Local Hour: Mike's Gasket Gets Blown

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This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stoogats Podcast.

What an opportunity for me right now, Zaz.

It's right here in front of me today, Thursday.

I could go any direction I want because we're in the chair.

We could talk about football, unbelievable games, preseason, no one one cares.

I could talk about the Marlins, talk about baseball.

It's local.

Or I could play into Mike Ryan.

Let's hear it.

What do we got then?

I think I want to play into Mike Ryan because he's been, we had him on Nothing Personal.

He was a guest on Nothing Personal.

Oh, was he better than me?

I had a good appearance Tuesday, Mike.

Did you top me?

I did.

I don't like being topped.

You were bottomed.

Oh, man.

Because he gave us scoop.

Really?

I mean, tremendous scoop.

It turns out that Messi is coming back to Inter Miami on a 10-year deal

for $100 million a year.

Mike was so coy about it yesterday.

You wouldn't give us anything yesterday.

I don't know if he's going to sign or not.

I know that.

Like I explained to David on nothing personal.

Last year it was easier to scoop folks because the scoop was that Inter Miami was a very serious contender.

Now everyone knows that, and all that's missing is Messi to agree.

10 years.

Not 10 years.

That's me.

He's just making stuff up.

Play till he's almost 50.

That's going to look kind of rough.

I don't think so.

I think he'd be like damn good at 50.

Confirm Confirm then.

Why can't you just give us the story then?

I don't know if he's gonna sign within or Miami.

If I had to make a prediction on it,

this is not a report.

This is.

This is a spoiler?

This is not a spoiler either.

It's not Paula Heyman.

I don't know if he's gonna sign or not, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's more likely than not that he re-ups within Miami.

Okay,

no, don't do that to me.

That's more likely.

That's just...

Yeah.

Okay, look at me.

Confirming that that's your take, that it's more, you think it's more likely than not.

Look at going with that.

Look at me, Mike.

All right.

If he's going to sign with Intermiomi, don't blink.

Blinked.

I tell you this, the whole blink, no blink, it never works.

Oh, I think it just worked, baby.

You can't not blink.

That's why you always say blink if this is what's going to happen, because they're going to inevitably blink.

So that means everything's always just going to happen.

Well, if you want confirmation on what you want to report, just say that.

And you're like, oh, Mike confirmed it.

Don't blame me.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Mike blinked.

I wanted to beat my kids in everything when they were growing up.

Every time we played War or Battleship, I didn't care.

I wanted to win every game.

I couldn't win the, and you have to play it with your kid at one point or another.

It's the blink, the non-the staring contest.

First one to blink.

I assume if you have kids, you played it with your kids.

Of course.

I can't win those.

You're bad at it.

I have to blink.

You can't hold in your blinks.

I can hold in a lot of stuff.

I can't hold in my blinks.

I've never been able to.

Top five things you can hold in?

Right now, it's obviously my duodenum.

That's another number one.

That you start and end with that.

If you can control that, then you are victory.

Number two, I can hold in my opinions.

Going up.

All right, I like it.

Significantly.

Usually we go for dramatic effect five to one, but this is different.

Okay.

Well, this came out of nowhere.

All right.

This wasn't part of the prep.

Number three.

Number three.

I can hold my tongue.

Do you want to see how you do it?

It's not the circular tongue.

Anyone can do that.

Color me intrigued.

Okay, holding your tongue.

Keep your tongue.

You don't let your

tongue come outside of your mouth.

Exactly.

And it's hard to talk that way.

It's difficult.

Number four,

I can hold my girlfriend's pocketbook.

I have no problem doing that.

I just.

I still call it a pocketbook.

What do you call it?

It looks like a turkey.

A wallet, a purse.

Pocketbook is what my grandma calls her.

Pocketbook.

Unless your girlfriend's 90.

I think it's a purse.

Opposite of 90, not 9, I guess that's not.

I think it's not 90.

It's

not opposite.

I would like to, Juju, put that on the poll.

Is it not, does everyone now hold a pocketbook or a purse?

Do over-under of age of people that say pocketbook.

I think you could put that pretty high and that'll come in.

75.

I'm thinking.

Over 75 or older?

I'm not 75 or older.

I'm just saying, I think people would vote that most people who say it are 75 or older.

So I am comfortable holding her pocketbook, but not my own.

