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PW torch dot Com slash go VIP now. PW Torch and Speaker bring you
the wid Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. It's time for this week's Interview Classic where
Wade Keller Interview is one of pro Wrestling's newsmakers ten years ago. This week's
Stone Cold Steve Austin joined me for over an hour conversation about WrestleMania thirty,
including backstage perspective on the Ultimate Warrior and Mister t, his thoughts on Ciampunk's
departure, his thoughts on Daniel Bryan's hot run. Also does he endorse Roman
Rains and Cesarro and more. This originally aired on April tenth, twenty fourteen,
and it is today's wad Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast Interview Classic for Monday,
April eighth, twenty twenty four Welcome to thep W Torch Live Cast. I
am Wade Keller, editor and publisher of the Pro Wrestling Torch weekly newsletter since
nineteen eighty seven and also pwtorch dot Com since nineteen ninety nine. Also free
apps PW Torch and MMA Torch. Those are free in the app store on
your phone, iPhone or Android. Just to a search of PW Torch or
MMA Torch to download our free apps. And also host of the daily PW
Torch live cast. We have different hosts and co hosts paired up every day.
I am on Tuesdays with Jason Powell from the website Pro Wrestling dot Net,
and I also host on mostly Fridays, but sometimes Thursdays with our interview
format, and this week, Interview Friday shifts to Interview Thursday because we have
a guest worth shifting the schedule for. And it is the second appearance on
the program for Stone Cold Steve Austin, top WWE wrestler of all times.
Steve, Welcome to the show, Amen, good to be here. Great
to have you back on. We've got to start by talking about the Ultimate
Warrior, though I haven't done a live cast since I found out about his
death on Tuesday night. I know you mentioned on your show that we had
a chance to talk about Ultimate Warrior the night that had happened, and just
a couple of days later, you know, it's it's starting to sink in.
Uh fully, you know just what a what a strange uh and odd
weekend. It was your your thoughts on the timing, uh, specifically about
Warrior being able to be back in the w w A atmosphere, make amends
with some people, or at least have some small talk and get some of
that tension worked out that existed with some people he had known a long time,
and then just to find out the next day after his appearance on Raw
that he was gone. It's just it's so eerie and uh and and kind
of hard to fully grasp. Man, I tell you what, Yeah,
I really didn't know what to think. And you and I talk the other
night, and I got the news, I got a text from Chris Jericho
and I saw that uh voicemail you left me listen to the voicemail. Of
course, you and me started talking, and it's like, man, I
don't know. It was real strange. You know. I was sitting on
the front row right there, pretty close to Kog and he was up there
and he carried that tale up there and he was sweating a lot. Yeah,
And UH, I kind of watched the uh the promo back he did
on Money not wrong because I didn't see it live, and uh, I
don't know. It just uh, it was almost like he was seemingly for
predicting his own death. So I thought that it's kind of what he was
alluding to. But man, I just wonder what happened. Everybody has all
this speculation, but I'm very interested in seeing what the autopsy says happened to
the Warrior. And so I couldn't believe it. Man, just to come
back to the company, and you know, there was a lot of heat.
There ain't no denying that there's a lot of heat between WARG and WWE.
They come back together, they got big plans and you know, gonna
do the Legends thing. It's gonna be a little bit of a folks for
the company. And then you know, the night after or the day after
money Night Row, He's gone. And I'll just tell you what. It
really made me sad because I wasn't really good friends with the Warrior. I
just remember back in when I first came to the company around Wrestleman in twelve
a little bit before then, I'd only been around him a couple of times,
but he was always very cool to me. Of course, I used
to go to the sports tournament and watch him as a Dingo warrior. I
was a big fan, and you know, so I just heard a lot
of stories about it. But he was always real cool to me. And
it was just sad to see him go because when he went out there,
he looked at his wife and he says, you know, when you and
I got together, I got in a little bit of trouble, had some
hard times, and you stuck with me, and you looked beautiful tonight and
I love you, and he meant that. And then he addressed both of
his beautiful daughters and told them the best thing he would ever do with with,
you know, the proudest thing he would ever do with be their father.
And then, you know, man, all of a sudden, he
was gone two days later. We really kind of broke my heart. It
did too, And you know, I have mixed feelings about I mix thing
thought the word. I think it's really it's still sad he's gone. And
I mean our synth these and our condolences to his family, especially his daughters
and heck, especially his mom. No parents should have to go to their
son or daughter's funeral, and his wife, as you mentioned, I thought
it was really touching and I think it humanized warrior. He has a deserved
controversial reputation. He said some vile and outlandish things on a wide variety of
subjects politically, very very anti gay, and you know, just things that
I think are reason that he has seen by some people as more than controversial.
But that said, and also his reputation among his peers, and you
know it was among the worst. Teddy Bassi, who I respect tremendously,
was on this show a year ago and just talked about how difficult it would
be to accept him as a Hall of Famer in WWE, and that was
before the announcement was made. So all of that said, I'm really glad
we got to see that maybe at age fifty four there was another side that
either he had grown into or always had, you know, in terms of
being a family man, and the way his daughters looked at Steve. I've
seen a lot of politicians march their young kids, preteen kids onto a stage
and it's uncomfortable. Those two daughters looked at him like he was the center
of their universe. And I mean I got choked up rewatching that on Tuesday
night when I was putting my newsletter together. You're right, the love that
his wife had when she blew like eight kisses in a one and a half
second spand a warrior as he said how much he loved her. That was
real, and I so it hurts more because it humanized him, and he
kind of came into our lives again for a few days with the Hall of
Fame mania and raw. But I feel good that in this tragedy he got
a chance to say how he felt about for the most important people in his
life, and not a lot of people who die prematurely get that chance.
Yeah. I mean, his girls were so cute up there, and it
was just I walked, you know, they followed the warrior the whole time
he was back. He had cameras, guys were coming up to him,
and we're doing interviews with him. I think I talked to a warrior about
year, year and a half, go on the phone about two times,
just call him by some nutritious stuff and just shooting breeze. Yeah, and
and so then, you know, I never got a chance to go up
and shake his hands, say hey, congratulations in the Hall of Fame,
or just say hi. But his wife stopped me there in the hallway there
with his two daughters that introduced herself to me, you know, shook both
his daughter's hands and said how cute they looked, and just had about a
you know, one minute conversation with him that I wrote off from the sunset
and then my meal. But hell, I was, you know, upset
with myself that I didn't go up to a warrior, I call him gym
and just shake his hands, say hey man, what's up, and all
of a sudden, now he's gone. That'll ever happen. But to your
point, hey man, you know, I think the love for his mother,
his wife and his two daughters was damn sure real. And you know,
he singled ted out there when he called him out about the clothes lines
down in mid South. It was a little uncomfortable because you put ted on
the spot and you know, there was still a little bit of heat going
there because he really single ted out. But it was what it was.
I don't want to, uh, you know, go any front of down
that path, but you know, he just had a very interesting relationship with
a lot of the guys. I don't concerner myself having a real friendship or
kinship with him, but he was always cool to me and I'm really,
really sad to see him gone. You had mentioned a minute ago that you
are curious about the autopsy report coming back and some preliminary reports, and I
think his wife reporting CMC or I witnesses saying he clutched his chest, and
reports of being a massive heart attack. If it turns out to be a
massive heart attack in that autopsy report, which seems to be more than just
speculation at this point, I'll put it that way, how are wrestlers going
to react to that? In an industry where the vast majority of guys at
one point or another, not to the degree in the vast majority case is
a ultimate Warrior have used steroids? In the idea that steroids there's a lot
of correlation between years of heavy steroid use and heart conditions, especially with people
with pre existing conditions. Does that scare you as a wrestler. Do you
think that's going to scare other wrestlers who have used steroids? How much could
Warrior change the way people look at that side of this business that doesn't get
talked about a lot. Man, I want to the autopsy results. I
mean, it could have been something with this hardy, you know, through
any sport, whether it's football, body building, power lift, and you
know the track record. I mean, there's a high mortality rate among pro
wrestlers and it's a combination of things, so, you know, along with
a lot of hard work guys. So I don't want to single out steroids.
Uh, could they or were they? Possibly a big part of this,
absolutely, but let's wait to see what the autopsy says. And as
far as maybe some lifestyle changes that some guys might need to make, Yeah,
it could open up a few eyes, no doubt about that. I
don't think anybody's gonna deny you know that the Warrior you steroids, but let's
see really what the autopsy says before you know, we really go there.
