[0:06]Paul, I feel like we've reached now the exit ramp and the destination for what is this Road to WrestleMania.
[0:18]But I marvel, and I've talked to you through the years about this of the difference between what happens in WWE compared to what happens with other pro sports. Other pro sports have a regular season and a post-season, but they have an off-season. You know, your test is something far different than that. There is no off-season. It's constant live events, premium events, matchmaking, storylines, all the arcs, but then comes the WrestleMania season. Then comes the Road to WrestleMania. We get this constant stretch of ramped up intensity from January until Mania. So how do you possibly describe what it is like to be the Chief Content Officer during this stretch that we've been on? I say all the time, it's not the uh, it's not the boulder in your path, it's the pebble in your shoe, right? That over time just wears you down. It's the grind. Um, to me, to be honest, like other than the stresses of it, this is the easier time because it's um, How do you not get excited if you make the playoffs? You know what I mean? How do you not find that next gear? How do you not find that second wind? So it's it's there, where it becomes the trial is and you you just mentioned it. There's no off season. Imagine you go through the playoffs and you get to the Super Bowl, and then think about all the hype for the first game of the next season. Think about all that, it's opening day. It's the first game of the of the real season and how big of a deal that is in pro sports. That's Monday. Sunday is WrestleMania, Sunday night, and we always joke about the off season of you know, the your off season for WrestleMania is the show gets done and before I leave Gorilla, somebody will hand me the sheets for tomorrow night's Raw. And if we haven't already thought about tomorrow night's Raw, if we haven't been planning that for a few weeks, we're sort of already, we've already missed the mark, right? You have to be thinking about at all times. At at every single turn. Okay, that's today, but what is tomorrow? Because if you throw it all in today, there there's no tomorrow. It's it's, you know, um, I always heard about the the boxing business that everything was a going out of business sale. One night cash grab. You threw everything you had at it, and you took as much money as you come in and you just hope that there was another one down the line, but it was just a hope, right? Um, WWE became different in that world, in that there was always tomorrow. There was always that next step, there was always that next thing, so you have to be constantly planning, and in some way, while it is the biggest, that Road to WrestleMania is the biggest time of the year, the event is the biggest event of the year, somewhere in your mind, you have to treat it just like another event, because there's just another event behind it. There's this perception of you I think by fans and those and media and sports, they say, oh, you're the guy who's all knowing when it comes to this. You got all the answers. But I know there are things that surprise you on the Road to WrestleMania that you never saw coming. In this build and this Road to WrestleMania, is there any one thing that you think about when I say that where you say, oh, that surprised me? Oh, there's a lot of them.
[3:53]Because sometimes it's surprise of the way that you think a crowd is going to react to something, and they react differently. Sometimes it's um, you know, when you're putting stuff together in your mind, Dusty Rhodes used to say this all the time to me, that in your mind you see things 100%. If you can get 70% of that to come out on the screen, that's a grand slam. And in your mind you picture it perfectly in execution, it's different. There's a million variables that can change it that bring it down a notch, um, or two or three or 20 or whatever it is, right? So things turn out differently. Fans begin to react to things differently. What you thought you had locked in four months ago is not the path anymore. The path is changed. The other thing about our our business is unlike a sport, if, and as bad as it is, if you lose your quarterback,
