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matters. The Queen of the Crop, Duke loves wrestling and there is no one that does it better than your house. I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. Thank you. And I'm all out of bother you. Hey, everybody, this is Eric Bischoff. And you. You. Yeah, you. You're listening to Duke Loves Wrestling. Brothers and sisters, the River City Wrestling Con was so
tremendous. It ended up being the most successful pro wrestling convention in the history of the state of Florida. And certainly many of you listeners out there, you made that happen. So thank you. And you were rewarded with some of the biggest names in the history of pro wrestling and certainly our guest on this episode is one of them that you can't stop talking about. It was so cool for many of you to meet this guy. And now we're here to talk about
a little bit. The one the only Mr. Eric Bischoff, how you doing there? I am just living large, my friend, living large out here in Cody, WY, heart of the rodeo capital of Wyoming. They have a rodeo here every night. It's awesome. But the mountains are beautiful, the weather's beautiful, tourists are pouring in, money is being made. It's just a wonderful thing. I love it, I love it.
But before we get into that, 'cause I definitely want to ask you about your connection to Cody and what that means to you from a spiritual standpoint, 'cause I think there's a, there's a story to be told there. The River City wrestling caught. I mean, just your, your impression of this convention. I believe it was the first time that you had personally been there. What did you think? I was blown away to be honest and and I've worked with a lot of great promoters around the
country, around the world. As a matter of fact, I just did a tour of Australia a couple weeks ago and last fall did a tour of was it Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, UK, where else did I go? That's about it. But I've I've toured all over the place and worked with some really good promoters and I have not worked with a better promoter, not been to a better run event.
It was so well put together. And the thing I loved about it too was the venue, You know, the hotel, the Convention Center, there was a lot of room. I mean, there was big crowds. You had, you had a hell of a turn out and you had a lot of talent, but it was easy to move around in it in, you know, I've been to, I've been to conventions that man, it's just our elbow to elbow. You can hardly move and you can't, you don't even really get to see half of what you came to
see because it's so crowded. And this was laid out in such a way that, you know, people could move around freely and get to see everybody and do everything. And, you know, nice restaurant in the in the hotel. So All in all, it was like a scale of one to 10, brother. That was a 10 out of 10 for me. And then on top of it, I'd never been to Saint Augustine. I'd heard about it, never been there. I've been to Florida about, I don't know, a million and 1/2 times never been to Saint Augustine.
So when I flew, I get in the night night early and I just took an Uber 20 minute ride, walked around and was just absolutely amazed. I can't wait to come back. I saw at least a dozen restaurants that I have to go back to. I mean really cool place. Wow, high praise not only for the River City Wrestling Con, but for Saint Augustine in general. So shout out to the whole area there. You folks are doing something special when a a world traveler like Eric Bischoff puts you over like that.
Wow. Well, I mean, I mean, I mean the town, I'm a big, I love history. I'm always fascinated with history. I always have that since I was a little kid. It's the only, only thing in school that really interested me was history.
But you know, the city has done such a great job of preserving some of the original architecture and, and a few of the original buildings and the rest of it, really, they've done such a good job of maintaining it to keep its character and not let it get overly commercialized, which is usually what happens to a beautiful place like Saint Augustine over time. It's just, it gets overdeveloped. But the city and the state have done such a great job of preserving the history.
It's fascinating, fascinating place with great restaurants on the beach. What more could one ask for? I love it. That's that's a that's an and a half right there. You better bottle that one up there. Saint Augustine. And certainly I want to give a special shout out to Sam Bate and his son Nick Bate. You know, the folks that put on the River City Wrestling Con each year. That's a father and son duo family business. From what I hear from so many different people, they do
business the right way. You know, they're they're not out here trying to cheat anybody. They're just trying to give great entertainment to the fans and put you legends in the wrestling in a position where you know you have a great day's work. And certainly the combination of the two is why this brand continues to be successful. Very, very impressed.
Got to hang out with him. We went out to lunch the day after the events and you got a chance to get to know him because, you know, the day of an event, everybody's so busy and there's a million things going on, so it's hard to really get to know someone the day of. So we hung out at the hotel and grabbed a bite afterwards the next day. And just cool too. You know what's fun for me, man, I love seeing a father and son team.
I mean, it's to me one of the, you know, I got to work with my son in the wrestling business for quite a long time. And it's so special not only working together. And I think in the case of Sam and Nick, definitely building up a successful business, obviously. But you know, just to have that thing in common with your son
for me as a dad. And I would think for, you know, Nick having that relationship with his father and that thing in that thing in common, this business in common and wrestling in common, because they both love wrestling and they're both very, very knowledgeable. But to have that kind of that kind of a project to work on together is a very special
thing. So it made it even double cool for me. I love that, you know, you're that kind of guy, Eric, We, we were talking a little bit offline about the fact that you're an educator. You're, you're somebody who does a great job of expressing very complex issues and breaking them down in a way that allows people to digest it and understand it. And one of the things that I picked up on about you through the years is the fact that you're very, very tuned into family.
