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. Lord William Regal. I call him Steve Regal. What you like to be called? I don't care. All right. Stage fine. Bollocks. Bollocks is good. Yeah. Hey, let's go back to a time when I met you at center stage TV, you just come in. I was like, Man William Regal or whatever they're calling you. You came as William Regal. No, I came in as Steve Regal. Yeah, so it was the Lord thing when you got with Dundee, that was later, right? Yes. But I remember you came in. I can't remember he's working with an I and I watched you work like you were showing your a*s and I came up and I stuck my hand. And Hey, man, Steve Austin, that nice made you as bad as work. I just love the way you sold and you had been working at that point. Probably 10 years. Nearly ten years. Yeah. So what was so what got the bug up your a*s? I mean, you're working your a*s off in England. You come up the hard way. Got to learn in the colonies, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then, yeah, incredible technician. And you said, Hey, I'm picking up my bags. I'm going to the United States of America. Well, what spurred that decision started off in England, and I didn't think I'd go in if I was quite happy working on the fairground, honestly, because I hadn't. It hadn't been fun, but it had been tough. It was, but I didn't didn't feel it off at the time because of six planer being wrestlers living in Wonderland. And it was wonderland to me. I was, you know, like, biggest amusement park in Britain. I'm wrestling on it and just living in that scene when it was still alive, you know? Yeah. So I went down a lot in the 90s and stuff, but in the eighties it was still buzzing. The show was on everywhere. This clubs is just a great place to be. And I had no athletic ability. I wanted desperately to be arrested, but I wasn't any good. You know, I was lucky to get a break. No, but I hear that. But I had no athletic ability. I was no good at it. Luckily, I got a break to get in. It, got in it and then, like my view, sort of changed. I was quite happy working there. Then I think, well, I'm slowly getting a bit better. Perhaps I can work on the bigger circuits in England and I worked on that. And then when I got to about 18, I started looking, I'll probably be in. About 18 states seen Dave Taylor and Tony Sinclair and Pete Roberts was my big idol and they were never in England much that you'd see him occasionally on shows and they always seem to have a suntan and they were always just coming back from somewhere sound and exotic to me. And and they were like this small group of British heavyweight wrestlers that were world renowned for being really technically sound and that they'd fly them in to make everybody look good and look like they could wrestle, you know, and do these long, drawn out wrestling matches that people can't do anymore, you know, like between eight or 15, five minute round wrestling matches and put people in and out of things and right. And so I thought I'd like to be it that just sounded like the best show in the world, you know, because there weren't stars anywhere. They were just but they made a lot of money doing a lot money for for England standards, and they were always away and I thought, that's what I want to do now. So then I started learning that kind of stuff, and luckily for me, because I was told I started getting, you know, because it was always a bit of a like the heavyweights did that a lot of the other fellas didn't like. The big stars in England. Were all smaller fellas really right? It was the way it was. And so that was that. And so from 20, I got onto that kind of run from 20 to 24. But but let me let me stop you right there. All of the guys made the difference. When you watch, you know, guys who just start America versus guys who start in England or European, the flavor, the style is completely different. Yeah. And a lot of you know, the arm stuff, the reversals of the roles. I only know how to describe it because I don't speak technical European wrestling jargon. But it's always interesting to see and you can see a lot of your your influence or at least some European influence. And Daniel Bryan, yeah, who can do a lot of that stuff? Yeah. And honestly, he's having a great run right now, and I know you guys are really good friends, but what is it that you guys were just just? Do you want to know what I think it is? I've tried to figure it out. Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm trying to say it starts with the rules. The first thing starts with the rules. An open punch. You were disqualified instantly. OK. And you'll enforce the rules, the rules. Go go. So that's where the uppercuts come in, right? That was where it was like strokes and uppercuts, OK? The next thing that I think it comes from is the technical stuff is because the rings were so small 14 foot most of them and rock hard, right? And so you had to you couldn't be flying around doing a lot of good about your time, man, and he got to tell a different kind of story. And it was also a matter of, you know, only so many matches on the card, right? They used to most cards used on air for matches, so everybody had to put time in and it was just the way that it started with around the rounds were already in place. Yeah. Well, it just seemed to be that way because I mean, believe me. I'm the big protector of British wrestling and the, you know, I that's what I do and try and keep it. But if you go back and watch, a lot of it was rotten. There's a lot there was incredibly good, brilliant technical wrestlers, but most of the big stars weren't. They weren't technically sound really funny because when I saw you come to the United States, I could watch you go out with a guy who'd really literally been in the business for a couple of months. As long as you could hang on to that guy's arm and put yourself in a reversal and come out of it and go down and do the things with him, I mean, you could take a guy who was green as grass and have a pretty damn good match with him due to all that knowledge of that stuff. Well, that there was several different types of wrestling in England. There was the every and every weight class had had a championship belt. Right? So you had your lightweights, middleweights made heavyweights, heavyweights. The lightweight guys were Johnny Saint and Steve Great. Johnny Saint will say that his style is what he calls eschatology style, which is it's purposely it's a show style of getting in and doing fancy things to get out of them. So Johnny Saint does this apology style. It's yeah, it's really technically getting in and out of holes and but there's not a lot of aggression going on. It's very fancy looking for tat almost. Yes, and that's the style of it. I get it. I like watching it work. Yeah, it's fantastic stuff. And he does it incredibly well. It's bad when people try to