt and fish and hike and 307 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:43,920 all that still outdoorsy stuff I still like to do. 308 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:48,960 Incredible, incredible and hunting, fishing, loving every 309 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,120 day, right? Isn't that the the song there? 310 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,160 Yeah, yeah. I don't hunt as much as I used 311 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:55,000 to. I hunt for food. 312 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,840 I don't hunt for sport. My I'm my wife and I love wild 313 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,440 games. So I'll usually take an elk 314 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:06,920 every other year and, and A and a deer or two depending on what, 315 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:10,040 what kind of supply we need. But I, I, I, I like to hunt 316 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:13,080 waterfowl like duck and, and geese, upland birds like 317 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:16,120 pheasant. I I do love to hunt those, but 318 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,520 we, we also love to eat and we eat everything we hunt. 319 00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:22,640 My wife hunts with me as well. That's see, here we go again. 320 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,680 It's that whole life partner thing again, just naturally 321 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:28,800 introduce her into the conversation. 322 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:33,040 It means something. It it, it definitely shows your 323 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:38,400 character when it doesn't always have to be about you. 324 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:41,880 Because certainly that's what we've seen from stars throughout 325 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:45,760 history. You're a guy that you're, you're 326 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:47,200 not afraid to share the spotlight. 327 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:50,080 In fact, you, you go out of your way to highlight the people who 328 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:53,280 matter most to you. And it's, it's a really 329 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:57,360 interesting quality 'cause I, in my opinion, I think that that 330 00:18:57,360 --> 00:19:00,360 also bears fruit in other avenues as well. 331 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,840 And I believe that that's part of the reason why to this day, 332 00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:08,680 Eric Bischoff as a brand is still relevant. 333 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:13,040 And people will literally pay money to come see you because 334 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:17,480 you've managed to put out enough good juju in the world, so to 335 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:19,160 speak, with how you've treated others. 336 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:21,560 It's not always perfect. We know that. 337 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:23,680 We've heard the stories, you read the books, shout out to Guy 338 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:26,600 Evans and what have you. But for the most part, man, 339 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:28,080 you're, you're a pretty grounded guy. 340 00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:31,680 And, and you really put a lot of emphasis on family and your 341 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:33,680 close friends. And it shows. 342 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,760 It definitely shows that. Look, I like to connect. 343 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:40,400 You know, one of the things that I, I really, really enjoy about 344 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:47,600 doing an event like River City, I have, I don't know if it's a 345 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:50,320 philosophy or whatever, doesn't matter. 346 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:52,600 It's how my brain works. So it works for me. 347 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,800 I'm, I'm pretty convinced that when fans come up for 348 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:01,280 autographs, they don't really care about the autograph. 349 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:07,680 The autograph is just the excuse to get an opportunity to make a 350 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:12,720 connection. And even though I sign my 351 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:17,280 autograph, I know for a fact, or I believe I should say for a 352 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:19,880 fact. That that's not why the person 353 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:22,880 has been standing in line is and is willing to part with money. 354 00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:25,360 It's because they want to have a conversation. 355 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,680 They want to feel like even if it's just for a moment or a 356 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:33,240 couple minutes, that they're getting to know you and that 357 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:37,720 you'll remember them just like they know you and remember you. 358 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:45,280 So when I do these sessions, I love to make sure that I take 359 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,480 the time to look everybody in the eye. 360 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:51,880 And I'll almost always if they're shy, cause a lot of 361 00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:53,760 people are, they don't know what to say, they're nervous or 362 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:56,520 whatever. I'll just start asking them 363 00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:58,320 questions. You have a dog? 364 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:02,640 What kind of dog? Cool. 365 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:04,680 I used to have one of those where I had a friend who had 366 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:06,000 one. You know, you just, whatever, 367 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:09,600 talk about something they don't expect, because then they'll 368 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:12,760 just start talking and not thinking about what they're 369 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:14,920 going to say. And then before you know it, 370 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:16,960 you're having a pretty good conversation with someone you 371 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:18,520 just met, you know, a minute ago. 372 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,320 And that's what they remember. They may take the autograph, 373 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:26,040 they may put it on their table and show people for a week or 374 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:29,720 two and then whatever, but they'll always remember the 375 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:33,840 conversation. Well said. 376 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:36,000 Well said. Speaking of which, I just got a 377 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:40,600 text from Devon Dudley. WWE Hall of Famer he is. 378 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:42,240 Yeah. Yeah, Devon. 379 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:44,400 He and I actually just started a new show together. 380 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,960 Devon and the Duke just put out our third episode. 381 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:50,600 But Devon said that you're a good friend of his. 382 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:53,680 He actually mentioned that on the previous episode, so he told 383 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:54,880 me to give you a shout out there. 384 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,160 Devon's great. He's, you know, there's a, I've 385 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:02,320 made a lot of friends in, in, in the industry. 