How stupid are you guys?

All you people out there in TV.

Land, you just make me sick. We told the world what we were gonna do and we went out and did it. A wrestler who will dominate the sport like no other wrestler can. WCW has tried way too world to try to hold me back. The whole facade. Who cares? No one cares.

No one can beat.

Welcome to the bottom line Wrestling cast the career of Stone Cold Steve Austin. And we are back with another episode of Stunning Steve. This is episode 22. And. And we're calling this one Title shots. And we are covering March of 1994. I'm Mike Prue along with JV. JV, how you doing?

Doing well, man. Back at it. Episode Back at it.

Hey, a month. Hey. We put out two episodes last month. So we're back on track. We're doing it monthly. Yeah.

So get back on track.

I'm proud of ourselves. I'm proud. And also, it's WrestleMania weekend, you know, in the real world here. Yep. And I was just thinking, like, we've done so many episodes on this, but I was like, maybe we need to do another one. But we'll see how the. The hall of Fame goes. Because Stone Cold's getting in the hall of Fame again, as well as Bret Hart Forum.

Yeah.

What we consider one of the best matches of all time. Brad Hart versus Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13. It's now in the hall of Fame or being inducted into the hall of Fame tomorrow as we recorded this as the immortal moment. And it's the first one of the immortal moments. Oh, I think that's pretty cool. I like that they're starting to put matches in and moments and that's cool.

I mean, it was the pivotal. It was a pivotal, very pivotable moment in. And it gets in first. Like, think of everything it got in as a moment like that. It beat out in wrestling history.

Yeah. You can go Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. Right?

Yep.

Easy one right there. They can't deny that eventually.

Yeah.

People hate Hogan right now.

So you know what? That is, too. If Vince was in charge still. Oh, yes.

It would have been that.

But Triple H is in charge and Triple H is an attitude error guy. Right. So.

Exactly. Good point.

You know, they all hate. I mean, everyone hates Hulk Hogan.

Yeah. I mean, not everybody. Well, you know.

Yes.

If he shows up, the Raw people are booing.

Yeah. It's not a good.

So, yeah. They can't put him in a Hall of Fame for an immortal moment right now. They probably came up with the concept of Immortal moment with the idea of Hulk Hogan, because, you know, the immortal Hulk Hogan.

Yeah, exactly.

And then they're like, oh, you got booed the out of. So let's swerve here and go, yeah. Bret Hart versus Stone Cold. That's an easy one. They're both alive and we can. We can get them here and that'll be fine because that's a great moment. And then next year we can do. Actually, no, we could still do it. Sean Michaels and Razor Ramon. A lot of match that's going in for sure. WrestleMania Immortal Moment or hall of Fame immortal moment. Yeah, I'm looking.

Gonna end up in a few, I'm sure, as time grows.

Ah, yeah. So with that, I'm wondering, though, CM Punk's going to induct them. Are they. Are they actually gonna be there, though? Like, I hope so. That would give us something to actually cover. Is brah and Stone Cold being on stage, the hall of Fame given.

Well, there's always in it.

Yeah.

I mean, they wouldn't induct themselves, right?

No, but I'm just wondering if it's gonna be like, he comes out, says, oh, this is a great match, blah, blah, blah, and that's it.

That's.

Imagine that. Right. That would be horrible. Right. Brett Hart and Stone Cold have to be there.

They have fuck you money now. Pay them, get them there. They'll show up. You pay them enough money, they'll come. They're adults and they like.

Yeah.

They'Re like family planning now.

Yeah. And then that also makes me, you know, think, well, Stone Cold's gonna be there. Is he gonna show up at WrestleMania somehow? That'd be great. Nice.

I hope. I hope so.

So maybe we have some bonus content coming soon. We'll see.

We haven't had expecting it, so.

Yeah.

Which probably isn't a good thing, setting yourself up.

I know. Disappointment. Yeah. But I. I was just hoping for it because, you know, it's been a while since we've had new Stone Cold content to actually talk about.

Yeah.

Oh, here we are in 1994, talking about stunning Steve Austin wrestling the Fire Cat. Whatever the he's called one of the matches you have to cover on this. Right. Fire Cat and.

Yeah. That trash.

Yeah.

Actually, it actually wasn't that bad. Fire Cat wasn't bad.

No, Fire Cat's not bad. And we'll get to it.

But it could have been worse. It could have been like Dwayne Gill or something.

All right, so let's get going with this, please. Before we get started here, just Give us a follow on on X at Bottom Linecast. Follow me Mike Peru at NPRU 83. Follow JV at John Van Damage. And please give us a five star review on Apple Podcast help sells out greatly. I did get a notification and this is funny. I did get a notification that we have a copyright infringement for some random ass episode. It was a stunning Steve episode. Episode two of Stunning Steve. Spotify took down episode two because a claimant said that we had used music that we shouldn't have.

What music?

I don't know. I didn't go back and check the episode. But it was. It's gotta be operated music.

Huh. We don't even use like.

We don't play songs and on this. Yeah.

So it must be something in the commercial or something.

Yeah, it might have been like something from like a watch along that we were doing in that episode or something. But why is that random episode get flagged?

How do they know I fucking death. This is. That's where I mean. Oh, I like AI. This is that way. That's the shit where I hate AI because now they can find that shit now because they use an AI. It's not someone sitting there with headphones on like, yeah, just heard this song on stunt. At least give us the view.

Right? Yeah. Let's listen.

If scrub it. It should count as a listen.

AI, you're not even listening.

It should still count. They're scanning it, they're reading it. It's even more pathetic.

So hopefully nothing else comes about and we start losing episodes. Yeah, we didn't lose anything on our main feeds. 1. I was just Spotify.

I know you might think like we've made it, we've lost money. Spotify, if it makes you feel any better, on this entire operation we have.

This is a hobby.

Yeah.

Don't take our episodes away.

It's not a business.

Right. Without making money, you. And also it's fair use practice as well because we're covering history and if anything that we played it's just in reference to what we're covering. It's not trying to monetize on anything.

Yes.

So we got a life.

You go like, hey, you want to listen to Pearl Jam from 1994.

Right. Like even on our ECW episodes we play the music. But it's not because we're trying to like, yeah, you know, we're just trying to create a feel for that time period and whatnot.

It's just overreach. Like what I think people are going to that part of the video and like Oh, I really want, you know, like, what are we doing?

Just ridiculous. No, it's the. These bots, these AI. It reminds me of Minority Report where these bots just go in the house and, like, try to read your eyes and.

Yeah.

You know, it's like, oh, we're gonna, you know, just another way to control. Sound like a weirdo now. But, yeah, that's. That's what's going on.

It's not weirdo.

It's.

It's the facts.

It is what it is. Yeah.

It's no different than talking about fish in the sea. They both exist. Both of these things happen. Yeah, it's like you're making it up.

All right, so with that, let's move on now to this episode we are covering March of 1994. We last left off covering February of 1994, and that was our Thunder Cage episode. So we had that pretty good Thundercage match From Super Brawl 4 with Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Brian Pillman taking on Rick Rude, Austin and Paul Ondoff just hanging around there. And, you know, that was. That was the highlight of it. And we also checked out Terrorizing Triple H, who is getting inducted again, like the third time into the hall of Fame this weekend as well. Yeah. So that was. That was a fun episode. And let's move on right now to episode 22, March 1994. I'm gonna kick things off with some coverage of WCW Worldwide from March 5, 1994. This was taped in Orlando, Florida at the Disney MGM studios. And I don't have a exact date on when it was recorded. It was just. Or taped rather. It was sometime in February or late January. But what we have here is right away kicking off with a little audio clip and we got Mean Gene Oakland interviewing Dustin Rhodes and Flying Brian Pillman. So take a quick listen to that. It's about two and a half minutes and we'll be right back.

All right, fans, I'm sure you've seen this before. This is the chicken. Chicken head, or likeness thereof, that was worn by. By Colonel Robert park in front of a national television audience recently. You know the stakes in the big tag team bout that we're going to be seeing later in the hour. Please welcome my guests at this time, Brian. Brian Pillman and the natural Dustin Rhodes. Brian, I think we've talked about this one long enough. We're going to be cranking it up later in the hour. You and Dustin are going to be facing Austin and his partner, Lord Steven Regal.

Well, me and Gene.

The stage is set later this hour. As you mentioned, the stage are high. It's going to be feast or famine. KFC made it all possible last week with a hasty challenge. Dustin myself. We come out of this victorious. We're looking at a title shot. We lose, it could be the most embarrassing moment of our entire careers. It promises to get ugly.

Did I feel a little, well, should I say stupid here?

What Colonel Parker did was made a huge mistake. Don't be thinking Stunning Steve Austin and Lord Steven Rigel that you coming to beat us. You coming to stick a cigar in our mouth. Coming to put a chicken suit on Flying by Pillman, you get another thing coming. Cause this week Flying Brian and the Natural Dustin Rhodes are gonna come out here, gonna prove to the world that we can beat you and we are worthy of that title shot.

And we will.

All right, I thank you very much. By the way, one of the stipulations, if Fly and Brian or the Natural Dustin Rhodes should get a pin, either those two men are going to get a shot at the United States Heavyweight Champion, Stunning Steve Austin or the World Television Champion, Lord Steven Regal. Whatever the case may be, it is going to be interesting. Stay tuned. We're going to be back with more action when WCW Worldwide racks it up one more time.

All right, so Mean Gene starts off this interview. He's standing on a stage on this set, and what does he have? He has the damn chicken head again. Can we get beyond this? We can't get beyond the damn chicken head. The chicken costume, chicken suit, man. We're still wrapped into it. Like I almost entitled this episode Something to do with the Chicken Suit. I was like, no, we're gonna lose listeners if I keep having chicken head chicken suit titles. So that's why I came up with the generic title shots. Anyway, Mean Jeans there. He's interviewing Colonel Robin Parker. Gene, not Colonel Parker, but he's talking about the chicken head that Colonel Rob Parker had to wear a few weeks back. So he has it there. Just putting it on spotlight, basically that, you know, this is still relevant. And then Gene introduces Dustin Rhodes and Brian Pillman and they're gonna have a big tag team match for the main event on this show. They go. They're going up against Austin and Lord Steven Regal. So Brian Pillman speaks for us. Pillman says that, you know, the stage is set later on this hour. The stakes are high. It's going to be Feast of Famine. KFC made it all possible last week, that hasty challenge. So he's talking about Colonel Parker. He just calls him kfc. He says Dustin, myself, we come out victorious here. We're looking at title shots. If we lose, it could be the most embarrassing moment for our entire careers. So they're referencing, you know, the stipulation here where whoever gets the pinfall, if either of them get a pinfall, they get a title shot. Either of them lose, then they have an embarrassing stipulation, which is either Dustin Rhodes has to get a cigar in his mouth, which. Whatever. I don't know how embarrassing that is.

Yeah, right.

