Speaker 1: I love everyone is here for all the cool, extreme
Speaker 1: francing and welcome to another episode of Eyes up Here
Speaker 1: with Ran Scene on the iHeartRadio Network or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast, joining me as always because they can't
Speaker 1: get rid of them with my co host Chad, don't
Speaker 1: shake your head. You know it's true. Are you today,
Speaker 1: my friends?
Speaker 2: What can you say? I love being here and you
Speaker 2: can't get rid of me if you try it.
Speaker 1: I'm trying. It's not working. We're doing double duty today,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, because next week I am I'm taking
Speaker 1: the kiddies on a little baker if you will. My well,
Speaker 1: my husband's going home to UH to visit his family.
Speaker 1: He is going to a basketball reunion because he used
Speaker 1: to play basket the basketball for the Iliani and UH
Speaker 1: he has a reunion and so he's going there and
Speaker 1: and I'm going to take the kids somewhere. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say where, but I'm going to take the kids
Speaker 1: somewhere by myself for the first time. And I'm nervous
Speaker 1: as hell about it. Let me tell you why I
Speaker 1: always have It's always the four of us. It's always me,
Speaker 1: my husband and the kids. He always drives He always
Speaker 1: plans everything, He navigates, he knows where everything is. Me,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, not so much.
Speaker 3: I don't have a good sense of direction. I forget things.
Speaker 3: I get nervous driving.
Speaker 1: I'm desperately afraid that God forbid, I'm gonna get in
Speaker 1: a car accident.
Speaker 3: So I plan to drive eighteen miles an.
Speaker 1: Hour and just cruise. And I'm telling me, I have
Speaker 1: stress about it. I booked it myself, which I you know,
Speaker 1: I can do those kind of things. But I've been thinking, like,
Speaker 1: God forbid, what if something happens, you know. But I
Speaker 1: just didn't want to be home without him, so I
Speaker 1: was like, it's boring, Let's just go do something. So
Speaker 1: we're going to a nice resort and we're gonna eat
Speaker 1: and swim and be merry for four days of our lives.
Speaker 1: And it's gonna be fun. I think I just gotta
Speaker 1: get there. Once I get there, I'll feel so much better.
Speaker 3: It's like, ah, I can breathe them, So yeah.
Speaker 2: It'll be fun. Can I come.
Speaker 1: Nobout, Absolutely not a man.
Speaker 2: I have my bags packed and everything.
Speaker 1: Oh too bad. You can bring your family and meet
Speaker 1: us there.
Speaker 2: Are you gonna be doing Christmas cards? While you're there.
Speaker 1: No, I don't do Christmas card. You're lucky. If you
Speaker 1: get a phone call.
Speaker 2: From me, I'll send my annual Christmas card.
Speaker 1: H Yeah, now we I stopped doing that probably like
Speaker 1: three or four years ago. I think I used to do.
Speaker 1: I used to do the whole thing. Get the kids
Speaker 1: on the you know, take the picture, put them on
Speaker 1: the card, send the card down. Then I realized like
Speaker 1: people were like, even the people I was sending cards
Speaker 1: to weren't sending them back. And that irritated me. And
Speaker 1: I was just like, well, f this, I'm not doing
Speaker 1: that anymore. My Christmas spirit went out the door. So
Speaker 1: I don't do it anymore.
Speaker 2: I don't know, send a nice handwritten one, you know,
Speaker 2: then send you one every year?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, you do, and that's very sweet. And I
Speaker 3: used to be like you.
Speaker 1: And then my kids got big, and I was like,
Speaker 1: they don't want to take pictures anymore, And who really cares?
Speaker 1: You know, if you're my friend, I talk to you.
Speaker 1: You either get a text or a phone call, depending
Speaker 1: on where you rank in the Queen's world. And that's that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, some people are up here, others are down here.
Speaker 2: I mean your queen always looking down I mean.
Speaker 1: At my peasants. But you know, you know how goes.
Speaker 2: I do, I do unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So that's that's what we're doing. And I don't know.
Speaker 1: We might get a great adventure this weekend see the
Speaker 1: Christmas Lights maybe, So what do you got planning? You
Speaker 1: got anything? Don't know?
Speaker 2: Uh No, this is a quiet weekend, thank god, you know.
Speaker 2: But before the Christmas high jinks start, we always have
Speaker 2: some wild shenanigans going on. We have down my Way,
Speaker 2: we have King's Dominion, and we plan on doing King's
Speaker 2: Dominion probably the weekend before Christmas Derek Extravaganza. Now they
Speaker 2: have the Peanuts Gang at King's Dominion, So I think
Speaker 2: that's pretty cool because I mean a lot of people
Speaker 2: associate Charlie Brown and Peanuts Gang with Christmas, so we
Speaker 2: will be doing that for the first time.
Speaker 1: I love it. It's great.
Speaker 2: I don't love Charlie the Charlie Brown Christmas that much.
Speaker 2: I like I like it, like it's one I get
Speaker 2: out of the way early. But I'm hosting a Christmas.
Speaker 3: Wors you are, which I didn't get.
Speaker 2: No time out, time out. Well I'll get to that.
Speaker 2: But no at the at the elementary school. I'm hosting
Speaker 2: a family movie night where we're watching The Grinch.
Speaker 4: So that that's cute.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good one, so very cute. The Christmas party,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. You know, certain elements that we can't control
Speaker 2: in this country of ours have downgraded the party to
Speaker 2: get together so get togethers. You don't usually invite people
Speaker 2: from outside the.
Speaker 1: Not true, you have no legs to stay. I swear
Speaker 1: if I lived in Virginia and still didn't get invites.
Speaker 2: Oh you would absolutely be invited.
Speaker 1: I don't think I would be friends with you at all,
Speaker 1: Like I wouldn't even talk to you. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know we live very far apart, and that's why I
Speaker 1: don't take offense. But as I always say, a good
Speaker 1: gesture would be like, hey, I'm having this thing. You know,
Speaker 1: if you guys want to drive down, you're more than
Speaker 1: welcome to. I literally won't. But there's the invite.
Speaker 2: I foresee inviting you to something in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: But I have a feeling you'll be booked, so no,
Speaker 2: probably won't be coming, but I'm going to invite you
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: So well, I won't come, but you that I won't come,
Speaker 1: but you have. Twenty twenty four is looking really good,
Speaker 1: really good. I am so surprised I have now we know, January,
Speaker 1: I usually don't take any bookings because I have to.
Speaker 1: I need a month to prepare for Disney.
Speaker 2: We all know that.
Speaker 1: But I'm booked in February, I'm booked I think three
Speaker 1: weekends in March. I'm booked in April for Wrestle Khan,
Speaker 1: I'm booked in May, booked in June. Like up until
Speaker 1: the mid the middle of the year. I have all
Speaker 1: this stuff going on, and I'm so happy about it because,
Speaker 1: you know, I really want to start getting out there
Speaker 1: and working again, because this year was just not a
Speaker 1: good year.
Speaker 3: For me and my family.
Speaker 1: But next year is looking really promising and I'm very
Speaker 1: very excited, and I just hope the offers keep coming in,
Speaker 1: and you know, if things work out the way we want,
Speaker 1: I can be working every single month, which would be excellent.
Speaker 3: I want twenty twenty four to be my year.
Speaker 2: Year of the Queen. I can see it on the
Speaker 2: marquee read above.
Speaker 1: That would be great. I just want to be busy.
Speaker 1: I want to work. I want this to grow, you know,
Speaker 1: I want YouTube to grow. Because our YouTube is almost
Speaker 1: that ten k. I know I sound so repetitive, but
Speaker 1: we're so close on YouTube, and we really need everybody
Speaker 1: to start downloading these episodes here on iHeart or you know,
Speaker 1: Apple or iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen. And
Speaker 1: if you're listening now, please go and share an art
Speaker 1: and tell your friends. And you know, I want everything
Speaker 1: I do to grow and expand, and I want to
Speaker 1: take over the world. That's my nearest.
Speaker 2: Resolution, one medium at a time, take over the world.
Speaker 1: No, it's it'll be our fifth year, so I think
Speaker 1: it's it's time.
Speaker 2: It's time colamorating for the queen. Question, is this going
Speaker 2: to be your thirtieth year to twenty twenty four?
Speaker 1: Thirty?
Speaker 3: This is my This December makes thirty years A wow?
Speaker 2: Interesting?
Speaker 4: Yes, very cool.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it's been a hell of a ride.
