0:00

Hey, guys.

0:00

Listen up. I know these days when you watch the

0:02

news, it feels like it's one hit after another,

0:04

and it's all bad news for the economy. Well, let

0:06

me give you some good news It's not all that

0:09

bad when it comes to real estate. Let me explain.

0:11

You see, a year ago, man, real estate

0:13

was hot, hot, hot, everybody and their

0:15

brother, was trying to go out and buy

0:17

another house. What did that mean? It was

0:19

so competitive that lot of folks

0:21

got discouraged. So let me ask you.

0:23

Have you thought about buying a house in the last couple

0:25

of years, but maybe just couldn't win a bid?

0:28

I used to hear that all the time.

0:30

Well, now is the time to buy.

0:32

Yes, interest rates have creeped up a little

0:34

bit, but what that's created is an opportunity

0:37

for you. A year ago, it wasn't uncommon

0:39

for there to be more than a dozen offers

0:41

on home many of which were over

0:43

list. That is not

0:45

the case today. So if you got discouraged

0:48

once before about trying to buy a new house,

0:50

Now is the time to take another look. Now,

0:52

yes, interest rates have creeped up a little

0:54

bit, but you're not gonna overpay for

0:56

the home. But here's what you will do. You'll

0:58

stop throwing your money away on rent, and

1:00

now you'll get a greater tax deduction. That's

1:03

right. You see, at the end of the year, you're gonna get

1:05

a statement from your mortgage company that shows how

1:07

much interest you paid. and you get

1:09

to write all of that interest off. That

1:11

means you could give a huge tax deduction.

1:13

You never get that as a renter. Not only

1:15

that, homes are still going up in

1:17

value. Don't believe the hype.

1:19

All of the economists believe long term

1:22

real estate always works out. Let me give you

1:24

an example. maybe way back when

1:26

in the housing collapse of two thousand eight,

1:28

you bought in two thousand seven and maybe

1:30

overpaid. Buddy, if you hung in

1:32

there, that house is worth a whole heck of a lot

1:34

more now. If you played in stock

1:36

market, you know what I'm talking about. You only

1:39

lose money when you throw in the towel. Real

1:41

estate long term always performs

1:44

well. So here's my advice to you.

1:46

Date the rate, marry the house.

1:49

Find the house that you and your family

1:51

love. Long term, because here's

1:53

what's not long term. These higher rates.

1:55

I've yet see a single economist who

1:57

doesn't agree with me that rates are going

1:59

to return. So

2:01

doesn't it make sense to get the house you want

2:03

right now? And then when rates improve, man,

2:05

just get a lower monthly payment. In

2:07

the meantime, you'll enjoy a greater tax deduction,

2:10

and that profit is gonna continue to appreciate,

2:12

meaning you're building equity and wealth for

2:14

yourself. Not only that, how about

2:16

this? We're gonna save you some cash

2:19

at buy with conrad dot com.

2:21

We're gonna give you the peace of mind of a seven

2:23

year guarantee. rates

2:25

improve over the next seven Here's not

2:27

if, but when, that's my prediction. We'll

2:29

refinance you again with no new origination

2:32

points. Think about that. That could save you

2:34

thousands of dollars and give you the peace

2:36

of mind of knowing that you got the right house

2:38

for your family right now. And then

2:40

when the rates improve, man, get a lower monthly

2:42

payment. You don't need perfect credit or

2:44

money out of your pocket to do this, but

2:46

you do need to hurry to buy with

2:48

conrad dot com. That's the first step. you

2:50

tell us how much you wanna put down and what you

2:52

want your monthly payment to be, we get

2:55

you approved and then you go shopping just

2:57

like a cash buyer at buy

2:59

with conrad dot com. NLS

3:01

number 65084 equal housing

3:04

lender. Seriously, if you've thought about

3:06

buying a house over the last couple of years, but you

3:08

got discouraged. Now is the time to

3:10

take another look. Let me run the numbers

3:12

for you right now. You'll be glad you did at

3:14

buy with conrad dot com.

3:16

welcome

3:19

to set of

3:22

rebel will

3:22

yeah

3:33

Hello,

3:33

everybody. It's September twenty second

3:36

nineteen ninety seven.

3:38

Wait

3:38

a minute. No. It's not. It's November ninth

3:41

two thousand twenty two. I'm Eric Bishop.

3:43

sitting in for Conrad Thompson who was

3:45

basking on a beach somewhere in Florida

3:48

and joining the sunshine. Well, I

3:50

freeze my ass off here up in Tony,

3:52

Wyoming. It's wintertime. But I'm

3:54

I'm good with it, me up because I get to hang up

3:56

with my buddy, Bruce, Richard. Bruce, how the hell

3:58

are you?

3:59

Wait a minute.

3:59

I'm wonderful. Conrad said

4:02

that we were gonna do an expose

4:04

on Eric Bischoff today. That was

4:06

my understanding.

4:08

Well, it's maybe it's gonna be a little

4:10

bit above because we're gonna talk about the

4:12

survivor series nineteen ninety seven. I

4:14

can't believe we're still talking about this.

4:16

people are still interested in this. It's,

4:18

I guess, it's wrestling lower at

4:20

this point. But we're going to talk

4:22

about it differently than

4:24

everybody else because you were

4:26

sitting on one side of the trench

4:28

in this battle between WWE

4:31

and WWE at the time. And I was

4:33

course, on the other side of it,

4:35

and we each have our own unique

4:38

perspectives at that time. So this will

4:40

be a little bit different. In a way

4:42

I'm looking forward to it, but in a

4:44

way I'm not, because I've gotta sit here and look

4:46

at all of these these notes

4:48

from the observer, and

4:50

shout out to Derek Sibano for doing

4:52

a great job. Try to put this time

4:54

line together. But every time I read more

4:56

than a half a paragraph with Dave Messer,

4:58

I my vertigo gets so bad.

5:00

I almost fall out of my chair. So if you

5:02

guys lose me anywhere along the line,

5:05

just know that it was vertigo induced

5:07

collapse.

5:09

Well, that's

5:12

how I kinda handle it, Eric, of

5:14

just saying and here's

5:16

here's what is going to make it unique. Again, as

5:18

you said, you were all one side of the coin and I

5:20

was on the other side of the coin.

5:22

I think that we have heard from

5:25

the guy that was in the middle, that being

5:27

Brett Hart. And, you know, Brett has

5:29

his version of things. We all have our version

5:31

of things. Not that anybody's right

5:33

and or wrong, It's just completely

5:35

different perspectives. And, frankly,

5:37

I don't think that you and I have

5:40

ever discussed this.

5:42

No. We we we talked

5:44

you know, we did that one podcast together

5:47

that live show together when Chris Jerica

5:49

was was our moderator.

5:52

And we we talked about a number of things, but

5:54

this wasn't one of them. So this is gonna be

5:56

really interesting. And like

5:58

you, Bruce, you know, I've learned

5:59

from from doing this

6:02

and listening to guys who are friends

6:04

of mine and and others who aren't

6:06

necessarily friends of mine. But, you know, you

6:08

listen to people tell stories over

6:10

the last two decades. And

6:13

I think people kind of start filling in

6:15

the blanks and making the stories

6:17

a little bit more interesting. You don't necessarily

6:19

mean to lie or deceive, but

6:21

after about two decades, this shit gets all

6:23

twisted up. And the

6:25

facts kinda get lost somewhere in the

6:27

ether. So this will be kind of fun.

6:30

Well, III think that the that

6:32

one of the things that came out of doing the

6:34

podcast and talking about this is

6:36

I had not seen Brett since

6:39

Olin's funeral.

6:41

And I saw him for

6:43

the first time in two thousand

6:46

and nineteen, maybe two thousand and

6:48

eighteen. it is signing somewhere.

6:50

And it was absolutely

6:53

it was almost like no time

6:55

had gone by in

6:57

scene, Brett, and it was a

6:59

lot more of of the old good Brett

7:01

than I remember. And and

7:03

again, I always like Brett. But it it

7:06

I I didn't know what to expect,

7:09

and Brett says, hey, I'd really like to talk to

7:11

you about your podcast. and

7:13

pulled me off to the side and

7:15

thanked me and said, you know, I don't

7:17

agree with everything that you said, but

7:19

yours was the most honest and

7:23

you know, kind of

7:25

unbiased report

7:26

that he had ever heard

7:28

from the other side. And

7:30

again, I just, you know, said, well, this is

7:33

how I saw it from my perspective. This

7:35

is this is how I took it from

7:37

my perspective and not anybody else's.

7:39

And I I just always appreciated

7:41

that from Brett going. Well, first of all,

7:43

thank you, and and I thought it was cool that

7:45

he he liked the representation

7:48

that we had done on the podcast

7:50

before, but this will be a little different

7:52

because we'll be talking about that

7:54

evil son of a bitch that was on the other side

7:56

there WCW dialling

7:58

those billions upon billions of

8:00

dollars in front of Brett, and promising

8:02

him the world, promising him Are they

8:04

eight major motion pictures a month?

8:06

Mhmm. Rolls

8:10

Royce Showford, limousine, wherever he

8:12

went. The

8:14

the gold the gold bathrooms in

8:16

his private jet, I thought

8:18

was a little excessive, Eric. I'm just

8:20

saying. Well, I

8:20

think he got that from being

8:22

around Vince. You know? I don't

8:24

think he ever saw a golden bathroom on

8:26

a private jet till we started working with

8:28

Vince. Let's just jump right into

8:30

it, brother. Let me just know. We do it. Before we

8:32

do it, why do you think people

8:35

are still so interested in the

8:37

story? I mean, it's got legs. Why?

8:39

I I think it

8:42

was the first time that

8:45

we had exposure

8:47

to that that major media

8:49

picked up on it. For whatever reason,

8:51

whether it was Mike Lantzberry in

8:53

Toronto that just

8:56

kinda grab

8:58

hold. We were both

9:00

popular at the time, ma'am. You know, both

9:02

companies were we were

9:04

doing well. You guys were doing great.

9:07

And there were a lot of

9:09

eyeballs on us, and it was that pivotal

9:11

moment where reality came

9:13

into fiction. And

9:15

then in the outside world, the

9:17

legitimate media, if you will, picked up

9:19

on it. Like, oh my god. Like, this was a

9:21

new story. To me,

9:23

it was one night, Montreal. But

9:26

I think that

9:27

people gravitated to it because they got a

9:29

glimpse behind the curtain for the first time.

9:31

and it was acknowledged.

9:34

One

9:34

night, Montréal sounds like a porn.

9:37

Well, this is something you

9:39

find a porn hub. Well, you

9:41

know, I you probably could. You know how

9:43

many searches are gonna be? Or

9:46

not for one night long ago. Alright.

9:50

So and I was

9:52

just about reading a joke. And I think one of the

9:54

things to looking back at this

9:57

time is ninety

9:59

seven is WCW was

10:01

probably at its peak. Ninety seven was probably

10:03

our best year, early part of ninety

10:05

eight. But this is, like,

10:08

Everybody knew there was competition. Right? Because

10:10

we've been going head to head on Monday nights

10:13

since ninety five, late ninety

10:15

five, third quarter ninety five, fourth

10:17

quarter. But now,

10:19

you know, that competition is

10:22

escalating and escalating and it's getting more

10:24

serious. And now, you've

10:26

got this confrontation,

10:29

this angle screwjob.

10:32

That's kind of like a physical manifestation of

10:35

what was otherwise just like co competency.

10:37

Right? But

10:38

now it's now it's physical. And

10:40

maybe it's why. it

10:43

still lives in the minds of so many

10:45

rest of the fans today. Yeah.

10:47

And they and and they got to they

10:49

got to experience it and they got to choose

10:51

sides. Yeah. Again,

10:53

it gave it gave them, you know,

10:55

more sides to choose now.

10:57

And

10:58

probably, in its

11:00

own way, really contribute

11:02

it because, you know, it's it's generally, you know,

11:04

right before we started this podcast, you held up

11:06

the book called The

11:08

Art of War. I just want to say one of my

11:10

favorite books. I read it about once every two

11:12

or three years just to refresh my memory.