And Pillman has to wear the fucking chicken suit. So, yeah, there's that. All right, so Dustin Rhodes says that Colonel Parker made a huge mistake. You think you're gonna put a cigar in my mouth and a chicken suit on, Flybind, you got another thing coming. And then Dustin Rhodes says that they're gonna win and they're gonna prove that they are worthy of those title shots. Now, at this point, what I'm thinking, what I'm hearing, this promo, it's not clear who's getting what title shot. Like, because they didn't make it clear. Like, if Pillman pins Regal, then he gets a TV title shot or whatnot. Like, that wasn't apparent. So there's a little confusion there, at least when I was watching. Maybe fucking. I don't. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but it didn't seem clear to me. And I'm. I'm thinking that they weren't that very clear because they're often not. So anyway, Mean Gene does give a clarification, though, moments later, and says. And he probably recognized the fact that. Oh, wait a minute, nobody knows what the fuck we're talking about. He says, whoever scores the pinfall, Rhodes or Pillman, they get the title shot against who they pinned. All right, thanks, Mean Gene. He's like, what am I doing here? Amateur hour. That's. That's funny, though. The thing. Like, me, Gene came from such an organized place to be in here, so he's kind of like the new guy that's like, let's get this together. Like, yeah. You know, so he was huge, right? Coming from structure. Same with Bobby Heenan when he comes in. Yeah. Like, they're used to structures, so they help WCWL greatly, I think, with just knowing how to actually do real production. Not shit show like WCW had been.

Doing, like real professionalism.

Exactly.

Like we are coming from where you're trying to be how this works, Right? Supposed to work, at least?

Nope. All right, so that leads into the match later in the show, and there's a time stamp of 41 minutes, 55 seconds. If you're gonna ever have this episode available, that's where it's at. It's the chicken suit versus the title match, which was almost the name of this episode. The chicken Soup versus the title match. Like I said before at the air on the chicken suit. So that's a big deal too. Chicken Soup versus the title match. All right, so you got Stunning Steve and Lord Steven Regal, the US and the TV champion taking out Dustin Rhodes and Brian Pillman. Stipulations stated if Rhodes and Pillman won, they would earn a title shot against the loser. And if Austin and Regal won and you know, they had to wear the chicken suit to take the cigar in the mouth. Brian Pillman and Dustin Rhodes make their entrance. Dustin Rhodes comes out, he's wearing sequin chaps, looks horrible. Like, this is a dude that needs to look badass. He comes out with freaking, like, glittery chaps on. Yeah, Come on. So they head to the ring. Eric Bischoff is on commentary on this one, and he, he hypes up the match. He's talking to Bobby Heenan, says, all right, Bobby, what do you think it'll be? Chicken suit or a tail shot? Okay, so he's hyping it up the best he can. Eric Bischoff is lame on commentary at this point. I mean, he's not that good anyway. But at least during the Nitro era, he's. He's pretty good as a heel and whatnot. But now at this point, he's just a goof. So they go to the ring. You have Gary Michael Capetta. He's on, you know, he's doing. Ringing out to duties. And he announces the match as the chicken suit versus the title match. In this tag team feature. It's all. It's legit now. Gary Michael Capeta announced it. This is a big deal. It's the chicken suit versus the title match. And it's so funny that they're actually acknowledging that this is the chicken suit match. Like, man, they're. They were running with this chicken suit, man.

Yeah, it like way it overstayed its welcome.

Right?

As long as anything could possibly overstay it's welcome.

Right? I. I get it's mid card, but it needs to be not anything. Not even mid card. Right. All right, so the Hill champions, they. They head to the ring. You have TV champ William Regal. Well, Steven Regal at this time, he's with Sir William and he's wearing his bowler hat. He has a little mini British flag as he comes to the Ring, you know, that's, you know, Bill Dundee. US champion Austin comes out to the ring with Colonel Parker looking like he's from the 1800s, as we know now. I'm just trying to set a scene though, here. Like, you got these two wrestlers, one British guy, this Hollywood blonde guy, and then you have their managers, one looking like some British dude from the 1800s, a American Southerner from the 1800s coming down to the ring, like, what the hell's going on here? What a scene. This is like if. If you're tuning in in 1994 and checking this out, like, that is what pro wrestling is like. Get these two good wrestlers and then you got these characters, this sideshows. Oh, man. So anyways, Colonel Parker comes on to the ring. Of course, the KFC chance begin immediately. This is a lively studio audience. It's great. They're. They're pumped, they're psyched. I love it. Regal and Pillman start the match and we get a lockup. Bischoff asked how he got the name Weasel. So get a little sidebar here. And how'd you get the name Weasel? And then Bobby's like, oh, me? Gene gave me that. You know, he started that. He doesn't know why. Now that goes back to like AWA days and whatnot. But that's how he explains it. There is that. Oh, mean. Gene gave me that. I mean, Gene was in AWA with Bobby, so it probably did begin there. I'm not really in tune with what happened in AWA because I never dove into that and I don't think I ever will. Who knows? Regal, he has his thigh, it's all wrapped up and gauzed. And Eric mentions that on commentary, you know, just pointing it out that he's injured. And then we get back to the action. Regal and Pillman Connor each other a bunch of times, often resulting in Pillman getting the upper hand. Bobby mentions that Regal is good enough to let Pillman have a false sense of security. I like this commentary from Bobby. He does this every once in a while where he's not joking around. He actually gives some good insight. He says that Regal is good enough to let Pillman have a false sense of security. Security. And then just like, boom, out of nowhere, I got you. So he's just pointing out that rig can, like, turn the tables at any time, even if Pillman has the upper hand. So good insight there. Bischoff and he. And then continue to joke about Sir William in his bowler hat or derby hat. They argue like, oh, the bowler hat or derby hat and penguin. Yeah. Yeah. There's almost no difference between a bowler hat and a derby hat.

Yeah, he looks and carries an umbrella and.

He does. Yeah, he does.

I didn't know who when he showed up when I was watching, like, who the this guy wrote in my notes. I'm like some weird guy that looks like the Penguin. And then later, after listening, I heard it. Oh, it's Sir William. I didn't know who he was.

Yeah, is from JC Ice. I think it's JC Ice. It might be the other one. Whatever. It's one of the PG 13 guys, dad.

Okay.

Yeah, I don't know who that is. Not a big deal. It's USWA wrestlers, basically.

I don't know who that is. I don't want to know who it is. Let's just move on.

No, you know the nation, guys. Nation A domination. JC Ice and Wolfie D. Yeah, it's Wolfie D, actually. Wolfie D. Oh, I didn't know that. A bum rush. Your mother, that those guys, the Rapid dudes from the nation.

So they were. They were wrestlers?

Yeah, they were wrestlers before that. Yeah, yeah. And his dad, Wolfie D's dad was Sir William, who was a wrestler in Memphis. Uswa. And then he became Sir William. But yeah, Penguin. That's funny. All right, so anyway, we get back to the action. Dustin Rhodes is tagged in. Brian Pillman holds Regal. And Rhodes gives Regal a little jab to the side. Bobby calls it a cheap shot. Eric argues, all right? Bischoff argues that it's a legal shot. Then Bobby agrees. Because Eric's saying, oh, you know, that, you know, you got five seconds in the ring. You've made a. You made a career out of that. You made a career of taking advantages like that as a manager. So I. I like that little back and forth there. It's like probably, you know, he's not cheating. You do it all the time as a manager. You take advantage of those five seconds, get a little cheap shot in. All right, so from there now in the. In the ring, you have Dustin. It's a great drop kick to Regal. And it's followed by a classic bionic elbow drop. And then you get a series of punches. And Dustin's on fire at this point. And the crowd, like I said, who's very, very good there, they're pumped. They're going crazy. Dustin starts shucking and jiving like his father. And then Dustin takes Regal down for a two. You know, so we finally get a cover there. Bishop says, like father, like son. And Then Bobby says, you mean he's just as dumb as his dad? A little jab in there. And, you know, I love that. You know, Bobby's so quick with it. Like, he's so quick that Eric can't even respond to it. Eric's just like doing that little easy one there. He's like, oh, like father, like son. Then Bobby's quick to be up. Just as dumb as that, huh? Mouth shut, can't even respond. That makes, you know, that shows the difference between their abilities on the mic. So anyway, Bischoff mentions that the crowd is at a fever pitch. And like I said, it really is. Moments later, Dustin gets whipped to the ropes when Regal breaks free of a headlock. Austin takes the opportunity to drive his knee into Dustin's back on the ring apron. So you have Austin on the side. He takes a little cheap shot. The crowd immediately boos. You know, this crowd is into it. You know, the way a crowd should be. Like, just following along, going with the story. Just, you know, not being like many crowds today where they're critiquing in the moment. They're just going along with what's presented. Like, oh, that guy cheated. We boo. Oh, that guy's making a comeback. We cheer. Basic wrestling. That was great. And who knows how much of this crowd is actually just WCW executives that would just hire to be in the crowd. Who knows? Because it is a studio audience and it's a new place that they probably didn't have a lot of people going to. So it's like studio audience is just wild. All right, so you know, the crowd's chanting and they're booing whatnot. And then they tell the. They tell the referee. And I always love this too. He cheated.

He cheated.

Austin cheated. Like, I love that because they have, like, investment in the match. Like, oh, what I say is gonna matter. So builds that heat. Like, ah, the referee doesn't believe me. Ah, you suck too. Anyway, Austin, arrigo proceed to double team Dustin. They do a double Irish whip. And when I was writing, this was like, double Irish whip. Sounds like something you'd ask for as from a bartender. A double Irish whip. Hey, give me a double Irish whip. You know, extra cream on top there. It's followed by a double back elbow. Austin takes over a couple shoulder blocks in the corner. Then a snap mare goes for a ping pin attempt. Dustin kicks out on one. So a lane one count. Austin gets frustrated with that, pulls Dustin to the ropes, chokes him with the second rope. So he's just choking him on that rope there. Dustin does. Does recover from being choked on the ropes. Colonel Parker is that ringside. He's talking to Dustin while he's getting choked, and he's saying, oh, you're gonna wear that chicken suit. You're gonna wear their chicken soup. Blah, blah, blah. So Austin then begins to wheel away on Dustin. Then he tags in his partner, Lord Steve Regal. Regal gets a stiff shot from Dustin. Both men are feeling a little bit woozy here, and they start to stumble around. Regal drops to the mat, but then executes a single leg takedown to Dustin while he's kind of stumbling around. So Regal takes advantage there, and we have both men on the mat. Regal then forces Dustin up and then sets them up for a series of European uppercut forearms. And yeah, I had a whole. I'm looking at my notes like I had a whole little setup for you. I'm just gonna say because it's ridiculous, but here it is. What's the difference between an uppercut form an uppercut forum in a European uppercut forum? Is it because the guy doing it is European? Can American do one as well? So that was supposed to be my joke. I was like, okay, let me stop this, Seinfeld.

Yeah, this is a bad joke.