copy stuff because it just never looks like, you know, there's certain ways you have to be taught this. And then. The middle, the heavy metal weights, especially that was the Mark Rothko and Martin Jones that popularized that style. I'm going to describe that as a technical. That's a set cruiserweight. Yes, that's and that's where it all started battering ram type stuff, too. Incredible. And then it would translate to Japan. Yeah. Well, it was taken to Japan and people, people get it all mixed up and say that it was it was tiger mass that started out and dynamite. It wasn't right. You go back and watch Smarty Jones remark and I say this a lot, but you go back and watch them in from 76, 77, 78. They were doing stuff then that nobody had ever seen. Right? They invented that style it. And it was it was that heavy wrestling based style with very physical. You know, the lightweight stuff wasn't so physical, very physical, because that didn't like each other. And so they were always trying to top each other and they were straight up shoot. Yeah. You know, every other one they'd be, yeah, putting one into each other just because they'd grown up together, right? And they didn't like each other and they had they evolve this style. And then dynamite came along when he was a kid and he had a very technically incredibly British style. But then he obviously got started doing that stuff must have picked it up off them and he went. And then Tiger Mask came to England as Sammy Lee in the in the late 70s, and he had his own style that brought. And it was all this mixture of styles, but they were the ones that Mark and Marty were the two that set it all off. And then tiger mask like Sammy Lee went back to Japan, became tiger. I took Rocco over there as his nemesis, Black Tiger. Yeah, and that's where it became popular. And everybody saw it. It started then. But then there was the heavyweights. Now there was the the show heavyweights, the Big Daddy and the Aztecs, maybe the big monsters and stuff. But then there were the very incredibly sound, technically skilled heavyweights, but they weren't big stars in England. That was maybe the ones that went overseas because they were in demand in Germany and in Africa and India, and they wanted to see the more work aspect rather than the attraction guys like haystacks. Yes, Big Daddy. Yeah. And so you would you would these these heavyweight guys that I became a part of? They were. They were basically trunks and boots. Guys were smart technicians, technicians that could go in and they were in demand all over the world because they could just bring them back at work. Yes. And that was it and worked with anybody and put anybody in and out of things and make them look like they could wrestle whether they could or couldn't, which is a big skill to have. And they were always in demand, and they always had a lot of workers that the thing was, you what you wanted to be if you were in England, if you heavyweight, you wanted to go to Germany, you were in Germany, always talk about German. And if it went over Horst, then a good friend of yours and the guy who have so much respect for what was the deal with Germany? Well, Germany was six months of the year. I don't want Otto Vance in CWA. You would start off in when I was doing it. You would start off for three weeks in Graz in Austria. They were running tournaments, so you were in the same building for weeks at a time with no traveling and a lot more money, probably three times the money that you would be making in England and houses. Oh, through the week, not so good. Tuesday nights was always good because it was free ladies and they always had some kind of beer promotion on. Yeah, and then like Wednesday's wouldn't be good. But weekends then they have like a special thing on a Thursday right Friday that they would always be very good. Sunday was always some kind of a gimmick thing, like a chain match or something that built up to so, you know, how is Otto as a promoter? I thought he was obviously a very smart guy to to to work to everybody I've talked to that was there. Loved it. Yeah, I mean, so you within the lifestyle was kind of it was incredible, right? You go for three weeks in Graz, which is a beautiful city. Yeah, right. And you all lived in Italy like the circus. You lived in trailers, caravans and you are some of the places we're in, like like in Germany, was in a big tent, like a circus tent and you'd be on a big, like a big car park and you could park your caravans next, just like the circus next to the tent. Yeah, or if you were in Austria, you'd be in these beautiful campsites in the middle of these mountains with lakes and stuff. Yeah. And then we have to be in the building, all in the in the dressing room at seven o'clock, well, 6:30 start to drive over to the leave the campsite and you'd be living on these camps. I'd go to the gym and go out by the lake all day or the pool. It was a hell of a lifestyle, you know, sit and barbecue your food and it was just good. So you have three weeks in Graz, then you do seven weeks in Vienna. Seven weeks in Vienna is about as good as it ever gets. Through the summer, I said most beautiful sets in Europe. Then you'd go into Hanover in Germany and do nine weeks there and then you do five weeks, right? Take you up to Christmas in Bremen. It was. Hell of a lifestyle, right? So no travel and basically the best of the best people to work with, right? Very good money for that. Now we all work in straight matches. We are doing the five minute rounds. It was all you know when I watch World Sport climbing around. Yes, in England it was five minute rounds and b***hed like sometimes three minutes, but usually five minutes, either six or eight five minute rounds. In Germany, it was five four minute rounds with the the original because it was running tournaments over, you know, say there's 20 fellas. You'd all wrestle each other over so many times, depending on how long the tournament was in that kind of thing and then like to be a tag match every night. That wouldn't you wouldn't that wouldn't be included in the tournament points and all that. So how would they run a tag match straight through? Yes. And but the five minute rounds that that was the the normal match in Germany. Well, if you went through a draw with somebody, then you didn't know the match with them and then they would have extra time. Maybe like you'd have a five minute round. And if you went to draw again, you'd have an extra 10 minutes at the end of it, or sometimes an hour match. You know, they'd be like these different things to make it interesting for the people coming that these tournaments run like that. That's how this all worked. The Steve Austin show will be lost in June. When I first started watching the world of sports stuff, the five minute rounds kind of firsts for me because I grew up along American style wrestling news, run straight through your times, time and many times under all six men and, you know, whatever. And so you go to the five minute rounds, I'm like, Oh man, this control me before Lou. But then I really started studying it. And each five minute round, I mean, it's like a mini match. I mean, because you've got built in psychology in five minute spurts. Yes. And you know how one guy comes. Maybe it. Maybe it's maybe someone gets to follow his heart. The other guy, what's a minute break between rounds? And so it's very intriguing. Once you get into one, it's to watch, Hey, man, these guys are working their a*s off. I mean, they're doing the great stuff in the ring. And a lot of the technical stuff, because I was watching a lot of weight guys go, but just within the framework of each five-minute period, you know, and they know where they're going with it, depending on how many rounds they make. And do they go the distance? But what happens in each little setup, dude? Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of damn planning and doing that for I don't know how many weeks in a row you know what you're doing the five four minute rounds or in England doing a five minute rounds. But man, if you're working every single night and you're getting your chops in, yes, like crazy. All right. Well, really make. I mean, if you had the ability to acclimate and be down to it, if you can't learn there, you can't learn anywhere. But it's tough. Yeah. Oh, well, it didn't seem it was just way. Yeah, because you were used to it. Okay, check us out. So finally, what was the big two? So maybe pack up my mistakes because I just want to ask about the transition between going from rounds to our system. When you name it, Steve Regal, you know, I waffle on a bit, right? So there's always, I don't know, hug back. So now good, I run and it's I was doing all that stuff. So from 20 to 24 I was I was never alone. I was literally wrestling England, maybe two months of the year and I was living there, but I was off all the time. The last year I was there and two I was there for. I was in England for two months. I was away for nine months. What did your dad think when you hauled off and took off? I mean, was it was he behind you? You think he's going to fall on your face, why you get a regular job? He wanted me to take over his construction business and be a bricklayer. Yeah, and I just knew from my little break his heart. I, he was cool, you know, he broke his arm and it, but he's always supported me. Oh yeah. You know, he's just a great father and he's always. But I still think to this day, he still thinks I'm going to go back and say, Go button up his business again, you know? Yeah. So I got like travelling and I was just non-stop travelling and I was doing all this stuff. And then 1991, out of the blue, I get a FedEx come to my house from the WWF. I didn't even know what to FedEx van was or FedEx. I'm stuck in my house and a van pulls up outside. I had a few things in my house that shouldn't have been. And I, let's put it that way because it was all, you know, just the life and the people I on ground with were always buying and selling things. And, you know, like and not not bad things. Just yeah. VIDEO Reconnaissance. Yeah, and that that was just to get through life. That's what I did, and I thought it was a SWAT team come to get me. So I'm panicking. I see a van pull up outside, you know, with writing on that, I had no clue what it was. I thought, Oh, here we go. Yeah, it's off now, so it's not up to me. I'm sticking stuff under the couch and everything, like trying to run stuff up in the attic. And there's a knock. Oh, you go. And there's just left this this legend that this FedEx from the WWF. Can you come to the Royal Albert Hall? So you opened it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, right. Well, I looked on the back and he said, Oh yeah. So now what year was that? That was 91. OK, so I get this. Can you come to the Royal Albert Hall and we'd like to look at, you know, where's this come from? These are like a punch in the face. Yeah, you know, a good point. A good bunch of us. Yeah, so I'll go down there and I get down there and I have a match at the Royal Albert Hall. I doubt you ever seen that there was something they put on. It was like a special show for England and they did a battle. Royal and Davey Boy won the battle and then they asked me to go to Wembley the next night and they'd talk to me there and they said, Look, and that was in the days when everybody had a character and everybody said, Look, we like here. It could be several years till we get back into it, but we will keep in touch. But we might. Yeah, and we'll find the right thing for you because I was only this in 2021, 22, 22, maybe. Yeah, I said great. Couple of weeks later, I get a call. WCW was on like late night TV in England. Can you come and do work for us? This was November of ninety one. Still, to this day, don't know how I got there. I think it was Scott Hall because I just got from 1989 in Germany. I spent a couple of months with him there. I don't know who suggested. I still don't know how did he do over in England? I mean, I was in Germany, Germany. Fantastic. Yeah, yeah. A good worker, a brilliant yeah, yeah, yeah. Texas Scott Hall and yeah, what a big cowboy hat, big mustache that people loved him. Yeah, good looking dude. And he fit right in there, you know, because he knew exactly how to do his stuff and to fit in with everybody. So I don't know. He's I've asked him and he's never admitted. I never said one way or the other. But anyway, so I go and basically John Aztecs was there and they want you to look at him and I wrestle with your Aztecs all the time, hundreds of times. So they wanted me to wrestle him. And then they said, Can you stay for the rest of the week because somebody is hurt or something? I still never found out what. So I go, OK, yeah, I'll stay with you. So he did a couple of days in London and and then we did a show in Sheffield and then we did a show in Dublin. And in that week, I wrestled. Terry Taylor might have been. You guys are incredible. Yeah. And we'd never, you know, because we you know what? What winds me up a lot when people say, Oh, well, I've got a different style. I never had when I never had any problems working with any of them fellas from that era that knew how to work. Exactly right. It's nonsense. It's all nonsense. It's people who've never done the job properly. Yeah, if I turn you around one way it goes that way. And if you Tim, I go that way, and if you hit me, I sell it that way, right? That's. And so anybody who gets it, there's a point when when there's a difference, it's just people who don't know what they're doing, right? And they make excuses for the lack of abilities, right? So I had a great week. I worked with Michael Hayes, Terry Garvin, Terry Taylor, John Starks, the one day and then as I