83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff

[The Thread Killer]

I really appreciate the kind words, guys.  I had an assessment this morning at the hospital a local medical facility and was told I am going to have another procedure in about a month. So hopefully that will address the issues.  I am hoping to be past all this crap some time in March, but at this point who knows?

When it comes to watching these matches along with Eric Bischoff, one of the things that's been most interesting to me, is that in a lot of cases he literally hasn't seen some of these matches before.  I know it sounds hilarious and maybe even a bit bizarre, but if you think about it from his perspective, it makes sense.  We did a watch-along on the Jericho/Mysterio match from Souled Out 98, and he said he was pretty sure that he'd never seen it before.  The reason is, at the time of the show he was obviously in charge of the whole damn operation backstage, so he didn't have time to sit there and watch every match, he was busy running around with other stuff. 

He has said that WCW did have a "Gorilla Position" but it was never anywhere near as complicated and sophisticated as the one in WWE now where Vince, Triple H and the Agents are all there wearing headsets and evaluating every little thing as it happens.  In WCW he was dealing with the talent backstage mostly from the sounds of it, and then after the show was over, it was off to the hotel bar, and then on to the next show.  He never had any desire or reason to go back and watch matches that had already happened.  Then after WCW went under, he (understandably) went through a long period where he had no desire to watch any wrestling, least of all WCW.

Back then, everything he saw was through the lens of WCW President, but now he is reevaluating WCW as a wrestling fan.

It's kind of neat to watch him rediscover or discover for the first time what he had right under his nose at the time.  And now, he can actually appreciate and enjoy a lot of this stuff as a fan, and not be concerned with a lot of the outside issues which distracted him or colored his perception of a particular match.  It's funny, you can really see the AWA/Verne Gagne influence on his perspective as a fan.  Bisch is all about technical wrestling, and he HATES gimmick matches.  I think that is probably why he is such a big Dean Malenko fan.  Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Dean would have fit in perfectly in the AWA.  One of Eric's other big pet peeves is bad finishes.  He has gone on and on how if he could have stolen one person from the WWF during the Attitude Era, it would have been Pat Patterson.  Eric hates shitty finishes, and he has a ton of respect for the finishes Pat Patterson used to come up with for Vince.  It sounds like during WCW's 90's heyday that Terry Taylor was in charge of finishes a lot of the time.

This past weekend we re-watched the infamous Goldberg/Hogan match where Hogan put Goldberg over to keep the streak alive.  If you believe Eric Bischoff, the whole thing was 100% Hogan's idea.  He claims Hogan was dealing with some nagging knee injuries at the time and had privately confided to Bischoff that he didn't know how much longer he could keep going.  Bischoff took the request at face value but claims he knew Hogan well enough at that time to know that even if Hogan thought he should retire, he'd never be able to stay away while the business was hot, there was money to be made and people still wanted to see him perform.  Somebody asked in the chat if Hogan might have asked to drop the belt to Goldberg just to stick it to some of the other guys in the WCW locker room who he didn't like, such as Nash or Savage.  Bischoff said that was entirely possible, although Savage and Hogan had such a weird love/hate relationship that you never knew from one week to the next if they were on or off. He vehemently denies that Hogan asked for the match so he could be the one to end Goldberg's streak.  He doesn't deny that Hogan may have had that in mind, but claims he hadn't verbalized it to him.

One thing Eric said while watching that match is that Hogan had a ton of problems in his personal life at the time, and he made the comment to Eric after the match, that he's never personally happier than he is when he is out there performing in front of a crowd like that.  That's certainly a comment you can take two ways.  One way is to say "Wow, Hogan sure loves performing for his beloved Hulkamaniacs" but the other is that how frankly sad it is that a guy with a wife, two kids and millions of dollars in the bank can't be totally happy unless he's performing in the spotlight - even if it's physically killing him in the process.  I kind of got the impression that Eric kind of felt that it was the latter, not the former.

[SomethingSavage]

I know Hogan carries a lot of negative baggage, but I don't care. There's a certain charm to hearing how he still loved the business up until the bitter end of his in-ring days. I believe every bit of it, too.

Watch him in that TNA BFG 2011 match with Sting. Hulk is practically devoid of every ounce of athleticism by that point, but he's a total fucking superstar. He gets by on sheer showmanship and TRUCKLOADS of charisma. I go back and watch that one fairly regularly, and I still get goosebumps watching him in the post-match angle there. It never fails.

I mean, it isn't Rock-Hulk at X8 by any means. But it ain't Sting-Hulk at Starrcade either.