Anyway. Yeah. So what's the deal with the European? Anyway, moving on. Rico works with Dustin to his corner, gets analog on him. Tag Austin in Austin. Ryu will get a little double team action on Dustin. We have Bischoff again now contradicting this previous conversation about the five count and the double teaming before. That was fine. They figured it out. They made it work. We got it. But now they stop talking about it again. And Bishop saying, a little. A little double teaming here in. No, actually, let me say Heenan says, a little double teaming here, and then Bischoff jumps in. No, it's tag team wrestling. You can do that. Then Bishop. No, it's called tag team wrestling, not double team wrestling, Bobby. There's a big difference. Then Bobby said, yeah, if the ref doesn't catch you, then Bishop just says, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, okay. You're right. Right? Yeah. He could just cheat. If I was like, dc. And then Eric's, you're right. You're. You're right, you're right. Every once in a while, you're right there. It's like, what? So this had to be like some kind of planned routine that they had up initially, and then they tried it again and they up even more trying to do it. You know, it's kind of like if I was going to force that little stupid European uppercut forearm joke in. That's why I, I realize it sucks. So that's why I made fun of it when I brought it up. Instead of trying to work it in, these guys tried to work in that whole little segment there twice and it failed both times. Anyway, so back to the action. Meanwhile, you have Austin body slam. Dustin heads to the second rope for a lame double ax handle. I hate double axe handles. Oh, like it's like when you're a kid being like pretending to wrestle with your brother or with your friend. That's what you do. It's a double X handle. It sucks. Anyway, Dustin then punches Austin in the gut of course, because that's what happens. You go for a double ax handle, boom, punch to the gut. But Austin sells it without the typical somersault bump. You know, that's what usually happens. That one makes that spot pretty good, is that, oh, they come down and they boom. Then they flip over. Austin doesn't do that. Austin's like that. I'm not bumping. Dustin goes for a shitty bulldog at this point, which is one of his signature moves. Austin is up immediately though. Then Bobby quickly covers for it. Bobby on commentary covers for that botch. And he, he says, oh, if he had he being Dustin, if he had gotten that, it would have been over for Austin. So Bobby quick to cover for it right away knowing that, oh, that bulldog looks so weak. So he's given Austin credit that, you know, he was able to kind of avoid it even though it was a little botched there if you watch it. All right, so you have Austin and Dustin go back and forth with punches. Dustin tries to sneak by Austin for the tag to Pillman. At this point I forgot about Pillman in this match. And your listeners probably forgot too because we haven't mentioned Brian Pillman in minutes, man. So Austin ties up Dustin. Regal enters the ring. The ref is distracted. Now Austin punches Dustin back to his corner tags and Regal. Regal works on Dustin. He's speeding on Dustin. Dustin is then whipped out of desperation and we go for a tag there. Quick tag back to Austin. Austin goes for a leg drop on the second rope. He misses that. The crowd is hot again, man. This crowd's on, on fire. Austin stumbles to tag in Regal. Dustin finally gets the chance to tag in Brian Pillman. Like this should be anticipated as like a hot tag, right? Like, oh, finally, Brian Pillman. But man, it's a lame hot tag because Dustin is, It's not like he's weak at this point he just did a few good things, you know, it's not like he's stumbling.

That's a common thing in WCW though.

Well, the shitty hot tags.

No, what you're saying like how guys just go from like, you know, not.

Tired, don't all of a sudden being tired. Yeah, yeah.

Like there's no real build. Sometimes it's weird.

Yeah, well it's, it's like lame acting, shitty acting like yeah, they know like, oh, now it's time for me to do the hot tag. So I gotta act like I'm weak even though like seconds ago I was on fire.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah, yeah.

Like it's way more common in wc. WW still using like that older school mentality.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, they probably, I don't know, they're just not good.

Yeah, I didn't want to say that. You said it.

It's not good at acting or they're just taking advantage of the audience and thinking they're not going to notice, you know, which. Yeah, for the most part it's probably true. Well you know, us looking back at it being critical, we're noticing like. Yeah. Which ultimately is not a big deal. But hey, if we're going to be talking about this match, I'm gonna point out some. Anyway, we get the hot tag. Pillman goes to town. Regal knife edge, chops back, body drop. Austin runs in, Pillman hits him with a drop kick. Pillman connects with another drop kick. The Regal, so he's back and forth, he's on fire. Pillman gives a double noggin knocker. Austin and Regal, Dustin just strolls into the ring, starts beating on Regal. So now you got everybody in the ring there. Austin tosses Pillman out of the ring. He attacks Dustin from behind. Austin and Regal hit Dustin with a double backed elbow. We got all this double teaming going on. Brian Pillman is climbing up to the top rope meanwhile at this point and no, he's the legal man. And I just want to point out, usually I'm gonna complain about refs, you guys know that at this point, you know, and for a moment I thought this match is out of control, this ref has no control, it's a shit show. But immediately once I thought that, I realized I'm wrong. This ref is actually pretty good, you know. So amidst all the chaos we have a good example of reffing here. So this ref, I don't, I don't remember who it is, I didn't even jot down. It wasn't Nick Patrick, it wasn't Randy Anderson. It was somebody else that I didn't recognize. So that's why I don't know who it was. But this guy's on point, whoever he is. So we have Austin, who is illegal. He runs in. Then Dustin came in, who is illegal as well. Austin tossed Pillman out of the ring. Pillman is a legal guy. The legal guy got tossed out of the ring. The ref doesn't start account perfect because the person that thrown him out of the ring was illegal. Jose Austin. So you have now Austin and Regal double teaming the illegal Dustin in the ring. So who gives a fuck about that? Dustin's not even in there. He's not legal. So who cares if Austin Regal beat him up? So no DQ there, no nothing to worry about there. So the ref is still aware of what's going on. You have Brian Pillman now going up to the ropes. He's the legal guy. He cross bodies. Regal, who is legal in the ring. Pillman lands on Regal with that cross body, goes for a pin cover. The ref recognizes, yes, these are the two legal guys. I'm gonna go for a pin. One, two, three. Boom. Matches over. Pillman pins Regal. That. That's. I'm surprised that this actually happened on WWTV like that. The referee had it organized and it worked out that way that he didn't care about the guy on the outside. He wasn't trying to count somebody out. He wasn't trying to cause a DQ in the ring. He was just waiting for the legal guys to interact with each other again. And once it did, he was Johnny on a spot, made the 1, 2, 3 count and ended the match awesome. I'm so impressed with that. So meanwhile somebody that was not impressed with that was Colonel Robert Parker. He loses his mind at ringside. Pillman has now earned the title shot against Steven Regal for the TV championship. And nobody has to wear the damn chicken suit. Hopefully that is over with. We don't have any more chicken suit saga from this point on.

Good riddance.

They go to a commercial break. We get back Gene Oakland, Bobby Heenan. They conduct an interview with Regal and Sir William about defending the TV title against Brian Pillen. Next week on WCW Worldwide, Regal blames Sir William for even getting him involved in match. So what a heel. He blames his manager like I shouldn't have been in this match, blah blah blah. So what an. So obviously we're not going to cover that match, but I'll just cover it briefly. I'll just give you the result. The following week on we said we worldwide for March 12th, Brian Pillman defeated Blood Steven Regal of course by DQ. Because God forbid you give Brian Pillman a championship other than a light heavyweight championship or all the tag team title. But Pillman defeats Let's Stephen Regal by dq. When Regal tossed Pillman over the top rope, that's how the match ended.

Bad rule.

Oh, sick of that. I thought that was gone. Now it's back like after, after Bill Watts was in charge. I thought they got rid of that. Now all of a sudden it's just randomly back again. So after the match, Regal attacked Pillman from behind and Pillman then goes after Sir William. But then Regal comes back, attacks Pillman, nails him with a pile driver outside of the ring on the mat. So that's what we have there. All right, so from there we move on to JV's coverage coming up. But man, what a match. Chicken suit versus the title match, filming gets the title shot, doesn't capitalize on it, and all for nothing. All I probably actually rather see somebody with a chicken suit again. No, not at all. All right, so jv, what do you got for us?

All right, so we're at WCW Saturday night, March 5, 1994, Atlanta, Georgia at Center Stage. I have a couple, I have what, three interviews to cover here and then we're going to get into the match. So first up we got Mean Gene interviewing Colonel Robert Parker. So park is interrupting Mean Gene, who's currently talking about Nick Bockwinkle's announcement that Steamboat, who had been like fighting for this for a while, is set to face Ric Flair for the World Heavyweight title at Spring Stampede. So park is holding a tranche contract though. So Parker kind of, he's comes in, he's all pissed off and he's holding a contract that says that his man Steve Austin, our US Champion has had the rights for the last three months to any world title championship match. So Parker's out here making it clear that this if there's going to be a world title match, well, it's going to be between Austin and Ric Flair. So you know, I got to say one thing about Parky. Definitely. I know it's in his best interest. He fights for Austin, he's a good manager.

He's actually managing. Yeah, it's one example where, you know, we, we see managers all the time, but we don't see them actually do management. Yeah, Parker does on tv.

This guy's got his together, he's good all right, so from there, a little bit later in the show, we get another interview here with mean gene. In this time, it's Brian pillman. So pillman's coming off for a victory over, like, you know, some. Some jobbers, some schmuck. And pillman says he doesn't have to remind Steve about tomorrow's u. S. Title match since they have a match the next day. But Austin does have a lot on his mind, and with the prospect, you know, Austin having this on his mind of that world title shot against ric flair and all that fame, fortune, and glory that would bring Austin if he were to win. So flying brian's thinking, you know, basically he could be looking past me and basically underestimating me. So pillman says austin has looked past things before, so he's starting to bring up his history here. Like the hours and hours of work, the greyhound bus rides, along with the sacrifice that went to making the hollywood blondes the greatest tag team in the history of the sport. Pillman says he's gonna show Austin it'll be a great day to be a blonde, but a bad day to be a traitor. So I thought that was a pretty good promo from Pillman there.

Yeah, Pillman has good promos.

Yeah, like, for sure. You know, it was short and. Yeah, you know, I thought he did good there. He's good with that kind of stuff. Don't let him talk too long.

Yeah, at this point, right?

Yeah, right, exactly. Like, a couple years would be this iteration of pillman.

Yeah.

So then finally we got another interview here, and it's mean gene, and we're gonna see ricky steamboat and then colonel rob Parker as well. So steamboat's here with mean gene. Mean gene. Steamboat's gonna be actually teaming with arn Anderson later in the night against lord Steven regal and stunning Steve Austin. Steamboat says he's been working on negotiations for his world title match for over a year and even had to step on toes to become a number one contender. And stepping on toes, and that's not a steamboat thing to do. He's like. As baby faces, baby face gets, like, in and out. So parker interrupts again, saying, mean gene is getting his cart before the horse again. Parker shows off the contract again because, you know, he's a good manager, Right. He's got the paperwork to back it up that says austin has a shot at the title. So steamboat clarifies. I don't have a problem with you or Austin, but I do have a problem with you. Parker thinking that Austin has a world title shot, Steamboat says If Austin thinks he's the number one contender, well, he has a chance to show Steamboat that tonight during the tag match.

What does that mean? Like Steamboat gets a. Oh, okay. Austin, you're qualified to be a number one contender based on how you do in this match tonight.

It's probably all Hogan.

That.

It's probably all Hogan. Like, you know what, this, I don't know, something seems fishy. I don't blame.

Hogan's coming soon.

Yeah, I know I'm blaming him. That's why they're changing the direction on Austin.

Oh, gotcha. Yeah. You know what I mean? Definitely.

Hogan. All right, so next up, Hogan, we got, we got Hoke. Hoke Hogan. We got a timestamp here if you want to watch it. It's 1:12:25 and that runs to about hour 26 minutes and 44 seconds. But here we are at the main event. US champion stunning Steve Austin and the current TV champion, Lord Steven Regal versus Ricky Steamboat and Arn Anderson. So Steamboat's out first along with the Enforcer. He's followed by Austin and Parker with Regal. Heman is going on about the exclusive interview coming up with Hulk Hogan.

Ah, there he is, there he is.

He's coming. And Steamboat and Regal start off the match and reminded, you know, a little bit of history here that Regal took the TV title from Steamboat. So a little history there, little recent history here. A lot of quick back and forth early. What's that?

Yeah, pretty recent.

Yeah, a lot of quick back and forth early. Steamboat looks sharp with his textbook tosses and hits him with a crossbody splash. Steamboat does get Regal in a full Nelson and then eventually works Arne Anderson in for a tag. Arne Anderson takes control with some groundwork on Regal. Regal's unable to, you know, break out with some body shots. But not long before Aaron Andza Hip. Arn Anderson lands a hip toss followed by a failed pin attempt. We do see a little bits of issues between Austin and Regal on the outside as Regal tries to tag in Austin. Austin's basically like blowing him off, like just kind of walks down the apron like ah, like I don't know, he's like all frustrated and dicked off for some reason. I think I might have missed something there, but I don't think there was anything like because even means you're just going like, oh, it looks like we have some friction and. But eventually Austin does get tagged in so. And immediately Arn takes control but then tag Steamboat in and we get a sneak preview now of the Potential three way match or maybe a number one contenders match between Austin and Steamboat. They didn't really do a lot of triple threats back then, right?

