Eric Bischoff - SAS CLASSIC

Transcript

The following program is a podcast, Wine.com Production from Hollywood, California, by way of the Broken Skull Ranch. This is the Steve Austin show. Give me a hell. Yeah, yeah. Now here's Steve Austin. All right, buddy, here we go. Let's start this podcast once again. I'm sitting in a hotel room at the Grand Hyatt Regency, and if you can hear airplanes take off and land in the background is because I'm literally right, you know, a couple hundred yards from the runway. And an amazing thing about this airport is, man, you talk about your bad a*s windows man. These these windows are going to be triple pane or whatever because I can hear a little bit of rumbling, but for the most part, for the view that I have and as close as these airplanes are. This is absolutely spectacular. I always dig watching these big airplanes take off and land. American Airlines taking off right now. You hear that rumbling the background air traffic control about a quarter mile away. I know those jets and they're busy g*****n airplanes to and from and landing them all up, put them in a rotation to bring them in and get them out. That's got to be a hectic job and take me back to that airplane movie somebody years ago with Leslie Nielsen and God, they all look all the great cats that were in that movie. One of my favorite movies of all time. So the bad day to quit amphetamines, bad data. Never Lou all kinds of stuff. But in a way, I just watch these airplanes take off reminds me of that movie and the subject at hand I was going to talk about, you know, Dallas, Texas Sport, a terrible world class championship. Breslin way back in the day. And to start the story off, I guess I ended up in the Dallas Fort Worth area in 1986. I just finished playing Junior College Ball and 84 85 or A-380 for whatever it was. I graduated high school in 1983. And I tell you what, man, when I came out of it in high school, I was Mr. Cowboy. We were the Edna Cowboys and my senior year because I was Mr. Bad a*s. I was Mr. Cowboy. I was a running back. I played fullback and tailback. I ran north and south because I was not fast enough to run east or west. I ran over people. I weighed about two hundred and five pounds. My line weighed about hundred and pounds. I made a lot of yards after contact. Now with that being said at today's system, or if I have been in a Houston school, I've probably been sitting on a bench. But this was that Edna, Texas and I was a pretty damn good running back back in the day. On defense, I played linebacker. I liked hitting people. I didn't have great discipline. I always went to the football. But I tell you what, based on my athletic ability, you know, I thought I was going to go to a Division One school. You know, I one took a visit up to Rice University and Rice University. Now they have a great baseball program, but they've never really been known for football, except back in the days in 56, 57, 58, the years my father, Ken Williams, played running back for the rice owls. And when I when my dad was playing with rice, they went to the Cotton Bowl and lost to Navy 21 to seven, and my dad scored Rice's touchdown in that game. So I remember coming out of high school, I thought I was going to be, you know, Division One running back and what tell you what reality set in. And I found out that, you know, being a pretty bad a*s player on a small South Texas team was pretty cool. But when you start looking to the grand scheme of things, not so fast, my friend, as Lee Corso would say. So I had two options, had a chance to go to Wharton County Junior College, which is about 60 miles south of Houston, Texas. Or I could go to Texas Luton College on a half scholarship. I have scholarship. Ain't worth a damn. And I needed the money. My parents have always been middle class, but you know, we work for everything. We had to buy your own car. You had to do your own stuff to buy your own education. My parents didn't have the money to send nobody to college. So Warden County Junior College was my destination, about 60 miles down the road from Edna. And so, man, it was a Wharton Junior County pioneers. The Pioneers is not the fiercest name in the world, but that's what we were, and our colors were white and red or red and white, and they brought me in. And I'll tell you what, man, they were loaded with talent. Here's the thing about junior college football. I found out because when I went to junior college right before I left, I told my mother's friend Evelyn, I said, You know what? I want to know more about it. I said, You know what? I just go down this junior college and I'll make all-American a couple of years, and then I'll get a scholarship to a big school and do that, then end up in the pros. Well, once again, as Lee Corso would say, not so fast, my friend and junior college. You got some of the damnedest athlete in the United States of America. You know, you got some guys with some learning problems. Some dyslexics. Just people that just got off track, maybe they got in trouble, they need a cooling off period. But man, there are some football playing Obi's and a junior college football ranks, which I was soon to find out. So I roll in there. Billy bad a*s thought I was something just like everybody does when they come out of a high school program and go on to college. And I had a lot of confidence and I was ready to run over to my a*s and carry the football. Well, they had a bunch of good running backs. Are they recruited out of the Pasadena and the Houston area? Come in there and these guys are a little bit faster than me? I didn't think they was quite as tough for runners as me, but nonetheless I didn't have enough speed at the junior college level and I believe I was clipping in at about a four nine second and that was a mid four nine and wasn't a 489 and it was a four nine. But from here to five feet away, if you put a sandwich on a table, I was the fastest Gowan team. So anyway, the logical thing, the best thing to do with me since I was a good athlete was moving the linebacker. So there I play linebacker at Wharton Junior College for two years and started. And I remember we got our a*s kicked two years in a row. I believe we finished three and eight and two or nine in the two seasons that I played at Wharton got a junior college and we might have had one more win and that. But it wasn't. It wasn't the greatest program in the world. I met a lot of great guys and made a lot of friends on that team, and I used to keep up with a few of them way back in the day. But yeah, man, just is the same thing with the wrestling thing. You know, there's not too many guys ended up keeping up with an. But once a year, once every two or three years, I'll reach out to somebody and talk about the old days. But then then came the next step, and based on what I'd accomplished, award and kind of junior college based really more on athletic ability and hustle and hustle was the biggest part of my game. Whether I was playing catcher when I played baseball, it was about a five time All-Star playing baseball. It was always about hustling and I've never given up and always scrapping. And if I've missed a ball or something got by me, man, I was back here in a heartbeat, throwing that ball down a second and I had a pretty good arm on me as a catcher. You wouldn't want to steal too many bases on Steve when he was catching. And so anyway, getting back to football based on my athletic ability, I had two offers coming out of Wharton County Junior College for my junior and senior years for college football. And again, you know, I had, you know, designs on being an insurance man just like my father was. And I figured, OK, I'll go get a business degree and I'll get in the insurance business once I get my degree. You know, I thought about being a pro wrestler, but at this point in time, you know, I was just doing the thing education, general studies. But then I was going to segue into business and be an insurance man with my dad. So I had to offer. And that's all I had. Well, actually, I had three offers. I had an offer to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I had an offer to North Texas State University, which is in Denton, Texas, 30 miles away from Dallas, Texas. And