worked with Kevin when he was still us. Yeah, I was at Double Red Rock. Yeah, now I was thinking was, OK, you know, he was just he was. He was not. He hadn't, you know, he was still trying to find himself at that point wasn't he wasn't sure, and that was a terrible gimmick he was given. You know, yeah, I remember being in Dover anyway. So they said at the end of the week, Well, we like you, we want you to come. So I'm thinking, well, whoever gets old and me first because I'd seen the writing on the wall. By then you saw American TV. I mean, American shows were on TV in England. Now, once you've seen that, you don't want to go back to watching, you know, a little ring with a light bulb above it, right? It's just the way it is. Yeah, it's fun for a while. Now going to get a taste of it and say that production everything and I wanted to come to America, you know, and I always wanted to come to America. And everybody does, right? Well, most people do. So now it's looking like a natural chance for me to come. So I go about my business. The next year, 92, I am absolutely booked, solid. I work the first two months in England every single night. It was on fire. There's no the TV had been well despite being taken off TV in 1988, and he went through a few ups and downs. Why don't you take it off TV? There was a lot of it to do with the promotion and not making any any new stars. That was one thing, but that's not everything. Basically, a fella called Greg Dyke, who now is the head of the BBC, came to ITV and he decided that wrestling and and you know, darts is a professional. Darts is a big thing, you know? Oh, yeah, yeah. And snooker and things like that were to working class he wanted. He was a, you know, Oxford educated or Cambridge educated fella. He wanted to upgrade everything. And so the the working classes, which is most of Britain, it watch TV. Yeah, because it's such a big class system. He thought he knew better than they did. So first thing he did was move wrestling in a two year spell and move wrestling from four o'clock in the afternoon, which it was always on regular spot, you know, or o'clock on a Saturday and should be saying in England, everything stopped at four o'clock. That's the working class so serious about the wrestlers. Yeah, working classes. Watch wrestling. Yeah, I moved it from four o'clock to midday in 1986. Everybody, not everybody, but most factories, everything else, everything worked half day on a Saturday and that period of time till till 12:30. That was a work week in England. Yeah, five and a half days a week. Within a week of moving it from four o'clock till 12, the figures dropped in off just for that time spot. And then there was a lot of other things that went in with, you know, not making any new stars and, you know, all kinds of stuff. Production values and whatever else. Yeah, but within two years of watching the figures drop off, you've got perfect excuse to just take it off, right? Right. When we took off, it was still getting four point something million. Yeah, Jesus, we still get people die for that now, right? Four percent in million, you know, main shows on a Saturday night. Don't get that. And that was when that's OK. So then what happened to the rest of the scene there in England? If they didn't have a TV, it went underground for a while. A lot of people lost. Artists get jobs, you know? Brian Dixon, it was the what we used to call the opposition promoter sort came into his own, and Dale Martins, who ran the TV, sort of went away to a big degree. Brian Dixon kept running shows and just and he had all the best talent that was there and just kept running and running right. And everything was posters and word of mouth anyway, right? Regular buildings, you know, through the winter and most places you did every month or every kid we own and kept it going. And so it fluctuated a bit. But by 92, 91, 92, everything was on fire again. All the no TV and all the buildings were doing incredibly well. Another only small buildings fell between three necessary and some people. But yeah, like I was on the in the beginning. At 92, it was Dave Taylor against Fit Finlay Chase for the British Championship. Chasing each other. Don't want to ruin that. Two shows a night, right? And then the other show was Kendo Nagasaki in a tag match with whoever he was and whoever else was sitting in. So you'd be going between the two. I was at that time, there was no event. Sullivan de So yeah, right? Well, he was over. He'd been in Germany and he came to England. I was on a few shows you the likes. We were just so moving around between the two towers and just busy all the time. Or I'd be some nights I'd be on the Nagasaki tags, man, whatever and Pat Roach and against them to whoever. I was always working. And then March, the 1st of that year went to India for a month, and then I went to Germany on for about 10 days and I went to South Africa. Then I went to Egypt, and luckily I hadn't got any work booked for Germany was very, very hard to get and it was a very close. Right, right. Everybody clicky. Everybody wanted the spot there. Now I'd I'd add bits of it that and everywhere, and I get it. I'm just sad. All I've got the summer, you know, I've got it booked up in England and stuff, but I hadn't got a lot else. I don't know. I had plenty of work coming up in September. I was going to go all kinds of place, I forget, but I got a call from Otto events. Can you star in Graz next week or in three days, I think at the start of his tour for the rest of the year? Yeah. Well, Steve, right, Alex I. That fixing Annandale on his roof and fell off and broke his leg. It's done something. There's a restaurant. Yeah, okay. I could be second generation. Yeah, so he's a big star. Yes, that he was. He was one of the main stage and be interesting. I didn't know that 20 odd years. Yeah, or you want to walk. There's a match is that you talk about technical wrestlers? Is that against tiger mask from Japan? Alex, I mean, Steve Rogers direct he dealing with tiger masks launch really at 20 minutes gives him nothing. Not a drink of water. Really? Oh yeah. And he just you. That's what he used to be like when everybody was like right of your life, John Russell, right? He was so fit and so in incredible condition. If you look at him, you think this fella, you don't look like nothing. He would people would be scared to death of him. He would show how big a fella was. He not a big fella itself, but just was just a machine. Just blow you up and drag you about and you wouldn't know what was happening straight up straight. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so he gets it. Can you come? Yeah. So I ended up staying there through the rest of the year. September RIP Rogers is on the tour. Yeah, I just came in to my my trailer one day and said, Are you still in touch with WCW? This is 92 September. I said, Well, you know the old way. I don't know if this was like when you were starting, but the way we used to get booked everywhere, wherever you went, this is. One of them tricks wherever you went, you just send a postcard from Durban, South Africa. Hello, this is Steve Regal just telling you I'm working and send it to all the promoters, you know, because it made you sound like you were in demand, which you were. Yeah. Well, he said, you still in touch with WCW? I said, and this is funny because WWE, I had a letter off every month. Not sorry, every two months came to my office in Blackpool, set with a printed letter. We've got you on file whenever there's something. I was still getting those letters a year after I came to know who was sending those letters, but somebody in office, I don't know. But that was I was in touch. Yes. I never had anything after that because, you know, I wasn't organized. That was right. Yeah. But Roger said to me, Can you? Can you if you got nice handwriting? Well, yeah, it's only one thing, one thing I ever did at school, you know, I got nothing else, but I can write that. Yeah. I mean, uncles tell tales of that because they say the nuns used to batter us over the arms with like a cane in the Air Force. Is that right? So you get pretty handwriting sounding thing of God. Yeah, is good. And. So he said, Bill Watson just took over WCW, he said. And I've worked for him and he's very he said he'd like you, but he's very particular about certain things he likes. He said, You said when you come back every couple of months, I would send out like a printed resume, you know, like and whatever, you know, just another day because you never sent videos them days like ten. Yeah. Picture review Yeah. I was. Oh yeah, it was eight by 10. And you and your resume. I had never worked in. Yeah, you know, and you can call this fella for a reference, but that was the way it was. So he said the. He said this may sound strange, but if I dictated to you, can you write it? He said, because he likes to hear certain words. Yeah, of course I can. So there's all these sayings like I trained diligently and this and I've you know this and then, yeah, I'll write this letter. I sent it and used to have to. It was about an eighth of a mile walk from my caravan to the phone box to call home every day. Yes, that was the way it was. And full of coins and calls to the wife, I go on call about five days later. I call home one day, she said. Can you call this number straight away? I sent this letter off the record. Tell me about. Can you call this number? Bill Watts wants to talk to straight away, so I get straight away, put through from his secretary to him. I'm like in the phone book. Honestly, Man's was going in not like a fiddlers elbow trying to put these coins in. This thing like that couldn't get enough in, like just eating them up, calling and wake up on me now. How like the big pocketful of change? And he said, I'd like you to come and work for me. Can you? Can you come by like now? And I said, I'm sorry, I can't. I said, I'm here till Christmas, he said. He went silent for a while and he went. Have you got a contract? I said, no, but I've given me word that I'm going to be here till Christmas anyway. Another long silence and I got screwed. But you know, that's the way I am. Yeah, they're easy when you've definitely got the job now. Most people would have just quit to come here, he said. And I like that in somebody he said that you didn't quit, you know, and you give you a word, he said. That sealed the deal. When can you? He said, I'll get you. Said when you're finished, then I said, Well, two days before Christmas said, Well, I'll get you eight for the first of January. That's awesome. Then it was just a matter of my wife. Oh, am I going to find that much because I was in Germany, finding that much stuff to get, to send, to get visas and stuff, all these programs, everything that I'd ever done for the last 10 years. She had to find proof of that. I was a wrestler, you know, to get these. It's a lot easier for them to get visas now. And she was sending stuff. And by the time I went, I got it. You know, it's not that easy to get visas was. I landed on the 23rd of January, and then the first day I met you was the 25th of January 1993. The Steve Austin show on the Steve Austin Channel. The Steve Austin show, Steve Austin show. All right. Back in business, we're talking with Lord Steven Regal, William Regal, whatever you call the King of the Sea. Brony Tribe Kings used to sing that song all the time. To me, what was that all about? I don't know that Steve and Regal King of the drone age. I don't know. You had all kinds of verses for it and everything else and put it into whatever space at a different time wears on a bunch of different levels back in the straight and narrow these days. Hey, man, what was your favorite time or favorite down to work in anywhere in the United States? I used to like that place I used to do in Columbia, South Carolina, you know, did you like this? You know, this is like the station I watched you and Ricky Russell, like 45 minutes one night in there. I don't know where that is, just a little place. It was just an atmosphere to it. Yeah, I don't know why. It was just one of those places that I was, you know, these great big arenas. But after a while, they all become, you know, obviously Chicago and the goddesses. But there's just the intimacy about that race was something magic about it. I enjoyed back in the day when we were doing a TV in Atlanta because, you know, we just make those those towns. I mean, it was down to Alabama's Columbus, Georgia, Macon, Georgia. It was one of those couple of towns in South Carolina that were kind of close by. Yeah, we did those Andersonville and Anderson that Greenville, Lampson and everybody, everything was so local and those were kind. And I remember those days, the buildings were usually half to three quarters full. Yeah. And those were television. And so, yeah, but you know, houses were there, you know, or were there were the best you when the greatest period of, you know, we've seen that was the best time. I think my favorite time period of my career was that that point in time when there was me and you were traveling and we were on all those shows, what they called the big crew. But oh man to be crew was rock and roll. It was rock and we had the best work in team and we were in all. And you go to like Florida and we base yourselves in Orlando and we do all those little Davie, Florida, all these little towns for like ten days and we come back do TV and lines. Then we do the Carolinas for for a week or two and then we do the Georgia show. But those ones, when we were away and we saw it and you were doing them drives and and you just go and you work hard and you come out and you'd be sweating and then, you know, it was just magic. It was in a business with a lot more simple