No, no, that would have been cool if they did one.

Yeah, they'd like. That's something. Yeah, I noticed, like you see that all the time now. You don't really see.

Right.

We didn't see that much.

Very rare.

Yeah. So anyhow, Regal eventually gets a nice reversal. This is actually, you know, we all know Regal's a great worker. There's a hell of a reversal. And then gets like a failed Boston Crab attempt, but Steamboat turns it into a Boston Crab of his own.

Oh, yeah, that was. That was a good spot how he reversed that.

So Regal squirms his way to the corner and tags Austin back in. Austin's looking good now and he has full control of Steamboat who looks, you know, he's like visibly tired. He's tired. Like you expect someone to be tired because he's been in there for a bit. Yeah, like, right. You were just talking about.

Yeah, yeah. The hot tag. Yeah, yeah.

So we in some dude in a hat.

There you go.

I was talking about. And some dude in that looking like the Penguin starts to choke out Steamboat with this umbrella. And to clarify that, Lord William, Sir William, Sir William.

Get royal, Burgess Meredith.

It's boring as all get out of a character. So Regal then hits Steamboat with an outside, like an outside in suple. So Steamboats outside of the ring. We'll just kind of lift some back over the ropes into the ring. It's a nice suplex and it turns it to a pin attempt, which obviously Steamboat's gonna kick out of there. Steamboat tries to get a tag in again on Arn Anderson, but fails. And, you know, he's definitely exhausted. Austin then lands a big back body drop, which was impressive because it was like almost like a momentum killer. And you can see Steamboat's really in like a desperate need of a tag. But Austin gets him an abdominal stretch and not just anywhere. Like the worst part of the ring for Steamboat. Like, he's in the corner with Austin and Regal. So the crowd starts to like hulk up Steamboat and you know, we think he breaks out. But then Austin hits like the most impressive spot. Like he hits this massive Alabama slam on Steamboat and it's like a big bump for Steamo Steamboat.

It's.

I saw that. I was like shocked. I was like, damn, that was like, that's a big ass move. And, you know, commentary does a good job putting that over. So Steamboat's fighting Again for a tag. He finally tags in Austin, but the refs doesn't see it. So Steamboat obviously continues to get his ass kicked. Steamboat's getting double teamed and trying to fight back. And eventually our Ange just kind of like had enough and he just like, you know, I'm inviting myself into the rink and he just starts cleaning this and the ref has no control. He's just like, you know, doing the finger pointing thing everywhere. He actually sucks.

That's probably rain. The Anderson who does the finger point, it was ran.

And if you watch what he's doing, he looks like, like a, like broken AI in a video game. Like he's just kind of like. Like he went off the script for the code. Like why is he like pointing at the crowd?

It's like.

Anyhow, Regal and Austin lose track of who the legal man is, so they attack on Anderson, forgetting that Arneson was never T in. He invited himself in, so we know Steamboat's legal. Meanwhile, Steamboat's on the top rope and he lands a flying cross body block on Austin from the top rope for a three count and the win. So what's that?

It's like, it's like deja vu. The legal man gets the win with a flying cross body from nowhere amongst the chaos.

But it's good. Like it was a pretty good match. Parker and Austin are pissed off of cost. Austin, you know, drops to his knees down the middle of the ring and he's looking at Parker like, what the. Like, I guess that's Parker's job, is to be yelling like that's the wrong man, you know?

Yeah, I don't know who's gonna believe Parker though.

Austin, if he's, if he was screaming at them like, get off him like a real manager would.

Okay, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good point.

Like if he was like Mickey or Apollo Creed's manager and then telling them.

Yeah, it's funny here too. Like we got back to back matches where, you know, Regal was pissed at Sir William after his match with Pillman, blamed his manager. Now you have Austin like, what the. With Parker.

Yeah. Turmoil in the manager, in the manager ranks.

There's no, there's no trust amongst Steve's right or whatever the slogan is always suck.

They always be up. Unless Paul. Unless you're Paul Heyman.

Yeah, yeah, whatever good baby face manager is there.

There's no good. Managers always bumble, fumble and up.

Yeah, that's the whole point of being a manager. You just up.

That's a very accurate representation of A manager in real life.

At your work job, you manage to just things up.

Managers suck. They never make. You know, it's impossible to make the right decision every time, but when they make the wrong decision.

It took us this long to make the connection to wrestling with man.

Yeah, right. 40 years later. 34 years later from the work. No, 24 years later, wouldn't I join the workforce? I'm four.

We've been working for much longer than once.

I was 14.

Yeah.

Every day since I was 14, I've had a job. That's crazy.

It's pathetic.

Remember knowing people that just like, wouldn't have jobs for a while and like, how the. I could never relate to that because I've. I've never, I've never.

I've had a job since 1999. Yeah.

And then I got a job in 2000.

Was it 2000 when you got your first job?

99 or 2000.

Right.

No, anything. I work in NEP. Wreck return. Right. I wasn't 14. I take that back. I had just turned 15.

That makes sense because I was 16. Yeah, yeah, you might. Oh, it depends on.

I got hired right before I. It was, it was weird. It was like right before I got hired when I was 15. But I was like, I didn't really stop working until I was 15 because I did. I needed a work permit and I couldn't get one. But the guy hired me anyway and did the same thing to my brother. He had my brother at like.

Yeah, your brother younger? Yep.

He was getting paid.

Like, I remember. I was like, how the hell is your brother working?

Yeah, he's getting cash.

That's funny.

Yeah, my brother wanted to work. He's like, I want to work. And I'd be like, no, I don't want you to work with me. My parents were like, you gotta work. He needs it. Like, he wants to work. Let him work.

Then.

He was a hard ass worker. I was like, all right, yeah, let him work.

No, let you not work as hard. Yeah. Anyhow, back to Austin anyway. Yeah, that could be a whole podcast. Talk about anything.

Exactly. But interview with. So now we got the post match interview at Mean Gene. Ricky Steamboat and Colonel Robert Parker back from a commercial break. And, uh, Colonel Parker's with Mean Gene. The commissioner has announced Buck Wickle, the US Champion Austin will face Steamboat in a number one contenders match with the winner facing Flair at Spring Stampede. So big deal Parker, obviously, he's still bitching that he has the contract. He tells Mean Gene that, you know, you know, hey, you Know, Austin's five times as pissed as I am right now. And Steamboat has to. Has that to look forward to next week. That Steamboat stay Steamboats days are gonna end here next week and you can count on it. So.