then I also had a full ride, this time from Texas Lutheran College in SEGUEM. Well, Texas losing in college. With all due respect, I didn't have the greatest football program in the world, and he's going to take a lot of thumbprints over there. And, you know, I didn't think I really wanted to do the TLC thing. So then I took the visit to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it was phenomenal up there, who is beautiful? They took me scheme. I've been skiing, snow skiing three times in my life and I remember going up to the top of Sandia Peak and skiing down and using that famous snowplow and running over a couple of people in the process because I couldn't put the brakes on fast enough. But that's a whole other story for a whole nother day, and they showed me around campus. I met the coach, had a great visit and everything was cool and the gang and I said, All right, man. They offered me the full ride. And that's when I went to Denton, Texas, to make my other visit to that location. And I went out to Denton and had a bunch of nice guys show me around. And, you know, I'd really had drank too much of my junior college days kind of kicked it up on my sophomore year and was drinking a lot of wild turkey. One on one wanted some beer. We went out North Texas, and I kind of bonded with some of those guys. And it felt like that was going to be the next step for me that I needed to stay in Texas. I really like the universe in Mexico. Lobo's I like the gimmick. I like the mascot. The school was cool. Sandia Mountains, just outside of Albuquerque, was a beautiful location. But man, when it all came down to making a decision, I just couldn't leave the great state of Texas, my home. And so I said, All right. I went in there and saw Corky Nelson, the head coach. He said, We want you to play football here and. I said, all right, I'll sign up. So I remember signing that letter, I came in to Denton, Texas, and I moved into the athletic dormitory and I played football for two years. And again, they brought me in as a linebacker and they had a great linebacker corpse. I played second string linebacker behind a guy named Lance White, who was an outstanding linebacker. And there's just no getting around it. He was better than me, so I backed him up. And I'll never forget we're out on the practice field and it was time to run 40 yard dash. Now, back in the day, my name was still now. Back in the day, my name was still Steve Williams. I had not changed it to Steve Austin. I was still a civilian playing college football. And when my stepfather adopted us and changed our name, that's who I was. You know, my previous name was Steve Anderson after my biological father. So we're out there running 40 yard dash at one time. And I'll tell you what, man? A coach kind of had this perplexed look on his face as I ran back and forth. And finally, it looks at me. And he says, Williams, come here. And so I go over and say, Yeah, coach, what do you want? He goes, You're running a 4:09. I said, Yeah, coach, I always run a 4:09. And he looks at me and he goes, You're junior college coach told me you ran a four seven mile junior college coach was padding my stats to try to help me get another offer to another school for and probably wasn't going to cut it. He was right. He goes for nine. I say Yes, sir, I said I never run a four seven in my life. He says, Get out of here, boy. He was pissed off, so I ran back and joined the guys. So anyway, I played backup linebacker my junior season there at North Texas State with a good amount of time on the field and of course, on kickoff return kickoff coverage. I was on all the special teams doing what I needed to do, getting a free education. Now, along the way, I ran into a math class called algebra and I ran into an accounting cla*s. And I'll tell you what, although I was a National Honor Society student at Edna High School, I think because I had about a B-plus average and really the teachers kind of liked me, but I put them in and they put me in a national honor society. So I was smart, but I wasn't exactly a rocket scientist. And when you through college level math at me, man, I can add, subtract, multiply and divide like nobody's business. But when you throw in world problems and decimals of percentages and all that other stuff, man, forget about it. So I dropped algebra. Then I went over to the accounting cla*s. And I tell you what, man. All the little debits and credits I was thinking to myself, Oh man, this is easy. This is cool. Being an accountant is easy. Well, that's when I threw the more advanced stuff at me, and I probably dropped accounting as well as algebra and picked up some more classes. Now, I don't want this to sound like I'm a quitter when faced with adversity. I just knew that I didn't like math. I didn't like accounting, and being a business major wasn't in the cards for me. So I switched up majors to be a physical education major and I figured, Well, you know what, if I just get a degree, maybe I can go on insurance, or if I just get a degree, I'll turn into a coach. I'll coach high school football, I'll teach a subject or whatever, but that's going to be my game plan. So in a way back to the football field, I remember we was playing at North Texas Stadium and I think these days they've renamed the School University of North Texas. But back in the day, it was a North Texas State University. Where's the main green eagles and the legendary the one and only Hall of Famer mean Joe Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers steel curtain defense played at North Texas State way back in the day. And I was kind of, you know, their claim to fame was that he played football there. Well, we wouldn't so mean when we played. And I remember it was on a kickoff return, our kickoff coverage, and I ran down a field hall and asked with my phone and speed, and I jacked up the dude that I was supposed to, you know, block. And when I did plant on my left leg wrong and I went down on the artificial turf and I was the first time I'd ever played on artificial turf was when I got to North Texas State University, when it was real interesting process because it makes you a little bit fashion your, but your legs stick a little bit more than I do on a grass field. And I went down and what I'd done is tore my ACL and this was the beginning of a long lasting career with knee problems. And that's how I first saw that first ACL. And here's the thing when I went and got the X-rays MRI's on that knee, I had what's called a mop and tear in the middle of the ACL, meaning right in the middle of the ACL, rather than turning it off the or origin or insertion point I toward the middle of a ligament. And so it just kind of froze. Made it out, but it was still connected, it wasn't doing a whole lot of good, but it was now all the way torn the meniscus. The the other aspects of my knee were just fine. So they decided with that ligament being mostly intact but partially torn, with the ACL being in good shape, just rehab and not do surgery. And they scoped it to go in there with the scope and find all this stuff out. The integrity of my knee was fine, so we just said, Hey, will rehab and come back and play the senior season? My senior season, I came back and they decided to position me at weak side. Defensive end and weak side defensive end was a little bit easier position for me just because I didn't have to read so much traffic in the backfield. By the time those centers at the guard started pulling tackles, and by the time the quarterback started doing his business don't hand out with the running backs. It was really too much stuff for a guy like me to digest. So by moving me out to defensive end, it was a much easier read. I was normally working off the tackle of the tight end and so basically jacking him up, you know, looking inside and I had outside contain. Never, ever get hooked. If you get hooked, you're dead. Because that means if I'm out there to get tired, I'm supposed to funnel everything back to the inside of the field. My responsibility was not letting anybody get out, pass me. So every night I'd get hooked and man, it was not good. So it's an embarrassing play when you get hooked by the tight end or the tackle and knocked