Speaker 1: I'm not ready to get off yet. So I want
Speaker 1: to keep going. Yeah, I want to keep going and
Speaker 1: expanding and doing new things and working with new people
Speaker 1: and just providing new content for everyone listening and not
Speaker 1: done yet.
Speaker 2: Well, there could be some very cool content coming this
Speaker 2: way the podcast roots.
Speaker 1: So I hope. So, because I'm ready to have.
Speaker 2: Some stuff possibly brewing in the lab as they say,
Speaker 2: dew we Okay, well, yes, indeed.
Speaker 1: Very good. I can't wait to collab and hear what
Speaker 1: you got, Bruin. So I'm very excited. Yeah, it's going
Speaker 1: to be a good year. I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be a good year for both of us. Very optimistic.
Speaker 1: And you know me, I'm usually a pessimist about certain things.
Speaker 1: But I have a good feeling. No, not you, I know,
Speaker 1: I never do. I never have a good feeling, but
Speaker 1: I feel like I have a good feeling about.
Speaker 2: With the Saturdayight Live character Debbie Downer, now with the
Speaker 2: face Debbie Downer makes the.
Speaker 1: That was one of the greatest skits that SNL ever had,
Speaker 1: absolutely phenomenal. The one at Disneyland was the best thing
Speaker 1: they ever did with I've said that a million times.
Speaker 1: So great.
Speaker 2: That's the one where they couldn't even remotely keep a
Speaker 2: stray face.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah at all.
Speaker 1: But have you sent our guests they Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let you do the honors because this this is the
Speaker 1: Chadsters work. He had a problem getting this guy in
Speaker 1: and he's going to nail them for it. So you're
Speaker 1: gonna do the intro and once he's ready to come in,
Speaker 1: hopefully he's uh, he's getting it now and we'll be
Speaker 1: ready to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I did not think it would be as hard
Speaker 2: as it was, but I guess it was. I guess
Speaker 2: you you might chalk it up to crossing of the streams.
Speaker 2: Maybe you know, there was the channels. Look, there's so
Speaker 2: many ways of communication these days. You know, you send
Speaker 2: it to this outlet, you send it to the way
Speaker 2: you get received. I mean I probably could have gone
Speaker 2: three or four different routes to get the message out,
Speaker 2: but the one I went just was like going into
Speaker 2: a black hole. So when when he jumps on, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna you know, and I know what he's gonna say.
Speaker 2: I I had to go through a third party to intermediate.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Well, the worst thing on the planet
Speaker 1: is when you can tell that somebody read your message
Speaker 1: and they don't answer you yeah, and then they go, oh,
Speaker 1: my phone was just you know, my text message thing
Speaker 1: was just open and it just said red and I
Speaker 1: hadn't seen it for six hours.
Speaker 3: I'm like, really, that's a bunch of bs right there.
Speaker 1: I pet Peeves like, if I if it says red,
Speaker 1: answer me, you.
Speaker 2: Know mine don't say red, and I get accused you.
Speaker 1: Were say delivered, so I know it got there. But
Speaker 1: when when I'm texting with you and you answer me
Speaker 1: right away for the first one and then you take
Speaker 1: twelve hours for the second one, I literally want to
Speaker 1: punch you in the face. I know. I hate that.
Speaker 1: That's annoying. I know, I know, especially if I need
Speaker 1: an answer, like you're the worst. You're not a good
Speaker 1: text message.
Speaker 2: I swear to you on a stack of Bibles. I
Speaker 2: sometimes forget in the conversation you're talking in that moment,
Speaker 2: I get pulled in nine hundred.
Speaker 1: Directions like you're the only person in the world who
Speaker 1: has stuff going on.
Speaker 4: I do not every day.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, what a day.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: You don't think I'm doing stuff? Do you think I'm
Speaker 1: like Peg Bundy and I just sit on the couch
Speaker 1: with Bombonds all day and watch soap operas and shit.
Speaker 2: I think, where your your francy and outfits around the house,
Speaker 2: and you do exactly that.
Speaker 1: That's exactly.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. We bought a Christmas tree for the
Speaker 3: front porch.
Speaker 1: I went out, uh maybe yesterday or the day before
Speaker 1: to put the balls on it, and I was in
Speaker 1: my pajamas and it was like twelve o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: I was still in my pajamas.
Speaker 3: The freaking ups guy drives up and comes.
Speaker 1: Right off to my standing there, and he's like, how
Speaker 1: you doing? And I was like, oh, I'm still in
Speaker 1: my pajamas. How are you? How embarrassing?
Speaker 3: So I do stay in my pajamas sometimes.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, we'd like to say that's the state flag
Speaker 2: of Virginia is the red check pajamas.
Speaker 1: I won't the way out in my pajamas. I've never
Speaker 1: shopped at Walmart in my pajamas. I don't do that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: But I'll sit in my house in my pajamas.
Speaker 1: If I don't have to go anywhere in the weather's crap,
Speaker 1: Why can't I stay in my pajamas If I don't
Speaker 1: have a like an outside job. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: what you gotta do?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's I've never been like a
Speaker 2: strict like pajama guy.
Speaker 1: You know, like my pajama pants on right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you do you boo?
Speaker 4: I mean I'm my Eagles jersey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm like, you know, I'm I'm like a casual
Speaker 2: like you know at tire guy. You know, so sweats.
Speaker 4: Do you like sweats?
Speaker 2: Sweats?
Speaker 1: Love them?
Speaker 2: Go right from the sweats and like even you know,
Speaker 2: working from home, like I'll either be in you know,
Speaker 2: like the Adidas style track pants or jeans. You know,
Speaker 2: like I go right into the jeans.
Speaker 3: But it are not comfortable to sit for hours in.
Speaker 3: They're really not. I mean, if that's good for you,
Speaker 3: that's great.
Speaker 2: I mean again, we're always running around. I'm running out
Speaker 2: of the house.
Speaker 1: I gotta go, yeah, but to lounge. Oh no, I
Speaker 1: need pajamas or nice comfy sweats and I'm good to go.
Speaker 1: But don't judge me because I know never just stay
Speaker 1: in your pajamas as well. All right, So here's pajamas
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Here's my introduction a guy who I have a great
Speaker 2: deal of respect for. But I am absolutely baffled that
Speaker 2: it took me to go through Mike Durban to have
Speaker 2: to get him on the airwaves. Like I said, respect
Speaker 2: him to death. The one and only the great Vince
Speaker 2: Russo came back, but I had to go brband to
Speaker 2: get him.
Speaker 4: Bro, I don't know what happened. I swear I did
Speaker 4: not get the email. I looked in my spam. I
Speaker 4: don't know what happened, but it doesn't matter way here anyway.
Speaker 2: Bro, Vince, thanks for coming back box.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Vince, it's been a while. How First of all,
Speaker 1: you look great?
Speaker 4: Thank you?
Speaker 1: So do you seek refreshed and rejuvenated.
Speaker 4: Just got out of a shower, ready to go. I'm
Speaker 4: starting my day with you, Francine.
Speaker 1: I can smell you. You look clean, smell clean.
Speaker 4: I like that to be aquavelba, aquavelba, aqua velva. Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that what men were these days?
Speaker 4: I don't think I don't think you can get that anymore. Bro,
Speaker 4: aquavelba was like back in the seventies.
Speaker 1: Man, Is that like old spice? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Pretty much?
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much. Well, you know the classics never dies.
Speaker 4: Oh never, never, ever, ever, ever, Good for you.
Speaker 1: Vince is associated with the brand. For those of you
Speaker 1: who don't know, tell us how that's going. I want
Speaker 1: to start off with that.
Speaker 4: Well, I want to tell you this real quick man.
Speaker 4: We're doing a special right now. If you have never
Speaker 4: tried out our Patreon, you can go over there right
Speaker 4: now and get a free week of the brand. It
Speaker 4: will cost you absolutely nothing. It will let you sample
Speaker 4: all our content right there on the screen. Man, just
Speaker 4: go to Patreon dot com, forward slash russo TWC awesome.
Speaker 3: And what what talent do you have with you right now?
Speaker 4: Because it's been yeah, right now. I always forget somebody.
Speaker 4: Of course, I've got Stevie Richards, Stevie Richards, the Great Benjamin,
Speaker 4: I've got Stevie Ray from Hallam Heat, I've got EC three,
Speaker 4: I've got al snow God. I know, I always forget somebody.
Speaker 4: But she's she's not on no more. We Yeah, we
Speaker 4: switched some shows around. That's okay. Going into the new Yeah,
Speaker 4: going into the new year, I wanted to switch some
Speaker 4: shows around, so we added some, we took some away.