All right, so that's a big development though. Yeah, in a way. Yeah. Sad because we know what's gonna happen. Not gonna get the fucking title shot, but we'll get to that soon enough. But I will continue on with the coverage and I'm moving on to March 6, 1994. So a whole lot of happening in this weekend. And. And I love that, like as a WCW fan, this is when I was actually watching you watch before me. But 94, 95, there was WCW TV on like all weekend. Like multiple, like a couple episodes on Saturday, a couple episodes on Sunday of different. Like this was so awesome at the time. So you know, you had made event on Sunday, Saturday night, obviously Saturday, but then you had pro yet all this and all these things are happening just in this weekend that we're covering now. Obviously a lot of the shit was taped months ahead, stuff like that, but nonetheless, constant wrestling available, which is great when you're 11 years old, 10 years old. All right, so I'm going to cover a WC Main Event from March 6, 1994. This was taped at Atlanta, Georgia at the Center Stage. It was taped only three days before it actually aired. So this is fresh new content that's coming out here. And we're gonna get the match. We're gonna get Stunning Steve Austin versus Flying Brian Pillman. You know, generally this would be a match that like we would watch along with, but we have a bigger match to watch along with in a little bit with Ricky Steamboat. But this is, you know, a big deal. So at the top of the show, Tony Schiavone is on commentary. He mentions that Brian Pillman is finally getting his match with Stunning Steve Austin. So when I heard that, I thought, I'm pretty sure JV and I have seen a shit ton of Brian Pillman and Stunning Steve matches over the course of, you know, the last few episodes of Stunning Steve here on the Bottom Line wrestling cast. So I had to go back and look like, when, when were these matches? So the first match that they had after their split, the Hollywood Blondes, was that Clash of Champions in November. Right. So here we are in March. November was their first big match after the split. November 10, 1993. Austin won that match with the help of Colonel Parker, who had just become his manager. Then they had some house show matches throughout November And December, I get that that doesn't really count because it's not on TV. Pillman pinned Austin in a non title match on January 15th of 1994, though on an episode of Saturday Night. So just almost exactly two months later, at this point or seven weeks prior, you had them have a match on Saturday night. And then that's when the whole chicken suit saga began. So now you didn't have Austin and Pillman against each other. You had Colonel Robert Parker involved in At Classic Champions. You had Colonel Parker against Brian Pillman instead of Steve Austin, which that's whatever, you know, we talked about that previous episodes, but that was nonsense. But this whole time Pillman doesn't get a title shot. You would think, this is my former partner. We're a rival. We're big, huge rivals. He's the U.S. champion. Why the hell is Brian Pillman not getting a title shot? Preach, Preach. And he's. And he still doesn't get a title shot. This is a non title match. Come on. When the hell is he gonna get a shot at anything? You got a shot. Like the big match. He could have pinned Austin in that tag match and got a US title shot. It could have been this match. You could just made it a US title match. But no, he had the pin, fucking Regal. And then even that he didn't get TV title, he got tossed over the top rope, whatever the fuck. And what a shit show. Like they hate Brian Pillman. Like, yeah, they hate Austin. Like they hate both these guys apparently, because I don't know, the booking sucks. It's horrible. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that, like how their history of matches up to this point and they kind of just like jerking everybody off like, oh, this used to be like, they're a great tag team, there's a great rival, but it means shit to us now. We don't give a fuck. So here's this fucking non title match on main event on Sunday at 605. And nobody's gonna watch it. But anyway, we're gonna watch it. I'm gonna watch it, I'm gonna talk about it. Anyway, we got a recap from last week's main event to start this. And Austin and Pillman were supposed to have a match. We talked about this on the last episode. They're supposed to have a match. Austin comes out, he's in the street clothes, he has a little arm sling, and he's like, oh, I can't, I can't do it. My opinion, you're a great competitor. I love you. You're a great player. I work the tag team with you. Blah, blah, blah. He does all that, right? Then Pillman's like, it, yeah, fine, you're injured. Okay, never mind. Turns around. Then Austin attacks him from behind. Like, why go through the whole thing, the whole dramatics of, oh, we're not gonna have this match, but then I'm gonna attack you two seconds later and just reveal that I'm faking it. Like, if you're trying to get away with something, when you just like, get away with it for a week or something. No, that's how WCW works, I guess. So anyway, move on from there. We get to the. Get to the action here. Get to the rink. Austin heads to the ring. He's with Colonel Parker. Austin is spinning his arm like a. Being a huge. He's just spinning his arm like, yeah, it's not injured there. It is spinning it. And he's obviously perfectly fine. As we know, Larry Zavisco is on commentary here and he's talking about manager licenses. And we just spent some time talking about how managers suck in the first place. But Larry's like, oh, does he have a manager's license? Who has a manager's license? Then Tony Giovanni, I love his line, he says, does anybody have a manager's license? Because what are they governed by the federal government? Like, I love that. Just because Tony's just pointing out how on commentary throughout the 80s and the 90s, they would reference. Commentators would reference somebody having a manager's license. And he's just spitting in that. That's. There's no such thing. Brian Pillman then does make his entrance. He runs down the aisle. He's with Dustin Rhodes now, his new buddy Pillman goes right for Austin, and Austin slides out of the ring and they go right to commercial break. And then when we come back from commercial break, the bell rings. I always love that, you know, just stand there for four minutes. Totally screws the illusion of it being live. Anyway, Austin attacks Pillman in the corner with the series of punches. Brian Pillman then chops Austin in the corner. Hits a drop kick, send Austin rolling to the floor. Pillman follows, but Austin slides back into the ring and then runs into a nice high back body drop. Austin is then begging off, and he's on his knees. He's pleading with Pillman, but Pillman doesn't fall for it. And he just slaps us and. Right in the face. And I love that. I was like, screw you, Austin. Stop trying to fuck with me. Boom. Right in the face. Pillman Then slams Austin into the corner face first. Pillman is on fire here. He's pissed off, and he should be pissed off because this should be a title match. Pillman continues with, stomps in the corner, chokes Austin on the floor. We have Colonel Parker. He tries to help Austin at ringside. And you know, Austin's like tired, he's woozy, whatever. And you have Parker, you know, doing his Southern gentleman thing. He's got his hat and he's, he's just waving it in front of Austin. Cool down, brother, cool down. So Austin walks away eventually and he walks up the aisle like I'm getting out of here. Or he's just taking like a little breather and eventually makes his way back to the ring. He attacks Pillman and then hit some first face in the ring apron. So Austin gets his composure, gets back to action. Austin goes for a pile driver, but Pillman counters with a back body drop. Pillman whips Austin into the guardrail. Austin then gives some flare flops. He does a little flare flop, which is funny, and he rolls over the ringside railing, the guardrail, and then bumps into the crowd. So as if, you know, Ric Flair was doing it. So pretty cool spot there. And the crowd's hot, you know, they love it. The wrestlers are now in the crowd. Austin, while in there, he gets a hold of Pillman, slams him chest first into the metal guardrail. Then Austin and Pillman fight their way back to the ring. So this is a heated match. This is a good match. It's about WWE main event for no shot at a title. Totally misplaced. Austin misses a clothesline. Pillman lends a head scissors to Austin. So like a Frankenstein, Pillman gets dumped onto the floor. Austin then eventually jumps off the apron with the forearm in this whole time again, Dustin Rhodes is out there because he's Brian Pillman's new little buddy. And he's at ringside and he's staring down. Colonel Parker just gives him a stare down, like, don't you dare do anything. You know, don't take a cheap shot on Pillman. So Parker doesn't do anything anyway. Austin then drops Pillman's throat first on the first rope. You know, top rope, just drops it right down on there. Austin knee lifts Pillman off the apron. Then Pillman hits the railing. So he bounces him out of the ring, hits the railing again. So a lot of outside action here. Austin grabs Pillman on the apron, slams him there. Then Pillman fights back with the shoulder block, followed by a slingshot cross Body for a two count. Now, at this point, Austin stops Pillman with a quick clothesline, goes for a pin attempt. So we got quick back and forth exchange going on here. Pillman's gonna kick out on two. After that pin attempt, Austin bounces off the ropes, hits a knee drop, goes for another cover, only gets two. Austin looks for a slip, locks in a sleeper hold. But Pillman is struggling and he's struggling to break this hold. Austin pulls Pillman down, pulls him down by the hair again to keep control. So we got a constant back and forth here. This is going on a little long for my liking. But the crowd, man, like we usually have, the crowd's into it. The crowd's chanting, go, Brian, go. Go, Brian, go. So they're into it and they're, they're pumping up Brian Pillman. Austin keeps filming on the. Yeah, horrible. There you go, Brian. So typical though, of the time. Austin keeps filming on the mat for a few moments. And, you know, I say this all the time. It's going to be one of those talking spots, right, where like, all right, what are we gonna do for finish here? What do you want to do? That kind of. So the holds on for a little too long, and it's probably for that reason. Exactly. Pillman eventually does break free of the sleeper once they figure out what they're gonna do. Well, he runs into a bear hug. So that was like, what, now you got another wrestled? And since what is Austin doing? Bear hugs. But Austin keeps a bear hug on Pillman also. This is. This bear hug on Pillman. Pillman then eventually counters. And I, I do like how this spot ends up working out. Pillman's like wiggling up Austin like he's a monkey on a tree. He wiggles up Austin as he's in his bear hug, and then he gets to the other side and gets Austin's back. And then he rolls up Austin into a. Into a count, you know, into a two count. And from there then Austin gets out of it. He breaks it, and then he just takes Brian Pillman's the back of his head and then slams his face right down to the mat. So Austin was not happy with that maneuver and made Pillman pay for it. No, Pillman doesn't take it lightly. He fights back, overhand chops to Austin, and then Austin falls in the center of the ring and we get a distraction. You know, the ref is getting distracted from Colonel Parker, but, you know, Dustin Rhodes comes in, he tries to prevent Parker from getting involved in the match. So now shit's gonna fall apart. Pillman nearly wins the match, or he should have won the match because he gets an inside cradle. But the referee is all distracted by the nonsense going on with Dustin Rhodes and Colonel Parker. So Pillman's getting his pin attempt finally, but the referee doesn't see it. And then he finally does see it and he gets a two count. So you know, it would have been like a six count, but you only get two because the ref is distracted. And then Austin, as he rolls out of that, he pulls Pillman's neck into another rest hole. But Pillman irigs Austin to break free of it. Good for him. Pillman hits Austin with the series of chops. Pillman hits a flying clothesline. Pillman then hip tosses Austin out of the corner and hits a missile drop kick from the top rope. Great spot. Pillman goes for the COVID but Colonel Parker puts Austin's foot on the ropes. Sly manager move. It worked again. But now Dustin Rhodes is pissed off. Dustin Rhodes runs over to Colonel Parker and he doesn't just beat Colonel Parker up at ringside, which would make the most sense, right? Just him up, right? Let the match continue. Right? But no, that's not what happens. He decides to just grab Colonel Parker and toss him in the ring and then run in the ring and stop, beat up Carol Parker and the referee has no control. So he's not like the previous ref that I was talking about that did a good job by ignoring the outside interference and just letting the wrestlers that were legal do their thing. This referee, which I think was Nick Patrick, pretty sure he decided to just call the match. It's over. All hell's broken rules. This match, it's over. With Dustin Rhodes in the hitter. Yeah, like screw it. I'm not dealing with this. That's what it was. He was probably thinking, hey, this is a non title match. Who gives a. So it. So that's what happened. You know, Dustin Rhodes ran in. He didn't need to run in. He didn't need to throw Colonel Parker into the ring. He could just beat him up on the outside. Well, that's what they went with. That's what they booked. You know, they're probably thinking, how do we end this? Oh yeah, I'll just throw Dustin. You just throw Colonel Parker and it'll be dq. So lame ass finish. Actually it was Randy Anderson, not Nate Patrick. Anyway, during announcer does make the official call and it was Brand Newton rules. This match is out of control. No contest. What a ruling. Out of control, no contest. Wow, that is Pretty bad. And man, you know, with this match, I just feel bad for flying Brian Pillman just, he's getting screwed. And as we know, and you alluded to because the Hulk coming in, Austin's gonna get screwed. But Pillman's been getting screwed for a while. I mean, just like let him have some legit title matches. You could have just made this title match. There's no reason to not have this as a title match. This episode actually should be called non title matches instead of title shots. Right. But anyway, I think it was a good match. It just, you know, ended like as usual. So from there now I'm just gonna give a little coverage before we do our watch along portion. And there was a tour in Germany going on at this point. So I'm just gonna quickly cover some results from March 8th through March 12th. Okay. And I'm not gonna say all these towns in Germany because I don't fuck them up, but I guess that's part of the fun of it, right? So let's just say Ludwig Schaeff in Germany. I think that's right. March 8, 1994, in front of 3200 people, Ric Flair defeated Steve Austin. So he had the world champ versus the US Champions in. It's spelled like Cologne. I guess it's Cologne. I don't know. Colone Cologne.

I think I've heard of that before.

Yeah. Cologne, Germany. March 9, 1994. This is the European cup opening ground. So they had a tournament going on during this tour and Steve Austin won the first round European cup match against Tuco Scorpio. Then on March 11 you had Ricky Steamboat defeat Steve Austin. And this sounds Ron Simmons and I don't think that's legit. That was March 11, 1994. I think Ricky Stebo had a partner and that was a tag team match. Yeah, stink. Yeah. Because the next day it's Sting and Ricky Steamboat defeats Steve Austin and Ron Simmons. Interest in Germany. So it was probably Ricky Steamboat and Sting defeated Austin and Ron Simmons in Hare or Hale, Germany H A L L E on March 11, 1994. All right, so that is our coverage of a little bit of the house shows and their tour in Germany. And that leads us now to WWE Saturday Night, March 12, 1994 in Atlanta, Georgia at Center Stage. And this is going to be our watch along portion of this week's episode. All right, so we're gonna, we're gonna check out this match. It's the number one contenders match for the WCW Championship. A chance to take on Nature Boy Ric Flair at Spring Stampede. It's US Champion Stunning Steve Austin against Ricky Steamboat. Ricky Steamboat has felt that he has earned his title shot. He's had a title shot. He had to actually step on toes and get done, make sure he got his title shot. Oh, Colonel Parker swapped in and said, oh no. Austin has a shot at it too. So now they need to go one on one against each other, each other here. And it's going to be here on Saturday night, March 12, 1994. And so we're going to watch along with this. We're going to watch it. If you can watch along with us. Fine. If you can find this episode. We're going to kick off at a time stamp of 1 hour, 32 minutes and 14 seconds and go about 20 minutes. So looking forward to this one. Should be a good one. And jv, you all set up ready to go?

Yes, sir.

All right, so right now I have a bunch of ladies in the crowd screaming and some random guy on the right looks like a Nutty Professor. I don't know what he is, but there we go. A bunch of people in the crowd. They're all hyped up for this match. And I'm gonna give a countdown. As always, when we do watch alongs three down to one and then say play. When I say play, we'll click play. 3, 2, 1, play. All right. Those ladies are wild and weird.

Yeah, Social.

It's like a. Yeah. Such a random mix of women there. But anyway, we have Ricky Steamboat coming out and we have this WWE Saturday Night Terminator set in full effect. Now it's legit. And you have Ricky Stevo coming out. He has two dragons right in front of the entrance as well. Like this guy's being hyped up to the max. So we get a shitty sign there. Ricky is breathing fire. Ricky is still coming out with the. The fire at this point. And his. He just basically stole the from WWF that he was using.

He was supposed to give it back and he didn't.

Yeah. And Vince was probably like, yeah, it you can have. But he's blowing fire. At least he has better music than he did before he left originally. Doesn't have that. He is a good father and a friendly guy.

TGIF theme.

The kind of man that loves his wife and his kids so much. Ricky Steamboat, the Dragon man. Anyway, here comes our man, Stunning Steve Austin coming out of the. Coming out of the Terminator cell, the Stunning Steve Austin with Colonel Rob Parker. Austin is talking. Oh, we got a Steve Austin sign. The real Hollywood Blonde Number one. All right. So people notice, just like I noticed in 1994. I liked him. I like them. You know, just same as on Anderson. It was like, these guys are good wrestlers. I like them. Hey, Jamie, we got a commercial break here. Twix commercial.