backing, it seemed. I mean, it's a giant machine. Everything, right? Yeah. And do you get a shower and get down the road? Yeah. I remember back in the day when we were filming TV's in Orlando, Florida. You may stay at the hotel in Kissimmee and a British pub rovers return. We always go, man, we get loaded up on Guinness. Throw darts all night long. Go back to the hotel and do it all again. And that was so some great times. What was your favorite match or just a list of a couple of matches that are your favorite of all time that I've had? No, no. Just any match that you would like to watch you. You've like to watch. My favorite match of all time was the the match it's on. You can watch on YouTube is Smarty Jones against Mark Rothko from 1978. Marty's wearing red tights. That's my favorite match. Then those 89 Flair Steamboat matches? Yeah, I used to. I got those on tape and I used to do my squats to watching them. Yeah, that one hour match, I used to put that on and I used to just stand and do do induce Hindus watching it or step ups. Yeah, where I used to do that and I thought, Well, if I can do this, I can keep up with them, right? And I do it for the full hour with them. But that said, a matches they had then were fantastic has that many. My favorite live match that I ever saw was in South Africa, which was again Smarty Jones against Gama Singh from Calgary. Canada was incredible. If you're watching from the stampede stuff, you worked as a villain when he was a wrestling babyface. We go to Durban, it's an outside show and they were on main event. I'd been on early about 5:00. It was always a walk up business there, about five o'clock. It started torrential rain. And oh, by the time we get to the show at 7:00, there's like usually there'd be probably four or five 6000 there. It's a tiny stadium. There's probably a thousand diehard fans, right? They go on last in torrential rain, with all the fans moved up into a stand, a covered stand. So there's nobody sat around ringside. It's all empty except for me. I went and sat in the rain pouring down. And they did 12 five minute rounds straight through with no falls. And it was like that scene in that film Paradise Alley, you know, at the end when this like slipping on the walks and like, Yeah, and they just work. And I'm like, I'm totaling all to this day of what I witnessed that day. I've never seen it on this. Maybe it's on a film somewhere because there was one just turned up on YouTube recently. I had no idea it existed. My first ever time in Durban in 1980, 1989 as a full much of me. And then when I was 20, so somebody may have filmed that match, but it was in the rain. Right. I don't know if I'd want to watch it because it might not hold up, right? My memories in that that would ruin it for me. But that for also us. I've seen that well. I mean, what did you think about going back to shoot? What was it, Rosemary? Three Savage versus steamboat match? This is a weird one for me, and I know why. Yeah, I loved it until I talked to Ricky about it. OK, nuff said. Because I know. Yeah. Yeah. Really pulling off like, yeah, I still love it. If you just watch it now for what it is. And I mean, it's for wrestling fans. Standards is one of the greatest matches of all time and crowd about when we're talking about on inside. Yeah, what we're talking about. As far as your stay here in the states or, you know, when you're over in in England, your favorite world champion body of work. And here in America, because you get different guys, you get guys that are funk guys, you guys are race guys, you get guys that are flair guys. You guys get a Michaels guys or Bret Hart, are you? Where are you out on that? I have to say, Ric Flair, I think it is just because, you know, what was it about Ric Flair because he's my favorite professor of all time and you're going to hear many people, depending on what camp they're in. And again, wrestling is subjective and people are going to say, Have you seen one Ric Flair match? You've seen them all? Well, that's like saying, if you've heard one, you know, Boston song or LED Zeppelin song or Metallica song, you've heard them all because everybody, you know, every band plays within their structure of what they do. Every wrestler wrestles within the framework of what they do. So why would you say Ric Flair? In your estimation, that was the. I didn't see American wrestling until two years after I was already wrestling. All right. Again, it's a right. You know, people forget that, you know, I didn't have I didn't own a video until, you know, I was just leaving when my parents had one, just as I was leaving home. Yeah, we had black and white TVs and I was a kid, you know? Is that yeah. So. I got some tapes and he was one of the first stuff I got was the NWA from Charlotte. And so I've seen him go out there with all these people and it's just something about him, just the way he did his stuff and then just the charisma and everything about it and just carrying yourself like a pro. And yeah, and then like, I got to I see I didn't see any. I saw all the best matches because that's the only ones I was getting and I wasn't seen everything. Yeah, I was seeing the steamboat matches and the bruiser Brody Mateen's people stuff that was like, Oh my God, as his father just keeps going. And that was a lot of it as well. He's just a conditioning, right? And to be able to, you know, I can go a long time, but at my pace right is pace was tough. Same with you. Your pace is 20 20 notches above anything I've ever done, you know, because that's the way you were. And I like about you in these long matches with Rocky and with each in that and I won't be watching how these guys keep going. You know, I'm not blown up and I kept going, but you kept going. But think about flair was what I liked. What he did was, you know, sometimes you need to take you down in a match and just just just buy it by feeling it or lessening or his instincts. He know when things that needed to be put in motion, time to speed things up, time to show somebody down, time to get a little heat, a little bit of hope. Something, yeah, his timing was just so good and he did it within just you watched his body. He looked like a pro. He was so relaxed. You know, he had just a drugs limit. Put his hair back, maybe a woo or whatever, but just the way he executed his business and what time it got time to get nasty. He was mean, you know, he was kind of that, you know, that cowardly heel. And I mean, you know, so he wasn't a tough guy. And I like I like when it came, when it came time to get me and he got me. What I liked was when I used to watch the actual. Another thing that drew me to him was that the way he did certain things and I knew he'd had some kind of a British influence. And then I found out later Billy Ray Robinson. Yeah, because the way put a wrestler come was the proper way to put a wrist lock on right