Episode 494: Bruce's WWE Return

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Make it happen today at SaveWithConrad.com. Hit on December 2, 129, Equal Housing Lender. Welcome to something to wrestle with. Welcome to Rev-a-Wil. Birds, prejudice, who's richer? Well, you know that's not a riddle. But revs, no you haven't been. There's no box of gimmicks. Rumor in your window. No deal in rumor in your window. And was he there? I was there. There's some of us. I don't give a shit. Well, there's something to wrestle with. Something to wrestle with. Something to wrestle with. Bruce Prichard. Hey, it's Conrad the Mortgage Guy, and you're listening to Something to Wrestle With Bruce Prichard. Bruce, what's going on, man? How are you? Is that your new last name, the Mortgage Man? Yeah, Conrad the Mortgage Guy. Come on now. Maybe that's the trademark. I never need to hit up Dawkins. All right. Don't get hot. No, I'm not hot. What's up, Conrad? Conrad the Mortgage. Wow. Conrad the what? I don't know. Since I heard Conrad come out, I was like, well, I don't even know where to go next. Well, I know where we're going. We're going to have the Mortgage Guy. We're going to go back to the very beginning is what we're going to do. You know, way back in 2016, I convinced you, I believe in my living room here in Huntsville. Hey, what if we did a podcast? Oh, I thought you were going to talk about trying to get me to try that damn horrible ass white barbecue sauce. Oh, I didn't try to get you to try that, but you did. No, I don't even eat that. Well, I know you didn't eat it, but you tried to convince me to eat it. Well, this is Alabama creation. So I thought maybe you'd want to try the local fare, but you did in fairness. In fairness, I did. You did love those wings, ribs, and turkey. Those are your favorite. I did like that. Yeah. Well, way back when we were talking about doing a podcast, little did we know that, well, I think I didn't know what one was. Oh, well, we figured it out and it blew up and little did we know it would lead to you having some opportunities to work in the pro wrestling space again. But when we first started doing the pods, you thought you were done with wrestling forever, right? I was. That point, I didn't think I was. I was done. Done. Never, ever to return anything. Ever, never. I said never and I meant it. Why did you feel that way? Why were you so steadfast against returning to wrestling or entertaining ideas about working in the wrestling space again? What got you to that point? Well, man, after so long of doing one thing and. Had a dream. Yeah, I had a dream. I had a dream as a kid. I want to be a wrestler. I want to be in the wrestling business and wanted to do what I do and very one dimensional, very, very tunnel vision and I accomplished that. I did that. I accomplished an awful lot in the wrestling business and I loved what I did after being out of the wrestling business. I felt as if, well, wrestling didn't want me and I got to the point where I convinced myself that I didn't want it and in the middle there comes never. So there were no offers coming in. The inquiries that I didn't make were met with, oh yeah, we'll see about that. You will talk about that and they all came back to, yeah, now that worked for us, brother. So I moved on. I had moved on and convinced myself that, you know, this is it. Not not going to do anymore. Not not even going to try to put myself in that space. And that's where I was. We never spent any time talking about this on or off air, but I do when I ask you, you mentioned that there were some inquiries that you made and maybe they weren't met with the response you were hoping for. Can you tell us about those for those inquiries to WWE, to TNA, to other places? Well, they were a combination thereof. I think that there had been overtures from WWE to come back and do some things that sometimes and they always seem to fall apart at the end. I, you know, TNA, I was done with TNA and I didn't feel that any of the infrastructure in TNA was going to be conducive to me coming back. And as I've said before, love Dixie Carter death. I think Dixie's a wonderful, wonderful person, but I wouldn't want to work for her family ever again. And that was, that one was me. I didn't, I just didn't want to be in that infrastructure that was set up at that time. So, you know, those were the two big ones. I had inquiries from everybody under the sun, man. There was the guy that called me from his plane and telling me that he was going to have live professional wrestling every week on all three networks, simocast. And I'm listening to this and I asked the question, so wait a minute. Where is this going to air? He said it goes all three major networks, simocast. First time in history, any television shows ever been able to do it. We're going to do it. They've signed on. We, they had Kevin Nash, they had Jake the snake. They had all these guys that were all affiliated with it and helped make the deal. And it was done and he just needed an executive producer and wanted me to come on board and help and benefits and all these different things. And, um, Yeah, that one didn't, I know it sounds shocking, but the, the wrestling on all three major networks going on a Friday night or whatever night that it would be, just never really materialized. I'm tongue tied today. I need more caffeine. Did not materialize very well. And, um, who to thought? Who to thought? Yeah, I know that was shocking, but I heard from all the guys. Every time that there was a smidgen of smoke or somebody saying that they were going to start a wrestling promotion, man, I'm going to have my own wrestling promotion. We're going to run live events all over the world. We're going to do TV live all over the world. We're going to do this and we're going to do that. They were, I was going to say 99%, but 100% of them were all just talk. And none of them ever came to fruition, but they got a lot of people excited and there were probably folks in the wrestling business involved on what some side or another, that probably got some money out of the people. And, um, if they had any real money to speak up, probably got smartened up to the fact that I don't think this is going to work pretty quickly. Tell me about the WWE exchanges you've had. Were you reaching out to Kevin Duhlan directly to Vince? You know, through someone else? How was that process prior to 2016? I mean, look, I texted with Vince, um, all the time and we kept in touch on a personal level. And, you know, from time to time, he would ask me, what'd you think of this? Did you see this? What did you think of that? Um, every WrestleMania, I would just text him a note, hey, great show. Um, he would text right back, you know, which again, always flabbergasted me. But the things of that nature, and there were offers to come and do some of the raw reunions and things of that nature that just never really materialized. Well, we know you do get an opportunity. Well, we know you do get an opportunity. I think at first to work with MLW and then later TNA in 2016, was it MLW in 2016 and then TNA in 2017? Or do I have that backwards? No, I think it was impact in 2017. January. I don't know. No, was there in summer? Wasn't it? I remember no idea. Maybe it started in January and then I left in the summer when we took off because we started in, I don't know, but it was 2017. Yeah, I remember being, I was checking into the hotel in Texas to go to the Royal Rumble when you had called and said that you had just spoken with Jeff Jarrett. Now, that's an interesting timeline because we had covered some of the topsy turvy-ness that existed in TNA and our episodes on TNA are actually one of the things that helped get us, I don't know, raise this up a level or two. I think our first really successful, like sort of shockingly successful podcast was about the radicals. Correct. Then the TNA episode one and then later episode two just eclipsed everything we'd ever done before. I think Jeff Jarrett around that same time was being courted by. You didn't want to do the TNA one. Well, correct. I didn't want to do the TNA one because I was wrestling one. Yeah, I was wrong on both of those. Jeff Jarrett though, who was once on the outs on the outside looking into TNA, now he's being brought back in under Anthem. We had covered all of that and I don't know that we've ever really spent any time talking about how that call came to you. So let's set the stage here. We'll call it January of 2017. We've covered the TNA episodes in late 2016. The internet's talking all about the turbulence that exists there with Dixie Carter and Billy Corgan and there's a lot of financial stress. And then all of a sudden Anthem purchases it and one of their first calls is apparently to Jeff Jarrett. And Jeff calls you. How does this go down? Yeah, Jeff called me and just asked me what I was doing and if I would be interested in coming in. It was a soft hard fell because he knew what I didn't want to do. And what I didn't want to do was I did not want to be involved in the creative and I did not want to be involved in the production in any day-to-day operation of dealing with talent or any of that. So his idea was one of to bring me in strictly as a talent. A non-air character is a figurehead for them. And that was it. That was the pitch. So my come back to that was okay, you know, as long as you're not