11:14

And this

11:17

is this is the real

11:19

war in that physical manifestation of

11:21

confrontation, a screwjob culture, whatever you

11:23

wanna call it, really

11:25

did give Vance

11:27

even more of an opportunity to

11:30

to commit and pick aside.

11:32

And I think contributed to

11:34

the success of the Monday night wars.

11:36

And behind the scenes from our

11:38

vantage point, we had

11:40

had

11:40

our ass handed to us. We were

11:43

continuing to still have our ass

11:45

handed to us in television

11:47

ratings. And

11:49

that was the one measuring

11:51

stick that everybody could look to on a

11:53

weekly basis to see who was doing better

11:55

than who. So

11:58

for us, who had always been the

11:59

leader to

12:00

be the

12:03

second program was Man,

12:07

that that was hard to swallow.

12:09

So from our vantage point, it's

12:11

everything that WCW

12:13

was doing. that

12:14

affected our business. That

12:17

every every maneuver was worn. Every

12:19

maneuver was another strike,

12:21

was another skud missile to

12:24

our detriment. So whatever

12:27

someone would go to WCW

12:29

whether they had been released or not, it was

12:31

a slap in the face. to

12:33

have

12:33

Brett, you don't wanna go, and Brett

12:35

wanted to go at that time. There

12:37

was just so many different things

12:40

happening that we were

12:42

fighting for placement, if you will. And

12:44

Before we get in the timeline,

12:46

Bruce, what was I mean, I only got to

12:48

work with Vince directly for three or four months

12:50

back in two thousand nineteen. And

12:52

in that very brief period of time

12:54

that I often refer to is a cup of

12:56

coffee. I got

12:58

a little bit of a glimpse

13:01

into Vince's personality

13:03

just a bit, you know, that didn't really

13:05

get to know him. But

13:07

what was he to like during

13:10

this period of time. I mean,

13:12

what what was this mood on a day

13:14

to day basis if if you can remember?

13:17

The

13:19

main focus of Vince is a fighter,

13:22

period. Vince is a

13:24

fighter and he's not gonna

13:26

stop until he

13:28

wins. That's just the guy that

13:30

I've known since nineteen eighty seven.

13:33

And

13:33

when all

13:35

of these things are coming at him,

13:37

and you're looking at staying in

13:39

business. And this is law before we

13:41

were a publicly traded company, you're

13:43

looking at staying in business

13:46

every penny, you know, you're counting every

13:49

penny.

13:49

And I know had a budget

13:51

as well. However, the perception was

13:54

was you had a billionaire's checkbook that

13:56

you could write any check you wanted to

13:58

anybody at any time. and

13:59

that

13:59

there was no budget. There was no

14:02

limit to the resources of

14:04

the terminal organization. Well,

14:06

we're a privately held company, and the one guy

14:09

who was writing the checks was

14:11

looking at that balance sheet every

14:13

day. So It

14:16

was

14:16

competitive, it was

14:19

aggressive, and I think

14:21

every move that we made was analyzed

14:23

with a with a lot of caution.

14:26

mean,

14:26

like, when you came to work and you said, they'll

14:28

invest. I mean, was he crabby, generally?

14:30

Was he fucking let's fight?

14:32

Was he frame of mind?

14:34

What was this frame of mind? Vincent's frame

14:36

of mind was let's fight, let's beat these

14:38

assholes. And how,

14:40

you know, you talk about the and by the

14:42

way, thank you for noting that it was

14:44

perception that I had

14:46

access to a billionaire ship book because that

14:48

certainly wasn't the reality. But

14:51

With regard to WWE No.

14:54

I'm again, this is me

14:56

revealing what I don't know. But

15:00

Linda was still very much a part of WWE at

15:02

the time. Was

15:04

was

15:05

she over finances? I

15:07

mean, who? Who was in

15:09

control of the finances? Spencer, Linda, or both?

15:12

Both. Both

15:13

in many ways. I would say Linda was more in

15:15

charge of the day to day operations of

15:17

the business and the things. Vince was in charge

15:19

of creating. But Vince

15:21

oversaw the entire operation.

15:23

So there wasn't anything that that Vince

15:26

didn't know in the company,

15:28

and he kept close tabs

15:30

on everything. but

15:32

more so to the creative

15:34

side of things. Did

15:36

you did you interface with Linda Butch during

15:38

this period of time or strictly good? Not

15:40

really. Mainly Mainly Vince.

15:44

Correct. It was yeah. Yeah. And and, you

15:46

know, the thing is is I think is we get

15:48

into this. That's why I said, the perceived

15:51

open checkbook in in a

15:53

billionaire. And just I I

15:55

always like to tell people that we'll

15:57

say, oh, well, hey, gosh. You got all this

15:59

money in doing all these things. You don't

16:01

become a billionaire by making bad

16:03

business deals. You don't

16:05

become a billionaire by paying everybody

16:07

else billions of dollars.

16:09

You

16:10

do it because you're a smart businessman and

16:12

you're able to make

16:14

decisions that make you and

16:16

everybody else around you more money.

16:19

But, yeah, I always did love

16:21

the idea that Well, you just and

16:23

by the way, you had signing power on

16:26

that checkbook. I'm told you didn't even have to

16:28

get approval. You had Ted's you were

16:30

a signature on Ted's

16:32

personal checkbook.

16:33

My words yeah.

16:35

Do you think I've been sitting here talking to you

16:37

right now if that was true? Let's

16:40

say you gotta wait with it. I'm just saying, yeah.

16:42

I mean,

16:43

I mean, I'd be I'd be out of beats

16:45

somewhere throwing coconuts at tourists.

16:48

like property.

16:50

You know, right now, especially

16:52

with the time of the year and the economy like it

16:54

is, it's probably time to start thinking

16:57

about making some more calculated financial decisions

16:59

that might benefit you later. And if

17:01

you're just getting started on your

17:03

financial journey, It's important to set

17:05

yourself up for success. And if you've got

17:07

a high credit score, you may have

17:09

more power than you think. Now it's the

17:11

time to live leverage that score to consolidate

17:13

your debt before the interest rates

17:15

get too high. Pay off your credit

17:17

cards faster with a low fixed

17:19

rate loan from LightStream. A

17:21

credit a car consolidation loan from LightStream can help you

17:23

pay off your credit cards and lock

17:25

in a low fixed interest rate.

17:28

Rates started a six point nine

17:30

nine percent APR with autopay and

17:32

excellent credit. Plus, the rate is

17:34

fixed, so it will never

17:36

go over the life of the loan. You can get a loan from

17:38

five thousand to a hundred thousand

17:40

dollars and there are absolutely

17:42

no fees. You can and get

17:44

your money as soon as day you apply. LightStream believes

17:47

that people with good credit deserve a

17:49

better loan experience, and that's

17:51

exactly what they deliver. And just

17:53

for my listeners, apply it now and get a

17:55

special interest rate discount and save

17:57

even more. The only way to get

17:59

this discount to go to

17:59

light stream dot com slash

18:02

wrestle. That's LIGHTSTREAM

18:05

dot com slash wrestle. This is

18:07

subject to credit approval. Rates range

18:09

from six point nine nine percent APR to

18:12

nineteen point nine nine percent APR

18:14

and includes a half a percent auto pay

18:16

discount. The lowest rate

18:18

requires on a credit. Terms and conditions apply and offers

18:20

are subject to change without notice,

18:22

visit like stream dot com slash

18:24

wrestle for more information.

18:26

Dynasties know that every player

18:29

counts to build a championship team

18:31

with a deep bench you

18:33

need indeed. Indeed, is the

18:35

hiring platform where you can attract

18:37

interview and hire all in one

18:39

place. Don't spend hours on

18:41

multiple job sites looking for candidates with

18:43

the right skills, when you can do it

18:45

all with indeed. Find top

18:47

talent fast. With the indeed suite

18:49

of powerful hiring tools,

18:51

like, indeed instant match assessments and virtual

18:54

interviews. Hate waiting. Indeed's US

18:56

data shows over eighty percent of indeed

18:58

employers find quality

19:00

candidates whose resume on Indeed matches

19:02

their job description. The moment they

19:04

sponsor a job. I've been using

19:06

Indeed for over a decade, but

19:08

my favorite new feature

19:11

just learned about this, screenings and assessments.

19:13

Indeed helps star applicants

19:16

shine before the interview.

19:19

out, well, with over a hundred and thirty

19:21

five graded assessment tests that they can

19:23

take, and I mean from everything from

19:25

cooking to coding, Indeed helps

19:26

you see your top talent's abilities in

19:28

a flash by adding any of

19:30

the hundred and thirty five graded assessment

19:32

tests to your job post.

19:35

You'll select the skills that matter. And

19:37

with Indeed

19:37

assessments, you can pick from over a

19:40

hundred skill tests and then add them to your job

19:42

post. That's it. Ending

19:44

assessments even give you a window into

19:46

how the candidates will be on

19:48

the test. On average, applicants who

19:50

scored proficient plus on the reliability assessment

19:54

nearly eight times more likely to

19:56

consistently attend work. So

19:58

what are you waiting for? Join over three

20:00

million businesses worldwide,

20:02

including mine, that

20:03

use Indeed to hire great talent fast.

20:06

Indeed knows

20:06

when you're growing your business, you have

20:08

to make every dollar count.

20:10

That's why with, indeed, you only pay

20:12

for quality applications that match

20:15

your must have job requirements. Need

20:17

to hire? You need, indeed.

20:19

Visit indeed dot com slash wrestle to

20:22

start hiring now. Just go to

20:24

indeed dot com slash wrestle.

20:26

That's indeed dot com slash wrestle.

20:29

and

20:29

conditions apply. You know, right

20:31

now, especially with the time of the year and the economy

20:33

like it is, it's probably time to

20:35

start thinking about making some more calculated

20:37

financial decisions that might benefit you

20:39

later. And if you're just getting started on

20:41

your financial journey, it's important

20:43

to set yourself up for success.

20:46

And if you've got a high credit score, you may have more

20:48

power than you think. Now is the time

20:50

to leverage that score to consolidate your

20:52

debt before the interest rates get too

20:55

high. Pay your credit cards faster

20:57

with a low fixed rate loan from

21:00

LightStream. A credit card consolidation loan from

21:02

LightStream can help you pay off your

21:04

credit cards and lock in a low

21:06

fixed interest rate. Rates started to

21:08

six point nine nine percent APR with

21:10

autopay and excellent credit. plus

21:12

the rate is fixed, so it will never go

21:14

up over the life of the loan. You can get

21:16

a loan from five thousand to a hundred

21:19

thousand dollars and there

21:21

are absolutely no fees. You

21:23

can

21:23

even get your money as soon as the day you apply.

21:25

LightStream believes that people with good credit

21:28

deserve a better loan experience and exactly

21:30

what they deliver. And just for

21:32

my listeners, apply it now and get a special

21:34

interest rate discount and save even

21:37

more. The only way to get this discount is to go

21:39

to livestream dot com slash

21:41

wrestle. That's LIGHTSTREAM

21:44

dot com slash wrestle.

21:46

This is subject to credit approval. Rates range from

21:48

six point nine nine percent APR to

21:50

nineteen point nine nine percent APR and

21:53

includes a half a percent auto

21:55

pay discount. The lowest rate requires

21:57

excellent credit. Terms and conditions apply

21:59

and offers are subject

21:59

to change without notice. Visit

22:02

livestream dot com slash wrestle for

22:04

more information. Well,

22:06

you

22:06

do that now, and Cody. Yeah. I

22:08

thought, well, today, I'd be throwing snowballs at it,

22:10

man. It's cold. It's shit here. It's like

22:12

ten degrees. I got about three inches of snow

22:14

on the ground. Oh, man.