You never miss a moment to put over your son and talk about how proud you are of him now he's raising his own family and what have you. You're always putting over your daughter and, and how great she's doing in her career and, and building her own family now and what have you. And you never miss an opportunity to put over your lovely wife, Lori. And this isn't, you know, because you have to or something that is even conscious, in my
opinion, just listening. It's really a, a, a thing where this is your partner in life, not just your wife, but somebody who you legitimately have built an entire life, raised your kids and somebody who you lean on because she's so important to you. And, and vice versa. Talk to me about this whole notion of family and and how you're so rooted in it and and therefore able to express it so freely. You know, I, I, I, I, well, first of all, to me and I've and my wife and I've been together.
We've been married for 40 year. It'll be 40 years in August. We were together two years before that. So we've been, we've been together for a long time and certainly have gotten to know each other very, very well. And she probably knows me better than I know myself, as the saying goes, but it's true. It's true. But you know, she's always been very supportive and, and really more of a, a motivator or, or, or inspiration than anything
else. Because we both love, we, we have passion for work, we have passion for our family, we have passion for creating opportunities for our family. And it's one of the things that I've learned in my, my, the ups and downs of my career, both financial and otherwise, is I've learned to value things much differently than I did when I was in my 30s and 40s and even my 50s.
You know, I, I made the mistake I think a lot of people make, especially people like myself who came into a lot of money at a fairly young age without having ever had any experience with that, that kind of financial responsibility. And it's so easy to to fill your life with things. And I filled my life with lots of things, you know, Porsches and Corvettes and airplanes, you name it. Anything but a boat. I never bought a boat. But over time you learn that those things don't really, I've
learned, I shouldn't say you. I've learned that those things do not make me happy at all. They're fun. Don't get me wrong. Not knocking it by any stretch, But there's a difference between fun and happy. There's a difference between fun and joy. There's a massive difference. And I've learned over time that family is the most valuable thing to me because it is what brings me most joy and happiness. But you know, boats can't make, you can't bring.
You can't bring me joy. Airplanes didn't bring me joy. I got my pilot's license. I flew all over the country. I got my instrument rating, I got certified to fly high performance complex aircraft. I had a blast, but it didn't fulfill me. It was just fun. But family, family fulfills me and it's it's what I do everything for. It's why I work. It's why I always, I'll work till the day I die.
I'll never retire ever, because as long as I'm capable of helping to create opportunity for my wife and my kids, I will do that till I draw my last breath because it's the most important thing to me. Wow, what a what a response there. How does Cody WY factor into this? Because you literally could live anywhere in the world and you've lived in in various places throughout your career here. But Cody WY, what has drawn you there to the point where it's like, you know what, this is my
home. This is where we're going to set up shop and be till the end too. I grew up in Detroit in in the 50s and the 60s on the east side of Detroit. Eminem's, what was it, Eight Mile? What was the name of the Eminem movie? I lived on 10 Mile. He lived. He was talking about Eight Mile and Gratian. I went, I lived at 10 Mile and Gratian, 2 miles from there. Actually, Eminem and I went to the same elementary school, believe it or not. Different, different times,
obviously. But yeah, so I, I mean, and as a kid growing up in Detroit in a very lower, lower middle income environment, I dreamt of seeing mountains. I, you know, I, I grew up watching Bonanza and the Virginia, no, westerns were really big back in the 50s and the 60s. And I grew up watching, you know, Gunsmoke and, and all of them. And to see those images of mountains and cattle and horses, just as a young kid, it just fascinated me.
And when I was 22 years old, a friend of mine invited me out. He was going to be here anyway, and he invited me to come out. I was living in Minneapolis at the time, had never been West of Minnesota, believe it or not. And again, even at 22 years old, had never seen mountains ever. So my buddy invited me out and I said hell yeah. I jumped in my car and I drove out from Minneapolis about 1000 miles, 1200 miles drove out.
And I remember pulling into Cody about 5:00 in the morning, maybe 4/30, 4:45 and I was pulling into Cody and it was, now this is summertime and and Cody fills up a tourist in the summertime. It's crazy fun, but at 5:00, 5/30 in the morning, it was dead. There was no, nobody was moving. The sun has just starting to come up. It's very peaceful. And I pulled in and just as I parked my car and I got out to just look around, the sun's coming up and it's hitting the mountains all around me.
And even though this was July, there was still snow on the mountains. So you get the the golden sunrise, kind of an orange, pinkish color, actually just a beautiful blue sky. But the sun is still that weird color of pinkish orange and it's bouncing off the snow in the mountains. And it was just so cool. And I, I said to myself that moment, someday I'm going to live here. Someday I'm going to live in this town. No, I, I was 22.