And yeah. You can tell the poor finishes are really an issue with Eric. He mentions it often enough - like Jimmy Hart - to the point that you're completely convinced he wishes he would've addressed it sooner.

I would like to hear Eric go more in-depth about Johnny Ace coming in and everything that surrounded that move. I know I recall hearing him talk about it VERY briefly at least once, but it was mostly just to say that Johnny was brought over specifically to fix the issue he had with Sullivan and Taylor's weak, lackluster finishes.

Actually, now that I think about it, he may have said that as recently as the Starrcade '98 episode. Pretty sure it was surrounding the discussion about the Nash/Goldberg finish.

I don't know if Bruce would ever allow himself to give Johnny any actual credit for reshaping the way match finishes are laid out or anything over on the other side, so it would be cool to hear Eric speak on the subject a bit.

[Petey]

I listened to the Souled Out 97 show last week and had the same takeaway as what's already been mentioned regarding Conrad's attitude. It was really bizarre. Yelling Conrad is my least favorite version and in that episode, he seemed to be going out of his way to be a prick. I couldn't understand why Conrad was acting that way but glad he wasn't nearly as moody in the Souled Out 98 episode.

[SomethingSavage]

I thought Souled Out 98 was a lot of fun, too. Again, Eric was engaged and offering up answers for everything. Plus he's forever unafraid of hot takes or sharing his unpopular opinions. I know it's been said plenty recently, but this show has seriously found its stride. Every week is a win at the moment.

An underrated part of this project has been hearing Eric's thoughts on certain workers, their styles, and their contributions as performers. I never would have guessed Dean Malenko would rank among Eric's favorite wrestlers to watch, for instance. But hearing him explain in-depth why he digs Dean's work is just cool.

Here, we find out Bischoff was a big fan of John Nord. I just love that. It's too bad Nord never amounted to much on the big stage, really. But it's neat to know Eric wanted to give him that chance.

There's an alternate reality out there, where the nWo remained true to the original premise & was strictly comprised of WWF castoffs only. In that universe, yeah. Maybe we still get stuck with Virgil as the slimy, toady underling. But perhaps we also get bizarro berzerker John Nord, in black & white Viking gear, hussing his way to a few PPV paydays by way of some hoss fights with the Giant.

Oh. And of course Gene Okerlund as the more stylized MEAN Gene, personal publicist & exclusive interviewer of the nWo, shilling merch like nobody's business. But I digress...

I liked hearing Eric show some love for Waltman and Konnan. I know their popularity hasn't exactly aged well, but man. Those guys were fucking cool up until some point in '99. And Eric's right. They helped the nWo at different points with that. I do think he's discounting Big Kev and Hall a little bit there though. Those guys seemed incredibly cool in their heyday. Whether it's popular opinion or not anymore is irrelevant. There was a time & place where the Outsiders were ruling that roost like the biggest cocks in the henhouse.

Eric seemed to go a little hard on Bret at the end there, but that's nothing new. Like the Raven situation, I still get the impression that it's an unfortunate case of people crossing paths at a particularly miserable time for one (or even both) of those involved.

Eric pulled no punches with the Louie/somas story. And I can appreciate the honesty there. Some people may take the stance that Bischoff shouldn't speak about someone he didn't know personally or whatever, but I'm not bothered by it. Eric is making some assumptions, but he also specifies it as hearsay told to him.

The story about watching guys pass out while sitting next to him really struck a nerve, because I've lived that. I've seen friends pass smooth out in a bowl of cereal. I've had to carry friends out of hallways, into houses, etc. And I've mentioned my own experience with painkillers & muscle relaxers before, so stuff like this always spikes my interest a little more than most I guess.

Now this was only a small portion of the podcast. It didn't approach the same territory as something like Del Wilkes on Austin's podcast or anything. But it does illustrate something that I appreciate about Bischoff - he doesn't shy away from speaking his mind very often. The guy is fairly upfront and vocal, regardless of the topic. He even had to backtrack & correct himself after he realized he had told a lie about his own recreational drug use.

There was a small moment of unintentional comedy for me when Conrad touched on the comparison of Flair/Bret to Flair/Steamboat. Eric quickly noted how he never saw Flair/Steamboat. Conrad QUICKLY pipes in, "Wait. You NEVER SAW the Flair/Steamboat matches?!"

Eric, like he's fearful for his quality of life, quickly fires back that he MEANT TO SAY he hadn't seen them by that time in 1998. But he's since seen them.

Because, ya know. He clearly knows Conrad by now & didn't want to get roped into watching fifty-eleven Flair/Steamboat matches on Patreon for the next nine weeks of his life.