instead of that old Chinese burn. Kind of, yeah, people do. I don't still get that, you know what I mean, but he put a prop. It's like a little things that he did correctly. I used to love watching Dirty Funk Jam. I loved watching it too. So I just liked the grind and then just didn't work at first when I started watching junior stuff. And this was in a different frame of mind back in the early 90s, and I was like, Oh, this guy's kind of boring. But as I got educated to like, what is great wrestling, I was like, Oh, no, f**king junior is one of the best. And I loved watching his stuff and still do. I mean, all of his stuff looked fantastic and totally credible. So I have an open certain ways, and I put myself in different times when I'm watching wrestling. Yes. I'll watch any kind of wrestling and enjoy if there's effort, right? I don't care if it's right or wrong. What people say this wrong. There's no right. Wrong psychologist is different. You go to different countries. They do things that you work for different companies. They do things a different way. But as long as there's effort, right? So I look at sometimes I'm looking at it from that right. If I'm in a mood to look at it from a point of view, if I see a lot of people. My thing was, and this is I, I never because I wasn't very good at this to start with and I never bought into the whole. Coming from a carnival and a show atmosphere and all that kind of stuff, it wasn't. I never wanted that term about being a good work, right? This was the way I based my work on. I used to talk to loads of people, and I'm sure you do. You don't like wrestling, right? Right. And when they used to say when they when people say to me, I still do, yeah, but when them and I'm wrestlers do that, it looks like that was all I ever wanted to do was I'm going to make sure my stuff doesn't look like that, right? That was my whole outfit mindset on how to make my my wrestling. Interesting. And it was like, if you say that, that looks phony. When they do that, I'm going to make sure I work on mine until it doesn't. I'm going to make sure that whether you like me or not, when you watch it, it looks as believable as you can do. Or if in doing comedy, you understand that I'm doing comedy and it's funny, right? Or if everything is that might, if that's all you say, that all you ever hear from wrestlers is that that's not what I'm going to do, right? And that or if I do do it, you're going to know that I'm there's a reason for its loss or outside of, you know, I mean that I've always thought like that. As far as getting in, I haven't got any. I've got no athletic ability. I haven't got. I can go my pace and I can do my stuff and I do. And I always think, avoid anything you can't do and do the things you can. So I can't do that, but I can do this right. You want believable look in wrestling? And I think I'm as good as anybody. That's just what I do, grinding away and and storytelling and stuff. You want comedy. I can do comedy, right? But it was. It's just what. You know, the people under God, they're good at a marvel of people. I sit there marveling at people going, God, I would never think to do that in a million years. Right. I watched Sean about watched he, especially when he came back in Mosul, when he came back in 2000. Just just not look enough. Yeah, look in his eyes and I'm all about the leave. You know, I say this job comes down to three things whatever. It's got nothing to do. It starts in your brain. It goes into your heart and it comes out on your face. And if one of them things is not right. Right? People some people buy into, but a majority to really capture the masses. You've got to truly believe in what you're doing, right? And you've got to show it on your face. And if it's not showing on your face and through your eyes and people, God, if you could see to it, you never trust anybody that you can't. They won't look at you in the eyes. And as restless, we seem to forget that everything comes through the eyes we attract from that. It's that belief in yourself and you get it right on the head. I agree with everything you're saying about those three things. Sometimes these days, you know when you can pick a green guy up who's trying to do those things, but the belief is not there and you see through them because they're overacting. And so I totally get with what you're saying. But but some people, when they don't really believe it, but they're trying to emulate that. It is not the same. There's a big difference. And that just to me, that just comes with, you know, learning the trade. Hey, we're going to wrap this up. I know you got to get down the road. I'm going to download this thing right now as soon as we get through talking. I lost the last damn computer chip. Oh, we're here in Los Angeles, California, and my house. You're down in Los Angeles for another two days. There's a big cold thing going through L.A., Atlanta, you can't get back to the ATL. What are you going to do for the rest of your time here? You know, we're here from Monday Night Raw, we're down to Staples Center. You're not. Talk to talk with a bunch of guys. Our Road Dogg, Jesse James, Badiashile gun. A lot of guys that had fun hanging out got a chance to finally talk to Bray Wyatt. Good kid. Yes, starting to buy in to the gimmick. He's got his head screwed on straight. And which guy in orange jumpsuit with? With the break with the white van? I'm going Erick Rowan. Yeah, Eric, I met him yesterday. I didn't get a chance to meet Luke Harper. Luke, you had some words with him. Yeah, he's going to turn up the volume. It was. It was a good show. Bray Wyatt got a good one off tag match. Rey Mysterio didn't hurt Ray right now and vicious looking gimmick out of nowhere. Clean in the middle lads are speeding up the process. Many shows changed a little bit. Man, I tell you what, you go down there. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, man. I went to see Kevin down on a production truck and there's monitors. I mean, more monitors and there ever was. There was a pre-show going on. I mean, it's like I had to leave. There was so much going on. It was blowing my mind there. I marvel. That's another thing. I sit around and I go, How do these people do this? I don't know. I'm a part of it, and I'm like, Yeah, how did you just watch Kevin walk out, walk out of this? Yeah. Cook for two minutes and I'm thinking, I look at him and I'm trying to. How does he do this? How does he manage to watch? Yeah, I'm brilliant. They say they can do this and everybody there, everybody, I'm looking at the production people, I'm going, How do they do all this? I mean, all the wires that go running everywhere. And you know, I always go talk to Kevin, don't have time and good money, and I a friend of mine. But just the way, the way, the way it keeps growing and they're feeding the, you know, the app, all the all the the different stuff going on before we go, they're going to launch a WWE network. Yes, I went down for the presentation in Las Vegas. It was bad a*s to know that they've got 100000 hours of original content. All this other stuff. Legends House is finally going to play the reality show they filmed a couple of years ago and couldn't find a home for. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with those guys underneath one roof. What are your thoughts about the launch of WWE Network and what it means to have access to all of this programming and content? It's just incredible. I mean, I'm looking at it from a fan perspective because I do, because I'm a fan. Yeah, I'm a fan. And it's like, there's all this. But, you know, we probably take for granted what we've been apart of, but there's always stuff that we use of stuff. I mean, I don't want to watch my stuff. I just won't be able to type something in and have immediate access because I mean, it's going to blow YouTube about the water because as you it's YouTube with slick sophistication and presentation, I'm really looking forward to such a lot of stuff that I didn't see because I couldn't get anything in England. Oh, you're going. I didn't see a lot of WWE stuff because I was always working. Yeah, it was only on Sky, and it didn't come on until the late 80s. Well, I was wrestling and I certainly didn't have Sky. You know, there's so there's a lot of stuff, NWA stuff, all that, all those territories that they own. That's what interests me. And that's where you if you're smart, you'll be learning from. If you stayed in a territory for a long time, you had to be good and do different stuff because you had. To keep going back to the same places, and that's what I'm fascinated in, right? What did these families do that stayed around in these territories for a long time? So I'll be picking. Oh, why did they want? Why did people buy into his act? Yeah, and I'm really I'm the brains going overtime. Know about thinking that's when I'll start, because whether I use it and I'll give it to somebody else to use or right or try and use that or try and use. Well, that I. And this is such a big lot of new stuff that I can find look about. And yeah, and just going back and watching stuff that you were a part of and you can't you forget the, you know, I don't like I say, I don't want to watch any of my wrestling stuff. No, never, really. Yeah. I've never been happy with it. Oh, I can watch much, but I cringe. Exactly. But I'll go back and watch all the comedy stuff I've done because I enjoyed all that, you know, is that much of that stuff? That's my stuff. Because I pull off that there's a Tommy Cooper and as a nation, you know, like it? Yeah. So I'm going to I'm not, but just to watch everybody's stuff and stuff that I never thought about before. I mean, just get a thought and you're head, I'm doing every day. I get a thought and I'm googling things about bands or wrestlers. And yeah, just watch that now. And that's just going to be fun. And if that 999 a month and is this in a plug, but I mean, 999 month to get all those reviews, including WrestleMania and you still get your Monday night rally, you can get your Smackdown on TV. I mean, you get access to all this stuff. So in a way, it's going to be a bad a*s thing. And so many guys have before us of paid dues. We did our thing, and now the current generation is going to be a lot of people into the future. But you know, you still Steve to to be good in this business, you know, because you did it. You got to live it. Eat it, breathe it. Sleep it. Michaels says this isn't a job. It's a lifestyle. It's true and it is, and everything suffers because of it, unfortunately. But that's the way it is. Should know what you get. I was told my first day into this you come in with nothing. You go out with nothing. Enjoy the ride right? And know what you're getting into. And that's what it is. This all consuming. And that's probably why I get two hours sleep a night because we won't stop thinking about. Yeah. Whether it's for me off and other people, I just I live in. Yeah. But these cats right now, man, the current crop of cats that are entering right now, where got guys are divas. I mean, guys, guys, specifically, we're talking to guys, man, you got so much time traveling ladies, guys and busters. If you're not behind the wheel, if you're riding shotgun or I mean, you could be watching stuff and pick it up because stuff like you said, seeing what's working? Listen, that crowd? Yeah, what's old is new. I mean, he'll have the stuff that people used to do. Nobody's doing anymore. Yeah. And just anyway, not to be late into to beat a dead horse, but in a way you're going to haul a*s. Go do your thing. Shop in Beverly Hills. Ride down Rodeo Drive. Did you get your convertible? You know better than scared to death? May I drive 40 miles I never used? It was a lot about you. You mentally you drive. And I used to scare the life out of me. We used it. Yeah, yeah, you are elemental. Yeah, know 70 mile an hour, man. That's it. I don't golf these days. I buckle up for safety. You never get on a freeway. When I'm driving down to Texas, I'm I'm driving, you know, a little bit of radar, maybe eighty five. But I've got a seat belt and I've only ever go in a convertible because I've been in a car and had it roll on me. And I'm like, The only thing, the only thing that saved me was the roof. Yeah, so that was nice. I don't dig that. Yeah, I'm not a dropped top guy. I got to have a seat above my head while the travel. I will get a roll bar, put my stuff in with all of the steam rego. He's got all asked about it to get you down the road. Thank you. Thank you. This has been a podcast. One Production download new episodes of the Steve Austin show every Tuesday at podcast Montcalm. That's podcast on Omnicom. Pluto TV is a place for movie fans like me and TV fans like me. They've got something for everyone and it's free. I love free and I love Jersey Shore for me. Is The Godfather SpongeBob SquarePants? I am Patrick Patrick is me. Oh, Forrest Gump, come on. Criminal Minds Solving Crime after bedtime. Whatever you love to watch, Pluto TV makes it easy with thousands of free movies and shows. Pluto TV. Stream now paying. Never. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was good. I'm Bryan Greenberg. Victor A. Check out our new podcast. We almost made it. You guys might remember us from HBO's How to Make It in America. Guess what? We're going to have actors, athletes, fashion designers, comedians, friends. We're going to talk hustle, grind anyone who had a dream and people thought they were crazy, but they chase it anyway. We want to talk about it. We also want to hear from you. So go follow rate and review. We almost made it Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Go ahead. Do it, do it. Do it now.
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