I had like $104.00 in my pocket. I think I had a $200.00 limit on my one MasterCard. So it's not like I had a, you know, a plan. But I just knew someday I wanted to, to live here. And eventually, you know, I got my wife out here and she fell in love with it. And here we are. Built a house here in 90. We started the house in 97, finished at 98. That's awesome. And, and folks, definitely check out Eric on social media, some of the most beautiful photos
you'll ever see. And, and this is his scenery. This is on his deck. He looks out and and just as Conrad Thompson would say you, you live in a postcard, Eric. Well, I live right outside of Yellowstone National Park, about 47 miles east or West of here, so I'm directly east.
In fact, if you're sitting on my deck and you're looking to the West, you're looking up into the valley that takes you right into Yellowstone. So it is beautiful and millions of people from all over the world come here every summer to enjoy the scenery and all the things that you know this area of Cody, WY has to offer. There's a great museum here. One of the best natural museum, Natural History museums are here. Buffalo Bill Cody Museum is here. The Museum of the West.
There's, there's like 5 museums under wood roof. There's a rodeo every night of the week from June 1st all the way to September 1st I think, or September 3rd. There's a rodeo every night and there's river rafting, horseback riding, amazing world class trout fishing, you know, up and down the rivers here coming out of Yellowstone. So there's a lot to be said for living here. You, I, we give up a lot. You know, there's the convenience. You know what I need to fly
somewhere. For example, tomorrow I'm flying to Fort Lauderdale, I've got to drive 2 hours to the airport, you know, to, to make sure when I'm, you know, get on a flight that's actually going to leave. So, you know, there's now a big variety of restaurants and, and that kind of thing, which is why when I go to a place like Saint Augustine, that's the first thing I do is start looking for good restaurants. And like I said, Saint Augustine blew me away.
There was like, there's two French restaurants I want to try and it's unbelievable. But you know, I do without a lot of that stuff, but I make up for it in freedom. And I live on 20 acres. I, all my neighbors are 15 or 20 acres, so we're spread out and on top of each other. I look up into Yellowstone National Park. The weather's beautiful here and it's all the stuff I like. You know, I like to ride horses and hunt and fish and hike and all that still outdoorsy stuff I still like to do.
Incredible, incredible and hunting, fishing, loving every day, right? Isn't that the the song there? Yeah, yeah. I don't hunt as much as I used to. I hunt for food. I don't hunt for sport. My I'm my wife and I love wild games. So I'll usually take an elk every other year and, and A and a deer or two depending on what, what kind of supply we need. But I, I, I, I like to hunt waterfowl like duck and, and geese, upland birds like
pheasant. I I do love to hunt those, but we, we also love to eat and we eat everything we hunt. My wife hunts with me as well. That's see, here we go again. It's that whole life partner thing again, just naturally introduce her into the conversation. It means something. It it, it definitely shows your character when it doesn't always have to be about you. Because certainly that's what we've seen from stars throughout
history. You're a guy that you're, you're not afraid to share the spotlight. In fact, you, you go out of your way to highlight the people who matter most to you. And it's, it's a really interesting quality 'cause I, in my opinion, I think that that also bears fruit in other avenues as well. And I believe that that's part of the reason why to this day, Eric Bischoff as a brand is still relevant.
And people will literally pay money to come see you because you've managed to put out enough good juju in the world, so to speak, with how you've treated others. It's not always perfect. We know that. We've heard the stories, you read the books, shout out to Guy Evans and what have you. But for the most part, man, you're, you're a pretty grounded guy. And, and you really put a lot of emphasis on family and your close friends. And it shows.
It definitely shows that. Look, I like to connect. You know, one of the things that I, I really, really enjoy about doing an event like River City, I have, I don't know if it's a philosophy or whatever, doesn't matter. It's how my brain works. So it works for me. I'm, I'm pretty convinced that when fans come up for autographs, they don't really care about the autograph. The autograph is just the excuse to get an opportunity to make a
connection. And even though I sign my autograph, I know for a fact, or I believe I should say for a fact. That that's not why the person has been standing in line is and is willing to part with money. It's because they want to have a conversation. They want to feel like even if it's just for a moment or a couple minutes, that they're getting to know you and that you'll remember them just like they know you and remember you.
So when I do these sessions, I love to make sure that I take the time to look everybody in the eye. And I'll almost always if they're shy, cause a lot of people are, they don't know what to say, they're nervous or whatever. I'll just start asking them questions. You have a dog? What kind of dog? Cool. I used to have one of those where I had a friend who had
one. You know, you just, whatever, talk about something they don't expect, because then they'll just start talking and not thinking about what they're going to say. And then before you know it, you're having a pretty good conversation with someone you just met, you know, a minute ago. And that's what they remember. They may take the autograph, they may put it on their table and show people for a week or two and then whatever, but they'll always remember the conversation. Well said.