Yeah, yep. Anytime you're watching ww E Raw or SmackDown or AEW Dynamite
in particular, send us an email if you've got thoughts on the show or
a topic you want us to address or a question for us. Wade Kellor
podcast at Peter Uporch dot com, Wadekeller Podcast at Pewtorch dot com. If
there's anything else going on in pro wrestling that you want us to address on
our main podcast during our mailbank segments that same email applies Wade Keller podcast at
pw toorch dot com. We invite that interaction. Let us know what you
think of what we're saying, and let us know what you want us to
talk about and ask us specific questions. Wade Keller podcast at pw torch dot
com. All right, we've got a lot of people that are calling into
the show, and we're going to get to some calls. We're not going
to get to all calls, so he's going to be with us for about
an hour, a little bit of a VIP after show after that for VIP
members, and we've got some really good email questions on such a wide array
of subjects. I do, as Steve does on his show, want to
take one moment to bring up our sponsor here on the PW torch livecap.
Let's go to an email question first, and this is a topical question.
Steve from Tom from Minneapolis. He says, Wade and Steve, I've been
a VIP member since your half off sale last year. I'm mostly an audio
subscriber. It's worth it for that alone. Thanks for all your hard work.
My question is about the choice to work. Daniel Brian's arm and do
an injury angle with it when you know you want him to celebrate the yes
chance at the end of the night the next night and that in that match,
I guess I think Brian should have sold his arm during the celebration and
on raw the next night. Steve, do you think Brian should have or
should they have worked an injury angle on another body part? Thanks if you
use my question what about that? See, it's philosophically an interesting question about
how long do you sell an injury that you're making a big deal out of,
you know, one week or one day, and then you know,
follow it up on the next day or the next week. Man, I
didn't pay attention to how bad that arm was hurt. But you know,
you want to sell that injury, but you know you're gonna have some recovery
powers. That being said, I mean, you don't want to just start
webbing that thing around, you know, like you're waving a green flag at
Lanscar. But you know, maybe you know it's great win singing a little
bit as you raise that arm up, but you know then finally you know,
it kind of unhinges and it is when it is, so you know,
you got to protect the business or at least respect the business a little
bit in that regard. But that being said, there are some liberties taken
during a celebration, no doubt. Yeah. Yeah, if there's ever an
excuse not to, it's when your gimmick is to, you know, do
the arms movement when you're channing. Yes, when that's your whole gimmick,
and that's when that adrinllaline kind of kicks in. Yeah, bim dorphin,
so seemingly, you know, you're not crapping on what just happened or trying
to, you know, demean it. It's still there. But that's where
the emotions take over and you're able to go ahead and function. And hey,
really that's kind of when you let the people off the hook to a
degree. Okay, let's celebrate this and have a little bit of fun.
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Michael Smith from Stormville, New York
says, huge fan of all you guys work at the Torch and a huge
fan of Steve Austin as well. I've heard that Steve might have Undertaker on
his podcast in the coming weeks. Is this ver true? If it is,
what on earth is he going to do to prepare for that interview,
and how much does he expect to get out of Taker. As far as
the decision with Lesner goes, well, you know, I went up to
Undertake first of all, just said hello, that's a tremendous amount of respect
for that guy, and been down the road with him for a lot of
miles, not traveling together, just you know, in the business, and
so I just I told him. I just walked up to him and said,
hey, man, this is probably not the best time to ask this,
but I do a podcast. I wouldn't I'd like to know if you
wouldn't mind being a guest. He looked at me and said sure. So
when that's gonna happen, I have no idea because right now I'm in Los
Angeles, and when I when I talk with Undertaker, I'm going to drive
down to Austin and have a face to face conversation with him, so we
can really do the interview some justice. And it'll take a lot of research.
And because as much as I know about Taker, you know, there's
you know, as you know, a way you got to do your research.
So I want to do my due diligence and when I'm able to get
down to my ranch in Texas. Then I'll make a trip up to Austin
if you'll welcome in his house, and that's when I'll do the interview.
But again, it's on his terms. I was happy enough that he said
yes, but it's gonna be. I can't give you a date because I
don't know when that's gonna happen. It might be. It might be two
weeks, it might be six weeks, mind me, ten weeks. All
I know is the man said he talk to me, and I'll leave it
like that. Excellent, that's going to be a big show. You still
having a blast doing your podcast, by the way, and being the interviewer
instead of the intervieweek, you know it is. It's fun way, But
you know, I was out there doing my I did a reality show called
Broke. It's called Challist for Country Music Television. It's gonna premiere on July
six for sm T. And when I was out there, man, we're
pretty much working, you know. I get up and the cracking non,
get my work out in, take Hershey for a hike, and then I've
got to do my work all day and do the show. So I didn't
get a chance to really talk to anybody for several weeks, and I'm thankful
enough that the wrestling fans are so damn tremendous and other questions to my email
address and I can just sit there and answer questions. But believe me,
I get bored talking to myself with myself for myself, and love the interaction
of talking to people. So I'm looking I'm having a blast with it.
To answer your question, I just I like doing interviews and yeah, being
on asking and just not real there's so much an interview way more like a
conversation. Yeah that's how I felt when I was on your show last November.
But you're good at it, you know, and I'm not surprised by
it, and you're taking it seriously. You take it seriously as you did
your wrestling career. Man. Yeah, if you're gonna do something, if
you want to do the best of your ability. That being said, you
know, that's just like going out to the square and circle. Man,
Sometimes you go hit a grand slam. Sometimes you're going to hit a double,
you know. Sometimes you might even strike out. So here's what it
is. But you're always swinging for the fence, any time you turn on
the microphone, just like you do with your show. Sticking with the Undertaker
theme, v IP member Jason from Florida says, I was listening to Steve's
podcast with Big Show yesterday. They were both in complete agreement about how much
they hated the idea of the streak potentially ending. Obviously this was recorded weeks
ago. They discussed how important the legacy of the Streak is and what an
important figure Mark Kellaway is on and off camera. Steve even so much as
said that he would not respect the guy who even considered the idea of being
the guy who ended it. So now that all a said and done,
what was The's first reaction when he watched Rock Can Take Aer on Sunday?
Has his opinion changed in any way since Sunday? And if Steve had a
book, what would he have done with Brock next? A lot of questions
are Steve. But yeah, it's interesting. I was in the same camp
as you. I was very against anybody winning the streak. I thought it
would backfire on them if they'd ended Taker Streak. And but I'm at peace
with what happened on Sunday. I think it's maybe about the only scenario I
can imagine where you know, stuff that's kind of behind the scenes. Along
with what Paul Hayman was able to turn that into on Monday, it was
able to turn into something I could accept and be at peace with. Well,
I mean, I was in the production drug I was getting ready to
head back Hotellers, so I I found out that it was Brock and Taker.
I had to see that match. So I watched there in the truck
with Kevin dunewhile he was calling all the angles and it was, you know,
a very hard fought match, and when you know, Rock went over
that crowd jaws dropped and just people could not believe it. Hill. I
couldn't believe it, And I was like, that was the finish? Really?
And you know you didn't You didn't know going in. I didn't know
the finish going into it. Yeah, nobody told me, and I didn't
ask because I don't want to know. I wanted to watch it. Yeah,
and he shot it shot me, uh, because I just wanted to
take it to go twenty two and oh, it's just so special. And
Brock is a damn good friend of mine. Excuse the language. Brock is
a very good friend of mine, so you can say, damn the shock.
Okay, the fact you have to win is fine with me. And
I didn't get a chance to see the Paul Hayman interview on Monday, but
heard it was just pure platinum. So if anybody's going to break the streak,
I'm glad it was. Glad it was brock. Some people had a
few issues saying, well, he's not a full timer. Well, it
is what it is. And uh, I think you know, if this
was on Taker's end, it was a thing where he wanted I'm guessing I'm
gonna put moreds in his mouth and maybe I'll find out when I talk to
him. But hey, at the end of at the end of his run,
or maybe you know, he wanted to just pass the torch rather than
just stay twenty two and oh and then right off of the sunset, he
wanted to do quote unquote the right thing and pass the torch. Steve,
you get asked a lot about Hope Ogan and what you know, when are
you going to face him or why didn't you face him? And Undertaker obviously
is inasmuch as he exposes himself to people who are gonna bug him about that
kind of thing throughout the year. He gets asked all the time since the
streak became a big deal, you know, who's going to be opponent next
year? You know, are you going to keep doing it? When I
Paul Bear on this show in August of twenty twelve and December twenty twelve,
just a few weeks before he died, actually he talked about how you know,
just yeah, Undertaker gets asked out all the time, and I try
not to bug him too much about it, but it's always on his mind.
