The Thread Killer

You were also at Joe vs. Kobashi, weren’t you?

This is a great idea for a thread. I'm a big fan of some of the discussion threads that have been popping up here at PWO lately, the Bret Hart/Bryan Danielson thread, the Greatest Rookie Thread, the Winning Streaks thread...and now this. For a while I was worried PWO was starting to die off, but it's great all these new interesting threads that are popping up now. I am going to have to give some serious thought to this question. I've been a fan for 37 years now and have seen a ton of live Pro Wrestling in that time, so I'll have to give it some thought before I answer. But I can tell you this...based on some of the responses I've seen in this thread so far, a lot of you guys have me beat.

We're coming up on three-and-a-half months since Conrad announced this new mystery podcast was coming...and still nothing. Not to mention on December 15, he said it would be announced in 10 days. Today is January 11 and still nothing. Conrad did an interview with Wrestling Inc. last week where he said again that he is about to debut two new podcasts, one exclusive to AFS and the other will be the infamous 6th addition to his Westwood One stable. I assume this will be the "big name" he's been teasing all this time...but as of today, still nothing. I have not listened to the ECW podcast. It is getting really good reviews from AFS subscribers. I have to be honest, I find it somewhat lame that Conrad has been saying for years that he's been dying to do an ECW podcast and tried to get Heyman and Styles...and the best he can come up with his Joel Gertner and The Blue Meanie? I may give it a listen at some point. All the feedback I've read talks about how impressed everybody is with Joel Gertner. He apparently comes across as extremely knowledgeable and insightful on this podcast. Who would have guessed? All that, plus he's the Quintessential Stud Muffin. Conrad did add a new Video Series to Ad Free Shows, and it's outstanding. It's not just audio, it's video. It's called "Title Chase" and it traces the history of Championship Title belts, shows details about how they were made, and then traces the lineage and shows where they ended up. The first episode was on the WCW US Championship, and I really enjoyed it. It was really professionally done and I found it interesting.

I don't hunt (I'm an animal rights guy...even though I've never been able to stick to a vegetarian or vegan diet, despite a couple of attempts) but I do fish. Even still, I have to be honest...the idea of living on a ranch in the middle of nowhere does appeal to me. Besides, I don't know if anybody ever saw that documentary WWE did on Bischoff: "Eric Bischoff - Sports Entertainment's Most Controversial Figure" but they filmed the interviews with him at his place in Wyoming. There is footage of him fishing, sitting on his porch, at a bonfire and sitting in his living room and I have to say...it looks like a pretty nice place and beautiful area. If I could afford to live somewhere like that, I would. Just probably not in the dead of winter.

Thanks very much for the positive feedback brothers.

Okay guys, now that I have recapped the saga of Eric Bischoff's departure from WWE, I am ready to consider tackling my next epic recap. I wanted to get some feedback from you guys, so I figured I'd make a list of what podcasts/interviews I have available and see if any particular one jumps out at you, that you'd like to see me tackle first. Of course, if there is something that is not on the list that you'd like to see me take a crack at, feel free to ask and I'll see what I can do. Here's what I have... "Vader goes down" Recapped on 01/11/21 Arn Anderson gives Conrad Thompson his eyewitness account of the infamous night he witnessed Paul Orndorff giver Vader a beating in the WCW locker room. This of course is the incident which resulted in Vader being released from WCW. "The Plane Ride From Hell" Recapped on 01/29/21 Jim Ross was the Vice President of Talent Relations and was a passenger on the infamous flight from England back to the United States on May 5, 2002 when...all hell broke loose. They still talk about this flight, 18 years later. If rumors are true, you had drinks getting spiked, Ric Flair showing off his "little Naitch", Curt Hennig and Brock Lesnar wrestling in the aisles, Goldust getting drunk and serenading his ex-wife over the PA system, flight attendants getting sexually harassed, and most infamously...Michael Hayes getting his mullet cut off. JR was there to witness the carnage, and had to deal with the fallout, which included more than one talent getting released. Eric Bischoff interviews David Arquette Recapped on 01/24/21 On the anniversary of David Arquette's "historic" WCW title win, he sits down with Eric Bischoff to discuss his win, his love of Pro Wrestling, "Ready to Rumble" and his upcoming documentary. "Four Star Summit" Dave Meltzer, Bryan Alverez, Wade Keller and Bruce Mitchell sit down together for a round table discussion on the business of Pro Wrestling journalism. I included this on the list because it is not available anywhere aside from Ad Free Shows and Fite TV, so it's exclusive content. If you guys vote to hear about this, I will recap it...but if you really love me, you won't make me listen to this. "The Monday Night Wars Debate" Eric Bischoff and Bruce Prichard debate The Monday Night Wars in front of a live audience. I haven't listened to this, but I'm betting my bullshit-meter will explode if I do. "War Games Revisited" JJ Dillon, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger and Road Warrior Animal are interviewed regarding the original War Games. "The Death of WCW Debate" In front of a live audience, Eric Bischoff debates RD Reynolds regarding the accuracy of his book "The Death of WCW." (RD Reynolds was the co-author with Bryan Alverez, who despite being in attendance, declined the invitation to participate in this debate.) "Eric Fires Back" I love this series. Conrad plays clips from various Shoot Interviews of people talking shit about Eric Bischoff, and gives Bischoff the chance to respond. In this first episode, Conrad plays clips by Jim Cornette, Bret Hart and more. I don't know how well these would come across in transcript form, but they make for highly entertaining listening. "Eric Fires Back: Part Two" This show was supposed to be a "one off" but the fan response to the first show was so overwhelmingly popular that Conrad did a second episode. This show features more bitterness from Bret Hart and some truly delusional nonsense from Greg Gagne, which prompts a truly epic reaction from Eric Bischoff. Anybody who has ever heard or seen a Shoot Interview from either Greg Gagne or Mike Graham knows that for years both of them took credit for bringing Hulk Hogan into WCW. At one point, Greg Gagne actually took credit for the creation of the NWO as well. Now Bischoff gets a chance to tell his side...and he is not pulling any punches, trust me. Eric Bischoff meets Tony Khan Conrad Thompson introduces his two friends Eric and Tony to each other, and then basically rolls tape and records their conversation for about 90 minutes. It's a bit of a mutual admiration society, but it's not without interest. Jim Ross interviews Cody Rhodes Pretty much what the title says. This was recorded right after "All In" when Cody won the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship, and he sits down to talk to Jim Ross. "JR Fires Back" Based on the overwhelming popularity of the "Eric Fires Back" series, Conrad Thompson tries the same formula with Jim Ross...he plays clips from various Shoot Interviews over the years with Pro Wrestlers shitting on Jim Ross...and then gives JR a chance to respond. I didn't enjoy this at all. Firstly, many of the "talents" who are highlighted are pretty much lowlife scumbags like Road Dogg and Bryan Clarke, and they spend time mocking JR's facial paralysis which is just sad. You can tell by JR's reaction that it just upsets him and kind of depresses him, so he is very calm and diplomatic in most of his responses. The whole appeal of the "Eric Fires Back" series is that for the most part, Eric Bischoff gives ZERO fucks and he lets loose on most of the rebuttals in fashion that would rival Jim Cornette. When JR doesn't rise to the bait, the whole idea just doesn't work. Conrad later commented in one of his "Ask Conrad Anything" podcasts that he knew this episode was a major misfire. He assumed that because JR is so damn crabby all the time that this would make for entertaining listening, but it really doesn't. This podcast formula is awesome for Eric Bischoff and even Tony Schiavone but this didn't work out well at all. "Tony Fires Back" You have to say this for Conrad Thompson, when he finds a formula that works for him...he goes with it. As I said, the "Eric Fires Back" podcasts are some of the most popular shows he has ever done behind the paywall, so he wastes no time trying to duplicate the success...here he tries with Tony Schiavone. This goes much better than "JR Fires Back." The only problem is, there really aren't that many people who have anything bad to say about Tony, so there isn't as much to work with. Interesting sidenote: Conrad says that he absolutely cannot wait to do an episode of "Bruce Fires Back" where he plays all the shit people have said about Bruce Prichard over the years and lets Bruce respond...but Bruce is legally prohibited from doing something like that by WWE, as long as he is an executive there. Conrad has claimed that as soon as Bruce leaves WWE, that is one of the first things he wants to do. "Ask Megan Anything" This is a Q&A, where Ad Free Shows subscribers sent in questions for Conrad Thompson's wife to answer. As you would expect, 99% of the questions are about what it's like growing up with Ric Flair as a father, and what it's like being married to Conrad Thompson, aka: "The Podfather." "Ask Lori Anything" Lori Bischoff takes questions from Ad Free Shows members about what it's like being married to "Easy E." For those of you wondering...yes somebody actually gets up the nerve to ask her about posing for Playboy, the "Atlanta Gold Club" scandal back in 2001, and the subsequent rumors about her and Eric's relationship with Dallas and Kimberly Page. She expertly dodges the question about the Gold Club (probably because Eric admitted under oath that the allegations were true) but flatly denies the rumors about DDP and his wife. Then again, those allegations came from Scott Steiner...so I don't know how much stock I'd put into them anyhow. "Ask Erin Anything" This is a Q&A with fan submitted questions for Erin Lundy, Arn Anderson's wife. The main takeaway from this is that she sounds like pretty much the sweetest, nicest woman you'd ever want to meet...and he has little to no clue about anything about Arn's career. I'm not surprised, but I guess Arn was one of those guys who left his work at work. "Ask Lois Anything" Anybody who has ever listened to even a couple of episodes of Tony Schiavone's podcast knows that his wife Lois is...quite a character. She's almost become a legendary figure in Conrad's little podcast world. The woman is extremely opinionated, quite funny at times and has a sharp answer for just about anything. I chose not to listen to this because I don't really listen to Tony's podcast all that much (I'm not a big fan of the "watch along" format.) Also, Lois Schiavone is a full fledged, die hard MAGA hat wearing, Trump supporter. While I am not a left wing person at all, I don't much care to hear from Trump supporters, either. I find both the far left and the far right very obnoxious, and I tend to avoid both if at all possible. I don't know if Lois used this podcast as an excuse to start ranting about politics, but I figured it would be safer for me to avoid it. I don't want to hear Lois Schiavone praising Trump any more than I want to listen to Jim Cornette bash him. I find political talk tiresome, so this was a hard pass for me. But if anybody really wants to hear it...I'll recap it. "Eric Fires Back: Part Three" Conrad his back with his third instalment of this incredibly popular series. This is good shit, pal. "Behind The Paint With Sting" Tony Schiavone sits down with Sting and does an fairly interesting interview. Sting is a lot more engaging and entertaining during this interview than he has been in most other interviews I've seen him give, probably because it was before a live crowd and he's very comfortable talking to Tony. "Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn: An Extreme Rivalary" RVD and Mr. JL sit down in front of a live audience and discuss their famous rivalry in ECW. "Eric Fires Back: Part Four" This is pretty good, but unfortunately they are running out of clips of people bashing Bischoff for him to respond to. Conversations with Conrad featuring Jim Herd Recapped on 01/21/21 This is one of the exclusive interviews I alluded to when I first talked about starting this thread and doing more recaps. Conrad managed to land an exclusive interview with one of the more controversial figures in the entire history of WCW, former WCW President Jim Herd. This interview was somewhat noteworthy because Herd had pretty much vanished and not given an interview in over 20 years...and a couple of the things he said during this interview ended up making some of the Pro Wrestling "newz" sites. "I Quit" with Magnum TA and Tully Blanchard Tony Schiavone sits down with Magnum and Tully to discuss their feud and this classic match. Mailbag with Mike Chioda Starting at the beginning of November 2020, former WWE referee (of 30 years) and current AEW referee Mike Chioda started doing a weekly Q&A podcast, taking questions from Ad Free Shows subscribers. This show has been surprisingly entertaining, and has actually resulted in a few newsworthy revelations regarding payoffs and other backstage goings on in WWE. This has been way more interesting than I ever would have expected. If anybody actually wants me to recap some of this show, I would do it. Mailbag with Gerry Brisco Gerald Brisco alternates weeks on the "Mailbag" podcast, with Mike Chioda. I have to be honest, I don't much care for this and I rarely listen to it. Brisco is like a lot of old school guys who want to cash in on the whole podcast and Shoot Interview phenomenon. They want the money, but are pretty stingy with the details and are very careful about what the say. I swear some of these older guys are still trying to maintain "kayfabe." There's not a lot of substance here and this podcast hasn't ended up being anywhere near as popular as I think Conrad was hoping it would be. I think the original idea was that this was going to be huge and the Mike Chioda episodes were going to be filler basically, but it's ended up being the other way around and Chioda's is actually extremely popular. Having said that, Brisco's tribute to Pat Patterson was apparently quite good, as you'd expect. Ask Conrad Anything Ever since Ad Free Shows launched, Conrad has been doing regular "AMA" podcasts with the members. Surprisingly, these have ended up being some of my favorite shows to listen to. They are a mixed bag. Conrad knows his audience, so he is extremely transparent and is willing to discuss pretty much anything as long as he is legally able to do it. That's why I was able to post lengthy recaps about his relationship with Vince Russo and Jim Cornette...it was all based on information from this show. Conrad is totally up front about the technical and financial details of his podcast empire, and if you're interested in that kind of thing it can be a really intriguing listen. He also ends up giving a ton of financial and mortgage advice, which is less interesting to me...although his explanation of the housing collapse in 2008 was a damn entertaining episode. He also gets a lot of those ridiculous "who is on your Mount Rushmore" and fantasy booking questions too. And finally, just posted today as I write this... "Sharpshooter: Bret Hart in his own words" Bret Hart sits down for an in depth interview with Sean Mooney, in front of a live audience. * * * * * EDIT: In the interest of full disclosure, there are a couple of interviews with The Young Bucks on Ad Free Shows...but here's the thing. I would rather take a red hot flaming poker right in the ass than listen to a Young Bucks interview...never mind going to all the trouble of having to recap it, because that means you have to listen to it twice. So as much as I love PWO and as much love as I have for all my PWO Good Brothers? Me recapping a Young Bucks interview is never going to happen. I'd just as soon listen to Nickelback, dammit. Not gonna happen. * * * * * So there's the menu, so far. Like I said, I am also willing to consider requests to recap any other podcasts or interviews you might have seen elsewhere, but otherwise if anybody reading this wants to see a recap of anything listed above...please reply in this thread and let me know. Thanks!