out of the play. So anyway, I was good enough to start and we had a really, really bad a*s defensive end Tom Midol over on the strong side. And I think time was probably up for all-American or at least all conference, but he was highly touted out of. I think he played Hearst or Hirsch Euless Bedford area here in the DFW area. He was somewhat of a, you know, real local star who was known on the statewide level. He played strong side and Tom was a football player and son of a gun, and I was over the weak side. But anyway, to get back to wrestling, my scholarship ran out and our defensive line coach, I can't remember his name, but I just remember he had a connection with Watkins motor lines. And you know, when you're in college, you know, I had an athletic scholarship. I'll think we could work during the year or whatever the ramifications were. But he would get a lot of the guys on as casuals kind of part time workers at Watkins motor lines. And so man between classes after season. You know, I would go down to the freight dock. I drive into Dallas, Texas, to walk his motor lines and I would load trucks and unload trucks manual labor and I would drive a forklift. And I tell you what, man, my buddy Rob, who played junior college with me. And he came up to North Texas state with me and we were the best of friends. And his dad was a physics professor at Texas A&M University and rob him North Texas State. And we'd carpool back and forth together. Dallas and we were all worked on the same shift. We were both casuals and then we both went full time and we both worked our way up to full time, pretty much faster than anybody else that had really ever been in Watkins. And so I think back in the day and as shoot, I think this is probably 87. I was making 12 bucks an hour working at Watkins motor lines that put me on full time. And you know, I remember, you know, during my college days, we would drive up to the Dallas Board Auditorium, and I had this when I lived in Coeur Hall, the athletic dormitory at North Texas State. I had a little bitty a*s color television. I mean, this is about a 14 or 16 inch. And if that might have been a 12 inch screen because this was way back in the day. And that thing was big and heavy, but the screen wasn't very big. And I tell you what, man, world class championship wrestling was on fire, and man, I probably got about maybe seven or eight nine channels, but Channel 11 KTVI was one of the channels I got. And I tell you what, man, I'd be up late at night. I had my, you know, guys set up there. We'd always use cinder blocks. And so one by one is to make a shelving system and for a good part of the time. One of my roommates left out, so I was room and by myself, which is an absolute luxury. And I shared my bathroom with my suite mates, so it was four guys to one bathroom. That wasn't the funnest thing in the world, but there for a while, I was had a whole room by myself with which was a luxury as I was watching pro wrestling. And then, you know, I got burned out on a college research papers and I decided, You know what, man? The same for me. I think I'm going to drop out and just work over the freight dock full time. So that's what I did unceremoniously. I dropped out of college and I had paid, you know, the athletic scholarship that I had gotten had paid for four solid years of school and I was doing pretty good workloads. You know, 18 hours, 15 hours. I think that last semester I had 13 hours. I was a little bit of a light load. I needed 17 credits, 17 hours to get my degree of physical education and dropped out. And I'll tell you what, when I call my parents, there were none too happy about the fact that, you know, their first kid that was going to graduate college and had an athletic scholarship and had put in four and a half years was about to drop out. And I did. And I actually wasn't really enamored with playing football at North Texas State University, and I actually briefly entertained the thoughts of quitting the football team because I man, it was just hotter than all out there. I didn't see the future of pro football at the time because I saw the writing on the wall, but I wouldn't quit because I signed up on an athletic scholarship. They gave me an opportunity for a spot on that team and I was not going to quit because that would have meant that they could give their scholarship to some other athlete who may have been more deserving. I wanted it more than I do and what I gave them my word that I was going to play for them for two years. I was going to fulfill my commitment to the North Texas State University main green football team, and I did. That was the only reason I quit was because I knew I needed to fill out my obligation because I gave them my word. So football was over. I had paid for that semester by myself. And during the course of my time in North Texas State University, on occasion, we would drive up to the Dallas Auditorium and almost everybody would listen to his podcast knows the sport of Troy was an old rat hole building on the corner of Industrial and Cadiz. And this is an old white building that sport a term written in blue letters. And way back in the day, Elvis Presley played there George Jones, Johnny Cash. I mean it seated. Probably I'm guessing 5000 people, but it was just it smelled like beer pass, hot dogs, popcorn, you name. It's some sweat stench. Concrete floors. And when it went down to the wooden floors, it was just one of the greatest buildings in the history of pro wrestling that I've ever been in. One of my favorites, especially when you had two people back down there and I'm telling you, I used to pay my money and I can't remember how much it cost us to go down there and get in. It might have cost us 10 bucks and we didn't have a lot of money, but we all had 10 bucks and we would load up on my car. I was driving a 76 Monte Carlo. We'd pile in there and we'd be out in the crowd and we'd be drinking at draught beer and old plastic cups. And you know, with all the aforementioned smells in the in the arena, in the atmosphere. And I'm telling you, man, in about 87, 88, you know, that's what things were really started on the decline there. The glory years of world class championship wrestling were kind of an early to mid 80s. And so I a little bit on the decline, but it was still bad. Ash and I remember going out there, my buddies and man, we would drink beer, we get drunk and we throw stuff at the wrestlers and the guys at the heels that had heat. We'd cheer for the babyfaces and everybody, everybody. I don't give a damn if you was a guy or you as a girl, you cheered for the Von Erichs because the Von Erichs were like rock stars back in the day, and I can't overemphasize how over those guys were. I cannot tell you how over the Von Erichs war, like nothing I'd ever seen before. There were gods. And so, man, you cheered for the Von Erichs just because it was a thing to do and you like later on. In my years, you know, I would come to start cheering for the hills because I thought the hill who are cool because of the tactics that they used and I was just a total wrestling fan. Hook, line and sinker. And of course, you know, I had my favorite babyfaces as well, but I tended sometimes to favor the hills because of the cheating and the tactics, the trash talk. And you know, this was back where, you know, wrestling wasn't really exposed like it would come to be. And the principles are still basically the same today, but it's it's a much different business again, going back to the thick of things there. I remember one day, one night, rather we were out there in the audience and it was me and my buddy. Rob and Kari von Erich was out there wrestling somebody and carers always just had those great genetics, that good physique that we frame those jacks. And he was over like God and man, my buddy Robbie, he elbows me in the ribs and he says, Man, you're. Exact guy, you need to get in there and give us a try. Now, first of all, there's no way I was as big as Kerry von Erich. That dude had the next level genetics. But the point I was trying to make was I was big enough at about 250 255 and training like a bodybuilder slash powerlifter and just come off the North Texas State University weightlifting program