I Listen So You Don't Have To: Steve Austin Show Ep. 187

DDP raps with Austin this week
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
Episode: 187 (Jan. 20, 2015)
Run Time: 1:29:28
Guest: Diamond Dallas Page (18:25)

Summary: Austin opens the show by briefly updating his listeners on the state of affairs at 316 Gimmick Street, bringing his wife in for a little back and forth as well. Then he welcomes return guest DDP, with the main focus a talk about the Resurrection of Jake the Snake documentary, including an upcoming trip to a major film festival in Utah, the actual filming of the footage and the way it affected himself, Jake Roberts and Scott Hall. Austin then retells the story from his monologue to Page before talking about his guest’s thriving business and future plans. Shifting to wrestling, they address Randy Savage’s WWE Hall of Fame induction and talk about Page’s WCW opponents like Eddie Guerrero, Ric Flair, Sting, Goldberg and others. At the end, Page talks about how much of his career success he owes to Dusty Rhodes.

Quote of the week: Page: “What do you learn from your mistakes, you know? That’s what life’s all about to me. You can make all the mistakes you need to make, what do you learn from ’em?”

Why you should listen: The target audience here is anyone who needs a DDP fix. The first half of the show will appeal to folks somewhat curious about the Resurrection film, the second half is great for anyone nostalgic for late 1990s WCW. I found the wrestling bit more interesting, especially the detailed story about a “Nitro” match with Sting in which Page lost the world championship.

Why you should skip it: Page doesn’t really break any new ground with his stories of the road to recovery for Hall and Roberts. They have serious stories, but Page has made the rounds already. At this point actually seeing the movie will be a big deal, though it sounds as if so much of it is cut from stuff already aired on YouTube the film itself might be redundant for people who have followed closely. Further, I can’t for the life of me understand why Austin told Page the exact same mundane story of his day he’d already used for the show open, and DDP has nothing to say about Savage that hasn’t already been said by him or a dozen other people.

Final thoughts: I’m not sure what I expected out of this episode. Austin and Page have fantastic chemistry and are great friends in private life, but I think that hampers the interview here because they’ve either had this conversation before in private or don’t know how to change the way they interact for the benefit of listeners. Page has a great story to tell in regards to his documentary, but it’s probably best suited for an appearance on a show like Cheap Heat, where the hosts have more experience directing an interview toward a specific goal. The WCW stuff is OK but not earth-shattering. Mostly I left this disappointed I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected given my experience listening to both guys on a handful of other shows.