83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff

[SomethingSavage]

Ugh. Yeah. That Sacrifice 2010 episode reminded me why I dialed out for awhile. Just a lot of babbling about nothing & way too many irrelevant tangents about the dog, the wife, and the best friend. I don't need a ten minute preamble for you to make one decent point to answer a straightforward question.

What's worse is that it's usually an answer he's already given several times before.

"Again, I had nothing to do with creative." 

"Again, I had it put in my contract. I wasn't involved with management."

"Again, it wasn't about stars. It was about presentation."

It just gets to be too much when about 65% of the show could be trimmed away & still leave you with a decent episode. Whoever suggested Conrad do some actual editing is right on point, actually. That would help this podcast tremendously in times like this instance.

As much as I dug ALL the previous TNA episodes from Eric, this one was just a slog. I actually paused right as they started discussing the actual event itself. I was just burned out on hearing all the dizzying business speak that led nowhere. I'm sure I'll finish it eventually, but yikes.

Oh, and yeah. Conway was definitely there. He and Russo were writing the "placeholder" shows prior to Hogan and Bischoff showing up but immediately after BFG 09. I remember Conway getting some talk online for the basic (in a good way) booking of Styles' title reign and the matches with Joe/Daniels for the belt at the end of the year.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, SomethingSavage said:

"Again, I had nothing to do with creative." 

"Again, I had it put in my contract. I wasn't involved with management."

"Again, it wasn't about stars. It was about presentation."

Pretty much.  The show doesn't get any better. He manages to state that Orlando Jordan was underrated (of all people that really are underrated, really ?) and defends that godawful match with the godawful, talentless Rob Terry.

Speaking of which, Uncle Eric is also pretty smart yet transparent when he insists over and over again on the last point, adding that basically the booking doesn't matter, it's all about the presentation. Let's not forget Eric was pretty much overlooking everything that involved Hogan one way or another, so he was actually responsible for this creative. And Hogan was all over the TV during those Monday Night shows. And it's a proven fact that in the end, they ended up losing viewers because of it. The godawful Hogan shit during this time drove people away from TNA.

By hammering down the fact that "stars and booking did not matter", Eric absolves himself from the awful creative that involved Hogan which actively hurt the product. And he can make fun of the "TNA Originals" stuff all he want, but the fact is using WWE rejects (not talking about Angle and Foley which had helped them gained viewers earlier on) like Ken Anderson & Jeff Hardy and putting him ahead of the guys the audience already had a connection with (despite what he says) like AJ or Joe (who had been fucked over a long time ago by Russo's booking, really) did hurt the perception of the company too, which became more and more the land of "We know who that is".

Of course staying in the Impact Zone did not help matters, but horrendous booking with Hogan doing Abyss-a-Mania and the latest nWo reunion/reboot (including Sting doing the lone wolf stuff) and Flair falling down like a clown really hurt more than anything else. And since Bischoff oversaw all of this... well... "it was about the presentation and Dave Meltzer doesn't know shit about TV, I'm a successful TV producer yaddi yaddi yadda.". Painfull. 

And Conrad at this point doesn't add shit to his own show. His fake loud laugh I can't handle anymore either. People have pointed out how petty he was retweeting Alvarez Tweet about that stupid Brother Love cameo during that awful MITB match, and really that's how he comes off now, going through the motion, not defending his own sources for one second because it's all a gimmicked show (really, he quotes Meltz a hundred times per show and Bisch states over and over again that this his worthless pseudo-journalism and stupid ignorant opinion, at some point, either Conrad should step up or he just do something else, because it makes the entire show sound kinda schyzophrenic).

[Rocco]

On 5/13/2020 at 6:35 PM, El-P said:

Yikes. Didn't last long. I'm one hour into this week's show about Sacrifice, and Bisch has spent about half the time talking about how people in the dirthseet don't know the television industry... Fuck Conrad, edit you fucking show already, it's been unbearable. Plus, his insistance on the only issue with TNA was about "growing the brand" and "go out of the soundstage" as he says and had nothing to do with the booking shows how narrow-minded he really is. Not to mention the ill-advised comparisons between then and now (get a shot each time he says AEW or NXT would love to have the same ratings as TNA had in 2010, which is mind-blowing stupid and ignores all the other things factored in like... AEW selling out actual big shows and doing pretty good PPV numbers and having a fat-ass TV contrat, while NXT is part of the biggest money machine ever, all in a very different context anyway). The fact is, the move to Monday has hurt the company because of the booking that drove the faithful audience away, just like WCW did. I hope the show gets better (and really, 3hours and a half should have ring the alarm bell already) but I'll be more cautious next time around...