[5:01]if you lose your first string offensive lineman, if you lose your star center or star guard in the NBA, uh, you have a second string guy to back him up, and you hope that those second string guys are pretty good. There is no backup Cody Rhodes. There is no backup Randy Orton. There's no backup Roman Reigns. There's no backup CM Punk. We're in the NFL backup quarterbacks have gone on to win Super Bowls. Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, it's it's different because it's the individual attraction. Um, and unlike a television show, if you put the sports and the entertainment side of it, there's always the factor of the human being. So you can write the greatest script in the world to get you to the ultimate battle scene, and then right before the ultimate battle scene, the star of the show gets injured. There's no waiting until he's uninjured to shoot the final scene. It's live and it's going to happen one way or the other, whether you want to do it or not on that particular date. The variables are so um, there there's so many and there's so varied that you sort of have to at any given time, be ready for anything and be able to move on from anything. Doesn't mean it's easy, doesn't mean it's not the most frustrating thing that I've ever experienced, um, but it's just it's a part of what we do. Yeah, the ability and understanding how to pivot and how to adapt. Um, I want to get into your career experience here for a moment. Um, in sports there's a long standing thought that, oh, you know, maybe a great player will be going go on to be a great coach, or a great leader and be able to coach or lead or organize, be a general manager, president. That has typically not worked out in pro sports. We've seen guys like Wayne Gretzky, Ted Williams, Isaiah Thomas have some difficulties and certain critics would say great failures at doing that. And then there's the thought that, well, because the all-time great one struggled to understand why others aren't great and why others can't be great because I I was great. Listen, you're an all-time great. They just don't understand, why don't you just do it like that? It's tough, right? Not everybody is Triple H. Um, but yet, you, I believe, you've done a great job when it comes to developing talent. When it comes to identifying talent, growing stars, organizing things so that a group and a brand can get to the next level. Why do you think it's clicked for you and it hasn't for others in other industries, in other sports of, hey, I was great at this, but I understand how to do this as well? Well, first of all, I appreciate the kind words on both sides. Um, I was fortunate in my career to as I was a performer, be just as enamored, uh, for me, I was just as enamored in the behind the scenes of the business.
[8:06]Did that happen early on? It did. Like even when I was training, I remember, you know, I can look at it now and I just was just something I was interested in at the time, so I didn't really think about it, but I can remember going to Kowalski and and even when I was training and the first shows that I were on like, hey, why'd you why'd you order that like this? Like why did why'd you choose this line up and I would see him moving the card around for the night, in in in a place where we'd have 500 people, right? He's moving things around, and he would explain it to me, well, this match is going to be this, then I want to I want to do it with this, and then I'm going to put the this match will be a little bit less, but it it's going to right, like it's it's it's a ride like a concert. Um, and I remember being fascinated by that, and as I moved through my career, WCW, I was just trying to learn the TV side of it, um, to get to here. So, you know, I used to go to shows even when I wasn't on them and try to sit where I could hear what was happening, like what are they looking for? They didn't call it Gorilla Position, but what are they looking for? What is the what are the agents looking or the producers looking to get out of this? I was trying to figure out the other side of it, like I was interested in the whole thing, not just, hey, I want to go out there and do this. Um, and then when I got here, you know, for whatever reason, very, very early in my career, um, I started to have a relationship with Vince around sort of creative, and um, as that clicked, I guess he saw something in me, like, okay, he has an interest in this, and he has a uh, a desire to do it, and he's got a pension for it a little bit. So, you know, he he asked me to start coming to production meetings, and then I I know that he told, you know, Pat Patterson, like, teach him. I know he told Jack Lanza, teach him. Right, so I got to sit under the learning tree of Vince, uh, Jack Lanza, Pat Patterson, Chief Jay Strongbow. Um, all these people, not only you know, from the behind the scenes standpoint, in in-ring standpoint, I came into a generation where as I got here, if we were working a couple hundred nights a year, which was on the low side, right? Like we were we were on the road all the time. Every night I was working with Shawn Michaels, X-Pac, uh, you know, Bret Hart, Razor Ramon, uh, Diesel, Undertaker, like, I had this plethora of guys that were at the top of the business at the time. And underneath that, you know, when you go one night working with, uh, X-Pac, the 1-2-3 kid at the time, to the next night you're working with Butch of the the Bushwhacker Butch, who doesn't want to fall down and doesn't want to take a bump and is thankful if you don't make him. Like you you're learning all these different styles.