I wondered, and this is part of many reasons I wrote about in
the Person Coach newsletter this week about it. One of the reasons I'm at
peace with that finish is because I think Undertaker now, if he can't wrestle
again physically, and he's been through so much physically, he doesn't now have
to figure out on Monday morning when he wakes up after you know, with
the streak over, he doesn't have to sit here and deal with the pr
aspect of how am I going to say I'm not going to quote defend the
streak next year. He doesn't have to work worry about maybe trying to do
it one more time and put his body through what it took for him to
get in ring shape again. He gets to wake up and have that burden
off his shoulders. So it was like Matt Hughes when he first lost the
welterweight title. Uh said right afterwards in the octagon, it's a relief.
I'm not sad. It's a lot of pressure. That's part of the reason
I'm at peace with it because I think it's kind of potentially at this point,
not knowing Mark's perspective, Mark Hallowe Undertaker's perpective on it, it might
be a little selfish of us to say we wanted the streak to go on,
because if Mark wanted it to end, that's the right ending to the
street. Well, again, the key there is if Mark wanted it to
end, and I certainly don't think Mark did anything he didn't want to do.
Yeah, I'm at peace with it either way, just because you know,
I'm from I'm from the business, and it shot me and I was
I wanted to see this, this great stay intact. I didn't look at
you know, the the angle of ay Taker always waking up and saying,
who's going to have to defend the streak against his just eyes heys pro wrestling.
To me, I'm still a pro wrestler, but I'm still a fan
as well, So you know I didn't I didn't go into that much as
that deep of thinking. I just wanted to see Taker go over. What
would you do as a as a fan? You say you watch our think
of the fan? Also, what would you like to see if the fan
happened with brock Lesner next? And how would you utilize whatever power got passed
to Lesnar by being the person who Pintaker. How would you utilize that to
make the most out of it. Oh, well, it was a very
special win to break that streak, and I would heat and bronc up to
just be a pure monster, run through everybody on the roster until next year,
and then see what happened at Brusselmania and seeing who they want to put
in position to be the be the next guy and have those two guys go
head to head. Now, there's a few names that we could obviously to
start throwing up, but I'd rather not do that. So, just talking
specifically about brock Lesner, I'd heat his ass up and just keep him,
keep him an animal. I'd actually see if I could get a few more
dates out of Hi. Might payhim a little bit more money, but make
him, you know, a little bit more regular on TV and just put
a ton of steam on him. And Paul Hayman been cutting some damn good
promos and you know, bron Just when Bronck was walking down a ramp the
other day, then you're scared the hell out of me. Boy. You
talked about menacing and tough, everything that a hero wants to be. I
would feed him up and just have him run through everybody like a hot knife.
Drew Butter, I agree with that. I agree with that. Need
an extra dose of positivity in your wrestling podcasts. Will come join me Alan
fourrel Over in the Progress Paradise at Peenews Torch vip as. We mask on
the bright side of wrestling and focus on some of the great matches and shows
from around the world, be it the US, Japan, Europe or Mexico.
There's always a place for wrestlings past and the Paradise too, and we've
done fun historical shows such as the We Love Liger series celebrating the glorious career
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I want to make one more note sponsor wise, and that is that
Pro Wrestling Torch sponsors PW torch libcast and if you are not a VIP member,
pw torch dot com. Back to questions and now Steve, let's go
to the phone lines and go to a VIP member. Carl from a lack
of Minnesota. Carl, thanks for your membership and welcome to the show you're
on with Steve Austin. Hey, hey, you've take my call absolutely.
What have you got for Steve today? My first question for Steve is if
you were to come back for wrestlmating A thirty one or thirty two. Hypothetically,
who would you rather work with John Senor hypothetically if CM punk came back,
who do you think would be a better program? And obviously i'd love
to see the dynamics of you and Hayman doing promos would be magnificent. And
of course you guys have history together. I was wondering what your opinion on
that was. Man, I'll tell you what I think. That's six one
and a half dozen the other both of them, it really be saifty safety.
You know, they've been the big war dres if And I'm not again,
I'm not settling the match, but I think I could knock a grand
Slam out of the park with either guy. And that's and that's that's the
truth. Have you ruled out a return? I mean, I'm not saying
put percentage on it, but is there a chance that you still consider the
possibility? Maybe maybe as far as i'd go, yeah much, I'm pretty
much passed it. Yeah, Yeah, all right, very good. Let's
go to our next call. Air quote five seven. Oh it's the VIP
member Larry from Pennsylvania on the VP Express line. Larry, thanks for calling.
What have you got for Steve? Austin today. Alright, thanks Bully.
Actually I just listened to your interviews on Stonefold's podcast today too, So
I just found that podcast, Steve, and I'm really enjoying it a lot.
Man, Steve, Steve real quick, Larry hold on Steve plug where
people can find it. I assume people know where it is if they're listening
to this show, but tell people how they can find it. And about
the two versions. Yeah, there's two versions of the Steve Boston Show.
The Family Friendly Show drops on Tuesday. Steve Boston Show at least, which
is explicit content language wise, it's everything but the kitchen Sync. They're both
free downloads. You download them for free and you can go to podcast one
dot com and iTunes and I'm under the Sports and Recreation department under iTunes.
So Tuesday and Thursday one Family Friendly that you can listen to with your kids.
Yeah, went off the charts with the language and Tuesday Thursday podcast one
dot com and iTunes. Thank you. And Michael Hayes just went up with
it just today, Steve, I know, I hit refreshing thought just went
up today. They actually need to go out, you know, about midnight
the night before. So talked to Michael Hayes Free Birds and talk a little
bit about Russell Maya thirty. I was gonna do a Russell Mallia thirty show,
and I'm gonna do that for this coming Tuesday. I didn't get a
chance to see the entire cards, so Kevin Dunn sending me a DVD.
I'll rewatch everything and do my wrestle Mania third thirty show this coming Tuesday.
Cool, I'll go ahead, Larry, Sorry about that. Yeah, that
was a great interview with with Wade. By the way, man, I
appreciate everything to do Wade that that was awesome. Thank you appreciate it.
Yeah, uh st cold? How long did it now? Obviously end ring
You're a great on the mic and stuff, but when you started plodcappening with
it hard to adjust to that. Yeah, it was a little bit hard
because all of a sudden, you just sitting there with a microphone and you're
in front of you It's like, well, okay, what they are got
to say? The first time I had timpted the podcast, it was kind
of my test runner, and I hit the wall in about ten minutes,
and I didn't know whether to crap or wind my watch. So then I
started taking a few note and then started, you know, started the interview
process. And some of those interviews were a little bit on the rough side.
So now I know to do my due diligence, my research and anytime,
you know, if it's just me talking, you know, answering questions,
I've picked out all those questions ahead of time. I've got a little
bit of material written down in front of me, and sometimes I just turned
on the mic and just start talking. But it does take a while.
And I think the way you can attest to this anything you do, and
I think this goes with anything in life. On the job, training and
repetition are key, So the more you do it, the better you get
at it. That instead go ahead, god. Yeah. That being said,
I'm not saying I'm the best there is or pro with this, because
when you go to some of these radio stations and watch some of these guys
have been doing this for twenty twenty five years, they're bad at yes,
but my message is what it is, and that's what people expect out of
my podcast, and that's what they'd get. Audio will pass and remembered to
them. Ride in the day here, fair good, Larry anything else your
tea. Uh. I just listened to the rt of V uh the r
V one that you had where your your wife had all the blankets and stuff
and you had to go to Walmart and uh get and get a sleeping bag.
I guess my question is how hard is it for you to go out
in public? I mean, I think in that episode you said your wife
went into Walmart for you. Is it really tough for you to just go
out there in public and go to a store and stuff like that without being
her ass and stuff? Well, and in Los Angeles I can pretty much
go everywhere anywhere and not really get bothered. Now you go to South Texas
and uh into a Walmart, you know, it'd be like Michael Jackson walking
into a place. So uh, it all depends. You know. Back
in the day when I was on Monday Night Raw every single week and we
were doing you know, stupid race thing, it was pretty crazy. Things
have simmered dad a little bit. Uh. You know, the more exposed
you have, the easier it is for people to recognize you. That been
said, man, I wear camo baseball cap, sunglasses. I'm only you
know, six one six two two sixty, so I couldn't blend in pretty
good, whereas you know, you look at Hull Cog and you look at
Rock you know two you know, big good looking guys that are you know,
very unique. I can blend in a little bit better than they can.
Cool Larry, appreciate the cank uh and the questions. Yes, thanks
lot, guys, thank you these you bet Let's go to another Yeah,
if you remember, also named Larry, but over in Atlanta. Larry,
welcome to the program. You're on with Stone Cold Steve Boston. Hey cool,
thanks thanks? Wait, yeah, so, I uh two questions.