For what it's worth, having listened to pretty much every episode of 83 Weeks and this episode in particular a few times, here is my take on what happened between Eric Bischoff and WWE... 1) I think it's pretty obvious that Bruce Prichard talked Vince McMahon into giving Eric Bischoff a job, because Prichard knew that Bischoff was in financial trouble and was on the verge on bankruptcy. If Bischoff wasn't getting his ass kicked financially at the time, I don't think he would have taken that job. 2) The whole deal started off on the wrong foot. Bischoff admits that WWE expected him to sell his home in Wyoming and move to Stamford and start work, right away. Bischoff admitted that WWE basically wasn't happy with the fact that he was hired in the middle of June but wasn't able to start work until the end of July. When you work for WWE, it sounds like it's the same as joining a damn cult. You're expected to sell your home and all your worldly possessions, and move as close to WWE Headquarters as you can possibly get and be available to them 24/7 with no exceptions. There is evidence to support this theory. I remember an interview I saw with J.J. Dillon years ago, where he talked about when Vince hired him to be the Head of Talent Relations in the WWF. Vince supposedly insisted that J.J. move to Stamford, even though Dillon could not afford to do it. (Dillon had some serious financial limitations because he was caring for a child with Special Needs.) Vince actually arranged a very expensive mortgage on a home in Stamford and pressured Dillon into taking it. And then, in an extra special example of Vince being a scumbag...McMahon turned around and cut Dillon's pay. If you don't believe that story, all you have to do is listen to others. Jim Cornette, Jim Ross and even Bruce Prichard have all given interviews where they talked about how the condition of their job was to move to Stamford and be available to Vince 24/7. And I don't think it's any coincidence that after Cornette insisted on moving back home to Louisville, he wasn't around too much longer...and the time he was still with WWE, he was out of political favor with Vince. JR insisted on moving back to Oklahoma, and that was pretty much the beginning of the end for him in WWE. And even Bruce, the first time he moved back to Houston and started working from home a lot of the time? He ended up getting fired in 2008. As soon as you show that you don't want to live in Stamford and be at Vince's beck-and-call 24/7, that's pretty much it for you. Bischoff made it clear that he was only willing to sign a two year deal, and he wanted to go back to Wyoming once he turned 65. So not only did he not drop everything and come running when he got hired, he had the audacity to say that he knew when he wanted to leave. 3) I think @NintendoLogic pretty much hit the nail on the head...Bischoff "being unable to adapt to the WWE system" is basically code for the fact that he wanted days off, and wasn't a big fan of getting calls in the middle of the night. Like I said in my recap, Bischoff admits he got "one of the those calls" in the middle of the night the day before he was fired, and then the next day when he went into work, they fired him. If you read between the lines, I think it's pretty obvious that the way he reacted to that call directly caused what happened the following day. That's why Bischoff doesn't (vocally) blame WWE. He knows that was what was required of him to work there, he just didn't want to do it. Bischoff admits that he took the job for the money, but another big part of it was so he and his wife could have easier access to New York and experience the fine dining and performing arts in the city, stuff they had no access to in Wyoming. As soon as he figured out that he would be working 14 hour days and getting calls in the middle of the night, I have no doubt he started copping an attitude over it and everybody could tell he wasn't happy. I've heard Prichard say it countless times...when you work for Vince you're not allowed to care about anything other than WWE. You can't sneeze, you can't be sick, you work 14 hour days and take calls in the middle of the night. Eric said he was told, he must have his phone with him at all times and he must never turn it off. What normal person would be happy working under those conditions, especially after you ran a company of your own? I think a big part of this probably has to do with the fact that Bischoff used to run WCW and had everybody answering to him, and now he was answering to Vince because he had to, and that probably didn't sit well. And Bischoff himself admitted that the way WWE does things was "completely fucking alien to him." But I don't doubt that Eric Bischoff had a hard time taking orders in WWE because he was used to being the boss himself. 4) That's not even taking into account the idea that Eric Bischoff was never really supposed to succeed in this job anyhow, no matter what he did. Conrad Thompson made it clear during this interview that he thinks Eric Bischoff was only hired to placate the shareholders who were pissed about how much money and time Vince McMahon was devoting to the XFL. Conrad also said that he thinks Vince hired Bischoff to be a scapegoat in case things didn't go well with Fox...Vince could blame it on Bischoff. There is another interesting theory about this whole thing, that was never mentioned during this interview. Tony Schiavone was irate when Eric Bischoff got fired. He and Jim Ross have both publicly speculated that the only reason WWE hired Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman was to keep them away from Tony Khan and AEW. Schiavone has talked openly about how in the years leading up to his signing with AEW, he himself was having serious financial problems. He was in so much trouble, he ended up taking a job at Starbucks...a fact that Britt Baker referenced in one of her promos during her heel turn. Schiavone also admits that he had called WWE several times pretty much begging for a job. He didn't want to be an announcer, he was just hoping to get on as a producer...hopefully with the WWE Network. Schiavone finally got a hold of Triple H one time, and Triple H said he'd call him back...but he never did. All of the sudden, rumors start to fly about Tony Khan starting AEW, and of course there is all sorts of wild speculation about who will end up getting hired. There are all sorts of names that get thrown around...Jim Cornette, Jim Ross, Paul Heyman, Tony Schiavone and Eric Bischoff. Schiavone says (and I believe him) that no sooner did the rumor start to go around that he was going to be hired by AEW and he started negotiations with them...when a miracle happened. All of the sudden WWE contacted him and offered him a job. This is the company that wouldn't even return his calls, but as soon as it looked like he was going to AEW, they wanted him. I have zero doubt that one of the main reasons Vince hired Eric Bischoff was to fuck with AEW. Furthermore, I honestly feel that Vince never intended to give Bischoff any real authority or for him to succeed. I know it sounds like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, but I think there is enough evidence to suggest that it is just like Vince McMahon to hire somebody to keep them away from the competition, and then fire them in disgrace, thereby devaluing them to any future employers. If AEW were to hire Eric Bischoff now in any capacity, you know the first reaction would be: "LOL he couldn't even make it in WWE for three months before he got fired for being clueless and lazy and spending all his time in catering." I think Eric Bischoff knew all that damn well going in, but he didn't care because he wanted the money. It wasn't during this interview, but I can tell you that in subsequent episodes of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff has alluded to the fact that he got one of those proverbial "golden parachutes" when WWE fired him. Like him or not, Eric Bischoff is not stupid. This guy was represented by CAA, the most powerful Entertainment lawyers in the industry. You can't tell me he didn't have it written into his contract that if WWE fired him before his two years was up, they were going to have to write him a big, fat cheque to go away. Eric Bischoff came off looking pretty bad in this whole mess, but in the end I am betting he was laughing all the way to the bank.

Reading that article, Bischoff might take some issue with the accuracy considering... 1) His "entire family" consisted of himself and his wife, because both his kids are grown adults and don't live with him anymore and... 2) He never lived in Oklahoma. He is right about Smackdown on Fox being totally Vince's project, and Bischoff confirmed that. But can anybody who has ever heard anything about Vince McMahon even be remotely surprised at that theory? I can't imagine anybody honestly believing that Vince McMahon of all people would take a back seat and hand over the responsibility of overseeing the biggest Pro Wrestling TV deal in the history of his company (and the entire industry) to the guy who literally tried to put him out of business.

He pretty much makes it sound like he never even got the chance to touch the ball, never mind drop it. He didn't know who was on his creative team heading into the first episode on Fox, but it didn't matter because it sounds like Vince booked it himself. Within two weeks, Bischoff was fired. From the sounds of the interview I recapped, Bischoff didn't even really have any interaction with Fox, and that's not why Vince hired him anyhow...if you are to believe Bischoff.

Bischoff has claimed that the reason the nWo started adding members like crazy (Michael Wallstreet, Ray Traylor, etc.) is because they were preparing to split off and "take over" Nitro. He also claims the main reason he signed Bret Hart was to be the #1 star on Thunder, and pretty much they were planning on doing what WWE ended up doing with Raw and Smackdown, having two separate brands which compete at PPV's several times a year. From what I understand, the idea got killed for two reasons. They kicked off the idea with the 12/22/97 episode of Nitro, when the nWo "took over" and spent most of the show destroying the sets and rebuilding them nWo style. The problem is, when the ratings came in apparently they were down 25% from the previous week, and Raw actually beat Nitro during the 10:00 pm hour. That supposedly made everybody nervous and caused them to rethink the idea. (Who would have guessed fans wouldn't want to watch a glorified home improvement project while the nWo cut endless promos?) Secondly, I guess TNT and TBS weren't crazy about the idea of certain talents being exclusive to the other channel, even though both channels were owned by Turner. If you believe the rumors, the original plans were for Bischoff to beat Zbyszko at Starrcade and for WCW to "lose" Nitro to the nWo, causing WCW to start their own show on Thursdays with Bret Hart as the #1 star, but once everybody saw the ratings, they pulled the plug on the whole idea. In my opinion, the nWo angle started to really go into the toilet way back then, when they stopped being an elite stable made up of former WWE stars and started adding guys who were...not quite as big.