386 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:06,880 Some of them are casual friends. You know what I call passive 387 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:09,960 friends, meaning, hey, you see him, you know, you're happy to 388 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,720 see each other, you'll catch up and then you go about your life 389 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,000 and maybe not talk to them again for another six months or a 390 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:16,680 year. And then there's, you know, that 391 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:20,160 other level friend that you, you stay in touch with and and so 392 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:21,680 forth. And then there's no special 393 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:26,960 people like diva on and, and there's a few others that you 394 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:31,520 look forward to seeing them because there's they're happy 395 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,520 people. By that, I mean they just have a 396 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:38,000 positive energy. I mean, I don't think I've ever 397 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:44,680 seen Devon not smiling outside of the ring. 398 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:48,000 Now, inside of the ring is different, but just in his just 399 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:52,360 demeanor, you know, I, I, I did a convention with him a couple, 400 00:22:52,360 --> 00:22:55,040 a mother or two ago whenever we were next to each other. 401 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:58,880 And he's just, every time I looked over, man, he's smiling, 402 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:02,920 he's laughing, he's interacting with, you know, fans, not just 403 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,160 signing autographs, looking down at the table, you know, handing 404 00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:08,440 them out, trying to get through the line as quick as he could. 405 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:12,640 He's having fun. And when he's having fun, the 406 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:15,120 people around him have fun. And that's why I like being 407 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:17,880 around him 'cause he just always, he always makes me 408 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:19,640 smile. He's a good dude. 409 00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:23,200 Yeah, he's a good. You know, it's crazy too. 410 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:26,000 I don't know if you knew this Eric, but when Devon had a 411 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:32,880 stroke a couple years ago they literally had to do some there 412 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:36,120 in his head to rewire some things so he could walk again. 413 00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:41,080 Wow, I did not know that. This guy that you were just 414 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:43,360 with, he was at River City as well. 415 00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:45,680 So you see him walking and talking, always smiling, same 416 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,600 old diva and what have you. They literally had to do brain 417 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,000 surgery to get him to walk again. 418 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:55,520 And the fact that he still is functional as he is, is is 419 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,200 literally a miracle. Yeah, I know. 420 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:02,080 I I saw him at River City, but I saw him a a month or two before 421 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:04,480 that. We ran into each other and, and 422 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:09,000 I learned a lot about him there growing up in a, in a religious 423 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:15,240 family and, and, and where his values came from and how he grew 424 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:16,840 up. We had a great conversation. 425 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,560 I learned more about him that day than I knew in all the years 426 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:22,920 that I worked with him. So that's another reason why I 427 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,280 love doing these kind of conventions is you get a chance 428 00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:28,760 to actually sit down and have a conversation with people you've 429 00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:32,520 known for 20 years about something other than the finish 430 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,280 or, or what we're going to do with the next pay-per-view. 431 00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:40,840 It's awesome. Or, or the payday, you know, 432 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:45,280 going back a little further, Jeez, you know, Speaking of 433 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:49,320 which I I had to do this year. Vito Legrazo wants to know what 434 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:51,960 did you think of his new suit? Because you know, he's, he's the 435 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,680 dawn of wrestling now. And, and he was at River City. 436 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:56,960 He he was in everybody's pictures in the background 437 00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:59,760 wearing this, this Godfather S suit. 438 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:02,720 What what did you think of Big Vito's digs there? 439 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:08,160 I, I I'm impressed. I am impressed with the level of 440 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:15,120 detail and the quality of of what he was wearing. 441 00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:19,840 He looked very Guido ish so good job. 442 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,080 You hear that Vito? You, you've just got put over by 443 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:27,200 the man, Eric Bischoff. There you go, You know, sharp 444 00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:29,400 dressed man, big Vito Lograsso there. 445 00:25:30,120 --> 00:25:31,960 I'm going to tell you a story 'cause you, you asked me a 446 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,960 question before we recorded. You asked me how we got 447 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,720 connected. Eric and I want to go back a 448 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,560 little over eight years ago, the pod father himself, Conrad 449 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:51,560 Thompson, he starts a podcast with his now father-in-law, Ric 450 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:56,280 Flair. And I would reach out to Conrad 451 00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:58,680 because I had just started Duclos Rasan right around the 452 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,200 same time. And I would reach out to Conrad 453 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:03,600 and, and say, hey, man, you know, I, you know, I enjoyed 454 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,760 this part of the show and compare notes and what have you 455 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:10,280 and, and basically give a review of each episode 'cause I was 456 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:13,960 also learning from him different things. 457 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:15,680 You know what I mean? Here you, you have a Hall of 458 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:17,760 Famer right there who's telling all these stories. 459 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:19,280 And sometimes they'd have guests. 460 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:25,040 So it was really cool to listen to Conrad evolve as a podcast 461 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,520 host and pick up little tips and tricks along the way. 462 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:33,080 So we struck up a nice rapport with each other and Conrad's 463 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:34,760 been on the show a bunch of times. 