Hopefully I'm not getting intro for the first one, but I've been wondering about
this question. Uh you want to one one on some CLO's personal life to
as a career, you know, I guess I guess one I guess I
was disappointed about was kind of the domestic incidents that Steve had. I guess
I'm kind of wondering what he's learned from those situations, if it's anything that
he has sort of been self reflective about, because I figured there's a lot
of misinformation out there and I'm not even sure if see would be wanted to
talk about what exactly lent down the nature went pleasure. There's really the pleasure
to talk about something like that. Go ahead and go to the next question.
Okay, go Aheadry, I put you on hold because I wanted Steve
to be Atlanta. Go ahead, Larry, Sure, all right, no
problem. Well that's understandable. The second question, though, career wise,
is you know you you had a great run as Stunning Steve and w c
W and then when you came in as the ring master, you know you
you kind of like you were talking about with your early podcast, did you
kind of hit that wall as far as what you could do career wise,
as far as the ability that you could have to move upward? What do
you feel like you learned that really needs you more comfortable and more able to
break out and and kind of tap in your real personality. Well, let's
stone call Steve Austin. I. All I have to do is go out
there and turn the volume up and uh be aggressive in nature. As far
as in regards to competition, fighting for a spottle on that roster. Uh,
you know, someone tells you you're gonna come in and be the ring
master, it's kind of hard to wrap your head and your heart around that
and be that the master of the ring. It sounded sounded pretty good with
Vince's pitching it because I needed a job, But once you get out there
and start doing it, it sounds like crap. So you know, it's
fighting, fighting the right, dialing it in and then going for it.
Do you do you think that? Do you think that the Stunning Steve character,
you know, kind of where your experience level and your head was at
the time. Do you feel like that was a good enough vehicle to kind
of reflect your your person at the time. You know, maybe not as
ideal as stone Cold, but you know, something along those lines as you
were getting started, I think Stunning Steve Olson was a guy who was trying
to emulate a lot of what Rick Flair did, And of course we all
know that there's only one Rick Flair and that style wasn't or me trying to
go down that road was what was going to take me to the top.
But maybe it was my rendition of my version of a vein of Rick Flair,
because he was very influential, in my opinion, the greatest professional wrestler
that's ever lipped. Give yourself a reason to look forward to going to the
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Paper Copy. We have an email question we got that I just pulled up.
I remember it about the ringmaster gimmick. This is a Jose from OXYNRD,
California. He says. Austin says that the Ringmaster wasn't for him,
who does he think would have taken that character and made a good run with
it. I was thinking somebody like Shane Douglas swig a beer for the working
man, you know, someone who would have been a real a lot better
technical restaurant than Mad Scientific would have been good at that. But that being
said, you know, the Ringmaster. It is what it is. I
don't see a much of merch flying off the show. Yeah, yeah,
well, put all right, let's go to another VF. You remember Brian
from Minnesota and then in the nine to five too, Brian, how's it
going? It's gone good. Guys. Steve, you said you were inside
the truck at WrestleMania thirty. I have a question about the graphic coming up
that said twenty one in one. Was that someone in the truck saying that
to go up and then pull it down to bring on the effect in the
shock longer? Or was that just a mistake, if you know, I
have no idea about that. I was just sitting there drinking a beer and
watching the show, and so when I saw it come up, I wasn't
pay any attention to I was trying to listen to the commentary. So yeah,
I don't know whether it's a mistake or what the plan was for that
at all. Okay, I'll saw. I was curious, how did you
get involved in when with WrestleMania thirty. How was it pitched to you?
And by whom it feel comfortable and saying to take part in the Wrestlingia thirties.
There's a few people that approached me about it, and then uh talk
to me about the opening deal with the two guys that done business with and
uh, so you know, I knew probably ill two two and a half,
three weeks before before the event happened, that I would be there.
Was there any consideration of any fourth person being in that mix? I can't
think of one person who absolutely belonged on the stage with you three, But
was there any consideration with whether it's Bruno or Sean or Flair anybody else being
in there with you? No, it was always pitch. The only pitch
to me was with Hogan Rock myself. Yeah, and I think it makes
sense. I mean, that was a unique opportunity in that crowd, with
Hulk finally being back and not as an active wrestler. It just yeah,
I mean, had you three ever been in the same room together. I
don't know if there's an obviously yes or not of that. I can't remember.
Well, you know, I can't remember if we have or not.
Maybe maybe when when Hogan and Nash and Scott Hall came in, we might
have been, but not like that. It was funny because we was at
the gorilla position, you know, the holding area before but it goes out
and we were laughing, and we know we kind of it was kind of
you know, Hogan was gonna talk, I was gonna talk, Rock was
going to talk. But other than that, I mean, you know,
people just kind of we just kind of said, well, we were going
to say it. All of a sudden, we're back there and we're laughing
and joking, and I think Hogan was very excited about being back in the
mix and being back home because I think a WWE is his home. He
had so much to do with the early days of it, and uh,
it was just in such such an important part of pro wrestling. And then
he went out there did his thing and he called it the Silver Dome.
I don't care very well. So it was brought to my attention and we
were back there laughing. Our hands is off, so I called it the
Silver Dome too, and left it to Rock to correct it with the Superdome.
So it was all It was very fun. It was very loose and
a lot of adrenaline back there, and we all three had damn good time.
It was a pleasure to be in the ring with those two guys while
really really look up to both of them. Somebody asked us trying to find
his email to give him credit for somebody I'd asked by email if if Hogan
knew the line was coming, do you want me to take open a can
of Whoopath and Hulk Hogan? Did he know that was coming? Or was
that one of the improvisers at the moment? No, I was totally done
in the moment. I had to say something because I knew I was gonna
put him over and say, you know, because people thought, you know,
all through our careers, people thought there's been a lot of heat between
myself and Hogan. There's never been any heat. It's a very competitive issue.
You know. He had a very long run. I had a very
intense shorter run. So both runs were very distinct and very different. Yeah,
but when you're caught up in the mix, this guy like asking Lebron
James. How good Kevin Durantz is doing right now. He's going to put
him over a little bit, but not like you know, because he's in
the game and so you know, I never did have a bunch of blowing
things to say about Hogan back it probably the same token made that we're competitive
guys. And now that I've been away from the game for a long time,
you know, got no problem. And I wanted to show our respects
to Hogan and make sure that everyone know that there's no Adams you no heat
there. I got a lot of respect for what that guy did. But
yes, that was that was a total adlimb. He didn't know what was
coming, and I put him on the hook and then I let him off
the hook just just because that's what you do out there. Yeah. Yeah,
by the way, credit for that question just is from Adam. I
want to give him a shout out. He also Adam also wants to know,
Steve, did you try to get have you tried to get Tentic Man
on the Steve Austin Show, And if not, is there any chance that
would be amazing? Yeah? I would have Vince on the show here pretty
quick. I mean not pretty quick, but yeah, in the near future,
I would like to He's already agreed to do the show. It's just
about figning the right time and place. Yeah, cool, excellent, that'd
be great. Wissemania thirty I saw Vince plenty, but he's so damn busy
on a WrestleMania that is not a good time to ask a man for an
hour of his times. No, no, yeah, I I feel the
same way. Run with men a weekend with my job. I can only
imagine Vince can only imagine that. All right, let's let's keep going through
the phone calls. Here, let's go next to air code three one nine
three one nine, Please stay to name it where you're calling from. This
is Andrew c Rappids, Iowa. Andrew, thanks for calling. What have
you got for Stone Cold Steve Boston today? Yeah, this is an honor
to talk to you, Steve and Wade. I was checking stuff on Amazon,
so you caught me at the wrong time. But my question is,
I assumed that you worked with Dencruso in the I Fudera. How much credit
do you give him for your character? And when he went to w CW,
like, how did you feel about that? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
as far as miss Russo goes, as far as my character, that
was me. As far as did he help, Oh he's tremendous. I
had a lot of fun working with Vince rus So. He had some great
ideas and sometimes you had to reel Vince end a little bit, Bence rus
So in a little bit. But he was certainly ready to push envelope and
had a lot of great ideas. And uh, yeah, I take all
the credit, but I give credit where credits due. Vent Russo had some
good ideas and I enjoyed working with him. And what was that? What
was the w c W question? Oh, how'd you feel when he left?