asking me to come in and produce things and do all this other stuff because I'm a little fried there. And I just didn't at that point in time, the podcast was starting to hit a stride and it was starting to do well. I was enjoying what we were doing here. The other thing I was working four hours a week. Yeah. So it was things were turning around. We started looking at, okay, wow. Wow. You guys finally talked me into doing a live show, which going backwards, the live shows, man, the first one being in Orlando for that WrestleMania in Orlando in 17. Yeah. The anxiety and terror and dreams every night of walking out on stage and having no one there. Oh, God. So I was very paranoid and very anxious about doing live show and then it sold out a couple days. If that and I was like, okay, all right. Well, of course it did. It's WrestleMania. I had every excuse in the world why we didn't sell out. Why it was just they didn't have anything else to do. They couldn't get into this. They couldn't get into that. And then, you know, we saw that the JRs was still on sale and he hadn't sold out and ours was sold out. I was like, okay, this is all right. Then the guy from what's the let me look up here. It's got to be up here somewhere. Come on, though, the play Gramercy in New York City called. Oh, yeah. In Orlando and made an offer to me. So would you like to come to New York with your show? Could you do it? We got 1200 seat all here and think it would be perfect for your show. I'm a big fan and would love to have you here. And we did that that sold out quickly. And then we added a second show that one sold out. I was like, oh my God, then everything else just started started rolling along and we were able to to kind of put it all together. And so things were rolling and I didn't I didn't want to on the the TNA impact side of things. I just wasn't looking for a day to day gig because now I'm doing live shows, but they're my live shows. And I truly enjoyed that. And then the opportunity to be on TV. This character to be able to plug the podcast, be able to wear my stuff, to wear the shirts and everything that we did. It was it was pretty, pretty exciting. So yeah, I took it. And then of course, as soon as I got there, Jeff asked if I wanted to sit in on the production meeting. And selfishly, I did from the standpoint of a talent, getting to hear what they were looking for storyline wise in the show. So I had an idea how my part fit into everything else in the show. And I didn't have to try to memorize everything day of. So I did that. And then the guys I hung out with were, you know, Pat Kenny and Al Snow, and they had to go to the host TV meeting. And so I would go to that just kind of sit there again so I could hear what they like. What didn't they like? What are we going to do tomorrow? And so on and so forth. But I did not I did not produce talent and I didn't I didn't really have the responsibility to do it. But Jeff did come to me and ask me for ideas and help and just what I thought of certain things. But that was the most fun that I had had in a long time. Just be just being a talent, not having to worry about everybody else's stuff. All I had to do was show up, do my bit and go. And and got paid, got paid very well for it. So it was a nice gig. Really was. Fellas, you already know what time it is. It's time to level up and Bluichu just dropped something crazy. I'm talking next level championship belt gold plated energy. Bluichu Gold is the newest innovation from the number one chewable E.D. brand. And this ain't your grandpa's little blue pill. This is the four in one beast that's setting the gold standard for performance. We're taking two ingredients for blood flow to keep that rocket pumping. Mixed with apomorphine and oxytocin to turn up the arousal and the connection in both your brain and body. Bluichu Gold dissolves under your tongue and it works in as little as 15 minutes. That means you can get it on quicker and stay in the game longer. That's elevation without hesitation. This is peak passion and peak performance all in a single tablet. Forget Netflix and chill. This is Netflix and Phil. Make your life easier by getting harder and discover your options at best. Get 10% off your first month of Bluichu Gold. That's promo code wrestle at Bluichu.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Bluichu for sponsoring the day's podcast. I remember that Jeff treated you really great. I remember retelling me that and it was surreal. I remember being in a comedy club here in Huntsville and fans who were at the taping sending me pictures. The original one before Dave Silva was even with us and making our graphics on the big jumbo trine. It just felt surreal. And then to see you on TV wearing a sport coat with one of our silly pro wrestling T-shirts that we had farted into the microphone and thawed up was silly and unbelievable. But I do want to ask, this is the first time you've really had this sort of character previously in the game. You know, this is the first time you've really had this sort of character. Previously, we've seen you, you know, as a television performer as a heel. But to be this sort of neutral, I don't want to say baby face, but the GM type character, that's not something you had done before. Was that fun for you? Sure. Yeah, it was fun. You know, look, I'd never consider myself on on screen or anywhere else as a baby face. But it was fun being able to just go out and portray a different character. It was a challenge for me as well, because I do have very heelish tendencies in every aspect of life. And on screen is absolutely no different. But yeah, man, it was fun. It was good. And I got free reign with it in many respects. So to that, I enjoyed it. And it was, like I said, it was a challenge to do that because it was different than anything I had ever done before. I absolutely love this version of TNA because it's a story of perseverance. You know, I mean, I think a lot of people felt like this company was on its deathbed, but now Anthem is here and they're going to try to breathe new life into it. But part of that is going to mean servicing a bunch of old bad debt and trying to dig out. So old double J and Ed had to be sort of strategic about how they were doing their tapings. It's not like they're doing live TV every week. So they were doing like marathon sets of tapings to help make some of those costs. And I think it was the scheduling that really led to your on-screen time with TNA coming to an end. Would that be fair to say? Yes. And the days of the week that they chose as well, they were in Orlando at Universal Studios. Normally, all of those tapings took place during the week. Well, when everything hit with us on the podcast, our live events were on weekends. And just economics of it were, okay, I can go do one day in New York and make more than I'm going to make in five days of the impact tapings. Right. So I would rather forego the five days of impact tapings, not that they weren't fun. And go do New York. And then, you know, the second New York show comes up and we did the Jimmy Seafood show. We did the show in St. Louis. And everything was really starting to hit and hit big. And it was, all of a sudden, went from, yeah, I got four hours a week to play and do this. But I'll go over here and do this for a couple of days and make, all of a sudden, it became, I've got a schedule again. And I wouldn't mad at it by any stretch of the imagination because I enjoyed being busy. And I enjoyed being busy. I also enjoyed leaving my house at 11 o'clock on my bike and heading one way 30 minutes and then turning around and coming back and getting an hour of cardio on my bike and the trails in my neighborhood every day. And then walking into the pool and get some sun for a couple of hours and then go in and maybe watch something for the podcast or do something and play with my dog, go to dinner. And that was my life every day. Simpler times, huh? Yes. So what did you think of that version of TNA in general? You know, they're still trying to find themselves in a post-Dixie Carter era and really hit the reset button. What do you think of the product overall? Well, they brought in a lot of young talent. They brought in a lot of unknown talent that had previously only been on the Indies and Jeff had done something with his global force wrestling tapes somewhere else. And so it was some talent that I had never been exposed to before. And it was kind of nice to see some of those guys. It was a hybrid mixture of previous impact, TNA impact talent, and also some Northeastern independence, some West Coast guys. So it was a good mixture of talent that was there that I, again, I'd never been experienced. I never maybe are exposed to. And I just, I enjoyed that. I enjoyed working with kids. I liked seeing the next generation of talent out there because I didn't get to do that anymore. And so I thought that they were moving in a good direction as far as knowing their role and knowing their place and understanding that they were going to have to build all over again. They lost a lot of talent to NXT. And this was not, this was a rebuild for them as a reset and a rebuild. The Anthem guys really, really didn't know, really had no clue as far as what to do. And you know, Jeff, Jeff had his own demons during that time, but Jeff did have a vision of what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it. So