had long blond hair. I looked the part and was athletic enough, and I was like, you know, all through my junior high days, all through my high school days, I thought in the back of my mind because I love the business so much so that's what I wanted to do. And for you people that have listened to be taught before. You know, I always want to be a musician as well, but I couldn't sing or play an instrument. So, you know, all of a sudden wrestling really becomes a reality for me. And so I'm thinking about it and I'm working on a freight doc. I'm making 12 bucks an hour. Life is good and I got a little. I lived in Denton, Texas, right off an exit by the Texaco station, and I can't remember the name of the street I lived on. But it was a little White House and I had two window unit air conditioners in it and I had put foil all over the exterior of all the windows to keep the heat out because the house was an air conditioned very well and had a color TV and I had a rental. I had a brindle pit bull named Abby that I'd bought from my buddy in high school, and I had Abby since she was seven weeks old. And man, I tell you what, life was good and life was simple. And like I said, pretty much all I had was a refrigerator. I can't even remember of microwaves existed back in. I had a color TV buildable console on a cinder block, was a one by 12s, and I had a remote control. And I think that's all you need in life. A couch, a bed, two air conditioner units and a color TV. And I worked on a freight dock and I'm thinking, Hey, man, this is good. And I turn on TV one time, and all of a sudden there's a commercial and it's on a world class championship wrestling. And it's a guy known none other than Gentleman Chris Adams from Stratford on Avon, wherever I was from England. And he was pumping up the fact that he was starting a wrestling school down at the sport, a tournament. I watched that commercial and for forty five dollars, you could go down there and listen to this guy, put on a seminar for an hour and he would tell you what he was going to teach you, how he was going to teach it to you for 45 bucks. You go to the seminar and he would teach you and tell you about the wrestling school. And I was sitting there and that was revelation. I said, Man, forty five bucks go down on a Saturday morning right after they do the television taping because they they shoot the live show Friday night. That was a match. That was when all the big matches went on. And then Saturday morning, at 10:00 a.m., they'd come back and do television. They went out later that night for the next week. And so this little seminar was going to be after that morning's television taping. And so I figured, you know what? This is something that I have got to be a part of. And so I figured, man, I better scrap together my best outfit. And here's what I wore back in the day. There used to be a company they might still be around called Jarboe, and they were kind of fancy pants and, you know, you just button and zip up on your waistline. And then they had snaps. You button around your ankles and you wore loafers with them. So I had to go. They wanted a black pair of loafers, black jarboe jeans. I had a purple izod shirt and I had long blond hair and I was the best clothes that I owned. And so I was going to roll up to the sport of trim in this outfit. And believe me, man, I'm a guy that doesn't like to get dressed up, but this is about as dressed up as I could get. And I think I look pretty damn presentable. So I go up to the sport dome. I park my car and I didn't go to the matches. I came after the matches and right when I get there, I can see a line forming outside the single door. And these were all the people that were going to be going to Chris Adams Wrestling School seminar. Nobody is going to join up yet. It cost forty five bucks just to get in a seminar and hear what the business was about and Chris Christmas presentation. So I'll never forget I'm standing in line long blond hair, purple shirt, black pants, loafers, and as we're coming out, I can see a Samoan SWAT team come out here while Bill Irwin come out and see various wrestlers coming out. Man, I got towels around their necks are all hot, sweaty, just got out of shower, just got finished work and sat him on TV Dave. And they're trying to get to the cars and they got a show to work at night. So they got. Places to go. And I'm standing there in line and people see me and they start saying, Hey, man, can I get your autograph? And when someone asks you for your autograph and you're just standing in line at a never wrestled for one single second inside a squared circle is kind of embarrassing because. And this is what I would tell people. I said, Hey man. I said, I'm not a wrestler yet. I said, I'm trying to be. I'm going to go to the seminar, but I said, I don't wrestle. And they said, No, it doesn't matter. You're going to make it go and sound a sound for us anyway. So, man, you talk about being put on the spot. You never want to do that because you feel like a brick. The guys who are actually real wrestlers are coming out of the building and I'm over signing autographs at this point. I'm a wannabe so well. When I press you to sign your name, you just kind of sign your name. So what my sorry a*s handwriting? I just scribble out Steve Williams on our piece paper and I say thanks. I said, Well, you're welcome. He said, Don't worry, you're going to make it. Well, anyway, the line starts moving in. All the people start moving inside because all the people are exiting the sport auditorium. It's time for the seminar, and it seems to me that there was about 35 or 40 no more than that people that showed up at a seminar. And for the most part, everybody was kind of normal again, you know, just regular everyday people. There wasn't anybody. There was particularly jacked up or in a kind of shape that I was in again. I just got finished playing football and had been just crushing it in the gym every single day after working on the freight dock. So I was in real good shape and had that long blond hair, and I didn't have a whole lot of hair. But you know, as you know, now I had to shave it all off because I had a receding hairline. But back then I didn't, and I had this neon bright white hair that you could not miss. And I stood out in a crowd and I tell you what, Chris Adams immediately took notice of me, and I'll continue with the conversation after Chris spotted me in that card. I'm coming right back after this. This is the Steve Austin show. Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would. And when it comes to great rates on insurance, Geico can help. Like with insurance for your car. Truck, motorcycle, boat and RV even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus, add an easy to use mobile app available, 24 hour roadside assistance and more. And Geico is an easy choice. Switch today and see all the ways you could save. It's simple go to Geico RCom or contact your local agent today. The Steve Austin show, Steve Austin show. So anyway, there we were aware at the seminar and Kaufman forty five bucks an event, if I'm not mistaken, I believe Chris collected that money up front because Chris was a smart guy. He was go get his forty five bucks. You got to figure if you got 45 bucks times, about 30 or 40 people. That's pretty good. A little payday. So he starts talking about school and what he's going to teach and how he's going to teach it. And about three times he singles me out. He goes, he goes, You know what? That you know, Chris had a great English accent that was easy to understand. It was easy on the ears, and he was very charismatic individual and he could really turn it on. He could really show you something. And, you know, he looked at me and he goes, You know, just because you are a football player doesn't mean that you're going to be able to do this kind of stuff. And he kind of jabbed me about three times about just because you used to be a football player doesn't mean you'd be able to do professional wrestling. And it kind of started getting on my nerves because I was a highly competitive person way back in the day still am. But it speaks to how competitive I am at back then. And so finally, the meeting wrapped up and on my