Oh? You know, that's that's the restling business. And you know
when he went down to w c W, I don't think he was just
he was as successful as he was in WWE. I think, uh,
he had a good mind, but sometimes, you know, left to his
own devices, would go too far. And and you know, some of
the some of the ideas weren't so great. So I think within the confines
with someone to keep him reeled in, very good, but left to his
own devices, maybe not as good as he was in w W. Uh,
very good. We'll put let's go to uh Eric code eight six four,
South Carolina. Please state your name in the city you're calling from.
Oh, yes, this is Charles sitting from orbs Outh. Herelana, Charls.
What have you got for some cold? Oh? They' got two quick
questions? What movie project so are you currently working on? And if you
could play any role, what would it be? Man, I scratched a
couple of things that I was working on, and right now I'm just trying
to cool my jets a little bit. I just got bit of shooting met
like I said, that show for CMT, So nothing right now and the
movie works and U As far as playing any role, man, I don't
know. That's the damn good question, A question I don't have an answer
to. You know what. Hell, if I go go back and be
Paul Newman and cool hand Luke, that'd be a pretty good spots. So
let me jump in real quick, Charles, and you can hold on.
Somebody had emailed and wanted to know when you're gonna do a buddy flick with
the Rock if anything like that hasn't talked about it about you and Rock doing
a movie together, Well, I can ask that all the time, and
I'm the rock does as well. Rock's playing up there in the big leagues,
so you know that'd be more of a question to ask the rock.
Well, hopefully I get a chance. That'd be fun have them money.
Go ahead, Charles, all right, real quickly album the video kind of
own now, But I wanted to know, did you ever see the YouTube
video with Stone code et and what were your thoughts about that? Yeah?
Sel I thought it was pretty funny. It wasn't viral, but you know,
you know, and it was real funny. But you know, that's
all I can say about it. I mean, it was what it was,
alright, very good, Charles, appreciate the call. Well, keep
moving through calls here, so many people on hold. Let's go to Massachusetts
next there code nine to seven eight. Please let us know your name and
what city you're calling from. Going once, going twice? There we go?
All right. Every Sunday night, catch Wrestling Night in America on PW
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Night in America every Sunday. PW Torchdailycast dot com. Let's go to New
York next, Derek code nine one seven nine one seven. Please state your
name and where you're calling from. Hey Darren, guys, this is Joe
from in New York. Joe, thanks for Colin. What have you got
for stone Cold? A more or less a comment and a question? I
was just looking on Facebook and DDP actually just posted an apology for that crap
dated on Nancy Gracier's Today where they just the media just loves to blame steroids
on everything that happens. You're willy bagging around going to the school bus,
break your Ankle. It's because I was taking steroids. And one of the
videos that they showed on her show was a capture of like all these wrestlers
who had passed away from steroids, and one of the wrestlers on the video
was Owen Hart, and I just felt this absolutely disgusting and irresponsible for her
to even have her video on a television show just shows stupid stuff like that.
Man, it's absolutely disgusting. You know, learn learns, you know,
knowledge yourself on the fact, you know, wait for the autops to
reports to come out, and everything they do today is now blamed on steroids
just pisses me off. And my question for Steve if he had to have
a one offshoot dream match at WrestleMania in his time against anyone that's ever lived
in wrestling, who would want to main events in wrestlingia? Man, that's
a that's a that's a good question. Yeah, oh those yeah, since
since uh since my favorite pro wrest with Ric Flair. If you could have
put if you could have put Rick Flair at thirty five versus uh Stone coach
Steve Austin at thirty five, I think you'd had a hill of a damn
match what arena, Oh man, it hadn't been it hadn't be a stadium.
But if it was gonna do it arena or you know, a regular
building, it have to be the Chicago Roseman or Madison Square Garden go on
or god there you or you could take it down Thereto Greensboro. That's what
I was thinking down there. Yeah, you gotta go down there in the
Flair Country. I'd be a heel. I was gonna say, just for
fun too, would be fun to do it in the Sportatorium following up Von
Eric Freebert's match. But are they absol That bill is not big enough.
But yeah, we might take it down Thereto Greensboro because that is a day
I'm pure wrestling country. Oh man, such great Reflaire matches there, absolutely,
I'm you know, And I want to say to Joe long Island,
I didn't see the Nancy Gray segment, and I'm sure it's Nancy Grace.
So there's plenty of room for to pick. Apart the lack of the lack
of diligence, I think it's completely fair to bring up steroids. At the
stage of the argument. Ultimate Warrior was very, very very open and a
proponent of them. He obviously took a lot of them, he admitted and
defended taking a lot of them, and he died at age fifty four while
clutching his chest. According to reports, it would be a derelict of duty
for any journalists not to bring up that subject and not to talk about it.
You don't have to wait for an autopsy to in the right context speak
about that possibility. And Steve, but I think it's it's just it depends
on the tone. And I think the reason people get upset with Nancy Grace
is it seems she's kind of that ambulance chasing journalist looking to exploit a situation
for a week and then forget about it. And I think that's different than
what we do at the Torch, where we've been talking about this for twenty
six years, every consistently, whether it's a glamorous story or not. It's
not just a ratings yet. And steroids is an issue in wrestling, and
when somebody who was a proponent of it admitted to taking them while he was
in wrestling, out of him dies while clutching his chest at age fifty four
while swating profusely for three days before that it's it's fair to talk about it.
It's just all about tone and not seeming like you're trying to exploit the
situation. Is that fair, Stief? I think you're headed down the right
track your way. But to the to the other person's point, I saw
that scrolling list and saw Owen Hart's name on it. I mean, if
you're gonna do something, you get your stuff straight. I also heard another
thing from Colin Hurd talking about a bunch of guys who weren't good enough to
make it in football and they can eat down a living, uh you know,
maybe makes some damn good money by getting into pro wrestling, basically looking
down on the industry as a bunch of guys who aren't good enough to play
pro football so they decided to get in the squared circle and used steroids.
So I thought his whole tone and delivery was way off course and totally disrespectful,
you know, to think, I guess pretty good at what it does.
But yeah, and a lot of times I'm right on base with with
a mansion Grace, Uh that's your name, right, yep, Yeah,
sorry, I'm getting them extra So yeah, many times I'm on base with
what she says, but yeah, and like you said, Wade, yeah,
if you can, damn sure and bring in steroids. But again,
you know, show me the damn autopsy and there's no design that he used
the damn the stuff. But to your point, it's total Yeah, yeah,
and it just don't look like you're just trying to go out there and
just draw ratings by being as bombastic and jump into conclusions as possible. One
more question on the seriate issue and then we'll go on from there. Steve,
I don't know have you have you went with other colleagues over the years
ever just sitting down before after the matches in the locker room. Is it's
something that wrestlers talk about with each other in terms of not just steroids but
supplements, just like keeping trying to be healthy, well, doing what helps
you in your career, keep up with everybody else and what they're doing.
Do you ever had have you ever had buddies or friends or people you respected
in wrestling younger older come up to you or talk to them about you know,
what are we doing? Are we being safe? Are we worried about
the long term ramifications? Are we worried about how much you can get away
with taking before it turns into an issue when you are in your fifties as
opposed to live in a happy life to your eighties, nineties or hundredths.
Man, I think that's that's kind of more of a friend I have question.
You're going to ask somebody that's pretty tight with rather than just someone that
you don't know the same let me let me ask you about your regimen.
Uh yeah, yeah, friends will always talk, but just guys as far
as being colleagues, I mean, that's a pretty close personal matter, and
so I don't know too many people that would share that kind of full one
one. Uh. And certainly I didn't know what the parameters of the wellness
policy or whatever's in places right now. So uh, that's a that's a
pretty private matter for a lot of guys, you know, whether you're talking
about anything in regards to their personal business, that's pretty closed subject. Yeah.
So if fans out there have this idea that some rookie shows up and
it's able to just walk up to a ten year veteran and go, hey,
what should I be on? What supplements are good? Is there you
have a place where I can get some you know, a doctor who'll get
me some you know, legal testostero and that's that's. It doesn't go like
that at all. No, no, no, no, no, no,
no, man. I mean yeah, yeah, yeah, you know,
everything is that's that's a pretty private matter. Yeah yeah, all right.
Let's go back to the phone lines here, go to New Jersey next
in aera code six oh nine. Thanks for calling sixs on nine. Please
state your name in the city you're calling from. Wow, Thank you Wade.