464 00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:37,320 So very, very helpful, especially in the beginning of 465 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:43,720 the Duke Club's wrestling brand. So Fast forward now, Nick Pate 466 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:47,280 hits me up and he says, hey, I have somebody that wants to 467 00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,360 bring Eric Bischoff to the River City Wrestling con. 468 00:26:50,360 --> 00:26:53,440 We we think it'll be a big hit because, you know, fans keep 469 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:57,320 asking for him. I can't get a Direct Line to 470 00:26:57,320 --> 00:26:59,880 him. And I said, well, I think I know 471 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,840 a guy. So I reached out to Conrad and 472 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:06,080 and Conrad right away shot me your information, which I passed 473 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:07,840 along to Nick. And that's how that whole 474 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,200 situation happened there. Well, very cool and thank you 475 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:13,400 for that. By the way, a little extra 476 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,120 effort there paid off. I was, hey, very appreciative of 477 00:27:16,120 --> 00:27:18,120 that. It was, it was worth it, Eric. 478 00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:24,840 And, and again, you're a guy who there was a period of time where 479 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:30,160 Eric Bischoff was spoken of in a negative light and people really 480 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,600 couldn't pinpoint why. They just knew Bischoff was bad 481 00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:37,080 and Oh yeah, Bischoff, Bischoff. And what's really interesting 482 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,120 from my perspective, and I want you to correct me if, if you, if 483 00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:45,440 your perspective is different on this, I believe that 83 weeks, 484 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:54,680 you and Conrad doing that show has completely readjusted things 485 00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:59,400 and, and has allowed history to be very kind to you because 486 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:04,480 people have actually taken the time to listen to your side and 487 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,360 hear the real story of what was going on, whether they like it 488 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:12,480 or not, This is what happened. And I think that in the end, you 489 00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:16,760 come out looking like a regular normal guy and, and people 490 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:18,600 respect you a lot more because of it. 491 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,360 What do you think about that? Oh, I think it's true. 492 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:27,800 I think you're right. Keep in mind though, that it's 493 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:34,400 it's complicated in a way because my name is Eric Bischoff 494 00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:38,280 and I was president of World Championship Wrestling, but I 495 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:42,640 played a character named Eric Bischoff that was the president 496 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:50,160 of World Championship Wrestling in the fact that I played myself 497 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:55,480 has and I did it effectively. It blurred the lines. 498 00:28:55,480 --> 00:29:01,360 I had a fair amount of heat as a character for a while, but the 499 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:05,120 fact that I blurred the lines as well as I did for as long as I 500 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:09,160 did on national television in a very high profile, one of the 501 00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:12,280 highest rated programs on cable TV for a couple of years. 502 00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:16,800 So I think people got to know that character and because of I 503 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:21,160 was using my real name and I was using my real position as a as a 504 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:25,080 as a tool, as a storytelling device, people also got 505 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,080 confused. Their lines were blurred too. 506 00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:31,080 And I think a lot of people assumed that that person that 507 00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,640 they saw on TV doing all that dastardly stuff was the real 508 00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:36,880 guy. So there's that. 509 00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:40,480 And in fact, I can tell you a funny story about that in a 510 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,440 minute. And then there's the fact that 511 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:54,240 for 302524 years, the only narrative that existed for 512 00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:58,160 wrestling fans outside of watching the show on television 513 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:05,920 was the newsletters slash dirt sheets, Dave Meltzer, Wade 514 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:10,400 Keller, couple other smaller ones pop up here and there. 515 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:15,520 And then of course, websites, you know, when, when the 516 00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:18,760 Internet became a, a legitimate thing in the, in the 90s 517 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,320 beginning, you know, 'cause it was there, there was social 518 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,680 media even back in the early days of the Internet and 519 00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:26,360 wrestling was always a big part of that. 520 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,200 But that was the narrative. So whatever the, whatever the 521 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:35,240 narrative was out there in the wrestling fandom is the 522 00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:36,840 narrative that everybody bought into. 523 00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:42,600 Well, all of a sudden podcast came along and now you get to 524 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:46,760 hear from guys like Bruce Prichard, who up until the time 525 00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:51,200 Bruce had his podcast come out, Bruce never had a platform. 526 00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:56,520 He didn't have a mailing list of 23451020 thousand subscribers. 527 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:00,080 He he did. I mean, it was just, and I was 528 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:01,960 the same way. I never had a platform. 529 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:06,680 I, I produced television. Some of the the big I produced 530 00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,720 one of the biggest platforms in wrestling history at one point, 531 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:13,440 but I didn't use it to tell my side of the story. 532 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:18,440 So when podcasts started evolving and, you know, bruised 533 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,360 first, then Tony Shavani's came out, then mine came out and Ross 534 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,280 came out. Conan pops up with one. 535 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:30,160 Now Kevin Nash has got one. All of a sudden you're hearing 536 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:36,640 from the people that guys like Dave Meltzer have been pretty 537 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:44,320 much burying for 20 or 25 years and never had a chance to fire 538 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,200 back. Well, now they do. 539 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,840 And, and I think what's interesting and why I'm so 540 00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:57,480 involved and why I enjoy it so much, it's because I'm really 541 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:03,440 beginning to see the shift in, in the composition of at least 542 00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,040 the, the portion of the Internet that I deal with. 543 00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:11,160 People are far more they're, they're thinking critically now. 544 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:14,520 They're not just taking what Dave Meltzer has to say as 545 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,120 gospel. They're beginning to see that 546 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,360 Dave Meltzer is kind of ABS artist. 