Speaker 4: But uh yeah, there there's so much content on there,
Speaker 4: so much content.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. So I I want to ask
Speaker 1: you a question. Yeah, and I you know, if you
Speaker 1: don't want to answer, you don't have to.
Speaker 3: But I have a feeling you'll want to go ahead.
Speaker 1: What's with all the feuds you're feuding? I saw, I
Speaker 1: saw you just tweeted Triple H. I think you're trying
Speaker 1: to fight him. I think you're trying to fight Seawn
Speaker 1: Ross Sap.
Speaker 4: No. For first of all, I don't I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know him as Sean Ross Sap.
Speaker 4: Unless you're a celebrity, you don't. You don't get three
Speaker 4: name treatments. The fact of the matter is the dude's
Speaker 4: name is Sean Sap, and you know they made fun
Speaker 4: of him all throughout grade school in high school. He doesn't.
Speaker 4: He doesn't. He's not worthy of the middle name. So
Speaker 4: if you're gonna, if you want to discussing with me,
Speaker 4: that's fine. But I don't know any Seawn Ross SAPs.
Speaker 4: I just know a Sewan Sap.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, whoever you know. I met him once. I
Speaker 1: have to say he was lovely to me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very very nice.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: Okay, let me tell you how lovely he is, fran Scene.
Speaker 4: He's so lovely, and how this whole thing started. This
Speaker 4: guy is so lovely, bro that I am sitting on
Speaker 4: my couch one night a couple of months ago, man,
Speaker 4: eleven thirty at night and get a I get a
Speaker 4: text out of the clear blue sky from Seawn Ross's
Speaker 4: slap saying, Vince, I just want you to know what
Speaker 4: a big piece of shit you are. That's how lovely,
Speaker 4: that's how wonderful sewn Ross Sap is. So the bottom
Speaker 4: line is, you talk about these feuds, Bro, you want
Speaker 4: to poke the bear. You want to go at it
Speaker 4: with me? Fine, bro, like let's go. Let's see how
Speaker 4: that's gonna turn out for you. The problem with Triple
Speaker 4: h is and Francine you will agree to this, and
Speaker 4: you don't have to even agree to this. I know
Speaker 4: you're gonna agree with this. Don't give me the bullshit
Speaker 4: with It's a different time. Wrestling is evolving, Bro. Wrestling
Speaker 4: is the same as wrestling was one hundred years ago.
Speaker 4: You have a match. The idea of the match is
Speaker 4: to pin and beat your opponents. You could beat him
Speaker 4: three ways. You could pin him, you can get counted out,
Speaker 4: or he can get dequ'ed. That has been the same
Speaker 4: for a hundred years. Wrestling has not evolved. So stop
Speaker 4: with the bullshit. And the bottom line is the WWE
Speaker 4: sold out. They sold out, bro. Bottom line, they got
Speaker 4: to the point. We're gonna be politically correct. We're not
Speaker 4: gonna insult anybody. We're not gonna have an edge anymore.
Speaker 4: We're not gonna be dangerous anymore. We're gonna put on
Speaker 4: Manby Pamby Programming and Francine, that's fine. A lot of
Speaker 4: people sell out. People will say Snoop Dogg sold out
Speaker 4: because he's in a million commercials. I got no problem
Speaker 4: with selling out because that's part of business. What I
Speaker 4: got a problem with is, don't bullshit us. Don't give
Speaker 4: me this evolution, this evolving. Don't you guys sold out? Period?
Speaker 4: End of story, Say you sold out and let's move on.
Speaker 1: Is it selling out though, or is it just trying
Speaker 1: to extend the brand adapt to the times? Uh?
Speaker 4: You know they adapted to the times by selling out,
Speaker 4: by not doing anything that's gonna possibly offend anybody. Listen, Fretzine,
Speaker 4: this is professional wrestling. You're gonna be in the professional
Speaker 4: wrestling business, and you know and and not you know,
Speaker 4: get somebody's panties in a wad. You always are no
Speaker 4: matter what, bro there are going to be people that
Speaker 4: are upset. If people want to find a problem with
Speaker 4: your product, they'll find a problem with your product. You're
Speaker 4: not going to please everybody. So when you know, they
Speaker 4: made a decision to become politically correct, so they could
Speaker 4: be in business with Saudi Arabia and they could be
Speaker 4: in business whoever they want to. But we are talking
Speaker 4: about professional wrestling here. We're not talking about a puppet show.
Speaker 4: Professional wrestling was never meant to not, you know, get
Speaker 4: somebody upset. It was never meant to be that.
Speaker 3: Okay, uh, tell me about you and Baba.
Speaker 1: What do you mean the missed?
Speaker 4: Oh god, this is good.
Speaker 3: I'm pulling up things that have caused a star one x.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, according to Sean's sap uh, here's a
Speaker 4: funny thing. According to Sean sab franc scene. I'm doing
Speaker 4: all of this to stay relevant. Okay, now trying.
Speaker 1: To get a job with.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, not not only that. Here's what cracks me up.
Speaker 4: Here's what cracks me up. Raw drew a million and
Speaker 4: a half people on on Monday Night. If I was
Speaker 4: trying to stay relevant, the absolute last genre I would
Speaker 4: try to stay relevant would be wrestling. Wrestling is not relevant.
Speaker 4: Wrestling hasn't been relevant four years. So if I was
Speaker 4: actually trying to stay relevant, I promise you I would
Speaker 4: not be doing it through a company and through a
Speaker 4: business that is the most irrelevant in entertainment and sports
Speaker 4: across the board. Now, according to Bubba Is, you know,
Speaker 4: I watch these shows, Francine, only because I get paid
Speaker 4: to watch these shows. The minute they stop paying me,
Speaker 4: I stop watching. It's that simple. But I am watching.
Speaker 4: I'm watching this, Okay. First of all, I got to
Speaker 4: check my watch to make sure it's twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4: So I'm watching Cody Rhodes come out and explain how
Speaker 4: Knakamora spewed a poison, missed a poison missed into his face.
Speaker 4: But yet here we are seven days later and they're
Speaker 4: both perfectly fine. I just didn't understand that if Knakamora
Speaker 4: is holding a poison in his mouth, I'm thinking it's blistering.
Speaker 4: I'm thinking he's got cancasaurs. I'm thinking he can't breathe.
Speaker 4: I'm thinking his his, his, his, his, Larnix is closing up.
Speaker 4: And then Cody gets the poison in the eyes, and
Speaker 4: I'm thinking of oh my god. You know, bro, it's like,
Speaker 4: can you imagine getting chlorox in your eyes or you know,
Speaker 4: even uh, even pepper spray. But here we are a
Speaker 4: week later, and we're both perfectly fine. To me, that's
Speaker 4: what casual fans laugh at and the reason why you
Speaker 4: still get crap today, Francine. I'm not telling you anything.
Speaker 4: You don't know. You've got the wrestling bubble and they
Speaker 4: all live in the resting bubble. They don't have a
Speaker 4: clue of what's going on on the outside world. You
Speaker 4: got people in there, bro that through politics have been
Speaker 4: holding their spots forever. When when when the world passed
Speaker 4: them by a long time ago? So when when I
Speaker 4: when I hear of a poison missed, people are laughing
Speaker 4: at that. And and you know what, Bubba can say
Speaker 4: whatever Bubba wants to say. Back in the day of Muda,
Speaker 4: nobody ever said it was poison. Nobody. Poison is a
Speaker 4: whole different category. Fran scene.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm trying to think because I I've taken that
Speaker 1: from to Jerry to Jerry used to you?
Speaker 4: Was it poison?
Speaker 3: You know it was green mist?
Speaker 4: Was it poison? Was poison?
Speaker 1: Poison? I've taken it a couple of times and I
Speaker 1: know it went into every orifice of my body.
Speaker 4: Is it poison? Though?
Speaker 3: You know, I can't remember if it was poisoned?
Speaker 4: Just skin boiled? Did did you you're all boys boil?
Speaker 1: I did come to work the next week? What would
Speaker 1: you call it? If you had to rename this mist?
Speaker 4: Well, miss miss we don't know what's in the mist. Okay,
Speaker 4: it's something temporary, blinding minding.
Speaker 2: It's a blinding miss.
Speaker 4: Yes, blinding miss thank you Jazz. Poison like poison, Bro,
Speaker 4: I'm actually gonna put poison in my mouth, Brom, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: These are the things you have to look at because
Speaker 4: it's twoenty twenty three, it's not nineteen seventy three. These
Speaker 4: are the things you have to look at.