This is Lewis from New Jersey. Thank you Wade for taking my call
because I was trying to call him last time, like fifteen minutes before the
show. I didn't get in. But yeah, don't hold big fan of
yours. I got. I got three questions, but don't worry. They're
pretty quick. Okay, all right, my first question. Just ask them
all at once, wait or one. I'll go ahead, ask them out
once and I'll take quick notes so we keep track. Sorry, definitely,
all right. Well, I actually missed the opportunity to actually like meet you
because I was I was on the same plane that you were in, but
you were in you were in first class, and I was making my way
to the back. But the plane wasn't packed at all, and I was
like in a tugger war with myself Steve, because I was I was saying
myself, Wow, like, what should I approach him? I'm a smart
mark. But if I approach him he I'm scared that he's gonna give me
some type of treatment. He's gonna think I'm like a casual mark. So
I have no idea how to do it, and I just missed my opportunity.
So can you educate the smart marks and the casual marks on how you
would like them to approach you if they just want to have like a casual
conversation with you next. I hope he took that down weight. So I
just want to know it because of the fact that your character has been I
mean, your your actual Steve Williams personality, because you said that your character
was more of a intense version of yourself since the tone down version has been
exposed so much on TVD. If you did have a program with somebody,
how how would you want to portray your character now that there's been so much
exposure. And last to not least, I have to know, are you
a I know that your catchphrase was don't trust anybody, but were you a
loner because I'm a loner too. But I'm a loner because I enjoy my
alone time. But I want to know, what do you think in your
past made you a loner? Was it backstabbings? Was it like you know
anything? Was it because you just learned how to enjoy your own company?
Like? What was it? And that's pretty much it? I got you
taking my clone absolutely absolutely, yeah, Steeple. What's advice for how fanciuld
approach wrestlers in public? If they should and under what circumstances is it okay?
And when is it? Definitely not? Man, I'll tell you what.
That's just that that's a hitter missh type thing. I mean, because
man, I'm an entertainment business. I always want to be nice to everybody,
and I appreciate anybody that's able to help me make a living. And
for the most part, man, I'm about ninety eight percent always owned.
But every now and then, man, I have a real bad day or
I have had some bad news, just like anybody else has, and it's
not such a great time. But at the very least I can say hey,
man, say hey, Steve, big fan, and what if I
can get your autograph or hey Steve, big fans just want to say I
like what you do, or you know, it's okay to approach people,
but kind of read them a little bit because you can tell somebody some people
you know obviously by just by body language, they don't want to be bothered.
I never try to use that body language. But again, man,
all the guys and gals out there or anybody shown business is a human being,
and it's just like when you have a real bad day and you really
don't want anybody to come up to you and bothering you. It's one of
those things. But I always try to I like to think them about ninety
eight percent use a friendly How about the h the idea that people have gotten
to know you and not your character? Would that change the way you would
portray your character? My take is you're You're You're the real you is so
damn close to stone cold that I don't know that that would even cross your
mind to be an issue these days, and the girls my mind to be
an issue at all. I think it actually it would enhance everything because people
actually know, uh, yeah, I have a humor and I'm a regular
guy. But all of a sudden. That's one of the things I was
I was talking about Jerry Loli the other day. One thing that one thing
I enjoyed so much about Lawla's work was you could get him revved up in
a red hot angle. But he could start, you know, at five
hundred RPMs and get all the way to eight thousand RPMs. Uh, just
even at the height of an angle. So you know, there's there's those
those those ranges, there's those levels, and so yeah, they would only
it give me more material to work with. Actually, yeah, yeah,
people have gotten to people have gotten to know you. And it doesn't you
know, just just because of the fact that I like to lollygag around,
have a few beers and lap my ash up all day doesn't mean you can't
get me mad in the order ready to fight. And if we've got a
championship melt on the lad of some personal issues, we're gonna ring up the
cash register. Yep, yep. Thanks for downloading today's show. Take it
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slash go vip and finally, U talk about like liking your alone time,
being a loner, deep deep, psychoanalyzed. You know why you are
the way you are? No, man, I just always been like that,
maybe as shy as a kid. You know now you know, being
stone cold, being around you know, thousands and thousands of people and entertaining
people. Uh man, left my own devices. I'm I'm happy as a
lark. Uh It's like when I go do my round television show, whether
it's Bred mc galland or Bus Call Challenge, met up around one hundred people
all day long for a month or two and as fun as hell. I'm
laughing. We're having the time. But when there's time to go home,
and I just got to Hurshy the wonder dog out there with you. We're
going our two mile high hike. I love being by myself and sometimes I
think about all kinds of stuff. Sometimes I don't think about anything. I
listen to a country of musical sharrock and roll up. I want to try
to think of something I enjoy being alone. That don't get me wrong.
Yeah, yeah, I enjoyed being alone. Then again, I enjoy people
too, so it was, Uh, it's just part of my personality.
I guess. Uh, let's go next to eight oh four. This is
Virginia. Please state your name in the city you're calling from. Yes,
how you doing? This is Wayne's VFP member north of Chestervale, Virginia.
How you doing? Way? Doing good thing for me? And on?
What have you got for stone Cold today? All right? First, I
said, it's an honor to be talking to you, Steve Aouston. I'm
a long time fan, and I just wanted to say thank you for all
of your contributions in the wrestling business or for all these years. I just
want to say thank you for the entertaining moment. I appreciate it. Man.
I had a good time doing it, best job I ever had a
right I do have a question. I'm not sure if this has been asked
already, but out of all the Manion matches that you've had over the years,
is there one or more wrestler that you, you know, always wanted
to face but never got the opportunity to do so. And if so,
who would those be? I always you know, a superstar, Billy Graham,
best you roach, two guys you could talk, a Blue Streak,
Nikita Kohloff, Magnum t a man within the hands of Stone, Ronnie Garvin.
Just a couple of guys just to pick out randomly. Uh you know,
yeah, hell only Anderson, even Arnt Andson. I restared a couple
of times in Japan and some other places, but you know, never when
I was in really Stone called mode. But a lot of respect for the
Andersons. Only in Arnt. Uh yeah, Tully Blanchard, you know some
of those guys have been fun to work with, very good. Let's squeeze
in a last few phone calls here in the final minutes on the free part
of the live cast. Here by the way, you can find remember a
week where so many things good and bad and in the middle. Happened in
such a concentrated period of time that I mean, I it was, it
was just one thing after another. By the time the Hall of Fame happened,
I thought, well, that's gonna be the biggest thing for a week.
And now it seems like a distant memory with everything that happened since it's
been a whirlwind. Man. Yeah, I'm looking forward to just again.
I got the DVD from WWE to watch Rustbody at thirty and I watched a
lot of this stuff while I was there, But now they get a chance
to go back to it in detail and just just enjoy the eventful what it
was. H But and you know again, you know the news a warrior
again. God y, I mean, you never ever want to hear about
anybody that, but someone that you know in the business and the fact that
they've just you know, buried the hatchet and come together and everything was gonna
be fine. And for that guy who walks across the parking lot with his
wife and just keeled over and died, just a terrible thing is and and
those two daughters, I mean for him to introduce you know a lot of
people keep their family private, and they like to be private. You're one
of those people. And and then there's some people who are who you know,
like Ultimate Org is like, Hey, I want I'm gonna bring my
daughters out here and my wife and my mom and and I want to tell
them what I think about him. And I just think the fact that we
get that, that Jim Helwig Warrior gets to have people remember him as a
father and a son and a husband the way that he did, I think
is something that for as tragic and horrible and sad as his dying on Tuesday
was, there's that the the little bit of positive in there is is I
think he got to show people the different side of him than what a lot
of people saw in between his his you know, after his wrestling career,
before his Hall of Fame speech, and like you said, he got to
make amends behind the scenes too. It's you know, it's way too soon,
but I think it's a positive that had happened after and not before this
weekend, I'll put it that way, you know. And you know there
was ah he made a menage with with with the Brash and Shannon, the
deal with the higher ups w W, and I I don't think that,
you know, he made amends with all the boys, because I'm sure some
of the guys are still had an extra grind against him. Nonetheless, when
one of the boys goes down, when when anybody goes down, it's not
good. You know, I really talk about guy really was judged by his
family. Let's take two more quick calls and then we'll sign off on the
live show and give the VD members a little something extra with a couple of
topics including Daniel Bryant and see him punk with Steve Austin after the music.
But let's go to Missouri first, Ara Goo three one four, Please state
your name and where you're coming from, Tyl. I'm gonna give his name.
Hey, Damien, go real quick because we've got a BA connection with
you. Just I just want to say, is an honor to be talking
to one of my favorite restlers of all times? So cold? Oh well,
yeah, I got with that being said. Do you think now,
of course you everybody knows the crowd shit skew you had with instance man,
and I believe that the stuff going on with Daniel Bryan and the authority today
is almost like I wouldn't say it cart and copy play is pretty much influenced
by the stuff you did with vin Do you think that the will has one
dry with having the Heal Authority figure going to get the baby Face rent group.
