I Listen So You Don't Have To: Steve Austin Show Ep. 148

Austin answered reader e-mails this episode
Photo Credit: WWE.com

If you're new, here's the rundown: I listen to a handful of wrestling podcasts each week. Too many, probably, though certainly not all of them. In the interest of saving you time — in case you have the restraint to skip certain episodes — the plan is to give the bare bones of a given show and let you decide if it’s worth investing the time to hear the whole thing. There are better wrestling podcasts out there, of course, but these are the ones in my regular rotation that I feel best fit the category of hit or miss. If I can save other folks some time, I'm happy to do so.

Show: Steve Austin Show Unleashed
Episode: 148
Run Time: 1:33:52
Guest: None

Summary: Austin opens with a tale about building his wardrobe for upcoming TV work before getting to the meat — answering reader emails. Topics include his workout and diet regimen, the Attitude Era and current WWE, rules of the Broken Skull Challenge, how to tell the age of deer and worries about the wrestling mat helping to transfer communicable diseases.

Quote of the week: “It was a very deliberate, accurate blow. And if I hadn’t a knocked the dog shit out of him, y’all would have been able to see right through that angle, we would’ve killed all the momentum that we had, it wouldn’t have been as effective, it wouldn’t have made the same sound effect, it wouldn’t have pinged, it would’ve been a dud. And all that hard work that we had put together — Vince on his behalf, me on my behalf, the company from a writing standpoint and a production standpoint, putting the time and money into this angle — had we done one thing that was the drizzling shits, y’all would’ve been able to see right through it. So I knocked the shit out of Vince so we could keep you guys entertained and keep making money. And had I hit Vince with that thing like a sissy, he woulda cussed me out from daylight ‘til dusk, because Vince is a perfectionist, I’m a perfectionist and we had to lay that shit in. Any time myself and Vince ever did anything, it was never to hurt each other, it was never to rib each other, it was always to be the utmost professional that you could be and try to make it as believable as possible.”

Why you should listen: For an email show, this one’s not too bad — when he’s talking about wrestling. I don’t know as if I’ve heard him talk specifically about the skit where he brains Vince McMahon with the bedpan or the bungled entrance of his 1997 Survivor Series match. He explains why he abandoned the Stun Gun move once used in WCW and gives a frank assessment of the most recent RAW episode. The cherry on top, however, is when Austin comes out as a BOliever.

Why you should skip it: Unfortunately, there’s little of value when the topic drifts away from the squared circle. Unless you’re a devoted fan of Stone Cold’s reality show, a fellow workout fiend looking at add muscle mass or a dedicated deer hunter, this show definitely has its low points. As there’s no rhyme or reason to the order of the questions, you kind of have to sift through the chaff to find the wheat.

Final thoughts: I expected to dislike the entire 90 minutes, but darn it if the Stone Cold charm didn’t suck me in. You won’t miss anything by skipping this show, but if the idea of Austin saying whatever comes to his mind without any semblance of a filter is your idea of a good time, this won’t disappoint. If anything, it’s much more enjoyable than Tuesday’s show, and if he has the women’s winner on next Tuesday, this episode will be better than that one, too.