Speaker 1: I'm reading because I love to read comments. Anyone that
Speaker 1: I follow I read comments. I like to see what
Speaker 1: fans are saying about things. People are still blaming you.
Speaker 1: And we've talked about this before. Now we're on iHeart,
Speaker 1: so we have a new audience that's listening. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it again. People are still blaming you for
Speaker 1: like downfalls of companies coming up with ridiculous angles, things
Speaker 1: that you said you weren't even a part of, and
Speaker 1: fans just seem to love to pick at you and
Speaker 1: argue with you constantly. Like the thing that I want
Speaker 1: to know is how are you not losing your mind?
Speaker 4: Because well, for first of all, a couple of reasons.
Speaker 4: First of all, I never read comments, and second of.
Speaker 3: All of them, so you do read comments because no,
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't read the comments.
Speaker 1: I'll on you respond to comments if you don't.
Speaker 4: If you don't, I don't respond to comments.
Speaker 1: I've seen you respond.
Speaker 4: I don't. Francene, I don't unless it's a bubba. Francine,
Speaker 4: I don't. I mean, I'm telling you, I don't. I
Speaker 4: do you know? On my you I did a video
Speaker 4: yesterday on YouTube that said five thousand views. I don't
Speaker 4: look at those comments. I will, I will see comments
Speaker 4: on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's what I'm referring to.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, No, I only unless it's a bubba, or
Speaker 4: unless it's somebody in the industry or the business. My
Speaker 4: comments are very few and far between, very cool, and
Speaker 4: because here's the reason. It's real simple. My brand of
Speaker 4: television was entertainment. All of these people commenting want believe
Speaker 4: wrestling is real. They think it's real. They've convinced themselves
Speaker 4: it's real. They want twenty thirty minute wrestling matches. They
Speaker 4: want to put stars to those wrestling matches. And that's
Speaker 4: not how I wrote TV. And oh my god, surprise, surprise, surprise.
Speaker 4: The television I wrote had the highest ratings in the
Speaker 4: history of wrestling. Why not because I was a genius
Speaker 4: friend scene, because I opened it up to everybody through
Speaker 4: entertainment in wrestling today, if you're not a fan of
Speaker 4: the wrestling, you're not watching. It's that simple. So you know,
Speaker 4: I I opened it up to everybody. You didn't have
Speaker 4: to be a fan of the actual wrestling. And that's
Speaker 4: that's what the marks didn't like. So it's it's real.
Speaker 4: It's real simple. And that's why I don't look at
Speaker 4: comments and I don't answer comments because I know they're
Speaker 4: they're ridiculous mindset.
Speaker 1: Storylines to me are very important, very important. If a
Speaker 1: story doesn't draw me in, I can't waste thirty minutes
Speaker 1: of my time, even if the guys are great workers.
Speaker 1: I need something to invest in, yes, and to bring
Speaker 1: me back every week. So I one hundred percent agree
Speaker 1: with what you're saying, and I feel like you excelled
Speaker 1: at that story telling aspect of the.
Speaker 4: Business because that's what your casual fan, your casual television
Speaker 4: television audience wants, That's what they want. That's why you
Speaker 4: are drawing a one point five million people. They're not
Speaker 4: in tristed in twenty minute wrestling matches, right, what would you.
Speaker 1: Do, either with WWE or AEW to change if they
Speaker 1: hired you and I know you're not interested.
Speaker 4: I'm not interested. It's never been happen.
Speaker 1: You're not interested. But with you all of your expertise,
Speaker 1: because you have been in the business for a very
Speaker 1: long time, what would you do to poperating these things?
Speaker 4: Francine, It's real simple, and it's the same thing I
Speaker 4: told Vince McMahon in nineteen ninety six when they were
Speaker 4: doing Mantar and TL Hopper and the Goon and all
Speaker 4: this ridiculous crap. I told Vince McMahon in nineteen ninety six, Vince,
Speaker 4: this product needs to mirror society. What that means is,
Speaker 4: it's real simple, franccene. Realism, realism, make it real and work,
Speaker 4: work the shoot, work the shoot, not not poison mist
Speaker 4: in the eyes. I'm talking about reality. Franccene. Here's a
Speaker 4: perfect example. Okay, cmpunk comes back after ten years. Everybody
Speaker 4: in that locker room has a different opinion. Why aren't
Speaker 4: you putting the microphone in their face and saying, what
Speaker 4: do you think as a shoot of cmpunk coming back
Speaker 4: to the WWE and let the people tell the truth.
Speaker 4: Why wouldn't you do that? That is such a missed opportunity. Then, Franccene,
Speaker 4: based on the comments, now you roll with who said
Speaker 4: what do you? But to totally ignore that is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: But I feel like, if I'm in that locker room
Speaker 1: and I have heat with Punk, I'm afraid to say
Speaker 1: the truth because am I gonna get heat for it?
Speaker 1: Is that going to cause me heat with the boys?
Speaker 4: But not if that's what management is telling you to do.
Speaker 4: If the if management the boys, No, it's not no,
Speaker 4: it's not no, because because the smart boys, Francine and
Speaker 4: you know all this, the smart boys will know that
Speaker 4: they can make money with that. Oh they they know that, Bro.
Speaker 4: And that's especially Punk Punk you use use Bro his
Speaker 4: his his promo was horrific. The fact that you're telling
Speaker 4: me I'm home after you got fired on your wedding day.
Speaker 4: Give me a break, Bro, give me a break. They
Speaker 4: fired your ass on your wedding day and I'm home,
Speaker 4: I'm home.
Speaker 1: What does he do different?
Speaker 4: I read a little exactly what he said at the
Speaker 4: end of the promo, which was off Cat, which was
Speaker 4: off Mike. The last thing he said was I'm not defense,
Speaker 4: I'm he gonna make money. That's the freaking promo. That's
Speaker 4: the pro. So people do have a problem with ceem punk.
Speaker 4: Seem punk is gonna make money with that problem. Seem
Speaker 4: punk is a pro. But to totally ignore all of that.
Speaker 4: That's why when Punk was on the show two weeks ago,
Speaker 4: they did one point nine million. The following week we
Speaker 4: lost four hundred thousand viewers, and you don't know why. Okay,
Speaker 4: that's that's what I'm talking about, selling out, playing it safe, Mamby, Pamby,
Speaker 4: That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like if I was in that locker room,
Speaker 1: I would tell Punk, I'm just gonna say I hate you,
Speaker 1: but I really love you, so I wouldn't get any
Speaker 1: I don't won't heat with anyone.
Speaker 4: I think. Man, if I am head writer, and I
Speaker 4: know Vince would have done it back in the day, listen,
Speaker 4: Frank see. You know it's back in the day when
Speaker 4: the Montreal screwjob went down, and you know, Vince goes
Speaker 4: into Brett's locker room. The next day, we're in the
Speaker 4: production meeting and Vince has a black eye. So here,
Speaker 4: here's who's in the meeting. It's me. It's Pritchard, it's Jr.
Speaker 4: It's Pat it's Britto, like Kevin Dunn, maybe like six people.
Speaker 4: So fen scene, I'm watching this, and every single person
Speaker 4: in that room, you know, Vince, Vince is not talking,
Speaker 4: Vince is listening. Every single person in that room wants
Speaker 4: to sweep it under the rug like it never happened.
Speaker 4: So I'm sitting there and I'm listening to all this.
Speaker 4: And then after you hear what everybody had to say,
Speaker 4: I said, are you effing nuts? This is a once
Speaker 4: in a life time opportunity. Brett Hard punched Vince McMahon
Speaker 4: in the face, and you're gonna sweep that under the
Speaker 4: rug like it never happened. Nothing like this will probably
Speaker 4: ever happen again in the history of this business. And
Speaker 4: you are not going to take advantage of that. And
Speaker 4: as I'm saying this, I'm looking at Vince, and I
Speaker 4: know Vince's thinking he's one hundred percent right. We get
Speaker 4: back to Stanford that week, and that's when Vince went
Speaker 4: in the studio and cut the Vince McMahon didn't screw
Speaker 4: Brett Hart. Brettheartscrewed Brett Hart. And that was the start
Speaker 4: of the mister McMahon character. That would have never happened
Speaker 4: if Vince Russo was not in the room. If Vince
Speaker 4: Russo was not in the room, they would have swept
Speaker 4: that all right under the rug, and you might not
Speaker 4: ever even had a mister McMahon. And they're doing the
Speaker 4: same thing today, but bringing back a guy like seeing
Speaker 4: Punk who's got controversy out the wazoo everywhere he goes,
Speaker 4: everybody he meets. And you're not gonna allow your roster
Speaker 4: to give their real feelings about Punk and then work
Speaker 4: that into programming content. You're fools, man, You're absolutely fools.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting take, very interesting take. If I can
Speaker 1: switch gears, do you have anything to add chat, because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna switch gears for that?