22:17

Holiday season. It's a beautiful

22:19

fall day in Connecticut. It's a

22:21

beautiful fall day. Sixty

22:23

degrees The leaves are

22:25

turning. It's absolutely gorgeous. Couldn't think

22:27

of any other place to be other pretty

22:29

much

22:29

any place else, but It is

22:32

gorgeous here today. I

22:34

do miss III do miss the East

22:36

Coast in the fall, but only during the

22:39

fall. Alright. Let's dig

22:41

in here. September twenty second nineteen

22:43

ninety seven. This

22:45

is gonna hurt brother because, you know, you

22:47

and I both feel the same way about

22:49

Dave Melzer and the garbage that he

22:51

press. And it's really hard for me to listen

22:53

to. It's even more difficult for me to read,

22:55

so bear with me. But

22:57

on September twenty second nineteen ninety seven, on

22:59

the day of the rock tape, they got Madison Square

23:02

Garden, according to

23:05

Dave. When man told Brett Hart,

23:07

flat out that they were going

23:09

to intentionally breach

23:12

his contract because

23:14

they couldn't afford the deal.

23:17

Here's what I got a problem. Now I've got a

23:19

question for you. But

23:21

on the face of that statement,

23:24

it kinda doesn't make sense because if

23:26

you tell somebody you're

23:28

going to breach their contract,

23:30

then you're subject to legal

23:33

action. what you know, if you're

23:35

gonna wanna try to get out of the

23:37

contract, the last thing

23:39

I think you would do is give somebody a heads

23:41

up. But is Is this something is this remotely true?

23:44

So what did take place is

23:47

Vince told Brett

23:47

that he couldn't afford it.

23:49

said that, you know,

23:52

Brett the and And

23:54

there was also you also have to go

23:56

back a little bit as well

23:59

that when Brett initially came to

24:01

us, and there was the

24:03

indecision asked where Brett would go, whether it'd go to

24:05

WCW or WBF,

24:07

it's time. And

24:09

Brett was kinda

24:11

weighing the options. We

24:15

didn't know where Brett was gonna go, and he chose

24:17

us. But

24:19

he

24:20

chose us, and we were

24:23

still faced with Well, hey,

24:25

I took less

24:26

money upfront even though WWW

24:28

would offer me three million

24:30

dollars a year. and

24:34

it was always

24:36

that undercurrent. I could

24:38

have made a lot more if I'd

24:40

gone to WCW

24:43

So Vince out of

24:45

and and Vince really did feel this way.

24:47

He was like, you know what? This isn't a

24:49

good deal for us. and I feel like

24:52

Brett would be happier making

24:54

more money elsewhere.

24:57

And if we can facilitate that,

25:00

he goes to WCW makes a

25:02

ton of money for three years. He

25:04

comes

25:04

back and, you know, he can finish

25:07

his career here. So

25:10

this was kinda looking at it from the standpoint

25:12

of

25:14

it's

25:15

hurting us to pay him this

25:18

much money. he has made the

25:20

comment that he would be making more

25:22

elsewhere. What if we could get him more

25:24

money elsewhere? What

25:26

if we created a

25:28

situation where WW could

25:30

pull one over on us and

25:32

and, wow, we stole Brett Hart

25:34

from you. and and

25:35

give Brett that ammunition to

25:37

go back to WCW and

25:39

say, hey, they're telling

25:42

me that I I

25:45

get out of my contract and

25:47

the

25:47

hope was that WCW would offer

25:50

him money that he would be happy

25:52

with. and

25:52

he could go and do that. And again,

25:54

come back after his time

25:56

is up there. That was the

25:58

thing. Yeah.

25:59

It's It was not a good deal for us at the time.

26:02

And Vince was looking

26:04

to get out of it, but he wanted to make sure

26:06

the Brett was taken care of in

26:08

the interim. And

26:10

and

26:10

I get that, but why then if

26:12

and I understand that. And again, I I don't

26:14

wanna suggest that I I got a chance

26:16

to know that's on a personal level. But it my

26:19

impression is

26:21

that he's a pretty fair guy if you

26:23

deal with him straight up.

26:26

and communicate. What

26:28

why would again, I'm asking

26:30

you to comment on this statement

26:32

that McMan, went to Brett, said we're gonna

26:34

breach your contract. I don't think he

26:36

would say that. Hey. Hey, Brett.

26:38

We really can't afford you. Let's

26:40

work something out and make this work for you. That's

26:42

one conversation. Hey, Brad. I'm gonna

26:44

breach your contract as I can't afford you. Is it

26:46

an adversarial one? Right. No.

26:49

It was more it was more

26:51

the the first that, hey, this

26:53

isn't working for us. We'd like to help you out. We'd

26:55

like to help get you a better deal

26:57

there. And unfortunately,

27:00

we

27:00

we can't we can't continue

27:01

to honor this contract. But

27:04

I can't imagine Vince going in and

27:06

say, hey, I'm gonna breach your contract. No,

27:08

man. That's who would say that?

27:11

Exactly. And that's again, I'm probably

27:13

gonna have more fun shredding mels here that

27:15

I am trying to learn about

27:17

what what really happened, but

27:19

that's a that's a kind of statement that

27:21

just says sets my ass on fire. Now one of the other things

27:23

that that Mercer went out to say is

27:25

that Brett Hardhat has Mercer

27:27

put an escape clause built

27:30

into his contract since he had so

27:32

much negotiating leverage when

27:34

making his WWE deal eleven

27:37

months earlier. so that he could leave the

27:39

company anytime after giving thirty days

27:41

notice. And he would

27:43

have with a contract called

27:44

reasonable creative

27:46

control of

27:48

his character during that lame duck period so

27:50

that he couldn't be unreasonably buried

27:52

on the way out. Gotta hate

27:54

reading the sky shit. I really do.

27:58

Interest that? There

27:59

was there was a clause in in

28:02

Brett's contract that he would have

28:05

input. I think it was

28:08

reasonable input. Yeah.

28:10

We use the term we use the term meaningful

28:13

consultation.

28:13

Yeah. And it was it was some kind of legalese

28:16

like that. But I I

28:18

remember veinently, Vince

28:20

being against ever because,

28:22

again, the perception was that

28:24

you were handing out creative control

28:26

left and right. on contracts

28:30

in WCW and that, you know,

28:32

everybody had creative control and

28:34

gets just never understood that.

28:36

And wouldn't

28:40

especially

28:40

at that time, you know, offer something like

28:42

that. But he did offer up there was a clause

28:44

in there that Brett had

28:47

input, reasonable, you know, that he could have

28:50

input into the last thirty days.

28:52

And but at the same

28:54

time, it was, sure. Of course,

28:56

you have input. But

28:57

guys

28:58

have that anyway. That's the thing. You know?

29:00

Yeah. We called it meaningful consultation

29:03

and a lot of the the guys that got that.

29:05

And there was only a half, maybe good

29:07

for. Halkoggin had creative control.

29:09

It was not ambiguous. There was no

29:11

gray area. It

29:13

was creative control. He could say

29:15

yes. He could say no. everybody

29:18

else got something that we

29:20

called meaningful consultation, which

29:22

is the same thing as reasonable creative

29:24

control. Meaning, yeah, we'll sit down

29:26

and talk. I'm still gonna make the final

29:28

decision, but we'll

29:28

talk. And that was and that was

29:31

the theme of the language in

29:33

Brett's contract. And

29:36

here's the here's the part

29:38

that I

29:38

like to dig into a

29:41

little bit. almost all

29:42

the talent has that. Right?

29:45

I

29:45

mean, who

29:46

and I'm not asking you to comment on,

29:48

yes, the current situation.

29:50

But how many of of of

29:53

the top third of

29:55

talent that we we normally see

29:57

on pay per views over the last

29:59

twenty years. How many of

30:01

them didn't have the ability to

30:04

sit outside Vince's office

30:06

twenty minutes before a show and

30:08

say, I kinda wanna talk about this. Every

30:10

single one of them had that opportunity.

30:12

Every single one. So the idea

30:14

that a couple people including, in

30:16

this case, Rathead reasonable creative

30:19

control, or in my case at WCW

30:21

meaningful consultation, it's

30:24

just putting into writing

30:26

what they already had.

30:28

It's not that big a deal, and they

30:30

just make it sound like it was a big deal.

30:33

Right. And it made I think it

30:35

made Brent

30:35

feel a little more comfortable. But I also

30:38

think that in putting that in,

30:40

which had never been put in before

30:42

to anybody, It

30:44

was red heart. We never thought that that

30:46

would even be It's

30:49

like this will never

30:51

come into effect for any reason whatsoever.

30:53

It's Brett. Yeah. I

30:55

mean, it's, like I say,

30:57

something that everybody enjoyed doing what.

31:00

Now according to what's

31:02

his name? On this

31:04

very same day, Michael's walked

31:07

here. in September where

31:09

we were again. We were

31:11

September 22nd of a Medicine

31:13

School Garden. apparently, Michelle

31:15

Michaels walks in and advises

31:17

everybody that he's not doing any

31:19

more jobs for anybody.

31:21

Is that true? I

31:24

didn't

31:24

hear that. No.

31:28

No.

31:28

And again, good luck, man.

31:30

Do do I see Sean

31:33

going up to Brett the

31:36

day

31:36

of or that week leading up to it and

31:39

saying, I wouldn't have done the same? Absolutely.

31:41

I could see Sean doing that. One

31:43

hundred percent, I could see Sean doing

31:45

that. But whether

31:47

or not Sean would have gone

31:49

in with Vince and everybody and made a comment

31:51

like that that I really don't see. What

31:53

was the relationship between McMahon and Michaels

31:55

at this time? Was it was it we

31:58

could shed Oh,

31:58

it was good.

31:59

Yeah. Yeah.

32:00

It was good.

32:02

And and Sean went through Garrett's, like, a lot of

32:05

guys did every young coming up in a business.

32:07

He had issues. but

32:09

he he was on solid ground at this point. No.

32:11

He

32:12

Not really.

32:13

No. I think there was always an

32:15

understanding and I think that you

32:17

know, they

32:17

were in a good place. Cool.

32:20

Alright. I'm gonna try reading this to see if oh,

32:22

boy. I've read any of this.

32:25

So at this meeting, according to what's his name,

32:28

McMahon proposed a scenario where the

32:30

team would have their first name as match

32:32

in Montreal, where undertaker

32:35

would interfere causing a knot finish.

32:37

This would lead to heart westering undertaker

32:39

on the December seventh paper

32:41

view at Springfield. or Michaels would

32:44

interfere causing her to lose the

32:46

title. And as poetic

32:48

justice, since this since his

32:50

interference caused Brent to win the title in

32:52

the first place. And at that

32:54

Royal Rumble on January eighteenth,

32:56

then San Jose would be headlined by

32:58

undertaker versus Michaels. During the meeting,

33:00

Hart told Michaels that he'd be happy to put him

33:02

over at the end of the run, but Michaels

33:05

told Harte, flat out, but he wouldn't return the

33:08

favor to him. South America? I've

33:10

I've heard

33:11

that before. You know, here's here's

33:13

the thing about this and saying all

33:15

this happened on September twenty

33:18

second. We did other

33:20

than saying, hey, Brett, we can't afford to go

33:22

back and get another deal. still wasn't

33:24

done yet. So it

33:26

wasn't, you know, Brett could have

33:28

come back and and said, no, I wanna just

33:30

keep doing this and really our hands would

33:32

have been tied. and or Brett could go

33:34

back to WCW and say, hey, I'd like

33:36

more money. So I

33:40

don't think that we had

33:42

everything laid out that far in

33:45

advance. Other the only thing

33:47

that we really pretty much knew at this

33:49

point was that Steve Austin was our

33:51

guy that we wanted to crown

33:53

at the next WrestleMania. That

33:55

we knew how we were going

33:57

to get there, whether it was Sean, whether

33:59

it was

33:59

Brett, who you

34:02

know,

34:02

shit. Brett was a hell

34:04

of a heal in the States at

34:06

the time. So he was revered

34:08

in Canada and a Canadian hero

34:12

So to have that much and to even

34:14

discuss that with Brett

34:16

knowing that he could

34:18

be leaving I don't think that

34:20

they were there yet. I don't I don't

34:22

remember really being there

34:24

yet. How how

34:26

close to you How close

34:27

were you to this situation between

34:29

Bret and vets? Did vets confide

34:32

it to you? I mean, were were

34:34

you right there in the thick of things? Or were

34:36

you hearing things for this headline? No. I was kinda right there in the

34:38

thick of things. Especially

34:40

on the bed side. At at

34:42

this time,

34:45

I was in talent relations. So it

34:47

was I I was kinda right in the

34:49

thick of everything, and I was still

34:52

doing creative.