[El-P]

Finally got to hear the Souled Out 97 episode. Yeah, Conrad sounded salty as fuck on here. Not a whole lot to say more about this episode that hasn't been said. The defense of the Miss nWo contest and the garbage truck opening was kinda too much though, although Eric admitted than basically nothing worked, which is always pretty refreshing. Still, I'm with him on the fact they tried something different and on that part alone, it was not a complete miss. I remember watching it on a german channel back then and being quite intrigued by the whole thing. And it looked so different from anything the WWF was presenting at the time.

Wishing you to get much better soon, Thread Killer.

[SomethingSavage]

Watch-alongs can be hit or miss for me, but Souled Out 2000 was tremendous. There's a truckload of good stuff packed into that episode.

Bischoff really brings it. He offers up some great, thought-provoking discussion on a lot of subjects. The nature & the timing of this show allowed him to touch on some new material, which was cool.

I thought Eric made some good points about viable money gimmicks versus worthless, pointless gimmicks. His point of contention was with the trio of David Flair, Crowbar, and especially Daffney. While I personally enjoyed the hell out of Daffney later on in her TNA "zombie hot" run, I can definitely see what Eric was saying here.

Not only are the characters too aloof and wacky, but none of the three individuals really stood a chance of developing into higher profile stars. They weren't going to headline cards.

Plus the presentation of this trio was never anything great. They weren't relatable. You could *sort of* make the case that they appealed to a certain segment of the audience, because I know Daffney had some fans. But WCW didn't know how to market much of anything unless it fell into their lap, AND this group just played everything for laughs. It was far too over-the-top and hokey to ever really resonate or reach fans in a way that would cause them to part with their cash.

They're harmless enough as bit players on a show, but I *think* that's the point Eric was raising here. They were given a metric TON of television time, and the act just didn't warrant that treatment. It was clearly a Russo pet project, but beyond that? There's no justification for the exposure and the amount of time that was being fed to them in this period.

Later in the year, we would see more of that from Russo. Guys like Big Vito and General Rection would go on to dominate way more TV time than anyone demanded. These guys were fine for a specific spot on the card, but nobody needed to see them in six or seven segments per Nitro at any point.

I learned that DDP is to blame for initially reaching out to Eric and attempting to play "matchmaker" between Bischoff and Russo. Curse Page and his obnoxious, unwavering optimism.

I also found out Bischoff received the call to come back within 48 hours of the Radicalz debuting on Raw. I'm sure he's probably mentioned that a thousand times before, but this podcast has really been the first time I've sought out ANY Bischoff stories. So it's all new to me.

There was a moment of unintentional comedy when Eric CLEARLY confuses Asya for Midajah. Conrad either doesn't catch on or simply doesn't correct him.

Eric continues to give zero fucks, as he fires more shots at Bagwell, calling Buff a "metrosexual germophobe" here.

To be fair though, with the way they were talking up this match, it has me wondering if it's one worth seeking out? I know I've seen it at some point before, but is Page/Buff Last Man Standing really worth a look? Can anyone confirm or deny? SUCKAHZ GOTZ TA' KNOW!

Of course, he wouldn't be Eric Bischoff if he didn't take offense with Jerry Flynn for being a kickboxer & not a real karate guy. Christ. The same guy who gave us dozens of meaningless undercard matches on pay-per-view pauses to contemplate whether or not Flynn/Abbott belonged on this card.

Anyway, I actually agreed with everything Eric had to say about Nash versus Funk. It was just a mismatch from the outset. It's a case of a match that shouldn't be booked in the first place, but if you've got to do it? Then this was absolutely the way to go.

I love Funker, but nobody needed to see Nash sell for his offense here. I realize history has discarded Big Kev as lazy & lethargic - with good reason. But the guy is still a beast. He's a jacked giant, and (for better or for worse) he's the guy that ended the Goldberg streak. In WCW canon, he's something fierce. As such, he should totally dominate & decimate a guy like Funk.

Full disclosure though - I enjoy the hell out of Kevin Nash garbage matches. Good Friends, Better Enemies with Shawn is nothing short of awesome. Hell in a Cell with Hunter and Foley is a guilty pleasure as well. It's messy. It's cluttered. It's smoke & mirrors. But it's violent & it's MILES better than Shawn/Hunter in the same setting. And Foley/Nash in TNA was a fucking blast up until the repulsive, repellant Russo finish.

And fair enough. Nash doesn't do much, but he does play his part to a T. And I actually think his facial expressions are wildly underrated. I especially love it when he kicks into pissed-off maniacal mode. Some of his expressions are genuinely terrifying. It's easy to forget that this guy could be legitimately dangerous if he wanted to be.