Speaker 2: I mean, what else can I say? I mean, it's
Speaker 2: just I can't recognize any bit of what I watched.
Speaker 2: I watched that whole raw, and I haven't watched the
Speaker 2: raw in years, from start to finish. It's just because
Speaker 2: I wanted to see what Punk had to say, and
Speaker 2: I got suckered into three hours, and I said the
Speaker 2: show should be two. If you had to, if you
Speaker 2: had to write three hours of a raw in the heyday,
Speaker 2: of ninety eight. I mean, wouldn't you have exhausted some
Speaker 2: of your best ideas you had to stretch.
Speaker 4: It another, Chad, I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: When Ed and I went over to Nitro, the first
Speaker 4: nine Nitros were three hours.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 4: With the roster we had, we had absolutely no problem,
Speaker 4: absolutely no problem writing a three hour show. Bro. Here's
Speaker 4: the problem. They don't have writers. They don't have writers.
Speaker 4: They've got Paul haym they got the Haman's, and they
Speaker 4: got the Pritchards, and they got the Michael Hayeses, and
Speaker 4: they got all these people. These people are not writers.
Speaker 4: They've never been writers. They've never been trained as a writer.
Speaker 4: They don't have a degree in writing. Just because Triple
Speaker 4: H won thirty five world titles doesn't make Triple H
Speaker 4: a freaking writer, Chad. They did the same thing, Francine,
Speaker 4: same thing. The day after Owen Hart dies. They want
Speaker 4: to go on and shoot a row with no mention
Speaker 4: of what happened the night before, no mention. We're gonna
Speaker 4: put on a regular show. I went into a closed
Speaker 4: door meeting with me, Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn, and
Speaker 4: I started emotionally breaking down and I basically, I not
Speaker 4: basically I told them, if this show is not a
Speaker 4: tribute to owen Hart, I am going home right now.
Speaker 4: I'm going home right now, because if you're gonna have
Speaker 4: a raw like nothing happened last night, I'm not gonna
Speaker 4: be a part of that. And then what did they
Speaker 4: what did they turn what did they turn the show into?
Speaker 4: It was a memorial to owen Hart. But bro, that's
Speaker 4: because I was there and and and and like, I
Speaker 4: was the guy who was never in the bubble. I
Speaker 4: was just a wrestling fan. I was a father, I
Speaker 4: was a husband, I was a regular guy. So I
Speaker 4: did not see things through their ridiculous bubble. And I
Speaker 4: was the only one that said, I'm I'm literally leaving
Speaker 4: right now if that's what this show is going to
Speaker 4: be tonight.
Speaker 1: So you're you're trying to say they wouldn't have even
Speaker 1: acknowledged him down the line, you know, you don't think
Speaker 1: owen Hart.
Speaker 4: They would They would have, they would have. They would
Speaker 4: have mentioned what happened last night and had about a
Speaker 4: three minute package and that would have been the end
Speaker 4: of it. That would have been the end of it. Yes, wow,
Speaker 4: Yes that happened. That happened. I believe you believe what
Speaker 4: I'm talking about. That that's that's what I mean about
Speaker 4: the wrestling bubble. That's that's what I'm talking about. That
Speaker 4: one I never heard because I've never really said that before.
Speaker 4: That's exactly it was. It was just the three of
Speaker 4: us in a room, just the three of.
Speaker 2: Us, instead of it being this iconic show now that
Speaker 2: we all remember and you know, just close your eyes
Speaker 2: and see Austin, you know, saluting the tron and everybody's
Speaker 2: emotional speeches. That's incredible that they would just bypass that
Speaker 2: for the sake of matches on a show where people
Speaker 2: were wrestling with bloodstains in the middle of a canvas.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Like I said, Chad, the same exact thing when
Speaker 4: Brett punch Vince and we're not going to talk about this,
Speaker 4: they're still in the we're not going to talk about
Speaker 4: this mode.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. Let me switch gears because I've always said I'm
Speaker 1: not a big fan of Dark Side of the Ring
Speaker 1: only because it's such a negative light shined upon pro wrestling,
Speaker 1: and all of us that are in it are really proud.
Speaker 3: Of what we've done and what we've accomplished.
Speaker 1: If we weren't. We wouldn't be in this business. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I watched an episode and forgive me, I can't remember
Speaker 1: what the theme was, but it was centered around you,
Speaker 1: and I never really saw you talk about it after
Speaker 1: it aired.
Speaker 3: What was your opinion of that dark side of the ring?
Speaker 1: Do you know what I'm talking? Was it that or something?
Speaker 4: I will tell you exactly. I'll tell you two thousand
Speaker 4: I'll tell you exactly what happened. Okay. The first a
Speaker 4: dark Side I did was about the Brawl for All Okay,
Speaker 4: And when I made the decision to do that, I'm like, bro, like,
Speaker 4: this is this is no big deal. This, This isn't
Speaker 4: the plane ride from Hell, like, this is the Brawl
Speaker 4: for All tournament? How how did this come about? There
Speaker 4: was nothing scandalous about this nothing. So I'm like, okay,
Speaker 4: I'll talk about the Bral for All. I'll take responsibility
Speaker 4: for me pitching the idea of Vince and everything else.
Speaker 4: So I thought it was no big deal. So I
Speaker 4: agree to do the Bral for All episode. And during
Speaker 4: that episode, the the producers of the episode, they decide
Speaker 4: that they're going to turn it into Vince Room so
Speaker 4: versus Jim Cornett Okay. So now I see that air
Speaker 4: and I'm like, you freaking guys like Siri. I understand
Speaker 4: TV's all about freaking ratings, but don't don't blindside me
Speaker 4: like that. Okay, So Francine, fast forward two to three
Speaker 4: years later, they call me again to do Bash at
Speaker 4: the Beach. So first thing I said is, are you
Speaker 4: guys freaking kidding me? I did the brawl for all
Speaker 4: with you guys, and you guys turned it into a
Speaker 4: Vince Russo Jim Cornett angle, which there is no angle.
Speaker 4: I could give two shits about Jim Cornette. I am
Speaker 4: so over and so past Jim Cornette. I could give
Speaker 4: two shits. So I said, and you have the goal
Speaker 4: to come back to me and ask me to do
Speaker 4: this Bash of the beach. So Franccene right hand to god.
Speaker 4: You know, I am a you know I've been podcasting
Speaker 4: now for ten years. This is how I make my living.
Speaker 4: I don't want to go back to any wrestling company.
Speaker 4: That will never happen. So they basically said to me, Vince,
Speaker 4: what will it take you to do the Bash at
Speaker 4: the beach. Francine, I threw a ridiculous number at them,
Speaker 4: ridiculous and they said, okay, we'll pay you that, and
Speaker 4: I said, okay, I said I want that upfront, okay,
Speaker 4: and and and they paid me that ridiculous amount. So
Speaker 4: I did Bash at the Beach. But again, Francine, you
Speaker 4: got to understand something for me. Anyway, when I go
Speaker 4: into the when I go into like these dogs you know,
Speaker 4: these dog side shows, my whole thing is I am
Speaker 4: not going into I'm not burying anybody. I'm not burying.
Speaker 4: You're gonna ask me what happened, and I'm going to
Speaker 4: tell you what happened. I'm not gonna sit here and
Speaker 4: bash anybody. And if you watch the Bash at the Beach,
Speaker 4: you see Bischoff just I mean just absolutely burying. I
Speaker 4: did not say one negative word about Eric Bischoff. I
Speaker 4: did not say one negative word about Hulk Hogan. That's
Speaker 4: not what I do. If you want to ask me
Speaker 4: what happened, I'm going to tell you what happened. Whether
Speaker 4: you want to believe that or not is up to you.
Speaker 4: But you can watch me on those shows. I do
Speaker 4: not talk negatively about anybody.
Speaker 1: Well, you said that on the first one. They made
Speaker 1: it you against Jim Cornett. On this one, it was
Speaker 1: you against Eric Bischoff, And did you know that going
Speaker 1: in that that was going to be the absolute absolutely?