Via Getty is the member of a large crime family. His older brothers Spa, Alpha and Dyno are especially brutal.

Yes, Bischoff has talked about that several times on his podcast. The plan was for Nitro to belong to the NWO and Thunder to belong to WCW.

Thanks guys, it is much appreciated. Recapping this interview took a lot longer than I thought it was, it was a real marathon compared to the other recaps I have written up. By the way, it is nice to meet you @Perfectly Straightedge, I don't think I've seen you here before and it's always nice to see new names at PWO.

Ad Free Shows Exclusive edition of 83 Weeks: March 28, 2020 "Eric Leaves WWE" Part Three: "You're FIRED!!!" - At this point in the interview, Conrad Thompson kind of takes over for a moment. - Conrad says that he wants to provide the proper context to what happened next, after Eric Bischoff returned to WWE. - Conrad says that Eric Bischoff was not only hired to be the Executive Director, but he was also hired right before Smackdown is set to change networks and debut on Fox on what is the biggest Pro Wrestling TV deal in history, from a financial standpoint. - Conrad says the magnitude of Pro Wrestling returning to network television, especially in Prime Time cannot be overstated. - Conrad says that Vince putting Smackdown into Eric’s hands must have been a PR move, because Vince was worried that the WWE shareholders were worried about Vince trying to “stretch himself too thin” by debuting Smackdown on Fox while overseeing the relaunch of the XFL at the exact same time. - Conrad pointed out that around this time, a significant number of WWE stockholders had actually filed lawsuits against WWE because they thought Vince McMahon was reallocating time and resources from WWE to the XFL. - Conrad thinks that Vince hired Eric and Paul Heyman and named them Executive Directors tried to placate the stockholders because of these lawsuits, because Vince could turn around and point out that both Eric and Paul Heyman had previously run their own Pro Wrestling companies, which would leave Vince free to run the XFL. - Conrad says that if you read the press release WWE put out about Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman being hired to be Executive Directors, it gives a totally false impression of why the two men were actually hired. - Conrad says that he feels based on inside information he has heard, basically Vince hired Eric and Paul just to get the shareholders off his back and fight off the lawsuits, but Vince never really intended to give Eric or Heyman any actual control over Raw and Smackdown. - Conrad says that he feels Vince McMahon was setting Eric Bischoff up to be a scapegoat because he knew Fox had very high expectations going into Smackdown’s debut...and Vince probably knew they were not going to be able to deliver on what Fox had been promised by WWE. - Conrad points out that Fox invested a huge amount of money into Smackdown and were going to expect a big return, so he thinks Vince hired Eric Bischoff to protect himself from the wrath of Fox if he ended up being unable to meet expectations. - Conrad asks if Eric agrees? - Eric actually seems a bit miffed at this statement and says no, he doesn’t agree with that theory for a split second. - Eric says if that theory was true, then why does Paul Heyman still work as Executive Director for Raw? (Sidenote: Umm...) - Eric does agree that Fox had extremely high expectations. - Eric says the first episode of Smackdown on Fox drew around 4 Million viewers, but Eric says that was to be expected considering the “insane” amount of money WWE and Fox invested in heavily promoting the show. - Eric says that when any new show debuts on network TV, you can always expect a 24-30% drop in viewership between the first and second episode. Eric points out he has a long history working in television and that is just the way things work. - Eric says viewers will tune in to see the first episode of something because it is new, but it is natural that a significant amount of first time viewers will not like it, and will not come back. Eric says that’s just the “nature of the beast.” - Eric says if you do a good job, you will hold a portion of your audience and Smackdown did. - Eric pointed out that a lot of things happened on the debut episode that WWE was not going to be able to follow through with on a weekly basis...namely the appearance of The Rock. - Eric says that the debut episode of Smackdown was not “Eric Bischoff’s Smackdown.” Yes, technically he was the Executive Director and yes “theoretically” he was overseeing the creative team, but there is one creative filter in WWE and “we all know who that is.” - Eric says that entire show was basically written by Vince McMahon, and “he threw everything he had at it.” - Eric pointed out that after that, the next episode did around 2.5 Million viewers...and after that Eric was fired. - Eric says he was only with WWE for just under four months, and he has to be honest...he knew after the end of the second month that this job was not going to work out. - Eric says after he had been there for about 6 weeks, he came home for work one night in the middle of the night, and told his wife: “Start packing. I know how to get back to Wyoming, and this stay is going to be a lot shorter than I thought.” - Eric says that he didn’t come to that conclusion based on anything anybody said to him, or even how he was treated. - Eric says that he needs to reiterate that WWE treated him very fairly and he really likes a lot of the people there, but he could tell very early on that this was not a good fit and the relationship was not going to last. - Eric says that he understands now that there is absolutely no way he would ever go back to work for WWE again. Not just because he wouldn’t want to, but based on what happened it wouldn’t be in the cards. - Eric says he didn’t fit into the WWE corporate culture. - Eric says he does not believe Vince set him up to fail. - Eric says it didn’t work out because he was unable to adapt to the WWE corporate culture and their expectations and that is his fault, not Vince McMahon. - Eric points out that Vince McMahon made a major financial investment in bringing Eric Bischoff into WWE corporate, and he wouldn’t have invested all that money in him if he hadn’t wanted the relationship to work. - Eric says there was never a time that he needed or wanted anything to do his job, that WWE wouldn’t provide it. - Eric says he the WWE corporate environment was “completely fucking alien to me” and he was unable to find a way to work within that environment and be successful. Eric says he thought he’d be able to do it, but he couldn’t. - Eric says he was always able to adapt to corporate changes or expectations in the past, but this time he just couldn’t do it, when he had been sure he could. - Eric says that both he and Vince McMahon knew things were going badly, and that is why when Vince fired him, “I was more relieved than disappointed.” - Eric says that when Vince fired him, he told Vince that he was disappointed in himself for being unable to adapt to the WWE environment and meet or exceed Vince’s expectations. Eric says he failed Vince and WWE, not the other way around. - Eric says his getting fired was not WWE’s fault, and not Vince’s fault. It was his fault. - Conrad says that during Eric’s time with WWE, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alverez were reporting in The Observer the entire time that Eric was back with WWE he didn’t actually do any work and spent all his time hanging out in catering. - Conrad asks if Eric paid any attention to the “industry trade sheets” accusing him of being lazy and basically doing nothing when he worked for WWE. - Eric gets very testy at this point, and says that he takes exception to Conrad considering The Observer an “industry trade sheet.” Eric says The Observer is nothing more than a dirt sheet, a gossip column, and that the Pro Wrestling business doesn’t have a real “trade sheet.” - Eric says that The Observer is more like The National Enquirer. - Eric says that he is not saying that people like Wade Keller, Jason Powell, Mike Johnson, Dave Scherer, and Ryan Satin don’t work hard...they do. Eric says all those guys work hard at providing credible, sourced stories. - Eric says he is aware that there were stories going around that Eric wasn’t doing anything when he worked for WWE, and that he spent all his time sitting around in catering “eating fucking donuts” and that those stories are just not true. - Eric says that story about him having nothing to do and sitting around in catering is all attributable to Dave Meltzer, and reiterates that it’s not true. - Eric says that unless you have been backstage at a live WWE TV broadcast, you really can’t understand the way things work. The writing team is assigned an office at the venue, which is usually a very small room with a table for 10-12 writers. There is not enough room to put your backpack or laptop down. - Eric says that Vince McMahon is assigned a private office at the venue, as are the producers (agents) and then of course there is the “Gorilla Position.” The only area backstage at a venue during a live WWE TV broadcast where you can sit at a table with any privacy is the catering area, because there are usually rows of tables and chairs. - Eric says he was never assigned his own office, which made things a bit “inconvenient and uncomfortable” so the only possible place he could sit down with his laptop or meet with anybody with any type of privacy was in catering. - Eric says: “Did I spend a lot of time in catering? Damn right I did. I was working. There was no place else for me to sit. But for Dave Meltzer to suggest I was just sitting there twiddling my thumbs or I was eating fucking donuts? That’s just Dave Meltzer being a cunt.” - Eric says Observer readers love to hear gossip like “Eric Bischoff isn’t doing any work he just sits in catering all day doing nothing” but that doesn’t make it true. - Eric knows why he was fired, and it has nothing to do with the amount of work he did, or him sitting in catering when he met with talent or writers. - Conrad told the story about how right after Eric was fired, Conrad had arranged to throw a huge party for Tony Schiavone's birthday. The party was a very big production with all sorts of industry names in attendance, and there were speeches...it was almost like a "celebrity roast." (Sidenote: If I'm not mistaken, I think this was the party where Jimmy Havoc punched out Excalibur, right in front of Tony Khan.) Since Eric had just been fired, he was able to show up unexpectedly. Everybody was a bit uncomfortable because they knew Eric had just been fired, and many had read all the stories about Eric in the Observer. Eric walked up to the microphone and said: "I'm just here for the catering." - Conrad says the first episode of Smackdown on Fox went great...Rupert Murdoch was in the front row, Tyson Fury was there and posed for selfie with Ric Flair and Eric...Conrad says things must have felt very positive coming off that show? - Eric says it was a great show, and he doesn’t know how it could have gone any better. - Eric confirms that everybody was very positive backstage after the show. - Eric says his daughter Montana works in Los Angles and so she came to the show and actually brought her boss. - Eric says that at the after-party, his daughter got to see Ashley (Charlotte Flair) for the first time since they were kids and it was a very happy reunion. Eric remembers that back when he worked for WCW and they taped TV at Disney studios, his daughter and Charlotte used to play together for hours, running around backstage at Disney. - Eric says it was very fun, and a great night. - Eric says that the selfie Conrad mentioned with himself and Flair and Tyson Fury was actually taken in Las Vegas the following week...right before he was fired. - Eric says when the ratings came in, he was surprised. Eric said he thought the ratings would have been higher and thought they would be around 5 Million viewers. - Conrad asks how Eric found out he was fired, and was he shocked? - Eric says he got “one of those late night phone calls” in the middle of the night on Monday October 14, 2019. - Eric says he went into WWE headquarters the next day and was called into a meeting. (Sidenote: If you read between the lines here, it sounds like Eric’s reaction to getting another call in the middle of the night may have resulted in what happened the next day...) - Eric says at this point, he has to be very careful because his Non-Disclosure Agreement specifies that he is not allowed to discuss the details of his termination, so he does not want to violate it. - Eric says he was informed he was fired, and the meeting was “very uncomfortable.” - Eric says he apologized to Vince and told him that he was