83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff

[sek69]

The thing about it is, Eric's a tremendous storyteller but it's difficult for me to believe anything he says anymore. The combination of poor memory and outright bullshittery makes a convenient cover for anyone to pick and choose the parts they want to believe is true.

[SomethingSavage]

I don't know, but Bischoff describing early 96 DDP as "straight out of the State Fair" had me cracking up.

Sunshades. Bubblegum. Cigars. Gold chains. BattleBowl rings. Leopard-print accessories. Neon-colored gear. It's a walking, talking, romping, stomping shit storm on your five senses.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

On 5/15/2019 at 7:15 PM, SomethingSavage said:

I really dug all the merchandise talk on the Slamboree '97 episode. The little sidebar about TNA trumpeting their "per head" numbers when they were drawing 200-300 people into the buildings was amusing, too.

I've heard about it enough, and I certainly believe the numbers to be true. But I just can't "see" any Sting shirts or merch from 1997. I mean, I guess the masks sold like crazy? Because I definitely *do* recall seeing those things everywhere.

But for me? In my mind? It's just a sea of nWo and 3:16. I'm talking black tees errrrwherrrr for almost 2 years.

Oh. And those DDP shirts with the purple & powder blue coloring.

The idea that Sting merch was ever outselling nWo swag is still strange to me though. It just doesn't seem accurate, even if it is.

 

I believe he was saying the Sting "Scorpion" shirt was the big seller, right? I can believe it. I saw A TON of those in my part of Ohio. nWo, Austin 3:16, DX and that shirt were the 4 biggest wrestling shirts that I can remember. 

[flyonthewall2983]

11 hours ago, SomethingSavage said:

I don't know, but Bischoff describing early 96 DDP as "straight out of the State Fair" had me cracking up.

Sunshades. Bubblegum. Cigars. Gold chains. BattleBowl rings. Leopard-print accessories. Neon-colored gear. It's a walking, talking, romping, stomping shit storm on your five senses.

Living up to your handle

[El-P]

Bischoff defending the Master P deal is pretty pathetic. It was a laughing stock and a disaster. Damn, he also defends the awful contortionist angle. And the dog attack angle. WTF is up with Bischoff this week ?

Too many long rants again too... to the point of the thing getting hard extremely annoying to listen to, honestly. I dunno if this podcast has jumped the ship already, or if the much more sane approach of JR hurts this one and Brucie's (who I don't listen to anymore for now), but yeah, way too long of an episode with way too much uninteresting bullshit.

EDIT : could not finish it. I'm going to give this podcast a rest and only check episodes heavily pimped on here next time, because this one was insufferable.

[C.S.]

5 hours ago, El-P said:

Bischoff defending the Master P deal is pretty pathetic. It was a laughing stock and a disaster.  

This, good sir, was anything but a disaster!

 

 

[El-P]

Rap is Crap was great (it saved Hennig otherwise mostly worthless WCW stint), but the Master P stuff was godawful. 'member Swoll ? The funniest thing is that of course things just happened, got over but since it wasn't supposed to, especially as babyfaces, it got cut off at the knees pretty quickly. Wait, does that ring a bell ?

[Matt D]

Tossing this here, but this is Conrad on the Arn show, which is basically everything I wanted the Arn show to be. The fact he's leading with the "John Cena's agent" bit is really telling. When it was first announced, I didn't know if they were going to touch that at all.

SN: What can expect out of this podcast that is different than the ones you are doing right now?

CT: Everything in his career up until now. The high potential in doing a podcast with Arn is that Arn was John Cena’s agent. So all that stuff that Bruce missed because he was gone, Arn is there to fill in the blanks for. Everything from The Undertaker’s streak ending to CM Punk leaving. So it’s going to be everything in between including the territory days from Georgia Championship Wrestling, the Alabama territories and talk about matches in Pensacola and when he made the jump to Jim Crockett Promotions which led to the Four Horseman, where he made a name for himself. Who else has had a career like that going from the territory days to the NWA to Jim Crockett Promotions? It’s WCW, and it’s WWE/WWF. It’s a unique story and one we have never had before because except for the show that I had with Ric (Flair), I have been with office and never an actual in-ring performer. So it’s a different take and coming from someone who’s never done a shoot interview or a real book and never really broken kayfabe. The idea that we get to do that now is great because everyone will get to hear what they have listened to for years backstage. It’s a unique combination. It’s going to be a really popular show.

Link to interview: https://www.mandatory.com/wrestlezone/news/1108915-conrad-thompson-starrcast-iii-arn-anderson-ric-flair#O2iOskri6t7ufWuV.99

[El-P]

When too many podcasts is too many podcasts ? At the same time, how long can he sustain doing the Bischoff one now that Eric is a big shot (lol) in WWE ? 

