Introduction
Since 1984 every wrestling promoter has tried to best Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation unsuccessfully… except one, Eric Bischoff. Eric beat Vince McMahon’s Monday Night RAW head-to-head in Monday Night Wars 83 consecutive times. 83 Weeks will take a deep dive into the highs and lows of Eric Bischoff’s unparalleled successes in the wrestling business.
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Content
This clip is brought to you by savewithconrad.com, let's uh.
Let's talk about some some controversy and some sad news before we jump into our topic today.
Well, we've been filibustering for several minutes, but by the way, everything that eric and I do eventually will arrive over at adfreeshows.com.
Just so you know, but lockdown 2011 is why we're here, and originally it was on the calendar for last week, uh or maybe the week before, either way we had to call an audible because that was sort of hall of fame week.
So we're going to get to it here momentarily and you're going to hear all things tna, but before we get there, I felt it was really important right at the top of the show to talk about some shocking news that you- and I both got this past friday regarding our old pal steve, mcmichael, uh man.
This.
This hit me like a ton of bricks because we just had at starcast a few years ago, and he was the life of the party.
As always, he was one of my first guests on my podcast with ric flair, and he taught me so many one-liners that I still use to this day, including the phrase on scholarship.
I I just uh.
I can't imagine that this larger-than-life figure is now in the fight of his life and uh.
I don't know dude it caught me by surprise and he's one of those guys.
I just never imagined something like this could happen to, and it is a reminder that boy life is fragile.
We need to appreciate it and he's still a fighter and trying to pull the nose up right now and and right now, he's actually raising money over at gofundme.com just go over there and check out um, steve mcmichael, but man what a story yeah I mean if you're, if you'd like to donate, I think if you, google team, I don't have the gofundme uh information sitting in front of me right now, but you know if you just google team, yep and you'll find it chris jericho, put it up on chris's website and was kind enough to.
Let me know that so I could help promote it is he is one of the funniest people I've ever been around.
He is quick-witted.
He's just got something he's a he's.
You know you, you hear the phrase larger than life character.
A lot you know in all walks of life.
Steve mcmichael really is larger than life in so many ways, and you look at everything that he did as an athlete throughout his life really super bowl champion with chicago bears and a notorious one at that.
He, when, when steve, was at the top of his game, he was fearsome fearsome in the nfl, but also so much fun and I've got so many fun stories.
You know my wife and I were sharing them yesterday and he's just a great dude, kevin nash called me and we're going to try to find steve, get a hold of steve and uh and and pay him a visit uh.
I don't know if you read the story that was in the chicago tribune friday, uh last friday, where you know it was basically announced because he wanted everybody to know why he hasn't been around and that he's not going to be making personal appearances any longer, and he just wanted to.
Let no people know why.
But if you read that article he's still, his sense of humor is just insane given what he's going through, but he's still got it.
Man he still likes to make people laugh he's an amazing dude yeah, it's teammongo76.com, where you can pick up a bracelet to support him.
You can also get a link right there for the shirt, but if you go to gofundme.com and just look up team you'll see it their goal is to raise a hundred thousand as you and I are speaking not too far away.
I'm sure they're going to exceed it.
Hey, and I don't know that me- and you are really talking about this for the first time you and I sorry, uh, rick flair is going to visit him too.
So maybe you can coordinate and we can get a little wcw union there to uh to visit steve because my god, what a character not just on the gridiron but in the squared circle- and I mean I guess you know- I think technically- he did something with the wwf first, but you put him out at the forefront for wrestling fandom when he put him behind the nitro desk, and I don't know man that was that was our peak fandom for a lot of people who are watching this.
I mean the name of our show was 83 weeks and some of that fun started while was a big part of it yeah.
You know what I was thinking about this yesterday too, when I was thinking about steve and you know, making steve uh putting steve on color comment was within the wrestling community.
You know the the the loudest ten percent of the hundred percent of the audience were really anti-steve mcmichael because he didn't come from that wrestling kind of background that everybody thinks you need that process.
You need to go through.
You know he wasn't a student of professional wrestling.
He was a fan of professional wrestling and sometimes having a fan of professional wrestling.
Who has a you know.
Obviously, a super bowl level.
You know amount of credibility as an athlete is known nationwide, but just is fun to have sitting next to you and and and every once in a while.
You know come up with the off off the wall stuff.
That steve did was a blast for me and I- and I'm not just saying this because of you know the situation.
Steve is in right now and we're tipping our hat to him in this moment, but I think steve and the the entertainment value and the credibility and the name recognition had a lot to do with the early success of nitro and our relationship with advertisers, which you know you, and I talk about this all the time about.
Sometimes you have to make moves that satisfy the wrestling audience most of the time, but sometimes you've got to keep an eye over here on your advertising, particularly if you're trying to nurture them and build them and build relationships and steve helped us do that.
You know, because, while a lot of advertising agencies and people that control dollars and budgets, you know- maybe they didn't know anything about wrestling, but they knew something about steve mcmichael and he had a reputation and just to be able to have steve to have had steve as part of our package.
So to speak, when we were out selling sponsors or advertisers did have a significant impact on wcw nitro in the in the early stages of it.
So I don't think he gets enough credit.
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