Speaker 4: But the money they paid me was ridiculous. Okay. So
Speaker 4: I was like, guys, like I said, I am gonna
Speaker 4: come here, I am. You're gonna ask me a question.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you the truth. I'm not interested in
Speaker 4: burying Hulk or Eric, and I'm not gonna do that
Speaker 4: from that point on, Yes, Francine, I knew they were
Speaker 4: gonna do whatever they wanted with it. But like I said, man,
Speaker 4: the money they paid me for it was ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure. I just saw it, and I was
Speaker 1: just I was interested in the concept, not really knowing
Speaker 1: you that well. And never I met Eric bischoffl one time,
Speaker 1: shook his hand and walked away. I've never met haw Coogan.
Speaker 1: But you hear certain things and you never know what's
Speaker 1: true what's not true.
Speaker 4: Well, you know when I'm saying something, it's.
Speaker 1: True, it's true. It's always true. Okay.
Speaker 4: One thousand, I at almost sixty three years old, a
Speaker 4: grandfather of two. There is nothing in this world I
Speaker 4: would ever I have you really think I'm gonna lie
Speaker 4: about wrestling shit? From thirty years ago. Like seriously, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna lie about it, and I'll tell you, Francine, I
Speaker 4: would never if it was you know, they they have
Speaker 4: shows that are character assassinations on people. I wouldn't ever
Speaker 4: do one of those shows. If if, if they're gonna
Speaker 4: pay me money to bury somebody, I'm not gonna take
Speaker 4: that money. I'm not gonna take that money. Like you know,
Speaker 4: they did a show on Tammy. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 4: gonna go on I mean that that that that poor
Speaker 4: woman's had enough problems. I'm not gonna go on that
Speaker 4: show and bury Tammy, no matter how much you pay me.
Speaker 4: But if it's something like Vince, what happened at Bash
Speaker 4: of the Beach, This is what happened at Bash of
Speaker 4: the Beach. Whether you want to believe me or don't
Speaker 4: believe me, I don't give a crap.
Speaker 1: So I know you don't do conventions and stuff, But
Speaker 1: if you did, are you the type of person that
Speaker 1: would go and shake their hand or would you just
Speaker 1: ignore them?
Speaker 4: Shake Who's hand?
Speaker 1: Shake like a Bischoff's hand?
Speaker 4: Lancy, I I don't have a problem with anybody, with anybody.
Speaker 4: You know how many times I've come on here and said,
Speaker 4: I will do a face to face with Eric Bischoff,
Speaker 4: I will do a face to face with Jim Cornett.
Speaker 4: I will do a face to face with Dave Meltzer.
Speaker 4: I don't have a problem with any of these people,
Speaker 4: but for some reason, they don't want to do a
Speaker 4: face to face with me. So you tell me why.
Speaker 4: If I had anything to hide, I certainly would not
Speaker 4: publicly put that out there. So when I publicly put
Speaker 4: it out there and nobody accepts it, I gotta ask
Speaker 4: myself why.
Speaker 1: I think you're a good debater. Maybe they're scared. I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 4: It has nothing to do with with debating.
Speaker 3: It has a debater.
Speaker 4: It has to do with who's telling the truth and
Speaker 4: who's lying. That's what. And it also has to do
Speaker 4: with this friend scene. They're still playing their characters. Okay,
Speaker 4: Eric Bischoff is playing Eric Bischoff on his podcast. Jim
Speaker 4: Cornett is playing Jim Cornette on his podcast. So they're
Speaker 4: saying a lot of things in character because their audience
Speaker 4: can't tell what's fact and what's fiction. I don't play
Speaker 4: my freaking character. I left my character in the ring
Speaker 4: when I walked away from wrestling. I don't play character.
Speaker 4: What I play is you ask me something, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: tell you the freaking truth.
Speaker 2: That goes back to what you said before about everybody
Speaker 2: believes it is real. The comments that we get about
Speaker 2: this show is everybody sees how real Francine is. There's
Speaker 2: no characters to be found on these airwaves. Being a
Speaker 2: part of the brand for the years that I was,
Speaker 2: that's what I can say about listening to what you said,
Speaker 2: there was no Vince Russo character. What you saw was
Speaker 2: what you got every time you hear Bischoff. And I
Speaker 2: was around Bischoff a lot, and I worked with Bischoff
Speaker 2: on conventions and shows. He could turn on the character
Speaker 2: and you got the nWo Eric Bischoff. You know, bad guy,
Speaker 2: I'm cool, too cool for the room. You got that.
Speaker 2: And that's what these podcasts have spawned is another group
Speaker 2: of characters. And now the fans that also watch the
Speaker 2: show and listen to the podcasts have become a part
Speaker 2: of these worlds. So whereas the brand is like kind
Speaker 2: of a family, these podcasts are just like the wrestling
Speaker 2: crowds and they buy into these characters that now the
Speaker 2: wrestlers have made on podcasts.
Speaker 4: You know you know absolutely, Chad, because you know, Francine,
Speaker 4: you had the list of these beefs, right, and why
Speaker 4: I'm in all these things. Here's the perfect case scenario,
Speaker 4: Chad of what we're talking about. I'm sitting here minding
Speaker 4: my own business the other day and I come across
Speaker 4: a story where it was a podcast and somebody asked
Speaker 4: Jake Roberts about Vince Russo being in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4: So my first question is, Guys, I worked with Jake
Speaker 4: on maybe one, two or three occasions. Every time I
Speaker 4: work with him, he was gone the next week because
Speaker 4: either you know what Jake was dealing with at the time.
Speaker 4: So every time I work with him, I turn around
Speaker 4: and he would be gone because of something that he did.
Speaker 4: So I worked with him very, very very rarely. So
Speaker 4: now now the question comes on a podcast to Jake Robins,
Speaker 4: what do you what would you think about Vince Russo
Speaker 4: being in the Hall of Fame. So my first question is,
Speaker 4: why are you bringing Vince Russo's name into an interview
Speaker 4: with Jake Roberts when I had nothing to do with
Speaker 4: the dude's career. Okay, So Jake Roberts turns around, laughs
Speaker 4: and says, f no, my dead dog had better ideas
Speaker 4: than Vince Russo, okay, bro, So what what? Why? Why
Speaker 4: is Jake saying that when Bro I can go down
Speaker 4: the list? Obviously I never had any kind of a
Speaker 4: relationship with him. He has no idea who I am
Speaker 4: as a human being. And oh, by the way, under
Speaker 4: my thumb to wrestling companies had the best ratings they
Speaker 4: ever had in their history. And I'm talking about WWE
Speaker 4: and DNA that was drawing over two million people. So
Speaker 4: it's real simple. Why is Jake saying that? Jake is
Speaker 4: saying that because he knows that's what the interviewer wants
Speaker 4: to hear. Jake wants to get over with the cool kids.
Speaker 4: Oh man, look at Jake. Look at what Jake said
Speaker 4: about ventures. That's why he's doing it. You think you
Speaker 4: think Jake Roberts has any idea of what I booked
Speaker 4: and what I didn't book What was my idea and
Speaker 4: what wasn't my He has no freaking idea. What is
Speaker 4: he trying to do. He's trying to get over with
Speaker 4: the cool kids, that internet crowd, the wrestling marks. So
Speaker 4: I understand that, and I get it, but I'll be
Speaker 4: honest with you, Bro, the dude is older than me,
Speaker 4: and it's like, you know, bro, if you if you
Speaker 4: you really, you're gonna bury me who you don't even know.
Speaker 4: You don't have any idea of what I booked and
Speaker 4: what I didn't book to get over with the Mark crowd, Like, Bro,
Speaker 4: you're gonna be doing this when you're seventy seventy five.
Speaker 4: That's why, for instance, I don't rip people because if
Speaker 4: you look in my response to Jake Roberts on Twitter,
Speaker 4: what did I say? I said, Jake Roberts was probably
Speaker 4: the most creative when it came to character and story
Speaker 4: in the history of the business. So I'm not gonna
Speaker 4: sit there and rip you because I know exactly what
Speaker 4: you're trying to do. I think it's sad and pathetic,
Speaker 4: but at the end of the day, I am going
Speaker 4: to put you over because I don't have a problem
Speaker 4: with you, Jake, So you could say whatever you want
Speaker 4: about me, because I understand why you're saying it.
Speaker 1: I feel like you're such a likable guy. I don't
Speaker 1: understand like all of this negativity that comes towards you.