547 00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:25,240 He's very, very inaccurate. He his, his take on the business 548 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:31,080 is horrible and is proving to be horrible in a very public way. 549 00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:34,440 He doesn't really understand the business of the business of 550 00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,000 wrestling, although he suggested he studies it. 551 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:38,480 I don't know where he's studying. 552 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:42,080 But now that there's an alternative perspective from 553 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,120 people who are actually there, who actually worked in the 554 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,920 wrestling industry instead of in their apartment writing about 555 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,680 it, people are beginning to understand that one, wrestling 556 00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:54,960 is a far more complicated business than people think it 557 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:57,400 is. It really is a complicated 558 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:01,560 business. And two, there's a lot of 559 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:04,120 information out there that's a lot more accurate than what 560 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,560 they've been able to find on the Internet or in dirt sheets like 561 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,400 Dave Meltzer. So it's fun to watch the 562 00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,200 audience become more educated because I think the more you 563 00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:17,920 understand, first of all, the business of the wrestling 564 00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:21,560 business and how it functions and how complex it is, the 565 00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,480 greater appreciation you have for it, even as a fan. 566 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,880 And nobody's ever been able to talk about the business of the 567 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:30,840 wrestling business before because no one had that 568 00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:32,280 platform. And now we do. 569 00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:35,840 A lot of the people that show up for autographs and want to meet 570 00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:41,080 me are people, you know, almost, I would say six or seven out of 571 00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:44,840 10 times will make a point of saying, and I really like your 572 00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,280 podcast 'cause you talk about the business of the wrestling 573 00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:49,520 business. I don't just tell stories about 574 00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,520 what happened in the locker room and what happened on the road 575 00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:57,080 and who ribbed who and you know, who hooked up with whose wife or 576 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,160 boyfriend or whatever. I, I don't, I don't talk about 577 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,200 that stuff 'cause I don't have any of that experience in my bag 578 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:06,200 of tricks, so to speak. But I do love to talk about the 579 00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:07,480 business of the rest of the business. 580 00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:10,679 And now that more people are beginning to understand it and 581 00:34:10,679 --> 00:34:13,960 appreciate it, it gives them a different level of appreciation 582 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,840 for the entire industry. When we talk about story as much 583 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:23,280 as I do, 'cause I beat on it all the time and point out examples 584 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:26,199 of great storytelling, disciplined storytelling, how to 585 00:34:26,199 --> 00:34:29,800 craft a story. All of a sudden now there's a 586 00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,920 percentage of the audience, at least some, the people that 587 00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:36,719 follow me, that are looking at story and they're looking for 588 00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:38,719 plot points. They're looking for some of 589 00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,719 those elements that typically make a great story and are 590 00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:44,920 beginning to see when they exist in a story and when they don't. 591 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:49,159 And to me that's fun because again, I think along the same 592 00:34:49,159 --> 00:34:53,400 lines, once you understand what goes into presenting wrestling 593 00:34:53,639 --> 00:34:57,000 and even at the very beginning understand why people watch it, 594 00:34:57,800 --> 00:34:59,600 why do people watch wrestling in it? 595 00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:02,880 And people have different answers, but it's a lot. 596 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:06,440 It's no different really than going to a movie or watching any 597 00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:09,400 other television show. It's, you want to go on a 598 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:14,440 journey with your heroes and, and, and, and they're villains 599 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:19,200 and you want to disconnect and get absorbed into that story and 600 00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:23,160 into those characters and kind of live vicariously, even if 601 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:27,360 it's subconsciously just live through the characters that 602 00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:30,000 you're watching in the story. Wrestling's no different. 603 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:34,520 And once you begin to see those parallels and understand it, you 604 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:38,520 appreciate it more. So I, I'm, I'm, I'm liking that 605 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:43,080 fans are really paying more attention to the details of the 606 00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:46,200 wrestling industry and are eager to learn about it. 607 00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:49,360 And I think the fact that, you know, so many people have great 608 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:51,560 podcasts now. Undertaker's got a podcast. 609 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,560 Chris Van Vleet's podcast is outstanding. 610 00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:58,280 Jim Cornette's podcast. You know, Jim's kind of, you 611 00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:03,880 know, he's he, he's a little toxic, isn't the word 'cause 612 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:05,600 that's not fair. It's too strong. 613 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,000 But he's, he's acidic. You got to be a little careful 614 00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:11,120 how close you get to Jim Cornette, depending on your 615 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:13,120 point of view. But I think, you know, he's a, 616 00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:18,040 he's a smart guy. I don't agree with sometimes the 617 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,360 way he says things, but that's, that's his choice. 618 00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:24,840 That's his business choice. But he's smart and he's got a 619 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:29,040 great, he's got a great perspective, whether anyone 620 00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:30,960 agrees with it or not, including myself. 