I just want to get your thought from the think, Damen well Man.
I mean, and it's almost like watching the movie because it's really it's
hard to have an original movie anymore because they all borrow from the one before
it, And so same with the with the game of pro wrestling. You
know a lot of the storylines that were just rehashed with different people playing those
parts. So I you know, I don't know if the well has run
dry. It's it's just all in the creativity and uh, you know how
it's executed on TV, and you know you have I don't know, I
think in a situation like that, if that's what they're doing, uh,
loosen up the script a little bit so there can be that spontaneity where that
seemingly anything can happen, and it will. It can be it will stay
fresh and will stay effective as a storyline. And there's there's never been a
more perfect dynamic than you and Vincent. Man. It wasn't like, well,
that's a good idea, but let's improve upon it. There wasn't room
for improvement. You know, you had Vince mc mann as an announcer,
a babyface, you know, conscious of the promotion, you know, cheerleader
type guy for you know, fifteen twenty thirty years on television. However long,
it wasn't at the point that which he turned heel and then your character,
you know, the working man against the arrogant boss. It just it's
it's one of those things where you're just doomed to fail trying to copy it.
And that's that's part of the I think the reason it's it's one of
those angles we maybe have seen enough at least for a while until that next
good, you know, perfect circumstance comes around. Although Stephanie and Hunter have
had their moments of being really effective in that kind of arrogant, aristocratic you
know, look down there, look down at the fans type characters. I
mean, they play those roles well and certainly Daniel Bryan is fantastic in his
role. So it's kind of fun. Aspects of it are fun, but
it is part of me just thinks it was never done before you and Vince
Steve, So why does it have to be done every year afterwards. Well,
I'll tell you and all the people you know, Triple Edged Death and
Daniel Bryan all they're all doing a tremendous job. And it's been fun to
watch some of the stuff that I've seen. But when when you're talking about,
you know, Austin versus McMahon, you're talking about two of the hottest
characters or hottest uh personalities of all time at rest at the peak of professional
wrestling, and so the states had never been higher, and the business had
never been hotter, and so they're they're doing a tremendous job telling the story
they're telling right now. It's just hard. It's hard to compete with what
we did because it was so damn real, and it was so unscripted,
and it was spontaneous, and half the time we knew where we were going,
we didn't know how we were going to get there, and then unfolded
on television and you damn sure believed every single bit you saw because that's how
it was portrayed, and and so that that that might have give us the
edge, But make no mistake about it, it's always an intriguing storyline and
I just look look forward to see them now with how they proceed from here
with their storyline. Let's go to our list Call of the day. This
will be uh nine seven eight Matthachusetts. Let us know your name and what's
did you're calling from. Hi's Kevin from Boston. Hey, Kevin, thanks
for colling. What have you got for stone Colding? Hi, Steve,
I just want to see if you had a chance to get the WE network
and what you think of it. Yeah, man, I have not ordered
the WW network yet. I was just talking to Kevin Dunn yesterday because he's
produced his Money Night row and I was in the truck washing with him and
I just sent him a text message, case you send me a DVD of
the show so I can break down the show from my podcast. And he
goes. First of all, he said yes, and I have the DVD
sitting right in front of me. And then he says, have you tried
out for WW network yet? When you do, let me know. I
haven't tried it out. But it's nine ninety nine a month. That's one
hundred and twenty bucks a year. That's the hell of a deal. It
includes all of the major pay per views, all twelve of them. Including
WrestleMania. I don't have any experience with it. I've yet to try it.
I'm really bad about spending my mon and that's why the Steve Bollson shows
a great you downloaded for free. I'm not on the computer too much time,
so i don't know that i'd be able to get my money's worth out
of it, and god, thang, I'm just a cheap master. I
guess well, you can get an Apple TV for about ninety nine bucks and
hook it up to your TV and watch it on your TV, so we'll,
well, you're right about that, But I mean, I just know,
you know, I probably should because I like watching a lot of the
matches from back in the day. Way next time I come on show,
if I've done the ww network yet, I'll do my full review of it
on your show. Sounds good and world Class. They've got some episodes of
world Class from early Ladies on there, and that's some of my favorite stuff.
I hit refreshing look for the new ones that they put up, because
there's some shows that pre date the show airing and syndication in my area,
so it's cool to see that stuff. All right, Kevin appreciate the call.
Any follow up for Steve is that it? Oh yeah, just a
one quick question to see what movie should I watch first? The package of
damage Damage all right, cool quick plug for PW Torch dot com dot com.
Steve, We're gonna play the music, come back on the other side
and hit you up with a couple of rapid fire topics before you right off
into the sunset bore. Thank you very much. I'm hoky. People can
follow you on Twitter too. We can get you a couple of Twitter followers.
You have like three billion. Hey, you can check me out on
Twitter at Steve Aston BSR. The BSR stands for Broken Scow Ranch. Somebody
was already had Steve Austen, So I am Steve Austen BSR. And that's
the bottom line because I said so, thanks Steve. I really appreciate you
taking time on I know a super busy week for you to be on the
show again today. Yep, you got it absolutely on the other side of
the music, a couple of quick topics on the VT After show with Stone
Cold Steve Austin. Longing for some mistalgia or maybe you want to learn some
wrestling history, don't miss the nineties past asked. Every Friday on the PW
Torch Daly Cast Feed, Alex and Patrick will transport you thirty years into the
past by taking you through the Torch issue from that very week, follow news
from the WWF and WCW and all the happenings from across the wrestling industry in
real time as The Torch reported it thirty years ago. That's the nineties pass
cast every Friday on the PW Torch Daily Cast Feed. All right, Steve,
we're now in the VFP after show portion of the program, and I
got a question here from a reader that's one that I wanted to ask,
which is, do you think Daniel Brian is the guy who will now that
he's champion, draw, sell out, draw well and sellout shows and draw
TV ratings. That's from Cody B from Iowa. Well, what are your
thoughts on Daniel Brian now that he is the unified champion, the second unified
champion since and you wanted in December. First of all, I'm glad to
see Daniel Brian is the champion, and I think it's got to be a
tremendous feeling of pride for himself and everything that has accomplished. You know,
he's not the biggest guy in the world, he's not the best looking guy
in the world. He's a hell of a damn worker. He's a unique
personality and I just hope he carries the belt to the best of his ability.
And I know without a shadow of a doubt that's what he'll do.
Now, whether he maintains ratings, whether he draws houses in the arenas,
that is going to be the Proof's going to be in the pudding, So
there's no use to even be speculating about that. When the receipts come in,
that's what we will know. But I'm proud of him and I'm happy
for him. I know a lot of people look at the crowd reactions that
Daniel Brian gets and go, that is enough reason to put the machine behind
him and see how far they can ride him. And then there's other people
of wide range, people in the industry on the outside, who go,
you know, look at him. He's yes, he's getting a crowd reaction,
but it's kind of just because it's fun to chant. Yes, And
he's a great hand in the ring. He's got great energy, and you
know, it's the gimmick with replation. Steph is a reflection of all people
feel about him behind the scenes, which is the crowd reactions are intense,
but the only people who really will pay to see him are the people in
the buildings, and we need somebody who draws from the mainstream and can represent
the brand. How do you How do you feel about those two arguments?
Because I haven't seen in a long time a crowd reaction for Daniel Bryant like
this. I want to see what they can make out of it. I
don't want them to in a I don't want there to be a sense of
we're trying to prove that we were right, that he's not a draw.
I want the machine behind him to see what he can do because the crowd
reaction to me is unorthodox and worth exploring. Oh it's just a name,
this crowd reaction, I'm saying them in a long long time, really don't
think I've ever see aything like him than that. Yes, chance, but
everybody pumping their fist like they new. So the fact that he took the
battle of made them right. The machine needs to get behind him one hundred
and twenty percent and push him through the move. Yeah, yeah, I'm
excited. And as a worker, is there anybody that he reminds you of
as a worker in terms of his style and what he brings to the table
and what what do you most respect about what he does in the ring as
a workers offense, his selling uh plane to the crowd, his comebacks like
from a from a great worker's perspective. What do you see that is that
is really good or great about Dania Bryant. I just like his body of
work. Sometimes I'll see, you know, uh, shades of Japanese style
and him shades of uh Steve Regal and him, which are you know too?
Obviously two tremendous styles. Just a mechanic Uh, pretty much, you
know, peerless. Everything looks good? H great hall fense Uh No,
Gaps is a damn good worker. So I give his work an eight plus.