disappointed that he wasn’t able to deliver what Vince expected of him, and to be the kind of executive that Vince was used to having work for him, or to be the kind of employee Vince needed. - Eric stresses that this was not the kind of firing where there is a lot of animosity or yelling and recriminations and then the employee gets escorted out of the building by security. - Eric repeats that the process more uncomfortable and sad than anything else. - Eric says he was actually asked if he wanted to go and say goodbye to everybody, and he took WWE up on that offer. - Eric said he went around and told everybody that he thought very highly of them and the company, and that he wished everybody and WWE itself all the best. - Eric says the whole process took about 45 minutes, and shortly thereafter one of the first people he called was Conrad. - Eric was home by 11:00 am. - Eric says he walked in the door, and his wife Lori was on the phone. Eric says she looked at him in shock, and when she got off the phone she asked him jokingly: “What are you doing home so early, did you get fired or something?” - Eric's reply was "Yep.” - Eric and Conrad both laughed quite a bit about this. - Eric said Lori was joking, then she realized that he really had been fired. - Eric says Lori was shocked at first, but then she said that she understood this had been coming, since Eric had pretty much warned her it might. - Eric says he touched base with Conrad again, and then spoke to Bruce Prichard. - Eric says he and his wife went out for lunch, and as always his wife was incredibly supportive and positive. Eric says Lori’s first question was: “Okay...so where do we go from here?” - Eric said he spent the next two days just “decompressing” and deciding what to do next. - Conrad asks, did WWE ever explain specifically why they were firing Eric? - Eric reiterates that he is prohibited from repeating the exact terminology in his termination documents and he is not going to do that, but he thinks he can explain it without violating his Non-Disclosure Agreement. However, Eric says he is not embarrassed to discuss this situation and he is not trying to avoid it. - Eric says this was not like the type of firing where there was one particular incident or big confrontation that resulted in his dismissal. - Eric says the best way to describe the reason he was given for being fired by WWE, is that WWE came to view their relationship with Eric Bischoff as “trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.” Eric says that there is nothing wrong with a round hole, and there is nothing wrong with a square peg...until you try and fit them together. - Eric says that he has a hard time understanding why he feels the need to keep saying the same thing over and over again, but once again he is compelled to repeat this...he is grateful to Vince McMahon and WWE for the opportunity. - Eric says if he has to sum up why he was fired, it is because of a lack of chemistry between himself and WWE, and that is all on him. - Eric says he is trying very hard to be clear that he accepts responsibility for the reason he was fired, and he knows some people might get a hold of this interview and try and twist his words or report things “just to get precious clicks” and make it sound like he is angry with WWE or blames them for firing him. - Eric says he has no problem admitting that he made a mistake going back to WWE. - Eric says he couldn’t work in the WWE system, and that is his fault. Eric says he couldn’t expect the WWE system to change to adapt to him, it was Eric’s responsibility to adjust to work within the WWE system, but he failed because he couldn’t do it. - Eric says that from the moment it was announced that he was going to work for WWE there was a lot of sniping and insults directed at him, mostly from Dave Meltzer, before Eric had even started work there. - Eric says he knows that Meltzer has “stooges” on the writing staff in WWE who report things back to Meltzer to be reported in “his shit sheet.” - Eric implies that there might have been some on the writing staff in WWE who weren’t happy that Eric Bischoff had been brought in from outside the company to supervise them, and those writers could get even or try and hurt Bischoff by leaking false stories to Dave Meltzer, and he would automatically print them. - Eric says WWE is aware that there are writers on the WWE writing staff who are leaking information to Dave Meltzer, because Meltzer has reported a few things which only could have come out of private meetings with the writers...nobody else knew the information. - Eric says he is used to having to deal with this type of situation over the past 30 years. When he was President of WCW there were a lot of talent and even executives who used to leak information to Dave Meltzer in order to try and advance their own particular agenda, regardless of the truth. - Eric says he feels very bad because Bruce Prichard stuck his neck out to help Eric, and even Vince went out on a limb hiring him...and Eric didn’t make it work. - Eric repeats that despite of the fact that he feels guilty that he let Bruce and Vince McMahon down, as soon as he was fired he felt “relieved.” - Conrad says he wants to ask a question that might offend Eric. Conrad says he thinks he and Eric are friends so hopefully he won’t be insulted and he’ll understand what Conrad means... - Conrad asks if Eric thinks his age has something to do with why he couldn’t succeed in WWE? Like when Eric took over WCW he was young and full of energy and ideas and was willing to try anything, whereas now he is almost 65 years old and more careful and cautious. - Eric gave this answer some thought, but he replied that no...he doesn’t think that is the case. - Eric says that he actually thinks he has more to offer the Pro Wrestling business now than he did 20 years ago, because he made a lot mistakes when he ran WCW that he has learned from. - Eric says he is capable of delivering much more than he actually did, especially when it comes to creative and storytelling. - Eric says unfortunately, he was never given the chance to apply what he has learned over the past 20-25 years. - Eric says this has nothing to do with him being older. - Eric repeated that WWE is basically a machine, and they have a system. Eric says it is a system which has obviously worked well for them, but when you go to work for WWE you are expected to adapt to work within that system. - Eric says that he discovered that the WWE system is “counter-intuitive to what inspires me” but that is his limitation. - Eric said he knew going into the job that he would be expected to adapt to working within that WWE system, and that is what Vince McMahon expected him to do. - Eric says he underestimated and failed to understand how hard working in WWE was going to be. - Eric takes a kind of weird diversion from the interview here, and talks about how his good friend Sonny Onoo recently had a heart attack and almost died, and how that made Eric reassess his life and what is important. - Eric says he has allowed himself to get into very poor physical condition, and that if Sonny could have a heart attack considering what great shape he is in, then Eric could too. Eric says that he very aware that he is 65 years old and “the clock is ticking.” - Eric says ever since he was fired by WWE he has been concentrating on getting into better physical condition and he has been working out like a madman. Eric says that he has been spending a lot of time on a treadmill, and when he exercises it stimulates his endorphins and give him a high...almost like the first time he tried cocaine. - Conrad bursts out laughing at this. - Eric admits he tried cocaine and that the first couple of times you take it, it feels amazing but then it is never as good, and you have to keep taking more and more and that is why it is such a dangerous drug. - Eric says that he spends a couple of hours a day on a treadmill, and he knows that after about an hour-and-a-half, the endorphins kick in. Eric says he loves that feeling, and it provides him with a clarity of thought and great creative ideas. - Eric says he loves the creative process, sitting in a room with good creative ideas and creative people, sharing different concepts and stories and coming up with something interesting. - Eric says that creative process is “fucking fun” but in WWE, that never happened for him. - Eric says that he has remained on good terms with Vince McMahon since he was fired. He says he and Vince have texted back and forth a few times, and spoken on the phone. - Eric says since he was fired he was even been back to work on projects for the WWE Network, like a Dennis Rodman special. Eric says he knows he will do more projects with WWE in the future. - Eric says he has to be honest and admit that being fired by WWE hurt him. - Eric says he hates when people use the term “brand” but in his case, the Eric Bischoff brand “took a hit.” - Eric says he will back working in some creative capacity somewhere, and his career is not finished. - Conrad asks if Eric is worried how this whole situation affected his legacy in the Pro Wrestling business? - Before Eric can answer, Conrad says that Eric gets credit for how he turned around WCW and helped create the nWo. Conrad says that when it was announced that Eric was going to work for WWE, the first reaction of a lot of people was to mock the work Eric did while he was in TNA, and that should probably be the topic of a future interview. - Conrad says that when Eric was fired so quickly be WWE, a lot of the Eric Bischoff haters took delight in that and basically “took a victory lap.” - Conrad says that bothered him because a lot of people seem to confuse Eric Bischoff with the character he played when he was on screen in WCW. Conrad says that Eric Bischoff is a human being, and a real guy. - Conrad asks if all that bothers Eric? - Eric says no, it doesn’t really bother him. Eric admits it aggravates him at times, but he doesn’t let it worry him. - Eric says he is not worried about what his legacy is going to be and he never has worried about that. - Eric says he knows he has had some great success in his life, but he also knows he has had some terrible failures and that is just part of working in the entertainment business. - Eric says that there are very few movie directors out there who have directed nothing but hit movies. There are no actors or actresses who have always starred in hit films and never appeared in a “flop.” There are no writers or producers who have had every project they have ever been involved in turn out to be a hit. - This is the business, it is what it is and he accepted it a long time ago. - Eric says when he gets criticized by people, it is by people who are on the “lower end of the food chain” and don’t actually contribute anything positive. - Eric says the only thing that bothers him is when people like Dave Meltzer report something that is blatantly and provably untrue, but for some reason his readers just automatically accept it and believe it. - Eric says that at one point, 40% of people polled in the United States thought you could get the Coronavirus from drinking Corona Beer...because they saw it on Facebook. Eric says Corona actually had to come out and make a statement that it wasn’t true...but somebody had said that it was, so some people believed it. - Eric says Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alverez are nothing more than “jock sniffers” who need stooges to give them their false information. - Conrad groaned loudly at this statement. - Eric says that with AEW, at least Meltzer and his cronies are getting access and inside information directly from the management, instead of relying on stooges like they did when WCW was around. - Conrad says this interview has been very interesting for him, and asks Eric for his final thoughts on his run in WWE. - Eric says he is glad he did it, and met a lot of people that he made friends with and is going to stay in touch with. - Eric says that after he was fired, one of the first people to reach out to him was Kevin Dunn, who doesn’t have the best reputation socially in the business. - Eric says he learned a lot more about himself, especially about what he is capable of and what he is and isn’t willing to do for money. - Eric says he is still pulling for WWE, and for AEW for that matter. - Eric says he has no hard feelings, and that he can see himself sitting down for a beer with Vince McMahon one day, and for Vince to say: “Goddamn pal...that was a bad idea.” - Eric says he is glad he tried. - Conrad says he is glad they did this interview, and that he hopes this is not the last we’ve seen of Eric Bischoff working in Pro Wrestling. - Eric says he thinks “that train has pretty much left the station...but you know what they say, never say never.” End of Interview