way out. You know, Chris went out of his way to say, Hey, Steve, thanks for coming out and I hope to see you again. And at that point, I took time to tell him. I said, Hey, dude, I said, You keep talking about, you know, if you're a football player doesn't necessarily mean that you can be able to do this stuff. I said, Hey, man, I play football said, if you show me how to do this. I said, I can do it. And he just kind of looks at me because I guess I never had anybody, you know, look at him and tell him like that from a rookie greenhorn, never been in a business standpoint and it kind of looks at me with this disbelief and just shakes his head and almost blows me off. OK, Steve, well, you know, I know it was hoping I'd show up, but hey, man, you know, I don't know how many people, you know, try to get into the business of pro wrestling that follow on her face. So, you know, saying something is one thing doing as a whole, another thing. But I was going to prove to this guy that I can learn how to wrestle. So anyway, I can't remember how it comes about end up getting his phone number. I was going to sign up for the cla*s. I remember the class casted 1500 bucks at the dam. I did not have 500 bucks, so I would just pay Chris as I went along. And Chris had a guy that was helping teach the class and his name was Chico Spanish guy with a Lucha Libre background. But a big guy had about six one six two £230. Very technical, very cool. Been around the horn for a long time. Can remember how many years he'd been work and worked a lot in the hood. But he was a guy who really kind of taught us the bumps, rolling procedures. We did a lot of rolling drills. We're learning a flat back bump, just standing there and falling down and slapping a mat. And it was like a is like a karate or judo ball. Any time you fall, you slap the mat to save yourself by slapping that man, you stop the impact and you attack the mat. And that would become the basis for, you know, learning how to take a bump that exists to this day. And then came the time where, you know, the guys would get on their hands and knees and then you would, you know, kind of do a catapult off their back as they were parallel to the ground and take a bigger bump. And they just kind of proceeded, you know, at that rate. And there's a few people that stood out in the crowd. I think me from a looks standpoint, but as we started to learn some of the wrestling holes and some of the maneuvers, I was very, very green, of course, because I'd never done it and was not a fast learner. This was not easy for me to pick up. I had an aggressive, competitive nature. But when you're aggressive and trying to compete at something, you don't know what to do. It's a whole different ballgame, because here's a thing I'm trying to learn how to. Russell had never wrestled before, and at no point in time has Chris told any of us that this was a work, how that it worked, how you call a high spot. We weren't there yet. We never called a high spot in that class, but there were a couple of people that stand out and there was one guy named Todd. If his name wasn't Todd Martin. I believe that's what it was. But Todd's problem was he was about a buck 80. If that maybe five 10. But he was good. He was a wrestling fan from way back when he was a kid, and he was kind of like the stand out person of the cla*s. Then there was another guy named Dwayne, and Dwayne was about 400 450. And, you know, he was just a big grizzly bear kind of look. So you figure, you know, maybe had a chance outside chance of making it as a big man. But he didn't really have the athletic ability. He just had that size. And there was a very cute girl named niece. I think she had a couple of matches as dazzling Dinesh, and she was a standout as far as a female. And I think there might have been only one, two or three females in the class to begin with if that. But I remember Denise standing out. She was very good. She got on very fast. And so and then we started working out and tired progresses. And this works or this not worked for me at Chris Adams School. We would train once a week on Saturday mornings after the television taping. And in Chris would have to go and do a job at night and work somewhere. And I can't remember. I think the clash lasted about two hours. And so when you only have one ring, your time is about two hours and you're in there with about 30 catch. Not everybody signed up, so I think we started off with 25 to 30 catch. You got one ring. You got to start off with your warm up session and then you're trying to teach each one of these individuals. All these drills are just the basics from Jump Street. I mean, you're training people that are basically kindergarten with respect to wrestling and your ring time. I mean, that class, my last two hours, my whole time and ring might have been 15 minutes because you had to wait your turn for someone else to go, especially when it came down to learning how to run the ropes. And I'll never forget, Mick Foley tells a story all the time for some reason, you know? Well, not for some reason he was working the sport at home, at night or at work and was just hanging around and he was up in a place we called the crow's nest. And it was kind of like a kayfabe area up at the top of the Sport Auditorium, which was fenced in jail style and a lot of the boys would go back. It was real dark back here and we'd watch some of the matches from this area of a vantage point. With their girlfriends or wives or whatever. And Mick Foley saw me running the ropes that day, and he has gone on to tell a story that of all the people were there. Nobody really stood out, but I did just because of the way I was attacking and running the ropes. And so but the rest of BARDA was not so easy for me. And we did this for about five months. And all of a sudden, you know, Chris says to me, All right, Steve, I think you're ready for your first match. And I'm thinking, All right, I'm ready for my first match. What we're going to do and where is it going to be? He goes, It's going to be on Saturday morning, next Saturday, and I had to come up with an opponent for me. It turns out the opponent that I wrestled was a guy from cut off Louisiana, and he wrestled under the name of frogmen Le Blanc, now frog man le Blanc. I don't know too much about him, but he always wore a kind of green green tights. He had frazzled blond hair. He was Cajun to the bone and hence the name Frog Man. And he was kind of like a journeyman, kind of like kind of like a is a journeyman. I don't want to say jobber, but I mean, he did a lot of it, did a lot of jobs, and he wasn't the most coordinated person in the world. But, you know, he was in the business of pro wrestling to try to make it just like everybody else was. He just didn't make it real far. And so Chris figured that Frog Man would have the ability to help lead me through a match to the fact that he had some years of experience with him. So anyway, I'll never forget a Saturday morning we go into Chris's office at the top of the Sport Auditorium, and I guess it was Fritz's his old office at the time. I don't know if Chris Adams had a hand in booking, but you know, up to this point, Chris had never talked to us about calling a high spot, never talked to us about the business being a work, never told us how a win or loss was gained. We never learned about chair shots who never learned about blade jobs. We learned how to take a bubble modicum of chain wrestling and how to run the ropes. And then from then on, as almost anything is in life, its goal on the job training? Well, we kind of went over the basics of a match, which you know, is kind of like today's system where, you know, everything's kind of predetermined. You know what you're going to do. So I kind of knew what I was going to do out there with frogmen kind of a to Z, except we really only got to about eight am. And I just remember in the match you could probably find this match on YouTube, although I would recommend that you do not because it's so rotten. You can see from my first lock up frog man, how green I am, how you know, the lock ups, the posture, the body language moving around the ring. No confidence, no knowledge didn't know where to grab or why on my