Is that what this is? Oh, there it is.

I think it's a teacher commercial. Like, this was a teacher that was, like, fed up with the kids and just had to sit down and eat a Twix. Hey, that's Taj Maura Maori. Whatever. The.

He's in everything.

The Tia and Tamara Maori's brother.

Yeah.

The smart kid. Yep.

Michelle's.

He was in Full house.

Yeah. Michelle's friend.

Yeah, Michelle's friend. Look at this baseball card commercial for flair. 90. 94. Yeah. Flare. 94. Look at that pack of cards. Wow.

Oh, these shots.

Fabulous.

Fidel Sassoon.

This is a dandruff commercial for sure.

Head and shoulders.

Yeah. You gotta be Head and shoulders.

Got him.

You got it. Nailed it. Head and Shoulders. This is like a Frank fake. Dan Cortez.

Yeah.

The cool dude with the long hair. Yeah. The out here.

Cool.

I am. Cut your hair. Shut up. It looks like vagina. Oh, it's Mars bar.

Mars bar.

Oh, it's milky orange.

The dark.

The Milky Way. Still say Mars on it?

I don't think so. I don't know.

I don't think so. Flintstone vitamins. My girls had Flintstone vitamins for years. That makes me feel sad because they haven't. They haven't had some vitamins in a while. I miss giving them the vitamins at night. All right, girls, time for your vitamins.

Oh, they don't take vitamins anymore.

I think maybe we just forgot to give them.

No, that's common. Like, kids just get off vitamins.

They get. Yeah, they stop. Yeah.

And it hasn't come up, like, good for them.

No.

Take this good thing and take, like.

Order some fun, some vitamins tomorrow.

Because I eat gummies every morning. Like, all my vitamins are gummies.

Yeah.

And I. I, like, look forward to it in the morning, like.

Oh, yeah.

So I. I've never missed vitamins. Went to Miami, packed my vitamins.

Yeah.

A turmeric, magnesium, fish oils, vitamin C, vitamin D, and multivitamin.

Do you have one of those? Fucking Monday through Sunday.

Yeah.

Yeah. There you go.

And then I take my. My beats and my Tonga Ali once a day.

Oh, Back in the ring here, Austin was looking like the ringmaster from afar with this version that we're watching.

Up on his haircut.

Yeah. His hair is not up. He's looking a little bald.

Yeah. Shave it.

You got the trunks. He's got the same boots as a ringmaster. There is a new ringmaster figure that just came out, so that's partly why I'm thinking of it.

Are you gonna get it?

I'll definitely gonna get it.

Did you have to pre order it?

No, it's. It's out there. It's already available, but if I try to buy it, like Amazon, 30, $60.

Damn.

I might just beast.

What a great series.

That's awesome. He's got an arm lock on. I can just listen what Bobby say. I know. Yeah. That's the thing. Like, we're supposed to do commentary, but I just want to listen to Bobby Heenan.

Yeah. Tough to do commentary over. The best to do it.

Right. Basic exchanges here.

Yep. Nothing really to talk about. That's the other thing with these matches. They're very like, similar in wcw. I feel like their. This hold happens a lot at this. At this. During this time.

Right. Like a minute into the match, they're already dropping down. Yeah. Like, now we talk about lively crowds. At least I did in a lot of the matches I covered so far. Like, this crowd is lively. I don't know why nothing's going on. What the fuck are they yelling about?

They're just yelling around that 1990s Coca Cola caffeine.

It's kind of like just a disruptive classroom. Like, they don't just yelling and loud for no reason. Look. Yeah, we're here. We're loud.

Shut up.

All right, so we got Nick Patrick as the ref here. Good old Kenny Power.

Exclusively.

April 17 Spring Stampede, which is same date as we're recording right now, April 17th. You won't hear about Spring Stampede until May as we record this. Man, Colonel Paco must be sweating his balls off in that suit.

Oh, yeah, 1,000%. It's a nice stogie he's got today.

Yeah. Huge.

It looks good. It's like it would smoke good in Beverly Hills High. I mean, he even just comes up with on the Fly and it sounds real.

Bobby. He's so good for that. Just say random.

Imagine how much money he'd be making.

In the world of like, podcast podcasting. I was thinking. I was just thinking the same thing. Were you? Yeah, I was about to say, like, imagine if he was still alive. He could podcast just. Oh, never mind the stories he could tell that we don't know. But just as a personality in general. Awesome. I think the same thing with Grillo Monsoon. What's that?

Would he still be alive now if he didn't get sick?

I think so. I don't think he's that old. Died, all right. No, he. Right. No, he died. Yeah.

He was only 72 when he died. He looked a lot worse because of his sickness.

Right, but how old would he be today if he'd be 80 years old? 80, yeah. He wouldn't be podcasting now, probably, but no.

Might show up here and there.

How old was. How old was he when he died? 70 something, then 72.

72. So he'd be 80, right?

It's only eight years ago.

2017. No, no, that's. Yeah, eight years ago.

Man. This is a headlock match. What's going on here?

This is Trash.

Should have watched the Brian Pillman match as a watch on Trash. This crowd is pissing me off.

I wonder why they need Hogan.

It looks like there's like 10 people in the crowd.

Yeah.

Like, and they're all standing up to make it seem like there's more people.

Sounds like there's 10 people there.

They're getting paid to yell, right? Yeah, like I said, there's got to be, like, people from Turner work at gbs, work at MGM Studio, whatever the they're at. Hang around with me at ringside. Is not feeling so great about this match right now. Neither are we. This kind of sucks. All right, so we got a potential spot happening here. Austin is put Ricky Sebo on the top turnbuckle him a headbutt as he tries to climb up. Maybe looking for a suplex, but no. Austin hits his head and yeah, the head, but hurt me more than you. Knife Edge chops the Steamboat as he sits at top the top rope. Hey, watch it. Nick Patrick. Nick Patrick's like grabbing opportunity.

Just throws him. Throws his legs down to the mat.

And just a reminder, everybody and to ourselves, this is a number one contenders match for the world title at a pay per view.

I forgot about that. That's right. It's so forgettable.

This is lame, right? What the. Are they chanting KFC again. This sucks.

Steamboat's trying his ass off, though, so selling. Dude, nobody cares about the match right now.

Yeah, that's. That's the problem with it is who even cares? Even the people that are making noise, are they even paying attention? Do they even care? Do you even know what the stipulation is?

They lost, then they can't even hear Bobby Heenan. Like we can, huh? Think of that.

Oh, right. Yeah, that's. That's sometimes one of the things I hate about going to a wrestling show is I don't know what commentary saying.

Yeah, me too.

Watch it. Not that the commentary is great nowadays anyway, but I'm officially old.

I don't like going anywhere to watch anything anymore.

Live, like, for sports. Yeah. I think I'm kind of. Well, I can't say I'm at that point. Totally. But. Because I am going to the Red Sox on Monday on Patriots Day, because that's one of our traditions. Yeah.

That's what you do every year, though.

Yeah. Yeah. Otherwise, I'm not gonna go again. Probably. Unless somehow tickets come up and. All right, I'll go.

No, I will say I went to a game.

Not gonna seek them out with Jess.

Last year, just like a random day game against, like, a bad team. And it was. It was actually pretty fun. I think it's just like.

Oh, it's a good experience. Yeah. I like Owen. It's funny how the game flies by when you're there as compared to if you're just home watching it.

Yep. I still. Do you drink?

No, not. Not for this. I used to.

We got pretty drunk. It's fun.

Yeah, that would definitely be fun, but not with the kids. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it's. It's Monday morning. Yeah.

It's marathon.

It was just.

Isn't it?

Yeah. In the past when it was just Alex and I before we had the kids. Yeah. Then of course, I would now. Gonna drive home with them. We don't get to just chill and hang out.

I didn't realize you were bringing the kids now.

Yeah, last year.

I still did. Tell me this now. Yeah.

Yeah. Last year was the first year we brought the kids because, like, it's April vacation now. Yeah. Something to do.

You have to. You have to. It's the right thing to do.

Right. Hey, we're gonna be hug the. Be in the ring again. I just said. Oh. It's not part of Austin's repertoire, but here it is. Steamboat's fighting back. He's. I like that. I like that. Attempt to break free free of the bear hug is to just press on the other guy's neck. It eventually worked, and now we got these shoulder block takedowns. Action is lively. The crowd is as. Just as they were when there was a bear hill going on. So. Whatever. It looks better in the ring. And they finally look like they're reacting to something that matters. Yeah.

It's like synchronized emotion.

Oh, Austin get tossed out of the ring. Hey, is that a dq? Steve O. Just tossed Austin out of the rope, out of the ring by the top rope. So that was a roll up. Colonel Parker's distracting Nick Patrick. Roll up. One, two. Of course, of course. But even still, the ref did see Austin get tossed over the top rope. And we know that was just cause for a dq. In another match, some going on here. Well, gonna let it slide. The action continues in the ring. Ricky Steamboat just gave a side suplex to Austin. Went for a cover, Only got two. Now he's back at it with some more knife edge. Chops whipped to the ropes. Austin gives a little shitty kick to Steamboat. Steamboat sells it way too much, but then comes back with chops, more chops and. All right, Austin tosses Stevo out through the second rope. So no problem there. But I don't know why Nick Patrick is reprimanding Austin outside of the ring. Yeah, it looks like in this match, look at this. Look at this crap going on right now. So Austin is standing on Steamboat, shoulders down. Nick Patrick is making a cover, but Parker is right there. That doesn't even. Doesn't even sense that he's there. So inept.

Oh, definitely.

Now we get a bunch of pinfall attempts. All right, so a bunch of two two counts. Another roll up by Steve O. Here we go. One, two. Another two. Holy. How many lives does this guy have? All right, so Steamboat's going for a backslide on Austin. Oh, Steamboat needs to drop to slide the. Are we a Colonel Parker runs in the ring.

This is terrible. And they're gonna give him the win like that by disqualification.

Come on. What. What's going on? What? Wow. All right, so Parker runs in the ring, he causes a dq. Why would he run into the ring knowing that that would cause a dq? When his guy has a title shot in the line here, he. He could win a title shot. And then meanwhile, out of nowhere, Ric Flair slides into the ring as we get to dq. Ricky Steamboat in the. You know, not knowing what the hell's going on. He's just slapping around. He accidentally hits Ric Flair and now Rick Flair is all pissed at Steamboat. Steamboat's trying to apologize now. I didn't mean to hit you. I didn't know. Steveo should be pissed. Be like Rick Flair, what the you even doing here? Get the out of the match. Like, get out of here. What do you think? He was going to save Ricky Steamboat from Colonel Parker. Horrible. I mean, obviously they're trying to build up. Yeah, flare Steamboat. But that was kind of shitty.

I don't like that.

Match sucked. The finish sucked. It does nothing for Austin because now Austin sits with nothing. Who are you gonna face at Springsteen, Bead? You don't have a title shot Now Ricky Steamboat has a title shot. He even beat you. Colonel Parker ran in the match things up.

Yeah, for real.

What a show. All right, so yeah, not the best watch along match we ever chose, but yeah, whatever. So now just a little note from the observer in regards to this episode. Because later on this episode, Hulk Hogan's first appearance in WCW happens. Now, he's not there, but he's in a segment. So here we are in March 1994. The Hulk Hogan hype has already begun. And we got interviews with him and whatnot. He's on the set of. What the hell is. I was gonna say Tropic Thunder. What's the name of it?

