Conrad Thompson On Chris Jericho Missing Starrcast Panel, Roast Of Ric Flair Update, Jon Moxley

In addition to being the host of various podcasts and the promoter of Starrcast, Conrad Thompson is also married to Ric Flair's oldest daughter. Following another health scare by Flair, Thompson revealed how his father-in-law is doing when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast today.

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"Oh great. He's gone public now with the situation and what the circumstances were. Now that he's got the right combination, he's good to go. He's loving life," Thompson said before adding he's not expecting Flair to act any different than before and will likely continue partying.

Flair was scheduled to be roasted at Starrcast II but that was postponed due to his health problems. Thompson revealed if the roast will now happen at Starrcast III in late August.

"For whatever reason, the timing never seems to work out for Chicago. It didn't work the first time and he's already got another appearance lined up for that weekend. So, the roast will happen some time in the future, but unfortunately, it won't be happening in Chicago," said Thompson.

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Thompson was also asked if there was any consideration given to roasting someone else other than Flair when he became unavailable.

"No, just because whoever you slot in the spot, it feels like a consolation prize or second place," stated Thompson. "It wouldn't be fair to the talent to do in 4-5 days notice. Also to properly promote it, you would need more time than that. So, we just shelved the idea and we'll revisit it again."

In addition to wrestlers taking part at Starrcast, multiple comedians were also on hand as well. Thompson talked about any differences in booking them compared to wrestling talent.

"They are super fans and they are just as excited to be there as I am. I can't say enough nice things about those guys whether it was Dan, Mike or Taylor, any of those guys. Just tremendous," said Thompson.

One of those comedians, Paul Walter Hauser, had chatted with Thompson before on social media, but the two finally got to meet at Starrcast. Thompson also gushed about how cool it is that those big names want to come to Starrcast as wrestling fans.

In addition to the Flair roast not happening, a Chris Jericho panel also didn't happen at Starrcast II. Thompson explained why things didn't work out with Y2J.

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"Jericho sent a text on Friday afternoon saying he wasn't going to be able to make it. He listed off a reasonable explanation as to why and we went back and forth," said Thompson. "In the end, he sent a video for us to play but we weren't able to play it until Sunday morning. One of the production guys said we have this cardboard cutout [of Jericho] so why don't we just put that up there and put it up on the feed for FITE?"

The cutout was played for laughs with the real Jericho unavailable and Thompson said sometimes you just have to audible after being thrown a curveball.

Speaking of Jericho, he also has a highly successful podcast and a recent interview with Jon Moxley still has people talking. Moxley revealed various frustrations with WWE and Thompson weighed in on his comments.

"I can't say it was a surprise. Most of us expected that that was the case," revealed Thompson. "But to hear somebody on the inside confirm it, that's what had the internet reeling and saying, 'Wow! It's as bad as we thought it was.'

"From a performer's standpoint, I'm sure there's a lot of people in the company who would disagree, but those are probably office folks. That's probably a fair sentiment among the boys and it got everybody talking."

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Thompson says wrestlers will still be excited to work for WWE because it was their childhood dream, but WWE could be entering a new era with a former top talent publicly detailing his unhappiness working there.

"I don't think there will be any significant changes," Thompson continued about WWE. "I think they will just paint by numbers until something changes internally, whatever that is. Their business is stronger than ever financially. If that's what you're ruling your business by, the checkbook, I don't know if we'll see major changes. But I could be wrong."

Thompson recently launched a new podcast with Jim Ross that is a bit different than his other ones with Eric Bischoff and Bruce Prichard. Thompson was asked why that is the case when talking to JR.

"Now I'm doing one with the host of a weekly TV show on TNT. He already had a podcast and obviously has a big space in the business, so the downloads came a lot faster. We set records in Week 1 and it's continued to grow from there. So, we weren't starting from absolute scratch. I like having a head start and that's what we have with JR," said Thompson.

JR also has a different approach when discussing the past that Thompson's other co-hosts don't have. He was asked what surprised him the most about working with Ross.

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"How honest he is," replied Thompson. "It's really surprising to me how he'll just own stuff. Sometimes Eric or Bruce will dig their heels in and defend, but that's not the case with JR. He'll be like, 'Ah, that really sucked.' And that's refreshing."

Thompson also talked about how JR's Chipotle Ketchup is probably his favorite JR BBQ item while noting that the jerky is also underrated.

Conrad Thompson will present Starrcast III from August 29th – September 1st at the Hyatt Regency in Schaumberg, IL. For tickets and more info please visit www.Starrcast.com.

Conrad's full interview with Wrestling Inc was included as part of today's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In Conrad's full interview he discusses whether Starrcast II was a financial success, his relationship with WWE, Jon Moxley's interview with Chris Jericho, WWE's 24/7 Championship, Firefly Fun House, Goldberg vs Undertaker and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here.

Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.

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