I Listen So You Don't Have To: Steve Austin Show Ep. 269

Austin talks guns 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
Episode: 269 (Nov. 3, 2015)
Run Time: 1:22:13
Guest: Lynn Thompson (3:15)

Summary: Austin recently drove to the Ventura, CA, headquarters of Cold Steel, a knife company, to talk with founder Lynn Thompson. They talked about Thompson’s personal background before getting into his business story: how he started, choosing steel and blade styles. Then they get into Thompson’s fitness and fighting regiment, his hunting history, walking stick collection and spear usage. After a break they do quicker hits on bows, books, big cats and the Cecil the Lion controversy, as well as his appreciation of the NRA and support of police dogs. After the interview, Austin talks about his new beer.

Quote of the week: “It’s a huge mental discipline. The thing I love about shooting is it drives all the stress from your everyday life and your work life out of your mind, because you cannot shoot well and think about anything else. It’s a huge effort of concentration.”

Why you should listen: Do you like shooting stuff? Or stabbing it? Or guys with weird life experiences who are self-made moguls in a somewhat obscure industry? Have we got a show for you…

Why you should skip it: Because this is an hour of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, global icon and national treasure, talking to some super confident knife maker/marital artist guy who has the courage to stare down an elephant with a spear because he happens to be holding an incredibly powerful firearm in his other hand, and has had the extensive training to know right where to shoot the elephant so he can escape tragedy. And so on.

Final thoughts: Thomspon is a fairly popular figure in his own world (calling him a cult hero seems to reductive), so for people in the Venn diagram intersection of the two men, this probably is a dream come true, even if they don’t actually learn much about either guy (the assumption is that for hardcore devotees of either, this is just a flyby). I’ll grant he’s a plenty interesting dude, even if you’re like me and not at all into the same type of activities. But given that we already know plenty about how much Austin likes a good knife and a fair hunt, well, this episode hardly rises to the level of essential. I’d rather hear this chat than one with a band or comic, as Austin seems more in his element as an interviewer, but I’m not going to suggest this is crucial for anybody.