Not Tropics. Under Thunder in Paradise.

Thunder in Paradise. Tropic Thunder. I'm the man playing the man, pretending to be the man. Much better movie for sure. All right, so anyway, Hogan. This is from the observer. Again. Hogan's much hyped first appearance on WWE Saturday Night on March 12, combined with Steamboat versus Austin in number one contenders match drew a 2.8 rating, which is higher than usual. Okay, so that's great. But this is the funny thing about this, but it was lower than the rating when Colonel Robert Parker had to wear the chicken suit. And then it also drew the same rating as when Brian Pillman took on the Mongolian Mauler as a headliner. So even Hulk Hogan in Steamboat vs Austin can only live up to the level of the chicken suit in the Mongolian Mauler. There's some kind of problem going on there in WCW at this time. Yeah. Now to be fair though, I would guarantee most people didn't know there was gonna be a fucking Hulk Hogan interview segment on the March 12 episode. Like, and if they did, they probably think, who cares? He's not wrestling. It's not anything whatever. Like, so it's not a huge deal. So anyway, yeah, so there's that. I thought it was funny to mention though, like the chicken suit was having high ratings compared to this number one contenders match. And Hulk Hogan actually being on WCW.

Just goes to kind of show you the state of affairs.

Right. All right, so I'm gonna go back to some coverage. Quick coverage of the Germany tour and cassell, Germany of March 13. Ric Flair defeats Steve Austin at stat. Hell, I think. No, Rostock, Germany. Stadt Hall, I guess is the venue. March 14, 1994. This is the European cup quarterfinals. So Steve Austin had Advanced previously by defeating Tuco Scorpio. Now he's going to take on Ricky Steamboat. And he gets the victory over Steamboat to advance to the semifinals in munich, Germany, Germany, March 16, 1994. Which is Stone Cold Steve Austin, day three, 16 day in 1994. Yeah, no, obviously prior to that. Just order B. Two years prior to the. Well, king of the ring was in June, but you know what I'm saying. So Austin teamed up with Ron Simmons and defeated Too Cold and Marcus Alexander Bagwell in their tag team. Will they do their dick dancing in the ring and should. That match went about 17 minutes. Austin pinned Tuco Scorpio. He uses his feet on the on the ropes for extra leverage to get the get the pinfall in Hof, Germany on March 17. You get Steve Austin defeating Johnny B. Bad in Frankfurt, Germany in the European cup semifinals. So Austin has made it to the final four here, but loses to Stink. So Sting advances to the finals in Warsburg, Germany on March 19. Steve Austin defeats Johnny B. Bad again. That leads us now to March 19th. Some WCW Pro JV. You got us covered there. What's up, WCW Pro?

All right, so we are at WCW Pro. I just got to get to the spot. Hold on. WCW Pro, March 19, 1994 in Macon, Georgia. Macon Macken, Macon, Macon Aiken, Georgia. And we're gonna kick it off here with a promo from Stunning Steve Austin at the Spring Stampede Control Center. So it's a short one, but Mean Gene announces that the great Muda will challenge Stunning Steve at Spring Stampede. So instead of a world title match, Stunning Steve's fighting the Japanese legend. So we hear from Stunning Steve along with Colonel Parker. Parker says that today the Japanese have the corner on everything. Dated reference, but not the US Title. Austin says it's wrong that Japan's greatest star comes to the US and the fans cheer for him instead of their US Champion.

Wow. Yeah, it's a great point.

Austin says he and Muta have a mutual respect. But one thing Austin has that he doesn't have is the United States belt.

Now with my coverage, I was just saying, like, yeah, Austin doesn't get the title shot. Like, oh, what's gonna. What's he gonna have at Spring Stampede? I guess this is a good consolation prize, right? Like, he's not gonna get the title shot.

I guess so.

You know, it's probably more like saying, oh, don't worry, Austin. You'll. You'll. You'll be in a good spot. We got a great mood for you. Even though it means nothing, really. You Know what I'm saying? It's kind of like seems good on paper and it looks like, oh, we're still considering you as a big deal because we're gonna have you go up against great Muda. Yeah.

But it's not.

It's like placating him. Yeah. It's like to make him feel not so bad that, oh, we changed course and you're not going to be in the world title picture kind of thing. Yeah. All right, so you got some shitty match coming up, I bet here.

Yeah. So I got stunning Steve Austin in the Mongolian Mauler with Colonel Parker.

Oh, that guy. Yeah.

Against Dustin Rhodes and Brian Pillman. So Parker announces that Austin and the Mongolian, or the Mall or whatever the they call them throughout the thing to the ring. Rhodes and Pillman get a massive pop. And then there's some like. I don't know who this guy is on commentary. Some nerd. It's awful. It's terrible with Larry Zabisco and Dusty Rhodes and his voice is just like.

Don't know, maybe it was. Yeah, maybe.

Didn't even hear the name. I was just so annoyed. Like, this guy sucks. So we get a tease in the middle of the match where Austin looks like he's gonna make. Make it good with Pillman. So like, yeah, let's kiss and make up. Let's be the Hollywood Blondes again. But of course, Austin being the heel, tricks him. So later the two have a great exchange where a Pillman hits a vertical head scissors. And he's really starting to get the. The one up on Austin. You know, early in the match here, Austin does get a tag on the Mongolian, but the Mongolian strength is. I gotta stop calling it the Mongolian.

I should.

I should just call him the Mauler, because when I think of Mongolians, I think of South Park Mongolians.

I thought you were gonna say no, Mongoloid.

No. Have you seen that south park episode though? The Mongolians. Oh, it's so funny.

All right, anyhow, so I can picture it.

The Mongolians strength is really too much. Pillman eventually tags in Rhodes and he takes control until the Mauler tags in Austin. Austin puts in work on roads as he's tangled up in the ropes. Austin tags in the Mauler and he's able to continue the control on a weakened roads. So we jump back to Austin and Austin was working on Rhodes outside of the like, outside the ring, right on the ring apron. But Austin gets greedy on the outside, the kind of like overstays his welcome. And Rhodes pushes Austin into the barrier and then gets back in the ring to make a tag, but he's too exhausted to get the tag in, so. And before he can, Parker tosses Austin back into the ring. That kind of prevents that tag. Austin then tags in the mauler and after a quick exchange, Austin comes back in and attempts to a guillotine leg drop. So he's kind of like tangled up in the ropes. He tries to land that guillotine leg drop but Rhodes dodges it and Austin ends up, you know, like sitting on the ropes. So he's selling that Rhodes gets the tag on Pillman and then Pillman starts dealing on Austin. And then we get some chaos and the match just really starts to lose control. But in the end, it's WCW US Champion Steve Austin in the Mongolian Mongolian Mahler defeating Dustin Rhodes and Brian pillman at the 11 minute and 37 second mark. When Austin gets the pin on Pillman after being hit with Parker's shoe behind the referee's back as Pimmel was trying to come off the top rope. You just kind of see Parker sleaze his way in there. He's coming in a little crazy and up. Just gets to work with his shoe.

Eleven and a half minutes.

Yeah, I cut it short on that one.

Oh, I'm glad. I wish I could do the same. You're. You're good at getting to the point.

If the match sucks. I'm not going into detail. The last one was pretty good, so I wouldn't like if I'm watching it sucks. I'm not, not talking about something that sucks for 11 minutes. Just cut.

Hey, actually I kind of. I kind of went your route with what I'm about to cover too. So like, I don't even know why I'm covering this match coming up up there. So. Yeah, I'm gonna cover. A match from WWE, Saturday night, March 19, 1994. Taped at center Stage in Atlanta and taped back in February of 1994. February 28, 1994. And this is a formula match. And I'm gonna keep it brief. This is stunning. Steve Austin versus Tom Torres. Tom Torres. All right, so Colonel Parker heads to the ring and introduces the one and only. He's always going back to that old stick, you know, this is the one and only Hollywood Blonde Stomach Steve Austin. And then Austin comes to ring. He says he's one of the biggest stars there is, blah, blah, blah. Torres gets introduced. Never heard of him. Didn't look him up. Bucket. Whatever. He won't last long in this match anyway. So here we go, we get a lockup. Austin easily gains the advantage. Shows the box. Into the corner. Snap Manatoris right into the center of the ring. Two knee drops from Austin. Pinfall attempt after a one count. Austin says that I'm gonna break the count intentionally. Gives them a backbreaker. Another false attempt being a. Nope, not. Not gonna pin you yet. You know, obviously Austin can finish him off at any point, but you know, he's just trying to build some heel heat. This typical squash type match where the hills like, oh, I'm a. I'm a real. That's what we're seeing here. So, you know, matches like this are basically a way for commentators to promote other upcoming and not even talk about anything going on in this match, you know, because they're talking about the upcoming Chi Town street fight between Cactus Jack and Max Payne versus the Nasty Boys at Spring Stampede. So this is just a filler match. It's just talking nonsense, which should be a sign for me to say it. We shouldn't even talk about on the episode. But hey, here we are. It's stunning Steve Austin. So anyway, Austin is in control and he's done with this. He. Boom. Stun gun. One, two, three. Bobby Heenan on commentary. He is on commentary. So that's one of the good points of this match. And he wraps it up. It says Tom Torres. I believe it's manana for Mr. Torres. Which means, see you tomorrow. Yeah.

So that's so corny.

I like the Doug. He's like, yeah, you're done, Java. Beat it. Tony hypes up that Austin is on his way to his upcoming match. His and Tony like over exaggerates as he doesn't as he's told to. He hypes up that the next match at Spring Stampede for Austin is the match of his life against the great Muda. Don't want to better Jimmy. What would have been the match of his life at Spring Stampede?

What do you mean?

Well, they're saying the great Muda Austin. That's the match of Austin's life right there at Spring Stampede. But we know full well that match of his life.

What are they talking about?

Right, a world title shot against Rick Flair. But that would have been the match of his life. Don't try to tell us. Imagine his Great Buddha.

Don't gaslight us.

Where he has to defend the U.S. championship is the match of his life. He's defending the title against a legend from another country instead of getting a shot at the big title. Anyway, we're back now and we're back to the fucking Germany tour. So this just keeps drugging along here. So we're in Hamburg, Germany again, the Sport Hall Sport Halo, whatever the fuck it's called. March 20th, 1994. Now we get the match. Ric Flair versus Steve Austin. Rick Flair wins, but Ric Flair cheats to win.

That's pretty cool.

Rick Flair pins Austin in 12 minutes with his feet on the ropes for extra leverage. So dirtiest player in the game getting his win and retaining his title against the, the upstart, the up and coming guy that no one gives a fuck about, apparently. And then we do get a conclusion. I wanted to add this because, you know, I've been talking about the European cup finals. So I figured why not give the the final result? So Sting would be Austin to make it to the finals. Ended up defeating Big van Vader in 13 minutes. 13 minutes with a splash off the top rope to pin Vader and win the European cup, wherever the that is. All right. And then on March 24, 1994 at a Saturday night TV taping. So this was a dark match and you had Steve Austin defeat Haito, which is Paul diamond, who was Kato of the Orient Express and is also like Max Moon or whatever the.

But Paul Diamond, Max Moon.

And you know, Paul diamond obviously teamed up with Pat Tanaka and again they were the Orange Express in wwf. So what they're doing here though, and JV is going to get into it in just a little bit too with his next match. I, I think it's his next match that he's going to cover is because Austin is building up to facing great Muda at Spring Stampede. WCW starts to roll out some fake Asian characters for him to fight. Building up to great Muda. So we start with Haito, Okato, Cato, whatever from the Orange France, who is just a white guy in a mask. So he goes up against him, he does face Pat Tanaka talked about in the past, JV's cousin Somehow some, some relation there.