Well said. Speaking of which, I just got a text from Devon Dudley. WWE Hall of Famer he is. Yeah. Yeah, Devon. He and I actually just started a new show together. Devon and the Duke just put out our third episode. But Devon said that you're a good friend of his. He actually mentioned that on the previous episode, so he told me to give you a shout out there. Devon's great. He's, you know, there's a, I've made a lot of friends in, in, in the industry.
Some of them are casual friends. You know what I call passive friends, meaning, hey, you see him, you know, you're happy to see each other, you'll catch up and then you go about your life and maybe not talk to them again for another six months or a year. And then there's, you know, that other level friend that you, you stay in touch with and and so
forth. And then there's no special people like diva on and, and there's a few others that you look forward to seeing them because there's they're happy people. By that, I mean they just have a positive energy. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen Devon not smiling outside of the ring. Now, inside of the ring is different, but just in his just demeanor, you know, I, I, I did a convention with him a couple, a mother or two ago whenever we were next to each other.
And he's just, every time I looked over, man, he's smiling, he's laughing, he's interacting with, you know, fans, not just signing autographs, looking down at the table, you know, handing them out, trying to get through the line as quick as he could. He's having fun. And when he's having fun, the people around him have fun. And that's why I like being around him 'cause he just always, he always makes me smile. He's a good dude. Yeah, he's a good. You know, it's crazy too.
I don't know if you knew this Eric, but when Devon had a stroke a couple years ago they literally had to do some there in his head to rewire some things so he could walk again. Wow, I did not know that. This guy that you were just with, he was at River City as well. So you see him walking and talking, always smiling, same old diva and what have you. They literally had to do brain surgery to get him to walk again. And the fact that he still is functional as he is, is is
literally a miracle. Yeah, I know. I I saw him at River City, but I saw him a a month or two before that. We ran into each other and, and I learned a lot about him there growing up in a, in a religious family and, and, and where his values came from and how he grew up. We had a great conversation. I learned more about him that day than I knew in all the years
that I worked with him. So that's another reason why I love doing these kind of conventions is you get a chance to actually sit down and have a conversation with people you've known for 20 years about something other than the finish or, or what we're going to do with the next pay-per-view. It's awesome. Or, or the payday, you know, going back a little further, Jeez, you know, Speaking of which I I had to do this year. Vito Legrazo wants to know what
did you think of his new suit? Because you know, he's, he's the dawn of wrestling now. And, and he was at River City. He he was in everybody's pictures in the background wearing this, this Godfather S suit. What what did you think of Big Vito's digs there? I, I I'm impressed. I am impressed with the level of detail and the quality of of what he was wearing. He looked very Guido ish so good job.
You hear that Vito? You, you've just got put over by the man, Eric Bischoff. There you go, You know, sharp dressed man, big Vito Lograsso there. I'm going to tell you a story 'cause you, you asked me a question before we recorded. You asked me how we got
connected. Eric and I want to go back a little over eight years ago, the pod father himself, Conrad Thompson, he starts a podcast with his now father-in-law, Ric Flair. And I would reach out to Conrad because I had just started Duclos Rasan right around the
same time. And I would reach out to Conrad and, and say, hey, man, you know, I, you know, I enjoyed this part of the show and compare notes and what have you and, and basically give a review of each episode 'cause I was also learning from him different things. You know what I mean? Here you, you have a Hall of Famer right there who's telling all these stories. And sometimes they'd have guests.
So it was really cool to listen to Conrad evolve as a podcast host and pick up little tips and tricks along the way. So we struck up a nice rapport with each other and Conrad's been on the show a bunch of times. So very, very helpful, especially in the beginning of the Duke Club's wrestling brand. So Fast forward now, Nick Pate hits me up and he says, hey, I have somebody that wants to bring Eric Bischoff to the River City Wrestling con.
We we think it'll be a big hit because, you know, fans keep asking for him. I can't get a Direct Line to him. And I said, well, I think I know a guy. So I reached out to Conrad and and Conrad right away shot me your information, which I passed along to Nick. And that's how that whole situation happened there. Well, very cool and thank you for that. By the way, a little extra effort there paid off. I was, hey, very appreciative of that. It was, it was worth it, Eric.
And, and again, you're a guy who there was a period of time where Eric Bischoff was spoken of in a negative light and people really
couldn't pinpoint why. They just knew Bischoff was bad and Oh yeah, Bischoff, Bischoff. And what's really interesting from my perspective, and I want you to correct me if, if you, if your perspective is different on this, I believe that 83 weeks, you and Conrad doing that show has completely readjusted things and, and has allowed history to be very kind to you because people have actually taken the time to listen to your side and
hear the real story of what was going on, whether they like it or not, This is what happened. And I think that in the end, you come out looking like a regular normal guy and, and people respect you a lot more because of it. What do you think about that? Oh, I think it's true.