34:53

Did you personally think

34:54

that Brett would ever really leave?

34:57

I

34:59

hoped he wouldn't.

35:00

I really did. I I hope Brett wouldn't, but at the

35:03

same time, looking at

35:06

the finances

35:07

you know, here

35:09

here's a crazy I never I never talked numbers, but I'll give

35:11

you the analogy. When

35:13

we first started probably

35:16

before doing downside guarantees. And

35:18

we looked at what everyone

35:20

had. I think

35:23

that the total budget. The entire budget

35:25

for everyone on the rosters

35:27

was nine million dollars a

35:29

year. 99I

35:30

want

35:33

to spend a minute on that. So

35:35

nine million dollars was your

35:37

downside guarantee driving your

35:40

entire business? That

35:42

was the

35:42

budget I had to do downside gear g. Yes. And

35:45

I and I'm not gonna put you in a

35:47

spot. I don't seem much respect to love for you to

35:49

do that, but I'm a assuming

35:51

that was I'm just gonna pull a number

35:53

out of thin air. Maybe thirty percent of

35:56

the total payout for talent,

35:58

fifty percent, twenty percent.

36:00

What do I mean,

36:00

obviously, the guys made more than that. They made more than their doubts

36:02

or some oh, yes. Yeah. That

36:04

was that was an average from

36:07

the previous year's Telepay. So

36:10

we took that total. We took

36:12

that and we used that as is the

36:14

budget to do the downside guarantees trying

36:18

Now, obviously, trying to come in under budget. Sure.

36:20

So you had room,

36:24

but it was when

36:26

you look at it like that, that

36:28

was, like, holy shit,

36:31

especially when deals had

36:34

already started to be made before he even

36:36

got involved in it. The

36:38

it's

36:38

like, well, wait a

36:39

minute. You promised this

36:42

guy three hundred grand. And

36:44

those things started getting out and Talend was like,

36:46

oh, wait a minute. This guy is making this

36:48

and A lot of it was rumored

36:50

in innuendo, but some of it was

36:52

factual. Yeah. And

36:53

and, unfortunately, the rumor in innuendo has

36:55

as much of an adverse

36:57

infection. Sometimes more than the

37:00

actual facts because of

37:02

just distorts reality and and

37:04

emotions and things get out of

37:07

control. Yes. And

37:08

and and looking at Brett, looking at

37:10

at the top talent, and how it all

37:12

played out, we could have

37:15

by doing the deal

37:16

with Brett kind of through that budget

37:19

way over. And

37:22

you just have to work

37:24

with it. You know, you've got to make it work.

37:26

And I think Vince finally looked at

37:28

it and said, I I can't make this work.

37:30

we've we've gotta resources for

37:33

other things. And

37:36

that's how that decision

37:38

was made. But

37:40

no.

37:40

No one thought Brett would leave, really.

37:42

Were there any

37:44

what was the relationship between Brett

37:46

and Sean at that point? time.

37:48

Taking a long time? Not really.

37:50

No. I I think that

37:55

that

37:55

they had already pretty much reached the

37:57

point of, okay, we'll work

38:00

together and those guys

38:02

could dance better than anybody in the ring.

38:04

They they were true professionals in the ring, but outside

38:07

of the ring, there was no love lost.

38:09

And it's a shame because they

38:11

they were friends. before

38:14

and just whatever they'd work themselves into a

38:18

shoot.

38:20

October twenty

38:21

fourth nineteen ninety seven, according to what's

38:24

his name. McManue, before the show

38:26

at Nassau, Calicchio, came up to

38:28

her and said, hey, Brad,

38:30

forget all that stuff I talked to you about,

38:32

man. We're good. We've got the money. We're

38:34

gonna have no problems paying you. Everything we

38:36

promised you in your contract.

38:39

True or false. I don't

38:41

remember that. No. because

38:42

at this time, we had already,

38:45

you know, told Brett, go out and

38:47

get your best deal. And I

38:48

think that there was a told McMan that CW didn't really make

38:51

him a serious offer, and he didn't really

38:53

wanna leave. He was still comfortable doing the

38:55

job for Michael's in

38:58

that situation. And according to what's his name, he left the country

39:00

for a tour of Bahrain and

39:02

Oman. He being

39:04

Brad, pronounced PAL. I learned that.

39:07

ever met. But nothing for the tour

39:10

of Bahrain and Iran with

39:12

the idea that he,

39:14

Brett, was gonna stay

39:16

with WWE. But not

39:18

knowing due to the window and his contract, he

39:20

had to make that decision if you have noticed by

39:22

midnight on November eleventh or,

39:24

excuse me,

39:26

November first. That sound

39:29

familiar? I

39:30

really don't I really don't know

39:32

on the dates, but I think that

39:34

most people were thinking that

39:36

Brett was going. That Brett was gonna leave.

39:38

The feeling was and

39:40

the feeling was that he

39:42

pretty much already had an offer from

39:45

you guys and that he was he was

39:48

gone. Are you surprised

39:49

that while Brett was I mean, because, clearly,

39:52

Brett was negotiating with me

39:54

in WSW. You surprised

39:56

this didn't take the belt off of him?

39:58

The title I'm sorry. The

39:59

championship title. Sorry. No.

40:02

Because I I think that we

40:04

all thought Bret would be

40:06

be the last guy that

40:08

would say, no. I I don't wanna

40:10

I don't wanna lose tonight.

40:12

the one lose tonight I

40:14

think there was really never much

40:17

thought given to Brett doing the

40:19

right thing on the way out.

40:22

I'm jumping a gun here, but this is one I

40:24

just this is just personal. Right?

40:28

By nineteen ninety

40:30

seven, Jeremy

40:34

Giveit was

40:35

kicking W. C.

40:37

Turner's ass legally.

40:40

the lawsuit was well underway,

40:42

WCW had

40:46

basically, I don't know. I'm sorry for all that.

40:48

I was I was given

40:50

notice from Turner of legal at

40:52

WCW not Army Shiller. It was

40:54

my boss,

40:56

Turner Sports. term legal said no

40:58

reference, any way, shape,

41:00

form, implied

41:02

or otherwise. to

41:04

WWE or any other intellectual property. So I

41:07

by this point, I had handcuffs on

41:09

me. I would think that Vince

41:11

and Jerry knew that

41:14

Why was why do you think Vince was so concerned? Did you

41:16

think I was that crazy that I would just

41:18

go fucking. I don't care what the attorney

41:20

say. I'm gonna do it anyway?

41:23

and and trash the title the way

41:25

we did with the two serving. What what

41:27

was the concern knowing that you guys

41:29

have been kicking our ass legally

41:31

over trademark issues? Well, because you've done it before. Why wouldn't you do

41:33

it again? Well, we did we did it

41:36

before. I got my ass kicked. I would

41:38

do it. most

41:40

people do. You

41:42

know, the the there

41:44

was still just the the

41:47

thought and the perception. of whether

41:49

whether you brought it up or not, but for

41:51

Brett to walk out with the championship. Yeah.

41:54

Sure. You don't have to acknowledge it or say her

41:56

name or

41:58

anything else. but just by that picture being AWCW

41:59

ring would have been

42:02

detrimental. The other note

42:04

here

42:04

I have isn't a

42:07

question for you, but I just gotta put it out there because just typically

42:10

stupid. According to what's his name,

42:12

never want to work

42:14

without a flavor for

42:17

dramatic. And Bishoff finally

42:19

caught up with heart. It was

42:21

basically in kindergarteno in

42:23

a foreign land. What fuck

42:26

did I do that? Because

42:28

you have a flair for the dramatic.

42:30

Can you read it? Can

42:32

you read what it just said? that's

42:34

so funny. And

42:37

according according to this,

42:40

my phone call to what

42:42

I found Bret,

42:44

and Capetacado, and Bahrain, because

42:46

I have so many contacts there,

42:48

that phone call changed everything.

42:53

I don't think I made that phone call. But if

42:55

I did made that phone call, did

42:57

it change everything? Well,

42:59

apparently,

42:59

you you tell me, when were

43:02

you told about whatever offer

43:04

I suppose you made the breath?

43:06

ah obviously

43:09

before, you know, before a survivor. And

43:13

time frame probably probably

43:16

Yeah.

43:17

End of October, beginning of November, that he was

43:19

that he was

43:19

gone, and he had accepted the the

43:22

WCW

43:24

offer. And we

43:26

had heard the number three million year. According

43:29

to what's his

43:31

name? November first nineteen

43:34

ninety hard

43:36

having some midnight debate of his mind. He

43:38

called McManus, told him about the WCW

43:41

offer, he said, so that

43:44

he wasn't gonna ask for any more

43:46

money to stay. He

43:48

was happy with the offer that he already had or the

43:50

deal that he already had, but he just wanted know

43:52

what future WWE would be over the next two years as

43:54

an active wrestler. And then at this

43:56

point, he was leaning towards accepting WWE.

44:00

and share that

44:02

with you? Yes.

44:04

And at that point,

44:06

we took that as

44:09

Brett was gone. There

44:11

was no from our vantage point,

44:14

there there was no there was no walking that

44:16

back. Yeah. But he didn't

44:17

he didn't say, look, I

44:19

mean, again, I'm not taking a position here

44:21

right now because I'm

44:24

basically reading what the city

44:26

has wrote. But if Brett said, hey, Debbie said that we made an

44:28

offer, I don't really wanna

44:30

go because I feel at home

44:32

here and according to some of

44:34

the comments that allegedly Brett made

44:36

earlier, you know, I I know the

44:38

prison and the prison guards, and I've got the best cell

44:40

in the house. So why should

44:42

I go a person where I don't know the cell or any of the other person or

44:44

so he was willing to stick around. He

44:46

just wanted to know what his role was

44:48

going to be. But I'm not sure

44:50

Brett was willing to stick around and it

44:52

it it's a price that we were

44:53

willing to pay.

44:56

So, yes, I do I believe one

44:58

hundred percent that Brett didn't wanna go

45:01

anywhere. I do. Without a

45:03

doubt, I don't think that Brett

45:05

wanted to go anywhere. However, I

45:07

do think that Brett felt that if there's an opportunity to make

45:09

more money than he had ever

45:11

made in his career, then

45:14

why

45:14

hold him back? And

45:16

I think Vince was feeling that

45:19

as many times as

45:21

that got brought up, that

45:25

Brett was

45:26

looking for more money, and he just

45:28

couldn't match it. So he

45:30

took the position of, Brett,

45:33

go make

45:33

your money. And I and I

45:35

would tell you, Bruce,

45:36

and I don't you know, I'm already sideways

45:40

with Bret, I guess, I don't really care, but I don't wanna make any worse than it

45:42

already is. But I I will tell you

45:44

in all the conversations I had

45:46

with Brett, I could tell he didn't

45:48

wanna leave.

45:50

there was just, you know, when he talked

45:52

about vets and you know how

45:54

talent can sometimes be Like,

45:57

if somebody's, you know, leaving WWE and

45:59

coming over to talk to me, it's

46:01

usually, you know, fucking

46:04

Vince. Does this get Pritchard did

46:06

this and Jerry Briscoe

46:08

Shops. And, you know, they start burying everybody

46:10

thinking that's what I wanna hear.

46:14

Right? And Bret didn't do

46:16

that. You know, Brett was

46:18

frustrated. This was my

46:20

impression. Brett

46:22

was frustrated. creatively, he had concerns about

46:24

WWE in terms of, you

46:26

know, what was going on?

46:28

Funny is to say, concerns.

46:31

I didn't get the impression that he was excited

46:34

to leave, man. When he talked about Vince, it was a

46:36

little bit like he was talking about his dad even though

46:38

he was mad at

46:40

his dad. what I mean, is there was there was a lot of love there

46:42

still to be honest with you. And and there

46:44

was. And

46:46

and look, I

46:48

I've always gotten along with Brett. I like Brett, and

46:50

I think that he was

46:56

it's you have to learn to, I think, with

46:58

Vince, is don't don't try

47:00

and call this bluff or don't try and

47:03

if you're gonna throw something out

47:06

there, nine times out of ten,

47:08

he's gonna throw it back

47:10

on

47:10

you. So if you go in and say, gosh.