I don't do a merse.

I don't hold the merse, never have, but I do cargo pants instead.

The pocketbook age probably skews a little bit younger if you're Jewish, right?

I always was sure.

No, that's for sure.

I think so.

Confirmant.

So that, yeah, do we put that as part of the poll?

Confirm it.

Is there a side poll?

And the last thing that I can hold is I can hold a conversation.

And we are about to have one because Mike has had a day, a day where he's been, he started this morning very early for me, it's early, which was nice, but he's been very incensed about the WWE, who made a big announcement yesterday and then clarified the announcement because they got it wrong.

So all the talk we had yesterday.

It's been confusing because I'm way into the deal too, obviously.

It's a little confusing what I'm going to have to pay is what we're talking about here.

The $29.99 that we talked on the show yesterday that you got to go out of pocket, apparently you want WWE.

You don't need the $29.99.

I thought it was wrong.

But Mike,

you're questioning whether or not that's actually the case.

Yes, because...

The press releases were wrong and the initial reports were wrong.

And as of right, it was initially reported that if you have YouTube TV, and I know Ariel Hawani is very plugged into WWE.

He said on his show, if you have YouTube TV, you're good.

That's not the case right now.

That deal points will have to be worked out I have YouTube TV and Xfinity right now I'm not grandfathered in I don't know if my current bundle plan for ESPN Disney plus Hulu gets me that I don't know if I'm paying extra you see by the way Disney plus and Hulu are merging yeah I it was already fully integrated I know how this ends it ends with me losing and paying more That's how it always does.

That's how it always ends.

It doesn't end with a bargain.

I can't remember.

It doesn't end with me paying the same amount that I'm paying right now to be able to enjoy the same thing.

That's not how this business works.

I can't remember a story that I've read more about that I know less about.

Like I've read multiple articles and I still have no clue.

I'm with you.

I have Hulu Plus live TV, but Hulu's going away.

So now my TV is going away.

So do I sign on to Disney to do that?

And then they're like, well, that'll be integrated into Fubu or Fubo.

And I'm like, so now do I need to go to Fubo?

Do I need to get clothing wear from the 1990s?

Like, what the hell's going on here?

So, like, I think now I need to go to Fubo that's owned by Disney, but then Fubo carries my RSNs but didn't have a bundle with Disney Plus.

So now do I have to have a Disney Plus subscription, even though they're owned by Disney?

And now do I get my RSNs back?

So then do I cancel that subscription?

And what the hell do I do about red zone?

Because that's still very unclear to me.

So it appears that what you're all angry about, and we tried to cover this yesterday, is what the facts are.

I thought where Mike was going is he was upset not about whether he's going to get it or not, but the fact that you could do a release that could be that unclear, that wrong and done as a result of the ESPN NFL release right they wanted to get that done so people started to see value in the DTC but then they had to announce wait a minute we don't want to make people pay for the DTC wrestling it's 27 hours later at this point since the release came out and I think we're all still pretty unsure of what's going on.

I'm more confused now than I was when the release first came out.

Well, because when the release first came out, I think we thought, oh, wow, we got to pay $29.99 a month.

Now we're not sure if that's the case.

Guys, I've never understood this new standalone service ESPN is standing up because in my mind, they already do have one of these.

That's what I thought.

I don't understand.

I thought I had that.

I don't understand you.

You're talking ESPN Plus?

Yeah.

Yeah, but there's like a different service that they're trying to stand up that this and Red Zone are a part of.

I thought I had that.

I thought it was ESPN.

I thought I did too.

I don't think I don't know if I have that or not.

The messaging is so bad.

And these companies have come out and announced these things before they've been approved.

Remember, ESBN, HBO, and Fox were all getting together and they had already announced it.

They even had a name for it.

And then it's not happening.

Oh, yeah, it's going to be like some super channel, you know?

Right.

Right.

But then what ends up happening is, no, we're just going to keep doing our own thing.

And instead of bundling this all together, which by the way would have been a new service anyways, what happens to your existing service?

Those are still around too.

You pay for those too if you want to watch maxion you you pay for this if you want to watch wrestling i don't this sucks yeah this really sucks and also for these services for you to get all the games you also need to have cable too i knew this was going to happen to the industry they were going to find a way to con us everybody was talking about cord cutting and how how espn was in big trouble because now people are going to be paying for stuff that we they it was baked into the business plan people were paying for espion when they when they weren't watching it now i'm paying for ESPN 17 different times.