I think you're right. Keep in mind though, that it's it's complicated in a way because my name is Eric Bischoff and I was president of World Championship Wrestling, but I played a character named Eric Bischoff that was the president of World Championship Wrestling in the fact that I played myself has and I did it effectively. It blurred the lines.
I had a fair amount of heat as a character for a while, but the fact that I blurred the lines as well as I did for as long as I did on national television in a very high profile, one of the highest rated programs on cable TV for a couple of years. So I think people got to know that character and because of I was using my real name and I was using my real position as a as a as a tool, as a storytelling device, people also got confused. Their lines were blurred too.
And I think a lot of people assumed that that person that they saw on TV doing all that dastardly stuff was the real guy. So there's that. And in fact, I can tell you a funny story about that in a minute. And then there's the fact that for 302524 years, the only narrative that existed for wrestling fans outside of watching the show on television was the newsletters slash dirt sheets, Dave Meltzer, Wade Keller, couple other smaller ones pop up here and there.
And then of course, websites, you know, when, when the Internet became a, a legitimate thing in the, in the 90s beginning, you know, 'cause it was there, there was social media even back in the early days of the Internet and wrestling was always a big part of that. But that was the narrative. So whatever the, whatever the narrative was out there in the wrestling fandom is the narrative that everybody bought into.
Well, all of a sudden podcast came along and now you get to hear from guys like Bruce Prichard, who up until the time Bruce had his podcast come out, Bruce never had a platform. He didn't have a mailing list of 23451020 thousand subscribers. He he did. I mean, it was just, and I was the same way. I never had a platform. I, I produced television. Some of the the big I produced one of the biggest platforms in wrestling history at one point, but I didn't use it to tell my side of the story.
So when podcasts started evolving and, you know, bruised first, then Tony Shavani's came out, then mine came out and Ross came out. Conan pops up with one. Now Kevin Nash has got one. All of a sudden you're hearing from the people that guys like Dave Meltzer have been pretty much burying for 20 or 25 years and never had a chance to fire back. Well, now they do.
And, and I think what's interesting and why I'm so involved and why I enjoy it so much, it's because I'm really beginning to see the shift in, in the composition of at least the, the portion of the Internet that I deal with. People are far more they're, they're thinking critically now. They're not just taking what Dave Meltzer has to say as gospel. They're beginning to see that Dave Meltzer is kind of ABS artist.
He's very, very inaccurate. He his, his take on the business is horrible and is proving to be horrible in a very public way. He doesn't really understand the business of the business of wrestling, although he suggested he studies it. I don't know where he's studying.
But now that there's an alternative perspective from people who are actually there, who actually worked in the wrestling industry instead of in their apartment writing about it, people are beginning to understand that one, wrestling is a far more complicated business than people think it is. It really is a complicated
business. And two, there's a lot of information out there that's a lot more accurate than what they've been able to find on the Internet or in dirt sheets like Dave Meltzer. So it's fun to watch the audience become more educated because I think the more you understand, first of all, the business of the wrestling business and how it functions and how complex it is, the greater appreciation you have for it, even as a fan.
And nobody's ever been able to talk about the business of the wrestling business before because no one had that platform. And now we do. A lot of the people that show up for autographs and want to meet me are people, you know, almost, I would say six or seven out of 10 times will make a point of saying, and I really like your podcast 'cause you talk about the business of the wrestling
business. I don't just tell stories about what happened in the locker room and what happened on the road and who ribbed who and you know, who hooked up with whose wife or boyfriend or whatever. I, I don't, I don't talk about that stuff 'cause I don't have any of that experience in my bag of tricks, so to speak. But I do love to talk about the business of the rest of the business.
And now that more people are beginning to understand it and appreciate it, it gives them a different level of appreciation for the entire industry. When we talk about story as much as I do, 'cause I beat on it all the time and point out examples of great storytelling, disciplined storytelling, how to craft a story. All of a sudden now there's a percentage of the audience, at least some, the people that follow me, that are looking at story and they're looking for
plot points. They're looking for some of those elements that typically make a great story and are beginning to see when they exist in a story and when they don't. And to me that's fun because again, I think along the same lines, once you understand what goes into presenting wrestling and even at the very beginning understand why people watch it, why do people watch wrestling in it? And people have different answers, but it's a lot.