It's always funny to me when business genius Eric Bischoff shows how little he knows about business.  

[SomethingSavage]

Conrad is in complete autopilot mode on most of his shows these days. There are countless recent instances when he should've challenged something Bruce or JR said, but he just moves on to read his next string of results or reader question instead.

I think Conrad is actually much better with Arn in that regard. It's a more conversational exchange between them, without ever getting too loose (as is the case with the awful Schiavone stuff).

And, to be fair, Conrad is also quite good in those Dark Side pods covering each episode of the docu series.

But yeah. Across the board, he comes across as coasting. I literally cringe anytime I hear someone compare/contrast him to Brian Last. Say what you will, but Last is in another league entirely as host and guide on his shows.

[Ricky Jackson]

I'm nearly done with the Conrad shows. Dropped Prichard long ago and never listened to either Schiavone or Bischoff. Dropped Arn the other day, which is a shame because I really liked it at first, but going with AAA every second week and a string of 2010s WWE shows I couldn't care less about killed my interest. The last one left is JR, which usually covers a subject I'm interested in, so I'll keep it in the rotation for now. But yeah, hearing Conrad's voice is becoming less and less appealing by the week 

[PhilTLL]

I'm only familiar with 2 wrestling podcast hosts, and Brian Last obliterates Conrad Thompson. Literally the sound of Conrad's voice is annoying, especially if most of your wrestling podcast consumption is on YouTube and he tags every single video of any length with himself blathering about mortgages. He's terrible at driving conversations and expanding on points.

I would love for Brian to work with Tony Schiavone. Brian has a lot more knowledge than Conrad and his sense of humor is very close to Tony's.

[SomethingSavage]

18 hours ago, Ricky Jackson said:

I'm nearly done with the Conrad shows. Dropped Prichard long ago and never listened to either Schiavone or Bischoff. Dropped Arn the other day, which is a shame because I really liked it at first, but going with AAA every second week and a string of 2010s WWE shows I couldn't care less about killed my interest. The last one left is JR, which usually covers a subject I'm interested in, so I'll keep it in the rotation for now. But yeah, hearing Conrad's voice is becoming less and less appealing by the week 

I first remember Conrad covering consecutive shows like that back when he and Bruce were trying to review ALLLLL the Attitude Era stuff from 97-99. What started as a fun series of shows quickly soured into shit with stuff like No Mercy 99. It just became VERY redundant, with Conrad basically hitting the same news beats time & time again.

And he's still doing that. With Arn, it's 2015 and 2010 - both dreadful periods in the company's history. I get that it's probably a lot easier on Conrad to schedule things this way, because he has a FULL plate of podcasts. But there's so many interesting topics to be covered.

Even though they weren't necessarily stellar shows, I'd like more profile pieces like Tito/Duggan. Those actually used to be some of Bruce's best efforts - thinking back to the early days with Pillman, Vader, Jarrett, and Savage all the way up to Sid and Yoko. The Tito and Duggan stuff felt like lesser thans by comparison, but part of that probably goes into the busy schedules of both Conrad and Bruce.

But yeah. The topics and the scheduling is really monotonous. If reviewing shows in consecutive order is what Conrad wants to do, he could at least choose a period when there was something interesting to discuss. I don't know that fantasy booking what might have been for Tyson Kidd every week is exactly what people want to hear about.

And yes. Just to reiterate & double down again, Brian Last smokes Conrad as a host.

Hell, Jericho is a better and more versatile host than Conrad. When JR appeared on Jericho's show a few weeks ago, JR was much more casual and conversational in telling a bunch of fun Vince stories than he ever is on his own show with Conrad steering the ship and bogging things down in needless results reading and dick jokes that wouldn't make the cut for one of those wretched straight-to-DVD American Pie sequels.

[El-P]

24 minutes ago, SomethingSavage said:

With Arn, it's 2015 and 2010 - both dreadful periods in the company's history.

"Hey, I got Arn Anderson and he's great. I'm gonna have him talk about some random WWE years of the 2010's and absolutely not about JCP and WCW..." Yeah, that made me quit the Arn podcast too.

[BigBadMick]

Is Ask Arn Anything always rubbish too?