621 00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:33,960 Sometimes I do, often times I do, but sometimes I don't. 622 00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,280 But he's a great, great podcast to listen to too. 623 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:40,000 I already mentioned Conan, you know, from a town site. 624 00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:42,880 Kevin Nash is one of the smartest guys I know in the 625 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:44,880 wrestling business. He's a really smart guy. 626 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:49,800 You got to catch him in the right mood probably, you know, 627 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,080 and sometimes he's a little, shall I say, relaxed. 628 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:57,160 But you know when Kevin's, when Kevin's had something important 629 00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:01,480 to talk about, he is one of the most intelligent, 630 00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:06,080 conversationalist and critical thinkers that I know in the 631 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:10,080 wrestling business. You know, Eric, I'm, I'm glad 632 00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:13,800 you, you took us down that road because I got to tell you when I 633 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:18,640 started this show over eight years ago, I tried to do the 634 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,480 rumors thing and, and you know, that's, that's what everybody's 635 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:22,440 doing. We're going to talk about the 636 00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,000 rumors and what's in the, what's in the websites and the dirt 637 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:28,880 sheets and all that. And you know, I couldn't, I 638 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,120 couldn't get more than 100 listens if I tried, right? 639 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:34,640 Because what is that? And who the hell am I? 640 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:40,280 As soon as I started focusing on interviews and bringing the 641 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:45,040 actual people on the show to talk about their lives, not just 642 00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:49,000 in wrestling but in general, who are you as a person, Suddenly 643 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,480 everything changed. And it's important to get the 644 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:56,760 people who actually experienced it the actual experts as opposed 645 00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:58,600 to trying to pretend like you are an expert. 646 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:01,440 And I, that's my frustration with with Meltzer and a lot of 647 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:06,520 other folks, they never actually get people on the record who 648 00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:09,880 know what they're talking about. It's always, I'm the guy. 649 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:13,800 I know everything. And in reality, Dave Meltzer was 650 00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,840 never a television executive. He never ran a wrestling. 651 00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,840 So why am I listening to this guy tell me about what's 652 00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:27,240 important to advertisers and what the ratings mean and, and 653 00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:30,280 who's going to get what money based on this quarter hour, yada 654 00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:31,320 yada. It's like, well, wait a second, 655 00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:35,360 hold on. How do I know you're qualified 656 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:39,360 to even try to educate me on this, as opposed to somebody 657 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:42,760 like Eric Bischoff where that's literally your career? 658 00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:47,280 That's what you've been doing. Even when you were selling ads, 659 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:48,640 that's what you were doing, right? 660 00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:52,840 Yeah, and what what Dave does is he regurgitates some of the 661 00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:55,640 stuff he just reads in the trades because it makes, when 662 00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:59,280 you kind of regurgitate things you've read in the trades, it 663 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:04,640 it, it can make, make one sound at least to others who have no 664 00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:09,440 idea what the industry is about. You can make yourself sound like 665 00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:12,800 you know more than you really do just by picking up certain 666 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,280 things in the trades, right? That's number one. 667 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:17,600 Number two, he listens to low level. 668 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:27,520 He he he he probably has contacts at fairly low levels 669 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:31,120 within WWEI mean he's friends with Tony Kahn. 670 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,480 That's right off the bat in the in the EVP S, whatever their 671 00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:36,280 names are now he's tight with them. 672 00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:39,720 So, but I mean, with WWE, he's probably got sources, but 673 00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:42,880 they're like mid card, lower mid card. 674 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:47,720 Or they're that version of management, meaning, yeah, they 675 00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:52,240 work in the office, but they're pretty low, low level people who 676 00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:56,280 engage in that kind of gossipy rumor bullshit, leaking 677 00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:58,800 information. That's usually low level 678 00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:01,960 players. And if there's somebody at a 679 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:05,640 higher level that's talking to them, and I know this is a fact, 680 00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:12,360 there's no denying this. There are people that I am close 681 00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:14,440 to and have been for a long time. 682 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:17,600 They don't do it directly, but indirectly. 683 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:24,240 They feed absolute nonsense to Meltzer because sometimes, not 684 00:40:24,240 --> 00:40:26,560 as often anymore for humor, because sometimes people would 685 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:28,840 do it just to see if he'd actually take the bait and and 686 00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:32,080 run with it. There's always a big joke in the 687 00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:34,560 locker rooms. But that, that was quite a while 688 00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:39,200 ago. But to blow him off scent or to 689 00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:42,280 get the audience thinking that his audience does he just have a 690 00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:44,160 footprint? You know, they're, they're, 691 00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:46,600 they're a very small percentage of the overall viewing audience, 692 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:48,440 but they're very loud percentage. 693 00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:52,960 You know, they may be 3% of the television viewing audience, but 694 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:55,640 they make 30% of the noise if you, if you know what I'm 695 00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,160 saying. So they'll occasionally, you 696 00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:02,600 know, feed him bullshit just to get him off off scent or just to 697 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:04,000 intentionally get something out there. 698 00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,600 Exactly the opposite of what they really want because they 699 00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:15,560 know he's a useful idiot in in the in in the urban dictionary 700 00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:19,600 version of the words, he is a useful idiot. 