It's no different really than going to a movie or watching any other television show. It's, you want to go on a journey with your heroes and, and, and, and they're villains and you want to disconnect and get absorbed into that story and into those characters and kind of live vicariously, even if it's subconsciously just live through the characters that you're watching in the story. Wrestling's no different. And once you begin to see those parallels and understand it, you
appreciate it more. So I, I'm, I'm, I'm liking that fans are really paying more attention to the details of the wrestling industry and are eager to learn about it. And I think the fact that, you know, so many people have great podcasts now. Undertaker's got a podcast. Chris Van Vleet's podcast is outstanding. Jim Cornette's podcast. You know, Jim's kind of, you know, he's he, he's a little toxic, isn't the word 'cause that's not fair. It's too strong.
But he's, he's acidic. You got to be a little careful how close you get to Jim Cornette, depending on your point of view. But I think, you know, he's a, he's a smart guy. I don't agree with sometimes the way he says things, but that's, that's his choice. That's his business choice. But he's smart and he's got a great, he's got a great perspective, whether anyone agrees with it or not, including myself. Sometimes I do, often times I do, but sometimes I don't.
But he's a great, great podcast to listen to too. I already mentioned Conan, you know, from a town site. Kevin Nash is one of the smartest guys I know in the wrestling business. He's a really smart guy. You got to catch him in the right mood probably, you know, and sometimes he's a little, shall I say, relaxed. But you know when Kevin's, when Kevin's had something important to talk about, he is one of the most intelligent, conversationalist and critical thinkers that I know in the
wrestling business. You know, Eric, I'm, I'm glad you, you took us down that road because I got to tell you when I started this show over eight years ago, I tried to do the rumors thing and, and you know, that's, that's what everybody's doing. We're going to talk about the rumors and what's in the, what's in the websites and the dirt sheets and all that. And you know, I couldn't, I couldn't get more than 100 listens if I tried, right? Because what is that? And who the hell am I?
As soon as I started focusing on interviews and bringing the actual people on the show to talk about their lives, not just in wrestling but in general, who are you as a person, Suddenly everything changed. And it's important to get the people who actually experienced it the actual experts as opposed to trying to pretend like you are an expert. And I, that's my frustration with with Meltzer and a lot of other folks, they never actually get people on the record who
know what they're talking about. It's always, I'm the guy. I know everything. And in reality, Dave Meltzer was never a television executive. He never ran a wrestling. So why am I listening to this guy tell me about what's important to advertisers and what the ratings mean and, and who's going to get what money based on this quarter hour, yada
yada. It's like, well, wait a second, hold on. How do I know you're qualified to even try to educate me on this, as opposed to somebody like Eric Bischoff where that's literally your career? That's what you've been doing. Even when you were selling ads, that's what you were doing, right?
Yeah, and what what Dave does is he regurgitates some of the stuff he just reads in the trades because it makes, when you kind of regurgitate things you've read in the trades, it it, it can make, make one sound at least to others who have no idea what the industry is about. You can make yourself sound like you know more than you really do just by picking up certain things in the trades, right? That's number one. Number two, he listens to low level.
He he he he probably has contacts at fairly low levels within WWEI mean he's friends with Tony Kahn. That's right off the bat in the in the EVP S, whatever their names are now he's tight with them. So, but I mean, with WWE, he's probably got sources, but they're like mid card, lower mid card. Or they're that version of management, meaning, yeah, they work in the office, but they're pretty low, low level people who engage in that kind of gossipy rumor bullshit, leaking
information. That's usually low level players. And if there's somebody at a higher level that's talking to them, and I know this is a fact, there's no denying this. There are people that I am close to and have been for a long time. They don't do it directly, but indirectly.
They feed absolute nonsense to Meltzer because sometimes, not as often anymore for humor, because sometimes people would do it just to see if he'd actually take the bait and and run with it. There's always a big joke in the locker rooms. But that, that was quite a while ago. But to blow him off scent or to get the audience thinking that his audience does he just have a
footprint? You know, they're, they're, they're a very small percentage of the overall viewing audience, but they're very loud percentage. You know, they may be 3% of the television viewing audience, but they make 30% of the noise if you, if you know what I'm saying. So they'll occasionally, you know, feed him bullshit just to get him off off scent or just to intentionally get something out there.
Exactly the opposite of what they really want because they know he's a useful idiot in in the in in the urban dictionary version of the words, he is a useful idiot. But when it comes to actual inside information, he's sketchy at best. I mean, there are and there's guys that are good. Mike Johnson from PW Insider, Very, very good integrity. If he prints it, I know he sourced it and I know it's if it's not 100% on the money, it's so damn close. Dave Shearer, same thing.
PW Insider, Sean Ras Sapp, Sean Sapp, Look, he's controversial because he's he's not afraid to tell you what he thinks either, but he's on the money and there are others there. There are others. It's just unfortunate that certain people like Dave, you know, he's an old guy. He's it's my age, for crying out loud. He's older than freaking dirt. He hasn't changed the way he does business. It's all rumors and and nonsense and his spin on his spin on bad rumors is what 70% of his
nonsense is about. And then he gets offended when people call him out on it. It's just like Dave, it's pretty obvious what you're doing and it's not that hard to see through IT. People are going to call you out when you're phony as you are. Is that why we have wise choices now or this this is a a new show that you've recently put out? Now why? Here's how wise choices happen.