Eric's reflections on the hardcore division & hardcore matches in general are worth hearing. I agree to an extent, but I fully believe it was an inevitability of the era. The 90s were all about extremes, gratuity, anti-heroes, etc. There was no way wrestling wasn't going to ride that trend until its wheels fell off.

In hindsight, he's right though. Hardcore matches only diluted the violence and desensitized the audience. It made injury angles and selling much more difficult than it needed to be. Worst of all, it led to super silly shit like sledgehammers as weapons.

Because once you've seen chairshots and kendo sticks in the Hardcore Championship opener, you can't just have your top guys use the same tricks. You have to differentiate between a mid-card comedy "Hardcore Match" and a main event, money-drawing "Street Fight" or whatever.

Now don't get me wrong. Hardcore matches were over like rover with kids at my school back during the peak of backyard wrestling & bullshit. But yeah. It was bound to reach diminishing returns and eventually fizzle out. It is kind of crazy that it stuck around for as long as it did in the major promotions though.

[El-P]

Well, I don't do watch-along anymore, but you convinced me to try that one out.

The Starrcade 96 podcast had a quite interesting bit to me. I was very surprised to hear about it, and it was quite cool to hear about the fact WCW got to replace WWF in France in late 1996. I got a kick out of hearing Bischoff correcting Conrad on how to prononce "Canal Plus", which was the TV channel where I discover pro-wrestling back in 1990. I liked how Bischoff said it was a major coup for them because the aura of Canal Plus (which was very real back then) helped them get validation to win more market in Europe. 

Of course, when the switch occured, I was livid as a long time WWF fan. To me WCW was some sort of unknown erzatz whose mere existence only came to my knowledge during a trip in Ireland with my parents in 1992, when I saw some Lex Luger & Ric Flair (whom I knew because they were WWF at the time) figurines in a store (and a bad reportage about pro-wrestling on French TV show the same year, in which I could see for the very first time videos of Vader, Cactus Jack and Ron Simmons preparing for Halloween Havoc). I was such a blind WWF mark then (yeah, hard to believe now) two of my stupidest reaction watching Nitro were : "who is that lame old guy named Arn Anderson ?" and "that Rey Mysterio Jr. guy ain'y shit, it's easy to fly like that when you're so small". Yeah... Of course, it only was a matter of a few weeks for me to become a closet WCW fan, as their product was so much more exciting than WWF at the time, plus it was really my first exposure to mexican guys (I had seen NJ stuff before on Eurosport). Anyway, the fact Conrad brought this up was really cool and interesting I thought. And to me, it was the beginning of broadening my taste in US wrestling (the next year or so I would have access to ECW on a german channel).

[SomethingSavage]

1 hour ago, El-P said:

Well, I don't do watch-along anymore, but you convinced me to try that one out.

The Starrcade 96 podcast had a quite interesting bit to me. I was very surprised to hear about it, and it was quite cool to hear about the fact WCW got to replace WWF in France in late 1996. I got a kick out of hearing Bischoff correcting Conrad on how to prononce "Canal Plus", which was the TV channel where I discover pro-wrestling back in 1990. I liked how Bischoff said it was a major coup for them because the aura of Canal Plus (which was very real back then) helped them get validation to win more market in Europe. 

Of course, when the switch occured, I was livid as a long time WWF fan. To me WCW was some sort of unknown erzatz whose mere existence only came to my knowledge during a trip in Ireland with my parents in 1992, when I saw some Lex Luger & Ric Flair (whom I knew because they were WWF at the time) figurines in a store (and a bad reportage about pro-wrestling on French TV show the same year, in which I could see for the very first time videos of Vader, Cactus Jack and Ron Simmons preparing for Halloween Havoc). I was such a blind WWF mark then (yeah, hard to believe now) two of my stupidest reaction watching Nitro were : "who is that lame old guy named Arn Anderson ?" and "that Rey Mysterio Jr. guy ain'y shit, it's easy to fly like that when you're so small". Yeah... Of course, it only was a matter of a few weeks for me to become a closet WCW fan, as their product was so much more exciting than WWF at the time, plus it was really my first exposure to mexican guys (I had seen NJ stuff before on Eurosport). Anyway, the fact Conrad brought this up was really cool and interesting I thought. And to me, it was the beginning of broadening my taste in US wrestling (the next year or so I would have access to ECW on a german channel).

To be clear, I don't do watch-alongs either & didn't follow along with this one. I should've been more clear. I meant to say the audio podcasts (of watch-alongs) are normally hit or miss with me.

