The Steve Austin Show

[cwoy2j]

count me in as someone who doesn't totally understand the whole draw of Dollar Shave Club. I have an electric razor (Rotary) and it still works for me after years. But I guess if you want to use non-electric razors, DSC is for you

 

Anyways, i'm sure the Regal podcast is going to be all sorts of awesome and Austin can expand his WOS YouTube playlist

 

You're just a pawn of Big Shave. Definitely not a friend to the workin man.

[Rev Ray]

For those that didn't listen, it sounds like we've got a part 2 next week.  I think Lillian Garcia in the guest for Thursday.  On Unleased?  Possible mass killings of kittens by the interwebs?

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

For those that didn't listen, it sounds like we've got a part 2 next week.  I think Lillian Garcia in the guest for Thursday.  On Unleased?  Possible mass killings of kittens by the interwebs?

I hope the phone connection is...acceptable hahaha

[Big Fresh]

The Ross Report with Steve Austin Part 2 is up...

In Austin's safe in Texas, he has the Smoking Skull belt, the version of the Winged Eagle belt he won from HBK, and the WCW TV Title. So who wants to form a "DVDVR's Eleven" gang to stage a heist to steal this safe?

[Big Fresh]

Oh shit, another awesome moment just happened. Steve Austin randomly brought up and called out Dave Meltzer for saying Sting never drew money. "Ha! I don't know about that, mister!"

[Valcourt]

The Rgal interview is so awesome for a million reasosn. He is truely a fan and (Naylor has even said this) keeps up with what's going on today and knows who a lot of these new cats are. He also has a love for the past.

I wonder sometimes with the way WWE recruits guys who might not have been into Wrestling before they start in the business, if they realize how amazing having guys like Regal around is for their careers? If not for their careers, but to make them better all around wrestlers. The guy seems to be so selfless when it comes to fidning things for guys and trying to make them better. So awesome. Plus, I just like listening to the dude talk. Austin seemed to really enjoy talking to him. Like listening to friends talk like friends.

Austins pod is growing on me more and more. More so than Colts.

[BurningBeard]

Them reminiscing about making towns, working hard and going out for a few pints of Guiness and a game of darts after sounds like the best time ever. And if you've not seen any of those Marty Jones/Rollerball matches Regal mentioned, run don't walk to Youtube immediately - some of the best wrestling you'll ever see

[Matt D]

The story of Austin, Paul Orndorff & Rick Rude going fishing is awesome. Especially Rude getting high afterwords, watching Cape Fear on TV, and smoking a huge joint while Austin is cleaning the catfish. AND declining to help Austin clean the fish because he was smoking.

 

"You're the worker, I'm the gimmick."

[cwoy2j]

 

The story of Austin, Paul Orndorff & Rick Rude going fishing is awesome. Especially Rude getting high afterwords, watching Cape Fear on TV, and smoking a huge joint while Austin is cleaning the catfish. AND declining to help Austin clean the fish because he was smoking.

 

"You're the worker, I'm the gimmick."

 

 

What episode is that story from?

[Matt D]

 

 

The story of Austin, Paul Orndorff & Rick Rude going fishing is awesome. Especially Rude getting high afterwords, watching Cape Fear on TV, and smoking a huge joint while Austin is cleaning the catfish. AND declining to help Austin clean the fish because he was smoking.

 

"You're the worker, I'm the gimmick."

 

 

What episode is that story from?

 

 

It's from a Manny Fernandes shoot, where Manny was getting pissed at Rude for making him do all the work, and then Rude told him that, and Manny went "Ahhh yeah, you're right, dammit."

[Greggulator]

Regal talks in this about Ricky/Savage at WM3. Ricky apparently hates on the match. Why is that?

[Valcourt]

It was covered earlier in this thread, but it's assumed because Savage wanted it all planned out, not called in the ring. I assume Regals theory is, it isn't as good because of it.

[cool arrow]

It was covered earlier in this thread, but it's assumed because Savage wanted it all planned out, not called in the ring. I assume Regals theory is, it isn't as good because of it.

 

Which seems pretty absurd to me.

[Greggulator]

Ah, okay.

That's a super interesting debate. In my eyes, as a viewer, the final presentation is what counts the most. The finished product is the finished product no matter how you get there.

There are pros and cons to both ways to tell the story.

 

I look at it like this from my admittedly somewhat awful comedy experience:

I generally think improv comedy is terrible. It's largely really untalented people trying to be funny who got conned into giving some improv teacher who didn't know what they were doing $150 or so. However, there are truly talented people at improv. The Christopher Guest/UCB types really know what they're doing on stage and understand the craft of it. They're golden. But there are only a handful of people who can really perform that well.

Stand-up comedy is usually scripted and rehearsed. Even a really untalented performer will have a hard time completely screwing up a well-written bit (not counting "forgetting lines.") But, a lot of times, the crowd isn't reacting the way it's being performed. People who are locked into their lines and bits are just going to lose an audience if they don't understand something's not working.