47:12

I could be making a

47:14

lot more money over here, but, yeah, I

47:16

really wanna stay here. It's like, by

47:20

bringing

47:20

that up in Vince's

47:22

head, you wanna go

47:24

you want more money. And if they're

47:26

giving

47:26

it to you over there,

47:29

I can't give it to you here. Let

47:31

me help you go

47:33

get that. That's the

47:35

way that his mind works.

47:36

And accordingly, you know, according to

47:39

what's his name, Roakes, you know, that's exactly what

47:41

happened, Brett, you know, called him, called

47:43

Vince, let him know what the offer was, let

47:45

him know that he had the offer.

47:48

and McMahon had called

47:50

Brett and said, no, ma'am, take

47:52

that offer. And but at the

47:55

same time, McMahon told heart that he wanted him back as

47:57

a baby face, and he'd been wanting to turn a baby face for

47:59

two or three months, but just hadn't brought it up

48:01

until that point. It sounds kind of

48:03

convenient to me. I don't

48:05

know. So I think you guys leave it. Now you're gonna

48:06

tell me you wanna turn a baby face, which

48:08

is probably music the bread's ears at that

48:11

point. That's a singular thing. dynasties

48:13

know that every player counts to

48:16

build a championship team with a deep

48:18

bench you

48:20

need indeed. Indeed, is the hiring platform where you can

48:22

attract interview and hire all in one

48:24

place. Don't spend hours

48:26

on multiple

48:28

job sites looking for

48:30

candidates with the right skills, when you

48:32

can do it all with indeed.

48:34

Find top talent fast. With the

48:36

Indeed suite of powerful

48:38

hiring tools, like, indeed, insubatch, assessments, and virtual

48:40

interviews. Hate waiting. Indeed's

48:42

US data shows over eighty percent of

48:46

indeed employers Find quality candidates whose resume on

48:48

indeed matches their job description.

48:50

The moment they sponsor

48:52

a job. I've been using

48:54

indeed for over a decade,

48:56

but my favorite new feature

48:58

just learned about

49:00

this. Screening and assessments. Indeed helps star

49:02

applicants shine before the

49:04

interview. Now, well, with over

49:06

a hundred thirty five

49:08

graded assessment tests that they can

49:10

take, and I mean from everything from

49:12

cooking to coding. Indeed

49:14

helps you see your top talent's abilities

49:16

in a flash, by adding

49:18

any of the hundred and thirty five graded

49:20

assessment tests to your job

49:22

post. You'll select the skills that

49:24

matter. And with in

49:26

date assessments, you can pick from over a hundred skilled tests, then add them to

49:28

your job post. That's it. End

49:30

date assessments even give you

49:32

a window into how the

49:34

candidates will be on the

49:36

test. On average, applicants who scored

49:38

proficient plus on the

49:40

reliability assessment or nearly eight times more likely to

49:42

consistently attend work. So what are you

49:44

waiting for? Join over three

49:46

million businesses worldwide,

49:48

including mine, They

49:50

use Indeed to hire great talent fast. Indeed

49:52

knows when you're growing your business, you

49:54

have to make every dollar count. That's

49:56

why with Indeed, you owe only

49:59

pay for quality applications that match your

50:02

must have job requirements. Need

50:04

to hire, you need,

50:06

indeed. Visit indeed

50:08

dot com slash wrestle to start hiring now. Just go to

50:10

indeed dot com slash

50:12

wrestle. That's indeed dot com

50:14

slash wrestle terms and

50:16

conditions apply. Yeah.

50:18

And, frankly,

50:20

Brett was so hot at the

50:22

time. They you know,

50:26

it was he

50:27

was hot is is is a

50:29

heel there and in different

50:31

parts. So it's

50:33

I

50:34

don't know. I I just from my

50:37

perspective and

50:37

from the perspective being

50:40

there with

50:42

Vince, Vince didn't wanna hold Brett back. And

50:44

I think Vince had

50:46

so much love and respect

50:50

for Brett that he didn't want

50:52

Brett to stay

50:54

and

50:54

then resent not taking that

50:58

deal. that makes any sense. So, like, you know, he

51:00

he stays with WWE, and then every time

51:02

he turns around, something doesn't go rise, it's

51:05

like, fuck. I could have been making three million dollars of

51:07

WCW No.

51:10

I don't think it was three million, but whatever.

51:12

Okay. Four or five, whatever it was.

51:15

I think it was three million dollars

51:17

and then it's eight million dollars bonus or something

51:19

like that. So how do what was the so

51:22

now Vince has obviously made up

51:24

his mind you're right there with

51:26

Vince. You're in the loop. You know he's

51:28

gone. When did

51:28

you guys start figuring out or

51:31

trying to figure out how to get it done.

51:33

And what what were the options on the table? Well,

51:35

the really the only option on the table

51:37

was to go to Sean at that point. We needed

51:39

it to go to

51:42

a heel and we wanted to start pretty

51:44

much

51:44

at rumble that

51:46

year so you

51:47

go from survivor series.

51:50

your major pay per view to the Royal Rumble in January,

51:52

and that's a WrestleMania story. So

51:54

that's where we were going. We

51:56

needed it on a hill, We

51:59

didn't have time to do a bunch of back and

52:01

forth shit. So it

52:04

was Sean. We knew from our

52:06

vantage point, we we needed to get that

52:08

on Sean. what better

52:10

place to do it than

52:11

its survivor series of

52:14

Montreal. So it was

52:14

the most logical time to do

52:17

it. we had a good story going with those

52:19

two, and it just simply

52:21

made the most sense

52:24

right there.

52:25

did Brett have ideas?

52:28

Did he come to you with

52:30

ideas for how he thought it would be best to get

52:32

the title off of him? No.

52:34

Not until, you know, nobody

52:37

really did

52:38

until until probably

52:41

the week before. The week

52:43

before was an incredible

52:46

negotiation, just back and

52:48

forth and back and forth and forth and back.

52:51

I unfortunately had to witness a

52:53

lot of those calls, and it

52:56

always came back to, you

52:58

know, I don't

53:00

know if I

53:02

I should lose the title. And it's

53:04

like, well, Brett, you know, we we have to

53:06

okay. Well, let's figure out a way to do

53:08

it.

53:09

And every time

53:11

that

53:11

we would try to we would suggest

53:13

something, he would suggest something, and he

53:15

wouldn't like our suggestion. We wouldn't like his suggestion, and

53:17

it went back and fourth and back and

53:20

forth, literally for a week.

53:22

And we

53:23

got there and kinda

53:26

had maybe made

53:28

the agreement that, okay, we'll figure it out that day.

53:30

But we gotta get

53:32

the title

53:33

off of him. And Brett came in that

53:35

day and was just I

53:38

lose title. Why do you think that

53:40

is?

53:40

What what I mean, I don't

53:42

I have a I have a hard time

53:46

with that. just, I guess, the way I was brought up

53:48

in the business.

53:50

I I mean, I I understand it.

53:52

Emotionally, it's tough. You know, you you're

53:56

that you're the champion. You're the most

53:58

important talent on the roster

53:59

in some respects.

54:02

And I understand it's hard to

54:03

walk with Napa.

54:06

Under these circumstances,

54:08

given how, what I've always understood,

54:10

Brett, to be a very solid,

54:14

traditional professional

54:16

in in professional wrestling. Why would

54:18

it be so hard for Brett just

54:20

to lose the title?

54:22

That's

54:24

business. I think it was a

54:26

number of things. I think first of all, it

54:32

was Losing the

54:32

title and for Brett's legacy to

54:35

be able to

54:36

go out is the

54:38

champion. was something that

54:40

in his mind, why can't I just

54:42

show up on Raul the next night and

54:44

give you the title

54:47

back? because --

54:47

Mhmm. -- because it makes the company look

54:49

like shit. That's right. That's

54:52

exactly right. And because

54:55

the normal you when you

54:56

are a

54:58

the champion champion, the

55:00

number one thing that

55:02

you have to think of is,

55:04

okay, I

55:05

gotta lose it sometime.

55:08

So

55:08

with at that

55:10

point, you're not gonna I don't think that

55:13

anybody goes into it and goes, I'm gonna be

55:15

champion. I'm just gonna retire with the belt. That's not

55:17

what you do. You need to pay it forward,

55:19

and you need to get somebody else ready

55:21

for that spot and make them on

55:23

the way out. Brett wasn't gonna say

55:25

it. And, you know, we

55:28

we got there that day and

55:30

leading up to really hadn't

55:32

come to a

55:35

final decision. And you'll hear everybody under the

55:37

sun take credit for the

55:39

the screw job and

55:42

the finish, from, you know,

55:44

Jim Cornett to Vince

55:46

Russo to Sean and

55:48

Hunter. Look, the bottom

55:50

line is, we all made that

55:52

suggestion. I

55:52

don't know of anybody that didn't

55:55

make that suggestion. saying,

55:58

well, done

55:59

it before.

56:01

Just take it

56:03

from him. Now, not

56:04

take it from him as in.

56:07

You have shongoing their shoot on him because that

56:09

wasn't gonna happen. But

56:10

there were other

56:12

ways to do it, you know, from a

56:15

fast count to what they actually did,

56:17

but that didn't even present

56:20

itself until the

56:21

day of while

56:24

Brett was going over

56:26

well, they were putting the match together.

56:28

And when they were putting the match

56:32

together and they heard the spot with the sharpshooter. He was like, oh my

56:34

god. That's it.

56:36

That's a vulnerable position, and and

56:37

that's the spot to

56:40

do it. But,

56:42

you know, hell. Like, I didn't even know that night what the

56:44

what the hell was going on. But

56:47

the the the the fact

56:49

is

56:49

is that we

56:53

went in to that day thinking, we'll come

56:55

up with something. We'll we'll

56:57

get

56:58

we'll figure this out.

57:01

cooler heads will prevail day

57:04

of. Now,

57:04

again, according to Melcer, Brett

57:06

agreed to put Michael's over and

57:08

Madison Square Garden on November fifteenth.

57:11

Springfield anywhere else. He said he put over Vader,

57:13

Shamrock, MannKind undertaker, or even

57:16

Steve Lombardi, who apparently

57:18

earned a title shot at last were

57:20

garden by winning a battle royale at the last show. Was

57:24

there I mean, why

57:26

not? If if if

57:28

Brett's issue is I don't

57:30

wanna lose in Canada because that's what I

57:32

remember hearing. Like, I don't mind losing the belt. I

57:34

just don't wanna lose in Canada because I'm a

57:36

Canadian arrow. whatever.

57:38

No comment. But if if

57:40

Brett was holding the

57:41

line in

57:44

Canada, Why

57:44

not? Put it on Michael's Madison Square. Not Madison

57:47

Square turned on November fifteenth or Springfield.

57:49

Put it on Vader Shamrock,

57:51

mankind, everybody else. Except

57:54

for LaGuardia, that would be weird. Well,

57:57

look, I was on those

57:59

phone

57:59

calls, and

58:01

I don't remember those

58:04

suggestions being made. Maybe they did. Maybe

58:06

they were made in other conversations.

58:09

In conversations that I

58:11

was privy to, where it

58:14

was specifically about what to do

58:16

in

58:17

Montreal,

58:18

then if

58:21

if you're wanting

58:22

to do it Madison Square Garden

58:24

or elsewhere, somebody else bring it up

58:26

then, when

58:28

we're talking about getting the title off of

58:30

you in Montréal. You know

58:32

what you see what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm not

58:34

saying you didn't have those conversations. in

58:37

other

58:37

times. But leading up to

58:40

Montreal, you know, the week

58:42

and the two weeks before, we were

58:44

trying to

58:46

get something laid

58:46

out. I I think most

58:49

people came

58:49

came to us with those

58:52

suggestions after

58:54

the fact. Well, you could have done this. Well, you done

58:56

that. Why didn't you do

58:58

this?