[10:59]I was just lucky to be in a place where I had all of that sort of shaping me and molding me, and and I was really interested in it. So my my desire to learn those things was was intense, and at the time I had no idea that eventually I would get into the role I am. That was the furthest thing from my mind. Let's get into the role you're in, and specifically it comes to WrestleMania and obviously, you know, I spent the whole year with you, so I see the ebb and flow of what our time our seasons look like. And our ramp ups to PLE. This is different, and we all know it's different. And you talked to us about it being different, the intensity, the ramp up, what we're doing. Everything counts. Every moment counts to what we're doing to get to where now we've arrived here in Vegas. With that in mind, how much pressure do you put on yourself that WrestleMania is your own report card, that you sense it that way? You know, it's a funny thing when people will like, if you're online or you hear fans talking and they're like, I didn't like that. Yeah, I know. Believe me, I'm the first guy going, mm, that didn't work. That wasn't good. We screwed up there. Um, you know, sometimes you're putting things out there, you're like, this will be good. This this will be decent. This is not going to be A+++. It it has to have an ebb and flow throughout the year. There's times when you know like this show will be good. It's not going to be guns blazing. Um, there's times when you know you got to put your foot on the gas. The trick is keeping everybody else, I think sometimes in the same mindset of, you know, we talked about thinking about tomorrow. It's it's, you know, uh, all the time people make suggestions of like, you know, what if you did this, and the this whole thing and it's like, yeah, that's that's amazing. It's just it doesn't leave us a place to go. So you have to balance out the what do I do today that's epic and what do I get to tomorrow? Um, it's it's always a mix and and a challenge to balance that out. Nobody bats a thousand. I'm no different, right? But you you you want to try as best as possible to manage everybody to stay in the same ballpark, so somebody's not trying to swing for the fences while everybody else is trying to hit a double, you know. Um, thinking about the course of the past year, obviously the role that John Cena played with the product was massive in the course of the past year. Now, he's officially back as the host of WrestleMania, so this is going to be something new. What does it mean to you to have John around now in a role like this? It's incredible. You know, um, in any sport or business or anything else, certain legends that that transform the the business or the sport itself, John is one of those, right? Like John has become a household name globally. Um, and there's a period of time where your body just can't do what you wanted to do anymore. And, um, I think for John to have the moment where he gracefully bowed out in the way that he wanted to, was phenomenal for him. But he loves this, and is still has this incredible passion for it. It's funny, he can be on a movie set somewhere and he'll call me and I'll talk to him for five minutes, and the intensity and the emotion of which he will talk to me about what he wants to talk about is it's, There's often times where I think to myself like, I wonder if he's that passionate about the movies he's making like, or, you know, is it is it just the movies? Because that that can be an arduous task, right? And and is he in this moment like when he goes back to talking about the passion for this, it's a different level. I don't know that answer, but I just know that he loves this. I do believe in his commitment that he will never wrestle, perform in ring again. Can we reflect on that for a moment because we're we're four months in the rear view mirror of that incredible night we all had in Washington D.C. The end of the farewell tour, the last time he's now. What were you most proud of when you look back at that year on the road with John, and where everything went and where everything finished? John's happiness. You know, that it meant that to him, that he was contented, happy and fulfilled. Yes, and that he felt about it, and that he felt like it accomplished it it accomplished what he wanted it to accomplish, which was give back to the business and do great business for the company on his way out and leave it better than he found it, which he did. And he was very happy for that. I think he felt challenged and, you know, he was pushed a little bit to to to deliver. And he liked that, and I think, um, I don't know. I think he he I think he was happy with how it ended, and he felt proud of how it ended for different reasons than many people would think, um, that he did, but that would be the biggest thing for me, you know, his happiness around it. To me, I get it. Fans are going to like it, dislike it, whatever it is. For John to go out the way John wanted to go out. And one of the ways he wanted to go out was to pay it forward to an extreme level. When you reflect on that show, the final show that we had in Washington, D.C., it was very important to him, it was very important to you that he paid it forward with young stars now getting a spotlight. We fast forward Paul to this WrestleMania, and perhaps more than other WrestleManias we've seen recently, the new blood is having a huge, I mean, massive impact, whether it's Trick Williams or Jovan or Oba or Lash Legend. You see what they're doing already, and you see where this is going now with Vegas having arrived. How much faith does it now give you with the future of WWE when you see this young crop? When when the Performance Center and NXT was sort of developed, it was with this in mind. And when you get to the place, like to me, this is the the perfect example of that. It's like you you're at this time where there are massive stars within the company, but they're all I don't want to say they're out of their prime, they're in their prime, but they're at the peak of it, right? And and the place that you go from the peak is down. Um, Somebody uh, said something very interesting to me. Steph did an interview with somebody the other day and they were talking about television shows. They were talking specifically about Saturday Night Live and they said imagine a television show, you're writing a television show and you have Will Ferrell as a star. Will Ferrell leaves the show, that's the end of the show. Right, except for Saturday Night Live, which has reinvented itself over and over, or us. Right, so as you begin to prepare, we we had a year just now where there were a lot of goodbyes. This year the end of 2025, second half of 2025, or maybe even the entire thing was built on goodbyes. John Cena, AJ Styles, right? Like you saw a lot of goodbyes. You saw a lot of changing of the guard. But what you seemingly have here is a Bill Murray, Chevy Chase going into an Eddie Murphy here. Yes, that's what this feels like, Paul.