it's, it's sometimes what happens is when you, you have done this before to whatever level of success that whenever you leave and then you come back to it, you want to do it the same way you did the first time. Because however much that worked and or didn't work, it was like, okay, well, that's how, what I know how to do. And I think that we got caught up in that a little bit. Well, this worked last time instead of how can we do this new and different and be completely different than what we did before or what anybody else is doing. And, you know, it was what it was, but for me, my experience in it, I had an absolute blast. It really did. It was fun. Now, we know that when you're on screen rolling as the, I don't know, general manager of impact at the time comes to an end, they do a handoff with Jim Cornette and he's going to have a stint there. How did that go? Did you get to spend any time with Corny? I think at that time, you guys were still pretty good friends. Right. No, the, the, the whole idea behind bringing Corny in was knowing that I had this set of shows that I couldn't do. It was five shows. Told them I couldn't do those because of the New York commitments. Right. So the idea was let's bring Cornette in, bring Corny in as the interim, like fire me. Let me get a little bit more healish. Let me get a little bit more selfish and bombastic, if you will, and then have Corny come in, fire me, then let Corny get a little power hungry along the way till it ends up with both of us in power in October. I think it was bound for glory or whatever that they would bring me back. And then Corny and I would have a rivalry on screen. But we shot the the firing to get me off TV. And the other part of it was, was a blow up with Karen Jarrett and Karen and I did, and did a scene backstage that was supposed to play into that as well. But then Karen and Jeff were gone and then everybody was gone and Corny calls me and says, well, I guess we're done. So what do you mean? They told me we're not, we're not coming back. We're all fired. I didn't talk to anybody yet. Then I called Ed Nordholm and asked him and he was like, well, or yeah, or I called Bob Ryder first, why don't I call Bob Ryder first and and ask Bob and he said, I got to talk to Ed. So I called Ed. So listen, man, if you don't want to use anything anymore, that's cool. I'll move on. Just send me my release. And while on the phone with Ed, I emailed Bob Ryder saying, Ed said, send me my release. I got my release sent to me. I printed it out. I signed it and I scanned it right back to him to Ed and to Bob while I was still on the phone with Ed. Oh, wow. What a great story. And I thanked him very much for everything. And I said, I appreciate it. If you ever need any help in the future, you got my number. Give me a call. But I didn't want to, you know, I was like, I didn't want to have a, and it was, I didn't really have a contract. We had an agreement. But in that agreement, it was, I think, for a period of time, I think it was a year. And I said, I don't want to be held to this contract anymore. And it's your choice to let me go. And unless you're going to pay me for the agreed upon dates, then I'm not interested. And I'm not going to hold you to it either. So I mean, I could have held, I probably could have held them to pay me for dates. But they didn't, you know, they were trying to cut money. They were trying to make cuts and move on and really streamline. So they didn't pay me anymore and just release me. And they did on the spot. So it was very cordial, very easy release. Then I did some stuff with MLW for a while. And the same thing. It's just my schedule just prevented me from doing any more with them. How did that come to be? Did court call you? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. And he was just that because he was working with, who was the other longtime WWE guy he had behind the scenes, Basil DeVito or someone? No, no, Alex. Alex Greenfield or something. There was somebody else too, though. No, I don't think so. Okay. But but they called me and asked me just to come in and help them with TV and what have you. And like I said, it was, it was something to do. And there got exposed to a lot of different talent as well from, you know, the Matt Riddles, the Jacob Patoos, just some of those guys that, you know, MJF and what have you that had something. They had something, but they also had such little national exposure. You know, it was a down and dirty thing. Really down and dirty. I don't know that it was the best run company in the world, but I had, I had fun. I had fun because the responsibility wasn't on me. I came in to help them fulfill their vision and what they wanted to do. I wasn't coming up with it. All I was doing was helping them produce it and consulting with them and putting things together. So it was, you know, they were on a shoestring budget as well. That's interesting. So you sort of drew the line with with impact based on I just want to be a performer because I don't want to have to deal with all that. That's more of a full-time job. And then you're not going to be on air here for MLW. So you think, okay, I'll help produce your idea, but coming up with an idea is, is, and managing all that is much more full-time thing. Just book me to come in that day and help make what she wrote come to life. Is that right? Exactly. Okay. I didn't want to, I did not want the burden of trying to come up with weekly television show every week. And I didn't want to have the burden of trying to keep the storylines together or anything else like that. I came in, what's your vision? What do you want? Okay. Here's the way to get there. And in the end, I was putting matches together and things of that nature. And, you know, it was, it was simple. It was fun. And I didn't, I didn't get into the machinations of the every, the everyday running up the company. Didn't, didn't concern me. I don't even think I ever saw a completed television show to this day ever. The rumor in any window is that, you know, MLW is respectfully an independent promotion. So they had independent payoffs. And as the story goes, there's at least one wrestler who had a little bit of name value who said he would only take this what he, he considered a low per match payoff. If you were the agent producer for his match, because he would consider it a learning experience. Do you remember some of the guys who were there trying to pick your brain and say, Oh, I want to work with Bruce. Was that a thing? Cause I could see how a young talent would really want to pick your brain. Yeah. Look, there were guys there that would, so for example, we stayed at the Clarion and Orlando. Yeah, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. Nobody else did either. But it was a shithole. And we use the entire complex, if you will, is, is a set. But like my office, let's call it that, was the front lobby. And I would sit in the couch in the front lobby and many ways hold court. And those that wanted to come and, and, and talk business and be able to go over their stuff, I was happy to do it. For the same reasons as impact, it was young, hungry talent that were willing to listen. And even, you know, some, some old timers and stuff that went, when we did the, they did a Royal Rumble type match and laying that out. That was something I did 100% by myself. And, you know, in the middle of it, I'm going, Jesus, man, you know, this is harder than I remember. Well, sure it was because I used to do it with Pat. And I just have to do it. And so I, you know, I pulled in, I pulled in different heads and got different ideas from folks. But the way it was laid out, Conan was in it. I'll never forget Conan. After I laid out the whole thing, because I did it in sections. So you got 30 people, I only met with 10 at a time. Okay, first 10. Give me those. All right. Now give me the second 10. And now got rid of all them until we were down to, to the last 10. And, and laid it out in a different way because it was only me. And Conan afterwards, pay me, well, I thought it was a hell of a compliment. He goes, I'm not seeing anything like that. He said, I've never seen anything because you had it all in your head. And you didn't waver and you clearly laid everything out for everybody, even where to stand in the ring. I was like, that match I lived for like four days. Because, but it was a challenge. It was fun. And had guys that wanted to do it and they listened and I thought they did a hell of a job. That was, was one, I think J. K. Grier won it. I don't even remember, but no, no, Tom Lawler won it. But it was again, it was, it was a good group of guys. It was. All right. I don't know if we've shared this on the show or not, but I came home from an out-of-town trip. Hey, I was at Wrestlecade. And when I came home from Wrestlecade, I had another dog. Yeah, Megan got a little dog and boy, he is tiny. He fits in the palm of my hand and she's nicknamed him little daddy. Little daddy. So right now I'm trying to figure out how to live with little daddy and ginger and baby. And I got to tell you, my dogs, ginger and baby, they tend to itch and scratch and lick at their paws and shake their head. Maybe they've even had itchy ears. I kind of thought that was normal dog behavior, but I've been doing some research on little daddy and how to best take care of him. And I'm learning these are actually signs of allergies. You see allergies and dogs flare up when there's bad bacteria that takes over the gut because 90% of your dog's immune system lives in their gut. I didn't know that. But just like humans, dogs need probiotics or good bacteria to strengthen their gut health and calm and overactive immune system. 