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Hey, it's Jeremy here.

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Hey, it's Mike Ryan.

Those sprinklers are starting to slowly come up on the football field.

Time that we have with summer is dwindling.

I'm sure you're already doing that thing where you're going through your photo album, flipping through the photos that you've taken this summer, already reminiscing about the good times that you have.

I know I did.

And in many of the pictures that I went back to reminisce over, I had a beautiful white can of Miller Light in my hand because I love making good times during the summer a Miller time.

And it's a good reminder.

We're losing time on this summer.

So why don't you share the moments that you have with a white can of Miller Light like I have, whether it's a long weekend or a full-on vacation.

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Don Lebatard.

This is largely performed today.

We need to establish on some reasonable doubt.

Yes, exactly.

He got himself top.

He's still reasoning

top, everyone, with this pain story where he pays more than you do.

Stugats.

I always like leaving Daniel Stugats.

Because he's so vulnerable, I just unfairly fade down the chickens to just leave him by himself.

This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats.

Is it just me, or you know, I look over to David out of the corner of my eye and like he's got a smile.

Like, I feel like David, he's excited about all the ways that we're going to have to look jubilant right now for this service.

He loves

all the new rules that make it impossible to cancel.

I'm not the only one who noticed that, right?

He's smiling.

He loves it.

I'm smiling because I'm with you guys and I enjoy it.

But what I'm also smiling about is the sporting class, which we do with John Skipper and Paul Latoria Finds Out, where we've made it very clear from the beginning that all of this, and we've been doing this for years, all of this was done with reckless disregard toward you, the fan, the audience.

You were always going to pay more.

That was always the joke.

And now it's happening that you're all realizing it.

And the tweet of the year, I don't know if we do this, but a candidate for a tweet of the year is someone who just tweeted.

Do we do a tweet of the year?

Do we do that?

We are now.

This is a high-like tweet for me.

Someone found out very much you, Billy, and it wasn't you who did it, but...

I didn't get the tweet of the year.

Damn.

You did not because you didn't tweet this, but it was someone who was channeling you because they were so despondent over the bundling and everything they had to do that they said they're going back to cable.

They're going to re-tie the cord.

Yeah.

Reconnect.

Reconnect.

I have it pretty bad because I'm a soccer year.

I'm a big-time soccer fan and big-time soccer fans in this country.

If you want to follow that sport, you have to pay thousands of dollars.

Thank you.

And you never know when they're playing and what league they're in.

You have to pay thousands of people.

Man, the time zone.

Oh, my gosh.

You have to pay thousands of dollars to follow this sport.

I'm convinced.

Someone may put the math in front of me and say, actually, it's only 749.

No, I pay thousands of dollars annually to follow this sport.

I have to.

And they got me.

They got me over a barrel.

I don't even know how to cancel these things.

I tried to cancel the zone the other day.

I'm locked in for a year.

I canceled it, I think, but I canceled it a year from now.

What is it?

This is stupid.

This is corrupt.

And what I hate the most about it is people just come out and say things that are so, is this standalone service even?

Is this functional?

Do I have it?

Does it exist?

Is this something that's going to be announced later on?

What is this?

Okay, so that's the part that is confusing.

All right, but

I have to...

I'm fairly certain the bundle that you have right now, it's ESPN Plus and Disney Plus and Hulu.

It's now going to be Disney Plus and Hulu, which are merging, and you partner it with the new ESPN direct-to-consumer app.

And in that event, you already have that.

Like, you're now going to be getting the WWE on that service that you already have.

I'm fairly certain.

If he pays $17 for that bundle

and ESPN's just $29,

now, does he have to pay $30 or does he have to pay $47?

No, no, no.

My guess is it's going up.

So you're going to have to pay the $29.99 instead of like $17.99.

I don't want to do that.

Cancel Peacock.

Huh?

Cancel Peacock.

I don't want to cancel Peacock because I want to watch more islands.

And, by the way, there's an old WWE network that's not a part of this ESPN deal.

Yes.

We don't know about NXT.

Yes.

Peacock may still have a hold of it.

If I'm a wrestling fan, I still may need to have Peacock.

And I'm already stuck having Peacock because I'm a Chelsea fan.

This is...