Figuring out a way to change things up on the fly -- going back to old material that works (if someone's experienced enough to have old material), crowd work, repositioning on a stage, etc. -- and not making it look like an adjustment is what a lot of folks have to learn to do. 

I assume most guys build wrestling matches the same way. They might have an end segment in place and a bunch of spots planned and really good wrestlers know how to change and adapt on the fly. 

 

I'd imagine there are also a bunch of guys who have been told something like "You have 15 minutes, do whatever you want" and go out there and just call an ending on the fly. But either way, I as an audience member have no idea of telling.

 

I see why wrestlers would think calling something on the fly is a better artform -- it's hard-to-do and requires a lot of mastery. But in terms of the end result, does anyone care?

I do think, though, in terms of televised wrestling it's really hard to make adjustments. There are commercial formats and time constraints to follow. I'd imagine it's more like Saturday Night Live -- everything's scripted and changes are being made right to the last second, and even changing the slightest thing can throw the entire rest of the show into total turmoil.

[keith_h]

 

It was covered earlier in this thread, but it's assumed because Savage wanted it all planned out, not called in the ring. I assume Regals theory is, it isn't as good because of it.

 

Which seems pretty absurd to me.

 

 

It's interesting seeing guys opinions on this. A lot of older guys seem to have lesser opinions of guys like DDP and Savage that were known to plan move for move everything that happened (which in this case probably explains why DDP/Savage had awesome matches together). 

 

I was just re-reading Bret Hart's book and he shits all over Flair for only wanting to "call it in the ring" which seems kind of odd since I would assume back in the 70's and 80's when Bret was coming up that would be the way it was done. Maybe it was different in Stampede?

[Big Fresh]

Bret doesn't like anyone who wasn't Bret.

[Cristobal]

It was covered earlier in this thread, but it's assumed because Savage wanted it all planned out, not called in the ring. I assume Regals theory is, it isn't as good because of it.

 

Which seems pretty absurd to me.

To be fair, Regal and Austin both said that "for fans", Steamboat/Savage remains an incredible match. It's probably just that their respect for it as fellow craftsmen falls a bit.

[Zero]

Regal still said he loved it, just looks at it differently. 

[Victator]

The thing to remember about how Savage planned out matches is him and Steamboat improvised on the road and Savage kept what worked and discarded what didn't. The WM 3 match was the culmination of months of work. 

Its worth watching the Hulk/Savage matches from the beginning for this reason. They would try out lots of stuff, some became a staple of their series, while other stuff was never tried again. By 1987 they had it down to an art form. 

In 89 they kind of started from scratch, because Savage no longer had Elizabeth in his corner. They added Sherri and came up with new stuff. 

[Cobra Commander]

i'm guessing the same sort of thing is very true for Savage/DDP matches involving lots of work as to stuff that worked and didn't

 

It's kinda sad nobody was able to get Randy to mention some more about how he decided on stuff to do and stuff to keep when he was perfecting matches with Steamboat/Hogan/etc. Not sure if the information could be pryed out from him but it would have been an interesting listen

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

Lilian interview was pretty good.  Steve is so great.  Lilian seems super cool and willing to try anything.  Crazy story about how she got the job and her first day.  

[supremebve]

I hear people complain about Savage for mapping out his matches, but I think it's bullshit.  Randy Savage had some of my favorite matches as a kid, I don't care why, I don't care how, I just care that when I'm watching Randy Savage wrestle I'm enjoying it.  I don't care if my Italian food is made by an immigrant from Mexico and not Italy, I'm worried about whether it tastes good. 

[Valcourt]

I love Savage.

Like mentioned above that would have been an awesome guy to talk to about working matches and such.

 

I miss Savage.

[BEN!]

I never got the impression that Savage laid out his matches from A to the Z.  It sounded like he'd workshop out a playbook of sorts during the house show run and by the time he got to the big match he'd have his big spots he'd want to incorporate into it ready to go.

 

I've heard Steamboat talk about WM3 before and Savage would quiz him leading up to the match by calling out a number and Steamboat would respond back with the corresponding spot but he didn't sound like he had the match laid out move by move.  I can see why Steamboat wouldn't be as wild about the match as most though since him and Flair would just make it up in the ring every night and Savage was driving him crazy remembering spots for months leading up to one match.

 

Flair said Savage tried to do that with him but he just blew him off because he wanted to just call it in the ring and those guys had great matches together so it's not like Savage couldn't work on the fly.  He was just a control freak.

[Big Fresh]

I think I heard a story about Steamboat actually flying down to Savage's house (where he had a ring) to rehearse the match. That's what rubbed Steamboat the wrong way.

I agree that it really shouldn't matter to the audience. But for the Steamboat, Flair, Regal, and Austin's of the world, that's not how they like to work. Rembrandt doesn't have to love the guys that make those paint-by-numbers pictures either, even if the finished painting is perfectly fine.