701 00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:25,120 But when it comes to actual inside information, he's sketchy 702 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:28,480 at best. I mean, there are and there's 703 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,680 guys that are good. Mike Johnson from PW Insider, 704 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:36,960 Very, very good integrity. If he prints it, I know he 705 00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:40,960 sourced it and I know it's if it's not 100% on the money, it's 706 00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:44,880 so damn close. Dave Shearer, same thing. 707 00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:51,000 PW Insider, Sean Ras Sapp, Sean Sapp, Look, he's controversial 708 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:54,480 because he's he's not afraid to tell you what he thinks either, 709 00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:59,920 but he's on the money and there are others there. 710 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:02,280 There are others. It's just unfortunate that 711 00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:04,240 certain people like Dave, you know, he's an old guy. 712 00:42:04,240 --> 00:42:06,560 He's it's my age, for crying out loud. 713 00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:11,520 He's older than freaking dirt. He hasn't changed the way he 714 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:14,840 does business. It's all rumors and and nonsense 715 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:20,040 and his spin on his spin on bad rumors is what 70% of his 716 00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:23,240 nonsense is about. And then he gets offended when 717 00:42:23,240 --> 00:42:26,880 people call him out on it. It's just like Dave, it's pretty 718 00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:29,240 obvious what you're doing and it's not that hard to see 719 00:42:29,240 --> 00:42:31,800 through IT. People are going to call you out 720 00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:37,120 when you're phony as you are. Is that why we have wise choices 721 00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:41,400 now or this this is a a new show that you've recently put out? 722 00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:44,320 Now why? Here's how wise choices happen. 723 00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,280 I was doing a show called Strictly Business with Jon 724 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:49,800 Elbow. And we would try to record every 725 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:52,200 Thursday. But John's, you know, he's got 726 00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:56,120 like he, he's a freelancer, you know, sports, radio, television 727 00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:58,520 in New York. So he's, you know, gin comes up, 728 00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:01,680 he's gone. So he's got his life that he's 729 00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:05,720 got a schedule and manage. My life is not as busy as his, 730 00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:10,240 but on any given day, I have no idea what I'm going to be doing 731 00:43:10,240 --> 00:43:14,920 because my the nature of my business evolves on a day-to-day 732 00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:16,920 basis. I could have a conference call 733 00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:20,680 in an hour that I didn't plan on having this morning, but 734 00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:24,640 business necessitates it. So I'm constantly moving my 735 00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:27,480 schedule around as well. So I finally got to the point 736 00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:29,280 where I said, John, this is getting too hard. 737 00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:34,880 I'm I'm let's just put an end to this, figure out something in 738 00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:37,200 the future. Because in the meantime, I want 739 00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:40,480 to do a show that I can do solo on YouTube just so I don't have 740 00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:43,640 to coordinate with anybody else's schedule or feel bad 741 00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:49,520 because my schedule is impacting adversely somebody else because 742 00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:51,480 it's changed at the last minute or whatever. 743 00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:54,280 So I forget if I can just figure out something to do on YouTube 744 00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:57,480 that's fun by myself, I'll just do that for a while until I 745 00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,240 figure out a different way to approach strictly business. 746 00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:02,240 So anyway, I'm starting to do that. 747 00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:07,280 And right about them, Tony Khan, I, I, I made a point and, and 748 00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,080 it's in fact, John Elba put something out on social media 749 00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,720 thanking everybody that listens and just letting him know that 750 00:44:13,720 --> 00:44:16,160 because of scheduling challenges, we're going to put 751 00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,720 a, we're going to, we're going to put strictly business on 752 00:44:19,720 --> 00:44:23,840 hold. And Tony Kahn gets on social 753 00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:26,800 media and he goes, well, it's probably the a good thing that 754 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:31,640 fraud, fraud of a podcast has decided to. 755 00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:33,640 And I said it's a why. Here's what he said. 756 00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:40,360 Probably a wise choice for that fraud of a podcast, meaning 83 757 00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:46,040 weeks my podcast or strictly business to sunset right before 758 00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:51,800 we get our renewal with TBS. And I thought, OK, I was, I 759 00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:54,560 wasn't going to pick on Tony anymore because number one, it's 760 00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:56,760 low fat hanging fruit. It's so easy. 761 00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:01,160 He makes it too easy and I can just get tired of doing it. 762 00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:04,280 But that one kind of irritated me. 763 00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:08,280 So I I named the show wise choices because of his post. 764 00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:11,040 He said it was a wise choice to sunset strictly business. 765 00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:14,240 So I said I'll just come up with another show called Wise Choices 766 00:45:14,240 --> 00:45:19,280 and I smoked Tony. I smoked him like Cheech and 767 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:24,080 Chong would smoke a reefer and had a lot of fun with it, did 768 00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:27,080 record number of views. And I thought, huh, Wise Choices 769 00:45:27,080 --> 00:45:29,080 is a name for a good name for a YouTube show. 770 00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,840 So I've been doing it ever since and the the nature of the show 771 00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:33,560 changes. Sometimes it's interviews, 772 00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:36,240 sometimes it's me ranting and raving about something that 773 00:45:36,240 --> 00:45:38,520 irritates me. Sometimes, you know, we're 774 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:40,000 talking about breaking down stories. 775 00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:43,400 What's an act one? How do you create an act one for 776 00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:46,000 for professional wrestling? What is what is an act one? 777 00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:47,800 How does it work? What are the plot points you 778 00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:49,960 need in an act one you're trying to establish? 779 00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:53,800 We have those types of conversations, so it's wise. 780 00:45:53,800 --> 00:45:58,160 Choices can be anything I'm in the mood to do on any given day 781 00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:02,040 on YouTube. I love it. 782 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:03,520 I love it. It's a great show, folks. 