This is horrendous.

I have an idea for you.

The Lord's cable network.

Yeah.

Well, it's funny that you say that because yes the lords cable network i feel like i feel like yeah it used to just be cable yeah it was a place where you go and you have everything boy i went i have to go from this app to this app to this i wish i had a place where we have everything together yeah it's called cable but you know you didn't i just want to remind everyone because this revisionist history makes me smile the reason why these streamers started and why you all were so angry to start with was the tiers and the fact that you weren't getting on basic cable all the things you wanted to get and they were moving channels up to tiers that were costing you way more money.

And you were getting a cable bill that was like $250 a day.

I would kill to pay that right now.

It's cheaper.

I'm more than I would pay now.

I would kill to pay that right now.

That is so much more affordable than what I'm paying right now.

I honestly have no idea what I pay.

I got soldiers.

No one does.

I have no idea by a thousand products.

That's the design.

That's what they're counting on.

Who do we blame?

We can't rise up.

We can't rise up.

We can't do anything about this.

We were talking on nothing personal about how fans over in Europe, if you raise soda prices 25 cents, they will shock your shit down.

They blew up the Super League.

I don't know.

They don't know.

They will make sure that you do not raise the price of sodas 25 cents over there.

Here, we're so battered and beaten by the system.

What's the fees?

Okay, I still want to see Taylor Swift.

Whatever you tell me.

Yes, Ticketmaster, I don't care.

This is the only way I can do it.

Well, we're going to make you pay $500 more to watch hockey.

Okay, I guess.

I have to.

We're so beaten by this system.

We were price gouged.

No one's fighting for us at all.

And these things just keep getting announced.

Whether or not they exist is

outside of the fact.

This is bullshit.

We did it.

And TKO.

TKO.

A strong word of warning to TKO.

Go on.

I like your product, but you keep doing these cash grabs ever since you became this entity.

You're going to push people to an alternative because every single one of your cash grabs

ends up making the consumer pay more whether it be for your live events that are outrageously priced or now your PLEs you're good you're definitely going to make me go to 17 different streamers to follow your product I know where to find AEW it's one place one place people are gonna people are gonna search for that alternative that's not entirely accurate way turner don't get away it's on it's on max okay which is now hbo max but you still have to go to an app to get there potentially

yeah but it's also on your basic cable package the premium live events the premium live events look they've always come out the gate saying, we're going to stick to the traditional pay-per-view model for wrestling.

I mean, that's essentially what WWE is doing here, but it's on ESC.

No, no, no.

No, WWE had that model, and then they changed it to $9.99 a month, and then it's in Peacock, and it's free with your

Peacock subscription, and now it might be anywhere between what you're paying now for Disney Plus or $30.

This is 176%

price increase on wrestling fans.

Well, I mean, pay-per-views used to cost like $49.99 a month month if you wanted to see them.

So it's still like.

Per event.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

There was one event a month.

You didn't have to watch everybody.

And

here's another bone.

Well, people then, when they changed the model, then it became $9.99 a month.

And then it became like, well, if you have Peacock, you can watch it anyways.

And Peacock was like $3.99 a month if you picked it at the right time.

Peacock is like, if you pay more than like $4 for Peacock, you're a crazy person.

You can find a deal on Peacock always.

Right.

Shout out to Peacock.

Here's another bone I have to pick.

I like the AEW product.

I pay for their PLEs because they have a track record outside of maybe two in their history that haven't delivered.

If you pay $49.99 or whatever.

That's usually a fun show.

It's always a fun show.

Not the case with WWE.

Get a handful of really good ones.

And WWE's long-term booking is everything centered around WrestleMania to the point that everything around the year, outside of a surprise appearance, which I guess the Brock Lesnar thing makes a hell of a lot more sense before this announcement as a means to get people excited.

But everything is basically revolving around WrestleMania, which makes the entire year relatively predictable.

So I'm not going to pay extra for their PLC.

Oh, it's going to get to that point.

Look what WWE did, which they didn't catch nearly enough shit for.

They announced that WrestleMania was going to New Orleans, which I love as a WrestleMania city.

That is so fun.

Then they pulled it back.

They're like, guess what?

We're not going to do New Orleans, but New Orleans, you get a shittier pay-per-view.

Aren't you happy about that?

And wrestling fans, you're going to love this.