Speaker 4: Because they're feeding into it. This is what this is
Speaker 4: what today's wrestling marks the dirt sheet writers. This is
Speaker 4: what they want. And what does Jake want to do
Speaker 4: at the end of the day. Come on, Francine, let's
Speaker 4: be honest. He wants to get over with aew because
Speaker 4: maybe I even think he's working there now I know
Speaker 4: he was, I don't know if he's on hiatus. He
Speaker 4: wants to get in good favor with them, So how
Speaker 4: do we do that. I'll just throw rocks and stones
Speaker 4: at Vince Russo because that's what they like. And you know,
Speaker 4: my thing is, bro Man, if you want to get
Speaker 4: back into the business that badly, bro, say whatever you
Speaker 4: want about me, Like, if it's that important to you
Speaker 4: to get back into wrestling, throw me under the bus
Speaker 4: all day long.
Speaker 1: I don't get it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna ask Jake anything past nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I think it's the point. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have one one final question for you, biggest misconception
Speaker 1: about Vincero's.
Speaker 2: Deep, very deep question.
Speaker 4: God, that's it's so that's hard to say because like
Speaker 4: I put it like, I put it all out there,
Speaker 4: I don't I don't hold any punches, like.
Speaker 1: I feel like you're not understood. You're very complex.
Speaker 4: I don't Branstein I think I'm very, very simple, Okay, Vince.
Speaker 4: Vince McMahon put me in a position. This is where
Speaker 4: this all started. Vince McMahon put me in a position. Vince.
Speaker 4: You have to get as many people to watch our
Speaker 4: show as possible. You have two hours to do it. Okay,
Speaker 4: that's it, period, Francine. I swear you Here's here's what
Speaker 4: people don't understand. And Francine, I don't know about your background.
Speaker 4: Here's people I don't understand. And if I hear this
Speaker 4: story one more time, I swear to God, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: puke in my own mouth. I had a dream. Oh,
Speaker 4: when I was five years old, I dreamed of being
Speaker 4: in the main event of WrestleMania. I had a dream, Francine.
Speaker 4: When I was writing in the wrestling business for WWEWCW TNA,
Speaker 4: it was not a dream. It was a job. It
Speaker 4: was a It's no different than what I'm doing now.
Speaker 4: It's no different than when I own video stores. It's
Speaker 4: no different than when I worked for CBS Publishing. I
Speaker 4: had a job. And no matter what job I'm in,
Speaker 4: you're gonna get one hundred and ten percent from me,
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna do the absolute best I can. So.
Speaker 4: It wasn't a dream. I wasn't a mark for the business.
Speaker 4: I wasn't so thankful to be there. I had a
Speaker 4: job to support my family. And that's what's so hard
Speaker 4: for people to freaking understand that, Like, I wouldn't have
Speaker 4: killed for a job in the WWEE Francceine. I got
Speaker 4: hired first as a freelance writer, and then from there
Speaker 4: the editor got fired. I got the editor's job. Television
Speaker 4: writing wasn't even on my radar. It's not something I
Speaker 4: wanted to do. They were paying me sixty grand as
Speaker 4: the editor of the magazine franccene I thought that was
Speaker 4: all the money in the world. They moved me to Connecticut.
Speaker 4: I was able, you know we're talking about now, Back
Speaker 4: in ninety five, I was able to support my family
Speaker 4: on sixty grand. I was made. I had no inspirations
Speaker 4: of writing TV and being the head writer of Raw
Speaker 4: and writing in limousines with Vince Ruth, with Vince McMahon.
Speaker 4: You think any of that crap ever caught crossed my mind.
Speaker 4: Shit happened because it was supposed to happen. Everything happens
Speaker 4: for a reason. All that stuff was supposed to happen.
Speaker 4: But people can't fathom this wasn't my dream. This isn't
Speaker 4: what I lived for, paying dues and all that bullshit.
Speaker 4: It's a freaking job, man.
Speaker 1: Ninety nine percent of the boys in the business had
Speaker 1: this dream they were two years old. Like I'm like you,
Speaker 1: I kind of fell into it. I never I didn't
Speaker 1: even like wrestling until I was nineteen years old. Like,
Speaker 1: I didn't watch it my whole life. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a mother. I was playing with dolls, yes, when
Speaker 1: I was, you know, ten years old, saying one of
Speaker 1: these days, I'm going to be a mommy.
Speaker 3: That was my dream.
Speaker 4: That was my fau because you because you were normal.
Speaker 4: You were normal.
Speaker 1: I'm still say I'm one of the most normal people
Speaker 1: that this business tried to corrupt but did it yep,
Speaker 1: because there was so much temptation and it just wasn't
Speaker 1: my pay Yep. You know, thank God. I thank God
Speaker 1: every day for where I'm at and what I have,
Speaker 1: and I am probably one of.
Speaker 3: The more normal people. You know, we're all a little
Speaker 3: little tiny.
Speaker 4: Bit wacky, right of course, but.
Speaker 1: There's way more wackier than I am, right, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And like for the years. I want
Speaker 1: Like I thought I was gonna be married at twenty
Speaker 1: I wanted five kids, right, you know, I wanted this
Speaker 1: nice house and I didn't get that. I didn't meet
Speaker 1: my husband until thirty four. Now I have two beautiful children,
Speaker 1: I have a great husband, I have a great home. Like,
Speaker 1: this is what I dreamed of wrestling, right, I get
Speaker 1: where you're coming from.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I gotta. I got a degree in
Speaker 4: journalism and I wanted to write. I got the job
Speaker 4: as the editor of the WWF magazine. Oh great, this
Speaker 4: is this is all that I wanted. But it's like
Speaker 4: when this isn't when this isn't your life, like twenty
Speaker 4: four seven, Like they've got a problem with that, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, my god, this will always be a job
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 1: Man. Yeah, yeah, well I'm not kissing your ass because
Speaker 1: you know, I like you. My favorite time was in
Speaker 1: the nineties. Lots of the things that you wrote I
Speaker 1: was very entertained with. I've said it how many times
Speaker 1: I don't watch the current product. I watch it when
Speaker 1: I need to. I watch clips of my friends, and
Speaker 1: I watch things that we have to report on. But
Speaker 1: I was a die hard fan. What drew me in
Speaker 1: was most of the shows that you worked on. So
Speaker 1: to me, that was when wrestling was at its peak
Speaker 1: and it was very entertaining, and that's when I would
Speaker 1: sit there for the three hours and enjoy the whole ride.
Speaker 1: You know, now, I don't have the willpower to sit
Speaker 1: for three hours.
Speaker 4: Ye you know what it is, I swim to god.
Speaker 4: It really dawned on me, I'd say about a couple
Speaker 4: of weeks ago, and Francine, I swear to God, Chad,
Speaker 4: if you start looking at it this way, it really
Speaker 4: becomes much more understandable. Okay, And I've come to the conclusion. Listen,
Speaker 4: I watched the shows and I rip the shows every week.
Speaker 4: And here's why I ripped the shows because I say
Speaker 4: to myself, bro, when that show is over, there is
Speaker 4: no way in hell you can look in the mirror
Speaker 4: and say I did the absolute best that I can.
Speaker 4: It's lazy booking. Everything is drawn out. They're just trying
Speaker 4: to fill three hours. But then I finally came to
Speaker 4: the conclusion because I noticed, like Franccene, TRIPLEH was making
Speaker 4: like just so there were so many mistakes that was
Speaker 4: like wrestling one one, like so many just simple stupid mistakes,
Speaker 4: and as a guy that worked with Triple H and
Speaker 4: respect to Triple H. I'm sitting here and I'm saying, Bro,
Speaker 4: this guy came from Killi Kowalski. He can't he Bro.
Speaker 4: I can't sit here and say Triple H is an
Speaker 4: idiot and doesn't know what he's doing. But there's no
Speaker 4: other explanation because the things I'm talking about are elementary.
Speaker 4: Then you know, as I'm pondering this, Fricine, I come
Speaker 4: up with the answer. I think in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4: Right now, it's this simple. I think the WWE are
Speaker 4: looking at themselves as strictly content creators, and it doesn't
Speaker 4: matter if the content is good, if the content is bad,
Speaker 4: if the content doesn't draw ratings, none of that matters.
Speaker 4: Because now you know, with streaming services and you know
Speaker 4: SmackDown was just picked up by USA and now they're
Speaker 4: shopping raw. They are content creators. I don't think they
Speaker 4: care about that content because come on, Francine, at ECW,
Speaker 4: you are around some of the greatest talents in the
Speaker 4: business that are still talked about today when you turn
Speaker 4: on their show, I swear to you fifty percent of
Speaker 4: that roster has no business being on television zero. You know,
Speaker 4: they're never gonna get over. Nobody's ever gonna remember who
Speaker 4: they are, so why are they there. They're there to
Speaker 4: create content. That's all they care about. So when if
Speaker 4: you can start looking at it through that as through
Speaker 4: that aspect, it really explains why you're just not getting
Speaker 4: good television shows anymore.