I just want to say that I am incredibly jealous that you got to see The Midnight Express with Jim Cornette vs. Barry Windham and Ronnie Garvin live. I was a fan during that era and went to live shows all the time, but because I live in Toronto, JCP never ran shows up here. All we got was WWF shows. By the time WCW starting running shows in Toronto, it was the early 90's, not the peak 85-89 era. So you got to see stuff like this...and I got Hulk Hogan vs. Killer Khan.

Agreed. Do you remember when The Sandman went to WCW in 1999? After he left WCW in October 99, he made a surprise return to ECW to save Tommy Dreamer from a beating from the Impact Players, in ECW arena. The crowd reaction was absolutely insane. I've heard Lance Storm say that was hands down the loudest crowd reaction he's ever heard or witnessed. The whole reason the crowd went so nuts is because the arena light went out, and Enter Sandman started playing. When they show that clip on the WWE Network, they have edited out the music, which totally kills the whole thing. Sometimes, the music is almost a big a part of the moment as the action.

Ad Free Shows Exclusive edition of 83 Weeks: March 28, 2020 "Eric Leaves WWE" Part Two: Executive Director of Smackdown - Conrad says that he understands Eric Bischoff does not (or likely cannot) discuss the financial terms of his return to WWE, but Conrad is curious regarding the other details of Eric’s new contract. Specifically, was he originally just hired to come in as an executive, or did he know coming in that he was hired for the task of being the new Executive Director of Smackdown? - Eric says Vince McMahon had made it very clear during their second meeting exactly what his job title, duties and responsibilities would be going in to his new position. - Conrad says the reason he asks is because he knows that job titles and labels really don’t seem to mean much to Eric. Conrad asks exactly what did Vince McMahon tell Eric his new job was going to be? - Eric said his title was Executive Director, and that was a brand new role that was being created when Smackdown debuted on Fox. Eric says his primary job responsibilities were two-fold. His main job was to be the supervisor of the Smackdown writing staff, and be the liaison between them and Vince McMahon. His other job would be to supervise marketing, branding, digital media and public relations for Smackdown as they moved to Fox. Eric says the only aspect of the Smackdown brand that he was not supposed to be supervising was Live Events. - Eric says that it was reported by the dirt sheets and most Pro Wrestling news websites that Eric Bischoff had been hired to be actively involved in the creative process for Smackdown, but that was never the case. Eric says Vince McMahon was very specific that he did not want Eric Bischoff coming up with stories or angles of his own...he was just supposed to oversee the creative team and report back to Vince McMahon. - Conrad asked why there was a gap in between the time Eric was hired and when he actually started work. Conrad asks (already knowing the answer, I assume) if the reason for the delay was due to family responsibilities. - Eric pointed out that he had certain events and responsibilities he was legally booked for, before he took the job with WWE. He basically said he couldn’t just drop everything and start work for WWE because he had obligations. Secondly, Eric pointed out that the process of closing your house up and moving all your stuff across the country takes some time. Eric said when he left, he thought he was leaving for a couple of years. - Eric admits that WWE did want him to start work pretty much right away, but due to his commitments he wasn’t able to start work until July 20, 2019. - Conrad asks about Eric’s new home, and if WWE arranged it? - Eric confirms that WWE owns several corporate apartments, and that WWE arranged all of that for him. Eric says the apartment was okay, but in the end “it was a corporate fucking apartment” and that going from a 5,000 square foot ranch house on 23 acres in Wyoming to a corporate apartment in Connecticut next to the University of Connecticut, in downtown Stamford was a big adjustment for he and his wife. - Eric says that before the move he thought he was capable of adapting to pretty much anything, but adjusting to life in Connecticut after living on his ranch in Wyoming was very tough for him, much harder than he had expected. Eric says it made him feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable. - Eric says when he began on July 20, 2019 he started work at 9:30 am and had to undergo orientation. - Eric says his apartment was only 10 minutes away from WWE Headquarters so the commute was easy. - Eric says for his first two weeks, all he did was attend meetings with the different WWE department heads and get familiar with the inner workings of WWE, and learning which department was responsible for what, and who answered to who. - Eric says his first 3-6 weeks in the job was nothing but meetings, he didn’t even have a meeting with the creative team until almost before he was fired. - Conrad asks if it was a major adjustment for Eric to go from working at home, for himself and being his own boss to having to put a suit on and go to endless meetings. - Eric said that Bruce Prichard had warned him specifically that he would have to attend so many meetings that he would end up being overwhelmed and feel he was “trying to drink water from a fire hose.” Eric says that he found that analogy hilarious and it ended up being absolutely true. - Eric says that (aside from not being sure that he even really wanted the job when he took it) this is where he made a major mistake that might have cost him this job. - Eric says that when he worked for Turner Broadcasting, Bill Shaw had complemented on him on his ability to work to the specifics of whoever he answered to, and adapt to changing job requirements. Eric says he has always prided himself on his ability to adapt, thrive and give his employers what they want. - Eric says going into the WWE he seriously overestimated his own ability to adjust to working for WWE and adapt to such a radical change of environment. - Eric pointed out that after WCW was sold to WWE, he had basically been his own boss for almost 20 years. Eric says that he had become “set in his ways” and used to his own way of doing things. - Eric says that he has come to realize, mostly due to self-reflection after getting fired by WWE, that he has really changed over the past 20 years since he was President of WCW. Eric says he radically underestimated his own ability to work within the corporate environment of WWE. - Eric says that more than anything, what he didn’t realize is that he doesn’t work well within a corporate environment anymore...he is too used to working on his own and not having to work within that type of culture. - Eric pointed out that, “make no mistake about it” in the end, WWE is a massive money making machine. - Eric says that even though he had competed against Vince McMahon in business, and even though he had worked for WWE as a talent, that he never really understood the magnitude of the corporate environment in WWE. Eric says becoming part of the WWE corporate culture was really overwhelming. - Eric says that part of the problem is that when he arrived in July 2019, they were planning on resetting the “brand split” and doing a draft to separate the rosters of Raw and Smackdown before Smackdown moved to Fox...but literally nobody in management except for Vince McMahon knew what that meant and how that was going to affect their jobs or responsibilities. - Eric says that the management team and everybody else was basically sitting on “pins and needles” waiting for the announcement of the draft results and how that would affect them personally. - Eric says that just prior to his arrival, there had been some major changes to the creative team on Smackdown and the writing team and talent were still having a hard time adjusting to those changes when he arrived. - Eric says there was a serious “lack of synchronicity” going on in WWE management when he arrived. He says it wasn’t quite total chaos...but it was close. Basically, Vince McMahon knew what he wanted and what he was planning on doing, but he rarely shared that information with anybody until the very last minute. - Eric said that he was kept so busy going to business meetings, he barely got to attend meetings of the creative team. Eric said he was still trying to get a feeling for who was on the creative team...but it didn’t really matter because he knew the team was going to split up once the draft happened. - Eric says that he knew that after the draft, both he and Paul Heyman knew that they were going to be assigned their own writing teams for their own respective shows, but Eric and Paul Heyman had no idea who those people were going to be, when it was going to happen, and they were given no input on the decision. Both Bischoff and Heyman had particular writers they wanted assigned to their respective teams, but nobody asked for their opinions or input. - Eric reiterates that he was not expected to influence the creative direction of Smackdown, but only to ask questions and then take the information back to Vince McMahon. - Eric says that the Smackdown writing staff consisted of about 10-12 writers and he was slowly to trying to get to know them all and their strengths and weakness...but as he said, some of that was pointless because he knew at some point before Smackdown debuted, the writing teams were going to be changed. - Eric said it was very hard for him to make an accurate assessment of the creative team because of the uncertainty regarding the draft. - Eric says that the whole situation was very challenging and frustrating. - Eric points out that although WWE had split their two brands previously, this situation was going to be totally different and maybe not everybody understands that. - Eric says the deal with Smackdown moving to Fox meant that each brand had to have their own separate team and different structure, because both brands were now answering to totally different networks. - Eric says Fox and USA had totally different relationships with WWE. WWE had a longstanding relationship with the USA network and both sides were familiar with each other. Fox had a totally different management structure and different expectations of WWE. - Eric says the relationship between WWE and Fox was going to be totally different from the relationship WWE had with the USA Network. - Eric says that Fox had an expectation that their relationship with WWE would just like the relationship between a Television Network and any other Television program, whereas the WWE/USA relationship was much more collaborative. - Eric says one of the major differences is that Fox was very insistent that Smackdown have their own dedicated management team and especially their own dedicated roster, and Fox did not want any of those people also working for the USA Network, and they especially did not want talent that was working for Fox showing up on any other networks. - Eric said that WWE was not used to that kind of relationship with a TV Network and WWE found it very challenging and it caused a lot of pressure. - Eric says one of the problems was that the majority of the writing staff in WWE lived in New York City and commuted to WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. The writers took the train to work from New York, and as a result most of them did not arrive for work until around 10:30 am. - Eric says that with very few exceptions, he would be working at WWE headquarters until 10:00 pm at the earliest. - Eric says that 2-3 days a week, he ended up getting home as late as 3:00 – 4:00 am. - Conrad sounds surprised at that. - Eric says that part of the job was actually not a problem for him, as he was used to putting in those kinds of hours. - Eric says for some reason, while he was working for WWE there was a narrative in the dirt sheets and Pro Wrestling online media that he was “lazy” but that was totally untrue. Eric says he put in extremely long hours when he was in WWE, and that is a provable fact. - Eric says he usually worked a 14-16 hour day. - Eric reiterates that the long hours didn’t bother him...what bothered him was the “downtime.” - Eric says that during his long days thete was far too much “dead time” when nothing was getting done. - Conrad asks why? - Eric is very hesitant at this point and is clearly trying to be diplomatic. After Conrad prods him, Eric says: “Let me put it this way...I wasn’t in charge of my own schedule.” - Eric says that he found working 14-16 hour days with endless meetings punctuated by long periods of time sitting around waiting for approval to work, was “sucking the life out of him.” - Eric says that conversely, Paul Heyman had no problem whatsoever working within the WWE corporate system, and that compared to Bischoff, Paul Heyman was “a fucking rock star.” - Eric says that in the 4 month period he worked for WWE he gained so much more respect for Paul Heyman. Eric says he really respects how Paul Heyman is able to work within the WWE system and not only endure it, and survive. Eric says Paul Heyman knows how to overcome the challenges of working within the WWE system. (Sidenote: Keep in mind...at the time of this interview, Paul Heyman had not yet been fired from his own Executive Director’s job with WWE.) - Eric reiterates how much respect he gained for Paul Heyman and his abilities, and one of his biggest regrets is that he didn’t get to work more with Heyman. - Eric says that he is also very disappointed that he never got the chance to work with Bruce Prichard, and that is one of the reasons he took the WWE job in the first place, to work with his friend. - Eric says at the same time that he was having all his challenges in WWE, Bruce was trying to sell his family home in Houston and move his family permanently to Connecticut, and also Bruce and members of his family were having major health problems. - Eric says that he met with Paul Heyman after his first meeting with Vince McMahon, before he had been offered the job after his second meeting. - Eric says Paul Heyman figured out pretty quick that Vince was planning on bringing Eric on board, and that Paul was very excited about it. - Eric says that once the Smackdown writing team was defined, right before the debut on Fox he finally knew who he was going to be working with. Eric says there wasn’t one person on that creative team that he didn’t like and didn’t want to work with. - Eric wants to make it clear that he got along great with everybody on the Smackdown creative team and he has nothing but respect for all of them. His relationship with the writing staff has nothing to do with the reason he was fired. Eric says he would never criticize such a group of “hardworking, dedicated and talented people.” - Eric says he has actually stayed in touch with a number of the Smackdown creative team since he left WWE. - Conrad asks how this whole situation affected Eric’s wife Lori Bischoff? - Eric says he is glad brought that up. - Eric says he is so lucky to be with his wife. - Eric talks at length about the history of his relationship with his wife, how they met when they were both professional models in downtown Chicago. - Eric says every time he has had to move due to work, from Chicago to Minneapolis, to Arizona, to wherever...his wife has always been totally adaptable and been right there with him, supporting him. - Eric says wherever they went, Lori found a way to enjoy it. - Eric says as much as he and Lori love their home and their life in Wyoming, there were things that they did miss about living in a big city or urban center. Eric says he and Lori love fine dining in great restaurants, and the arts and museums...and obviously they did not have much access to any of those things living in rural Wyoming. - Eric says that the idea of being so close to New York City was definitely one of the reasons he took the job. Eric points out that if you look at his career, he has spent very little time on the East Coast and both he and his wife were looking forward to everything New York had to offer, since it was only an hour from their home by car. Eric and Lori wanted to “explore” New York. - Eric said that he Lori had planned to fly their children in for Christmas and have the holiday in New York City. Eric says that was very exciting. - Eric says Lori kept very busy during this time. Eric points out that his wife is a published author and “life coach” who had her own established business, most of which she was able to do remotely. Eric says his wife was looking forward to seeing how their new proximity to New York could help grow her already established business. - Eric says his wife was very positive during this entire process, so worrying about his wife’s happiness was not one of the challenges. - Eric says that when his schedule ended up involving him getting home at 3:00 or 4:00 am and crawling into bed, and then having to get up the next morning to be back in the office by 9:30 am was definitely challenging for Lori, but she never complained or didn’t support him. - Eric says that he did have weekends off to spend with his wife...technically. - Eric says that even though he was not expected to be in the office on weekends, he was required to have his phone with him at all times, and it was not unusual for Vince McMahon to call him regarding something work related in the middle of the night. - Eric says when you work for WWE, you are “tethered” to the business constantly. - Conrad asks for an example. - Eric says that he cannot get into the details about any of the reasons that he would receive a late night call, because discussing the particular information about any drafts, or contracts or scripts that were being sent back and forth on weekends or in the middle of the night would violate his NDA. - Eric says that when he was hired he was given a very strict warning that he must never turn his cell phone off, and that part of his job expectations was to always answer his phone, no matter what. - Eric says he was prepared for that, and worried about it more than he should have. Eric says that it didn’t happen all the time, but it did happen. - Eric says that the fact that when you work for WWE you are “never off duty” is something that he knew going in, but he underestimated the impact it was going to have on him. - Eric said he was fine with being asked to work 16 hour days, but he thinks it would have been nice if he could have been given just one day, like Sunday...where he could not worry about work and could spend quality time with his wife. - Eric says that never happens. - Eric says that if you ever see a picture of the corporate WWE jet, you will see the registration number painted on the jet: “WWE247” and there is a reason for that. “It’s not just a cool thing to say...it’s 24/7 when you work for WWE.” - Conrad says it’s time to talk about when the wheels started to come off... To be continued. Next time...