Wow. Yeah, yeah, very good. Got a lot of email
questions. I'll just kind of summarize them, and it's my question too,
were you thinking, because I don't think you had it necessarily like any he
had a ton of inside information on what went on with CM Punk, Phil
Brooks and the meeting with insect Man that led him to walking out. Did
you ever, did you think going into WrestleMania that he might show up at
WrestleMania And kind of part two to that is, how do you feel about
the way that he left before his contract expired, now that it looks like
he probably isn't coming back, It seems like it was going to happen.
It might have happened already while I'm predicted on my show, Steve Wofson's show,
that he was going to come back at wrestle Media because I really thought,
you know, this is just obviously it would just suggesting that part that
whatever Bill fillings, heart feelings, bad feelings, whatever, would be washed
away by then and there'd be a conversation, the handshake and maybe some agreements
made and he'd be back on the roster and back on the guard and at
WrestleMania thirty. Obviously it didn't happen that way, but you know again i'd
have to you know, ask c him punk, you know, to his
face or on the phone, you know, exactly what's going on, What
are you feeling. I know it was frustrated, you know, around Christmas
time, and that's all I know. He didn't show up, you know,
because I left for the reasons that I did, and so he might
have some of those same feelings, but each each me leaving and him leaving
are two entirely different things. They're both very specific to what's in my brain
or what was in my brain, and what's in his brain. Now,
all I know is when you breach your contract, you don't get your royalty
money. When you breach your contract, you're pretty well screwed. You can't
do anything else. They don't have to pay you. So, you know
the you only have so many bumps, so many years left in your body.
You know this is a twenty by twenty ring when that's what you're really
good at in life, and that's what he's really good at. And not
to say he's not good at anything else. I just don't know what kind
of money he can generate in any other walk of life. Generate as much
money as you can now make, hay while the sun is still shining,
then right off into the sunset. You know. That's my take on it.
But and again I'm not belittling or criticizing Shampunk. It is what it
is. I just know that when I left the way I did, I
regretted it and I lost a lot of money. But my biggest regret was
that was not the right thing to do. That was not the way to
handle those situation. I should have showed up in Atlanta talk tonishman man face
to face, come to a better conclusion, and that I walked out.
Still, I would have faced him face to face and not just left on
an airplane over a phone call. And that's just speaking for myself. Yeah,
And I'm glad to clarify that because I thought you were just politically getting
screwed over with what they wanted to do. And I thought it totally made
sense for you to use your clout to say this doesn't feel right, this
feels like there's something else going on here, This is bad for business,
this is not the right way to do a match with Brock. Let's do
it right. And so I feel like sometimes when you apologize, I felt
like, no, no, I want you to stand up for that,
because I think there was some some ps going on in terms of why they
were wanting to do that when they wanted to do it. But I really
respect what you said, which is I should have shown up at the building
and gone face to face with Vince and been more specific about trying to find
a middle ground, and that that that I can definitely agree. I can
definitely see that point of view for sure. Also, they gave me the
courtesy of letting me know an advance you know, what we were thinking about
doing in ninety nine point nine percent of the time. It was great.
I only made a few modifications the one I heard that one. It just
you know, like I said, Brock's a good friend of mine. Back
then, we all knew Brock was gonna be a big star. That wasn't
the way to make him. Atlanta And in an unadvertised match against stone Cold
Steve Aston and I'm gonna slip him over. That rubbed me the wrong way
very quickly, and I was running up and down the road making all my
shots, drawing money white hot, and I thought it was weak of bad
business and a real crappy decision, and I responded accordingly. Had they not
given me that advanced call, I would have just showed up because I wouldn't
have known what was going on, and we would have had that ultimate face
to face and I'll guarant damn tea and then I wouldn't have done the job.
But I'd kept my job by the same token. Yeah, yeah,
two quick ones and we'll wrap up, if that's good with you, mister
Tith Hall of Fame. Your reaction, somebody e mailed and wanted to know
what you thought sitting through that speech. Well, you know, mister t
I watched thomsonting right there next to O Kogan, watching all that stuff back
and you know, thirty years ago, and I looked over at the hook.
I said, man, some of that stuff you guys did back in
was just badass, and it was just, you know, brought back a
lot of memories because I remember watching all that stuff, and so you know,
I'm not the biggest fan of the celebrity wing, but if he's going
to go in the celebrity wing, he's a damn good member to go in.
As far as the speech itself goes, Hey, man, you know,
I know the man respects and loves his mother, and I get that.
But you know, when I saw him walk up there and those pages
looked to me about an inch thick, I knew he was in for a
long ride. And finally, you know, they crashed Canes music and Glenn
came out there and gave him the hook. So it got a little got
a little long winded, and I thought that they had kind of went through
a little rehearsal process where they you know, kind of tightened people's interviews up,
and then it just turned into a free for all. And I got
a lot of respect from mister T. I met him at the day of
the Hall of Fame, I mean Rustlemania, and talked to him. His
pro bo went a little bit long, as my point, and I have
no problem with him respecting his mother and loving his mother, because it sounds
like, by all accounts, she did an incredible job, and so did
he as a father with what his kids have accomplished. Was was there any
sense that the next day he was kind of sheepish about how things went,
or was this kind of that was yesterday? Oh, I didn't notice any,
no sheepishness at all. That was yesterday, and he was you know,
that's mister T. You know he's a pretty straight up. Then.
That's the first time I'd ever met the guy, and was very happy to
me because I was a big fan of everything that he accomplished, loved watch
would do what he did in the wrestling business. And yesterday was yesterday.
Roman Rains and Cesarro. Two guys who seem to be on the fast track.
Do you have your money on both of them or one of them a
lot or a little more than the other in terms of one two three years
down the line being good candidates to be headlining some paper views. I've got
my money on both guys. Both those guys were big stars. They both
have an incredible look. I think you know, Roman Range is part of
that shield. You know, that's a great storyline in and of itself,
and the storylines, you know, the Vegan news to split him out of
that one of these days, how they have to cilitate that process will be
what it is. He's got a great look, he's a damn good worker.
Seems like he's got a real good head on his shoulder. I'm talked
him a little bit. I'm putting my money on him. Antonio Cesaro.
Now did they did they bust him away from zeb Couldran put him with Paul
Hayman the other day? But yeah, although I don't know where that's going
because it seemed like they were turning a babyface and then Paul Haman comes out
to management manage him and Hayman. Earlier in the show, it's getting tons
of heel heat for bragging about Lesnard beat and takers, So I'm really curious
where that's going. I assume they have a definite path in mind, but
I have a hard time believe in Steve they're gonna keep Czarrow with Hayman.
If the goal is to keep Cesarrow baby face, I'm sorry, keep him
heal, I'm sorry, keep him face. But I don't know if they
can turn him heel if he stays with him, and if he keeps doing
the giant swing because fans pop for it. So I'm really intrigued. I
have no idea where they're going with it. Well I'm really intrigued too because
I saw it go down or heard of it. But man, that guy,
he's an incredible physical specimen. Again, great body, He's mostly just
an absolutely strong person in the gym. He's a hell of a man worker
some of those things that need to throw them guys up in there and hit
them with that flipper. I want to see him find it. I want
to find out who Antonio Cesarrow it really is. Whereas when I see and
think Roman Range, I just I don't know a whole lot about it,
but I kind of get it a little bit more than I do with Antonio
Cesaro. And to your point, I thought, man, the guy just
he's got a great body and he's so talented. In the ring, I
saw baby face first, then hell, So maybe the heel thing when the
Hayman might be a little forced or a little bit rushed, But Paul dangerously
or Paul Hayman is pure platinum. So either way it turns out, I
was surprised to see them allegedly go hell or heading down the road hill with
Antonio czero. But I think the same thing for both guys, six and
one half does the other. I predict very bright futures for both of these
young men, and I talked to both of them and they seem like outstanding
people. That's a big endorsement. Steve, Thank you so much for your
time. It's just again, I really appreciate you taking time today. No,
it's such a busy week in a whirl win week for you, so
it was great talking with you, and I appreciate you taking life calls and
all those email topics too. Hey man, I appreciate it. Way.
It's good talking the other night. It's always good to talk to you.
Let me get on my jet school and everything. I'd love to have you
back on my podcast. Maybe in a couple of days. I'll just call
you back and we'll check your schedule see if you can do it. This
would be great. I'm actually pretty open. I've kind of kept my schedule
clear after Mania to just relax a little bit, so talking with you would
be a great way to do that. Okay, man, I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on the show, you bet. Thanks Steve,
all right, Thanks all the VP members too for joining us today, and
thank you for your support what we do here at VIP. The VIP After
Show is a is one of the ways we try to thank you for your
support what we do. And on that note, I will sign off until
next time. Invite you to email the show with feedback or questions or comments.
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