We're going to go back to Las Vegas.

No, I'm not.

I'm not going to love that.

No one wants to go to the same city twice in a row.

I'm not trying to go to Vegas.

Everybody's trying to go to Vegas.

They just want to do the Vegas thing back to back because it's all on one stretch.

And so they could do their little cash grabs around, oh, we'll have a Hall of Fame here.

We'll have

a roast here.

We'll have a nightclub hosting here.

It's basically TKO Central over there.

They have the infrastructure and it just maximizes their revenue.

And they they don't care what it's done to their fan base in New Orleans.

They don't care what it did to their fan base on the whole because no one's super excited to go back to Las Vegas.

They like the traveling roadshow aspect of it.

This is a dilution by pretty heavy degrees, and it's going to catch up to them.

Mike, are you okay?

No, I'm pissed off.

Wrestling fans are very passionate.

This is not him.

We've struck a chord here.

It's not about wrestling.

This was just the last two minutes of that.

I believe he just blew a gasket.

I think I watched a gasket get blown over this issue.

Well, it's about greed is what he's doing.

This is greed.

It's very clearly greed.

And I think wrestling fans can put up to that, put up with that to a certain degree.

But it's month over month of new cash grab and everything becoming more expensive as the economy dips.

They're asking to stretch your dollar even more.

There's an alternative right there.

You're pushing people to an alternative.

It's going to catch up with you.

I mean, I'll tell you, David, my weekend in New York, seeing SummerSlam this past weekend,

I'm afraid to look at what it cost me.

I know I spent a lot of money.

I'm afraid to look at what that bill was.

Most people keep track.

If they don't live in a Zaz mansion.

I think what you need, Mike, I have an idea, and I don't know if it's kosher, but I'd like to try it.

I think that I know how to calm you down.

I think you need to take a smelling salt.

That's on how smelling salt.

That'll do the opposite, I think.

I think that boy, I thought that clears your, I thought it gives you more oxygen.

It literally jacks you up.

Yeah.

No, but don't you, that's like when you give a Ritalin to a person who doesn't have ADHD.

It has a different view, a different take than someone else.

I'll do that too.

You should do some calming cocaine, Mike.

Is that a thing?

Yeah.

If you take a lot of cocaine, I believe.

Just less cocaine?

I think you should be taking more or less of certain things depending on your plight.

And your plight right now is a little out of control.

I've never done a smelling salt before.

I don't, I don't, I mean, clearly, the effect that it kind of

wakes up your senses, right?

That seems to be the

Sasha Barkov.

He loves it on the Panther Bench.

I'm very much in control.

I'm passionate.

This has really been,

because it's a mainstream story, because the ESPN joint announcement that announced a whole bunch of things that don't either actually exist or were lies or haven't been worked out yet.

This is the first time that I've been able to speak about all these things that have been bothering me for several months.

And I think it's been bothering a huge segment of wrestling fans too.

The product had been good enough the previous year where people were like, okay, well, if you're going to make this experience that much better, because WrestleMania 40 was one of the greatest ever, WrestleMania 41 was terrible.

It was, no, no, no, it wasn't disappointing.

It was friggin awful.

You want to run that back?

And you just want to do the lazy writing where we all know where this ends a year from now?

I'm going to be out, man.

And if you only had a microphone every day for four hours.

I don't have the microphone to talk wrestling.

Okay, I don't think you're going to be out.

Like, I'm going to call bullshit on that.

I'm not going to watch every PLE.

I'm not.

If I have to pay additionally to watch every PLE, I'm not.

I'm not.

Okay, so let me let me ask you.

I needed to be explained to me that I'm not.

Okay, okay, so let me ask David here, okay, because from a business perspective, you're not in those rooms, so you don't know, but try and help us out here because the big issue that Mike has,

an issue that I have, because we don't know, is we don't know what we're paying.

We're 27 plus hours later.

We don't know if we have to actually pay $29.99 a month now to get these WWPLEs.

And we were previously only paying, what,

$14.99, whatever it was for Peacock.

Yeah, because on Peace.

But Peacock Billy said Peacock can be.

You pay $14.99 for Peacock?

Well, yeah, because you got to get the good tier.

But here, so here's my question.

Oh, because you don't want commercials.

Right, yeah, come on.

So here's, I don't have time for that message.

You're a baby.

I don't have time.