Thanks very much brothers, I really appreciate it. Like I said before, I don't mind doing this as long as I know people are actually reading them. I just didn't want to go to all the trouble if people weren't interested.

Okay, I started a thread. Here it is! The first recap I posted is the exclusive podcast where Eric Bischoff talks about the circumstances around his return and very quick departure from WWE in 2019. Hope you guys enjoy.

So here is a new recap. This is only part one of the recap, since it's pretty damn long I wanted to break it up a bit... Ad Free Shows Exclusive edition of 83 Weeks: March 28, 2020 "Eric Leaves WWE" Part One: Eric's journey back to WWE - Conrad says that today is the debut of his new "Ad Free Shows" Patreon site. Conrad says that members will not only get every episode of all of his podcasts with no ads, but each host will also be providing an exclusive bonus "members only" podcast once a month. - Conrad says that for the very first bonus episode on Ad Free Shows, he has convinced Eric Bischoff to do something that he had previously refused to do...namely to discuss the details surrounding his being hired by WWE as an Executive Producer for Smackdown in June 2019, and his subsequent firing four months later, on October 15, 2019. - Conrad points out that Eric had previously refused to discuss this topic, and asked why Eric had changed his mind? - Eric jokes that it must be because Conrad is so charming and persuasive, even more so than Vince McMahon himself. - Conrad asks all Ad Free Show members to not circulate this podcast online, and to keep it behind the paywall because there could potentially be legal ramifications for some of the things they talk about during this podcast. (Sidenote: I actually didn't recap this interview at the time out of respect for Conrad's request. However, this interview took place 9 months ago and Eric Bischoff has since mentioned many of the things he discussed in this interview in subsequent podcasts. Plus, a reporter named Andrew Ravens posted an article about this interview on a website called "sescoops.com" a couple of days after the interview was released...so I am thinking that the genie is pretty much out of the bottle at this point. More importantly, I am not stupid enough to not see Conrad is being a bit of a carny by acting like this interview was really breaking any of the terms of Eric Bischoff's non-disclosure agreement. Conrad was clearly just trying to make the whole situation sound edgier and more controversial in order to hype up Ad Free Shows and persuade people to sign up. If there had even been the slightest chance this interview could have landed Conrad in legal hot water or cost Eric Bischoff a nickel, there is no way in hell either of them would have done it.) - Conrad runs down a bit of the history of how Eric Bischoff’s return to WWE unfolded. Conrad says that to understand the background of this situation, they need to discuss Bruce Prichard. - Conrad talked about how he and his wife were having dinner with Eric and Conrad's employee Dave Silva after an 83 Weeks Live Show in Rochester New York in February 2019, when they found out that Bruce Prichard had been hired back by WWE and was returning to work for Vince McMahon. Conrad says that while he might have seen that situation coming, he never would have guessed that Eric Bischoff would also end up going to work for Vince McMahon. - Eric says he remembers that dinner. Eric says that when it came to Bruce Prichard returning to WWE, he was "surprised...yet he wasn't surprised." Eric points out that a lot of people don't realize that he and Bruce Prichard have become very close personal friends over the years. (Sidenote: Eric Bischoff and Bruce Prichard had never actually met prior to Bischoff going to work for WWE as a talent in 2002. This topic was discussed at length during episode #48 of "Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard" entitled "Eric Bischoff in WWE." Supposedly, when Eric Bischoff first came into WWE, there were a lot of people who were not happy about it. Some were former WCW talent who had grudges against how Bischoff had treated them (Ric Flair being one.) Others were WWE talent who didn't like the idea of being forced to work with the guy who had basically tried to put them all out of business. Vince McMahon apparently assigned Bruce Prichard the job of being Bischoff's personal producer and acting as a buffer between Bischoff and the rest of the WWE locker room. Prichard has admitted that he went into the situation reluctantly, assuming that Bischoff was going to be egotistical, opinionated, stubborn and basically hard to work with. Prichard has claimed he was shocked at how easy going and open minded Bischoff was. During this time period, Prichard's wife was going through a very serious battle with cancer, and apparently Bischoff was extremely supportive and compassionate with Prichard. Bruce Prichard has said that the Eric Bischoff he got to know in 2002 was nothing like the person he had heard about from other people. Apparently their time working together in 2002 created a personal bond between Prichard and Bischoff, and as a result they remained friends and stayed in close touch, talking to each other a couple of times a week, even after both of them left WWE.) - Eric talked about how much Professional Wrestling and specifically WWE mean to Bruce Prichard. Eric says that working for Vince McMahon was Prichard's whole life, and that when Prichard got fired in 2008 it devastated him. Eric says that Vince McMahon was almost like a Father to Bruce Prichard, or at the very least a mentor and that Prichard looked up to McMahon. - Bischoff says that after Prichard left WWE in 2008 Bruce struggled both emotionally and personally, but also financially. - Bischoff pointed out that Bruce Prichard got his start in the business working in the Houston territory for Paul Bosch when he was just a kid and has never really done anything else. - Bischoff says that when you have worked your entire adult life in Professional Wrestling and then you can't do it anymore it puts you in a very bad position. Bischoff says that having worked exclusively in Pro Wrestling does not really give you a skill set that you can use to help you get a job in any other type of profession. It doesn't look good on your resume. - Eric talked about how Bruce went from making six figures working for WWE to having no job and no real prospect for a job...so when Bruce and Vince started talking again, Eric was relieved. Eric says once Bruce and Vince started talking again, he knew it would only be a matter of time before Bruce ended up going back in some capacity. - Once Bruce did go back to WWE, Eric was happy for him but at the same time he was worried for Bruce's health (he has had several heart attacks and WWE is not known as a low stress job.) Eric was also concerned because Bruce was starting to make a lot of money from his podcast and working with Conrad. Eric says he was worried that Bruce would be giving up that guaranteed income, and that he would be leaving Conrad in a tough spot as well. - Conrad asks what happened after Bruce went back to work for WWE, how did Eric end up getting involved? - Eric remembered that Bruce, Eric and Conrad had all committed to some podcast related Live Shows, and that Bruce had agreed to finish his commitment to the Live Shows before going back to WWE full time, which Vince McMahon agreed to. The day of their final live show together, Bruce and Eric had breakfast together. Bruce asked Eric if he was interested in coming to work for WWE in a management position. Eric says that he would be happy to discuss it, but he really didn't expect much to come of the idea. - Eric pointed out that he had gone out of his way to leave WWE on good terms after his on air role there was finished. After his departure in 2007, he had been back to WWE several times to contribute to different projects. They had also done a documentary on him. So as far as he knew, Eric Bischoff was still on good terms with everybody in WWE and everybody seemed to consider his time there from 2002-2007 as an on air talent as a success and there were no bad feelings or personality issues as a result of that. - Conrad says that he thinks that the last time he remembered sitting down with both Bruce and Eric was at their final scheduled Live Shows. Conrad says that he remembers that Bruce Prichard's final "Something To Wrestle" Live Show was at Starrcast in Las Vegas. After that, Bruce would have fulfilled all of his contracted Live Event obligations with Conrad, and it was highly unlikely that he would do any more appearances, due to his position with WWE...he would be too busy, plus WWE didn't want Bruce appearing at events like Starrcast. - Eric says that he did see Bruce at Starrcast in May 2019 at Bruce's final STW Live Show, and maybe that was the time he and Bruce discussed Eric returning to WWE. Eric says he can't remember the details of exactly when he and Bruce discussed his returning to WWE, but he can distinctly remember the breakfast buffet at Starrcast in Las Vegas, because the food was good. - Eric says that the reason he can't even remember when he and Bruce first talked about him returning to WWE is because he honestly never thought there was a serious possibility of it happening. Basically, Bruce is his friend and wanted to get him a job with WWE, but Eric thought there wasn't a big chance of it actually happening. - Conrad asks when the conversations actually did become serious? Eric says that he got a call from Bruce in the spring of 2019 and asked if Eric would be willing to come down to Stanford and meet with Vince. Eric said that he would be willing to talk. - Eric talked about how much things have changed in WWE over the years. Bruce called Eric before Eric flew down to WWE headquarters, and told Eric that things are much more formal and businesslike than ever before, so it was important that Eric remember to wear a suit. (Sidenote: I assume this was because one of the things Eric Bischoff was infamous for during his time as President of WCW was his casual dress attire. Eric has mentioned several times that other executives in the Turner organization didn't like the fact that Eric Bischoff wore jeans and drove his Harley Davidson to work.) - Eric says that he hadn't worn a suit in over five years and he had to find one buried in his closet. - Eric remembers the first meeting he had with Vince McMahon was in Vince's office in WWE Headquarters. Eric says the first meeting was very casual and was just a "chemistry check." Eric says that Vince was interested in finding out what projects Eric was currently involved with and if any of them would interfere with the possibility of his coming to work for WWE. There were no offers made in this meeting, or details discussed. - Conrad asks how Eric felt after the first meeting with Vince? - Eric says it was a great meeting. Eric pointed out that he hadn't actually seen or talked to Vince for quite a long time, since 2008. Eric says it was nice to see Vince again. - Eric says that his joking nickname for Vince is "the silver tongued devil" and then when Vince flips his "charm switch" he is very hard to say no to. Eric confirmed the longstanding story told by many others in the Pro Wrestling business, that you can walk into a meeting with Vince McMahon feeling angry or determined to make a point about something, or you can have an agenda...but Vince seems to have an amazing ability to disarm people and get them to do whatever he says and agree with him. (Sidenote: Jim Cornette has told some hilarious stories confirming this. Cornette says not only can Vince persuade people to do things his way, but he is such a good con artist that he can actually convince people that doing things Vince's way was their own idea all along. Cornette admits that even he fell for that when he worked with Vince, and Vince McMahon was successful on several occasions in convincing him to do things he never would have ever considered doing...and then after he got out of the meeting he asked himself how that even happened. I have also heard Edge tell a very similar story.) - Eric says that he doesn't want to suggest that he and Vince McMahon are friends. Eric says he and Vince are "friendly" and that he has a great deal of respect for Vince McMahon and a "certain amount of affection" for him. - Eric wants to make it clear that part of the problem he ended up having with going back to WWE is that right from the start, he was never really 100% sure that he really even wanted to do it. - Eric pointed out that right at the time he met with Vince McMahon, his podcast with Conrad was starting to generate some serious and substantial revenue. - Eric said that he had some other major projects going on at the time, including a major movie project. (Sidenote: That would be the Hulk Hogan biopic for Netflix, starring Chris Hemsworth.) - Eric said that he was also an Executive Producer of a couple of reality TV shows as well. The point is, at that time he didn't "need" to go back to WWE and he really wasn't sure that he wanted to. - Eric says that he called his wife after the meeting and told her the meeting was good, but he wasn't sure anything was going to happen as a result. - Conrad asked what happened next? - Eric says several weeks went by after his first meeting, and he didn't expect to hear anything back. Eventually Eric heard back from somebody "very highly placed" with WWE. - Eric says that he wants to be careful at this point, as there are several people who are not publicly known that work high in the management structure within WWE and he doesn't want to name them. (I don't think this is because he is trying to hide anything, I think it is more that Bischoff knows he is a public figure and doesn't want to bring unneccesary attention onto WWE Executives who work behind the scenes and are not required to have public appearances as part of their duties with WWE.) This unnamed executive just called Eric Bischoff to inform him that although he hadn't heard from WWE, they were still interested in speaking with him further. - The following week, WWE contacted Eric again and asked him to come back to WWE Headquarters for a second meeting. - Eric says that at that point, he knew they were actually serious about wanting to work with him and it was possible they might actually make him an offer. - Eric says that after getting the call to arrange the second meeting, he actually had to start thinking about if he really wanted to go to work for WWE and what that would require. Specifically, that would obviously mean that he would have to leave his ranch in Wyoming and move to Connecticut. - At this point, Eric talked about his home in Wyoming. (If you have seen the documentary WWE did on Eric Bischoff, then you will have seen where he lives.) - Specifically, when Eric Bischoff was made President of WCW and started to make "Executive" money, he was living in Arizona. At that point, he and his wife made the decision to build their dream home in rural Wyoming. Bischoff underscored the fact that his home is in the middle of nowhere. Eric does not even live within reasonable travelling distance of a major urban center with an airport, so when he travels anywhere it usually takes him two days to get there at a minimum, especially in the winter time when travel could be very difficult. The other problem is that because Wyoming is so remote, getting there by plane is exceptionally expensive. Eric said that he is not joking when he says that you could probably fly around the world on Virgin airlines for the same price it would cost you to get back and forth from Wyoming to New York...it is prohibitively expensive. - Bischoff says that at this point, he had to consider the fact that working for WWE and going back and forth to his home in Wyoming was not going to work, and that he wasn't going to be able to work from home, so that was going to be a problem. - Conrad asked what happened at the second meeting? - Eric says that he knew that if WWE was going to go to all the trouble of flying him from Wyoming to New York for a second meeting, they were definitely going to make him some sort of offer...that was just common sense. Eric says that he knew going in to the second meeting that he was going to be required to make a commitment, and that within certain parameters, he would be willing to make one. - Eric met with Vince the second time, and they talked. - Eric says that at this point he has to be careful about violating his "NDA" (Non-Disclosure Agreement.) Eric says he has had to sign an NDA in the past and they never really worried him...otherwise he wouldn't be doing this episode...but at the same time he doesn't want to end up getting sued. Also, Eric says that even though things did not end well for him with WWE he still has "a certain level" of respect for Vince but even more so for Bruce Prichard, and he does not want to disclose anything which might upset them. - Eric also says that even though things ended badly for him with WWE, he doesn't want to bury them because there are a lot of people working there behind the scenes that he really likes and that treated him very well. Eric says he still has nothing but the highest respect