 

Surely we PWOers could band together and ask the same questions (worded differently) to get to topics we'd like to hear from Arn?

[Petey]

52 minutes ago, El-P said:

"Hey, I got Arn Anderson and he's great. I'm gonna have him talk about some random WWE years of the 2010's and absolutely not about JCP and WCW..." Yeah, that made me quit the Arn podcast too.

The issue is that Conrad's not really a super knowledgeable wrestling fan, especially when compared to Brian Last. Conrad's wheelhouse is basically nWo through the end of the Attitude Era. He admits that he didn't really watch much wrestling post-80s wrestling boom and post-Attitude Era until some of the more recent stuff. I imagine he doesn't cover a lot of JCP stuff or WCW stuff because he's just not familiar with it. Yeah, he can and does fall back on old Observers/Torch's, but there's a lot of stuff that's out of his wheelhouse.

[Matt D]

It's funny. I can get annoyed with Conrad for not having what I consider pretty basic knowledge or curiosity. 

I can get annoyed with Last for not being part of our circle where we've moved arguments forward from the conventional wisdom twenty years ago (but basically just in our circle and maybe with some people under 25).

[The Thread Killer]

On 5/19/2020 at 8:55 PM, SomethingSavage said:

And, to be fair, Conrad is also quite good in those Dark Side pods covering each episode of the docu series.

I was going to mention just that.  It's amazing, I found Conrad to be at his absolute best during those Dark Side podcasts...it's almost like he's an entirely different host.  That has been a great podcast, I'm sad it's over.

[The Thread Killer]

3 hours ago, Matt D said:

It's funny. I can get annoyed with Conrad for not having what I consider pretty basic knowledge or curiosity. 

I can get annoyed with Last for not being part of our circle where we've moved arguments forward from the conventional wisdom twenty years ago (but basically just in our circle and maybe with some people under 25).

I have been watching those ECW watchalongs on WHW that Conrad has been doing with Tony.  What has been coming up that is very interesting, is that there is a subtle undercurrent where you get the distinct impression that there is legit heat between Conrad and Brian Last.  Brian Last has openly taken shots at Conrad on Cornette's podcast, claiming that people who need to rely on selling "dick pills" on their podcasts obviously aren't smart enough to understand how to make money in podcasting. Last has claimed he would never insult his listeners by taking every advertiser that comes along and shilling their product just to make money.

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to an old episode of WHW from last year, and Conrad said to Tony that there is another established podcast host out there who thinks he invented Pro Wrestling podcasts, he has something like 10 podcasts and is obviously jealous of Conrad.  Conrad claims this unnamed host can take all the shots he wants, but Conrad will put up his podcast revenue and download numbers against anybody.  Conrad talked about how this unnamed host has criticized him for having too much advertising, but that Conrad is a better businessman than this person and that the point of podcasting is to make money.  Then, as if there was any doubt about who Conrad is talking about, Conrad sang the opening jingle from Cornette's Drive-Thru podcast..."Thank You, Fuck You, Bye..."

There was also that big blowup between Bischoff and Cornette last year when Cornette was blasting Bischoff for promoting Blue Chew, Bischoff fired back, things got personal and a full on Twitter war erupted.  During the exchange, Brian Last revealed some very personal information about Eric Bischoff...namely that Bischoff was then going through bankruptcy.   During another episode of WHW, Tony asked Conrad what was going on with that situation, and Conrad casually mentioned that Eric and Jim had spoken on the phone and declared a truce. I don't remember the exact details, but Conrad implied that he had some how brokered the truce.  Either way...it does definitely seem like there is some legit dislike happening between Conrad and Brian Last.  Which is interesting.

[Matt D]

I mean, I was just saying that it's frustrating that we've had ten years of arguments about Bruiser Brody or Tiger Mask or Dynamite Kid or Flair or Shawn or Lawler or WWF Bossman vs WWF Dibiase and we've reached certain points of mutual understanding if not entirely being convinced and it's tough to talk to someone who knows enough to be at the start of the argument but doesn't even know it exists and would call it patently absurd to hear it raised, let alone is at other side with us. It's just hard for me to actually take the time to listen to someone like that in so one-sided a way as a podcast. I'd almost rather have the total ignorance. 

 

 

[SomethingSavage]

Well, I don't know if there's anything on planet Earth I could give less fucks about than somebody bragging about his download numbers or whatever the hell Conrad is doing there. It's also something about his personality that really irritates in general. The humble bragging ranks right up there with the obnoxious, LOUD, forced laugh.

