Conrad Thompson was interviewed by Pro Wrestling Torch Senior Columnist Bruce Mitchell over the weekend during an episode of The Bruce Mitchell Audio Show (VIP subscription required) and the wrestling podcast trailblazer talked about his experience at the AEW Rally, what his relationship is with the company, how he became friends with AEW President Tony Khan and what Chris Jericho‘s star power can give to All Elite Wrestling as a brand. Some quotes are below (transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo at WrestleZone):
Conrad Thompson on his relationship with All Elite Wrestling:
“I don’t have an official relationship with All Elite Wrestling. I’m just friends with Tony Khan and have been for several years. When I first started Wooo Nation with Ric Flair, he followed me on Twitter, we starting DMing, eventually we exchanged numbers and he’s been to some of my podcast shows I believe and I’ve been to a bunch of different events where he was there. Just wrestling related events and we’ve always just hit it off and that’s it, man. I’m just Tony’s friend and so I think a lot of people I think were probably surprised to see me there and wondered what type of role I was going to have and does this mean I’m the face or voice or commentary – no. None of that. I’m just Tony’s, like, real life wrestling buddy. I mean that was it.”
On Chris Jericho showing up at the AEW Rally:
“Well it was a surprise. It was even a surprise to – we did a production call the day before and sort of we went through everything. His name was not spoken and he had his own dressing room but it just said “special guest.” And so they did everything they could to keep it under wraps and make it a surprise, and I think it was a surprise.”
On what Jericho brings to AEW:
“This is a weird comparison, but maybe Jericho can be for AEW what Terry Funk was for ECW. Terry Funk was there as a name to old school traditional wrestling fans to get you to pay attention and then when you’re there, hey, now all of a sudden you see Sabu, and you see Rob Van Dam and you see The Dudley Boyz and you see Shane Douglas with a new coat of paint on him and I just think that there is some wisdom in there.”
On his relationship with Tony Khan:
“Man, he’s like me and you. He’s one of us. I said it in the pre-show the other day. He really is one of us. It’s easy to sort of sit back and armchair quarterback, but the reality is like he’s been a Wrestling Observer Newsletter subscriber for about as long as I have and when he was in high school, his dream was to go to the ECW and his dad took him. And the parallel in his fandom and mine are identical. I think we’re less than a year apart. For my senior trip, all my friends wanted to go to Cancun, Mexico I wanted to go to the corner of Swanson & Ritner. And so I went to ECW for my senior trip. I started to subscribing to the Newsletter around the same time – I think he started in ’97, I started in ’97 so our fandom, I mean that’s the reason we clicked so well.”
“I just think that is so cool that someone who understands and loves and appreciates wrestling the way everyone listening to this does now has a little bit of input. Because for years, we go online and we say, ‘oh, they don’t care what the fans want. Why won’t they just do X, Y & Z? I wish they would do A, B, C.’ Whatever it may be. Well now, someone who is probably on that same site and was on that same site long before they were in a position to make those decisions, is making those decisions, but he’s also making really really good decisions around him as far as personnel. People who really have their finger on the pulse and I know that that’s going to get a little bit of criticism, but he’s not necessarily, you know, hiring people away from other big brands that are outside of wrestling to make wrestling decisions. He’s hiring wrestling people to make wrestling decisions, which I think most people who are listening to this would agree is a genius and not that complicated of an idea to arrive to.”
There is plenty more from this interview and you can subscribe to the PWTorch by going here.
Author’s Note: Conrad is very on point in this interview. A fun fact: Jericho is 48 years old while Terry was 49 when he made his ECW debut with his brother Dory (h/t to Wade Keller for that nugget).
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