As far as Arn goes, jury's out. If he opens up and is as funny and insightful as he's supposed to be IRL, this could be great. If he's the same guy he was 20 years ago on interview, this is not gonna be good. Since I was not down with JR's and it won me immediately, I'm willing to give this one a shot too, especially since I've basically quit Bruce & Bischoff's at this point (Bruce because it was becoming too samey and boring and Bischoff because the ranting was getting unbearable and it can't get better with his current position, considering how much Meltz buried his ass lately).

[SomethingSavage]

I'm taking a much needed break from wrestling podcasts right now, but I may try to keep up with JR's show here and there for now. Everything else can pile up until I get hungry for any of it again. Right now, I'm just exhausted by them and everything is sounding very samey.

The idea of Arn's show sounds awesome and seems like a fascinating companion piece to fill in the gaps the other shows have left open, but... Yeah. I'm not exactly holding my breath. Arn has a rep of sticking to kayfabe and not veering too far out of character, so we'll see.

To be fair though, I was similarly on the fence for the JR podcast - and that's worked out wonderfully. It's surprisingly good, and it's continuing to improve as Conrad builds better chemistry in his back & forth with JR.

Here's hoping the same feat can be achieved with Arn, because hearing some old territory tales sprinkled in with the contemporary road agent stuff could be fucking aces.

[flyonthewall2983]

One big thing about this compared to Conrad's other shows is that this will be the first one with someone who has in-ring experience comparable to Bruce or Eric or Jim's experience on the business/creative/TV side. 

[SomethingSavage]

Well, I mean... He had two shows with Ric. But that was before Conrad really found his formula.

[BruiserBrody]

Fair warning...the first 17 mins this week is basically back to back ads.

[Matt D]

Presumably it's so they could do the watch along. I just ff'd through with my 15 second skip (which at 1.5 speed took about 30 seconds of my day). 

[Matt D]

I'm halfway through the Eric Goes Home episode and by far the most interesting thing is that Chad Brock was a real life Double J. That's one of those validating things in wrestling like Flair hitting a move off the top rope.

[The Thread Killer]

I stopped listening to 83 Weeks quite a while ago.  As anybody who has read this thread knows, I was pretty much the die hard 83 Weeks fanboy of PWO, but I got behind in listening to it, and then it was announced that Eric was going back to WWE. Once he announced he was joining WWE, I decided I wasn't going to listen anymore.  One of the things I liked about Eric Bischoff and this podcast is that he was well out of the business and was pulling no punches, being honest with his opinions. (Kind of how JR is now when he discusses WWE.) I knew damn well that as soon as he was back working for Vince, he was going to be very selective about what he said and who he talked about...or pretty much the way Bruce Prichard was during the majority of his podcast episodes.  The idea of Eric Bischoff doing episodes of 83 Weeks but having to be careful about what he said didn't appeal to me at all.  I like drunk rambling and slightly bitter Eric, not safe political Eric.

However, I noticed that this week he's finally breaking his self-imposed silence about his time in TNA, so I'm going to check that out and see what it's like.  Good timing too, since there is no episode of my usual Monday Morning podcast Cornette's Drive Thru today, because he is in Atlanta for the NWA TV tapings.  I'll check this episode out and comment after I've listened to it, if anybody cares.

[SomethingSavage]

Does anyone still care enough to follow this show? I've listened in bits & pieces during some commutes, but it all just sounds so mundane and monotonous. The topics are extremely repetitive at this point.

It's a shame, too. There were times when this ranked among my favorite wrestling podcasts.

The TNA episode was so refreshing. I may be absolutely alone in this, but I really wish they'd review some of the monthly TNA PPVs from the 2010-2013 Eric and Hogan regime. Fuck it. I'm a fan of that period, and at least it would offer new talking points. 1997 news & notes have been beaten to fucking death, revived, and killed again.

[The Thread Killer]

Nah, I gave up on this show.  Which is too bad really, because (as is obvious in this thread) at one point I was a huge fan.  Like I said, it was a combination of Eric going back to WWE and the fact that I am getting really tired of Conrad Thompson's formula. I find that all of his podcasts are pretty much interchangeable at this point, Conrad keeps going back to the same shows and the same questions, using the same interview techniques over and over again.  And seriously, enough with the fucking Meltzer bashing. I still really like Eric Bischoff, I think he's highly intelligent, generally insightful and surprisingly self-critical.  Now that Bischoff has left WWE I still check to see what the weekly topics are but nothing yet has interested me enough to check it out.  This was absolutely my favorite podcast at one point and it was pretty much a weekly must listen, but now I can't be bothered.  I guess Conrad's formula is not sustainable long term.  I wouldn't be surprised if I end up giving up on Arn and JR sooner rather than later, as well.

[rovert]

The clips posted their respective shows Youtube channel keeps you from completely missing out on the shows. It is a very convenient way to keep up. 