That's why I asked if the Buff/Page match held up at all. They both seemed to like it during the show.

[C.S.]

On 2/3/2019 at 5:53 PM, SomethingSavage said:

I thought Eric made some good points about viable money gimmicks versus worthless, pointless gimmicks. His point of contention was with the trio of David Flair, Crowbar, and especially Daffney. While I personally enjoyed the hell out of Daffney later on in her TNA "zombie hot" run, I can definitely see what Eric was saying here.

Not only are the characters too aloof and wacky, but none of the three individuals really stood a chance of developing into higher profile stars. They weren't going to headline cards.

Plus the presentation of this trio was never anything great. They weren't relatable. You could *sort of* make the case that they appealed to a certain segment of the audience, because I know Daffney had some fans. But WCW didn't know how to market much of anything unless it fell into their lap, AND this group just played everything for laughs. It was far too over-the-top and hokey to ever really resonate or reach fans in a way that would cause them to part with their cash.

They're harmless enough as bit players on a show, but I *think* that's the point Eric was raising here. They were given a metric TON of television time, and the act just didn't warrant that treatment. It was clearly a Russo pet project, but beyond that? There's no justification for the exposure and the amount of time that was being fed to them in this period.

Eric continues to give zero fucks, as he fires more shots at Bagwell, calling Buff a "metrosexual germophobe" here.

Anyway, I actually agreed with everything Eric had to say about Nash versus Funk. It was just a mismatch from the outset. It's a case of a match that shouldn't be booked in the first place, but if you've got to do it? Then this was absolutely the way to go.

I love Funker, but nobody needed to see Nash sell for his offense here. I realize history has discarded Big Kev as lazy & lethargic - with good reason. But the guy is still a beast. He's a jacked giant, and (for better or for worse) he's the guy that ended the Goldberg streak. In WCW canon, he's something fierce. As such, he should totally dominate & decimate a guy like Funk. 

I see all of the points Bischoff made about David Flair, Crowbar, and Daffney, but to be fair, Vince Russo got easily the best he was ever going to get out of David Flair, and the same is arguably true of Crowbar and Daffney. 

Not sure what that Bagwell comment even means.

Nash vs. Funk was a terrible idea and never should've happened. Maybe I was too much in the "wrestling bubble" back then, but I absolutely thought Funk had a million times more credibility than Nash, who was a lousy WCW World Champ and didn't have one good match there in five years. Yes, the nWo was major, but Nash is easily the third wheel way behind both Hall and Hogan when it comes to whatever impact and cool-factor that faction had. (I'm more positive about Nash's WWF run, which had several memorable matches and moments.) But I guess to the casuals, Nash had to win because he sticks out like Ron Jeremy's penis at an airport? *Shrug*

 

 

[SomethingSavage]

51 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Nash vs. Funk was a terrible idea and never should've happened. Maybe I was too much in the "wrestling bubble" back then, but I absolutely thought Funk had a million times more credibility than Nash, who was a lousy WCW World Champ and didn't have one good match there in five years. Yes, the nWo was major, but Nash is easily the third wheel way behind both Hall and Hogan when it comes to whatever impact and cool-factor that faction had. (I'm more positive about Nash's WWF run, which had several memorable matches and moments.) But I guess to the casuals, Nash had to win because he sticks out like Ron Jeremy's penis at an airport? *Shrug*

Again, I love Funk. But I'm definitely higher on Nash than you, and I'd certainly suggest that you're downplaying his "cool factor" contribution by quite a large margin - at least from 96 to 98. I think his cool stock dropped off a cliff real quick in 99.

But, beyond all that, what you need to know is that Eric examines matches, angles, and wrestling in general through a different lens. I recognize & appreciate that. It's a unique perspective, but it's not empty or hollow. It's never different simply for the sake of being different. In fact, Eric often goes to great lengths to provide some deep, thought-provoking explanation on his opinions & viewpoints. It's great listening.

Here, Eric puts himself in the shoes of the casual fan. And I agree with him. It seems supremely far-fetched that anybody would buy Nash selling for Funk at that stage. I realize it's wrestling - and you can spin the story anyway you like - but it's much more credible that Nash (arguably a year removed from his physical prime, cause dude was crazy jacked in early 99) would destroy Funk.

Even setting aside the believability factor, this booking also plays into the logistical strengths of both performers. Funk is more adept at selling. Plus the story of the sympathetic, beaten down old man makes for higher drama than any "your turn, my turn" exchange.

Again, there's no right or wrong answer. I found the match compelling enough as is, and Eric was able to convince me that it was actually the best possible pathway out of a poor booking decision.