watch. But nonetheless, all of a sudden, on my first match in the history of my career, it's a televised match with a journeyman wrestler who's, you know, OK, he's not a great worker by any stretch. The referee in that match was a guy named Tony Foulke cowboy Tony Fault. When he wrestled, Tony Volk was a damn good hand in the ring. He's a journeyman guy, but Tony Falcon could work and is a really, really good referee as well. And it was a good dude and he always tried to help me. I got nothing but respect for Tony. Here's a couple times out there in that match. Boy, I tell you what, when those cameras are rolling, you've got a crowd out there, and I think I wrestle that first match as a black and blue striped long tights on. And I was staking out the joint, had a bunch of arm bars on Frog Man. I probably clothesline him about four or five, six times in a space of about eight minutes. And I remember we were up there in a finish room and Chris says, You know, Steve, I want you to finish with kind of like a running clothesline. But when I gave the clothesline, he wanted me to go down on the back, you know, and take a bump as I gave that clothesline. And I said, OK, cool. So that was my finished move on from Mental Blank was the kind of running clothesline where I would take a bump as well. And so that's what I use as my finish. We go out there and we stunk the joint out cowboy. Tony Falck tried to call a couple of hot spots for us and because I was in a jam and then, you know, I don't hear very well. On top of that, you've got cameras rolling. It was an absolute abortion. And I figured, OK, you know, finally, the match is over. I got my win. I remember getting run out of the ring. I barely remember going to the back and taking a shower and getting out of there because it was funny. Prior to my first match, I had done a few promos with Chris Adams out in the ring talking about, Hey, I was his new student and I was going to be making my debut soon. And when I came in because the business was so kayfabe back in, you guys had been the sport of time before kind of know what I'm talking about. But if you'd never been in the sport dorm, you come in as. Or in an address rooms to the left or it's hills and babies back air. So Chris wouldn't let me back air because, you know, I was just a new guy in school. The business is still protected. So when you come in the door to sport a term, if you hang a quick right, that's the janitor's room. And it's a room about as big as a closet. And I mean, a small closet. And that's where I had to dress because they won't let the new guy go back there with all the heels of babies because, you know, they hadn't smarten me up yet. So that was kind of weird. And I'll never forget the first night that I got a chance to actually go into the locker room because now I was on the inside, so to speak. Nobody knew me. Nobody knew who I was. They had seen my rotten match. But, you know, inevitably new guys get in the business. I was that guy. So I walked around and, you know, I was pretty shy kid growing up athletically. You know, I was always ready to prove myself and athletic endeavor. And so being humbled by all these bad as veterans, you know, kind of sheepishly made my around and introduce myself to everybody. And I'll never forget, I don't know if it was a rib or if he was out there on Planet Nine or something, something like that. But Kevin Von Erich, I remember him coming over and shaking my hand three times, as you say, brothers. Nice to see you again. And I said, Hey, we used to have some good matches back in the day, and I told him, I said, Kevin, I said, This is my first day. I said, I'm just starting out. So again, I love his ribbon or what? Because it was kind of a party standard back in. But anyway, I would come to wrestle Kevin von Erich on a few occasions, and it seemed like every time I wrestle Kevin von Erich, of course, me being a greenhorn, I come out on the losing end of the stick. I think I lost every single match. I wrestled with Kevin von Erich with the Iron Claw. And then on a couple of times, I remember making some of the local shots. We were working shots like Clayburn Terrell Jacks Borough National Guard, just just local towns like that. I can't remember all of them. Those would be our little spot shows that we were running. And so I remember sometimes Kari Von Erichs opponent wouldn't show up and I'd have to wrestle Kerry. Well, when I say have to wrestle Carrie. It was an honor to wrestle Carrie, but how by that time carried or have been in the business, you know, 10 years he was he was like a superstar. So to wrestle some Jay Brown like me, you know, I didn't get any heat on him. We wrestled for about four minutes, Rasha and him for four minutes. All of a sudden Ironclaw city, I'm on my back doing a job which was armored. I didn't have any problem with losing. It was just bad a*s to be in the ring. Would one Kevin von Erich to Kerry von Erich? And then, you know, as the as time would go on and I would ask Jerry Gerard and Jerry Jarrett had just bought their promotion from Fritz Von Erich way back in the day at about 89 90. And I told Jarrett I said, Hey, man, what do you think I can start working full time? And you know, this was while I was doing those road shows and I was still working at Watkins model. I was working my 40 hour weeks and and on a lot of the Friday and Saturday shows, you know, some of the hills would come in and just literally beat the tracheotomy, you know, to watch you. Hi, whoever it was, beat the hell out of me with kendo stick, some weight lifting a belt. And these guys were laying their stuff in because this was a chance for them to get heat on a local, you know, white meat babyface. You know what, I'm going to do any damage to because, you know, I was just a body out there, but I was a good looking kid and then get some heat on me and further their cause and let me pay. My dues has always been the trash out of me. You know, I was just doing my thing, paying my dues. And that's when Jeff Jarrett said, Hey man, I think you read announced he will send you down here to Tennessee in two weeks because basically the business back then was based more out of Tennessee, and Dallas was on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings for a while. That was all going to change because when Jarrett bought it out. And I remember driving to Memphis, Tennessee, Mid-South Coliseum, and that's where Dutch Mantell gave me the Steve Austin name, but that was a weekly territory. And Monday was Memphis Mid-South Coliseum. Tuesday was Louisville at the Louisville Gardens. Wednesday was Evansville at Evansville, whatever that was called. And that's what we got paid Thursday. It was a spot show. Friday you got on a bus and drove all day long to get all night long to get to Dallas, Texas, to work to support a team at night. Then, after the sport storm on Friday, you know, if you was around the Dallas area at industrial and Cadeaux around, this moratorium was about three or four liquor stores. It wasn't the greatest section of town, so all you had to do was walk across the street to get you to. Well, pack a beer, whiskey, whatever your flavor was. That's what you was going to be drinking because we was going to drive all night long from Friday till Saturday morning. We roll up at Memphis there at the TV studio and we did want morning television, live TV and then after live TV, you know, take a shower, get back on a bus. I drop you off of cars that you left him on Thursday at the spot show you drive back to your hotel. And I was living at the congressman at that time. Tom Prichard was living in the same hotel, about five rooms down for me. And you go down to your hotel. Chill out for a couple of hours and then head to the fairgrounds on Saturday night and you work on Nashville, Tennessee. And the best thing about working that territory was you're working the same damn buildings, same damn towns. A lot of times the same damn guy every single night because that's where I was working. If you work in a program of someone, you're working around the corner and you're coming back around, so you've got to change stuff up every single time. You know, you go to, you know, the bill and wrestle. And then a lot