783 00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:06,040 You definitely should check out Wise Choices. 784 00:46:06,040 --> 00:46:10,080 In fact, the latest episode, Eric has a special guest in 785 00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:14,080 Kevin Kelly, so I know that's going to be a hot one to listen 786 00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:16,480 to there. You know, it's it and we'll, 787 00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:20,480 we'll wrap on this, but it's interesting with Tony Khan, he 788 00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:24,440 once jumped in my inbox, Eric, and just had a tantrum. 789 00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:29,560 They were unclear about something on AW and I pointed it 790 00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:34,200 out, but I was using the Dynamite hashtag as I was 791 00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:37,960 pointing it out and everyone started lining up and, and 792 00:46:37,960 --> 00:46:39,720 trying to argue with me about it. 793 00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:45,000 And on a Wednesday at 11:30 AM, as if this guy doesn't have 794 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:49,000 something better to do, he's in my inbox demanding that I stop 795 00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:54,440 rampaging and that he writes the show, so he should know what the 796 00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:57,960 storyline should be. And maybe I not, maybe he told 797 00:46:57,960 --> 00:46:59,880 me that I don't know what I'm talking about. 798 00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:02,520 So then I pointed him to his own website. 799 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:04,880 And I said, well, Tony, this is what it says on your own website 800 00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:09,240 on the recap of Dynamite. And the man literally said, oh, 801 00:47:09,240 --> 00:47:12,480 I didn't know that was up there. He didn't even know on his own 802 00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:14,760 website that they recap his television show. 803 00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:18,880 What the hell? Are we doing here? 804 00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:26,440 Tony is a a an extremely wealthy individual who is getting to 805 00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:28,200 play out his childhood fantasies. 806 00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:31,640 That's what this is. This is, this is. 807 00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:38,560 If there was ever a classic vanity project, this would be 808 00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:40,200 it. That's all it is. 809 00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:43,280 It's not a business. If this was a business and Tony 810 00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:46,640 actually was employed by an employer as opposed to being 811 00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:50,200 funded by his father, Tony would have been fired six months in 812 00:47:52,240 --> 00:47:58,120 maybe a year. He certainly would not exist on 813 00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:01,640 anybody's payroll other than a loved ones. 814 00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:06,200 Given the performance and and and the management issues that 815 00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,680 have taken place inside of AW in the last couple of years, 816 00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:14,120 especially the last 18 months, it's been a freaking disaster. 817 00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:18,120 There's just not been a good move from a business 818 00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:20,400 perspective, from a creative perspective. 819 00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:23,600 Yeah, he goes, he writes a lot of big checks, gets a lot of 820 00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:25,160 people to sign on the dotted line. 821 00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:28,000 But that's not necessarily a talent that's just giving away 822 00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:30,680 money. These are money motivated 823 00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:33,320 individuals as they have every right and probably 824 00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:35,960 responsibility to their families to be. 825 00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:43,400 So no, no harm, no foul on talent, but it doesn't take much 826 00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:46,160 when you've got the kind of money that Tony's throwing 827 00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:49,360 around to lock up some decent names. 828 00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:52,800 What do you do with them? What's he done with them? 829 00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:57,160 Nothing. Absolutely not. 830 00:48:57,160 --> 00:49:00,960 There has not been any return on investment from anything that 831 00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:03,360 he's done creatively or in terms of talent. 832 00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:08,320 It's a mess, but whatever. It's a vanity project and it 833 00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:09,560 doesn't matter. That's why. 834 00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:12,160 That's why it doesn't matter. That's why Tony's not going to 835 00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:13,680 listen to you. He's not going to listen to me. 836 00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:15,520 He's not going to probably listen to anybody. 837 00:49:16,680 --> 00:49:21,560 Maybe his dad. He's just going to do what 14 838 00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:26,560 year old Tony Kahn would have done If if Tony if 14 year old 839 00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:29,240 Tony Kahn had real wrestlers to play with instead of action 840 00:49:29,240 --> 00:49:32,520 figures. Well, what do you mean? 841 00:49:32,520 --> 00:49:35,760 Like get the wrestlers to convince you to to make a video 842 00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:38,120 game before you your company's even stable. 843 00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:40,240 You know they're giving away that video game now on 844 00:49:40,240 --> 00:49:43,040 PlayStation. Yeah, I've, I've got some 845 00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:46,440 friends that are, I'm fairly close to that are in the video 846 00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:48,320 game business at very high levels. 847 00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:53,280 We're talking about development and, and, and all coders, all 848 00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:55,760 that. And that's a small world. 849 00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:58,320 That video game world is, it's small, it's big. 850 00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:00,800 I mean, it's powerful, it's huge financially. 851 00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:05,920 But the world itself, Speaking of the movers and the Shakers 852 00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:08,720 and the people that know what's going on in that world, it's a 853 00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:13,080 very small world. And I got some pretty accurate 854 00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:16,600 insight early on into the development of that game. 855 00:50:16,720 --> 00:50:19,200 And it should, it should have been a movie. 856 00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:24,880 And like, if you put Jack Black in it and a couple other really 857 00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:28,560 funny characters, it would be an ideal comedy. 858 00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:31,240 You take a bunch of wrestlers that don't know where. 859 00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:35,040 Oh, but I play video games. Can you imagine, Duke? 860 00:50:35,400 --> 00:50:38,880 You're on a plane. The, the, the, the, the, the, 861 00:50:39,720 --> 00:50:42,280 the situation everybody's thought about at one point or 862 00:50:42,280 --> 00:50:45,560 another, talked about what if I'm on a plane and the pilot 863 00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:49,520 can't fly the plane? Could I land this plane? 