Speaker 1: I love your honesty. That's that's the one thing I
Speaker 1: admire about you, Vince. You're You're just honest to a fault.
Speaker 1: And I appreciate you coming on and giving us your
Speaker 1: two cents about the business these days because I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: And you know, Francine, like I can talk for all
Speaker 4: three of us. Here's the one thing that bothers me
Speaker 4: about that concept, Francine. This is your show. Chad's producing
Speaker 4: your show, he's your co host. This is my show,
Speaker 4: this is my podcast. Listen, man, when my name is
Speaker 4: attached to anything, I want it to be the best
Speaker 4: it possibly can. I don't care if people love it
Speaker 4: or hate it. I got to be able to look
Speaker 4: at myself and say, Bro, you gave it, your role,
Speaker 4: you did everything. So here's what I'm talking about, Francine.
Speaker 4: One word pride. What's your freaking pride. I don't care
Speaker 4: that your content creators, your name is on this? What
Speaker 4: happened to your pride? Because I'm sure chat and Francing
Speaker 4: you don't want to put anything out there that shit.
Speaker 4: And I'm sure that if you thought it was shit,
Speaker 4: you do it over. I've done that. I've recorded shows
Speaker 4: on my own that I thought were shit that I've
Speaker 4: done over. So like that. That's the one thing is like, bro,
Speaker 4: whether your content creators or not, your name is on this,
Speaker 4: where's your pride? That's all you have.
Speaker 1: To end with that because we can't say no more.
Speaker 1: They tell people where they can find you on social
Speaker 1: media and what to sign up for.
Speaker 4: Yeah, guys, I'm just I'm just going to tell you
Speaker 4: one thing, man, because again, it's the holidays, Black Fridays,
Speaker 4: every weekend, so we have a deal right now. If
Speaker 4: you've never been a member of our Patreon, you could
Speaker 4: see it right on the screen. Just go to patreon
Speaker 4: dot com, forward slash russo TWC and sign up for
Speaker 4: your free week.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you so much, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 1: I think you're a three timer now, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he came on once then he co hosted when
Speaker 2: you were sitting and then this would be number three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've done a lot of good business to get
Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure speaking to you, sir. I have
Speaker 1: the utmost respect for you, and uh, everybody go over
Speaker 1: to the brand and sign up because this man knows
Speaker 1: what he's talking.
Speaker 2: About, and I will have their band give you my best.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on. Merry Christmas, Happy New.
Speaker 4: Year, and to thank you guys, have a great.
Speaker 2: Take care.
Speaker 1: He's look that that hour flew by, and there were
Speaker 1: so many things that he touched base on that I
Speaker 1: just feel like was groundbreaking.
Speaker 2: Got Oh I got a big one.
Speaker 1: You're marking it down.
Speaker 2: Oh I got a big one I got We also
Speaker 2: need a bro count, we need a bro counter.
Speaker 1: Yes, But I've always you know, I always see people
Speaker 1: pick at him, and I just always had the utmost
Speaker 1: respect for Vints because he tells it like it is.
Speaker 1: And again, you know they always say there's two sides
Speaker 1: to every story, mine, yours and the truth. Right, he
Speaker 1: just seems like he's just telling he doesn't care at
Speaker 1: this point, Like he said, what's he gonna lie about
Speaker 1: something that happened twenty thirty years ago, like, who cares?
Speaker 1: You know, you give your side and that's that and
Speaker 1: I respect that about him. He doesn't seem to care
Speaker 1: if he pisses anybody off by it either, you know. No,
Speaker 1: So he's very entertaining. To this day, he's.
Speaker 4: Still on it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember, you know, growing up, you heard the name.
Speaker 2: You know, you heard he was Vic Venom who wrote
Speaker 2: in the magazine. You know, when he was on TV
Speaker 2: sometimes he did some commentary. You heard the first shoot
Speaker 2: interviews by Cornett where he buried him, so you got
Speaker 2: a perception of who he was, and then you heard
Speaker 2: the jump to WCW. He became an on air character
Speaker 2: and Bill this great heel persona that carried into what
Speaker 2: the real guy was. And until you can find out
Speaker 2: who the person is, people have still associated that perception
Speaker 2: from the nineties to what he is today and I
Speaker 2: can't fathom that now. Preparing for my first interview with
Speaker 2: him in twenty sixteen, that's where I started to really
Speaker 2: see who he was as a person and completely changed
Speaker 2: what I thought because I was like, Wow, this is
Speaker 2: a this is a completely different man.
Speaker 1: He's such a nice man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a nice he's a family guy. I'm not
Speaker 2: even talking about the faith stuff and his beliefs. He's
Speaker 2: just a dedicated, hard working dude with a family who
Speaker 2: was dedicated to his craft and he just wants to
Speaker 2: put out a good product. And he's just been a
Speaker 2: complete misunderstood person in terms of his job. Now the
Speaker 2: heaves and stuff. I mean, it's easy to go after
Speaker 2: that kind of personality. So I have no dog in
Speaker 2: the fight as to who he's fighting with or whether
Speaker 2: he's right or wrong, or they're right or wrong. But
Speaker 2: it's it's.
Speaker 1: Interesting to hear his side, and he's a pison, so
Speaker 1: you know, I like that about him, and.
Speaker 2: I've always said I think that's a lot to do
Speaker 2: with the fact that he gets a lot of hate
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: Why because he's Italian.
Speaker 2: Just the New York aspect of it, it's very misunderstood.
Speaker 2: It can be taken the wrong way. Fish out of water.
Speaker 2: I'm in Virginia, I'm from New Jersey. It's a fish
Speaker 2: out of water. I can I get it.
Speaker 1: I didn't do any preparing for this, Like every question
Speaker 1: just popped in my head as we were speaking, and
Speaker 1: I'm glad I thought about the dark dark side of
Speaker 1: the Ring episode because like I said, as I was
Speaker 1: watching that, I'm like, man, they are double teaming him
Speaker 1: and just trying to destroy him, and that's what that
Speaker 1: show does. Like he even said it, you know he
Speaker 1: was blindsided the first time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was.
Speaker 1: It's always interesting to get his take on things, so
Speaker 1: I always appreciate him coming on. So that was a
Speaker 1: very very good episode. I thought, they're all good on here.
Speaker 1: What can I say? We give you the best content
Speaker 1: out there.
Speaker 4: So I content hotness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cizlin lit as the kids would say. But Chad,
Speaker 1: what do you got going on? How can people follow
Speaker 1: you on social media?
Speaker 2: You can follow me on X on Twitter at Chad
Speaker 2: E and B. You can go to my website is
Speaker 2: ibexclusives dot com, Instagram is at ib Exclusives. I just
Speaker 2: want to encourage everybody to head over to our YouTube
Speaker 2: channel and grab a membership. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. I'll let
Speaker 2: you give the big pitch. But that's what the focus
Speaker 2: is right now. So yeah, that's all I have right now,
Speaker 2: but I'm sure there'll be more coming in the near future.
Speaker 2: The year is almost over, and I think, like you
Speaker 2: said earlier, twenty twenty four is going to be a
Speaker 2: huge year for both of us.
Speaker 1: The YouTube has blown up or one video is almost
Speaker 1: at twenty k, which is amazing. That's a million I
Speaker 1: give my thoughts about you know, tell me Sitch sentencing
Speaker 1: and we're gonna probably hit twenty k within the next
Speaker 1: couple hours on that one. But we need your support.
Speaker 1: I want to get to ten k by the end
Speaker 1: of the year. And it's amazing how many people watch
Speaker 1: and are not subscribed. So go over to ecwdva freecceine,
Speaker 1: hit that subscribe button, ring that bell so you get
Speaker 1: the notifications. It is free, it does not cost you anything.
Speaker 1: If you like additional content. For five ninety nine a month,
Speaker 1: you can have a channel membership and that gets you
Speaker 1: exclusive clips that no one else can see except for remembers.
Speaker 1: So that's something to dive into. But again, just if
Speaker 1: you could just subscribe, that would mean the world to me.
Speaker 1: And if you want to follow me on social media,
Speaker 1: you can find me at ECWDVA Free Scene. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: change my outro line. I hope you were staying safe.
Speaker 1: I hope you were staying healthy, and most of all,
Speaker 1: I hope you were saying streng