[Big Pete]

Nash, as well as the rest of the company, was in a weird place around this era. Nash particularly felt like a captain of a ship without a crew. They had just formed a new version of the nWo after months of suspense (starting with The Outsiders helping Bret beat Goldberg in the first round of the Mayhem tournament) and within weeks it went tits up. Bret would sustain a concussion that would end his career, Hall was sent home and even the workhorse Double J wound up getting injured. To make matters worse, they even brought Big Poppa Pump into the group even though he was still nursing a serious injury, so the stable felt completely under-manned at a time where WCW was down on troops. No Goldberg, no Hogan, no Sting, no Flair, it felt like any potential viewers they could have got with Austin, Taker and Foley being out were gone.

So the point being, this Nash/Funk match felt reflective of that period. Two square pegs facing off in a match where neither guy could afford a loss. Nash had just restarted the nWo, and Funk was colder than the South Pole. I can't stress enough how disappointed fans were to see Terry instead of Ric Flair in that period of time, as somebody who warmed to Terry right away it was startling to see how many fans felt let down by the reveal.

I'm still at odds on which era was worse. The initial Russo run of Halloween Havoc '99 - Souled Out '00, Sullivan's Souled Out 00 - the Nitro reboot or the Russo/Bischoff era. I feel the latter by virtue of the car crash style, but Sullivan going back to the well for the 1000th time was such a huge turn off.

[C.S.]

Why Terry Funk signed with WCW at this point is another one of life's mysteries.

Okay, not really a mystery: it was obviously for the money.

But he had to know he wouldn't be used properly or fulfilled in any way.

Guess at that point, in his relative old age, he was just looking to become as comfortable as possible financially.

Can't blame him there.

[The Thread Killer]

On 1/31/2019 at 7:36 PM, El-P said:

Wishing you to get much better soon, Thread Killer.

Thanks a lot El-P.  I really appreciate the kind words. I haven't been around much lately or contributing my thoughts on the show for the past few weeks because I just feel like garbage, physically.  I really liked the Souled Out 98 and 2000 episodes and I wanted to post about them here but I just didn't feel up to it. Hell, they have put up some interesting bonus content on the 83 Weeks Patreon page and I haven't even checked some of it out yet.  Conrad and Eric did a bonus episode where they discuss AEW and what it means for the business, and I haven't even felt up to checking it out yet.  I've caught a bit here and there but for the most part I've been out of it, due to my health.  I did start this week's episode (Superbrawl 6) last night but I didn't end up finishing it.  I probably will later. 

You mentioned the "watch along" episodes and for what it's worth I wanted to mention...I have found with 83 Weeks that you really don't have to "watch along" in order to enjoy those shows.  With WHW and even STW if you listen to the episode without watching along, you can tend to get lost or not know what they're talking about.  In the case of 83 Weeks, there is a distinct difference.  I know that SomethingSavage and myself have both mentioned how Easy E tends to (as he calls it) "get lost in the weeds" where he takes 15 minutes to answer a fairly basic question.  He does that during the watch along episodes as well, and as a result he tends to go off on prolonged tangents and they end up barely discussing what is happening on screen, or they just end up touching on it briefly before going off topic.

I'll give you an example.  One of my favorite episodes is the one where they watch along with the final episode of Nitro.  Eric had never seen it before, and they spend so much time discussing all the things going on with Eric, the sale of WCW and the industry at that time, that they barely touch on what is happening on screen. I remember at one point Eric gets really hot about something, seeing WWF guys on "his show" and I don't think it was a "work" either.  He still has professional pride and an ego that can be ruffled even after all this time.

[The Thread Killer]

On 2/3/2019 at 8:15 PM, SomethingSavage said:

That's why I asked if the Buff/Page match held up at all. They both seemed to like it during the show.

I watched it, and I have to admit...it wasn't all that bad.  I would say it's probably the best Buff Bagwell match I ever saw, but that is really not saying much.  If I had to rate it using the Meltzer system I'd probably go 3 and 3/4 stars.  It wasn't an all time classic but it was very solid and watchable, especially considering the participants. As much as some people love to dump on DDP, his obsession with meticulously pre-planning his matches out ahead of time tend to pay off during matches like this one, or his matches with Savage.  The finish was ridiculous and made no sense but hey...WCW.

[The Thread Killer]

On 2/5/2019 at 7:52 PM, C.S. said:

Why Terry Funk signed with WCW at this point is another one of life's mysteries.

Okay, not really a mystery: it was obviously for the money.

But he had to know he wouldn't be used properly or fulfilled in any way.