I was doing a show called Strictly Business with Jon Elbow. And we would try to record every Thursday. But John's, you know, he's got like he, he's a freelancer, you know, sports, radio, television in New York. So he's, you know, gin comes up, he's gone. So he's got his life that he's got a schedule and manage. My life is not as busy as his, but on any given day, I have no idea what I'm going to be doing because my the nature of my business evolves on a day-to-day
basis. I could have a conference call in an hour that I didn't plan on having this morning, but business necessitates it. So I'm constantly moving my schedule around as well. So I finally got to the point where I said, John, this is getting too hard. I'm I'm let's just put an end to this, figure out something in
the future. Because in the meantime, I want to do a show that I can do solo on YouTube just so I don't have to coordinate with anybody else's schedule or feel bad because my schedule is impacting adversely somebody else because it's changed at the last minute or whatever. So I forget if I can just figure out something to do on YouTube that's fun by myself, I'll just do that for a while until I figure out a different way to approach strictly business. So anyway, I'm starting to do that.
And right about them, Tony Khan, I, I, I made a point and, and it's in fact, John Elba put something out on social media thanking everybody that listens and just letting him know that because of scheduling challenges, we're going to put a, we're going to, we're going to put strictly business on hold. And Tony Kahn gets on social media and he goes, well, it's probably the a good thing that fraud, fraud of a podcast has decided to. And I said it's a why. Here's what he said.
Probably a wise choice for that fraud of a podcast, meaning 83 weeks my podcast or strictly business to sunset right before we get our renewal with TBS. And I thought, OK, I was, I wasn't going to pick on Tony anymore because number one, it's low fat hanging fruit. It's so easy. He makes it too easy and I can just get tired of doing it. But that one kind of irritated me. So I I named the show wise choices because of his post. He said it was a wise choice to sunset strictly business.
So I said I'll just come up with another show called Wise Choices and I smoked Tony. I smoked him like Cheech and Chong would smoke a reefer and had a lot of fun with it, did record number of views. And I thought, huh, Wise Choices is a name for a good name for a YouTube show. So I've been doing it ever since and the the nature of the show
changes. Sometimes it's interviews, sometimes it's me ranting and raving about something that irritates me. Sometimes, you know, we're talking about breaking down stories. What's an act one? How do you create an act one for for professional wrestling? What is what is an act one? How does it work? What are the plot points you need in an act one you're trying to establish? We have those types of conversations, so it's wise.
Choices can be anything I'm in the mood to do on any given day on YouTube. I love it. I love it. It's a great show, folks. You definitely should check out Wise Choices. In fact, the latest episode, Eric has a special guest in Kevin Kelly, so I know that's going to be a hot one to listen to there. You know, it's it and we'll, we'll wrap on this, but it's interesting with Tony Khan, he once jumped in my inbox, Eric, and just had a tantrum.
They were unclear about something on AW and I pointed it out, but I was using the Dynamite hashtag as I was pointing it out and everyone started lining up and, and trying to argue with me about it. And on a Wednesday at 11:30 AM, as if this guy doesn't have something better to do, he's in my inbox demanding that I stop rampaging and that he writes the show, so he should know what the storyline should be. And maybe I not, maybe he told me that I don't know what I'm talking about.
So then I pointed him to his own website. And I said, well, Tony, this is what it says on your own website on the recap of Dynamite. And the man literally said, oh, I didn't know that was up there. He didn't even know on his own website that they recap his television show. What the hell? Are we doing here? Tony is a a an extremely wealthy individual who is getting to play out his childhood fantasies. That's what this is. This is, this is.
If there was ever a classic vanity project, this would be it. That's all it is. It's not a business. If this was a business and Tony actually was employed by an employer as opposed to being funded by his father, Tony would have been fired six months in maybe a year. He certainly would not exist on anybody's payroll other than a loved ones.
Given the performance and and and the management issues that have taken place inside of AW in the last couple of years, especially the last 18 months, it's been a freaking disaster. There's just not been a good move from a business perspective, from a creative perspective. Yeah, he goes, he writes a lot of big checks, gets a lot of people to sign on the dotted line. But that's not necessarily a talent that's just giving away
money. These are money motivated individuals as they have every right and probably responsibility to their families to be. So no, no harm, no foul on talent, but it doesn't take much when you've got the kind of money that Tony's throwing around to lock up some decent names. What do you do with them? What's he done with them? Nothing. Absolutely not. There has not been any return on investment from anything that he's done creatively or in terms of talent.