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I sat at the pool one night with Matt and drank a bunch of beers and just talked to him and kind of figured out I compared him a lot to CM Punk as far as being misunderstood and people not really getting who the hell Matt Riddle was. I didn't get the bro thing and talking to him, okay, I got it. But you have to spend time. It takes time to do that. It takes time to really understand that MJF was walking somewhere and he goes, where are you going? And I'm going to lunch. Can I come sit with you? And would just sit and pick my brain. So there were young, young, hungry minds, Tom Lawler, I had a lot of respect for, tough son of a bitch, but he always just wanted to learn. And I thought he was a great guy and just all of them. We asked him at Penton Phoenix and saw them and was like, holy shit, this guy's different. So it's, you know, look, it's good to get away from your comfort zone and it's good to get out and be able to experience everything and feel it in a different way, man. It's like feeling it in a club versus feeling it in a stadium versus feeling it in an arena. And to see the guy who had no national exposure in Penta be able to walk out in a club atmosphere and just completely mesmerize that audience. It was like, wow, that's great. Sorry about that. I thought I turned that off. Oh, that's okay. Maybe it's Vince texting. Getting, hey, I do want to ask, you know, we're talking about some of the talent that you ran across in TNA and certainly in MLW, but would your impact experience, that have been the first time that you met who we now know as LA Knight? Um, working as Eli Drake then and an impact. I think so. Yeah. Um, I think I'd met him somewhere before. Okay. Along the way, but it was the first time I remember working with him. I don't know. I just think it's fun that so many of these names that you ran across between both of those experiences was Cody and impact when you were there. Cody was there for the first one or two shows. Cody and Brandi were both there and then, uh, then he was gone. It's just the leather jacket with a little fur collar and stuff. Yep. I remember that. Yeah. Dave Meltzer had, uh, claimed a few times way back then that he had talked to people who worked in MLW and we probably know who who said that both, that during both years in Cornette Stents, there were people who felt like Cornette was actually more in touch with modern wrestling than you were. Do you think that was a fair assessment of where you were in wrestling and sensibilities, if you will, in 2017 or 2018 or is that way off base? And that's just Dave Meltzer being Dave Meltzer. I think it's Dave Meltzer being Dave Meltzer, but I also think that it's people that, look, everybody has preferences and everybody has an opinion and they have their preferences. So they may like Cornette's way of doing things versus mine. Cornette and I have very different ways of looking at the business. And I would say that, that Cornette was probably a lot more in the past than, than I was. Uh, definitely was I connected with things that were going on in the business at that time? Nope. Sure was not. Uh, that's what they meant. Then they were correct. But I don't think Cornette was either. I wondered if they, you were doing things that quote unquote WWE way because yeah, yeah, yeah. Because by the way, respectfully, everyone who worked in Impact and MLW wanted to do things the WWE way because they wanted to go to WWE. So speaking of going to WWE, we should talk about how the MLW thing comes to an end. How do you wind down the MLW relationship? Pretty much the same way is the impact relationship because we started doing more and more live events. We weren't just doing them based around WWE uh, pay-per-view events. We started doing more and more and that cut into the schedule with MLW. I couldn't, I couldn't do those weekend shows for them and just needed to phase out and I was, you know, man, I was getting fried and we were doing, we were doing so well on everything else that I just didn't, I didn't have the bandwidth for it all at that point. Well, let me say this. I probably had the bandwidth. I didn't want to have the bandwidth at that point. Yeah, I get that. I mean, this is a time where, you know, not to toot our own horn, but the success of the podcast had blown us away. I mean, it afforded you the opportunity not to betray any confidences. You're able to pay your freaking house off, you know, so the pressure valve had been released. We could pop up shop a couple of weekends a month and do two shows back to back and before you know it between merch sales and podcast sales and Patreon and four live shows. Eh, let's stay home another weekend. Wasn't the worst. I mean, I'm looking up, you know, I've got all the passes from the shows that we did. Okay. Yeah. And each year, they, you know, we, we did more and more every year and that's not counting the international tours right that we did. And, you know, between Australia and UK a couple of times it, that's not even up there. So I would say that we probably doubled our live shows every year. Yeah, number of shows that we were going out and doing. So we were getting busier on that end and just, just doing more. And then somehow, some way you get a call and we've talked about this all fair longer ago, but you got a call from a two, oh three area code and what would be born out of that conversation is something else to wrestle with Bruce Prichard, which is going to premiere on the WWE network in April of 2018. It's going to be announced at WrestleMania 34. I remember you and I were both at the Hall of Fame and that had to feel kind of weird A to get a call from WWE B to be back sort of working with WWE, but not like you used to. How does all that get started, Bruce? You know, I'm trying to remember. It was, look, there were, you can go back to the impact call because there was a point in time before I went to impact that the WWE had shown some interest in the podcast and wanting to do a version for the WWE network. So those conversations had kind of been happening a little bit. John Layfield was a huge, huge reason because he kept my name alive up there and would talk on the network show that he was on with Corey Graves and they would drop our names from time to time. And listen, there were people in WWE that were listening to the show and they show and they thought there was something. But I got a call from early on. I think it was Michael Cole, but then later on it was Kevin Dunn who called me and asked me, you know, what I wanted to do. And I said, I'm doing it, man. I'm good. This is what you like to do, something on the network. I said, sure, we're open for whatever. And then it got into the idea of doing a trial. Firstly, just kind of wanted us to do a podcast on the network. And that was a little tricky with everything that we had as far as our contracts with, I forget who we were with at the time, Westwood Vaughn or Midroll. Bad sales were different. Yeah. Yeah. And it was going to create a weird dichotomy. So throughout the idea of what if we did a different version of the show. And they hated the name, didn't like something to wrestle with. And I said, well, how about something else to wrestle with? And I, for the first time with WWE, I was able to just hold my ground and say no. And say, no, well, okay, then we don't have to do it. Right. You called us. We didn't call you. And the ability to do that felt good. And we were in a place that what we had, we didn't want to lose. We wanted to protect that. So it was important to us to keep what we had. And the idea of something else for us with was that we could do a video version with video attached to it of some of our previous shows, our top rated shows to enhance those particular shows with video, but do a new version of it. And then it was like, oh, God, that's great. No, we could do that. We love it. We'll do it for 13 weeks. It'll be a trial. We'll see how it does. See if we want to do any more. And it was as if the conversation was going to end. And I said, well, let's get the compensation. And there was a bit of silence on the other end. And it was like, well, what are you looking for? Money's good. And the idea was that, you know, they thought, well, you're going to get all this exposure. Yeah. Also, we've got a lot of exposure. I mean, we're good with exposure, but I'll always take more. Yes. And, you know, to me, the more exposure was just the plugs on the weekly shows. Yes. And that was that was more exposure than being on the network itself. Of course. I really wanted that. But at first it was kind of sold as if, oh, you're getting all this exposure. And I'm like, yeah, but I do it for money now. And we eventually came to a good place. I thought we came to a real good place on the compensation for 13 weeks. But the issue became the 13 weeks blew everything out of the water on the network. I've seen the real numbers on those and know that that was the case. But the idea behind the network was to produce programming for the