Yeah, yeah.

Cousin Pat. And then Davy's gonna get to this fire Cat, whatever the it is. And that's, that's just Brady Boone, another white guy. And Brady Boone had a great match with Austin. Not great. Why I say great, that sounds crazy. But he had a good match. Surprising match with Austin. Previously on. I think the last episode or you know, so before that. But brave one's a good, good worker. And now he's under a mask pretending to be Japanese as well. So that was what they were going for. Like, oh, Austin's gonna face all these like he's in a tournament like Karate Kid or something. He's gonna, he's gonna go through the lesser Japanese guys until he gets great muda. All right, so jv, actually I got one more. Harrison. Harrisonburg, Virginia, at a high school gym. At a high school gym. That's all it says. March 26th, Steve Austin defeated Brian Tillman. All right, JV, take it away.

All right, so yeah, we're Moving on to WCW. Saturday night, March 26, 1994, Atlanta, Georgia, Center Stage. And we actually have an audio clip for you here. And it's an interview with Colonel Robert Parker with Tony Schiavone. It's only about a minute long. Give it a listen and we'll be right back.

I get, folks, I'm G. Lokerlin in the Spring Stampede Control Center. We're about a month away from the Rose Bon Horizon in Chicago. If you can't join us in the Windy City, make plans now to join us exclusively on pay per view cable tv. In addition to the match announced last week between the Boss and the massive 450 pound baiter, here's another one just signed for the Spring Stampede. Get this. United States heavy champion studying Steve Austin will lock up with the Japanese sensation, the Great Buddha. Right now let's hear from stunning Steve Austin, who's standing by with his manager, Colonel Robert Parker.

Steve, it seems today them Japanese got the corner on everything, but not on this here title, do they? You know there's something really wrong with this picture because they fly Japan's greatest superstar to the United States States and the fans here cheer for him rather than their United States champion, Stunning Steve. Well, that's fine with me, Muda. You've got my respect and I know I've got yours. But one thing you don't and will not have is a United States heavyweight belt.

That match is going to be for the United States heavyweight title also just announced.

All right, so Tony Schiavone is here with Parker while Austin is in the ring with the Japanese warrior. Parker says Austin is very upset about the world title controversy. Rightfully so. He feels like he's getting put in the shadows in the backseat. Hey, buddy, you are. Parker has taken a lesson from his great uncle Tom Parker. And the lesson is if you can't go to the world, he's gonna bring the world to them. So in preparation for this match, Parker has organized three Japanese's of Japan's toughest wrestlers before this match takes place. And we'll say a new move from Austin tonight. So a new move A new hold coming from Austin in this match. So getting right to the match. Stunning Steve Austin against the Fire against Fire Cat. You know, the Japanese warrior, he's from Hiroshima, Japan, so he's very small. He's not a big guy at all. Austin looks a lot bigger than him, right?

Yeah, it's very. It's pretty Boone.

So yeah, yeah, he's not a big guy. So Austin is alone, but Parker will join him in the match shortly. And we'll see the new inside toehold that Parker says Austin has been working on. So Fire Cat starts doing some, like, karate in the ring and Austin looks annoying.

Sorry, they really said that he's working on inside toehold.

I swear to God. Spoiler. He's gonna win the match with it. So Firecat does some like toast stuff and then gets Austin into a chin lock. Firecat then hooks himself on the back of Austin and Austin basically just kind of pulls the bigger guy move and just kind of falls down back on top of him, resulting in a failed pin attempt. Austin maintains control and basically Austin's just overpowering Firecat. Fire can't really. He really can't do much, so he eventually takes some control after like a spinning back kick. He goes to the top rope, though. Gets a little too risky and he misses a moonsault. But even though he misses it, he does land on his feet. But it's not much of a recovery since Austin follows up with a huge lariat, followed by like another failed pin attempt. So here it comes. Austin then locks Firecat into the new inside toe hole and Firecat taps immediately. That's actually a pretty cool looking hold. And of course, being the Helios, Austin does not let go right away. Eventually he does release the hold. Not really crazy to the point where, like people come down or anything. Just like, you know, unsportsmanlike delay with the hold and Austin wins the match. And Austin's now 10 against the Japanese.

All right, that's all this. Well, he beat Paul diamond, so he's 1 and 0 and now 2 0. And then that was supposed to be a Pat Tanaka match. Maybe it's on first week of April. We'll see. But he does do a clean sweep before he meets the great Buddha. So yeah, yeah, that. What the hell is that toehold, though? It was. I do remember watching, I think it's like a divas.

A diva. A women's wrestlers finisher right now.

Somebody does that. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Like, I know exactly what that spot is and it can be and it can look pretty vicious. But yeah, for him to go to that, like, what the hell? And they're gonna hype that on this random match now. We'll see. We'll see if it continues. Well, that, I guess that's something for us to keep on our radar for April of 1994. Does Austin continue with this toehold finish? Does it build up to the match against the great Muda? Interesting. All right, so David, do you want to wrap up those house show results there?

Oh, yeah, I'll do it. So house show results. We got WCW at. They're in Charleston, West Virginia, March 27th, 1994. They got a crowd of 1500 people. And it's WCW US champion Steve Austin. He defeats Brian Pillman. And then wrapping it up Tonight, we have WCW at Winston Salem, North Carolina at the Coliseum Annex, 3-29-94. Only 1000 people there, and WCW US Champion still working with Brian Pillman. Steve Austin pins Brian Pillman with his feet on the ropes for leverage.

All right, so from there that, you know, that wraps things up and a jam packed march nonetheless, you know. Yeah, that was.

There was a lot going on there.

Yeah, a lot going on.

It all like de escalated from a good. From a good place.

Right. And the thing, the good place was the chicken suit saga, you know, so, yeah, everything's kind of just getting not so good for stunning Steve Austin overall and.

Yeah, but I more so meant like, you know what I meant, like him getting close to potentially having a world title shot.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. Like there was hope.

The chicken soup.

Okay. Yeah, well, okay. Yeah, so I was saying chicken soup was probably better than this, but. Yeah, we had hoped that, oh, I was gonna get a title shot, but then went right down. Yeah. You know, and for as much as he is a singles competitor now, like, and has been at times TV champion, one of the longest reigning ones now US Champion. Why the hell is he in tag team matches all the time? As a singles champion, I feel like we're covering tag team matches all the time. Like, it's. It's so ridiculous.

We covered tonight.

Yeah, it's so frequent that he gets put into tag team matches instead of just letting him be a champion in defending against good wrestlers. Like I finally get a singles match that I get to cover and it's against Tom Torres.

Yeah, the goal was never for him to actually succeed.

Yeah, I think that's where we're getting to. It's like. Yeah, they didn't. They don't know what they have And I guess in hindsight you can obviously say that's clear. They didn't know what he what they had, but I don't know why they didn't know what they had. Yeah, kind of ridiculous. But anyway, fun March, jam packed and we're gonna take a quick little break and we'll do a little wrap up in just a moment. Take a listen to Alex Dario, our great pal of talking taker, and then we'll be right back with a little wrap up and preview of what's coming up next.

All right, bottom line, cast listeners, this is Alex Dorio, one half of the Talking Taker podcast. And after nearly 200 episodes exploring every pay per view match of the Undertaker's career, along with my co host Travis White, we just couldn't let the podcast rest in peace. So join us now on the 1st of every month as we dig even deeper into the legacy of the newest member of the WWE hall of Fame fate. From unearthing some rare and unreleased hidden gems, to exploring Mark Calloway's career outside of wwe, to revisiting some favorite matches with collaborations with our friends of the show, to movie reviews, to Ministry of Darkness fantasy drafts, you just never know what we might come out of the grave with.

Next.

Subscribe Wherever you listen to podcasts, watch the full video versions on YouTube, follow us on social media Akitaker and as always, take your easy.

All systems operating within normal design parameters in a gauge cybermetic generation sequence. Next on wood. All right guys, this is the bottom line wrap up and we'll be back next month with our next episode, episode 23 of stunning Steve Austin. We'll be covering April 1994 which will focus on the build up to Spring Stampede. We'll cover Spring Stampede stone cold. Well, not so cold. Stunning Steve Austin versus The Great Muda. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully it doesn't get there and we'll see how things move into May. And you know, like we just mentioned previously, things aren't looking so great for Austin at this point in 1994. So kind of slow decline, but we'll see how it plays out. But also please check out our podcast pals as well. You just heard from Alex from Talking Taker. They have a new episode that came out for the month of April as they do monthly episodes now. They've covered the entire career of the Undertaker and now do monthly specials. And they just did a five year retrospective of the boneyard match. Right? Episode 235. AJ Styles vs. The Undertaker cinematic masterpiece. I think good. I thought that was the direction they were gonna go for a while and then they just said, yeah, it we're not gonna do that anymore. But they should lean into that more because that was well done. And they break it down once again. So check them out. Check out their previous episodes and also check out the episodes that we've done with them as well. And we look forward to doing a new episode with them soon as well. Also check out Booking the Territory, the unprofessional wrestling podcast with Mike Bills, Hotter Body Hopper and Doc Turner as they are covering WCW by week and they are slowly catching up to us in our current coverage of Stunning Steve. They are in September of 1993 and they are on the September 25 episode of WCW Saturday Night. So check them out. Also check out our Vantage Point, the retro wrestling podcast with Joe Morata and Michael Quinn. And they are also doing a week by week review of episodes of wwf. So they're doing WWF Superstars of Wrestling and they started all the way back in 1982 week by week with what was previously called Championship Wrestling. Then it became Superstars of Wrestling and that's where they're at now in 1987. And the latest episode is September 19th, September 19th, 1987. Also check out JV and I on the Extreme ECW Live Cast which is available exclusively, exclusively on the Patreon 5$, tier. Our latest episode is ECW Hardcore TV from August 5th and 12th of 1997 which is episodes 224 and 225 which is building up to Hardcore Heaven which is going to be our next episode. After that, our second page review special, hardcore heaven 97. So check that out again on the five dollar feed. The booking the Territory Patreon here. And we do have a free feed, so check those episodes out as well. We've covered ECW from 1993 all the way up until January of 1997. Our latest episode has January 14th and 21st of 1997. So check that out. And again we appreciate all the listens. Thank you guys for all your support over the years. And we'll be back next month with more Stunning Steve. Jv, any final words?

No sir.

All right guys, have a great month. Hope you enjoy WrestleMania so long.

And that's the bottom line as far as I'm concerned. This over with. So get the hell out of.

Now. It's only the beginning. I'm about to kill you. Don't believe it, but I'm betting that you will slap. Now I'll let you live a little.

Bit.

Stop making some Walter higher I'm breaking the minutes higher stop making some Walter higher I'm making the limits I am stop making some what I do I'm breaking the limits I get stopping.

The.

Wow.

Don'T believe it but I'm betting that you will step up I'll let you little little bit with the pain and I bring you know it's only in the beginning stop breaking the minutes I know stop breaking stop rock I know I'm breaking the minutes I am stop making some higher stop breaking the minutes I am stop making somebody bringing on wow kill you don't believe it but I'm betting that you will live a little bit with the pain and I bring you know it's only the beginning.

Wow.

Don'T believe it but I'm learning that you will know I let you live a little bit with the pain and the brain you know what's on with the door stop making the minutes I'm making some mother I'm breaking the minutes I am stop making some I'm making the living inside you stop making some.