[18:50]Yes, and you already see in a few short months like, like, look at Oba. Oba's going to go up against one of the biggest stars that this business is most credible, biggest, and and, you know, I'll give all the credit in the world for Brock Lesnar for being in the position that he's in and and doing what he's doing. Oba in a few short weeks has become the talk of the town. It's palpable.
[19:19]You breathe it in when that strut starts. You can't look on social media without seeing somebody do it. It's incredible. I want to get into the role that you recently played with that, and when we say it's palpable, you were literally in the middle of that palpable anticipation of these two men standing face to face. You can you it's different when you're right there. I don't care, Gorilla watching through a screen. You know when you're physically, hey, I'm about 10 ft away. You were inches away from it. Yes. How would you characterize it? Off the chart. It's you know, I've been out there for some of the biggest moments with some of the biggest stars ever in this business, and and been, you know, even if I was backstage or sometimes when I knew big things were going to happen and game-changing moments, no pun intended within the industry, and I would want to walk out to feel it, to feel the it's different. Right, um, when I'm at Gorilla, there's a filter through walls of concrete and everything else to get to me. Out there is different. Um, yeah, when I got out there, and I was waiting for the moment to hit the ring. It's more than just the sheer size of the guys. The way the fans are reacting, listen, Brock's been Brock for two decades now. Brock Lesnar has fought and stepped in the ring with some big guys, some guys that people thought were, this is the next big thing. This is the and the energy level is good, and there's a moment there, and all that stuff.
[20:54]Nothing like this, nothing like this. There's a credibility to Oba Femi that we haven't seen. There is an aura to him, and in a guy that is 27 years old. You know, um, to have that maturity, to have that poise, he he impresses me from an in-ring standpoint and where he's at, but as a human being and his poise as a as a person.
[21:24]Like that that spot could be overwhelming to anybody and you could see the weight of it leaning on them and crushing them. It it looks like, honestly, standing next to him, talking about it, all that stuff, it's like it's just another day. He his poise with it is is I've never seen somebody be that calm and that poised in in this big of a spot that quickly. It opens the door for us to get through some of the matches at WrestleMania that I want your thoughts on here. Oba versus Brock, incredible anticipation. The Women's World Championship with Stephanie Vacare and Liv Morgan. Two very different career paths for each of them to get to what should be a tremendous WrestleMania moment. What do you think each of them is looking to prove with this spot? So I think Stephanie, who, when you talk about young new talent, right, and you talk about the Javans and the Obas and the all this stuff, she's gotten so good, so fast, so quickly put into that spot, people forget she just got here. You think of her as a veteran almost just because of what she's accomplished in the past year. But but she just got here.