network, take what they already had and be able to produce that without adding any extra expense. Yes. We were adding a huge expense to the weekly network. So we did it for 13 weeks, did well. Again, we ended amicably. It was it was great. We'll move on. It gave us, it did give us exposure, but it also gave us a nice 13 weeks payday, too. So that was good. And and say, hey, look, we'll we'll kind of see what ends up down the road. Thank you very much. And we just continue talking. So it ends in the summer of 2018. And then we somehow fast forward to February of 2019. I'll never forget this. I get the call. Actually, let's back that up. Yeah, back out. We had some shows in November of 2018. I remember we were doing a live show in San Diego. And I think we did San Diego and Phoenix on the same weekend right before that was in January of 19. Okay, Royal Rumble. But you got back it up even further. Okay. This is a story I've never told. We were at Starcast. I remember this in a meeting. And my phone rang. And I always leave my phone open so you can see being there. She wasn't here with us in but I leave it like that. And then when call comes across, comes whole thing lights up, tells me who's calling. Right. And it was Vince McMahon. All right. The kid, you'll know who he is. There's a kid that he drove me to Cleveland after a show one time. I don't know. I'm terrible with names. But he saw my phone and his eyes got wide. And I said, you didn't see anything. And I take the call and I walk outside that was on the Saturday Stargate, Starcast. I walk out to call, Hey, how you doing? And he started asking me about conventions and what have you. And asked me if I would be interested in coming in and doing conventions for them. And I said, well, we're actually in the process of doing one this weekend. And he says, Oh, because you busy right now. I said, very. I said, All right, well, let's talk later. And call me back a few days later. How it goes. Great. What would you be interested in that for us? Love to talk to you. And left there. And nothing more came of it. Then we go to January of 2019. We did San Diego. On the Friday night, we did a dirty dozen on Saturday. I think I don't I'm probably on my day screwed up. But regardless, we were in Phoenix. Yep. That whole weekend pretty much. And I sent Vince a text, Hey, good luck this weekend. I'm in Phoenix. I understand you're going to be in Phoenix. Like get together, have a drink or something. I would love to see you. He said, Sure, come to the show. So yeah, I don't think I'm ready for that. Don't want to go to the show. So I'm going to be busy and trying to get over there. I said, but really, frankly, I feel a little strange. Don't want to do that. So he said, he goes, We'll just come by the hotel and come up to the room that way. You don't have to see anybody and and we can talk and what have you. So they finished the show. We're on West Coast time. So they finished the show early and he hit me. I'm going to work out. And then come on by say hello. So I went by said hello and probably got there about 1111 30. And we sat up in his room and talked about everything under the sun. Little bit very little about business. Other than really what I was doing. And we look at my watch is five o'clock in the morning. Oh God. And then my flight leaves in an hour and 15 minutes. I got to go. And I said, you got to get some sleep. I got to sleep. That's raw to do. Okay. So we had set up for about five hours just bullshitting. Just talking about everything under the sun, catching up. And as I left, gave him a big hug, shook his hand and thank him for everything and said, I love that we had this whole conversation and we spent all this time together and caught up. And I'm not asking you for a job. And I am more comfortable and more confident now that I know that I will never ever work with you again. And I'm good with it. Love you. Love you. Bye. I leave. Fast forward one month. Hang on. Hang on. Before we fast forward one month, is it fair to say that that was much needed? I hate to use this word, but was that closure for you on some level? Yes. Like you had some unresolved stuff and you needed to have that conversation to just make sure that you felt good about it. I mean, we don't talk about this, but something to wrestle in 2018 was well into the two comma money. So it's not like, you know, things are great and everything's good in your life and you got life like you like it. And as you said, you're working four hours a month and everything's wonderful. But well, you needed that, didn't you? You look, you said it. I was in the last two years doing the podcast. I was already into the, we were making more money than I'd ever made my career. Yeah. And so I was in a position where you didn't need it. Didn't need it. Yeah. And yeah, it was closure. It was cathartic. It was, and I think I owed him that. I owed him saying that to him. And your cell. What's that? And yourself. You owe it to myself. Yeah. You're right. And so in doing so, you know, went back and then a month later, February, they were in Houston for the elimination chamber. And Kevin, I think, called me first and asked me if I'm coming to Houston. I said, no, I said, I don't really want to. So man, I got to see Vince in Phoenix. It was great. He goes, well, you out town? I said, no, I'm in town, but not, I'm good. And he says, Vince really liked to see you. I said, okay, well, that's cool. I just saw him. I'm good. And then Vince called me. He says, no, he goes, I need you to come down. He goes, I got to ask you a question. He got me. What do you need? Ask me. He says, I need to, I need to speak to you in person. So now my head's spinning because the thing is, what did we say on the podcast that he's going to get my ass chewed out for? And showed up and, you know, if you know anything about TV, especially on a PLE day, it's crazy. And I got there and they had someone meet me coming in the building and pulled me right up, you know, right up to the back door and everything and had someone meet me and walk me right to Vince's office, went and got Vince and he came right in. Didn't wait, nothing. And he looked at me and he says, let me ask you a question. There's your wife, Miss Connecticut? I said, nope. How about you? You miss Connecticut? I said, nope. So let's try this different way. And he said, would you ever consider coming back? He says, I'll consider anything. But I'm pretty happy doing what I'm doing right now. And he goes, I don't want you to change your thing you're doing right now. I don't want you to change your thing. Have it all. All right. What do you have in mind? He goes, well, I don't know. Because, you know, we talked about, I don't know if you remember, but during the summer, we talked about conventions and all those things. God, Bruce, because you always had all the way back to the first ever fan fest thing we had. Those were all like, you were just so heavy handed and all of that. Then you've done this, we like to do this, we like to do that, blah, blah, blah. I just need head I can trust. All right. All right. As can I call you this week and discuss it more. So you can call me anytime you want. So he says, he goes, I'd love to have your opinion on the show tonight. So you want me to stay? I was ready to leave. I was ready to leave. But I stayed and talked to a lot of the talent and the crew and just everybody. You know, look, man, it's very few places where you feel at home. Within an hour, being backstage, I felt at home. And man, I sat, I sat in a gorilla, watched the last match and thanked them. He goes, I'll talk to you this week. It's okay. Left, went home. I really didn't, I really didn't think that much about it because in my head, I was like, I'm not moving back to Connecticut. Right. Not going to do it. I don't mean to cut you off, but I seem to remember we were in San Diego eating breakfast one morning and you would tell it was me, you and Silva and you had mentioned something like Silva wasn't busy doing something else. Surprise. I think Vince had floated the idea of you being like a consultant from home, like part-time, not stopping what we were doing, continue doing what you're doing, but just watch the shows and send them a note sort of thing. And you were even hesitant to commit to that because you felt like it was going to lead to something else. Am I making that up? Did something like that happen? That was post, that was post the UK tour, right? UK tour was in December. Because that kind of happened there. And what a wild UK tour that was. It probably was. You're probably correct. Yeah, but I was just my time frame. I know we did have a chat during the whenever you and I were over with Cody, remember? Which is so crazy to me to think about because it was December of 2018 and me, you and Cody spent every day together for a week hanging out. Little did we know. I mean, I guess he knew he was about to sign and go do something else on January 1st. But but now thinking back to where that was happening and what he was about to do and you weren't in WWE and now you guys are both together. It's a crazy story you and Cody. Little bit. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, we did. I guess maybe I didn't probably didn't. Take that all that seriously at the time. Yeah, to really file it. But when you say it, I remember I remember connecting when we were in the UK. And so that's probably the time frame of where he was, you know, come on, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? And then but but then the the Phoenix when we met in Phoenix face to face kind of to me, I threw everything else out through everything out the window. Right. You were done. I was not closure. Yes. And yeah, elimination chamber. You have that call or you have that visit. You watch the show. You felt at home backstage. You go home and then your phone rings. Yeah, sure did Wednesday early. And wasn't expected either. To be like actually on Wednesday. They got back from TV and early in the morning and it was. And you know, we talked and it was very similar to the very first time that I came in in 1987 and that there was not a true job description. And I really didn't care about job descriptions or titles or anything else. Now I just cared about the money. And there's also that ego and that that part of me like you talk about closure and and and what have you that it's just want to put in a box neat and put it over here. Yeah. So he may be an offer. And I had already told him exactly, man, I showed him what we were doing on the podcast financially. Yes. Yeah. And he's like, keep every bit of it. Keep doing it. Parameters don't talk about what we're doing now, you know, and what have you in the moment. Sure. I mean, he didn't even have to say that you knew that. I mean, yeah, no, I did. Exactly. But it was and I I did not. I expected him to say, come back here's what we could do. Things of that nature. I expected all of that. I I expected some kind of I did not expect the offer he made. It was substantial. It was substantial. You've told me this before. I don't know that you ever said it on air, but I know once upon a time when you had a conversation with him, I think it was not too long after you had left TNA. You had a conversation with him about maybe putting out a fee there to go back to WWE. And I think he asked something like, hey, what were you making or something like that? Can you pick up the Damn, that's a lot of money. Yeah. So it was making a lot more for you. But yeah. So it was it was it was a very good offer. It was it was enough that I walked into the house and and paste and talked to my dog for a while. And wife was at work. So I didn't want to bother her. And that night, well, hang on. Let me let me back up a little bit. I asked to see everything in writing. And it was almost as if I had insulted him that that I asked for everything in writing. Hmm. And I said, well, what would you do? And everything right, you know, get everything right. And I had everything in writing in 15 minutes. So every assembly block that I'm looking for, can you give me a reason to say no? You took away from me. And in writing, it was even better than it was on the phone. Wow. So I'm I'm I'm the only person I've talked to at this point is my dog. Because I got to talk to my family first. So I'll talk to Dodger for a while and everything. And Dodger wasn't happy about the cold, but he said, we'll do what you need to do. And then I remember my wife coming home and it had a bad day and was soaking in the tub when I went and sat on the little step thing there. And I said, hey, that's Connecticut. I said, nope. By the way, everybody listening because they don't know, shout out to Stephanie as we're recording, I believe today is her lovely birthday. I think she's 29 again. But yeah, she's from Connecticut, right? She's from Connecticut. Yes. And so I, uh, my yeah, I don't either. I don't want to go to Connecticut. And he made it very clear to me. I did not have to go to Connecticut. Right. I was in Houston, just native me, the TVs and from time to time come up to the office. You know, look, there were other things to weigh in, but I never had one of those offers. You can't refuse. Right. Okay. Just be told you can refuse anything you want to refuse, but it was an offer I couldn't refuse. And I accepted the offer and, um, the, that was on Thursday morning. Okay. I accepted the offer. They sent me something to sign. I was one pager to sign. I did that and then did all the background check stuff, all the normal stuff you got to do. And it's Thursday, then Friday, um, going to lunch and I get a call. Why can't you be in Atlanta on Monday? So do I, why can't you be in Atlanta on Monday? So I, I don't know that I can or can't. What are you talking about? So we're doing TV in Atlanta. So I truthfully, man, I kind of look at my schedule all day today because everything's at home. I don't know what I have this next week, but I can look at it. Great. Come to Atlanta. I'll look at it. Had lunch, looked at it. Didn't have anything for the next two days. So then they blew me to TV that Monday and Tuesday. I don't remember if I went to the office that week or not, but yeah, that's, and then I started. I was Ric Claire, 70th birthday that, that raw in Atlanta. I was actually on my way to his real birthday party that Friday when you called and said, Hey, I signed it. It's official. It's happening. And I remember looking out the window and hanging up the phone when we, when we finish and Megan looks from the back of the suburban and says, so that's good. Right. And I'm like, we'll see. And I remember talking with Cody at the time who's obviously doing something else in February of 2019 and he's like, what's the big deal? And I'm like, what's the big deal? Do you know how much money we were making on this freaking thing and just ended on a freaking phone call? That's the big deal. And he's like, that'll be fine. And it was fine. But yeah, it was a surreal deal to think that in a weird way, this little old podcast somehow began the road. Are you getting back to WWE? I mean, is that right? Yeah. Oh yeah. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. You could say that about, you know, going back to impact where we had done a show, you know, that some people would say is not favorable. It was honest, but it wasn't favorable. Some things were. But again, I didn't hate my time there. I just didn't care for some of the people. But everything that we did, you know, made people stand up and notice and then to be able to go back and kind of not to be cliche, but to be honest, I think it was a great deal. And it kind of not to be cliche, but finish the story was attractive. And, you know, it wouldn't have happened. It wouldn't have happened because it wouldn't have given people the ability to keep my name alive and to keep it in the conversation. And now I hate it. You hear a versus thing and what have you. They have people talking about it. And it was buzz around the water cooler. So the, yeah, it opened that door and was able to take it from there. So it was. And to keep doing what we were doing. Yeah. It was difficult as it was. You know, it was because I didn't know, man. I didn't know what I was getting into really. And I just thought, okay, well, you know what? I'll get in and find out. Man, I tell you, it feels like every single week I talked to someone or run across someone who had heard about some sort of new scam just a couple of weeks ago. My sister fell in love with something that sounded too good to be true online, put up a deposit. I found out about it the next day and I said, Hey, that might be a scam. It was. We all got to keep our head on a swivel these days. What we need is built in card security that keeps your money safe from fraud, plus the protections you expect. That's what cash apps all about. 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Let's talk about that. You know, you've said before on the podcast, when you first got hired with the WWF, that would have been 1987 and you didn't really have a role. It was just come up here and watch and learn. Yeah. And now you're coming back in 2019. Is it kind of the same thing? Just come watch and learn and were you observing your first day in Atlanta? What is your, what is your MO that day? What are you doing that day? Rickler's birthday. You know what we'll do is we'll talk a little bit more about this and then we'll do a part two. And we'll talk about that first and second day and you know, the weeks to come after that. But it was, it was a lot of the first time coming up was okay, I've got this kid that runs a wrestling office in Houston, sells tickets. He does PR. He runs the shows. He's also a talent on TV doing the weekly interviews for all the markets. Seems to have some creativity with all of his stuff. I don't know what to do with him. You know, we had an office building with three stories. I thought I was in a skyscraper and we're building a television studio. So at that point, there were a lot of questions as to where, where do I fit in? Plus, by the way, Joel Watts is coming too. So Joel is going to be doing the production stuff and Joel is going to be doing a lot of the TV and what have you. What do you like to do? Well, I loved it all. And in my mind, it was just okay. This is a little bit bigger office. It runs more than one show a week. That's how I kind of looked at it. And he had me sit with everybody in, I sat with the folks in the live event booking. I sat with the folks in PR and promotions. And I sat with the data analytics folks, which was a completely different than what it is now. You didn't have the same kind of data coming in. It was all done via fax and you're subscribing to things. But it was