Do you want to sit through commercials?

I don't have time for that.

I need my show streamed to me directly.

So here's my question.

Are executives in a room, you know, for WWE TK or whatever, are they actually saying, all right, we're going to charge $29.99 a month now, which is double, at least double what people were paying before as a business model.

Are they actually saying

that?

We think that this is going to work.

They will pay double.

Here's the thing that you guys are misunderstanding.

It's called value and there is elasticity of demand.

Peacock is a great example.

They've got such great programming that there are people, everyone's got deals, whether it is when you go buy clothes, whether it's online, you get emails, buy this shirt.

No one buys this shirt at retail.

Oh, I'm not leaving Peacock whatsoever.

Peacock has enough things to even.

I'm not going to be able to watch Peacock, which has all these opportunities where you have a value proposition.

I'm talking about the value proposition of what you get for your money, whether it's to watch wrestling, to watch Chelsea, to go shopping, to do what, to watch a movie.

All you're supposed to be doing and all we want you to do as a business and as a media company is to view what we provide to you as value and it's up to you and the people will talk but the way you're talking you you're you're forgetting the fact that the people have talked

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Don Lebatard.

Stugats.

Happy Cup Game.

And Epwha.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with with these two guys

I am not espousing the virtues of Vincent Kennedy McMahon, but they used to run house shows and markets where they knew they would lose money.

And they did this well after it stopped making sense.

You know why?

Because they wanted the product to be accessible to everyone in their fan base and they thought that it helped their bottom line as a brand.

They have totally, essentially wiped out house shows.

Why do you think that is?

Because they lost money on it.

And they only care about the big markets.

Whoa.

Right.

Because I think it also has to do with, I mean, like, the performers.

Performers weren't super happy.

Their lives are.

It's a great thing for the performers.

It's a great thing for the performers.

You know what else would be great for the performers?

Health insurance.

And a union.

But they're not getting that either.

Don't work for me, brother.

Right.

Exactly.

That's another part of Hulk Hogan's legacy, that he busted up Jesse Ventura's union attempt.

What I'm saying is, I'm I'm sure they have these board meetings, and I'm sure there's more than one voice.

Let's give them credit.

This is going to make our fans pay more.

I know, as a wrestling fan, I've paid more to follow WWE specifically over the last few years since TKO came into the equation.

And what I'm saying is, while Zaz is probably right, that I will look at the product, I'm a lifelong wrestling fan, I'm going to pay.

And ultimately, you as a capitalist, David, you'll be like, well, they got you.

Okay.

No, that's, hold on, Mike.

That's where you're wrong it's not that I got you it's that you made a decision and you're gonna keep making that decision until it's not even anymore there will be a number where it won't matter that you like it well and our job is to get right to that

product also has a say because while I'm a lifelong wrestling fan there have been plenty of times that my interest in the product has dipped because the product did not match the the time or effort or money that it would take to continue following the product.

They flirted with that line last year and they they had a very good summer slam.

It looks like they're going to be aggressive about ramping things up so they're not essentially a one P L E company.

I'm very happy about that.

But there are going to be plenty of people that

of different means that are going to have to make decisions and be like, I can't afford to follow this anymore.

And like I said, it's a dilution by degrees.

We saw it initially with the Saudi Arabia stuff.

I think that that's kind of waned a little bit, but this company has continuously made decisions that are based on the almighty dollar when this was, whether you believe it or not more of a fan-friendly company than it is now and it's hard to disagree with a lot of what he's saying i i couldn't disagree more with almost 100

they are not as fan-friendly as they used to be they are not they are flatly not but they will that they are fan-friendly enough to fans who are spending the money that it makes sense for their financials they are absolutely trying to get a more affluent fan everything from the jelly roll integration the the celebrities that they bring in dude 110 000 over the weekend They sold the building out.

It's worked.

It's working.

And I think even as a sucker that is going to pay more, I'm telling you, I'm going to pay more.

I'm going to follow this product.

I also think that we all have the right to say, yeah, I'm going to pay more.

You got me.

I'm not happy about it.

Why does everything with this company have to be

a money pump?

What company does things where it's not a money pump?

Arizona Ice T

Arizona.

Okay.

It's like the only one.

Educate me.

99 cents forever.

So Arizona and I've I've never had an Arizona iced tea.

Am I the only one in the room?

I haven't either.