58:58

Well, the fact of the matter is

59:00

is because we had a major pay

59:04

per view with a major storyline

59:05

in in which that was the

59:07

biggest platform to do

59:10

the switch. That

59:11

was the priority. Right?

59:14

that was the priority. And apparently, at this point, you know,

59:16

Brent was getting a little rigid and

59:20

determined. to not

59:22

lose in Montreal, made these suggestions

59:24

of doing it elsewhere.

59:26

Vince apparently allegedly started

59:28

making legal threats hard if he

59:30

didn't lose in Montreal. At

59:33

this point, Brett talked about the

59:35

clause in his contract giving him a

59:37

hell of this reasonable

59:40

creative control. And this part, I

59:42

believe and and at this

59:44

point, Rick Mann claimed that

59:46

refusing to drop the title

59:48

of Montreal wasn't reasonable. True

59:50

that.

59:50

True that. Exactly. That

59:53

that's, you know, that's

59:56

the point. isn't reasonable?

59:58

No. That's not

59:59

reasonable.

1:00:01

You win. Both sides don't win in

1:00:04

that one.

1:00:06

And, you know, it but

1:00:08

if you were telling him not to

1:00:10

do that, you were probably

1:00:13

I didn't give it

1:00:14

up. I didn't I I remember

1:00:16

Brett calling me, and he was all twisted

1:00:18

up. Not twisted up. But

1:00:20

he was he was agitated and

1:00:24

upset. And I

1:00:25

said, Brett, I

1:00:26

don't care. It

1:00:29

doesn't matter

1:00:29

to me. do do

1:00:32

what you need to do to take care

1:00:34

of business because I wouldn't have look,

1:00:36

I I'll take advantage of opportunities.

1:00:38

I'll even create a few.

1:00:40

if I can find them, but I'm not gonna and I wouldn't

1:00:42

go so far as to suggest Brett,

1:00:46

hold on to that title and bring it

1:00:48

to Metro. I know there's a

1:00:50

fantasy of some people's minds and a

1:00:52

perception that had become a

1:00:54

reality evidently. But it

1:00:56

it was nothing was further from

1:00:58

truths. There was no pressure by me. In fact,

1:01:00

the only pressure on me was for because

1:01:03

I believe that if Brent just did the right thing,

1:01:05

the audience wasn't gonna go,

1:01:08

Brett. He's commented that we shouldn't have been put down.

1:01:10

He lost his shot, Michaels. I

1:01:12

I understand that that means more to

1:01:14

the talent. And particularly, Brett, case.

1:01:17

Right? because he's got this thing with Canada, being a Canadian hero. That's

1:01:19

important too. Well, I don't mean to make light of it, but it

1:01:21

I it's it's a foreign

1:01:24

concept to

1:01:26

me. But it didn't matter to me.

1:01:28

This was really odd about this

1:01:30

whole situation and all the

1:01:32

the stress that it created

1:01:36

Maybe there's a good thing in

1:01:38

the long run with me. Whatever, but zero

1:01:41

pressure from my side. I

1:01:43

was willing to be as flexible and cooperative

1:01:46

as necessary just to get the deal over

1:01:48

with and done so we can

1:01:50

move on. Right.

1:01:50

But I think that at the same time that it had happened with, you

1:01:53

know, with Medusa and throwing the belt

1:01:55

in the trash. So we're

1:01:58

we're thinking anything

1:02:00

in the perception it's bad enough

1:02:02

that our former champion's

1:02:03

gonna show up on your show anyway

1:02:06

-- Right. --

1:02:07

when the time comes. we

1:02:10

made it happen. So we

1:02:12

got nobody to thank but ourselves for

1:02:16

that one. but

1:02:16

we did want the championship on there as well. And that

1:02:19

was the the sticking

1:02:22

point. Nor for Brett

1:02:24

to go on and and say that,

1:02:26

hey, I never got beat. I forfeited

1:02:28

the championship. I retired

1:02:30

with it. No. We needed

1:02:33

we

1:02:33

needed that win over Brett.

1:02:36

Now did it help

1:02:36

him to go around and say I got

1:02:39

screwed? Sure. I think it did. I

1:02:41

think even in the way that we did it,

1:02:43

that probably Enhanced

1:02:44

Brett gave him a sympathetic gave

1:02:47

him a sympathetic baby face

1:02:50

too. Right. So, you

1:02:51

know, to that, you could talk about yeah. Well, Brett got screwed. To

1:02:54

us, we never mentioned it

1:02:56

again, you know, other than the one time, you know,

1:02:58

Vince addressed

1:03:00

it. and you move on. So

1:03:02

we were able to move on from it.

1:03:04

I think Brett, you know, kinda held on

1:03:08

to it. for a long, long time. I think I think Brett's good with

1:03:10

it now, but holy

1:03:12

cow. Before

1:03:14

that,

1:03:14

in when

1:03:17

you go back and

1:03:20

during the time and revisionist

1:03:22

history and and what have

1:03:25

you is that you were the evil son of a

1:03:27

bitch pulling the strings the entire

1:03:30

time by going in and

1:03:32

offering Brad all this money and offering

1:03:34

him all of these things,

1:03:38

then we it's

1:03:39

just you were evil. So

1:03:43

there wasn't a lot of trust there. There wasn't a lot of

1:03:45

faith there that you guys wouldn't do that.

1:03:47

You know what I

1:03:50

mean? Right. And and and ironically, and again, this is occurring to well,

1:03:52

sir, I don't know if this is even true or not, but it

1:03:54

makes me look good, something I pretend it is. What

1:03:56

does it make me look good makes

1:03:59

me look less evil, which apparently

1:04:01

is important because that perception

1:04:04

probably still exists out there

1:04:06

somewhere. But

1:04:08

supposedly, Brett's w c dot com WCW

1:04:11

contract was to begin on

1:04:13

twelve one. so So

1:04:16

According to this, Art called me

1:04:18

who was then presented the scenario, and

1:04:20

I agreed to allow him to work

1:04:22

through December eighth, which I

1:04:25

And and and Bret asked me to keep it

1:04:28

quiet. Did and I did keep it quiet.

1:04:30

IIII didn't

1:04:32

go out and say anything until

1:04:34

after Bret took care of his

1:04:36

business. Did anybody realize that on November

1:04:38

third? We both had live TV

1:04:40

shows. We're two days removed from the deal being done,

1:04:42

and I didn't even

1:04:44

say anything. IIIII could

1:04:46

have, but I didn't did anybody realize

1:04:48

that? Yeah. I mean and

1:04:50

but at the same

1:04:52

time, by you doing

1:04:54

that. I think, had you had

1:04:56

you mentioned it? I think that's just

1:04:58

gonna

1:04:58

have more interest, put more interest in

1:05:00

WW. You're smart enough to bring

1:05:03

that up. And

1:05:04

you guys are kinda busy having

1:05:06

Jim cornered at, like, fun. You'd have, like,

1:05:08

age in the cage. I'm allowed to

1:05:10

sit. Just throwing it out there.

1:05:12

So holiday season. It's November. Speaking of November, the holiday season

1:05:15

Alright. Congrats. We give you thanks to our

1:05:17

friends over at

1:05:20

mask it. Everyone loves turkey

1:05:22

stuffing, but she'll be looking at

1:05:24

the turkey and the basket.

1:05:27

have washed

1:05:30

you with

1:05:35

ultimate thanksgiving dinner topic.

1:05:38

Tell your inbox about your new

1:05:40

cutting edge ball shimmer

1:05:43

and give yourself or the man in

1:05:46

your life, the ultimate man's hygiene bundle.

1:05:48

Trend your pumpkins and save

1:05:50

twenty percent off plus free shipping.

1:05:53

by going tomanscape dot com

1:05:56

forward slash s t.

1:05:58

Now you save

1:05:59

twenty percent off. press

1:06:02

three. I'm going to nancy

1:06:04

dot com forward slash

1:06:06

nancy. Thank you. This

1:06:10

holiday season.

1:06:17

So I got a question for

1:06:20

you. Yeah. because

1:06:20

Conrad always says your ball

1:06:22

sits toward whenever

1:06:23

we do that. it

1:06:25

depends where I'm at. You know, like, not usually

1:06:27

in a public toilet because typically the

1:06:29

water levels, you know, they're trying to control

1:06:31

the water flow. how much water they use

1:06:33

in public toilets, so not so much. But, generally, if I go to a private home and

1:06:36

there's not a lot of control

1:06:38

over the water pressure and how much water

1:06:40

is anything, occasionally

1:06:42

happens. It's fucking cold. It's sometimes

1:06:44

deep.

1:06:45

Okay. Yeah.

1:06:48

Just

1:06:50

curious.

1:06:51

Yeah. People people curious lines

1:06:53

and need to know. November fifth, nineteen

1:06:55

ninety seven, the Internet paved the way for stories

1:06:57

in a Calgary sun to

1:07:00

Toronto sun. and online in the Montréal cassette in a

1:07:02

paper view story about Steve Wassa, a line

1:07:04

which resulted in the paper getting an

1:07:06

incredible Switchboard blow

1:07:08

in response of phone

1:07:10

calls. Man called hard and said that Michael

1:07:12

had agreed to the previous

1:07:14

day scenario, but now

1:07:16

he changed

1:07:18

his mind. He said that news

1:07:20

was out everywhere and perhaps had to drop the belt before Monday

1:07:22

because he couldn't have Bishop

1:07:25

go on television. on November

1:07:28

tenth and amassed the signing of his

1:07:30

world champion while he still

1:07:32

had

1:07:33

the ballot. Oh,

1:07:34

I don't know. Hart said the Bishopwood Hart told Vince

1:07:37

that he would get Bishop to

1:07:39

postpone the announcement. But

1:07:41

apparently, I was on a hunting trip all week in Wyoming,

1:07:44

which is probably true in November. Or

1:07:46

it could get a hold of me, probably

1:07:48

also true. McMan then

1:07:50

asked her to drop the title on November eighth

1:07:52

at a house show in Detroit. Does that sound

1:07:54

no right? No.

1:07:56

See,

1:07:56

I wonder where Dave gets all this from. Well, again,

1:07:59

these are what if and

1:07:59

why didn't they? No.

1:08:02

These are fair enough.

1:08:03

Yeah. These are This

1:08:05

is somebody giving Dave information

1:08:08

that isn't accurate. Well, they're

1:08:10

giving him information to basically

1:08:13

fit their narrative. versus

1:08:16

our narrative

1:08:16

was pretty simple. We had a major

1:08:18

event coming up in which we

1:08:20

wanted to switch the title

1:08:22

of the pay per view. Alright.

1:08:25

Not

1:08:25

doing this in live event. I'm gonna I'm gonna skip over some of the stuff because

1:08:27

it's kind

1:08:28

of beating

1:08:31

a dead horse. We're gonna go to

1:08:33

November seventh. It's like almost how many years ago. I can't do the math right now. It's a lot

1:08:36

of years, twenty

1:08:38

five, something like that.

1:08:40

Yep. twenty five

1:08:42

years ago. Wow. I'm better at math than

1:08:44

it's not. The WWF's own online online site said to

1:08:46

be the domain of young kids with no

1:08:51

clue about wrestling was besieged with

1:08:53

reports about heart leaving,

1:08:55

and the so called

1:08:57

March were reacting very

1:08:59

negatively towards Titan To the point,

1:09:02

Titan pulled all of its folders by early afternoon, which caused another outcry of censorship

1:09:05

of opinions from

1:09:08

wrestling fans how

1:09:12

undemocratic

1:09:12

managed? Well, that's So

1:09:14

I'd I'd

1:09:15

I'd love to comment

1:09:17

on that, see, because

1:09:20

I I always am amazed when

1:09:22

someone will say, you know, oh

1:09:24

my god. Look at

1:09:26

my Twitter. It's blowing up.