unknown. What I loved to do and I didn't know how to express it was produce television. I love to write and produce television. So they'd given me, they needed help. They needed guidance. They needed somebody to take a hold of all American prime time and the international shows. So I grabbed onto that and I loved it. And I loved it. So I'm writing all those shows, doing all the cable stuff, doing all the international stuff. That led then to Coliseum Video and doing all of that. And then Joel walks out in December and, hey kid, you ever run a TV studio before? Nope. Well, congratulations, you are now. So that's kind of how that one fell into place. With this, it's they knew. They knew my strengths. They knew, look. Vince knew day one. What the hell he wanted. And he wanted me back in the creative and doing all of that. I wanted to come back and I wanted to create a completely different experience, much like what you did with Starcast to blow that up in a completely different way. And to monetize it in a completely different way. I was looking at new. I was looking at, man, how can we create something new and different that the WWE hadn't really experienced? That the fan experience for the WWE had not really had any access to. But everybody else had access to other things. So that was my goal in coming in. Again, that all gets refined as we get into it all. But in initially, man, I had carte blanche to do all of that. And it just didn't, for many reasons, good, bad, and or indifferent. It I went back over here, you know, to TV. I went back to the creative. I went back to the consulting, if you will, of that side of everything in the business. So it's worth mentioning when you said it didn't happen, I don't mean to cut you off, but a year after you went back, COVID happened. Yes. All of the convention stuff that you and I had been working on. And we've talked about this, but there was supposed to be a Starcast in a WWE affiliated Starcast at SummerSlam in Boston. COVID happened and that was the end of that. So the world changed. So it's not necessarily that Bruce was working on something that didn't come to fruition. We had it. It wasn't possible. Yes. Right. We had it. Yes. It was there. It was done. It was moving forward. But it just, yeah, the world happened. Life happened and everything changed. Right. So when everything changes, you have to adapt and you have to adapt to your strengths and be able to do things. But, you know, in, and again, I know I'm skipping over stuff and we'll do a part two to this and to fill in the blanks here, but also in the interim of doing everything, I was going into the office every other week and airports were running me ragged. Yeah, they're shipped. I was absolutely exhausted coming home because, you know, just commercial air travel was brutal. So looking at all of this comment was made, you know, if you lived in Connecticut, you'd be in your own bed every night because you'd be on the plane and you'd go home every night. And thinking about that after that, whatever it was, March, April, May, June, July. Yeah, July, August, September. Yeah, it was eight months, nine months of commercial travel for me. Suitcases, hotels, travelways. Connecticut, it's the higher regency and just, man, I hated it. Absolutely hated it. So I, kids are out of school. Yep. Everybody's grown up. Is it that bad? And respectfully, I know you mentioned Stephanie's job earlier, but she was really volunteering to help animals. And so there's animals that need help in Connecticut too. So that was an easy sell for you. Yeah. Yeah. But it was a selfish move though for me because I knew I was killing myself. Yes. And I just was tired and I hated being in meetings on Zoom. And what was the other one besides Zoom? Whatever that was. But whatever. It's like teams. Yeah, all that crap. It's horrible. And I hated it. And because you can't hear, you can't feel the room if you're not in the room. And so I made the decision to move and came up, spent several weeks looking for places to live and found a place and decided to move. But we'll cover that in the next one too. But it was. Savewithconrad.com. Savewithconrad.com. Yeah. But no, not really knowing and not being able to define your role and not being able to even spend all the time in creative and or spend all the time over with the new business. It was all of those things. You know, everybody wanted to be the master. Right. So I had a lot of masters to serve and it was challenging to say the least. But we got there and figured it out as we went along. So it just was the title. All I know is I was a senior vice president. And then that changed in October to executive vice president and executive director. So yeah, it was even. It was just weird. It was your senior vice president of what? Right. So it was senior vice president creative was literally the title because it was creative, creating new business was creative, working in creative. So kind of you kind of covered that. And I don't want to cut you off, but the the observer reported at the time that you were essentially being brought back as what was described as Vince's right hand man. And when Cornette at a time when he had already had his falling out with you, you guys weren't on the best of terms. He said something like, well, Bruce is the right guy for that because Bruce speaks Vince. And I thought that was an excellent way to describe it that maybe if he had surrounded himself with a bunch of writers, maybe they didn't just have that shared history with Vince. And Vince could say something and you knew what he meant. Is that a fair categorization that once upon a time when you first come back, you were the right hand and that was the at least the initial idea and that you spoke Vince. Is that fair? That's fair. I mean, but also there was there was a way that I spoke to Vince that 30 plus years of relationship that I could speak to him in that way that nobody else shared that. Nobody else shared that. Just that relationship. So it was, yeah, I mean, that's, that's fair, but it was it was a lot of things and and and it wasn't just in in the creative. It was it was in the new business and in in different meetings. It was it was with the folks out in Hollywood and it was it was doing pretty much everything. So yeah, there were there were a lot of different things that I was involved in. So and and that and that escalated quickly. I know we're going to talk about more of this in the future, but before we wrap things up, I want to hit you with a couple of different quick ones. I know when you left WBWB once upon a time in late 2008, I know that there had been maybe some hard feelings or things left unsaid or I don't know, but it felt like at some point you may need to have a clearing of the air or a conversation with Hunter or Stephanie. Now, whether or not that's real is a different thing. That was the perception of the online fan that you had a falling out with those two and you needed to maybe mend fences. This is that real? Is that all rumor in any window or what was the relationship like when you went back with Hunter and Steph? Tremendous and you know, with with Steph, when you in the moment and in the time you you have feelings and you have emotions and you're angry and you're upset, you feel until you look in the mirror, you go, okay, you know what, I could have done better. I could have done things differently. And the hindsight that you can look at it through is I never missed a soccer game, a football game, a wrestling match, any of the stuff with my kids because I was able to be home. And there's not enough money in the world that could ever buy the stuff that you miss. With Hunter, and I've said it a thousand times on this show, I worked with Paul as creative when he was a talent. I never really worked with Paul on creative until this stint. And never had an issue with him. And again, guys, you can go back and you say I'm kissing an ass or whatever. That's to people who I think the only people would say those things are people that kiss ass or do that. I don't know because it's the one thing that I always used to tickle events so much was the old Bruce's, the yes man versus this. I was the one that always told him no. I was the one that argued with him in private and would argue and fight for a point. When we left that room, we were in unison. So I never had that opportunity ever to work with Paul in that regard. So any perceived hard feelings, I don't know where they would have ever come from because there weren't any. So there wasn't that opportunity to do that. Working with him is a talent for me. I loved it. It was fun to work with. So it's people want to create animosity and want to create all these things that simply aren't there because they've never been in that kind of a role. They've never done it. So they don't understand what comes with it. And yes, we are human beings. And yes, there are times when things don't go your way that you get angry and you get pissed and you're upset about things. But in order to grow, you have to be able to go back and look in the mirror and say, what could I have done better? What could I have done differently to have a different end result? If there are things you could have done better, then own it and go with it and move on and just get better. But you can't blame other people for things in your life because at the end of the day, the only