Guess at that point, in his relative old age, he was just looking to become as comfortable as possible financially.

Can't blame him there.

Funny story...

In the late Summer of 1999, the local "all sports" radio station in Toronto announced that Terry Funk was coming to town, and would be wrestling in his official Retirement Match!  (Not to be confused with his retirement match in August of 1983 in Japan, or his retirement show in Amarillo Texas in September of 1997, or...) They made a big deal about Funk's history in Toronto, how he lost the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship to Harley Race in Toronto almost 22 years to the day earlier, etc.  It was announced that Funk would be fighting Sabu, at a Strip Joint called Diamond's Cabaret.  The show was called "Last Dance."

Of course upon hearing this, I was there.  So myself and my girlfriend at the time, along with some other friends headed off to the peeler joint to see Terry Funk fight Sabu.  We had a great time - even when Sabu did one of his suicide dives after balancing off the top rope and almost killed everybody in our row.  After the match, Terry got on the house microphone and made a touching speech about how he was too old to keep doing this, his body was wearing down and how he loved all his Canadian fans and was glad to be retiring in Toronto where he'd had so many famous matches.

My girlfriend asked me if I was sad to see my favorite wrestler retire, especially in such a sad way - in a scummy strip joint in front of 300 people.  I replied that no...I was pretty sure we'd be seeing Terry again, sooner rather than later.  Sure enough, there I was watching WCW Nitro not five months later and there's Terry! That was the run that he had when this PPV (Souled Out 2000) took place. My girlfriend noticed Terry on TV and was a bit surprised to see him.  She asked me how I knew he'd be back.  I explained to her that Terry Funk retirements didn't tend to stick.

For the record, yes you read that right...I took my girlfriend to a Terry Funk vs. Sabu match at a Strip Joint. In retrospect, this may explain why:

a) She's not my girlfriend anymore and...

b) I am currently single and seem to have difficulty maintaining successful long term relationships with women.

He's retired multiple times since. Terry Funk wrestled as recently September 2017.  He's about as good as staying retired as I am at staying in a relationship.

[C.S.]

@The Thread Killer One day you'll find your dream girl who can appreciate going to scummy strip joint shows main evented by Terry Funk and Sabu - just have faith!

[SomethingSavage]

I'm enjoying the SuperBrawl series every bit as much as the Starrcade series so far. This really has turned into a consistently excellent podcast every week.

We recently talked about how 83 Weeks has been nuking Something To Wrestle in terms of quality for months now. So it's cool to hear that this was the highest-grossing podcast for the month of December. I guess that means Bruce still saw more downloads, but Eric is getting more attention from the paying crowd over on Patreon. That's awesome & well-deserved.

The episodes on SuperBrawl 6 and 3 allowed Eric to cover A LOT of ground. Bischoff is highly opinionated at every turn, so of course he never runs low on ammo. Bill Watts and JJ Dillon probably get it the worst.

I could see people being defensive of Dillon, who Eric called useless in the Horsemen (since they could all talk) and comparable to a piece of furniture in his backstage role. But I kind of see Eric's point on the trust issue. If Dillon would burn Vince based on a salary cut, what's to stop him from turning around & doing the same to Eric? How do you build a business relationship of trust on the back of that?

I always crack up at Eric's reactions to the pre-97 version of DDP. Bischoff's disdain for the gimmick and the gear ranks right up there with his hatred of Jimmy Hart. It's just so fun to hear him go off about it. And his descriptions are pretty fucking accurate, to be fair.

[The Thread Killer]

I agree, the Superbrawl series has been excellent.  I was worried there wouldn't be much for them to talk about with SuperBrawl III, since I knew Eric Bischoff had just taken over as Executive Producer of Television around the time of that PPV, and that his position wasn't involved with creative (yet) so he wouldn't have much to say about a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Sure enough, Conrad did pitch him some questions that he just couldn't answer because he didn't know.  However, there was plenty of meat on the bone in that episode.  I loved getting his take on the fall of Bill Watts and I thought his opinion of a few of the matches on the show itself were refreshingly honest. His feelings about the RnR vs. Heavenly Bodies match were especially insightful, as well as his comments on Jim Cornette.  If listening to this particular episode doesn't convince you that Eric Bischoff is being honestly introspective on his show, I don't know what to tell you.  I have listened to a couple of recent episodes of STW recently, I listened to the Sid episode and the Gorilla Monsoon episode.  They were both good episodes, but they really underscored to me how Bischoff is now doing Prichard's show better than Prichard.  You can really tell how much Bischoff enjoys doing the show by how engaged he is.  I especially enjoyed this week when he basically asked Conrad's permission to go "into the weeds" and get off topic in order to answer a question.