of times, I mean, half the people were or Fallon, you know, the wrestling matches from town to town. And a lot of these are females, of course. But you had to change your matches because you couldn't just do the same thing over and over again like you get on a program. A lot of times in WWE, you know, we workin man another guy working on a loophole we might have the same damn match for, you know, two months at a time because you can. And but back then, you couldn't get away with that. And it forced you to be really sharp, really fast. And anytime you do something with that on the job training, with that repetition, that's where you get that experience from. And I was working with so many guys, you know, I was traveling up and down the road with gorgeous Gary Young, who was a bad a*s veteran worker who never got a big break. But that's a guy that got to have my psychology from and, you know, working with Chris Adams, you know, I mean, he was teaching me everything and he was very, very patient with the very, very green, aggressive guy. And of course, on some of those inaugural trips coming out of the Dallas Fort Worth area before I went to Tennessee, you know, I was riding the back of a Delta 88 with Bronco. Lubitsch, who was a former tag team wrestler turned referee and one and only Scandrick Barr, who was head of Devastation Inc., a manager who had also wrestled back in the day. And he was the evil villain and man. When you run down a road asking those guys questions and they're willing, fully dropping knowledge on you. It was one of the finest times of my life. And so I just remember, you know, going back to when I was still at North Texas state and some of the most vivid memories I have of Dallas, just because I want to bring this home to him to bring it about Dallas was how hot was how hot the Von Erichs were. And rock star status. And you can only I can only tell you about it. If you go back and watch some stuff on YouTube, I think you can. You can understand and and feel how over those guys were. Those people love divine airs and of course the guys did. First and foremost as well. But I mean, the chicks were crazy about the Von Erichs and man, when they came out, whether it was stranglehold. Kevin von Erich Smoot music or as modern day warrior carrier's music. Or, you know, when David was still around, I mean, the roof blew off that place and it was funny because they all had a little bitty one strand security ropes up. And when those Von Erichs would come down as those steps to enter the ring, they would basically be getting mugged that girls are grabbing her hands, placing phone numbers written on paper cash, no magnum groping them. I mean, that was a shoot 'em as his way it is. Von Erichs were like rock stars. Well, then on the other side of that came those damn fabulous Freebirds. Michael Hayes, Terry, Bam, Bam, Gordy, Buddy, Jack Roberts and Mr. Let me tell you something. They don't have been coming through there a couple of times. Prior to me, coming out there grabbed my 76 Monte Carlo to see them guys. But all of a sudden, here comes Michael Hayes. And man, he changed my whole perception or whole perspective of the business. Man I do came down here and I to shake one red robe where there's one of a rebel flag, whatever. I don't make a rat's a*s about that, but you talk about you talk about a showman. Michael Hayes was a heat seeking missile. No, no, no. Don't get me wrong, when I was babyfaces, I mean, he was over as Hale. Those people love Michael Hayes, Gordy and Buddy Jack Roberts because he was on a good side. But I tell you, on a flipped heel, they had a monstrous amount of shoot heat and man, that damn Michael Hayes would come out there. Just a pure showman. He'd get on a second. Ugly start, gyrating his hips and flicking his hair back and doing that strut that he had, and I tell you what, man, Michael wasn't trying to be a character. Michael was that guy. He was just he was being him, but turned up to 10 in front of about 5000 people. And I always tell people. Michael Hayes, if you're an if you're a fan of pro wrestling, watch them the work that the Freebirds were doing. Watch the stuff they did back there when they settled on Texas Stadium. Watch this stuff. When I was doing those matches in the sport of touring, whether there's babyfaces are over, they were and the fire that Michael had and all those guys had or when they were heats that despicable nature that they had a bottle when it came time to get heat, how nasty they would get. Watch those facial expressions of Michael Hayes, watch him grab a microphone and start ripping off a bunch of trash talk and promos and saying what they were going to do or make an excuse of why they lost. Those are what I remember about Dallas, Texas. I remember my beginning, but it was kind of like, you know, grown up and sitting there in Edna, Texas and watching that guy have that iron clown. Dusty Rhodes and Dusty Rhodes bleeding like a stuck pig. And I wanted that security guard to help him. That's what captured me at seven or eight and then all these years later, to be there right there. It was almost past a peak. It was past peak of world class championship wrestling. But I was there to see some incredible bad a*s sold out houses with action packed stuff. And I remember the stuff leading up to that, you know, the Texas Stadium stuff and, you know, after David had died, unfortunately. But man, when I roll back into Dallas, Texas, last night on that airplane and I was just sitting there thinking about the podcast. But as soon as I came into this room and I saw that airport and then someone sent me a picture on Twitter, you know, they told, you know, they they tore the sport of torn down many years ago now. And to this day, it doesn't look, according to the picture on Twitter, that someone sent me. They have not built a building ever since. It's just a corner lot. And I guess the liquor stores are all still in business, I guess is still not the greatest part of town, but I never knew why they tore that building down and didn't make it. You know, like not a national, but a state landmark or something because of all the famous people there of what it meant to the business, to pro wrestling and maybe to make a museum out of it and maybe economically, or it just wouldn't have panned out or from a standpoint of how what state the the business the building was in, you know that it needed to be tore down. Maybe it was an eyesore and it kind of fall off and couple of years because of the neglect. But so many memories of there, and I remember when you walked into that place and you went into, I think guess at the time it was Percy Premios office, and I had that just kind of like, you know, that had demo plywood kind of stuff. And they stuck on the walls, little grooves in it. And there was eight by 10 pictures of everybody that had come through world class championship wrestling. And you see those pictures on the wall. And I always remember seeing Rick Roods picture their ultimate warriors pitcher there. All the Von Erichs on there, Matt Barnes face was on there. All the guys and the stars of the stars anybody came through there had those pictures on that wall and it was just an old, ramshackle roughhouse building. But when you saw the list of those, the talent that had come through there, man, you knew that, you know, God dang, there had been some bad a*s talent here, draw some serious money and people, the atmosphere being so crazy. And I always tell people these days, I don't miss a business anymore, but I have a lot of fond memories. And when I got out of business due to my neck issues, it took me three years to come to grips with that and I dealt with it in the ways that I did. And then finally came out to L.A. and started working in the reality television business, doing some low-budget movies. Took me a long time to get over the the fact that I was not in the business of pro wrestling anymore, but it all starts and stops with the first memories of Houston wrestling. Bosh promotion. Sam Houston Coliseum. Dusty Rhodes. And then my college days, my formative years at North Texas State University on an athletic scholarship been exposed to the Dallas product. Had I went to university in and Mexico