[22:40]And so when you break it down that way, Liv Morgan has somebody standing in front of her that is a completely different path to just getting here, that is maybe a similar number of years, but out there doing it in a place where it almost didn't exist. Like having to find and grind the the grind was finding the places to go do this, and then learning. Liv, different path. PC gets put in there, right? Like has a grind in a different way, comes up through all of that system in a in a moment in time where the women are becoming on a different level. And at first is just seen as as the eye candy chick. That's all she's ever going to be, but is hellbent on becoming, no, no, no, I'm going to be so much more than that. I'm going to be one of the greats that this business has ever seen. And she has dedicated herself to that for the last decade, still young, Stephanie's still young, right? Like two different paths, but at the same moment in time, Stephanie trying to prove that she truly belongs in a place where it's as funny as that sounds because she's World Champion. Liv Morgan is trying to prove that she belongs at the I'm a great in-ring performer level, right? Not just I Candy level. Our other Women's Championship match, you know, goes on the other side of the spectrum where it's all about physical dominance and physicality and the pure presence and power of Rhea Ripley and Jade Cargo. What have you liked about just seeing them face to face? There's a physically imposing, larger-than-life presence to Rhea Ripley that she has earned over a long period of time. A fairly long period of time. Jade is a it's a like a spectacle, right? Like you look at her and you're like, jeez, like she looks like a comic book character. As soon as you see that silhouette on the entrance, you know. Yeah, looks like somebody drew her in a comic book, and then she came to life in front of you. Um, but that comes with uh, a lot of pressure of you look like the biggest thing in the business. So now you have to go back that up.
[25:03]Can we talk about those steps for a moment because now I reflect on 12 months of where we were heading into last year's Mania with Jade. And what she does in the ring most recently feels different than the person we were talking about about a year ago at this moment. Prior to the WrestleMania match, what have you seen in her with what I just described that impresses you? Her comfort level. Um, there's a certain time in any sport where like, I'll use boxing as an example where you almost can see the guy doing the routine that he's rehearsed, you know, I'm going to throw a four combo. I'm going to back out. I'm going to throw a three combo, and I'm going to bob to the left, then I'm going to get out. You see them sort of it's it's like they're thinking through it. And then there comes a point in time in their career where they're just flowing. You don't think? Yes, it's the Bruce Lee thing, they're like, water, they're just right, just doing their thing and not thinking. When Jade got here, she was still counting steps. I see. She was trying to put her feet in the right movements, in the in the right pattern. She was thinking all the time. Now she's just in there being. Rhea Ripley stopped thinking about it a long time ago. Rhea Ripley is a force of nature. From the moment, you know, uh, this is my brutality hits, she's this free-flowing force of nature. I don't think she knows exactly what she's going to do next, but whatever it is, it works, and she knows it.
[26:45]Let's have the Cody and Randy conversation. Yeah, because obviously they have an incredible shared history, but this lead up, and this build to what's going to happen at WrestleMania between Cody and Randy feels much more than just the older brother, younger brother or teacher, student. It just there's a level of intensity that we've been taking in lately that crosses to a very different place. What do you feel that this means to each man's legacy? For Cody, this is probably the most personal battle he's had since being back in WWE, right? Like this is as emotional to him as personal to him, both in a being able to do it standpoint, like, right? There's a point where I'm sure Cody sat in a car with Randy Orton thinking, man, if I could ever get big enough to be facing him in a ring at WrestleMania or something like that, now here it is. Um, to the personal standpoint of all the things that they have been through, and as close as they have come, they now are going to step in the ring on the biggest platform possible, but it's incredibly personal, and they're both have something to prove. Randy is going to prove that after all these years, all the accolades, everything, he still can live up to them. Cody's got to prove that after all the build of the last three years, if he wants to be QB1, these are the things that QB1 has to be able to do.
[28:27]Carry these kind of storylines, carry these kinds of moments at WrestleMania, and make them as big as possible. Um, you know, because it's it's not just about what you deliver in ring. It's, you know, it's about selling tickets. It's about putting butts in seats, right? And that that is the challenge to both of them. They've both got something to prove here in a different in a completely different way, but it's going to make when when people have something to prove like that, it rises all, rises all ships up to the to the highest of levels, and they're going to do that with each other. Of course, woven into the Cody Rhodes story, most recently were the actions of Drew McIntyre, the actions of Jacob Fatu. Now those two can't get away from each other. If ever there's a stipulation match that fits more perfectly than the unsanctioned match between these. It had to be unsanctioned. There was no other way to do this, right? When when you get into them, I'm going to try to hit you with my car, or throw you off the side of a building. Yeah, you're you're at a place where it's tough, um, to say, well, this is just going to be a wrestling match. Um, the the one thing about both these guys is Drew McIntyre has shown over the last few years, um, especially with CM Punk and with others that he will stop at nothing. From a putting his body on the line, from putting others' bodies on the line, um, there's nothing he won't do. I think Jacob Fatu is the kind of guy that in his life has done, you know, he's done questionable things that he had to turn his life around.