[SomethingSavage]

17 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

Nah, I gave up on this show.  Which is too bad really, because (as is obvious in this thread) at one point I was a huge fan.  Like I said, it was a combination of Eric going back to WWE and the fact that I am getting really tired of Conrad Thompson's formula. I find that all of his podcasts are pretty much interchangeable at this point, Conrad keeps going back to the same shows and the same questions, using the same interview techniques over and over again.  And seriously, enough with the fucking Meltzer bashing. I still really like Eric Bischoff, I think he's highly intelligent, generally insightful and surprisingly self-critical.  Now that Bischoff has left WWE I still check to see what the weekly topics are but nothing yet has interested me enough to check it out.  This was absolutely my favorite podcast at one point and it was pretty much a weekly must listen, but now I can't be bothered.  I guess Conrad's formula is not sustainable long term.  I wouldn't be surprised if I end up giving up on Arn and JR sooner rather than later, as well.

I'm right there with ya, brutha. At one point, it really felt like you and I were the top supporters for this show. And with good reason. But yeah. It's been in a total slump for months. The topics are all so redundant.

The combination of Conrad's tired template plus Eric's less-than-exciting business speak makes it difficult enough, but when there's no attempt to switch up the subject matter? YAWN.

It's weird. 1997 is the only year I've actively gone back and watched the full year of week to week wrestling shows. Because it's exciting and infinitely watchable. But it's also the year I never care to hear covered in a podcast ever again. Give me more TNA coverage. Give me anything else.

When Eric has been given something different - TNA, Korea, the AWA - it's produced some of his absolute best episodes. But this 96/97 WCW stuff is just beyond boring to me now.

5 hours ago, rovert said:

The clips posted their respective shows Youtube channel keeps you from completely missing out on the shows. It is a very convenient way to keep up. 

This is actually how I keep caught up on some of Cornette's stuff at times, but I hadn't even thought of doing it with Conrad's shows. Bruce and Eric are shows I can skip altogether for months at a time. I still try to check out JR's when I can, and Arn's is actually still a favorite.

[CarpetCrawler]

13 hours ago, SomethingSavage said:

This is actually how I keep caught up on some of Cornette's stuff at times, but I hadn't even thought of doing it with Conrad's shows.

The Bruce channel used to honestly be pretty good with the clips--minimal filler/junk like the Meltzer bashing and it was great for if you wanted to just hear Bruce get to the point.  It was my main source for that show because listening to a 2+ hour show was just out of the question for me.  I hadn't checked on it in over half a year and decided to check it out on a whim a few days ago and it's gotten so, so much worse now.  Tons of filler/Meltzer and dirtsheet bashing and asides that are just bickering about random stuff/inside jokes and often only about 10-20% of the audio clip has anything to do with what the video title claims it's about.  Hard pass on the Bruce YouTube channel now, unfortunately.

Still bummed over the loss of Jim Cornette's Talking Sense.  I know they have an official channel now but the soundbite clips are few and far between, and most of them are stuff like "Jim comments on this current wrestling event/wrestler" which I could not give any less of a shit about at this point.  I heavily enjoyed the Montreal Omnibus video they put out not too long ago though.

[Matt D]

I caught about half of the WW3 95 one because I wanted to hear about coming up with the concept, etc. Some superficially ok stuff, but by this point, nothing is going to be all that interesting. He seemed honestly embarrassed about the Observer burning.

[SomethingSavage]

I realize they keep covering topics ranging from 95 to 98 and even 99, but honestly. Everytime I drop in to listen to one of these shows, it sounds like they're spinning their wheels.

Doesn't matter the year or the event, you're going to hear discussion about Scott Hall being a drunk, Kevin Nash and Hogan being manipulative, and Randy Savage possibly signing with the WWF. I feel like that has become the WCW legacy via this podcast. If a fan listened to this show but didn't experience the promotion itself in its heyday, I feel like that's the vibe they'd get.

The best things to come out of these repetitive shows are the occasional laughs at the expense of Jarrett's dick dancer clothes, the Bagwell bashing, or the lines about early DDP looking like a county fair con man.

I'll still check out something whenever they discuss some out-of-the-box topics, but these long stretches in between are ROUGH. I'm almost tempted to give the Starrcade 93 episode a listen, but I feel like it will mostly just be more talk about how Bischoff didn't like Vader as a person or whatever. Meh.

[Migs]

On 1/2/2020 at 2:27 PM, The Thread Killer said:

I guess Conrad's formula is not sustainable long term.  I wouldn't be surprised if I end up giving up on Arn and JR sooner rather than later, as well.

I think the ultimate problem is that he doesn't get into enough depth. So once he's covered a couple of shows from an era, he's basically mined his subject for all their thoughts on the matter. From an artistic perspective, he should probably do six months worth of shows with a guest and move on.

[Matt D]

With that in mind, having Arn do Q+As every other week is a very clever way to handle this. Not only is he going to draw out the stuff Conrad knows about and wants to talk about but he'll get more clues about where else to go from the fan questions.