one that is responsible for the things in your life is the person that stares back at you in the mirror. Things aren't going your way. Change the things you're doing. Change how you do them. And embrace it and accept it. Ask for help. So to that, it's one of the first things, and what Steph was saying was, thank you. That's from the heart. Because I didn't know what I was going to get at the time. And what I got was time with my kids that never in a million years, you can't replace it. And if you're a parent and your kids are doing activities and things, and whether it's a play, whether it's a dance recital or it's a football game, then those moments are precious in the single greatest moment you will experience in your life. Win, lose, or draw. And so I got to experience all that shit. And I'm forever grateful. So I wouldn't, you know, I don't know. Certainly wouldn't have had the opportunity to do this podcast. Right. Certainly wouldn't have had the opportunities to do live shows and do an experience, the other things I did. I think all those things are great. They're gifts in so many ways. In the moment when you're down and you're at your lowest and you feel sorry for yourself and you're pissed off at the world, it's the shits. Randy Savage always used to say, the higher the highs, the lower the lows. Yeah. If you want to feel that high, yeah, we got to be in that low. So yeah, man, I have some major lows. I have some major highs too, in many ways. But so I think I answered your question. There was nothing, there wasn't really, there wasn't any clearing of the air. We moved on. And look, and I had seen both, you know, prior to coming back. And we're both were first class and great to me in those instances. What's interesting is I heard from people in the business who just assumed that you and Paul Levec, their real life triple H had to be in odds because if you were brought back as Vince's right hand man, well, that should have been his spot. And they would tell me how you guys hated each other. And I would listen. And then I'd have a conversation with you, not on the air, but you would be sharing some of your experiences with them with me. And I'm like, I don't know, it kind of sounds like they're becoming best friends. I don't know that I necessarily believe all of this. They hate each other and they're at each other's throat. So I have nothing to hate them for. Right. And in all the times we work together prior to coming back. And look, I can't speak for him. I don't know. Right. But I do know how he treated me. Always treated me well. Right. So he's, uh, he was a top talent. And obviously married in, but if he had married Betty down the street, still be in the same position he is in today because he still has those qualifications. He still has that love and that desire for the business. And that's what I appreciate as well is we do share the same love and appreciation for the business, but always did. That's the thing. I that is 100% just rumor, gossip, people going, Oh, well, you know, yeah, it's simple, simply not true, not in any way, shape, or form. What was the biggest thing you noticed as we're winding down this, uh, very special episode of something, the rest of it, because we've never been able to do this sort of thing. What was the biggest difference from when you were there before to when you went back? I think I remember you saying something to me. This was a, this was very early on something like, Hey, when I left, this was a really big company, but it sort of operated on American hours. And now it is a global company. And it's like, you can't keep up. It is a 24 seven machine with offices all over the globe. Was that just the size and the scope of how much the company had grown? Was that the biggest change or was it something else? The enormity of everything, the enormity of everything and the enormity of how every single little thing that you do was magnified a thousand times globally. So what people would perceive, oh, I don't want to ask small little thing. Okay. So you don't want to be viewed by 15 million people over here on this platform because you think it's small. But it's 10 times or however many times the audience over here. Huh? So it's, it's just man, the company grew so much and continues to literally every day. And the way that just the way business is handled as well, it just was a new, it was just a whole new dynamic and so many different folks on so many different levels. And while it was 24 seven before it was, it was 24 seven times 10, you know, in returning. Now I feel like it's times 100, but it, it was just different. It was different. Well, we've had a blast hearing about your return to WWE. I know that a lot of people, maybe yourself included never would have imagined that it would happen, but something that Vince has always been pretty consistent about is he wants you to honor your word. And we were all privileged to be a part of your very last outside the WWE appearance, what's happened to be the very second star cast. Now the difference, of course, is the first star cast was totally independent because we were supporting Cody in the Bucks one off show. But by the time the second one rolled around, there was another company, but even then Vince allowed you to appear on stage at my independent event. That's not owned by another company. It's just our thing. And you got to do one last live, something to wrestle. And you got pretty doggone emotional. When, when, when you were talking to start the show about this being your last experience, and that feels somehow like yesterday, but at the same time, like 100 years ago, doesn't it? It feels like a hundred years ago. It really does. And, you know, it won't be our last. It was our last for the time. And, you know, everything, everything has a way of moving and growing. And that's the, I think that's the most important thing with everything and everybody is you have to continue to grow. You have to continue to just expand and grow and broaden your horizons, try things on, but don't just poo poo it and and oh God, man, most of all, Jesus Christ. Gossip rumor in your window or just that, just gossip. It's just, it's just it's just bullshit. And, and when, when you read and hear things that sound too ridiculous to be true, usually they are. Yeah. And, and that's look, that's the main thing. And, and there are, there are a lot of them out there and Dave Meltzer leads the pack with just, he looks at something and he think, well, what he should do or what he thinks will do, but he presents it as if he presents it as if it's fact. This is what they're going to do. And then if it doesn't happen, well, they changed it. I was right. They changed it. No, Dave, you didn't know you're a liar and you make things up. Understand that, that when you, when you look and you see the track record of, of so many people that when you play it all out nine times out of 10, it's, it's, it's wrong. And when they are right, it's because, well, thank you. You followed the story, you know. So that, that's just, that continues to be the, the bane of people's existence. I think it's getting less and less now and that people are understanding the lack of credibility that, that so many have when there is a lot more access to other folks that were in the game. Well, we appreciate you guys being a part of the game and, and tagging along for one really fun journey here on something to wrestle. I know it sounds like we're winding down the show, but we're just winding down this episode. We're going to be back next week. We're winding up. We're winding up and we're excited to be winding up. If you haven't already, tell a friend that Bruce is back. Go hit that subscribe button right now at something to wrestle.com. Turn on the notifications bell and be sure to throw us a follow at Richard show on X and if you would like to never see a tweet, be sure to follow Bruce at Bruce. Richard. This was fun, man. I never imagined we'd get to talk about this, but it's really cool to hear how you're back where you belong and enjoying things in WWE. Cool. We'll figure out part two, too. Part two is coming your way and Bruce, I don't know if you've seen, but we may actually have something else on the docket that I'm curious to see if you're excited to talk about. How do you feel about Vince Russo? I don't feel about Vince Russo. All right. Well, I don't know what that is, but hopefully that means it's something to wrestle with Bruce. Richard. Sometimes Jimi came along. Those were the best times down there. Yeah. Rock on. Jim came along sometime. Rock on. Have a great week. Before you cancel Bruce, he's not mocking a person with disabilities. He's mocking the fact that the sharpest dresser in WWE has yet to find a tailor. Shout out to Michael Hayes. We'll see you next week right here on something to wrestle. Rock on. Did you put Christmas on a credit card? Don't stress out about that extra holiday spending. Save with Conrad.com can help you consolidate all of your high interest rate credit cards into one much lower monthly payment. Save with Conrad.com has helped families just like yours. Save up to $800 a month. You don't need perfect credit or money out of your pocket. And did I mention no payments until March? So don't make saving money or resolution next year. Make it happen today at savewithconrad.com. End of lesson number 2129, Equal Housing Lender.