One side note, having listened to 83 Weeks, WHW and STW I can't help but get the impression that Conrad considers Tony and Bruce friends, but that his relationship with Eric is really all business, and it's possible that Conrad might actually not even like Eric all that much on a personal level.  Is this just me, or does anybody else get that vibe?

[SomethingSavage]

Nah, I absolutely agree.

Furthermore, I find it to be one of Conrad's finer attributes that he's able (willing?) to function like a chameleon among all three shows. He is what he needs to be for each. They're uniquely different roles.

But yes. His tone is definitely different with Bischoff. They still have an appreciative chemistry though. If you asked me to pick, I actually prefer the back & forth with Eric. It's highly focused and on-topic.

I still have a soft spot for the original Bruce/Conrad connection, but they almost never hit those notes anymore. There seems to be very little energy or liveliness on their shows together. Maybe the live show experience is just as fun as ever, but it hasn't really translated to the podcast in awhile.

Random side note I forgot to bring up before - but I got a kick out of Eric's praise for Scorpio. It literally sounded like most comments that were posted here for the GWE project. Loved that.

[The Thread Killer]

Jeff Jarrett has mentioned in a couple of interviews that Conrad has really been trying to persuade him to join Team Conrad and do a TNA themed show, but Jarrett didn't want to do it.  I can't help but wonder if Jeff knew he'd be going to work for WWE and that there was no way he could do that podcast while working in WWE full time (for a variety of different reasons.) Conrad has also apparently been trying to find the right person who worked behind the scenes in ECW to do an ECW themed show with.  Depending who his co-host would be, I'd be up for either of those shows, although logistically I don't know how he'd ever have time for it.  He already runs his mortgage business, is married to Ric Flair's daughter so you'd have to assume he has a home life, plus the three existing podcasts and their additional hectic live show schedules, he runs those Starrcast conventions, and if rumor is to be believed, he's somehow involved in AEW behind the scenes.

[SomethingSavage]

The dude is building an empire, and he clearly has a mind for monetizing & strategizing his shit. I ain't mad at it.

You're right though. At some point, it would seem like he would have to delegate or rotate some of his workload.

Like I've said, I have friends like Conrad. He strikes me as the type of guy who is super fun in small doses. But I actually love his approach to the hustle.

"This shit ain't gonna last forever."

Gotta get it while it's there.

[El-P]

Yeah, two years ago he was the host of a podcast with Prichard, now he's hosting the AEW press-conference... Personally I can't stand sellers, but he sure knows his way around.

[Matt D]

Thanks to you guys, I've listened to the WWE signing and first year episode and now am mostly through the AWA one. I haven't loved the specific PPV episodes (there just isn't enough bang for your buck in those) but the more general thematic ones are pretty good. I'll probably listen to the Mean Gene tribute before going somewhere else (like trying to get back to the Fuller podcast). 

[SomethingSavage]

On ‎2‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 6:51 PM, The Thread Killer said:

Jeff Jarrett has mentioned in a couple of interviews that Conrad has really been trying to persuade him to join Team Conrad and do a TNA themed show, but Jarrett didn't want to do it.  I can't help but wonder if Jeff knew he'd be going to work for WWE and that there was no way he could do that podcast while working in WWE full time (for a variety of different reasons.) Conrad has also apparently been trying to find the right person who worked behind the scenes in ECW to do an ECW themed show with.  Depending who his co-host would be, I'd be up for either of those shows, although logistically I don't know how he'd ever have time for it.  He already runs his mortgage business, is married to Ric Flair's daughter so you'd have to assume he has a home life, plus the three existing podcasts and their additional hectic live show schedules, he runs those Starrcast conventions, and if rumor is to be believed, he's somehow involved in AEW behind the scenes.

If Bruce is out of bounds now, you gotta wonder if Conrad will make a hard push to get someone onboard for the TNA or the ECW show.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

On 1/23/2019 at 10:15 AM, The Thread Killer said:

 

My attitude is that for 9 bucks a month, it's worth it to get the show without ads and a day early, plus the weekly watch-alongs.  Plus he mentioned that he has hired Dave Silva (a guy who works for Conrad) to help him come up with more original content for Patreon supporters.  He says he wants to grow that part of the business and make the Patreon page a much bigger deal, so we'll see how it goes.  If/when I go back to work I don't know if I'll keep up with it, but for right now it seems like a reasonable investment of my entertainment dollars.

Are the watch-alongs archived? I work weird hours so I doubt I'd be able to catch them live.