[30:11]And I think he is hellbent on never going back to that, and not allowing his opportunity, which is what he has right now. His opportunity at a different life for he and his kids. In order to deliver that to its fullest, he's got to go through Drew McIntyre to do it. So I think when, you know, again, talk about things to prove, they both have something incredible to prove. Drew feels like he's been wrong and got taken out of a of a rightful spot at WrestleMania that was his, and uh, and Jacob feels like he's got to go through that obstacle to to deliver on his potential. World Heavyweight Championship, CM Punk, Roman Reigns. There is deep-rooted resentment, history between these two. I hate to ask you when we have questions like, well, where does it rank in terms of all time intensity and rivalry heading in, you know, we could all sit there and try to go through history. But the perspective when we try to think in terms of the heat attached to this thing, the intensity, when we look over the course of 42 years of WrestleMania, this has to be top shelf. Yeah, this is one where when you break down the sport and entertainment aspect of what we do, you know, very rarely does it criss cross into both. This one criss crosses into both. There is a, obviously there's a tension when they're in the ring with each other. There is a palpable you can cut it with a knife feeling of intensity. That intensity does not stop backstage. Right, so, um, when they have to be in the vicinity of each other in backstage environments, it is on epic levels of tension. You know, where at any point in time, you feel like this will go incredibly unprofessionally at any moment. It's the greatest tease for non-real, you could ever have. You are just sitting there. It's it's there you can smell the gas in the air, and there are sparks everywhere, and you're trying to get through it and get it in the ring at WrestleMania before it blows up, um, before the fire ignites, and it goes really, really badly.
[32:48]This one is real. And uh, real in a way that I don't think many people can can fathom the amount of you'll be the amount of you between the two of them, is freaking palpable. Yeah, see I love that. Yeah. Just forget the guy who broadcast with you. Just as a fan, I love that, and that gets me excited for the match. In any sport, there's moments where people trash talk, and there are moments where you think, oh, he's just trash talking. He's he's selling a fight. He's talking, because that's his job in this moment is trash talk. And there are moments where the trash talk happens where you're like, ooh, right, this is this is going, like that that almost went really badly. Um, there's no showboating, there's no I'm putting on a roll to sell tickets. There's none of that. You can feel that between the two of them. Well, listen, there's been moments in some of the promos, obviously in the past couple weeks, where there's no getting around the authenticity on some of the lines dropped in these promos. Even to some of the lines where fans, and I've heard fans say it, well, they they tried too hard on that one. That was that was that was reaching to get to a place where people went, ooh. No. They weren't reaching in a place for anybody to go ooh, other than the person standing across them. Exactly. Right, um, there's a moment where it ceases to be watch what the crowd does to this reaction. When I say this, they're going to go crazy. I don't know that when they're out there, they give a damn about. Right. You can feel that. Well, when you can feel that between the two of them, well, there's been moments in some of the promos, obviously in the past couple weeks where there's no getting around the authenticity on some of the lines dropped in these promos. You know, if there's 20,000 people watching them in live in that moment, I don't think they give a damn. I'm saying this to get to you. I'm saying this to light you on fire. I'm saying this to get a reaction out of you, and that's that's a different level.
[34:54]And to me, maybe because I know them so well, both of them, to me, I feel that like I sit at Gorilla watching them call their promos, and I'm thinking to myself, am I going to have to hit the button and tell everybody to get in there and pull them apart for real? I love that. Listen, we hit on some of the big matches, but there's big matches everywhere here. So just a little moment of rapid fire here, and I'll I'll hit you with this one. The match that you think could steal the show when you go through some of these other ones here, whether it's Seth Rollins and Gunther. I mean, are you kidding me with this? Finn and Dom now on opposite sides of the former Judgment Day brethren. The IC Ladder Match with Penta defending in a ladder match. I mean this is this is just drooling kind of stuff for the viewer. When you you you look at Ladder Match and the train wreck that usually follows that, and then you say the names that are in it, Penta, Javan, JD, Rusev, uh, Dragon Lee, right?