for WWE and the people who work there. - Eric says that in the second meeting, a specific offer was made. (Eric does not want to discuss the actual financial terms of the offer, as I assume this would be a violation of his NDA.) - Eric says that looking back...this is where he made a mistake. - Eric says that right up front, he knew that WWE was going to require him to make a commitment to them that he really wasn't ready to make. Eric says that he was not prepared to permanently leave Wyoming or to sell his home and possessions, and move himself and his wife to Connecticut permanently. - Eric says he knew that even if things went really well between himself and WWE, the maximum amount of time he would last working there would be two years at most. Eric says that the longest commitment he was willing to make to WWE was to move to the east coast for two years, and that would be it. - Conrad asks does that mean Eric Bischoff thought that his relationship with WWE would sour within two years? - Eric said no...it's not that he thought things would go badly (like they did.) Eric says that the big issue to him is that he is turning 65 in May 2020. Eric says he is not a 35 year old man. If he was younger, he would have been glad to drop everything and move to New York without evening thinking about it, but at his age now he had to think about his future beyond WWE. - Eric says that this is a very important point...working for WWE is great because they are the biggest Sports Entertainment company in the world, ever. If you work there you get to work with the best people in the industry. However, Eric says that going into a relationship with a company like WWE you can't just assume you are going to be working there forever. You have to go into the relationship understanding "it is going to have a beginning, a middle...and an ending." Eric says that he wanted this to be the end to his career, and to end on a high note. - Eric says that when he went to work for WWE the first time in 2002, he did it for fun and because he wanted to do it to see what it would be like. Bischoff claims that at that point in his life in 2002, he was doing very well financially and didn't need to go to WWE for the money. - Eric Bischoff admits that when he went to WWE this time, things were a lot different. Eric says that his life had undergone a "severe financial downturn" and that the financial problems he was having were self-inflicted. - Bischoff says that he had made the decision to invest heavily in a digital gaming company called "Epics Gaming" and had put "serious money" into the business venture. - Bischoff says that he had invested over a million dollars into developing a digital slot machine business, themed after celebrities like The Blues Brothers, David Hasslehoff (?!) and of course...Hulk Hogan. - Bischoff says these celebrity themed digital slot machines were not intended for use in North America, but instead were intended for use in European casinos. Bischoff says that digital slot machines are much more popular in Europe than they are in North America, and that he thought having celebrity themed digital slot machines was a great idea. - Eric says that at that point, he was being managed by "CAA" (the Creative Arts Agency, which is the most dominant talent agency in the entertainment world) and as a result of his association with CAA he was able to put together an impressive stable of celebrity endorsed digital gaming machines with names like Dennis Rodman and Mike Tyson. - Eric says his company had great software engineers and a good business plan and everything looked like the company was going to be very successful, so much so that the company attracted external investors, even though he had put a lot of his own money into it as well. - Bischoff claims everything was going extremely well for his new company, until they put in an appearance at a major trade show in the UK. - Bischoff says his new company's presentation at the trade show brought them to the attention of a company called "William Hill Games" which is recognized as the global industry leader in the digital gaming and gambling business, and had expanded into the online business. Apparently William Hill Games has been a company in the gambling business for almost 100 years. (I assume they haven't been in digital gambling all that time.) - Bischoff claims that William Hill Games copied their idea, but had much more money and more contacts and were able to attract bigger name celebrities than his company had, and offer them more money. - Bischoff basically said that you can't copyright an idea as broad as "let's put a celebrity name on a slot machine" so that made it possible for William Hill Games to copy the idea, put more money into it and beat them to market. - Eric Bischoff says that even though their idea had been stolen by the industry leader after the trade show, they were still in a good position to make a lot of money when they were blindsided by the oppressive regulatory requirements for gaming in Europe. - Apparently Bischoff discovered that you couldn't just design a slot machine with a celebrity name, picture and endorsement on it, have it put in a casino and start making money. Bischoff says each European country had a different set of regulations and legal requirements for how the machines would work, how much they could pay off, etc. This would require each machine's software to be changed based on each individual country, which made the costs of producing the slot machines prohibitive. - Bischoff says this business failure is totally on him. He claims he got into the gaming industry thinking he understood how it worked, but then he found out there was a lot more to it than he ever could have imagined. - Eric says that he adopted a new personal motto when it comes to attempting to be an entrepreneur in a particular area which you are unfamiliar with, and that is: "You don't know what you don't know." Basically, if you think you have an idea that will make you a lot of money, you'd better know who you are up against for competition and understand all the legal regulations and requirements, and what pitfalls you might encounter. Bischoff said that he found that out much too late. - Eric Bischoff says that: "Long story short, I lost a shit ton of money, out of my retirement savings. That took a big chunk out of me." - Bischoff says that whole process of investing in the digital slot machine company and losing his money took about three years. - Eric says that around the exact same time, in 2011 or so he decided to start his own brand of beer. - Bischoff reminded Conrad that around 2010 the "craft beer" market was exploding and for a while it seemed like everybody was creating their own brand of beer. Bischoff came up with the idea of creating a brand of beer named: "Buffalo Bill Cody Beer." (Sidenote: For those who might not be familiar with the name, Buffalo Bill Cody was one of the most famous and well-known figures of the American Old West, and a legendary showman. He also founded the town of Cody, Wyoming which is the closest major city to where Eric Bischoff now lives.) - Bischoff says that around 2010 he hired a lawyer to research who owned the copyright on the name Buffalo Bill Cody. Bischoff claims the lawyer told him that nobody owned the name, so he was allowed to file a trademark for the name Buffalo Bill Cody. - Eric further claims that he was able to find artwork and photographs of Buffalo Bill that were in the "public domain" which means no exclusive intellectual property rights apply to the name because the rights may have expired or don't apply. (Sidenote: The issue of a famous person and their work being part of the "public domain" is actually pretty interesting. For example, no provable living relative of William Shakespeare exists, so that means technically anybody could create a product with name and likeness of William Shakespeare and not have to pay for it. The same applies to the character of Sherlock Holmes, since his creator no longer has any living descendants who can assert intellectual property rights...so you can technically use the name and likeness of a famous historical figure to make money, and you don’t have to pay anybody for the right to do it.) - Eric Bischoff says "everything was going great" in his application to create and product "Buffalo Bill Cody" brand beer, when he got a call from his lawyer. - Bischoff says that when he started the process of creating this brand of beer, he had been very specific with his lawyer that he was not looking to invest a lot of money in the process, since he was already in the middle of losing a ton of money on his digital gaming company. - Eric claims his lawyer told him the only money he needed to invest up front in the process of starting the new brand of beer was $12,000. - Eric says he was more than happy to risk that, since it really wasn't a large sum of money compared to the amount he had tied up in the gaming company. - Not too long after paying the initial $12,000 investment, Eric says his lawyer explained "there were a couple of issues." - Eric asked Conrad if he understood the process of applying for a trademark, and Conrad says he was familiar with the process. - Bischoff says it is possible to do a "trademark search" on a particular name and for the name to come back clean, with nobody owning a legal trademark on that name. However, before you are granted the legal trademark you must "publish the trademark for opposition." - Conrad says he is well familiar with that concept...and that it is trouble. - Eric says that is where "the shit hit the fan" with his Buffalo Bill Cody brand beer. - Bischoff says that a brand of bourbon called "Buffalo Trace Bourbon" filed a legal opposition to his application. Eric says they are a major company and had a huge team of lawyers who were used specifically to discourage anybody from filing any trademarks on anything similar to their product. - Bischoff says at the same time, a hotel in Cody Wyoming named "Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel" also opposed his trademark. The owner of the hotel had no legal standing to challenge the trademark because he was not related to Buffalo Bill Cody, however the hotel had originally been owned by Buffalo Bill so the owner felt he had legal standing to challenge anybody else using the name. - Eric says that his initial investment of $12,000 then turned to $25,000 and then to $50,000 all due to legal fees. - Bischoff claims all the while his lawyer kept assuring him that they would get the trademark and the whole problem would be wrapped up soon. - Bischoff said that the legal bills kept piling up and soon enough he was invested $100,000 into his beer brand just to try and get the name he wanted to use. - Bischoff says he felt he had to keep fighting for the trademark, because if he didn't then he would have lost the $100,000 and have nothing to show for it...and more importantly he felt he was in the right and had every right to use the name to make his beer. - Eric said that is the worst thing about lawsuits...even when you know you are right, you still have to spend a ton of money to prove it. - Eric Bischoff says that he eventually did win the trademark, but by the time all was said and done it had cost him a quarter of a million dollars. - Eric admits that all this was going on at the exact same time he got the call for his second meeting with Vince McMahon. - Bischoff admits that even though he had his doubts about being able to make the kind of commitment that it seemed to take to work for Vince McMahon and WWE, he needed the money and that if he is being honest his financial problems definitely influenced his decision. (Sidenote: If Eric Bischoff and Bruce Prichard are as close personal friends as they seem to be, it's entirely possible Prichard knew all about Bischoff's money problems and pushed to get Eric a job with WWE to help him out financially, if for no other reason.) - Eric says that his podcast with Conrad was really starting to do well around the same time, they had built up an audience and the podcast was definitely starting to generate significant income...but the WWE offer was also very tempting for financial reasons. - Conrad asks if once WWE made the offer and financial terms were agreed upon, did WWE ask him to move to New York/Connecticut? - Eric admits that was discussed. - Bischoff says that he knows trying to work somewhere so far from home is pretty much impossible. When he was President of WCW he stated in Atlanta and did not commute back and forth from Arizona. When he was working for TNA, he would fly down to Orlando and stay there during the weeks they taped TV at Universal Studios. - Eric reiterates that he knew that he could not work for WWE during the days and go home to his place in Wyoming and have that be a viable option. Eric says working remotely from home was not an option either, it wouldn't have worked for WWE and he wouldn't have wanted to do it either...he prefers working face to face. - Conversely Eric Bischoff reiterated that his home in Wyoming was his home and he is not going to sell it or leave it permanently under any circumstances whatsoever. - Conrad burst out laughing when Eric said: "For anybody to get me out of this house...it's going to involve gunfire." - Eric said that he and his wife built his home in Wyoming when he was President of WCW, it was their dream home, it is the one constant in his life and he and his wife are going to leave the property to their children because they love it so much they want it kept in the family. Eric says it is the place where his children grew up, and he was going to keep it. - Eric says that he and his wife discussed it and decided that getting rid of their home in Wyoming was not an option. - Eric decided to take a two year contract with WWE and take a temporary home in Connecticut, but to keep their home in Wyoming. During Eric's contract with WWE he says he was determined to work as hard as he could, make as much money as he could, and at the end of that time he would retire and he and his wife would return home. - Eric Bischoff pointed out that although he was having some financial setbacks, he was still doing okay and didn't "need" to work for WWE but it the money was probably the main consideration. - Eric reiterated that he podcast 83 Weeks was starting to generate significant income, and that if the movie deal he was working on came to fruition he also stood to make a significant amount of money from that. (Sidenote: I actually believe that statement. As I mentioned elsewhere at PWO, during one of Conrad's "Ask Conrad Anything" podcasts, he broke down the financial details of his podcasts and how much income they generate. Specifically, Conrad said that based on the high number of downloads Bruce Prichard's podcast was getting, he was able to negotiate a significant deal with Westwood One. Westwood One would be responsible for selling Ad time of Conrad's podcasts to a "major Madison Avenue advertising firm." The rate paid out would be based on the number of downloads. Conrad claims that thanks to Westwood One and their contract with the Madison Avenue advertising agency, any podcast that can get more than 200,000 downloads a week can generate a "six figure" income. The deal is apparently pro-rated, so the more downloads the podcast gets, the more the advertisers pay. Conrad claims that Bruce Prichard's podcast is now getting almost a million downloads per seven day period, so his podcast is generating a great deal of income. This is why Prichard insisted that he be allowed to keep doing the podcast upon his return to WWE. Conrad has claimed that Eric Bischoff's podcast is the second most popular podcast in his stable...although it is very close to JR's show. As a result, Prichard, Bischoff and JR are all making "high six figure" incomes from their podcasts...as long as they keep getting good download numbers and Westwood One can maintain their advertising contracts. As far as the Hulk Hogan movie, there is a very good chance it will be pre-sold to Netflix, which means Bischoff will probably get a major payday from that project regardless of how good the movie actually ends up being or how many people actually watch it on Netflix. Because the movie will be sold to a streaming service, the income generated by the film will apparently not be dependant on it's performance at the Box Office. Which is good for them...because I can't personally imagine anybody paying money to go see a movie with Chris Hemsworth playing Hulk Hogan.) - Bischoff says that based on his new WWE contract, his podcast and the movie deal...he is once again financially stable and will be okay for his retirement. (Assuming he doesn't invest in any more celebrity slot machines or wild west brand beer.) - Eric Bischoff says that he and his wife packed their most important possessions and their dog into a trailer, and drove towards Connecticut. I will post the next part of this recap in the next few days. I need to take a break because the hot water tank in my building just burst open and now our basement is flooded with water...so I am going to be busy with my mop and ShopVac for a while. And now we have no hot water. *cue insane Jim Cornette style rant* To be continued...