I don't drink ice tea.

I don't drink iced.

How do you know what the price was then?

Because it's a thing.

They've always refused to ever go above 99 cents.

And is the can size the same?

I'm not getting political, but it's like the tariffs.

The importers pay the tariffs, and then

whatever companies that they're representing when they're importing these goods, they have to make the decision.

Do we as a company want to make less money because these tariffs are eating into our margins?

Or do we want to pass that down to the consumer?

Now, WWE really doesn't have to deal with tariffs.

They're just making the decision, let's make more money and pass that cost down to the consumers.

And I think the consumers who are lifelong fans that for most of their lives had a more family-friendly experience with the product have every right to complain while still, even when to the point that it hurts, hand over their money because they like the product so much.

And I would just like someone to stand up in a room and say, hey, you know what?

We hear you.

Let's do some more fan-friendly events, some more cost-efficient events to offset some of this money pumping that they've been doing recently.

And I've yet to see that from TKO.

I think what ultimately needs to happen, because again, we're still confused a whole day later after this press release, like, and I know WW is all over television.

Yeah, they were all over ESPN yesterday.

Oh, they know how to.

Shocking.

They know how to put these things out.

But somebody like needs to get in front of us soon and explain, right?

Like what we have to pay.

Why?

Why?

Explain to me.

I don't understand how you announce a product, like a partnership, and we still don't know if this is a new standalone streaming service, the one that we already have.

Well, the people announcing it didn't seem to know what they were announcing, which is the craziest.

There was so much bad information.

We got to announce this, but we don't know what we're announcing.

That's what happens with a premature announcement.

A premature announcement leads to, like, everybody.

Well, why do you think it was premature?

Like, was there a rush to get that out?

It felt rushed to me.

It felt that it came at 7 a.m.

It was done on CNBC, and it was part of all of what was going on with the SPN and NFL.

Remember, it all came out generally at the same time.

It felt rushed and when I read the release and frankly the release on the NFL situation,

selling red zone, that wasn't a very clear press release either.

Why do I pay for red zone?

We've gotten caught up on these PLEs.

I still don't know about my Hulu and my red zone.

Mad suspicious that these companies are rushing to these announcements to get the stock value up right now.

It's almost as if they're all colluding behind behind the scenes and know our shoe's about to drop here at any moment.

Let's get our money now.

Also with TKO, there might be more at play because they also own the UFC, which has its own negotiation rights.

And WWE apparently is going to continue shopping the WWE network, which is their entire archive, which presently lives on Peacock, which I watch more than the PLEs.

I watch the old stuff more than I watch the new stuff.

Well, think about this.

This is where it gets confusing.

Wherever the WWE library eventually lands, and look, maybe it'll stay on Peacock, you know?

Wherever it eventually lands, are the new shows that are streamed on ESPN now, where do those go in the catalog?

Are they available then after the fact on ESPN?

Or do they then go to the catalog, which may be on another service?

We have a ton of questions.

No one's giving us answers.

This hour is going to be called questions.

That's fine.

And I'm okay with consumers having questions because I assure you that answers come because sometimes the consumer can provide the answer because you vote with your pocketbook.

This isn't just a we're having this conversation through the prism of WWE.

We could easily have said NFL the entire time.

What does this mean for the red zone?

I pay for the red zone with my cable company.

Does it come with my ESPN Plus?

Do I need to, wait, I essentially initially got YouTube TV on top of my cable service because that was the way for me to get a specific type of red zone.

I feel like I could answer it and that it does come with the new ESPN streaming service.

Okay, well, I'm excited.

Look, here's something that's good.

I know what I'm paying for with the NFL,

ESPN partnership, because I know the NFL network, I know the red zone, and Roger Goodell's out there saying, hey, apparently the red zone is intellectual property of the NFL.

And now, because of this merger, you're going to get an NBA red zone.

You're going to get a college football red zone, an NHL red zone.

I'm like, whoa, this is great.

They licensed it to Disney, and Disney has the ability to use that license to however they want to maximize the money.

So you are going to see more red zones.

That's great.

You should see college football red zones.

That's great.

I don't mind paying more for a premium service if it feels like I'm getting more, where I think most consumers buck up against and have to make a hard decision where they may be handing over their money regrettably.

They'll still hand over their money, which is, I think, the bottom line for all these companies.