864 00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:53,000 Could I fly it? There's been movies made of it, 865 00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:55,960 hell, bunch of times. But can you? 866 00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:03,480 Can you? Can you imagine being in a 867 00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:08,520 business where a guy says my experience and the reason I'm 868 00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:14,120 spending 10s of millions of dollars on talent is because, 869 00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:16,120 well, I used to watch it when I was a kid. 870 00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:20,960 That's Sony Khan's experience. He grew up as a wrestling fan. 871 00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:24,520 That's like a guy on an airplane going, well, I've flown. 872 00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:27,000 I got million mile status on three different airlines. 873 00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:29,480 Fuck, I can fly this plane no problem. 874 00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:34,480 Throw that captain out of the seat, let me have at it because 875 00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:37,800 I've got 2 million miles on my belt, under my belt, flying out, 876 00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:40,200 flying as a passenger. So sure, I can fly. 877 00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,200 Just like Tony grew up as a kid watching wrestling and becoming 878 00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:46,120 passionate about it, and now all of a sudden thinks he can be a 879 00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:51,080 pilot of his wrestling airplane. The problem is he can't. 880 00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:56,000 He doesn't have a clue about what makes wrestling work for 881 00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:58,840 the audience. He knows what made wrestling 882 00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:06,960 work for him as a 14 year old watching ECW, but the audience 883 00:52:07,760 --> 00:52:10,560 isn't going to respond to the same things that 14 year old 884 00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:13,040 Tony Kahn used to respond to that. 885 00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:18,320 That's the that's the dilemma. That's why AW is where it is. 886 00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:20,160 And why? It's not going to change. 887 00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:23,320 No reason for it too long as Tony's having fun, it's not 888 00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:27,880 going to change. You just heard that from the one 889 00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:34,000 person on the planet who was able to lead a company to defeat 890 00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:40,080 the WWE consistently for 83 weeks and then some. 891 00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:43,120 It was 104 in total, but who's counting? 892 00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:47,320 Who's counting who's 83 in a row but 104 in total? 893 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:51,720 Listen, Eric, how can everybody listening right now keep up with 894 00:52:51,720 --> 00:52:55,240 you and all the you got a million and one things going on 895 00:52:55,240 --> 00:52:57,560 at one time. But if they want to keep up with 896 00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:00,240 Eric Bischoff, see some of those great pictures, hear your 897 00:53:00,240 --> 00:53:05,560 podcast, plug away, man. Yeah, I mean, I'm on X, formerly 898 00:53:05,560 --> 00:53:12,080 Twitter at E Bischoff. I'm on Instagram at the real 899 00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:15,400 Eric Bischoff. But really, you know, the 900 00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:18,760 podcast 83 weeks wherever you get your favorite podcast drops 901 00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:24,960 every Friday morning early and then on 80 threeweeks.com, which 902 00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:27,200 is our YouTube channel. We do a lot of different stuff 903 00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:29,280 over there. That's a fun that's a fun hang 904 00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:34,000 out, pretty good community and we're about to do some really 905 00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,040 cool stuff over there. So that's another good place. 906 00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:41,880 So 80 threeweeks.com for YouTube E Bischoff on Twitter The real 907 00:53:41,880 --> 00:53:44,280 Eric Bischoff on Instagram. I don't spend much time on 908 00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:47,120 Instagram, to be honest. That's about it. 909 00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,360 Before I let you go, Eric, I, I know that you're a, you're a 910 00:53:50,360 --> 00:53:55,040 details oriented guy. So I have a crew on, on Twitter, 911 00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:56,760 we call ourselves the coffee core. 912 00:53:57,240 --> 00:53:59,240 It's coffee drinkers from all over the world. 913 00:53:59,240 --> 00:54:02,160 You know, a lot of them are in the wrestling industry, many are 914 00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:05,400 fans and what have you, but we always share our coffee recipes 915 00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:09,720 and what have you daily. What did you drink this morning? 916 00:54:09,720 --> 00:54:11,800 Eric, 'cause I, I know that this is a thing for you. 917 00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:14,040 You know, you normally have multiple cups and what have you, 918 00:54:14,520 --> 00:54:16,160 whether it was coffee or something else. 919 00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:17,320 What? What did you wake up drinking 920 00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:22,120 this morning? This morning I had Lori, my wife 921 00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:28,560 made me what we call a fat coffee, which is we use Purity 922 00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:31,800 coffee. It's a, a, a brand that we found 923 00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:36,240 that we know to be tested organic and a really good 924 00:54:36,240 --> 00:54:37,840 quality coffee. So we use that. 925 00:54:39,360 --> 00:54:48,960 But she mixed in some collagen. She mixed in a tablespoon of MCT 926 00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:52,080 oil. Google it if you don't know what 927 00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:53,680 it is. It's really, really healthy. 928 00:54:53,960 --> 00:55:00,120 It's a super nutritious fat and a little bit of butter in the 929 00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:04,320 coffee. And I think it's just a small 930 00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:07,760 shot of cream, just enough to add a little color to it. 931 00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:11,320 And then she whips it all together in a blender. 932 00:55:12,520 --> 00:55:16,560 It's real hot in the blender. It is just awesome, smooth and 933 00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:19,120 silk. But because of the collagen and 934 00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:23,520 the MCT oil in particular, it's a in the butter. 935 00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:27,360 I'm, I'm, I'm on a carnivore diet, so I don't need any carbs 936 00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:29,560 at all. I get all my energy from 937 00:55:29,560 --> 00:55:32,200 nutritional fat, usually animal fat. 938 00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:36,480 MCT oil is the only synthetic product I take. 939 00:55:36,600 --> 00:55:42,400 But so butter in my coffee with the MCT oil is like a it's like 940 00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:45,640 2 Red Bulls for the average person for me. 941 00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:47,440 And I drank that and went right to the gym. 942 00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:51,680 Got in a solid hour workout. Till next time, be kind to 943 00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:53,920 yourselves and be kind to others. 944 00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:55,880 Take it away. Tony Shivani. 945 00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:03,360 Mr. Tony Cavani and we're definitely out of time on Duke 946 00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:04,160 Love Wrestling.