In the "Cancellation of Jim Cornette" thread a couple of PWO Good Brothers were nice enough to request that I recap one of Jim Cornette's recent match reviews, like I have done several times with other topics in the past. I mentioned that (due to my being a subscriber to Conrad Thompson's Ad Free Shows service) I have access to some other interesting podcasts/interviews and I would be willing to recap those as well, if anybody was interested. Quite a few of you mentioned that you would be interested in reading some of these recaps if I was to start a thread dedicated to that idea. So I have decided to start a thread here and catalogue all of my most recent epic length recap posts. Then from this point onward, I will post any recaps in this thread so they are easier to find. As I went through my recaps for the past year, I couldn't help but notice that 99% of them involve Jim Cornette. Basically it appears that there are a fair number of people who want to hear what Jim Cornette might have to say about a particular topic...they just don't want to listen to him say it. I originally posted this thread in the podcast folder, but @MoS suggested I move it to this folder...so here we go. Here is what I have done so far, and stay tuned for new recaps soon. Jim Cornette interviews Kevin Sullivan regarding Dark Side of the Ring. (From "The Jim Cornette Experience Episode # 326") Jim Cornette interviews FTR. (From "The Jim Cornette Experience Episode # 334") Chris Hyatte Passes Away Jim Cornette responds to allegations made against him during the #SpeakingOut movement. (From "Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru: Special Edition 06/22/20") Conrad Thompson explains why he hasn't worked with Vince Russo. (From AFS Exclusive "Ask Conrad Anything" Episodes # 10 &11) Conrad Thompson explains why he won't be doing an SMW podcast or working with Jim Cornette and Conrad discusses his supposed heat with The Great Brian Last (From AFS Exclusive "Ask Conrad Anything" Episode # 13) Jim Cornette and Brian Last explain the end of the Jim Cornette/Dave Meltzer relationship (From: "Jim Cornette's Drive Thru" Episodes 116, 125, 148, and 156 and "The Jim Cornette Experience" Episodes 306, 317, 353 and 358) Jim Cornette reviews The Firefly Funhouse Inferno Match.

Just last month Bruce Mitchell just started working for Conrad Thompson's Ad Free Shows Subscription Service, doing a daily news update podcast. "Bruce Mitchell's Wrestling Hotline." He hasn't missed a day since it started, but there was no episode yesterday, and there wasn't one today either. I wonder if Conrad gave him the boot as well. Not for nothing, but the podcast is hot garbage. I stopped listening after two minutes into the first episode...which consisted of him bragging about his credentials. And the audio quality was shit...it sounded like it was recorded on a voice memo recorder, in an airplane bathroom, which had crashed in the ocean and was totally submerged in water.

This is really sad. If I'm being honest, there have been a number of deaths in Pro Wrestling over the years that have been sad (very sad in some cases) but not terribly surprising. We've seen cases of Professional Wrestlers who have engaged in a self destructive lifestyle succumbing to the hazards that come with such behavior. It's always sad, but after a while I am sorry to say I found myself becoming desensitized to all the Professional Wrestlers who were dying. Don't get me wrong, regardless of their behavior and personal habits, nobody deserves to die before their time...but if I am being self-critical I am forced to admit that at times my sympathy is tempered based on the personal history of the individual. This is clearly not one of those cases. It sounds like (based on what we've heard so far) Brodie Lee died due to an unexpected illness. It all seems so shocking and unfair. When somebody dies under circumstances like that, it seems to hit you extra hard because you never would have expected it. Especially when the person was young, in their prime and had so much more to accomplish in life. I remember listening to the interview Brodie Lee did with Chris Jericho on Jericho's podcast earlier this year. He sounded so excited to finally be in a position professionally where he wasn't being held back or restricted in any way. He had so much ahead of him, and now his life has been cut short and that really is a tragedy. The other thing that has really struck me about the death of Brodie Lee is the reaction from his peers in the industry. @cheapshotis right on the money...this situation reminds me of the death of Owen Hart. It hasn't even been 24 hours and the outpouring of grief has been really noteworthy. It seems like Brodie Lee really was one of those rare guys in the Pro Wrestling business who was loved by pretty much everybody who worked with him. And it strikes me again how practically every tribute to him contains a reference to how much he loved his family. It seems undeniable that this was clearly a guy who had his priorities in order and put his family first. And now he is gone, leaving behind a wife and two children. That's just unspeakably sad. I remember the first time I saw Brodie Lee. It was at a Ring of Honor event called "Bound By Hate." It was held at a freezing cold, half-full cattle arena on a country fairgrounds, north of Toronto. He was in a Tag Team match with Delirious against the All Night Express. I remember telling my friend that I was with "That guy looks like money. Considering his size, and how he can move, I'm surprised WWE hasn't grabbed him." Sure enough, when I first saw him in the Wyatt Family vignettes a few years later, I called the same friend and we talked about how glad we were he had made it to the "big time." My favorite matches involving him were with the Wyatt Family against The Shield. During his rivalry with Randy Orton in 2017 (during the whole angle when Harper was trying to convince Bray Wyatt he couldn't trust Orton) I remember being really impressed with a match he and Orton had on Smackdown. At that point, I realized that WWE was really missing the boat with Luke Harper. They clearly didn't realize what they had. I was hoping the Bludgeon Brothers were going to be a much bigger deal, but he was just criminally undervalued in WWE. Even though I am not a big AEW fan, I was so happy when Brodie Lee finally got away from WWE, was no longer being misused, and was in AEW where he could realize his full potential. Now, like I said...that potential has been cut drastically, tragically short and it makes me very sad.

Happy Holidays to all the Good Brothers here at PWO. This place is still a big part of my online life after all these years, I still drop by at least once a day, no matter what. PWO means a lot to me and I sincerely appreciate all of the other members who help make this place what it is.

In my opinion, yes. Angle tried hard but he looked really stiff and awkward. You could tell he was really past his prime at that point. If I am remembering correctly he had a hard time pulling off a few basic moves, not from lack of skill but just because he was so broken down physically. Going into that match I assumed that Angle and Triple H would assume the majority of the work and be the stars but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. Rousey was a revelation and even Stephanie did a great job in her limited role. As I recall they really sucked the fans into that match and gave it the heat.