It's a mess, but whatever. It's a vanity project and it doesn't matter. That's why. That's why it doesn't matter. That's why Tony's not going to listen to you. He's not going to listen to me. He's not going to probably listen to anybody. Maybe his dad. He's just going to do what 14 year old Tony Kahn would have done If if Tony if 14 year old Tony Kahn had real wrestlers to play with instead of action figures. Well, what do you mean?
Like get the wrestlers to convince you to to make a video game before you your company's even stable. You know they're giving away that video game now on PlayStation. Yeah, I've, I've got some friends that are, I'm fairly close to that are in the video game business at very high levels. We're talking about development and, and, and all coders, all that. And that's a small world. That video game world is, it's small, it's big. I mean, it's powerful, it's huge financially.
But the world itself, Speaking of the movers and the Shakers and the people that know what's going on in that world, it's a very small world. And I got some pretty accurate insight early on into the development of that game. And it should, it should have been a movie. And like, if you put Jack Black in it and a couple other really funny characters, it would be an ideal comedy. You take a bunch of wrestlers that don't know where. Oh, but I play video games. Can you imagine, Duke?
You're on a plane. The, the, the, the, the, the, the situation everybody's thought about at one point or another, talked about what if I'm on a plane and the pilot can't fly the plane? Could I land this plane? Could I fly it? There's been movies made of it, hell, bunch of times. But can you? Can you? Can you imagine being in a business where a guy says my experience and the reason I'm spending 10s of millions of dollars on talent is because, well, I used to watch it when I was a kid.
That's Sony Khan's experience. He grew up as a wrestling fan. That's like a guy on an airplane going, well, I've flown. I got million mile status on three different airlines. Fuck, I can fly this plane no problem. Throw that captain out of the seat, let me have at it because I've got 2 million miles on my belt, under my belt, flying out, flying as a passenger. So sure, I can fly.
Just like Tony grew up as a kid watching wrestling and becoming passionate about it, and now all of a sudden thinks he can be a pilot of his wrestling airplane. The problem is he can't. He doesn't have a clue about what makes wrestling work for the audience. He knows what made wrestling work for him as a 14 year old watching ECW, but the audience isn't going to respond to the same things that 14 year old Tony Kahn used to respond to that.
That's the that's the dilemma. That's why AW is where it is. And why? It's not going to change. No reason for it too long as Tony's having fun, it's not going to change. You just heard that from the one person on the planet who was able to lead a company to defeat the WWE consistently for 83 weeks and then some. It was 104 in total, but who's counting? Who's counting who's 83 in a row but 104 in total?
Listen, Eric, how can everybody listening right now keep up with you and all the you got a million and one things going on at one time. But if they want to keep up with Eric Bischoff, see some of those great pictures, hear your
podcast, plug away, man. Yeah, I mean, I'm on X, formerly Twitter at E Bischoff. I'm on Instagram at the real Eric Bischoff. But really, you know, the podcast 83 weeks wherever you get your favorite podcast drops every Friday morning early and then on 80 threeweeks.com, which is our YouTube channel. We do a lot of different stuff over there. That's a fun that's a fun hang out, pretty good community and we're about to do some really cool stuff over there. So that's another good place.
So 80 threeweeks.com for YouTube E Bischoff on Twitter The real Eric Bischoff on Instagram. I don't spend much time on Instagram, to be honest. That's about it. Before I let you go, Eric, I, I know that you're a, you're a details oriented guy. So I have a crew on, on Twitter, we call ourselves the coffee core. It's coffee drinkers from all over the world. You know, a lot of them are in the wrestling industry, many are fans and what have you, but we always share our coffee recipes
and what have you daily. What did you drink this morning? Eric, 'cause I, I know that this is a thing for you. You know, you normally have multiple cups and what have you, whether it was coffee or something else. What? What did you wake up drinking this morning? This morning I had Lori, my wife made me what we call a fat coffee, which is we use Purity coffee. It's a, a, a brand that we found that we know to be tested organic and a really good quality coffee. So we use that.
But she mixed in some collagen. She mixed in a tablespoon of MCT oil. Google it if you don't know what it is. It's really, really healthy. It's a super nutritious fat and a little bit of butter in the coffee. And I think it's just a small shot of cream, just enough to add a little color to it. And then she whips it all together in a blender. It's real hot in the blender. It is just awesome, smooth and
silk. But because of the collagen and the MCT oil in particular, it's a in the butter. I'm, I'm, I'm on a carnivore diet, so I don't need any carbs at all. I get all my energy from nutritional fat, usually animal fat. MCT oil is the only synthetic product I take. But so butter in my coffee with the MCT oil is like a it's like 2 Red Bulls for the average person for me. And I drank that and went right to the gym.
Got in a solid hour workout. Till next time, be kind to yourselves and be kind to others. Take it away. Tony Shivani. Mr. Tony Cavani and we're definitely out of time on Duke Love Wrestling.