had I decided to venture out of state. There's not a professional wrestling scene in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My destination was always to be a pro wrestler and I think in the back of my mind, that's what I wanted to do. But I think it was a higher level plan for me to do is almost predestined me to a degree, and I really believe that because. Didn't want to leave the state of Texas. The only school I wanted to go to South West Texas state, I wanted to go to Sam Houston state. I want to go down to Texas A&M Kingsville. I wanted to go anywhere but North Texas state. North Texas State wasn't even on my radar, but they were the only other major college to offer me a scholarship. After I got out of organic junior college, it put me right in 30 miles away from Dallas, Texas, the sport of Torum. And I saw that commercial and I knew the freight company was grooming me for a job to go inside and do management and manage a terminal because I was a smart cat. I caught on everything outside. I worked my laptop. And what you do with a guy like that, you move him up in a system and right, when you were going to give me that promotion, I said, Nope, I'm going to go to professional wrestling and I'ma try this out first. And they said, Okay, Steve. And finally, you know, when I hauled a*s went down to Mid-South, you know, that's when I gave him my two week notice. I quit the business of moving freight and driving a forklift and got into the business of professional wrestling in the back end of 1989 and through a high profile angle. Well, gentlemen, Chris Adams in 1990, one pro wrestling illustrated Rookie of the Year and the rest, as they say, is history. I'm here in Dallas, Texas. I'm watching the planes take off at DFW Airport. I'm fixing to head over to American Airlines Arena and Ali. I'll leave you with one real quick story about American Airlines Arena because I was there at the first wrestling match they had at this arena. They built this thing up and I wanted a bad a*s main event at that show and WWE was scheduled to go in. So I get a call from, I think it was Jim Rash and his man open up a new arena in Dallas, Texas. It's American Airlines Arena. They want you in rock to break that building down. And I said, Oh man, that's cool. And so of course, I always love we're going to rock one of my favorite opponents of all time. So anyway, we go out there and I say, Hey, man, with the quad jump start to sing and me and rock ice called everything in the ring. We work together. I know how many times he could read my mind and so I could read his. And I remember, you know, I jumped his a*s and had him in a turnbuckle, and I was really taking care of him at night and I was swinging for the fence. He was rocking his head back and forward by five six punches. I said, Spin me around. He spun me around and started throwing punches at me, every one of them missing by about six inches. The crowd's got absolutely crazy because we're swinging so fast and we're selling so much, it doesn't look like we're not connecting. And while I looked at rock and I said, God dang, I said one of us going to have to hit each other sooner or later. And a rock star laughed his a*s off when we busted up in our first high spot. And the rest of it was goes in the history books as one bad a*s match. Anyway, I we're bring this thing back. I'm going to bring you guys my match of the week and it's going to be a barn burner, as you will see. I just got finished talking to Brock Lesnar on The WB Network. He's going to be a match in a week. Stay right here and come right back. After much from the sponsors, you keep the show on the air for free. I'm taking it down memory lane, my memories of Dallas, Texas, and I'm coming in to wrap this thing up because they are given me to go home to you. OK? Exactly. Who do Sean and Larry King talk to on their podcast? I spoke to Donald Trump. They heard him. Yeah, the tone of the show he called and we invited him on our podcast and he said, Well, he will come on within the next month. And that later this month happens Friday, October 23rd. That means Trump joins an already impressive celeb list, including comic legends Martin Short and Carl Reiner, mom and masters of sex star Allison Janney, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Empire's Tasha Smith, watch star Dr. Paul Maggio, The Blacklist, Megan Blake, Ferguson, Gibran and so many more. Got the beta? Download your favorite episode of Back and Forth was shot on Larry King today at PodcastOne. That's podcast Own E-commerce. All right, everybody give me to go home cuz time to wrap up podcasts and ride off into the sunset. And that actually means riding over to American Airlines Arena and seeing what I got in store for me. As you listen, this had already happened, so I don't know what I'm getting myself into. That being said, it's going to take me right to my match of the week, and I'll tell you what, I've been watching a lot of Brock Lesnar matches lately, and I'll tell you what you talk about a bust ass, bad a*s match and you go all the way back to September 18, 2003, Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle and a 60 minute Iron Man match and a match that Brock Lesnar goes over on. And I'm telling you what, man you talk about. This is a match that anybody would be proud to be in, and it just goes to show. And I always say, Kurt Angle is one of the fastest guys I've ever seen pick up the benefits of pro wrestling. I would put Brock Lesnar right behind him, but also, I mean, just a phenomenal talent. And of course, I knew Brock Lesnar was going to be money as soon as you walked in the doors of WWF. And of course, the same thing about garnering. But nonetheless, managed to guys put on a clinic of a match. And you've got to realize, you know, in 2003, I guess Brock Lesnar got called up to the main roster in 2002, was down in OPW for a little bit. But I mean. And three years in the business, or a little bit less than three years in the business puts on a showcase like this. It's a hell of a match to match. You could watch and learn something from, and you can also watch the evolution of Brock's style. You know, he comes from a wrestling background. Obviously, he's in here with a guy with a gold medal in the Olympics of wrestling. So this wrestling is par excellence as far as that goes when they do that. But also just how you know, Brock, because of his size, also has always been somewhat of a brawler because he doesn't need to use all that wrestling background when he can physically hammer people. And he's developed that into the style that he possesses today, which is a main event style, that predatory style where he just as Suplex City and he's created a very unique brawling style he can wrestle when he wants to. He can do anything he wants to. And, you know, I think wrestling the style that he is really protects himself and his body, and sometimes his opponent is going to suffer from that. But you're going to take bumps anyway. But I think he's really created an interesting style specific to who and what Brock Lesnar is the biggest guy, the biggest, baddest guy out there right now in a town of about 20 squared circle. I mean, you can say the big show is bigger, but with respect to athleticism and explosive power with what Brock possesses and in the combination of what Kurt's doing here in this match, going back to the match, that's my match of the week. Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle from Smackdown on September 18, 2003. Episode 213 You could fight it on a WWE network, but interesting to see how Brock has parlayed you know this performance into the style that he now possesses, which is that of a great white shark. Just attack Suplex City in a way this time for me to wrap is saying I'm looking forward to talking to Brock. Man, I didn't have a guest this week, but I basically laid down my beginning and to the business of pro wrestling what Dallas, Texas means to me. And it's got like a little bit of a home down for me and so many respects, and it's great to be back in the great state of Texas coming out of Los Angeles. Hey, I want to thank the guys over pro wrestling tees once again, right? 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