At the end of the day, I enjoy some of his podcasts DESPITE his role in them. As I said, there are times he's okay with Arn and JR. But those Dark Side pods are by far him at his best.

Even with that said, Brian Last's Arcadian Vanguard catalog wrecks & ruins Conrad's in terms of stories, fond nostalgic feels, wide array of topics, discussion, and just about every measurable facet that matters to me as a listener.

Do ANY of Last's shows get bigger numbers than any of Conrad's? I don't know, and I don't care. The quality is certainly better. And, again, I'm a fan of shows from both guys. But if it's a gun to your head scenario, I'm picking Last's offerings seven days a week & twice on Sundays.

[The Thread Killer]

Yeah there is no doubt that Brian Last has probably forgotten more about Pro Wrestling history than Conrad Thompson will ever know.  I have no doubt Conrad Thompson is a better businessman and more adept at monetizing his podcasts, but I'm not sure that's a compliment.  I don't always listen to the 6:05 Superpodcast (THE MOTHERSHIP) but on the occasions I have,  I've always been impressed with the amount of knowledge and research that has gone into them.  I have been seriously considering adding Ron Fuller's Studcast to my rotation because it sounds very interesting and informative.

Personality wise, honestly I'd pretty much call it even.  I don't buy Conrad's "aw shucks I'm just a fan like y'all" act.  Hell, even Tony Schiavone was busting Conrad's balls about that on one of those episodes I listened to recently. "Yeah, you're just a fan who happens to be married to Ric Flair's daughter, one of your best friends is Vince McMahon's right hand man, one of your other best friends is the owner of AEW, you're rich and live in a giant mansion...and you also promote your own fanfests."  Having said that, you can also tell Brian Last thinks he's the smartest guy in the room.  That guy just exudes smugness.  I'm not sure either guy is the type I'd enjoy having a beer with and talking Pro Wrestling.

[Ricky Jackson]

Man, if the point of podcasting is to make money I guess I've wasted 7 years of my life 

[Matt D]

I'd add that I liked Last the most with @Bix. Because again, he gets the arguments of the last fifteen years and is willing to push back against the calcified conventional wisdom.

[Dooley]

I think one of the issues with Conrad is that he's just spread himself too thin. Doing 5 podcasts while still running a successful mortgage business plus married life means some things are going to get squeezed for time. Bruce in particular has a very demanding schedule too so for STW it becomes a case of "ok, let's just get through this."

[Petey]

I think that's a lot of it as well. That amount of podcasts while still running your own business has to be incredibly taxing. I can understand why it's so easy to slip into the formula of "it was reported in the Observer that..." and allow Brucey/Eric to just go off.

[Migs]

Let's just say it: Conrad Thompson as a host is a rich man's Rob Feinstein.

[SomethingSavage]

Yeah. That's it, really. There's basically no follow-up or follow through with any of his talkings points.

It's like Conrad has his line of questions & his results to read, and there's no disrupting that - regardless of the response or answers from the other side. It's very disappointing as a listener & exactly the sort of thing that bugged me about Feinstein's interview style.

[Petey]

I feel like Conrad was a little more inquisitive before he fell into the formula of: read Observer tidbits, let host crap on Meltzer, read random results, rinse and repeat.

[SomethingSavage]

Anyone check out the Verne Gagne episode? If so, how was it? Worth a listen or nah?

I really dug Eric's episode highlighting his own AWA origins. I mostly only dip back into 83 Weeks for the TNA shows now, but I was thinking of giving this one a listen if it's worthwhile at all.

[SomethingSavage]

I still haven't gotten around to hearing that Verne episode, but I did dive into the recent Scott Hall interview. It's just such a fun, interesting listen. Highly recommend you guys check it out. I've heard his old RF shoot interviews and everything, but there's still some new stuff to be heard here.

Plus it's just cool hearing a clear & sober Scott discussing the high points of his career. The guy is crazy likeable and still carries himself like the king of cool.

I genuinely love his approach to the business and all its quirks. So many great lines get tossed around, too.

"It's fake when you win; it's fake when you lose."

"You still gonna wear the Happy Guy tights?"

"I'm not saying steal from Taker, but steal from Taker."

"It's only when you don't need the money that they line up to give it to you."

And on & on & on. Just a great, easy listen. Like I said, I highly recommend it. This one ranks right up there with the Randy Orton interview over on Kurt's show earlier this year.