But do I have to pay more for the same or even less?

That's where you're going to start losing people.

And the economy going to get tight.

And these business models are not sustainable if they keep doing this.

Paying more for getting less is the American way.

It happens in chip bags.

It happens in all sorts of things.

You have to look at volume of things.

That's why I was asking about Arizona iced tea.

Do we have confirmation that the 99 cents, how long has it been 99 cents?

Forever.

Like, are we talking 20 years?

There was recently, I remember maybe it was 60 minutes or something, where the owners of Arizona Ice Tea are like, we were doing everything we can to never be above 99 cents.

And it's the same amount of iced tea in the can.

I mean,

it says since 1992, the towering 23-ounce can of Arizona iced tea has sold for 99 cents.

It's pretty cool.

I mean, is that, that's nostalgia?

Even the dollar store has things that are over a dollar.

It just doesn't matter.

Get me started on five below.

Jeez.

They have a five above section in the back.

Which could be a different store.

Why?

And everything's like 555.

That's not below five.

But

at least it's like in one section where you don't have to go to that section if you don't want to.

Do I need to buy a couch at five below?

No, we don't need a section of five below where they sell furniture.

That's not what I need at five below.

There are people who do.

That seems like you're being a little unrelatable.

That seems like you're being a little like me.

I don't need to go spend $1,600 on a couch at five below.

If you sell me a couch for $5 or below, I'm in.

Listen, I did a summer internship where I lived on an inflatable couch and an inflatable mattress because my place was unfurnished.

That was the internship to live on a...

Yeah, it was volunteer.

They didn't even pay me to do that.

I just did it for fun.

It was an internship for inflatable furniture.

But look what it got you.

That's how they test you.

What?

Look what it did.

Look at your life.

I would argue that it made my life worse.

I was normal.

I was grounded.

And now look at me.

But you do this to yourself.

You come back show after show, day after day, year after year.

Kids, man.

If it wasn't for kids kind of holding me down, who knows where I'd be soaring right now?

You know what I mean?

I've never thought of that well I think you're overestimating how normal you were you should have parented how normal I was you should have parented like David focus on your career I genuinely don't know what 100% I'm not we're in the same exact place and my kids love me I beat your kids in every game

that is just wrong I'm sorry

Billy you've gone too far this time

They don't like me, but they love me.

They have to.

They respect me.

That's for daddy.

I don't think they do that.

really no i

i'm not convinced

i've got big news about my children but i don't know that i'm allowed to share it because i didn't get permission just roll the dice yeah come on permission in advance no i'm just proud of them just what's the what's the like venn diagram of like people that your kids are friends with that would receive this news and people that listen to us

like i think that you could get away with break i break news all the time i say things all the time and unless like mike flentes or someone decides to put it on social my wife has no idea what i'm saying yep that's how i roll too my wife doesn't listen to anything.

Yeah, unless it gets out on social, they're never, they're not, wives are not listening.

No, but you know what also happens?

Does this happen to your, you know, with your wife?

My wife, she finds out, she doesn't listen to anything I do.

I could say whatever I want, not just because she won't hear it, but because I'm also in charge.

But my wife winds up finding out because you have snitches at her work.

There are snitches.

Does that happen to you?

That's well you were so strong in the snitches and hey, does that happen to you?

It happens to everybody.

That's exactly what social media is when you cost one, did you see that?

What David said?

Break some news, David.

That's no snitching.

Hey, no snitches allowed in this segment.

Okay, go, David.

We're clear now.

Break the news.

I'm just saying that it's possible that my son may or may not have done something that will enable him to maybe work on Wall Street.

You have to pass a bunch of exams.

And maybe this morning.

You've been vague.

I have no idea what you mean.

There's a lot of maybes.

I'm worried.

It sounds like jail might be in the future there.

Oh, stop because

I don't know.

There's just lots of maybes and allegedly.

sounds like he's going to be a part of all the stuff we're complaining about today.

Don't be ridiculous.

He's part of the solution.

Sure.

He's part of me.

The solution

is.

You pay as little money as possible to get as much as you can so that Mike doesn't blow a gasket because he's overpaying for stuff that he doesn't enjoy.

I genuinely don't know what I've been yelling about.

Yeah.

I may be wrong.

I don't know.

I hate that I don't know.

Loud noises control.

I just know it's going to cost me more money.

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