1:09:28

And

1:09:28

this represents, you know, the

1:09:30

the the this is

1:09:32

what the audience is saying. When

1:09:34

you look at it, it's like,

1:09:38

You got

1:09:39

nine hundred responses. Nine

1:09:42

hundred. Wow. Let's

1:09:44

call it a

1:09:47

thousand. in the infancy of the Internet,

1:09:49

and maybe a couple

1:09:51

of hundred people,

1:09:55

come on,

1:09:55

man. Really? I I just think

1:09:57

that when you put it all in

1:09:59

perspective that It

1:10:03

it amazes me just sometimes when

1:10:05

people talk about things blowing up

1:10:08

and you actually look at

1:10:10

the real numbers and go, oh,

1:10:12

yeah. There's a hundred people commented

1:10:14

on this. I'm sorry.

1:10:16

I wanna talk to the two

1:10:18

million people that are watching on TV

1:10:22

and have you. Oh, so you come

1:10:24

up. That's I

1:10:24

don't know how you I don't know how you

1:10:27

can have that up there again. If you're not if

1:10:29

you're not working for the Internet, I don't social media.

1:10:31

I don't I don't know how you I don't know how you

1:10:33

survive. Well, I

1:10:34

again, you have to you have to

1:10:37

look at all of it though. You have to

1:10:39

look at the especially, you go back

1:10:41

to nineteen ninety seven, and give a

1:10:43

shit with the Internet

1:10:45

had to say. Not

1:10:48

everybody really was invested in it. They

1:10:50

didn't really live and die by the

1:10:51

Internet. Your television audience was what you

1:10:53

lived and die by your live

1:10:55

events or what you

1:10:58

lived and died by business, actual true business metrics that matter

1:11:00

that could be applied

1:11:03

to the bottom

1:11:04

line, or

1:11:06

what mattered then? What and what matters now?

1:11:09

So but

1:11:11

evidently, this online

1:11:13

stuff struck a nerve

1:11:16

because, apparently, events responded publicly with an online letter

1:11:18

of his own stating over the past few days, I've heard

1:11:20

certain comments on the Internet

1:11:22

regarding Brett Hart. It has alleged

1:11:25

in quotes, reasons for wanting to pursue other avenues other than

1:11:27

world's Russian Federation of Justice Library. I'm not gonna read

1:11:30

the whole thing word for word,

1:11:32

but Essentially,

1:11:35

it implies that Brett's

1:11:37

concern has a lot

1:11:39

to do with the

1:11:41

character the direction, I think, is

1:11:44

the word that's used a

1:11:46

lot of world resting Federation

1:11:48

because you guys were. I mean,

1:11:50

you by nineteen ninety seven, he went

1:11:52

from, you know, teen and preteen cartoons start

1:11:54

bustling to a more aggressive reality based. And

1:12:00

and sexualized format. I mean, it it is

1:12:02

what it is. It was what it was. It worked great. So it didn't.

1:12:04

But it must

1:12:07

have bothered Vince enough for

1:12:09

him to publish this letter. Right? Yeah. I think that in general,

1:12:11

it did. And I think in general, because also

1:12:16

Brett was also in other,

1:12:18

whether it was newspaper articles or what have you,

1:12:20

would share this.

1:12:23

Well, you know, they gone

1:12:26

a lot of edgier and people showing

1:12:28

their asses being Sean Mooney people and things like that.

1:12:30

And, yes, we had gone a lot of edgier.

1:12:34

but to use that in a public forum

1:12:36

as a

1:12:37

reason to go

1:12:40

when, well, you said

1:12:42

you wanted to stay, but Didn't

1:12:44

need to be

1:12:45

done. That's my point. Didn't need to be done on

1:12:47

either side, frankly. Do

1:12:50

you

1:12:50

think, Bruce, if

1:12:52

if Brett would have not expressed some of

1:12:54

those opinions, and I don't think look, I

1:12:57

don't think Brett

1:12:59

was trying to Barry, WWF, I think,

1:13:01

Brett was trying to cover his last to try to

1:13:04

explain because I deep down the side, he didn't wanna

1:13:06

leave, so I think he probably felt like he had

1:13:08

to point

1:13:11

to his family base. Why?

1:13:12

But he's

1:13:13

thinking that would've

1:13:16

just not talked

1:13:18

until after he was

1:13:20

gone? that Vince would

1:13:23

have been more open

1:13:24

more

1:13:26

minded about how Yes.

1:13:28

Yeah. Yeah. I really do. I really

1:13:31

do. And and at the same

1:13:33

time,

1:13:33

look, Vincent will always give

1:13:35

the benefit of doubt to

1:13:39

the talent. You know,

1:13:41

always listen and go, okay.

1:13:43

Well, I understood why you

1:13:45

did that.

1:13:46

May not like it, but he

1:13:48

would always

1:13:49

listen and give him the benefit of

1:13:51

the doubt, which is a direct

1:13:53

conflict to

1:13:54

the perception of uncertainty and isn't

1:13:56

it? because

1:13:58

there's always this perception. Not not

1:14:00

amongst people that really work closely with this,

1:14:02

but people that never worked for

1:14:05

WWE, you know, who's ever in charge,

1:14:07

whether it's been pretty soon we

1:14:09

get a pole back or or you

1:14:11

or or whomever

1:14:14

is calling any shots. you're always

1:14:16

uncooperative. You only want to

1:14:18

see things your way. Difficult

1:14:20

to work with. And

1:14:23

that wasn't my impression convince

1:14:25

it off at the cup of coffee that I worked there. III wish

1:14:27

you would have been a little less inclined to listen

1:14:29

to talent to to be

1:14:31

honest with you. Yeah.

1:14:34

But that's what he's been since

1:14:36

I met him in nineteen eighty 7II

1:14:38

mean, he's always been that

1:14:41

way. He's gonna listen to mentality.

1:14:43

He'll listen to everybody. And he's gonna he's gonna weigh

1:14:45

it. He's gonna throw it into the computer and and

1:14:47

see what comes out, but he's

1:14:49

gonna listen to everybody. And

1:14:52

he he releshes the

1:14:54

talent feedback and being able to bounce things off of them. So

1:14:56

in this regard, but at

1:14:58

the same time, it's like, respect

1:15:02

the company and respect what we do and

1:15:05

don't you don't need the you

1:15:07

don't

1:15:07

need that excuse. on

1:15:10

the way out to bad mouth,

1:15:12

what

1:15:13

we're doing? Howard, November

1:15:15

ninth nineteen ninety seven, we're

1:15:17

getting real close here. And we've

1:15:19

got tension. Right? There has come

1:15:21

out and made comments that

1:15:24

Vince felt the need

1:15:26

to publicly respond to, which

1:15:28

is Yeah. A little bit unlike

1:15:30

Vince, but he felt that the need to do it. There has to be tension there.

1:15:32

And according to

1:15:35

what's his name, you're

1:15:38

going into the most anticipated match

1:15:40

instead of progressing years and a

1:15:42

day of the show. There's

1:15:45

no finish. McMahon and Hart met that

1:15:48

afternoon, and McMahon according to

1:15:50

this said something to the effect

1:15:52

of what do you

1:15:54

wanna do? You've got me by the balls. So wasn't that when they were all mic ed

1:15:56

in there? I don't remember Vince

1:15:58

saying you got me by

1:15:59

the balls. That

1:16:03

I don't know. Yeah. And that was

1:16:05

part of that documentary, wrestling with

1:16:08

shadows or

1:16:10

whatever. I never

1:16:10

saw that, by the way. Isn't that

1:16:13

weird? Wow. I don't know why

1:16:15

I never saw it. I

1:16:17

guess

1:16:17

I'm joking. Okay.

1:16:18

Maybe I will. I'm kinda leaning

1:16:20

out of that stuff. You know what? Dark side of the ring

1:16:22

kind of turned me off a little bit. got

1:16:25

to be too much, I think. Yeah. And to one side

1:16:27

and everything else. But That's not it's just

1:16:29

too dark and too naked. I made it this

1:16:32

kind of Right?

1:16:34

So with the fuck, Eric, you know, it's just kinda

1:16:37

gotta expect it, you know. But it's

1:16:39

not what I want

1:16:41

people to feel about the industry. No. had fun

1:16:43

the business. You want people that fun

1:16:46

and I've I've had a bad

1:16:48

absolutely a blast and and

1:16:50

grateful for every minute of it.

1:16:52

So apparently according to this

1:16:55

coverage, Hart said to Vince, let me

1:16:57

hand you the belt

1:16:59

on the raw the

1:17:02

next night in Ottawa. Everybody knows leaving. I'd to tell the on raw on

1:17:04

Monday. And

1:17:09

at this point, the truth wouldn't be talking about finances, contract

1:17:11

reaches, or he was over finishes or anything like that. It was just

1:17:13

he he wasn't according to this,

1:17:15

was it going say

1:17:18

anything that may McMahon or

1:17:20

the company look bad public. Did you

1:17:23

were you part of that discussion at

1:17:25

all? No.

1:17:25

That I I believe that was

1:17:27

a discussion that they played on in the

1:17:29

thing and it was basically talking about the

1:17:32

finish and Brett saying this

1:17:34

is what he was like, what do you wanna do tonight? And then said, hey, why don't we just, you know, we'll get to a shmaz

1:17:39

or something? And and throw it

1:17:41

out, and then we'll figure out the

1:17:44

rest

1:17:44

of it after that.

1:17:45

I'm sorry. Go ahead. And

1:17:47

and so that's that's what they went with, you know,

1:17:49

to go to that finish where they'd have a couple of different run ins and get a bunch of

1:17:51

people involved and and

1:17:54

throw the match out

1:17:56

and that we'd

1:17:57

figure out what's gonna happen or

1:17:59

raw after the

1:17:59

fact. And with all

1:18:02

of the tension

1:18:03

and, again, the

1:18:06

publicity now surrounding it, the pressure of everybody

1:18:08

knowing. You know, by the way, at this

1:18:10

point, WWE is under a considerable amount

1:18:13

of financial pressure. they're struggling, getting back in

1:18:15

their feet with this new strategy,

1:18:17

it would be a miracle.

1:18:19

A miracle if things were

1:18:21

to go smoothly. But speaking,

1:18:24

a miracle miracle brand, cute music, dude.

1:18:26

Winter is here. And for me, that means

1:18:28

struggling to find the

1:18:30

right temperature when I sleep.

1:18:34

because I do love to sleep. I only get about six

1:18:36

hours a night, but what I do, I

1:18:38

like them to make good fun. Sleep.

1:18:43

all night

1:18:43

long, get this using silver

1:18:45

and infused bed sheets by miracle

1:18:47

bread that were inspired

1:18:50

by NASA. Now did you know that your temperature

1:18:52

light can have one of the greatest

1:18:54

impacts of your sleep quality? I had

1:18:56

no idea. I had to

1:18:58

find out the hard Right? Well, actually, it

1:19:01

was the easy way. I got variable pronounce sheets. But if you wake

1:19:03

up too loud or too cold, I highly recommend

1:19:05

you check out

1:19:08

variable pronounce bedsheet expire inspired by

1:19:10

silver infused fabrics made by NASA. Miracle brand

1:19:12

makes temperature regulated,

1:19:15

bedding so you could sleep

1:19:17

at the perfect temperature all night at

1:19:20

all. I have to stay

1:19:22

up to bed. Did you know

1:19:24

that traditional bed

1:19:27

sheets can harbor more bacteria. And on toilet seat, are

1:19:31

you say I

1:19:33

kids you've not. It can lead to

1:19:35

acne, allergies, stuffy noses, and it's just gross just

1:19:38

grosses hell as hell. Mericle

1:19:40

brand offers a whole line

1:19:43

of self cleaning eco friendly bedding such as sheets, pillowcases and

1:19:48

comforters that present ninety or prevent,

1:19:50

I should say, prevent ninety nine percent of the bacteria and

1:19:52

boom, and it

1:19:55

requires three times less Roger.

1:19:57

Let me read that one over to

1:19:59

you because I stepped all over myself. Miracle

1:20:01

brand offers a whole line of something in

1:20:03

eco friendly petting. such

1:20:05

as sheets, pillowcases, and comforters that prevent ninety nine percent of the

1:20:07

bacteria and require three

1:20:11

times less laundry It's

1:20:15

freaking eco friendly people. What

1:20:17

could be better? Go

1:20:20

to miracle dot com

1:20:23

forward slash wuzzle and use the coat and wrestle to

1:20:25

claim your free three piece style

1:20:27

set. My wife loves

1:20:30

those, by the way. and save over forty percent.