[36:01]Like, they they're all synonymous with train wreck. They and any one of them could steal the show. We could be walking away from Saturday night or Sunday night at Mania saying it was that. Yeah, that everybody's buzzing about, which has happened at many Manias, by the way. It's not always the the World Championship match. One 100%, 100%, you know, the the the at any moment in time you have Savage and Steamboat just just stealing the show from a from a pure in-ring standpoint, right? So when you talk about Finn and Dom, there's a lot to prove on both sides. When you talk about Seth and Gunther, there's a return there and there's I'm going to prove to everybody I'm the best wrestler on the planet. Like, there there's a lot on all these. We've talked about the unique pressure that you face personally with your job, but then this year, uh, you're going to be a proud husband. Yeah, Steph is getting into the whole thing. Yeah, so for your family WrestleMania Week for your family is always something that you circle on the calendar. It means everything, the world revolves around this. I mean this year, how do you possibly characterize what it means to your family knowing it's Stephanie? Yeah, it's so hard to even put into words because also Steph sometimes looked at herself as this inconsequential piece of the business. Um, yet, I believe, one of the most influential characters, especially on the women's side, you know, um, all the time when we're out, uh, people come up to Steph and talk about, when you you are one of the only powerful women characters, female characters on TV at that time, and when I was 10, or I was 12 years old, man, I wanted to be you. I wanted to be that powerful woman in business, the powerful woman that, you know, physically wasn't intimidating, all these things. Be forget how impactful that character was, and what a big factor it was in the business, and that's on camera. Behind the scenes to this day, and she hasn't been around for a few years, but to this day, if you walk through here, and you bring up her name, anybody either in this place or the crew, they will say, heart and soul of the company. Heart and soul of the company. She knew everybody that worked here. I can't remember names to save my life. Steph knew everybody's name. Steph knew their families, knew their kids' names. It would we would laugh all the time because it would take us 45 minutes to leave the building as we were trying to get out of there when the show would be over, because Steph would be stopping and saying goodbye to like everybody along the way, where we'd be like, hey, we're going to see him tomorrow at TV. Can we just can we go and get in the car? You know what I mean? Like it's just who she is, and her her impact on this business is second to none. And I mean that second to no one. So whether fans fully understand that or not, that, um, it's hard for me to think of many people that deserve all the fame as much as she does, and she doesn't think she deserves it. Agreed. It's going to be special. Last question for you, Paul, as we reach this crescendo of the Road to WrestleMania here, arriving in Vegas. And keep in mind, this is coming from somebody that as a teenager was watching WrestleMania 1 on closed circuit in a Civic Center, right? I was just watching it on the little bars and things. You're trying to listen to what was happening here. The reach and promotional muscle of this as a one-two punch of ESPN domestically and Netflix globally. That is as strong of a one-two punch, probably as WrestleMania's ever had in terms of pure promotion and pure reach and credibility. Yes. When you think of that, and you think about your job, I'm the guy that's putting this forth. Finish this sentence for me. At the end of Sunday night, I've done a good job if at the end of Sunday night, I've done a good job if on Saturday and Sunday our most ardent fans think that was amazing, and fans that were sampling it for the first time, and I weigh this in equal measures, because on night one, the first hour of the show will be on ESPN2. On Sunday night, the first hour of the show will be on ESPN1. And then of course, everything else will be on ESPN Unlimited, the entire show both nights, right? That that gives us this incredible opportunity between ESPN2 and 1 on Saturday and Sunday, to hit a large group of people that maybe have never watched before, or have been a long time since they watched. It is an opportunity for us to show them this is WWE. I will mostly feel successful if there are a lot of those people that went, holy sh, that's not what I remember wrestling to be. I've got to tune in now. I've got to start watching. I've got to get ESPN Unlimited. I've got to finish this show. I've got to start watching this on a regular basis because this is a spectacle. This is an energy level. This is storyline and drama and excitement and energy that I can't get anywhere else. And if we can deliver that to both sets of people equally, then we win. Let's do it. WrestleMania 42. Great convo. Thank you, man. Appreciate it.