1:20:32

Again, that's try miracle

1:20:35

dot com forward

1:20:37

slash wrestle to

1:20:40

treat a friend or a

1:20:42

loved one, this holiday season. Now dirty

1:20:45

sheets.

1:20:45

People know

1:20:48

dirty sheets. And and full disclosure,

1:20:50

Eric, you got you got yours sample that they sent us beforehand so that we could try

1:20:52

out and talk about how great they

1:20:54

are. Well, once I got my sample,

1:20:59

I went on to try miracle dot com

1:21:01

slash wrestle and ordered three

1:21:03

more sets of sheets.

1:21:06

folks are

1:21:06

great. You're gonna love them. Yeah.

1:21:08

Lorie loves it too. She really

1:21:10

does. And we'll probably be doing

1:21:12

the same as a matter of

1:21:14

fact. Let me ask you, ma'am. Is this, like, the most tense? I

1:21:17

mean, I we've all

1:21:19

been in tense situations. Probably

1:21:21

more than we can

1:21:23

remember being it. But is this the

1:21:25

one is this is this the most tense back stage situation you've ever

1:21:27

been in? Yes.

1:21:30

Without a doubt. this

1:21:32

was this

1:21:33

was beyond tense. It was very uncomfortable.

1:21:36

It was

1:21:40

Yeah,

1:21:41

man. There were land there

1:21:43

were lines drawn in the

1:21:46

sand. So I think going into

1:21:48

it, I'm optimistic. I think

1:21:50

we were all optimistic that, yeah, you know what, man, we'll figure this thing out. Everything's everything

1:21:53

works out in

1:21:56

the end. Did

1:21:58

you

1:21:58

were you talking to Brett lunch that day? I mean, were you trying to

1:21:59

close butcher day and we we try to do

1:22:03

to him? No.

1:22:04

no No. I

1:22:05

I mean, I talked to

1:22:07

him. Yep. But I didn't get involved in

1:22:09

in the match. I figured there

1:22:11

were already too many. heads

1:22:14

and that thing. And I know that Brett, you know, his stance, what he wanted

1:22:16

to do, I knew Vince wanted to do, and I

1:22:18

knew Vince had told him that we do Smiles.

1:22:23

And that was the that I had. That was

1:22:26

the finish that that I

1:22:28

thought

1:22:28

was going to take

1:22:31

place. Well, you so you're so definitively here. You're because

1:22:33

I've never asked you this before. Right? It's funny

1:22:35

when you and I hung

1:22:38

out, which we did a firm up. I never asked you about half this

1:22:40

stuff, so this is kinda interesting to me. But

1:22:42

you didn't know at all? I did not know

1:22:46

at all at all. and I was at Gorilla,

1:22:48

that there were so

1:22:50

many crazy things that

1:22:54

took place that the conspiracy theorists

1:22:57

could spin it nine

1:22:59

ways from Sunday. So that

1:23:02

night,

1:23:02

we were gonna do a

1:23:05

follow

1:23:05

shop

1:23:07

for both Brett and

1:23:09

Sean walking backstage and then

1:23:12

going out to the arena. Well, in order

1:23:14

to do that, you've got to clear the

1:23:16

area of people. Well, undertaker

1:23:18

wasn't on the show, and

1:23:20

undertaker was there, and he had been

1:23:22

sitting with me at Gorilla all night long.

1:23:26

What?

1:23:27

Just

1:23:28

because he sat there with me, Gaurav, watching

1:23:30

the show. Did did did Ticker have

1:23:32

any idea what was her up? No.

1:23:34

Well, it gets better. So taker's been sitting

1:23:36

with me all night. Well, I know we're gonna do

1:23:38

the follow shops and we're gonna walk right

1:23:40

by us. So I'd tell Mark's

1:23:43

go go watch and Vince's office for the

1:23:45

entrances because they're gonna walk

1:23:47

right by here. So

1:23:50

he went to Vince's office. He stayed

1:23:53

in Vince's office and watched the

1:23:55

show in there. I'm at Gorilla

1:23:57

with Davey and Owen in front

1:23:59

of me. Well, there was a cue that they were supposed

1:24:01

to come out. Well, the bell rang

1:24:03

ding ding ding. Ladies gentlemen,

1:24:05

the winner knew WWF

1:24:07

champion, Sean Michaels, and

1:24:09

we're sitting there watching this movie. And I'm screaming on his head. Who rang

1:24:11

the fucking bell?

1:24:12

i'm screaming on his us who ran

1:24:14

the fucking bow

1:24:16

and looking

1:24:17

up and Davey and Owen are like, what

1:24:19

do we do? And go, what happened?

1:24:21

And I was like,

1:24:22

what happened? Was they fought in

1:24:25

They're fucked

1:24:25

up. And they're like, what do how do you say how do you

1:24:27

say it again? They fucked up. They fucked

1:24:29

up. They fucked up.

1:24:31

They fucked up. 00KED

1:24:35

Fuck. Yeah. I like that.

1:24:37

I see.

1:24:38

They're fucked. So they're like,

1:24:40

what do we do? I see, well,

1:24:43

fuck. Go to the ring. I didn't know what

1:24:45

to do. And I'm sitting there alone with those two, and none

1:24:47

of us knew. And so I just sent them

1:24:49

to the ring, which they they went out

1:24:51

to the ring and and

1:24:54

did their shit. And then

1:24:56

Sean

1:24:57

and those guys came

1:24:59

back. Sean

1:25:00

threw the bell. and

1:25:02

Briscoe goes, get the belt. And I got up and picked up the

1:25:04

picked up the belt. It was

1:25:07

walking to

1:25:07

Vince's office, like, I'm

1:25:11

looking at Jerry because at that point, there

1:25:13

was that knowing look like

1:25:15

you knew. And

1:25:16

you new

1:25:18

the am I I could tell.

1:25:19

But as I'm walking, I'm going back to Vince's

1:25:21

office. Is this so Jerry so Jerry now?

1:25:24

Jerry now.

1:25:26

Yeah. Okay. Jerry's the one that that

1:25:28

ended up, yeah, doing the the

1:25:30

finish with Earl and and

1:25:31

Sean. Those are the only

1:25:33

ones that knew to my knowledge.

1:25:35

and Vince, obviously. But I'm going

1:25:37

to Vince's office,

1:25:38

and I see undertakers standing

1:25:40

in the hallway to

1:25:42

Vince's office with Zarnes crossed.

1:25:44

kinda like he's looking out and kind

1:25:46

of guarding the office. And I'm looking

1:25:49

at him and I

1:25:51

go, you knew new to

1:25:54

take her because it looks like he's standing out there, making sure nothing happens.

1:25:56

And he looks

1:25:59

at me like he looks at me

1:26:01

like You

1:26:03

motherfucker. You knew. You sent me

1:26:05

away. You knew. That's

1:26:07

funny. That's funny. because that's how

1:26:09

this should happen. Right? Well, pissed

1:26:11

at each other And I

1:26:13

go in Vince's office. Taker goes down to

1:26:15

the other locker room. And

1:26:19

the you

1:26:21

know, we we did all

1:26:23

of our our shit and And

1:26:25

the

1:26:26

Briscoe came in Vince

1:26:29

came in, Shane came in.

1:26:31

And Jerry's like, you

1:26:34

know, hey, we'll talk

1:26:36

about You gotta go over there

1:26:38

and that you gotta you gotta face him. And he's like, yeah. No. I plan on

1:26:40

it. I plan

1:26:43

on facing him. Just let's get

1:26:45

everything. We we watch from Vince's office, Brett, destroy

1:26:48

the the ringside area and

1:26:50

throw the

1:26:50

monitors and all that stuff. the

1:26:56

But we we looked at it and

1:26:58

then it's

1:26:58

like, okay. Let's go. And

1:27:01

I remember taking my watch off and and

1:27:03

leaving at Vincent's office because we didn't know. It was like everybody was

1:27:07

mad at us. We just

1:27:10

didn't know. I remember Jerry Bressco telling me, take my tie off, and I took my tie off.

1:27:12

And we walked,

1:27:14

made that long walk,

1:27:18

some members of the Heart family were spinning on

1:27:20

us as we went by? It

1:27:22

was

1:27:23

it was intense. So who do you

1:27:25

guys think you're gonna have to fight? And

1:27:27

what well, you didn't know.

1:27:29

I didn't know if, like,

1:27:31

you know, we're gonna walk

1:27:33

in there and and Brett and Night Heart

1:27:35

and Davey and all of them are gonna,

1:27:37

you know, wanna fight everybody. You didn't know.

1:27:40

Right. And we

1:27:41

weren't gonna let vets go and they're

1:27:43

just get beat up. So as we're going

1:27:46

down the

1:27:46

hallway, we got approached by

1:27:51

think undertaker

1:27:51

first and then Davy and

1:27:54

Owen.

1:27:54

And Vince was trying

1:27:56

to explain to him, look, guys,

1:27:58

you know, I did it for you.

1:28:01

I did it for all

1:28:02

of us. We've here He's not.

1:28:04

So I did all

1:28:07

this

1:28:07

for you. But because

1:28:11

I don't know. Take her at all. You

1:28:13

you know him really well. I I get

1:28:15

this sense. He's just a

1:28:17

straight up guy. Yeah. pressure on him. How

1:28:20

did how

1:28:20

did because not take her stuck in

1:28:22

the middle. Right? Oh, he was pissed.

1:28:25

He was pissed. Vince? Yes. Why not

1:28:27

be

1:28:27

pissed of prep? Prep for us because he didn't

1:28:29

have all the information. Okay. So he's

1:28:32

pissed of violence. He's like, well,

1:28:34

Vince, he would've dropped it to me,

1:28:36

and that's where all the what ifs and

1:28:38

you should have done this and you should have done that came from. Sure. But, you know,

1:28:40

we went we went in and

1:28:42

and I will say this definitively.

1:28:46

We went into the

1:28:48

locker

1:28:48

room where Brett was

1:28:51

changing and Sean was

1:28:53

in there too. And

1:28:55

undertaker

1:28:55

cleared the entire locker

1:28:57

room. The only people that were

1:28:59

in that locker room were

1:29:01

the

1:29:01

people that were in

1:29:04

the match

1:29:05

Undertaker. Vince, Jerry Briscoe,

1:29:06

Shane, myself, and

1:29:08

I think

1:29:12

Tony Carrillo, I

1:29:13

don't remember, sergeant was

1:29:15

there or not, but nobody else was

1:29:17

in there. But there was Night Heart and

1:29:19

Davie Boy, Owen, Brett, Sean

1:29:24

was Root there. I think Root

1:29:26

was there. He was a hunter.

1:29:30

And

1:29:30

Earl obviously wasn't there. He'd

1:29:33

already left. But, you

1:29:34

know, Vince came in and said

1:29:36

it many

1:29:37

times before, you know, it's

1:29:39

it's Vince came in and they Davey went

1:29:41

in and told Brett, hey, Vince

1:29:43

is here.

1:29:46

in his And he's

1:29:48

like, I

1:29:48

don't wanna talk to him and then he's, yeah,

1:29:50

well, he's here. And Brett Brett came out and was like,

1:29:52

what do you what the fuck do you want? It was

1:29:54

Brett came here and talked to you. He goes,

1:29:57

I'm gonna finish taking a shower. I'm

1:29:59

of And punch

1:29:59

you out. And

1:30:05

Vince was like, you do what you think you

1:30:07

need to do type thing. And and

1:30:09

Brett came out,

1:30:12

man, got you know, dry

1:30:14

himself off, sat down, and got dressed. And Vince and Brett

1:30:16

went back and forth,

1:30:18

you know, and Brett's Brett.

1:30:21

listen

1:30:22

to him. Events was like, you know, I I would you expect me to do, Brett? I

1:30:24

had to I did

1:30:25

what I think is right for

1:30:27

my company. for

1:30:31

everybody else here. You've got your deal. I

1:30:33

wish we could have worked something out. I

1:30:35

wish that could done this